Three becomes five

Since I last wrote, or attempted to write, we have added two more to our little family here in Alabama.

Sadly, my husband's grandparents passed away last summer, and so his mother has come to live with us.

Joyfully, Madelyn Josephine Litton came into the world a few months later. She was born a little early, however, she is perfect!

Her name, I've already written about here, when we were wrongly told that Robbie was a girl. We got too excited to announce and got it wrong. Fast forward 4 years and I'm sitting with Robbie and Madelyn while Robbie "cleans" after "finger" painting. The boy has it all over his body, they are both fierce, wanting to be independent and mostly happy children. That is definitely not all me, I have Robert and Pam to thank for raising the children alongside me.

Robbie is polite, happy and a people person (when he wants to be - like his dad). Madelyn knows her own mind already, we will see how she grows.

I'm back at work in a month. Rolling on 4 years with the same teacher. There are some changes happening in the school system, I am excited to see what this year will hold for our students.

Christmas In England

We have just returned from a ten day trip to England, meeting family and friends all over. All, except Mum and Dad, hadn't met Robbie before, and that was the main purpose of our trip.

We flew on Saturday and arrived midday Sunday. Atlanta to Heathrow is a good flight, pretty quick and even without a place to put the baby, we survived. On Sunday, among others we saw the Cooks. We hadn't seen them since our trip to Florida in June, so it was great to catch up and for them to meet Robbie.

We went to church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, meeting friends who I haven't seen for a long time and passing the baby around the various friends and family friends. Hearing my Mum introduce the baby was one of the more surreal experiences. She was so excited to show him off.

Boxing Day evening we were hosted by my new Sister-in-law and brother. We met my cousins and their babies. Lots of singstar and a few drinks were had. It was good fun, I'm sure we kept the neighbours up.

We also got the chance to see friends in Luton. Some people we missed due to traffic and others were fleeting, but it was good to catch up. I even had the chance to return to St Hugh's and show off my lovely baby to my church family. Most of church are older and not connected to facebook, so me turning up with a baby was a huge surprise. And their reactions made me smile with delight.

Liz and Ray treated us to a Yo!Sushi experience. While Dad babysat, I say Dad because apparently Mum didn't get a hold or a look in.

We traveled back, with a bit of a longer flight and had a great trip home to sleep in our own beds on Wednesday night.

Here is a comparative photo of us. 13 in the top photo, 20 in the bottom. I think 7 in 18 months is a bit much. Maybe we'll slow down a bit now!

Here are the babies of the family.

L-R Robbie Litton (6 weeks), Ashton Harmsworth-Blyth (15 weeks), Isla-Rose Harmsworth-Blyth (14 months) Leo Fisher (15 months)

And this is what Dad spent a fair part of his holiday doing, napping with his grandsons.

Now the countdown begins, back to work in 17 days.

Our Sole Responsibility

Superbaby is four weeks old tomorrow. He makes the transition from being newborn to infant in the world. Though everything is still new to him and he will have first time experiences for the foreseeable future.

There is no question about mine and Robert's unconditional love for this little human. What I didn't expect was the bond from his grandparents. So far we have had 3 grandparents stay and help us out while we are learning this parenting thing. Nana, Nan and Granddad (who I have a nickname for, but I'm not allowed to use) have stayed for a grand total of 3 weeks and I am eternally grateful for their dedication to their children and grandchild. Robert and I count ourselves very lucky that we have two great families supporting us. The extra pairs of hands have really helped with baby holding, feeding and cleaning as well as house keeping.

We went to Thanksgiving at our favourite Aunt's, Mum and Dad saw people from last Christmas. Robbie got passed around all the Aunts, Uncles and Cousins that were there. I didn't see him for a while, but I didn't need to. He's a great baby and I'm very happy to pass him around.

That being said, he's our baby. We are the sole carers for this child and he is fully reliant on us to provide food, a place to live and sleep and he stays relatively clean because of us. We applied for his passport the other day. With a minor (under 15) and first passport you apply in person. Off we went to perform our duties as mom and dad. Without us, he doesn't have a passport, he can't fill in or sign the forms. They were confusing enough for me! 

As scary as that sounds, I've also found some spiritual connection in it. God was and is molding this little human. I'm certain that God knows what he is doing, even when we don't and especially when we are making it up. I pray with my child and for him. Yes, he's our sole responsibility, but I'm so glad we have a God who has looked after my parents, my husband and now my child. We wouldn't be where we are without His guidance.

"Looks like we made it"

Well, here we all are. How about that?! We made it all the way to the middle of November and there is a new boy on the block!

Here is my not-so-little boy! He was only a day or so old when this picture was taken, already with a decent sized plug in his mouth.

Robert Kenneth Litton III arrived at 4.04am on 8th November 2013, weighing a staggering 8lb 7oz and measuring 20.5inches long.

Now since we are not royalty, there was no town crier to announce this birth, since he is not the Son of God there wasn't a heavenly host telling shepherds on a hill (not that I know of) and so we used the power of the internet and FaceTime to see family and announce to friends the long awaited arrival of baby boy Litton.

The whole labour (my American friends; can I be excused from spelling please, it's tedious to me) experience was not one of great distress, nor was it such a delight that I'd do it all again tomorrow. I laboured for 22 hours, half with no epidural and half with. I would say the time in between my waters being broken and having the epidural were the toughest physically, and the pushing part the toughest mentally.

To spare you the details, we have a stubborn baby. There is no doubt in my mind that we will fight with this child over wrong and right, over bedtimes and allowances, because of how stubborn he was about being born. He did not want to be in the world.

Robert was my rock the entire time I laboured. We laughed, slept, he ate, I envied his food! I beat him up while I was contracting and he took it like a man (until I slapped him in the unmentionables because I am a mean and super strong while pregnant/labouring). He got me through the last 4 hours without so much as a complaint and without putting me in any worry.

We had some great nurses caring for us at the hospital. They all found my accent intriguing and even joined in with video calls. They were amazing. Our first few days in hospital are a blur at best, we had visitors, and phone calls. We managed to survive all the nurses and professional personnel that visit to register the existence of a new human  in the world. From early Friday to Sunday morning we recovered. We were all home and settled in time to see Arsenal play Man U. Though it seems even the arrival of our son can't guarantee all of our teams winning.

So, we are home. We have been for nearly a week. There is no routine, there is no possible way I could do this without Robert or my mother in law being here. I admire single mums and stay at home mums all the more. You ladies are champions in my eyes. How do you ever shower? Or clean anything??

Here's another picture just because! My super man!

So close!

It's been a whole month since I last blogged, now I'm considered full term and could go into labour at any moment! As fun as that sounds, I'm feeling very apprehensive!

We have had a long month, things are going so slowly and so quickly all at once. It barely feels like its been 8 months, but then it may as well be years that I've been pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I've had no problems to speak of and definitely had a straightforward experience, but it seems so long and we could have another month to go!

The joy is that I finish work this Friday. I'm enjoying the light at the end of the tunnel feeling about this. Many of the ladies at work (parents and teachers) have comments about my size and state! Some are welcome, some are not. But I'll keep my mouth quiet on that one because I'm telling those people directly.

For now it's deep breaths and self imposed time outs for my sanity. Looking forward to the time off I might have before the baby arrives. Cleaning, cooking, sleeping and keeping up with events at home. I shall probably post some more things before I have a babe in arms and hope to post once he is here too. If you don't hear from me, I'm sure Dad or Liz may post before me.

Baby Shower (Litton/Coomlers)

I am blessed enough to have a fantastic set of in-laws. My Mother in Law is one of the kindest ladies I know. The first time I met her we really connected and ever since its been such an easy relationship.

I am also totally blessed that her family seem to have taken me on board so much so that they put a bunch of effort into throwing me a baby shower a few weeks ago.

We had chosen The Lion King as a theme for baby Litton before we knew he was a he. So that was an easy theme for the party. I love the yellows, greens and browns.

My lovely mother in law went about getting a list together of everyone who would be able to come and we sent invites out. Her brother hosted the party, and all he had to do was look after Grandpa while we were out.

I had a great low stress day and saw lots of family and friends who I hadn't seen for a while. The Coomler ladies sure do know how to put on a party!

Julie (Robert's Cousin) helped with decorating.

Diaper/Nappy cake from Josh, Amanda and Abby

Julies fantastic flowers made from socks

Nan Leaver and Nan Litton both came with me on the trip. And so did Liz.

Numbers week again

This week is a week of numbers again.

Today Robbie is 33 weeks and growing. Robert thinks we only have about 5 more weeks to go with his guess at 30th October. Which will make Robbie the second October baby in the family. I'm close to waddling around at work and still able to do. So while I can I will. I have a doctors appointment next Wednesday, and then it'll be a week 35 (ish) check up for Strep and other things. I'm lying if say I'm completely calm about that, since I dreamt last night that I was already in labour! Ha. When Robbie is asleep he's on his side, back turned toward the outside world and is still just small enough to curl up horizontally across my body. He also favours my right side at the end of the day, its strange to feel hard feet, butt and spine. He still hasn't performed for the ladies at work too much.

On Tuesday Mum and Dad will have been married for 30 years! This is a huge achievement! It's crazy to think about, Robert and I are a tenth of the way there almost. Only 27 more years to go. This is by far my favourite picture of Mum this year! Dad promises she hadn't had anything to drink yet, but I don't think I got the full story on that one (I still laugh every time I see this picture and the close up is even funnier to me). Dad of course is the one taking all the pictures, so there aren't many of him.

On Wednesday the smallest of the Fishers turns 1. Can't believe its been a whole year since this little boy arrived already. Andy and Jess are fantastic parents. It'll be a few months before we meet him, I cannot wait to get home and see him for the first time.

Since I last wrote the collective Litton/Fisher/Harmsworth/Harmsworth-Blyth family has a new addition. Aston Spencer Harmsworth-Blyth arrived on 1st September. He was a little early, but perfectly formed. Very proud of Tasha! (For those who have just joined Tasha is married to Graham, my cousin on my Dad's side)

In the next month we celebrate 3 years of marriage, there will be a new Fisher (by marriage), Isla-Rose turns 1 and maybe there will be a new Litton. I know why I'm writing all this now, because in years to come I'll still have to remember all these dates and this is the best way to do it!