photographic memories

Look at this precious photo of Scott and Saba. He snuggled up to his little sister completely on his own, which left Mart and I with tears in our eyes, humbled and proud at the same time ... we never imagined that we would be responsible for such lovely creatures!

For more photos of Saba in her first week on planet Earth go to: www.scott2006.shutterfly.com

She aint heavy she's my sister

The first meeting between Scott and his new baby sister was a bit strained haha not surprising of course because our poor boy went to opa and oma for a sleep over and when he came home there was a new little person in the house and everyone was making quite a fuss of her. He sort of ignored Saba the first two days but then suddenly on Thursday he leaned over and put his head against hers and made the sweetest noise. Now every morning when she wakes we take her to Scott or bring him to her and make a big deal of him being a big brother, Scott even tried feeding her some of his porridge yesterday :)

Mart and I feel so very privileged to have two beautiful, healthy, happy children.

The fact that our princess is already firmly established in our family makes me feel so warm inside and just seeing Scott being so sweet and gentle truly breaks my heart - this first week of Saba's life has been wonderful and she brings an extra light to our home!

Saba Chrissie Nwabisa van Rooijen

Here she is at last our sweet girl! Saba was born on Monday 11th, June 2007 at 19:32 CET. She weighed in at 4.165 kg's and is healthy and happy.

After 41 weeks and 5 days the midwife came by at 4 pm yesterday to rupture my membranes and in so doing hopefully induce labour. When the waters broke we saw that little Saba had pooped in the fluid and that it was thus necessary to head to the hospital.

So off we went and sure enough the contractions started and just kept getting stronger. Starting with 5 minute intervals that quickly shortened to 3 minutes and by the time i was hooked up to the heart monitor and contraction checking thingie ma bobbie i was getting a contraction almost every minute! After 2 hours I was completely dilated and after 15 minutes worth of pushing out popped our little pink princess!

They say that the second delivery is fast but even we were not prepared for the speed of this - she was born in a quarter of the time of her brother.

I'll post some more later for now we're just enjoying our new family member.

Pregnancy week 41

Well I am 41 weeks pregnant - that in lay terms ladies and gentleman, boys and girls is approximately 10 MONTHS!!! This girl of ours is just not budging I tell you - on one hand I say come when you're ready little Saba but then when the ligaments start hurting and my feet triple in size i just think 'get moving child' hahaha

Scott at this stage was already two and a half weeks old and I suppose I sort of expected this pregnancy to be similar so when week 39 came and went and I was still highly pregnant I was sort of disappointed and a bit frustrated .. which is not a good combo with hormones so poor Mart had a few rough days there with she-bear in da house! Once I had resigned myself (last week) to the fact that every pregnancy is indeed different and that our daughter was obvioulsy going to stretch her stay inutero I sort of became quite calm and accepting. The good thing this time round though is that we have everything prepared, clothes are not only washed but ironed and her bed is ready and made and we have nappies etc all ready for her arrival :).

Because I am overdue and am slightly concerned that the placenta is deteriorating we have agreed with the midwife that on Friday (08.06.07) my waters will be broken and we'll manually start labour ... AARRGGHHH!!!! Its weird to think that she'll be here this weekend - so much for letting nature take its course and all that. I am a bit ambivalent about this decision but I also just want everything to go well as we are having Saba at home after all.

Anyway hopefully the next blog will be a birth announcement! Keep those fingers crossed and send me strength :) ... here's to you little Saba looking forward to your arrival!