Wednesday, October 29, 2008

It's a.....GIRL!!!!!

There's finally some pink at the Wiseman house. We can't believe it. We're still in shock. Little Laci (yep, we finally decided on a name, no middle name, fyi) was born Thursday, October 23 at 2:45 p.m. She weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz (or 3.576 kgs) and was 51 cm long. Everything is done in the metric system here, so Nick did the kilogram to pound conversion on his blackberry in the delivery room and we still haven't figured out her length in inches yet. She's the smallest of the kids yet she was my most painful labor and delivery. The nurses couldn't find the guy to give me my epidural. They finally found him and the medication kicked in when I was at 9 cm, better late than never though. My nurses were great. I had 3 nurses, one from Portugal, one from India and one from the Philippines. My main nurse, Bella from Portugal, had to kick my butt a few times because I was freaking out from the pain. I'm such a wimp.

Nick is loving his little girl and has turned into quite the protective dad. When he was in the nursery with Laci as she was having her first bath, he was making the nurses laugh. The nurse came back and told me that Nick said Laci couldn't date until she was 30 and told the baby boy in the little cart next to her to "stay away from my daughter." He also went to Baby Gap the day after she was born and bought practically the whole newborn girl section. Laci's big brothers are also very fond of her. For the first few days, they kept referring to the baby as he or his or him. They couldn't get used to the fact that there was a girl in the family now. Bret and Cole race in from school and fight over who gets to hold her first. Drew has done well so far. He says "baby" and "soft " as he pats her on the head. I'm sure the jealousy will start soon. The only issue I've had is when I would check her diapers for pee, I was concerned because they seemed dry. But, duh, girls don't pee in front like boys do.
One more thing - our maid, Anusha, has been such a help this past week. She helped a lot with the kids while I was in the hospital. Nick would bring the kids once a day and then come back by himself once a day. It was so nice to come home to a clean house and empty laundry hampers. Anusha has been doing my house cleaning and all my laundry for the past few months and it is soooooo nice, especially now with a newborn. I have more time to just sit and hold Laci.

Me at the American Hospital Dubai.





Little Laci - she has the most hair of all the kids


Bret and Laci

Cole and Laci

Drew and Laci

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Bret's #8, 3 times over

So, Bret was a lucky boy this year. He had 3 birthdays. First, he got this before Nick left for his 2 week trip:


A brand new bike!



On Bret's real birthday (October 9th), we had a little swimming party with a few friends.






The kids loved the "magic" candles, but Bret said he was annoyed that everyone was spitting on his cake trying to blow out the candles. A little extra spit never hurt anything, right? He got a few lego sets from his friends, that he has enjoyed putting together.


The morning after Nick got back (yes, we survived, with no baby yet), Bret opened his presents from us.

The highlight of the birthday for Bret was getting the new Lego Batman video game. He's been begging for this for months. Nick and I tricked him and wrapped another video game up. When he opened it, we said that Nick couldn't find the Batman game in the US, but Nick said they could play this new game. Bret was visibly disappointed but went to the player to put in the other new game. We had placed the unwrapped Lego Batman video game on top of the player. He found it and was super excited. He has been playing it non-stop since. When he gets home from school, he doesn't even stop for a snack.