The Story of Anya

Welcome Anya! You were late in coming, and I am late in posting the good news of your birth!

On a dark morning in December Anya Heather became a member of our family.  At 3:47am I woke up with a REAL sense that I should get to the hospital. I was so happy that the time had finally come, since it was six days past my due date.  We woke up all the kids and loaded up the Expedition and Mike only sped a little bit all the way into the city, which is 45 minutes away.  When we got to the city I was sure we could manage to drop off the kids at our friends' house before heading to the hospital.  We managed the transfer in record time and it was reported to me later that all of the kids went back to sleep without much difficulty. I was very thankful that the kids were not up for the day, and I'm sure our friends were too since it was a Saturday morning, when most people like to sleep in a little!  We arrived at the hospital just a little bit before 5am. Everything progressed very quickly from there and in an hour and a half I was holding my new born baby girl!!!! A GIRL???????  You know all those stories about ultrasounds only being 90% accurate, and all those people who know someone who knows someone who thought they were having a girl, but it turned out to be a boy? Well, now you know someone who that scenario has happened to.  Yes indeed, we were sure we were having a boy, but what do you know, out came this beautiful, healthy, strong, calm, sweet, baby girl.  We were thrilled, but shocked!  We had not even picked out a girls name, and believe me, picking out the boys name was no piece of cake!  It took all of the nine months of waiting to get a boys name determined. I thought it might take all year to think of the right girls name.  I spent the first night of Anya's life on baby name websites and Google and Face Book.  We had many lovely names recommended by friends and family.  My dad jokingly suggested Cynthia Surprise, since he's big on alliteration.   Though Cynthia was always the name I liked to choose for my play name in child hood games, I decided against it, but the surprise idea stuck with me.  After all we were definitely taken by surprise.  I Googled names that mean surprise.  The one name that came up that caught my attention was Atuanya, which is a Nigerian boys name meaning surprise.  I loved the irony that it was a boys name.  I decided to use the last part of the name because I felt that Atuanya was to long and difficult to pronounce. I had a list of  three other names that I also liked, but when Mike gave me the privilege and joy of choosing her name Anya became my favourite.  Anya's middle name is Heather after my mom and one of my best friends.  It is a blessing to be able to honour two important people in my life by making them my daughter's name sake.

Anya had a few excited visitors on her birthday.  Her brother and sisters were very interested in seeing her.  Matia was anxious to hold her, and still begs to hold her everyday.  She gets a few turns each day, but is patient and waits for me to help place Anya in her arms.  She is very responsible and careful and I am able to walk away and do something else for a while when Anya is in Matia's watchful care.  Kayla seemed to think Anya was a doll when she first saw her, so we had to be careful to watch that she didn't throw herself upon her new baby sister, or poke her eyes and ears and nose.  Kayla quickly picked up Anya's name and likes to point at her and say "Anya, baby, shhhh". She also likes to give her kisses and hugs, which need to be monitored for gentleness!  Dade was mostly concerned with his mommy.  His first comment upon arrival to the hospital room was, "Wow! Mommy! How much weight did you lose?", Dade wanted to know if it hurt to have a baby, and if I would be able to bend down and pick things up now that Anya had been born (I guess I asked him to do that for me more frequently than I realized). Dade did notice his new little sister though, and tenderly and quietly assessed her. With a smile he pronounced her "sooo cute".  When I asked if he was disappointed that she was not the little brother we had told him to expect, he shook his heads and said that it didn't matter to him.  Dade did mentioned that he hoped we didn't have any more babies because three sisters was a lot to watch over!

After visiting, the big kids went to Dade's soccer game and then Grandma took them to her house and gave us a baby moon for two days.  Because the labour and deliver and recovery went so well for me, we were able to go to church on Anya's 2nd day.  It was so fun to introduce her to our church family, and to sit and pass her around to the other mothers at our church.  It was fun to tell our story and Anya's statistics: she was 8lbs 13oz and 21 3/4" long.

After church, as is our tradition, we went for lunch with friends.  We celebrated a healthy baby and delivery by going to the Olive Garden.  When we told the manager, who had come over to inspect the baby, that we had come to the Olive Garden 6 years ago to celebrate the birth of our first born, she thought that was the biggest compliment to her restaurant. She couldn't believe that Anya was only one day old!  To celebrate with us she gave each couple gift certificates to come back and enjoy their Hospitaliano at a later date.  We were surprised and delighted!

My sister met us at our house when we returned home and cuddled Anya, and helped me to find the box of baby girl clothes that I had pushed to the back of the storage shed, thinking that we would only need boy clothes.  She also brought supper and was a real help and encouragement on our first night home.  She drove 4 hours just to hold Anya for a few minutes.  How loved are we!

December really is the best time of year to have a baby.  The babies may not agree as they get older and have to celebrate their birthdays so close to Christmas, but I sure found it wonderful.  To be able to take a holiday right after you have a baby is divine.  I was able to rest and hand over the duties of entertaining and feeding my children to Grandma and Grandpa.  When we had thoroughly exhausted the first set of grandparents we moved on to the next set, with a stop to see the great grandparents (and even great great grandma) in between! How blessed we are to have so many generations who love us and our kids, and who all still think, as we do, that our fourth baby is as precious a miracle as our first.

So now an exciting and busy time has begun for me.  I am home from the holiday and learning what it is like to  homeschool grade 1 and kindergarten while chasing a toddler and caring for a newborn.  There are still the house hold tasks and also a husband to pay attention to! My life is very full, and very blessed.  I'm tired, but content. I'm trying to give myself advice that I would give any friend of mine in my situation, " take it one step at a time, do what you can, rest when you can, cuddle the baby and leave the chores sometimes, ask for and accept help, and pray for strength and wisdom".