birth story

SO...   :)
spent the morning in hospital with jessica(birth mum) and penny(birth nana) on monday morning cos she was having a few contractions and back pain but really it wasnt much and just the very early stages of labour. so went back home, had a good night sleep and tuesday morning penny called at 7:30am to say jessica was in labour at the hospital and asking or us.
so we headed up and she was having contractions some times really regular then really big gaps then back to every 5 mins then back to far apart... so she need to be induced or water boken or something but because she had had no prenatal care the nurses really couldnt do anything to her before a doc saw her. and the doc came in finally at one point and said he just had to do a c-section then would be back but he did that then there was 2 emergency c-sections and a delivery all at once!because i wasn't in pain\laboour myself it was really fasinating to watch:)seriously the nurses and docs wereRUNNINGfrom room to room!!alarm bells going off, it was crazy!! needless to say we got left for a few more hours!so finally at about 4pm the doc(who was a really nice kind man and actually delivered jessica's 2nd child)came in and got her oxy toxin(spelling?) and broke her waters and not long after she had an epidural. so through all this i was pretty much her dula!:) she was squessing my hand and i was telling her to breath the pain out your belly, slow deep breath's, ur doing so good jessica, rubbing her back some of the time(she had pain in her back through out the labour), at one point i had left the room and came back and penny was sitting in front of her trying to help her through the contraction and she yelled for penny to move and me replace her!haha and as soon as she would have the contraction she'd look for me and grab on to my hand. it was really neat actually, it made me feel like we really connected or bonded or something through the labour. so then 6:30-7ish wayne brought nikita in so i could feed her and pretty much went back into the room and she was starting to feel pain again so i got the doc and she was ready to push. so tthe room quicklly got filled up with docs and nurses and jessica's boyfriend came right at that moment but i think she was actually glad to have him there so that was good for her.
so i can now understand waynes comment when i was in labour 'it looked like an alien'. :) this would have been my comment 'it looked like a brain coming out" :) before the head is out but u can see it, the skin on the head is all smushed and she had pooed so it was a bit greenish and it just looked like a brain!:) anyway so she was actually posteria so came out facing us. so i just started crying as soon as the head was out and saw it was a girl and jessica penny and i were all crying and had a big hug right then. so then the baby got checked right away and i was leaning over the 3 doc\nurses crying and looking at her and one of them turned to me and said "and who are u?" haha and i said 'im adoptin the baby' 'ohhhh' haha cos it was right before shift change so the nurses really had no idea what was going on!haha so i held the baby and brought her over to jess to have a hold then i had her again. so we had told her 2 boys and girls names we liked and we were going to decide when baby was born so i was sitting in the corner as everything was getting cleaned up and jess said"i think she looks like a savannah" and i'd thought the same thing!so before baby was taken to the nursery it was just jess savannah and i in the room and it was really nice, she was telling savannah that she loved her and she said to me i can see her when ever i want right :) yeah it was really nice, it was just like a nice goodbye. so wayne and lillian and the kids all arrived and had a quick hello to savannah before heading back to the hotel to bed.
so the next 3 days took a lot of co-ordination  to get the feeds between nikita and savannah sorted, and thankgoodness for my hubby and mother inlaw!
the nursing is all goin relly well, she latched on good right away and i seem to be having enough milk or both of them cos im leaking occasionally
so jess left the next day and we got out on friday afternoon and its soooooooo nice to be back home with my THREE kids!!
everything just went soo smoothly it really couldnt have gone better!savannah has had hardly any signs of withdrawl which is fantastic, shes really content, i gave her a bath this morning and she loves it, totally relaxes, its even so perfect that she was a girl cos nikita and her will be such close sisters!she slept about 5 hours last night before i woke her cos i didnt want her going too long with out a feed yet, not sure if shes back up to birth weight yet, we see the doc on tues. kingston has had a big cuddle with her this morning and nikita keeps checking her out but shes not really got the whole be gentle thing yet!haha
in other news :) since savannah was born, nikita is now crawling everywhere fast!!and has her 6th tooth so thats pretty exciting
and the most wonderful exciting news ever!!!!!! is that my darling sister in catching a plane today to come over here and help while she has school holidays!!!!!!!!!sooos soooo thankful and excited about that becuase i wasnt sure quite how i was going to manage this week cos i need to get packed for convention and then get through convention with two babies and a toddler!!! so im so excited to pick her up tomorrow night!!
anyway i feel like ive spent all morning on here, between keeping kids happy and fed but got it done! now to get sorting out nikita's too small clothes for savannah and get packing!!!

all the photos from hospital

 right after her first feed, she latch on great right away!we have had no probs in that department, she just has to glug really fast when i let down cos i have a lt more milk than a newborn would normally get!!:)

 skin on skin

 frowning at the flash, she'll be daddies little girl if she keeps that up!:)

 warming up after her bath

 her eye lashes are so long they must tickle her cheeks!!

 fav photo so far i think

 last day in the hospital waiting to get discharged

 check out all her hair

 so tiny

 snuggled in her bassinet at home

end of iph pics now camera pics

my little cubby in the nicu

 sleeping beauty

 at home checking out daddy

 in the carseat ready to sleep the whole way home

 i dont have mum here to take photos of me with savannah, so wayne has been forced to take some of me with her

 wide awake this morning

kingston is quite pleased to have another baby sister. i took this photo cos he was sitting there saying 'im holding TWO babies!!'

Savannah Jessica 7.5lb 26th june 8:16pm

just photos

skate park!

happy fathers day!!blurry photo but daddy's smiling!!:) 

 busting moves at the skate park

 an appropriate tag for kingston

 loving his scooter

he cleaned up all the toys and lined them up behind the couch!:)

we're expecting...

a baby any day now!!!
 We are adopting!!

lillians adopted kids Jordan (12) and Karma (5), their mother is pregnant again and she asked if someone in the ripley family would take this baby. so every thing seems to have just fallen into place for us and we just cant wait to meet OUR BABY!
baby is due on the 28th but will most prob be sooner as she is already showing signs of labour getting ready
dont know if its a boy or girl, but i have the feeling its a girl but really wouldnt have the foggiest
have been getting all the stuff ready the last 2 days so am feeling so excited and everytime the phone rings i think 'maybe this is her calling to say she is in labour!!':)
i will be at the birth assuming i get there in time and all that, thats the plan to be there anyway so that will be really special and kinda crazy not being the one doing the pushing!!i will get an understanding of how mum and wayne felt like!haha and will be able to get baby to my chest and on to boob immediately hopefully all things going well

hope the next post will be introducing our third child!!

p.s. sorry there has been no paleo food post, been slightly otherwise occuped the last while!:)

 first time wearing a clip in her hair!it didnt stay in for long tho

nude ride after the bath, hes trying to be like his cousin's zeke and rubes!!

strictly paleo

i'm trying to do the paleo diet stricktly for the month of june and i thought i would document as i go for a little motivation!!wayne and i do crossfit and its the diet\lifestyle they recomend. basically means; lots of veges, some fruit(if ur not me:)), MEAT, eat good fat, no grains, minimal dairy, no rice or patatoes, and NO SUGAR!!!its really the last one i really struggle with because seriously sugar is in everything!!!i've got some nice salad dressing without sugar but my fav thing, ketchup, has sugar. i have made my own ketchup which isnt really as good but its doing the trick for now!and another life saver is u can have a bit of dark choclate, good for the heart or something isnt it!?

i'm really enjoying it so far and have made lots of delicious paleo baking(muffins, cookies, and the MOST delicious carrot cake)

so if ur interested... :)

chicken bacon spinach salad ; monday night

quiche(eggs, coconut milk, spinach, bacon, zucinni, yams, feta) and salad ; wed night

one of our regulars taco salad minus the taco part ; thurs night

almondy coconutty fish, zucinni, asparagas, yam4canadians\kumera4kiwi's ; tues night