Michael’s First Bath

We don’t bath our newborns very often in the beginning.  Since they are born in water, their first bath won’t be before they are 5 - 6 days old.  All the vernix that cover the skin and which is the best ‘cream’ you will ever find, can then been absorbed and prevents a dry skin.

On Wednesday night 22h00 we gave Michael his first bath.  The house was quiet and peaceful, we dimmed the lights and introduced him to his first bath.  Since our 3rd baby, Josua, our newborn babies bath with either me or Christo in the big bath.  They don’t get a fright of being all alone in the water and it is a special time of bonding between baby and especially dad, who is working all day and only have a little time with our newborn baby!

We don’t wash them with all kinds of baby shampoo’s and baby lotions.  We only use a white unscented  tea tree soap, to wash their bodies and hair.  With the first bath we don’t even wash them with soap, we just let them get used to the water and being without clothes.  We also dissolve 2 cups of Epson salts in the bath.  It is excellent to sooth the muscles (and for us woman an amazing tonic for the hair, leaving your hair bouncy and shiny) You will most probably still remember how newborns, when they are in the water with nothing to cover their body, throw their arms in the air and start crying because of the ‘unsafe emptiness’ which they are not used too. So I wrapped Michael in a cloth nappy 

and put him in his Dad’s arms, who carefully emerged him into the water.  While I gave him to his dad in the bath, I gave him my pinkie finger, to suck on.  Your pinkie finger is an excellent dummy! (Make sure your nail is trimmed short) Not one of my babies ever had a dummy, their dummy is either my breast or my pinkie.  This keeps me attached to my baby and I save myself the trouble to get them off a dummy sometime in the future.

Michael enjoyed his first bath soooo much! He didn’t even cry once! He just laid in his daddy’s safe arms and almost fell asleep of the warm, soothing water.  Just before we took him out of the water, we slowly let the cloth nappy drop from his body in the water and then I wrapped him in his towel, as Daddy hands him over to me. 

My babies normally don’t want to get out of the water and only then start to cry.  Then my pinkie finger is ready again to sooth him.

This is how we bath our newborns!  No pain, no fuss.

Michael Jonathan's Birth Story

As you may know by now, I had a show on Thursday morning and started having stronger, regular contractions during the day.  I started taking certain remedies to strengthen the uterus and pelvic muscles, to ensure, if it was real labour and prevent the contractions from stopping, like Raspberry Leaf tea. 

During the morning CJ and I worked in the vegetable garden.  Our first batch of beans was finished and we took out the remainder of it.  We replanted some of our herbs and prepared the soil of this second bed for the Rainbow Corn Heidi-Mari sowed in seedling trays a few weeks ago.  She sowed it in seedling trays, since we did not have space in the beds at that time.  I enjoyed the time in the vegetable garden with CJ so much, although I couldn’t actually bend forward or sit down or reach the ground, anymore!  CJ was such a star, knowing his mom needed the distraction and activity to get the contractions going, while he did everything I asked him to do.

By 11h00 we went into the house and every child started with his/her maths for the day.  During this half an hour the contractions got closer, about 6min apart and more intense.  Christo was at work and I had to keep him up to date by the hour.  

By 14h00 Christo came to fetch CJ for a horse riding lesson and since my contractions was rhythmic every 5-7 minutes and longer than 60 seconds, he decided not to go back to work but came home to keep an eye me.  We even went for a half an hour nap together, while the little ones were having their nap.

The rest of the afternoon I kept myself busy with doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms, putting away stuff scattered around the house. I also took care of our organic fruit and vegetables which we receive every Thursday at Eirene Health Shop

and prepared dinner.  During dinner I realized that the contractions were not as rhythmic and strong as earlier the afternoon.  There were even periods of 15min with NO contractions.  I know from experience I have to focus when I am in labour.  My contractions can stop very easily, when there are too much distractions.  Feeding and bathing little ones fit the criteria to distract my focus from labour.  So Christo and I went for a walk at 19h00.  CJ, Heidi-Mari and Josua would clean up the dinner-table and kitchen, Danika would keep Andrew and David busy and Christo put Daniel in the ergo on his back so he could be with us.

We took a brisk 30min walk around the neighborhood and although there were a few strong contractions, they were not as strong as I would expect after 13 hours in labour.  But then they got stronger again and Christo and CJ started filling the birth pool.  

The birth pool takes 2 full geysers and they wanted to play safe to make sure they got it filled in time.  I was only 3cm dilated, but had a few very strong contractions 3min apart and I called the midwife to warn her that she’s possibly going to catch a baby sometime during the night.  Christo and the children were watching a DVD - “Wall E” while I took short naps between contractions, until I got one very strong one, that got me wide awake!

At 20h30 we put the little ones to bed and I put Daniel on my breast to enhance the labour.  During the 15min he was on my breast I had 5 VERY strong contractions and actually started panicking for the intensity and length of the contractions.  We called the midwife and she arrived at 21h30.  Again my contractions become irregular and the intensity and length was less.  I paced the house, became extremely tired and decided to lay down for a while, while Christo and Jenny sat chatting in the living room.

About an hour later a very strong contraction woke me up,  they were rhythmic and strong again.  By now I was 7cm dilated and quite excited.  I was ready to get into the bath and from previous experience, I expected baby to be born in the next 90min, possibly before midnight!

As I got into the bath, I again couldn’t believe the relieve of the pain I experienced from the warm water and effect it had on my tense muscles.  And then... the contractions stoped again!  I even fell asleep at one stage only to wake up and see it was midnight and I still didn’t have strong enough contractions to indicate baby will be born soon.  

By now Christo was giving me Caulophyllum and Cimicifuga every 10 minutes. You can read about the remedies during birth on his blog. Somewhere during this time I got a terrible pain on the left side of my back.  This immediately added to my stress of not being fully in labour.  With the little knowledge I have of labour it reminded me that back pain during labour, could be due to an incorrect birth position of baby. At 00h30 the midwife gave me a choice:  We could either let the process go on naturally, leaving me with another few hours of labour, or we could break my waters and speed up the process.  With all my water births the midwife broke my water at some stage, so without hesitation we decided to break my waters.  At this stage my body was in total shock with all the pain, especially the back pain, but Jenny kept reminding me baby was in the right birth position and I needed to ‘relax’ and trust the Lord.  I knew I had to trust the Lord and took all the mental strength I had left, to get myself focused on the Lord. The whole time while I was in labour we played Michael W Smith’s Worship DVDs and I took especially courage in his reading Ps 139 and his song “Everywhere I go I see You”! Christo also gave me some rescue drops, cell food and opened up a Coral 8 capsule and put the powder in my mouth.  Baby’s heart beat was high and my pulse was high too.

The back pain was so bad, that I could hardly feel the contractions.  When thinking back now, I think this was the worse part of the labour.  With contractions you have a rhythm, the contraction comes, works itself up to a climax and gives you a few seconds of relief before the next contraction comes.  With the intense back pain, there weren’t any moments of relief.  It was a constant pain, with contractions in between.  

Half an hour later there was still no progress.  I could see Jenny was becoming worried about baby and me, but baby’s heart beat was back to normal again and my pulse too.  It was 01h20 and I was still only 7cm dilated and my cervix wasn’t softened out and baby’s head still needed to move down about 3 cm. I was exhausted and panicking - how was I going to get this baby out?

It was then that Jenny suggested that with the next contraction, she’s going to manipulate the cervix to see if it will help baby’s head coming down.  She put on one glove and with the next contraction was ready. Christo was supporting me from outside the pool.  I’ve also decided that with every contraction, I would just push this baby down.  I remember Jenny asking, “Do you feel like pushing or are you just pushing?”  I was just pushing.  Within seconds I felt baby’s head crowning.  The moment Jenny pushed the cervix back, baby’s head had enough space and came down!  There wasn’t even time for Jenny to put on another glove, baby was ready to be born!  As I was pushing, I could feel baby coming out, but then we got stuck!  There was no contraction, but I heard Jenny and Christo urging me to push. I didn’t know it then, but baby’s shoulder was stuck!  Christo afterwards said, he could see Jenny’s muscles bulge as she literally had to pull Michael out. After what felt like hours (according to Christo about 2min) and with the help of another contraction, I felt the amazing relief of baby being born under the water! This was the most amazing moment of my life!  The next moment Jenny lifted our little baby out of the water, and with great curiosity checked if it was a boy or a girl!  Praise the Lord, our perfect little boy was safely in my arms!

  

For the next ten minutes I could only cry out in relief to my Lord and Savior for the amazing thing He had done!

Right through the delivery all the children were fast asleep!  The children were a huge concern of mine. Daniel is cutting molars and he woke up every night during the past two weeks, before Michael’s birth, between 03h00 and 05h00. We had a plan for the older children on what to do if he woke up, but it wouldn’t be without Daniel crying and he would be totally out of his sleeping routine.  I have the custom to fast coffee the last 40 days of every pregnancy and lay before the Lord all my fears and concerns.  Some of my concerns that I put before the Lord were the timing of the day that would make it the easiest on the little ones, the fear for the pain, a safe delivery and a healthy mother and baby.  The Lord was so faithful, as usual.  After we praised the Lord and where sure baby was okay, Christo went to call CJ, Josua, Heidi-Mari and Danika.  

CJ, who’s room is at the total opposite side of the house, said he woke up at 01h20 and couldn’t go back to sleep. This was the exact time when Jenny decided to give a hand with the cervix.  I also heard from two other close friends, how they woke up at exactly 01h20 and where prompted to pray for us.  Danika, who is sharing a room with Heidi-Mari, right next to our room, said she heard baby’s first cry and was just waiting for Daddy to come and call her to meet her new brother/sister!

It was so special to see their faces of adoration when they first laid eyes on their newborn baby brother!  

Then they quietly went back to their beds.  The little ones didn’t have an idea want happened and slept until 07h00 the morning!

As soon as Heidi-Mari could get CJ out of his bed, she bombarded him to help her put up the ‘It’s a Boy’-banner she’d made to let the neighbours know baby has arrived. 

They are so proud to tell the world they got another brother!

This was my most difficult birth yet! Even with my recovery taking longer, looking back I just realized again - It is such a miracle and I will do it again!  Without my loving husband’s constant encouragement and support, 

my competent midwife and the Helping Right Hand of the Lord, I could never have done it!

Praise the Lord!

Fallen In Love

We’re all just falling in love with little Michael! 

Everyone wants to hold him, touch him, kiss him, adore him!

With the privilege of Daddy being at home over the weekend, taking responsibility for everything that still needs to happen, although we have a new baby, I’ve just stayed in bed,

with Michael in my arms.

Recovering from the birth 

and getting to know Michael.  

With all the little ones, our home is quite busy and noisy and I need a quiet and calm atmosphere, to get to know this new little addition to our family! Today, Monday, daddy was off to work again. I had to know this new person and need to be ready to take on the challenge of being a mother of eight precious children.

There is a raging storm around the world, regarding families who choose for God to determine the size of their family!  Just check out the news articles on the Duggar family and all the comments on this family’s walk in faith, comments on Generation Cedar’s blog postings on pro life v.s. pro choice. Even a negative comment on a local blog, where handing over the size of your family to God, is compared to ‘becoming like animals” and ‘we should rather add to God’s spiritual family, and stop making babies who we can’t afford to look after!’

The enemy of our souls, who knows that we are living in the end times, is doing everything in his power to blind people to the truth of God’s Word on Children!  We need Godly people in every walk of live, every career in the world, every influence sphere in the community.  We need an army of Godly warriors.  God need families who will make themselves available to Him to raise as many Godly warriors as He chooses and needs for His End Time Army.  

I’m sure you all know the song ‘I surrender all’. What a privilege to get to the point of ‘I Surrender all’ - also my womb.  Michael’s birth was a very long, painful experience (more later) and with every birth I’m taking longer to recover, but this is my reasonable service to my Savior!  

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

Rom 12:1

And here are some photos on this precious family the Lord entrusted to Christo and I.

Proud Daddy with his sixth Son!  

“Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,

So are the children of one’s youth.

Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;

They shall not be ashamed,

But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.”

Ps 127:4-5

CJ and his little baby brother.  He was so proud to announce the arrival of Michael at the horse riding school!

Heidi-Mari and Michael. She’s so proud, she’d already did more postings on Michael than I did!

Josua and Michael.  This time he is much more involved with the baby, since his older.

Danika and Michael. She’s taking great delight in being Heidi-Mari’s helping hand when taking care of their little brother.
   

Andrew and his little brother.  He just wants to hold Michael all the time!

David and Michael.  He adores Michael for hours touching the little toes and fingers!

Daniel, the bigger baby, who can’t believe there is a baby in the house.  His mission is to announce to anyone he meets:  “Baba!”

Little Michael, we love you sooo much and you don’t even know it, yet!

Please meet .....

Michael Jonathan Lues was born Friday morning 01:40 at home in the water.
He weighed a healthy 4.38Kg. Linnie and Michael is in PERFECT health - Praise the Lord!

Pain is Your Friend!

I could be in labour!

My contractions became stronger over the night and this morning I had a show.  This was the pattern with all my previous labours. The contractions are still some time apart, but I observed something the Lord has done in me, over this past few weeks which is very encouraging! 

During the last few weeks, I became more and more afraid of labour every time I had an hour or two of strong contractions.  So much so, that I was so afraid of the pain, that I actually couldn’t think beyond the pain to holding my new baby!  Then, for a few days I didn’t have any contractions.  Then last night as the contractions become stronger I remembered something my first midwife told me years ago.  I actually didn’t remember it myself, Christo reminded me of her words when I was so afraid of the pain, a few weeks ago. But at that stage I was still too afraid to appreciate his words. Ingrid told us:  “Pain is your Friend.  Every painful contraction brings you nearer to holding your baby!”

Last night it hit me again, and I embraced her words.  I am now looking forward to every strong (painful) contraction.  I can actually visualize how every contraction is pushing my baby down, ready to be born!  

Isn’t the Lord amazing?  I’ve prayed for weeks that He would ease the pain and help me through it, since I was so afraid!  And God is faithful! He answers prayers!  I’m not afraid of the pain anymore!  I’ve made peace with the pain.  With every painful contraction I’m nearer to holding my baby!

Oh how am I looking forward to meet my baby!  

What will baby be...?

What will baby look like...?

What will baby smell like...?

How will baby feel in my arms...?

Patience

“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:4

This last few days I’m full of hormones, depleted of energy; very emotional and without any strength, in my opinion, not quite the best place to exercise patience! Yet, if I read James 1 correctly this is exactly the way patience have its perfect work in me, accomplishing spiritual maturity!

Over the past few months I’ve read a few blogs of mothers who were pregnant and every single one of them reached the stage where they were afraid they’re going to be pregnant forever!  I’ve promised myself this time I will not allow myself to have feelings of impatience!  But here I am, and I think I’m going to be pregnant forever with this baby! Looking out for any sign of labour! 

My babies normally came between 39 and 40 weeks.  Daniel my last baby was born at 39 weeks exactly.  As I had strong contractions since December and it was my 8th baby, and I’m more active taking care of all the little ones, I thought this baby would be born at 39 weeks too.  I even had a few hours of strong contractions over the weekend! So much so, that on Sunday-night, Heidi-Mari and I put out everything baby and I would need, in the first hour after birth, on the traditional trolley, next to my bed!  

A blue and a pink baby towel, a blue and a pink short sleeve body-vest, a blue and a pink baby grow, a blue and a pink pair of socks, a blue and a pink face cloth, newborn disposable nappies, a blue and a pink receiving blanket, a blue and a pink emobroided cloth nappy.

Olive oil and round disk cotton wool to clean baby’s bum, our home made bum cream, Wecesin Grace & Weeping Wound Powder to dry out the umbilical stump, Chamomilla powders for baby, a clean pair of pajamas and disposable panties for me, maternity pads without plastic lining (which increase the possibility for infection), cotton breast pads (disposable breast pads have plastic lining too, which can cause irritated nipples and increase the possibility of fungus growing on the nipples) 

Traumeel S drops for the after birth pain, black plastic bags to cover the mattress and for everything that needed to be disposed of, clean linen for the bed and fresh towels for me.

Here, Christo posted remedies during labour. 

Heidi-Mari and I also took care of our toes and feet on Saturday morning and gave each other a pedicure!  After that we also took care of our finger nails. I went for a half leg wax on Tuesday and Christo took me for a movie the evening!  

Our school routine is well established and the house is clean, the older children know exactly what to do with the little ones whenever I go into labour, day or night and they know what food to prepare - breakfast, lunch or supper.  

What else can I do?

Trust the Lord for His timing and let patience have its perfect work in me! 

Eish, that is the hard part!

Our Home School Journey

Everything is ready for baby to arrive, now we only have to wait for baby to decide when he/she thinks it to be a good time to enter the world.  Thus I figured it best to keep myself busy with homeschooling.

This year CJ (now 15years old) will do two extra ‘subjects’ alongside his Maths-U-See, LLATL, Excellence in Spelling, Clever and Science. 

He will do Robotics and programming with Mindstorms and an internet based equine course from Monty Roberts (the horse expert).

He also works three afternoons a week and every Saturday at Camelot, the horse riding school, giving riding lessons to young riders as needed. He will also start training a 4year old horse, that he will use for jumping events.  By the end of last year Silverball’s health was deteriorating and they decided it is best for this 20year old horse to resign from competitive jumping events, before they push him too far.  This was a sad, but good decision. The Lord has already provided miraculously in this aspect (a posting on its own for later!).  

CJ is my right hand in the vegetable garden, building the raised beds (we’re planning for 20 raised beds), looking after my compost heap and taking care of the irrigation system. 

For Heidi-Mari (now 12 years old), we decided to do a baking course alongside her Maths-U-See, LLATL, Clever, Exploring Creation with Astronomy and Exploring Creation with Botany. 

She will also start with Excellence in Spelling and learn some more advanced computer skills through her Craft blog. 

Young Explorer Botany comes in especially handy with our Vegetable Garden.  It is Heidi-Mari’s responsibility to water the pumpkin bed, lemon tree, fig tree and our seedlings, every morning.  Heidi-Mari also keeps track of when to sow what seeds to keep our vegetable garden at optimum production.   

For Heidi-Mari’s baking course we will use a book “Baking” by James Peterson. 

The reason why I’ve chosen this book is because it is written and organized with the aim to understand the principles and techniques at play in a given classic recipe. Then to apply what have learnt to baking projects that aren’t even included in the book.  Our aim is to do 4 modules over the four quarters of the year.  

Firstly, Basic Cakes, with their recipes for frostings, fillings and glazes, followed by an array of instructions for assembling cakes, which results in a delicious and beautifully decorated cake and also serves as an example of techniques that can be used successfully with myriad other recipes. 

The second quarter will be pies, tarts and pastries. The third quarter, cookies with their methods and techniques and lastly Custards, souffles, fruit curds and mousses.  During this baking course we will replace wheat flour with spelt flour and sugar and corn syrup with palm sugar (Jaggery) or xylitol. This will be a challenge on its own, but will give us some healthier recipes and teach Heidi-Mari how to prepare healthy snacks which is part of our life style.

As for Josua (now 9years), Christo will also teach him basic robotics and programming through Mindstorms. He will also do his Maths-U-See, Clever, Exploring Creation with Astronomy and Exploring Creation with Botany.  

He is very interested in natural medicine and already helps Christo out in the Health Shop.

He will also start English Phonics through Adventures in Phonics by Christian Liberty Press. Since English is our second language I’ve experienced it the best to teach them the basic phonic rules.  Josua actually taught himself to read english by reading the Tintin series and this will only teach him spelling rules and a better pronunciation.

Danika (now 6years) is this year officially part of the older ones, having a scheduled time for school in the morning. 

She is sooooo excited!  We’re doing Maths-U-See and Gr1 Clever.  She will still make lapbooks with Andrew and David.

For Danika, Andrew (now 4years) and David’s (now 3years) first lapbook of the year, I’ve decided on a Garden Lapbook.  

On Lapbook Lessons I’ve found a very interesting lapbook on gardening and thought it is an excellent tool to involve them in something we are already spending lots of time on and is part of our life style - our organic vegetable garden. 

So this is what we plan for the year.  I’m not a mom that allows the home school schedule to rule my live, but it is good to have some planning.  Especially when the little ones take up time with ‘little’ demands, the older ones can get quite frustrated if they don’t know what are expected of them.  When they know what we planned for the year, they can work on their own and do more to keep it interesting and excited.

Something amazing struck me this morning.  Little Daniel (18th months on the 1st of February) is just surprising us more and more each day with everything he is learning and the way he is communicating with us.  As I was busy getting ready for the day, he was busy too. As he got his water bottle to drink some water and communicating to CJ that he wants a piece of bread (the routine for the morning after daddy gets his espresso) he bumped his head against the table.  He came to me explaining in his baby-like way that he bumped his head and told me that he had a dirty nappy.  Just then it struck me how nobody put him in a chair for hours per day to teach him words, how to talk, how to communicate and testing him on his understanding!  He is just in a loving, secure, home situation and he absorbs everything like a sponge what happens around him - and here are 8 people that are more than willing to teach and show him every day life.  

Children learn through every day life - real life!  

Unlike the unnatural ‘school’ environment that we grow up in and are programmed to think what learning is - where politicians, evolutionists, the media, and many more decide what our children will learn and think. 

What a privilege to home school my children!  

Years ago, when we just started our Home School Journey I read that, children's minds aren't clean slates on which we can write just anything we want to, filling their heads with lot of information. No, God already programmed each child's mind with certain information as part of their talents, gifts and calling in life.  We as parents are responsible to spark our children's mind to discover this information and allow them to walk in the calling for their lives, as God intends it to be. 

May you seek God in 2010 to just do that with your children!

I wish you all a blessed home school year!