The New Crew Member

It has been a while since my last post but my family and I have had a fair bit going on. My wife and I recently welcomed the newest member of our crew, a beautiful baby girl, Elayna.

With me working away for the first part of the year, then having to fly back home earlier than planned due to the states borders going into lock down; then to take up home schooling the day after I got back; followed by an earlier than expected arrival of Elayna, time to myself was in very short supply. Even the cat and dog were demanding more of my attention than usual, but I was doing my best to ensure everyone in my house was receiving equal attention.

We are only months away from our first child, Harrison, turning 7 and time seems to have flown by. We never intended there to be such an age gap, but due to health complications with Shayne we didn’t have much of a choice. When we actually found out Shayne was pregnant for the second time we had only days earlier decided to talk to a doctor about trying IVF. As far as our work and financial situation was, the timing really could not have been worse for us but we would do whatever we needed to do trying to balance a navy life and family.

Apart from suffering quite severe morning sickness, and nausea, for most of this pregnancy everything went quite well. Now that Elayna has been with us for a few weeks we are finding our feet again having a new born in the house, and dealing with all that comes with everyone adjusting.

Harrison has been excited all along in the knowledge he was going to be a big brother and he is displaying so much love and affection for his new little sister. We were very mindful of the fact he would need a lot of adjusting and we have ensured he still gets lots of attention; making sure he’s included in everything we do, and making sure he still has his independence when warranted.

We have been super proud of him so far for his willingness to get involved, he has even been keen to learn how to change nappies, help bath her and get lots of cuddles on the couch.

I wanted to have this post written within the first few days of Elayna being born but quiet time to myself has been extremely scarce. So here it is, 1am, Elayna wasn’t settling after her last feed and Shayne was in need of rest. I finally managed to get Elayna to settle, but just in case she woke again I thought I would stay up and finish this post.

The joys of parenthood, take the time to do what can when you can.

Elayna, welcome to crew, you are in for one hell of a ride.