Joshua, 16 Months

I have definitely not taken enough pictures of this little man lately. He is growing and changing so quickly! I love his train sounds, that his favourite food is broccoli, his sleepy time cuddles, and the honest trouble that he gets into ALL THE TIME. Yesterday we spent the morning outside so these pics were all captured then. Other than the diapers, naps, nursing and snuggies (his must have blanket) there is not much BABY left in my baby boy!

Joshua is 1!

Joshua is now 12 1/2 months so I thought it was time for his 1 year update. He had his check up today and is continuing to do well. He now weighs 21 lbs. He is near the 50th percentile weighing slightly less than average and measuring slightly taller then the average 1 year old boy.
He is talking A LOT more then the average 1 year old. I guess we have his 4 older siblings to thank for that? His newest word (yesterday) is "chair".
He has also been walking for the last 5 weeks. He walks as his preferred method of transportation. He only crawls when he is playing or if I put hard shoes on him (still has to figure out shoes).
Having a 1 year old has more challenges then I remember but we are soaking up his adorableness and enjoying each new stage as it comes.

11 Month Pumpkin

Joshua is 11 months old. His first birthday is just around the corner. He can stand up without holing onto anything. He has taken a few steps independently and is really good with a walker, or a laundry basket, or the kitchen bench turned upside down. He is fast! He has learned to go down stairs properly (with supervision of corse)!
He is a had full, but so much fun! Love him!

10 Months

As predicted these 10 month pictures were even more difficult to capture then the 9 month ones. At his last check up (about 4 weeks ago) Joshua weighed 20 lbs 2 oz and is charted at 50th percentile for hight and weight. As you can tell from the pictures he is growing a lot each month. His hair has gotten lighter, though not as light as David's was at 10 months. He LOVES driving cars. He LOVES buttons. He also LOVES his sock monkey from Oma and Opa. He does not LOVE nap time, being fed, or having his diaper changed. But he does finally LOVE baths! And we LOVE our little man.

Joshua 9 months

This was the most challenging set of monthly pictures to capture so far. Joshua won't sit still! I was actually amazed to see how much he has changed in appearance this last month. Now that he has started his 10th month he is finally saying "Mom"... he has been saying "Dada" for a long time. His 5th tooth also recently poked through. As summer draws closer to its end these next few weeks are going to go by really fast and I will soon be updating with his 10 month pics. Soaking up all his baby love while I can.

Joshua 8 Months

As of yesterday Joshua is 9 months old! I am hoping to take his 9 month sticker photo's today but since I haven't posted some 8 month pictures yet I decided to do that first! The last day of his 7th month he pulled himself up to stand for the first time and there has been no stoping him since. He's not that motivated to cruise furniture but he does occasionally take a few steps. He crawls everywhere at full speed including up stairs. Baby proofing is now in full swing. He naps in his crib but continues to co-sleep with us once he wakes up during the night. His hair is getting thicker and seems to have some curl to it. He likes to wrestle and play peek-a-boo with David and he has his sisters wrapped around his little finger. As always he is growing up too fast. Love, love, loving our littlest man.

Joshua 7 Months

Joshua is 7 months old! I caught a picture of his new trick... clapping! He is very proud of this accomplishment. He often claps to show he is happy about something. When we had him dedicated on Sunday he clapped when we got up in front of everyone. In his smilie picture you can see his two bottom teeth which have come in nicely. He is working every day on the next ones but for the most part  isn't overly bothered by them.
He is continuing to try new foods and also new means of transportation. I was trying to coax him to crawl for the camera earlier today but no such luck.
I'm sure these summer months will all go by in a blur as he starts to crawl, gains speed, starts cruising furniture and learns more words. We are just trying to take it all in and we are certainly enjoying our littlest man and his older brother and sisters too. Feeling very blessed!

Joshua's Dedication

 

Joshua,
your name has been a favourite of ours since we first started choosing baby names more then 10 years ago. Along with the significance of its meaning we are also reminded of Joshua's declaration found in Joshua 24:15 which is the very same declaration we are making today "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord."
We thank God for the gift you are to us and the joy you bring to our family. We pray that your knowledge of the scriptures, your faith and you love for God will grow as you grow. That when the time comes and you find yourself at a crossroad your declaration would also be "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord."
The scripture we have chosen for your dedication is God's commissioning of Joshua (Joshua 1:7-9).
 
"Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this book of the law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
 
Be Strong and Courageous son, and may the Lord your God be with you wherever you go.

Love,
Mom & Dad

Joshua 6 months

While we were away at Tad Lake earlier this month Joshua hit the 1/2 year mark. He is continuing to do well, weighing 17 lbs 8 oz. He is in the 50% for weight and 60% for hight which is the same as David at that age. His ability to sit on his own is improving everyday. On Saturday he got his first tooth and I am sure the second is close behind. He is wriggling everywhere but not quite crawling. He likes to babble... especially "Dadadadadadda." We are looking forward to having him Dedicated on June 14th. We love you little man!

Joshua 5 months

Lots of firsts between 4 and 5 months old. We have started him on solids, mostly rice cereal but he LOVES bits of bread or plain rice from our plates. He got his cereal into his mouth with a spoon on his own so that gives you a bit of an idea how eager he is.
He also likes to spend a bit of time in his exercauser and enjoys longer bouts of playtime on the floor.
Joshua is a full fledged thumb sucker but will humer us by taking his soother once and a while.
It seems like he is always discovering a new voice and has recently started making a car sound when we are in the van.
Joshua is continuing to grow well weighing 17lbs 1oz at his 5 month weigh in (that's exactly 1 pound gained in one month).

Joshua 4 Months

Joshua had his 4 month check up today and weighed in at 16 lbs 1oz. When I compared his 4 month picture to his 3 month picture I could see that he hasn't changed as drastically in the last month as he has from month to month previously. He roles onto his tummy more often (he used to just roll onto his side and lay that way), he takes his soother a bit better (but won't have anything to do with a Nuk), and he is a thumb sucker. He still LOVES his swing and he is starting to go in his exersauser for short amounts of time. We have made it a morning routine to sing him his favorite songs "My God is SO BIG" and "Running Over" and we also like to sing these to him after diaper changes and throughout the day. He has found some new voices and loves to talk... sometimes sounding quite growly. He loves kisses and will kiss you back. We are enjoying him and soaking up all the baby goodness we can get, knowing all to well how soon he will grow up.

Joshua 3 months

Joshua is now 3 months old which means he is 1/4 of the way to his 1st Birthday! I took him to the health unit on his 3 month birthday so see how much weight he has gained since last month. He is now 14 lbs 14 oz! What can I say about our little man? He is no longer taking a bottle and is not fond of his soother either. He seems to have quite the temper at times, though he is most often easy going (gets this from Daddy?). He has started giggling, especially if we tickle him. He LOVES to talk and be talked to. He sleeps well at night for the most part (yay), but he hasn't really settled into a day time nap routine.
He is wearing size 3-6month and 6 month clothing and since we recently finished a pack of size 2 diapers we went right to size 3's since he grows fast and I am worried we wouldn't make it through another pack of size 2's. Hope you enjoy the pics and quick update.

Joshua 2 Months

I just wanted to take a few minutes to post Joshua's official 2 month picture. I am including his 1 month picture so that yo can see how much he has grown over the last month. At his 2 month check up he weighed 13 lbs 6 oz. He is doing really well. He does seem to have a bit of a fussy tummy and can sometimes be a challenge to get to sleep. He loves his swing (we ALL love his swing)!
What is fun about 2 months? We are loving his smiles, giggles and coo's.

6 weeks

Joshua 5 weeks

I also just wanted to take a few minutes to share some updated pictures of Joshua. He is now in his 5th week!

3 weeks

Joshua is 3 weeks old! Today we had our pictures taken by Charlie Vowels. Here are a few of her pictures of Joshua. At his doctors appointment yesterday he weighed 9 lbs 10.5 oz! He gained 1 whole pound in 12 days. He is continuing to do well and we are continuing to enjoy our baby boy!

1 week pictures

I just wanted to share a few pictures of Joshua from last Wednesday when he was 1 day shy of 1 week. The last picture was one my Dad caught of him smiling in his sleep on Sunday at 1 1/2 weeks. He is doing really well... already having passed his birth weight by 3 ounces at 1 week old. We are loving him and wishing time would slow down so that we could better enjoy every moment. He will be 2 weeks old already on Thursday.

Joshua Peter

Joshua Peter Neufeld

November 6, 2014

8lbs 7oz

Here he is! We were so happy to welcome our son into the world on Thursday night. If he would have waited another 28 minutes he would have been born on Friday but I was glad not to have another 32 minutes of pain! He holds the record for our heaviest baby at 8lbs 7oz! I can tell you the extra pound makes a lot of difference! He was also born with his hand at the side of his face and his shoulders got stuck which didn't help matters. Thankfully we are both happy and healthy. I am definitely taking it easy this next little while.

Joshua also hold the record for longest time without a name. It took us over 10 hours to name him which may not seem long to some people but we have had all of our other babies named in the first 30 minutes. Joshua was on our favourite name list... it just took us a while to decide if it suited him. The meaning of Joshua is "God is Salvation." Peter is Jonathan's middle name, the name of one of the twins I nannied when I lived in Switzerland and the name of Joshua's Great, Great-Grandpa.

I just wanted to take a few minutes to share some pictures. I hope you enjoy them. We are all very much enjoying Baby Joshua.

38 Weeks

I have now been pregnant about a total of 228 weeks. We are currently partway through our 38th week in this pregnancy (by my original due date) or just about starting our 38th week (by my ultrasound date). I have never made it to my due date (though I know I should never say never) and my last 3 babies have been born at exactly 38 weeks. So, we are ready to welcome this baby boy into the world!

At my last doctors appointment my cervix was stretchy and I was 3-4 cm dilated. I have a doctors appointment this afternoon so we will see if that has changed any. To some people this seems like a lot but it is pretty typical of me to dilate before labour begins. With Samara I was 5cm dilated for a week. I have had several bouts of contractions over the last several weeks even lasting for up to 6 hours! This makes it difficult for me to predict if I am just having another round of practice contractions or if Baby is on his way. With Rebekah I had 6 hours of contractions before I was mostly confident that it was actually kicking in to the second stage of labour and that she was indeed on her way.

The last few weeks have been difficult. It spends a lot of emotional energy wondering if I am just up for another sleepless night or if it is baby day. I try to ignore the contractions for the most part but the question is always in my mind. You would think that with this being my 6th baby I would relax a bit about the whole labour and birth but I think I feel more stress and anxiety with this one then I have with any of the others.

I am looking forward to my mom coming for the long weekend. It will be nice to have the extra hands to distract the kids and some visiting and help to distract me. Jonathan is taking the rest of November off and works his last day on Saturday. I feel less overwhelmed knowing that soon I won't be on my own.

I may include a pregnancy picture later on if I get one. Hoping rather to be posting some baby pictures soon. We will likely put our first pictures of baby on Flickr when we are in hospital. You can view them by clicking on this link:

Neufeld Flickr Page

Baby Boy 27 weeks

Here is another sneak peak of our Baby Boy. I am 27 weeks pregnant and he is measuring 28 weeks (over 2 lbs now)  which probably just means my original due date of November 17th is more accurate (always is). We had to have another scan because the doctor was concerned he was big or I had too much amniotic fluid but the measurements came back fine.

My guess is that he will arrive November 7th and weigh 8lbs 2 oz.