Time really does FLY!!

Wow, where does time go?!? How many times have I asked myself that question? It really is astonishing to me how time is passing in the blink of an eye, as evidenced by our growing little girl.

We have survived the major sleep deprivation stage and are into a great routine. Now it just feels like "residency/med school tired". Soph is growing like a weed and brightens our days - each and every one of them. What an absolute joy she is. She is such a bright, easy, happy baby; a real blessing!

We have Loch with us each month. He loves his "Prince George home" and we love our time with him. He is such an amazing big brother and he takes a lot of pride in his new role. He lets us know about Soph's every need - "my baby Soph is hungry", "my baby needs a nap now". My favourite saying of his is, "it's ok baby Soph, your big brother is here...it's me, Lochlan, your big brother". So much fun!

Layne continues to love his Psych Residency and I have slipped easily into the stay-at-home-Mom role. I am loving my new job! I am taking a full year of maternity leave and will return to my last year of Residency in the middle of June of 2010. A year doesn't seem as long a time as it did before Sophia came along. She's going to be five months old in one more week.

Well, this is a short posting. I hope this finds you all happy and well. As always, please send emails and pictures and let us know how you are doing.

Lots of Love,
Laura, Layne, Loch and Soph

Sophia Elizabeth Malley Harvey

Sophia arrived two weeks early on June 16th, 2009. She weighed 6lbs 11oz and was 20 inches long. She is, of course, the most beautiful thing we've ever seen!

She keeps us on our toes as she is a feeding, growing machine! Nights are long but we are well prepared for sleep deprivation. Who knew that so many long nights of being on call would come in handy for parenthood?!

We have been having a lovely time, these past few weeks, as just the three of us. We now feel prepped for visitors. Nana and Poppa Malley will be coming up this week and big brother, Lochlan, arrives on the weekend for a week long stay.

We will be heading to Vernon for the month of August to spend time at Grandma and Grandpa Harvey's new digs. They are officially moved in and it looks beautiful! Lochlan will join us for two weeks in Vernon and we are very excited about that too.

Lochlan informed us that he would like to call his sister "Cupcake"...what flavour, I'm not sure.

Just a short introduction as parenting duties are calling.

Laura, Layne, Lochlan & Sophia ("Cupcake")

If your belly button pops out, does that mean the baby is "done"?

Well, 37 weeks and counting. I'm ready ANY time now for this girlie to vacate her current premises in my belly. I'm done with the waddling, heartburn, kankles and the inability to find a comfortable position to sleep in. But, in all honesty, I can't complain. I'm healthy and all is well with the babe. We are getting excited to finally meet her!

We're both still plugging away at Residency. Three more weeks and we will have officially completed our first year. I can't believe how the time has flown...thank God! Layne is doing all Psychiatry right now and I am in my Family Practice rotation working out of a clinic. We are both finally really enjoying ourselves and are very happy with our chosen specialities.

A couple of other pieces of good news - our good friends Norry and Sharona have moved back to Prince George after having spent a year in Halifax. Sharona will be joining our Family Practice program as a Resident AND she is also pregnant so we will be on maternity leave together. We're very happy to have them back! We're also excited to report that my brother Reid has FINALLY asked his lovely Amber to marry him. The wedding planning dilemma has already begun but we are confident they will be able to pull off something fun to celebrate!

Overall, life has been much more normal over the past weeks with no on call shifts. It has been so nice for Layne and I to be able to see each other and spend time together while not sleep deprived and actually aware of what day and time it is!

We had a lovely week in Vernon in April with Lochlan and Layne's parents. The house is coming along beautifully - they have been working so hard and it has finally come together. They will be officially moved in by the end of the month.

Loch had a great time working on the house with Grandpa. He informed us that he was not just Grandpa's helper but that he was a "worker".

Here he is decked out in his "worker" gear, complete with hard had, safety goggles (which he also wore in the shower - only the goggles), tool belt and, of course, the Spiderman elbow and knee pads that never come off.

We used up the last of our holiday days for an adventure with Lochlan over to Saltspring Island. A great time was had by all! Loch is hilarious and lots of fun. He's quite obsessed with Spiderman these days. He is excited about his impending "big brotherhood" and becoming an even bigger boy on his fourth birthday. He keeps us entertained and continues to melt his Daddy's heart.

Well, a short blog this time around. The next one will include pictures of our new addition!

Lots of love,
Laura, Layne, Lochlan & baby girl Harvey

And baby makes 4!

We are counting down the weeks to when our baby girl will arrive. Her official due date is June 27th, 2009.

Now, at almost 26 weeks, my belly has definitely popped out and I am starting to think pregnancy might be, well, kind of neat. The first 20 weeks was rough - chronic nausea, inability to eat (but starving), and just generally feeling really crappy. (I'm sure that working 100+ hours every week didn't help). However, things have started to settle over the past few weeks and Zantac generally takes care of the heartburn. I must say that I am still waiting for that "glow" of pregnancy but am not actually convinced that it exists!

Residency continues to be a crazy time. I am finally finished my two months of Internal Medicine (or Eternal Medicine, as I like to call it, as it feels like it is never-ending) . I am in my surgical rotation now and, although I am still on call as much (every 3rd night), I generally get some sleep on call nights, unlike in Internal. I will finish my surgery rotation at the end of April. After that, I have two weeks of Native Health medicine and then 8 weeks of Family Medicine and that's it for 1st year Residency! If this babe is overdue, I'll actually be able to finish my full first year which officially ends on June 30th! We will see...

Layne is enjoying his Residency. As time goes by, he is more and more excited about his decision to do Psychiatry. The program continues to be very impressed by his skill and the level that he functions at this early in his residency (although he would never tell you that). He is also thrilled that, in two more weeks, he will have finished the last of any kind of medicine call he will ever have to do! I am excited for him! He was in Vancouver for the month of February learning Neuroimaging at VGH. It is certainly nice to have him home again.

Layne spent some great time with Lochlan while he was down south.
They had an awesome time hanging out, tubing, skiing, playing hockey and having lots of cuddles.
Loch is skiing up a storm now. He skis all by himself and likes to go FAST!
He is VERY excited about becoming a big brother and loves his new books about it (especially the one that talks about how babies poop in their diapers!). He tells everyone that he is going to be a big brother in June and then he is going to be four years old in July - a big summer! He told Layne and I that we can give his his baby sister a name when she "pops out".

Layne's parents are nearing completion of their new home in Vernon and it is going to be beautiful! It looks like it will be finished some time in June. We have booked some holiday time in April and will head to Vernon with Loch for a week. We are also looking forward to spending some time there over the summer with Loch and the baby.


The snow is starting to melt and we are looking forward to some warmth and green grass in the north. Winter is too long and too cold but it shouldn't be long before it's over.

Well, that's about it for now. Love to you all and keep the emails, phonecalls and pictures coming about what's going on with you!

Love Laura, Layne, Loch & ?