Nothing out of the ordinary

Nothing exciting happened today. We both had work so Peyton was shipped off to day care (she ennjoys it more than being at home as she tends to get bored without the other kids and choice of activities) and Daunte stayed home with mum.

I guess I should explain the meaning behind the long names that both our kids have been given and give a bit of background to our little family.

I was born in Hungary but moved to NZ when I was 9 years old and have been here ever since. My partner was born in Samoa but has been here since he was 12. This makes our kids half Samoan and half Hungarian! I love that combo... I thought it was unique for quite a while but now know of at least 2 Hungarians who have Samoan partners and kids :-(

Our first born, Daunte Usoali'i Matyas was born on 24 February 2001. He was due on 22 Feb and that is the day I went into labour with him but he decided to take another 45 hours before he made his entrance into the world. We were both adamant that our kids would not have a Samoan or Hungarian first name but still wanted to give them middle names from both our cultures. I really can't remember where we found the name Daunte, it was somewhere on the internet though and I loved it. It is a variation of Dante which is Italian for everlasting. It has suited him to a tee ever since he was born. Usoali'i is my partner's father's name and means first son (I think!) and fit perfectly as well. Matyas is the Hungarian version of Matthias and according to Hungarian history Matyas was also a very fair and caring king who looked after the poor. Hungarian children's tales are always full of the adventures of Matyas king and I have always loved the name so it became Daunte's middle name.

Moving onto Peyton Lausiva Emese who was born on 25 February 2005. Her due date was 3 May but she came 10 weeks early due to me getting a virus while I was pregnant. The virus made her anaemic and she wasn't making enough blood so they performed a blood transfusion on her in-utero once at 20 weeks then again at 28 weeks. She was growing too fast though so they decided to do one more blood transfusion at 30 weeks. As soon as the needle went into her umbilical cord, her heart rate dropped and I was rushed into an operating theatre and put to sleep. 10 minutes later, Peyton made her entrance weighing 1.7 kgs (apparently that is almost twice the size of a normal 30 week old baby!! They kept telling me that had she made it to full term she would have been 4.5 - 5 kgs... maybe it's lucky she came early). We spent 8 weeks in the Neonatal unit with her but looking at her today you would never know it. She is happy and healthy and the size of most 5 year olds... infact she is the biggest kid at her child care :-). Her name Peyton... I have to admit that my younger sister got me into watching an American soap opera called One Tree Hill and there was a character on there called Peyton. I quite liked the name and looked up it's meaning. It's an Old English name and means "warrior of the tribe". Once she was born that name suited her and all the struggles she went through just to be here. Lausiva is the name of my partner's great grandmother but unfortunately I'm not sure of its meaning. She died shortly after Peyton was born. Emese is a her Hungarian name and once again I'm not sure of its meaning but it's an ancient old school Hungarian name and I've always liked the way it sounded so it was given to our daughter.

And with that I better go to bed... I want to get up early tomorrow so I can get to work early. Ever since going back last week the earliest I've managed to get in at has been 9am. That has got to change... I want to get up extra early tomorrow too and go for a run before work so here's hoping!!! :-)