Jackson

Jackson :
8 weeks old
A whopping 13.5 lb of breastfed goodness
Smiley and quite awake
Has an umbilical hernia (shouldn’t require surgery and doesn’t require much extra care, just caution and attention)
Is going through his fussy stage but I think I figured it out today… he wants to sit up and be present. He’s over the constant sleeping and he’s not super interested in toys, he would like to sit somewhere with a good view and supervise. Actually, the way he looks at toys, I think he’s suspicious of them, and I’m pretty sure his thoughts on the mobile are something the lines of ‘circling… always circling…’

Here’s a peek at my baby announcements. Just in case anyone hadn’t noticed yet that I wasn’t 10.5 months pregnant, we’re still planning to send out announcements. I found a sweet template here on etsy, and I’m probably going to do an actual opening card and send it out to less people to compensate for the extra cost. Actually, considering the stack of envelopes with names and not addresses or stamps that I tossed a few months ago containing Olivia’s birth announcements, possibly more people. Awkward.

I do have other children besides Jackson, I am aware. I dragged the three of them to a bootcamp yesterday morning, one that allows you to bring your kids. (google The Tyson Method) I was a bit late, and Olivia was a bit of a clingy burr because she is really shy around strangers. Nicole is more the “Hi my name is Nicole and these are my siblings names and this is my phone number and would you like mom’s SIN number?” kind of a deal. Don’t worry, she doesn’t actually know my SIN number, phew. It’s a new thing, having a shy kid. Benefits to both, I’d say. Anyways, I was feeling like a badass at bootcamp. Look at me doing jumping jacks! Squat squat squat! Oh yeah, feel the burn. Oh. Hey, that really burns. Ow. More? Do not want. My butt muscles are shaking. I’m secretly glad I keep having to stop and deal with Olivia. I hate this. Can I have a cookie now? And then my muscles were so done that I couldn’t even haul my stroller up the small flight of stairs to get back out. I was lucky to have help available.

I was dreading this morning, and oh, was it ever everything I thought it would be. And more. You know you got your butt whooped at bootcamp when you’re sitting on the toilet looking around sadly, wondering if the toilet paper roll dispenser would give out if you tried to use it to haul yourself up to avoid using your leg muscles. Wishing for a handicap bar. Wishing you could pee standing up. Anything but that dreadful moment of sitting down or getting up from the toilet. Whyyyyyyyyy????! sob.

I don’t want to be skinny, I just want to be fit. Actually, let’s try that again. I have realistic expectations and an intense love of cooking, baking, and eating, would love to be skinny but would have to step away from the cupcake first, and want to be fit. Rumour has it that the afterburn feeling discourages you from noshing but so far no luck. I did a bunch of baking for bible study (which I wasn’t able to attend, but I’m sure my baking paid good attention) and did no small amount of tasting, licking, sampling, cleaning off spatulas, and the like. I figure I’m actually working harder if I’m pushing up more weight in a push-up, so its all good, right? ….right?

all photos in this post (except the picture of Jackson compared to Chris’ hand in the baby announcement) are thanks to Amy Vanderveen Photography

Jackson Reid

6lb 9oz
2 weeks early
born 17/07/2012

 

And today, at one week old, back up in weight and again some, to 6lb 10oz. He’s the sweetest, most placid little thing. We are so blessed.

Coming soon to a … monitor near you.

This blog post has been brought to you by the letter “I” for “Ipod Photos”

Okay girls and boys. I’m slacker of a blogger, I know. No Friday Favorites even. Lame. But I’ve been a busy bee in real life. It’s been some things like painting a hallway, meeting with people at Home Depot about my impending kitchen reno, cleaning and recleaning my home and laundry and children. Nothing really worth pulling out the camera for. (Although I confess, I’m tempted sometimes to take a picture every day at the magical moment where I’ve just finished cleaning everything, just to prove half an hour later that it was, in fact, clean.)

I’ve also been working on this. By which I of course mean, napping. No, not really; my sleepy time coincides with Olivia’s wakeup time. Somehow I press on. Mostly I keep forgetting I’m even pregnant. I’m 18 weeks (and a bit) somehow? Normally by now I look like I’m about 7 months pregnant, and I tend to carry like my torso is an egg with bosums on the top. This round I’m sporting more of a ‘I shoved a soccer ball down my shirts’ sort of a look. Until a few weeks ago we all kindof kept forgetting that I was even pregnant because I just looked sort of beer-belly-ish most of the time. Normally I head straight for ‘third trimester’ and work up from there, so it’s an odd thing.

However, in the last few weeks I’ve also created a cute chenille-cut-monogram pillow for Nicole, nearly finished Olivia’s topsy-turvy-squares quilt top, and created a 18m+ backwards-zip sleep sack. Olivia is a bit of a stripper. When placed in bed and faced with the concept of sleeping, she often chooses to rebel by stripping completely naked, occasionally peeing and a few times more. Um, not cool, Olivia. Not cool. So I responded by making her a hugely long sleep sack that zips in the back. I spent a few days anxiously pondering a different way of making sleep sacks from my previous way, and when I finally decided to put my seam ripper beside me and just try it, I was quite pleased to find that I’d found a much more efficient way to create lined zipped sleep sack than what I’ve used in the past.

The topic of Nicole’s old sleep sack came up, which was polarfleece, simple, and used a wide ribbed neckline instead of a zipper so she could just be slipped into it and I didn’t have to face my zipper-fears. Then out of nowhere, this weekend I got a request for a tutorial on that type of sleep sack from someone who’d read a forum post where I’d mentioned it, from years back. So I think I may do a tutorial on both types; I’d had intentions of creating a .pdf pattern in multiple sizes of the zipped sleep sack and selling it, but I think I may just do a tutorial including how to draft your own size. After all, most of what I learned when it comes to making things, I learned from others’ free tutorials!

All I talk about lately is sleep, not sleeping, sleep sacks, and the like. Clearly I have developed an obsession. With sleep. Sleeeeeeep.

If I Have A Boy

I’ll hopefully be finding out whether we’re expecting a pink or blue bundle at my 20 week ultrasound next month. Boy, that came up fast! We’re pondering the idea of a boy because a) obviously, it could go either way, and b) the heartbeat came up at 145, and both my girls maintained a steady 165.

A friend of mine jokingly asked me what I would do with a boy, since I couldn’t make him tutus or headbands or hairclips. I proposed that I could dress him up like an english gentleman until he’s old enough to hate me for it. Later, I was thinking I could make him some quilts. Here’s a roundup of some other things I could do if I have a boy!

First things first, this quilt pattern comes to live with me and I make the coolest baby quilt ever. EVERRRRRRR. Allegedly it’s not even that difficult but my brain is dazzled and I assume if it is actually something I’m capable of, everyone else will be dazzled too. Especially the baby, who will write me a thankyou card as soon as he learns to write.

 

 

Baby boys need clothes, too, and this reversible vest strikes me as the perfect way to hide at least two food incidents before running out of clean.

Reversible cuffed pants? Girls and boys alike look cute in cuffed pants, and reversible is just french for magical as far as children are concerned. I need to make Olivia a reversible shirt for when we go to Costco and she rubs samples all over herself.

A comfy version of the gentlemanly look, I think yes.

Indulge my vulgar side.

Obviously.

Button up shirt converted to a onesie? I think yes.

And that’s barely skimming the barrel! Let’s not forget every single rad boy tutorial over at I Am Momma, Hear Me Roar, for after the baby child grows. Plus I will knit him many a tweedy sweater.

Now, as to what I would do WITH a boy child? Hmmm… I don’t know. Rescue him from his sisters mostly, I imagine. Time will tell!

(girl or boy… what a joy!)

Welcome Olivia Christiana

I got put on a waiting list to be induced, and settled in with much disappointment, expecting a long wait. Then at 7pm I got called in. They were going to attempt to induce me with a gel, which might or might not work. We considered me just running in by myself, but decided that just in case, we’d drop Nicole off at my SILs for the night so we didn’t have to drop her off in the middle of the night instead, and then brought the hospital bag just in case. The doctor measured me for dilation and said he had bad news and good news. Bad news, he wasn’t going to use the gel. Another downer. But the good news… I was far enough dilated that he was going to go ahead and just induce me with a drip! Provided, of course, there was a room available. “If there is no room for you in at the inn, you’ll have to come back tomorrow or something.” Well, obviously there was room for us! Hoorah! I have tricksey veins, so it took a total of four nurses a combined six attempts to get an IV in me. At this point I started having little contractions on my own, and my nurse and I were joking I’d be a failure as a drug addict. Somewhere around 11 or midnight they started me up with the induction drip, and I guess around an hour later they broke my water. Considering I was 10 days overdue, the doctor was thoroughly impressed/blown away with the sheer volume of that one. He pointed out we were pretty lucky that hadn’t happened at home. I was doing alright without pain meds til around 2:30, when I couldn’t keep myself calm enough to not want to thrash around and fight against my body. They were coming about two minutes apart at that point. We decided to go with an epidural, I felt since I wasn’t having the totally natural birth I had hoped for and I’d heard inductions can hurt more – and I don’t remember feeling the same level of pain during contractions during my back labor with Nicole – I didn’t feel bad about taking the epidural. I could still feel the contractions, so I didn’t get any real sleep, but I did take cat naps in between. For probably around an hour and a half to two hours my contractions went down to every five minutes.Eventually I decided walking around might get things going again, so I decided to go to the washroom. I decided right. Things progressed really quickly after that. Suddenly I decided I would accept the offer to up my epidural, so the nurse decided to check me before they did that, since that would have me bedridden. Surprise, I was suddenly fully dilated and ready to push! I decided at this point that I had changed my mind and would like to go home, but nobody took me seriously. I also stopped breathing silently through my contractions and switched to nearly sobbing. Pushing is not my favourite, and I did not want. I was told not to push, there was no chance my midwife would make it in to assist but the goal was to get the doctor there. I pointed out that my body was pushing even if I didn’t want it to.  I managed to kindof breathe/sob/hyperventilate/breathe again through that contraction, and the doctor showed up. Next time I got to push. If I could have thought of swears I probably would have gone with that, mostly I just tried to argue but nobody was really game. She came really quickly, a few pushes and she was out, which is great. I hate the pushing. She came really quickly so she wound up getting a pretty bruised little face. The doctor quipped that you could play jump rope with the impressively long umbilical cord, about which Chris decided last minute he would go with his initial decision to pass on doing the cutting.Olivia Christiana was born 6:03am, November 16, 2010. She was 9lbs 5oz and measured in at 22 inches. Comparatively, Nicole was 8lb 10oz and 21.5”… she had skinny little stick legs where Olivia has the chubbiest little thunderthighs I’ve ever seen on a newborn.  She also has one dimple to Nicole’s two, the exact same pout and facial expressions, a full head of dark hair, and a storkbite to match her big sister’s. Nicole is absolutely in love, very excited that their Bringing Home Baby outfits matched. She sat beside her on the drive home and stared lovingly at her, stroking her hand occasionally and whispering lovey things to her, or commenting that she had a nose or ears. Chris is happy to be at home with his girls, although Nicole is back at my sister in law’s for a few days. Since he goes back to work tomorrow, he was quick to take on the role he has been looking forwards to for months now… Baby Napping Partner. (she is already starting to look less bruised here.)

I am of course a little sore and alternately sleepy and full of energy. I’m very pleased to have regained full use of my bladder, and very excited to enter this next phase in our family’s life. :)

Full Term!

Okay, eviction notice! No, jk. Give me at least another week, so the baby room is ready. Everyone I know is going overdue though, so for all we know I could have this baby anytime between later today (unlikely) and more than a month from now (oh please no.)

No joke, I am more nervous this time around than I was for Nicole. Part of the thing is, Nicole is soooooo excited to have a baby. IMMA HUG YOU AND SQUEEZE YOU AND LOVE YOU AND CALL YOU GEORGE. That kind of excited. I’m considering babywearing 24/7 just to protect the poor infant. You have no idea, you haven’t seen how she loves on the dog. She is a tiny little dog, she weighs about the same as a slipper. The other day I caught Nicole trying to shove the poor thing head-first into a sand bucket. The dog isn’t THAT small. Good thing I happened to peek out at just that time. I mean, I’m sure baby will love her back, goodness knows the dog does. I guess if somebody doesn’t judge you for eating your own poop, you’re willing to look past things like being shoved into small places.

If you’re wondering, I do not look past poop-eating. She may be a cute little frou-frou dog but she is NOT sitting in my lap after eating poo. Sorry. You may have my pity, my protection, and my care. But do not expect my cuddles.

I guess it’s all a matter of perspective with Lily, this is what I see though. hahaha. She’s a cute little thing but she sure photographs ugly a lot. 

Tangent aside, another thing that has me nervous is how tired I’m going to be. Not that in itself, but the whole ‘brainless zombie person’ thing. Here I’ll have a three year old running around trying to love on the dog and the baby. I’ll be, I dunno, standing in the bathroom drooling and staring at the toilet, trying to remember how it works. Next thing you know, it’s 5pm, the baby has been shoved in a sand bucket, there’s toilet paper in the oven and chicken breasts in the toilet, the dog’s eating poop, and Nicole is repainting the livingroom ‘rainbow’. Chris will come home and I’ll gurgle something unintelligible, hand him the bucket of baby, and stumble off to bed.

Actually, I don’t know what I’m so nervous about, it’s Chris who should be quaking in his boots right now. Maybe don’t tell him, it can be a surprise.

Inspiration Desperation

Okay, so I am desperately seeking inspiration as far as Baby V’s nursery is concerned. We theoretically have anywhere from 5-9 weeks left, 9 being the maximum they would let me go before inducing me. Single digits all around. Can you smell the fear? We haven’t even STARTED the nursery.

I’ve started the quilt. I know what color I’m painting the walls – Jamaican Aqua like my craft room. I’m just so in love with aqua right now. Aqua/bright blue is going to be the primary color in the room. I can’t tell you what the other color is going to be because we have come upon the agreement that while we are not keeping the gender a secret-secret, we’re not telling the world either. Friends and family, in our homes or theirs (not in the church lobby, sorry) if it comes up in conversation. Facebook and blog are off-limits. On the bright side, I will have to sit down and write some postdated blog posts about the little projects I’ve been doing for baby afterwards!

Anyways, other than Jamaican Aqua I can tell you I found a bright blue birdcage thing –its meant to be a candle holder, but I might put in twinkle lights or something, not sure yet -  that will hang from the ceiling as a whimsical decoration. This doesn’t mean I’m going to go nuts with a bird theme, but I’m kindof open to using it a bit. I’m still pretty open overall. Does anyone have any inspiration or ideas to share?

Yesterday I was flipping through an old Martha Stewart BABY special and got the brilliant plan to use an embroidery hoop with a wetbag to make a hanging hamper for diapers. I actually did that for a hamper-hamper for Nicole, using the pillowcase suggested in the magazine. Other than that, and the colors, and the basic layout, some fabric, and that birdcage thing, I don’t have much. I have some pictures in my Decor Inspiration folder but they mostly orientate around the wall color.

Any small-space nursery ideas to share? Nursery decor inspiration? Even toddler rooms, I tend to love them for ideas too. If it’s a green and yellow nursery, or a pink and brown nursery, share it! I’m loving looking through stuff from both genders here. I have time to kill when I have to sit down and take breaks, anyways. I’ll throw a McLinky on here and everything.

32 weeks

Okay, here I am, all up in the third trimester. Yes, I still look like I maybe ate my friends that are due just a few weeks after me. Yes, a bad hair day is a good hat day. Yes, when baby stretches you can see little elbows and knees poking out of my side.   I am what my husband would describe as ‘physically repulsive’ by which he means ‘I can’t get past the fact that your tummy pokes me back… I still love you, I’m just a wee little bit creeped out’. That statement did require some explaining, as you can imagine, especially as I do still weigh less than I did here: mmm, September 2008. Delicious. You suck it in all you want, big girl. The only thing I was still fitting from highschool back then was my earrings. Which, coincidentally, still fit now. Not to brag or anything. As you can probably tell, I didn’t even bother to photoshop these bad boys. There is only so much photoshop can do, and when the sun is catching your wee little bumchin just so, you just give up. You feel me? Anyways, tomorrow or later today I should hopefully be posting pictures of my craft room, I finally finished organizing everything! I have a lot of crap valuable crafting supplies.

Oh, exciting news! My husband started smoking when he was 15. TERRIBLE, I KNOW. Anyways, he’s sworn to quit before we got engaged/married/had a baby/got pregnant again. He’s tried many times. This time, he just was like, “You know what, this is crap. I’m not smoking anymore. It costs too much and I could be spending that money on hunting stuff.” (yaaaay, more hunting stuff… cough.) And he talked to his doctor and she put him on some antidepressants because apparently that can help you get through the first bit of quitting. He went on them for a week, and a few days ago he casually mentioned he hadn’t had a smoke all day. The next day he only mentioned them once, and that was regarding his migraine and pondering if a smoke would help, and I suggested it probably would not. The next day he didn’t bring them up at all, and then that night I asked him if he’d thought about it at all that day and he was like, “No, not until now. Thanks.” Oops, my bad. Anyways, this is super awesome! I hope I’m not jumping the gun here but I really feel like he’s quit this time. Normally by hour three he’s crabbing around that he needs a smoke (never mind he goes longer than three hours without smoking normally, it’s just *different* when he’s ‘quitting’, lol.)

I am sooooo excited that he’s finally decided on his own initiative, and not from me harping, to quit smoking. And just did it. Poof. I’m thrilled he’s taking this step towards his health. And he’s talking about getting a family gym pass in a few months when I’m healed up enough to start working out. I have NEVER gotten him to work out with me before. Maybe he won’t die in his forties after all! (I have always always had this wierd feeling that Chris would die super young. It used to creep him out but he’s over it.)

Oh and if anyone is curious, the Giant Grey Squirrel hasn’t tried to break in again. I have seen him loitering around the front of our house a little more than usual though. Maybe he thinks our floofy little dog is a girl-squirrel.

I know, I said she wasn’t ours, but she is now. 

Baby V ultrasound excerpt

Here is a little excerpt of my u/s in 2D and 3D both, featuring a yawn and lots of fist-gnawing. This was such a neat experience, words cannot express. It was also really cool watching my 3 yr old explain to grandma and grandpa how baby likes to hide behind arms and fists and that baby is disgusting because baby licks baby’s hand. (haha. Little hypocrite, that one.)

I have a guest post scheduled for tomorrow and then hopefully I’ll be back to life! Camping last week was fun, coming down with a monster toothache was not fun. Neither was speeding to the dentist monday morning when I was back, fully prepared to bawl my eyes out at any cop who dared try pull me over (ok, i speed by like 3-5 km/h. odds are against getting pulled over, granted.) to find out I need to see a specialist / oral surgeon. PREGGOS DO NOT GET T3s, kids. Preggos get tylenol and Orajel and sympathetic looks. But google helped me find some homeopathic remedies and guess what works best for me? Warm salt water rinses. Oh. Huh. Okay! I should have thought of that one myself. It has me back to a functioning level, and one where I’m not using a full tube of Orajel every three days while being on Tylenol as often as is safe. Which is great, because I’m waiting a month for that appointment! Eek! I’ll be halfway to baby by then(compared to now)! Oh well. Take my advice, if you’re thinking of getting pregnant, get your teeth did. And then get them cleaned halfways through. There are a few different factors that make you much much more likely to get a nasty toothache during pregnancy, and you want to get on top of that shit because honey, it is not fun gargling salt and avoiding solid foods. Just saying.

meet Baby V

We went for a 3D ultrasound yesterday! It was very cool. The video looks a lot cooler than the pictures and give you a way clearer idea of what baby will look like. A lot like Nicole, actually! Definitely siblings, lol. Quite a chubby pair of cheeks, for 28 weeks, and a very similar nose and face shape overall. We were going to be paying for a bigger package, but since the tech couldn’t get any good pics because baby was ‘either very shy or very stubborn’ (I’m gonna guess stubborn, if Nicole is any indicator) we got the lowest package price they had. We could have come back to try again for free but Chris and I were both willing to bet we wouldn’t have better luck next time. There were two major problems, one being that baby was snuggled up to the placenta and making things difficult (which could change if we tried again) but the bigger one being that baby constantly had one fist in the mouth and the other arm thrown around the head. Chris and I agreed that since Nicole used to sleep with both arms thrown around her head like that when she was a baby, odds were that this little one would have that same pose next time too. Especially as things are getting too crowded for gymnastics.

Anyways, here is a sneak peak! (minus the gender shots, we’re keeping that under wraps!)

  profile shoteye open, sucking on fist chubby little cheeks!  Considering at 28 weeks babies have very little fat on their little bodies, lol. At this stage baby weighs about 2lbs! So there you have it! If I can edit the video down a bit, unsure right now if I’ll be able to edit the format, I’ll post a clip… waaaay cooler and waaaay cuter.

baby to-diy roundup

So I thought I’d compile a list of the things I’m definitely doing, boy or girl, once I find out the gender and know what fabrics/yarns I’ll work with. After I wipe a bum, hold that thought. Okay, I’m back. What can I say, I live a charmed life. Be jealous. Be extra jealous to know I’m ‘snacking’ on a small bowl of All-Bran right now. prego-consti-whatwhaaaat? Holla back.

*ahem*

Now that all of these tutorials will be totally proud&excited to be linked to from this post… here we go, in no particular order, except the one created alphanumerically by the album I had all these pictures saved in…

Items I’d Like To Make Regardless Of Gender:

Mud Puddles & Daisies Diaper Clutch Tutorial
I could probably get started on this one right away, this is a ‘for mommy’ one so it doesn’t need to have a fabric that works for a girl or boy.Creatively Christy’s carseat canopy tutorial 
This one can wait until next spring, I’ll have a big warm cover on the carseat until then, from birth until spring it will be COLD here! But then it will be very handy for protecting sleepy baby from sunlight and/or pokey fingers.Prudent Baby’s Fitted Crib Sheet tutorial 
I think all my crib sheets will be DIY… super easy and costs about the same as buying a crib sheet. I can have a nice selection of super cute sheets! I’ll be doing a quilt, too, but baby will be just fine with just Woombie and sheets until a bit older. Prudent Baby’s Fitted Pack&Play Sheet Tutorial
How totally intelligent is this?! Anyone else totally grossed out by the bottom of a well-used pack and play? Drool/snot/cookie goo. YUM. Made By The Mama Monster’s Hooter Hider Tutorial
One of many lovely tutorials for this item, simple and such a lifesaver for those who are nursing. You know what annoys me a little? People who are like, “if you don’t like people nursing in public, put a blanket over YOUR head!” Sorry if you’re one of those people and that offends you, but I can think of many things that are beautiful and natural that I wouldn’t do out in the open. Like sex and showering. Sure, your average mom or dad will just look politely around you and your exposed bosum. But honestly, that’s just plain unfair to your average nice young teenage boy. Prudent Baby’s Silky Blankie Tutorial
I’m planning on doing this one with minky on one side. I might start making them in a few colors soonish and make a baby gift supply. I might also fly to the moon. If I ever finish with my house first.
The Fox Hole hooded winter baby sling
This is a gorgeous idea for cold places like here! I’ll probably wait until spring on this one, doubt I’ll spend much time walking outside with baby until then.

Pickles Bring It On Baby Blanket
I am just itch itch ITCHing to start this one. I haven’t knitted in forever, and I like that the pattern is for the stitch pattern, the colors are all up to you, you just have to switch at the beginning of the pattern thingies. I’m super up-to-date on my knitting terms. Like I said, it’s been a while.

I’ll probably do more roundups for ‘in case I have a girl’ and ‘in case I have a boy’, but I’ve consumed enough of my own time right now. I have to go fold some laundry. Yaaaaayyyboo.