2009 In Review

To copy B..

January:

Her speech starts to grow from random words here and there to sentences. Life would never be the same or quiet again.

February:

Still mourning the loss of our wee babe, but started to feel better about TTC again

March:

After a previous summer of hating the swings, Tash re-discovers a love for swinging.
April:

We decided to take the plunge and say 'screw it' if we had a December baby. After 5m of TTC since our loss, I finally saw 2 lines again and told Owen we were getting an early Christmas gift.

May:

We started potty training Tash, which resulted in great success. Which frankly surprised me. It was Owen who decided it was time, I was more hesistant.

June:


Pregancy Hormones were a bit nutso as I had Boudoir Images done by Brandy of Fresh Sugar while 14w pg! Was fun, exciting and I wish I could do it again. hah

July:

Teared up at my 18w u/s and learned we were having another girl. I was very excited that N was going to have a little sister!

August:

Breathed a bit easier when I reached the 'magical' 24w milestone and my cervix was still cooperating.

September:

Tasha becomes fully 'trained' in that she now will poop on the potty. Just in time to have a small break from diapers before her little sister arrives.

October:

Natasha's imagination takes hold and she starts having more interactive play with her Little People and other toys.

November:

34w pregnant and my cervix was still holding up. Big sigh of relief.

December:


Natasha became a Big Sister! I had a very unplanned, unexpected home birth bc her little sister was in such a rush to get here and I was in denial that she was coming into the world so quickly.

Bunny Chronicles

Seven Days Old:


I need to find a spot in the house with better lighting then on the kitchen table in front of the picture window. hah

Wordless Wednesday

Breastfeeding and Formula

After Tash was born, I retained tissue, which screwed with my milk supply. It took about 8d to come in and then when it did, I was not producing much before it dried up.

During this pregnancy, I told Owen and friends that I wanted to *try* breastfeeding. I will honestly say I never was for or against one form of feeding. I felt if it worked out, it worked out, if it did not, then that was fine too. Tash was on formula for the first 10m of her life and she turned out fine, so I have no strong feelings really one way or the other when it comes to how my child receives her nutrients.

So 12 days ago Kate was born. She as not BF immediately bc I gave birth to her at home and the EMS were more concerned with checking vitals, making sure she was warm enough to go outside and getting us both to the hospital. It was probably an hour before I tried to feed her. The first 24hrs we had a great latch, but then between leaving the hospital and getting home it went to crap. I saw the PHN x3 (former midwife) and she helped me out, but my nipples were so sore/bruised that I switched to pumping to give them a break and to heal.

Of course pumping does not help with supply increase as well for some as it does for others. Once I 'healed' I tried a few more times but even with the correct latch BF'n just makes me cringe. I do not enjoy it at all. K flails, her hands get in the way, she won't open her mouth all the time, so getting the correct latch means taking her off and on several times. Little Miss would prefer to just chomp down. I followed the tips of the PHN, nipple to nose, wait for her mouth to open wide but the little "brat" will stare at my nipple or hours and then as soon as I move her head or my boob *chomp*. gah!

So, because I was not feeling invested one way or the other, or have strong feelings one way or the other, it was perhaps not hard for me to feed her Formula, like I said Tash did just fine. However, I am not quite ready to give up yet and have been pumping every 3hrs for the last 12 days. I'm not sure how long I'll keep it up, I get about 1 bottle a day (5oz) so she gets 1 bottle a day of BM, which for me is better then none at all.

Dr. F gave me a prescription for Motillium, but it's not working wonders. When we saw him again this week he told me to up from 4 a day to 6. He was also super nice about it all. Saying some women get an excess of supply while other women never get that much. On the same note, some women just can't pump enough milk, but breastfeed fine. There are other things out there to help increase supply, but like I said, I'm not sure how far I want to go.

Anyway, the key thing is a)Kate is happy and nourished (she is now over her birth weight 8lbs 3.5oz!) and I'm happy. And that is all that matters. I'm okay with my decision and so is Owen.

I promise I'll post some more photos soon. I was going to upload some today but a pint size 3 yr old is on my pc today playing "music" so it will have to wait until she's in bed.

So I can Find it later when it's Important

Birth - Thursday December 17th - 8lbs .5oz
Sunday, December 20th - 7lbs 5oz (4 days old)
Wednesday, December 23rd - 7lbs 13oz (7 days old)
Monday, December 28th - 8lbs 3oz (12 days old)

Kate Noelle's Birth Story

I'll start out by saying, I never expected a labour like I had with Kate. When Dr. Eckwalanga heard about my labour/delivery with Natasha, she said it was fairly fast for a 'first timer' and I may have a low threshold. Dr. Spence who delivered Tash told me I had a fast delivery and for the next pregnancy I should camp out in the parking lot. Even Owen suggested I may have a fast delivery. Me? I laughed them all off and said I doubted I'd have a fast labour. So now I get to eat those words.

On Dec. 16th (my due date) I stayed up until 1am chatting with a friend. My famous last words to her at 1am when I said I better go to bed were "Watch me go into labour tonight on like 2hrs sleep" hah

3am I woke up to a contraction. I poked Owen and said "Mmm I think I had a contraction" to which he said "Was it?" and while I thought about it for a bit longer, he went back to sleep and I tried to do the same. I figured this would be like my labour with Tash, I'd have one contraction every hour for the next several hours before anything 'serious' started to happen. How wrong I was.

I had 3 contractions between 3 and 3.30am before I had to get out of bed because I could not lay there. I was still in denial though and while tracking my contractions on my Touch (contraction ap) I rocked in the glider in our room breathing in and out. My contractions 'quickly' went from 12m apart to 10 to 5-6m apart, all the while letting Owen continue to sleep, blissfully unaware. I just felt I had more 'time' and later thought the app was wrong, and my contractions could not be that close together.

At one point I got up and made some toast, had something to drink and organized my labour bag and overnight bag. It was at around 7.30am I decided perhaps I should wake up Owen. He got up, saw how close my contractions were together and decided he better call our friend B to come watch Tash.

While we waited for her, my contractions continued to get closer together. I was having a bit more trouble breathing through them and getting annoyed that Owen kept leaving me alone between them. He later told me he was checking the clock on the stove and getting a bit nervous as they were one to two minutes apart.

I'm not sure on the exact time, but before B arrived I started feeling the urg to push. After about the 3rd contraction of having this 'feeling' I told Owen "Would it scare you if I said I want to push?" and then said "I think you need to call 911, I don't think we will make it to the hospital". At that point I knew there was no way I could sit down in the truck for 15-20m with how close my contractions were.

Owen called 911, explained the situation, and while he was on the phone with them B showed up. At this point my hands/arms were starting to feel numb and tingly. I think this was a result of trying to control my breathing through the contractions and being unsuccessful.

After B brought Em in and went back to her car I went to the bathroom to pee. The 911 operator asked O if my water had broken and within seconds of her asking, it did when I went to get off the flush. At that point I got off the flush and knew I could no longer not push. I raced upstairs to our bedroom and as I was laying there, EMS showed up and the Paramedics walked into our bedroom just as K was crowning. Also at this point, the Fire Department showed up as well. hah Both of who told Owen they were super happy that EMS beat them here.

Within 30 secs of the paramedics showing up, Kate Noelle was born at 8.42am. :0) I believe it was 2 or 3 pushes. A huge difference from N's birth, which was 46m of pushing!

After they checked K out and made sure she was ok, I was put on the stretcher and we went to the hospital. Now, I may have laboured and delivered K without meds, however I'm the biggest baby otherwise. I was in a huge amount of pain on the way to PLC because I had not delivered my placenta, so my uterus was contracting like crazy and I would almost say it was more painful then labour. Seriously.

We made it to the hospital in about 20m where I was taken to a Labour & Delivery suite. I delivered the placenta, asked to look at it and then had 2 doctors and 3 nurses check it out. The doctor pushed on my uterus, which hurt like a mo fo and then unfortunately, I had to get stitched up. :0( I tore exactly how I did with Tash. I don't think there was anyway to avoid it given K's delivery. Maybe if I'd had a midwife who was massaging as she crowned/came out, but that was not an option.

Finally the stitching, poking, prodding, uterus pressing was over and I was taken to my room where I was only harassed about peeing. :p I do not remember them being so obsessed with it last time. Last time after I delivered Tash, they were asking me every 5m it seemed if I had pooped yet. hah

It's been almost 10 days and looking back on her birth I'm having trouble believing how my labour went. It's seems surreal. I know it definitely happened, it just seems unbelievable that she came as fast as she did and I was in such denial as to how close my contractions were. Everyone keeps saying "for the next one.." hah

Sneak Peek

The Fabulous Ms Brandy of Fresh Sugar was here on Wednesday for our 4th session together. She won't be editing my session for a few days (silly holidays! :p) but she teased me with a sneak peek yesterday;

Luckily the little miss did not pee on B's new wool blanket. B has not found out how to wash it yet, so pee or poop might have been a problem. And since K had not pooped in 3 days at that point, she was a ticking time bomb. haha Needless to say she got her captures on the blanket and we got K off. She did not leave with all her blankets clean though, K did pee on one of them.

The whole session went really well. I was super worried that K was not going to sleep at all. She woke around 10.30am (B was coming by at 11:30)and where normally she'd just fall back to sleep after a feed, of course that morning she did not. "Luckily" due to a mis-communication between B's Husband and the babysitter, she was about 20m late arriving and K fell asleep about 5m before she got here. She was so cooperative that after only 30m B said she had a complete session. :D She stayed for 2hrs though getting more pics. I can't wait to see the rest of the photos from the session!

Kate Noelle

20.8", 8lbs .5oz, Miss Kate came rushing into the world at 8.42am on Thursday December 17th.

The adrenline rush of having a wee babe at home again as been replaced with fatigue. Also, now that I'm home and have had time to think about the events of that morning and I can't believe how things went. Seriously, just insane.

At some point in the next few days or weeks (ha!) I need to merge the two blogs, which is going to be a pain to re-add everyone but I'll deal. I'll also write up a more complete birth story.

Almost there...

I had what I hope is my last doctor appointment this morning. Everything checked out fine minus the fact that I went from measuring 39w last week to measuring 36/37w today. The Doctor shadowing Dr. E was concerned, but then after she and Dr. E got feeling around they just concluded that her head is down really low. It would probably explain why I've been 'crampy' over the last few days.

She offered me a Stretch & Sweep but I turned it down again. If I have to go in on Monday again I'll let her do one then. She booked an induction for the 24th but I do not plan to need it. And if that day creeps up on me, I'll be discussing things with Dr. E about putting it off a bit longer. I'd rather be the full 2w overdue before any intervention happens. Induction is not something I want and will do what I can to avoid it happening.

I do not want to commit to anything, but I think little miss will make an arrival by the weekend. I still have Dec. 18th stuck in my head for some reason....

The Fabulous Brandy

Brandy of Fresh Sugar Photography met up with me about a month ago for our 3rd and almost last session for this yr. I say that and I feel so vain, but really I'm not having my photos done every quarter. :p Each time has been for an event of sort - boudoir, family, prenatal and we still have one left, the most exciting one Newborn is soon, if little miss decides to make an appearance anytime soon.

Anywho, a few of my faves from the session. I'm sitting here today trying to decide on what print size to get. I'm thinking 11x14 and then 2 photos on either side 8x10. 2 of Tasha when she was newborn and then 9m/1yr and then the other side would be the same of this wee babe. I need to measure the wall in the living room (planning for it above the chair to see if that works. If it's too small for the space, then I need to bump it up. I just lack the brain power today to figure it out.

The first two are the ones I want prints of. The first one for an arrangement leading up the stairs, the 2nd one for in the living room. Oh and I have to say I'm so happy I wore this dress, loved all the pictures pretty much of me wearing it.

Company Christmas Party

This year, because the party was not at Lake Louise, the kid's party was on a different day, so for the first time in 4 yrs (N was 2w old at the first party!) we were able to attend the Christmas party with Tash instead of the hotel sitter.

It was held at a Golf Club in the South and there were crafts, sleigh rides (too cold for us!), cupcake/cookie decorating and of course a visit from Santa and presents.

The meeting of Santa did not go as well as it did at the mall unfortunately. As soon as Santa walked in and sat in his chair Tash freaked out and started crying. She then spent the next 30-40m snuggled into my lap scared? When it was her turn to see Santa Owen took her up and she started screaming for me, so I went over as well. She calmed down when Santa gave her a give, but there was no way I was putting my child on his lap for a photo, free or not.

The somewhat funny part of the whole thing, was later when we asked what she thought of Santa, she said "He has presents!" in this sort of hushed voice. hah

No picture with Santa, but my little girl is finally starting to let me take her photo, so I did manage to get a few of her in front of the HUGE tree they had there. I could not get her in the right spot to avoid the blow out of lighting on the side of her face, but meh, this is me taking Brandy's advice and not trying to be such a perfectionist with memory 'snapshots' of my little girl. :0)

She Can't possibly be my Child.

I'll say it, I hate the cold, the snow, the ice. If I had the choice I'd not leave the house from November until May/June when it was warm again. If I had the money I'd move somewhere that let was nice year round.

Sooo when Owen went outside this morning to shovel the walkway and around the truck after the 'blizzard', she declared she wanted to go out too. Umm are you kidding me?? So I humoured her, put on her GAP Warmest snowpants, jacket, hat, mitts and boots and stood in the entryway watching her for a good 10m waiting for her to start to cry that it was too cold. :P Umm yeah she didn't. She stayed out there for the whole hour it took Owen to shovel the snow.

She was still super warm when I took off the snow gear, minus her hands, which getting a bit chilly.

I took all these photos inside the house or standing in the front door, no way I was going out there in the cold. :p

All suited up for the outside

Smile sweetie. haha

No more photos mommy, that's enough!

I make a snowball daddy!

What? We are not going in the Truck??

Ooo what's this??

Snow throwing

38 weeks

I had a nice reprieve last week by not having to go (she was soo over-booked it was ridiculous) but was back in again today. All is well. I'm holding at 63kg, I'm measuring 'exactly' for 38w, her heart rate was 140bpm, a bit lower then normal.

Anywho, I was in and out in an hour, which was great. I don't think I've ever seen the waiting room so empty. She wants to check my cervix at next weeks appointment and offered to do a stretch and sweep but I declined. And come next week I may say no to the cervix check. Telling me I'm 1-2cm dilated or not at all does not matter much to me, since I could be 2cm right now and may very well have been for a while now.

I'm excited to meet her, not really impatient though to go in to labour, I still have 2w min. left to enjoy being a mom of 1.