What? I gave birth to a one year old?

Not quite. But I do have a one year old baby now! I wish I made more of an effort to blog along the way. Let's see if I can recall some highlights...

Of course I can! Tons of them! If you only have a few minutes, I recommend scrolling down to the bottom of this post and taking a look at the last video montage. If you've got time on your hands, or if you are at work and should be doing something else like playing Lexulous, then sit back, relax, and enjoy the whole thing :)

Saturday April 26, 2008
*Gross Birth Details Alert*
Induction 8am. Some backaches and a little cramping throughout the day. 8:15pm water broke in bed at home. Towel I was laying on saved the bed, thank goodness. Much more water came out at the hospital, seemed impossible that all of it was inside of me all that time. Meconium in the water so baby's heart rate was closely monitored through labour. Labour wasn't pretty, involved vomit and tears as well as much more pain than I'd hoped, ended up with the epidural. Only worked on one side, strange to feel the sensations of labour on only one side of my body. Would still totally get an epidural again.

Sunday April 27, 2008
*More Birth Details Alert*
After midnight baby's heart rate dropped. Doctor decided on c-section. Everyone jumped into action very quickly. Spinal anaesthetic worked great, didn't feel a thing. Worked too great, lasted much longer than normal, my legs were dead weight for hours. Took three doctors and a lot of pulling and pushing for Lillian Dawn to arrive at 1am. Ray and I were dumbfounded and have the photos to prove it.



Lillian took to nursing easily, glad one of us knew what to do. Grandparents Howard and Sally and Uncle Loren got to meet her on day one.



Since I was recovering from the surgery, Lillian stayed in the nursery this first night so I could sleep, though they did bring her to me to nurse a time or two.

April 28-29, 2008
During the rest of our hospital stay, Lillian got to meet Uncle Ian, Auntie Lori, cousins Allie, Eric, and Emily, and good friend Robyn. The cousins brought gifts for Lillian that they had picked out themselves, and Lori said they looked pretty cute marching through the hospital, each carrying identical pink gift bags for the brand new baby girl. We took photos of everyone visiting with Lillian in the hospital... well, ok, almost everyone - sorry Uncle Ian!




Wednesday April 30, 2008
*Use of the word "nipples" Alert*
After what felt like a long stay, we were able to head home from the hospital. My milk hadn't come in yet, so Lillian was trying to feed constantly since she wasn't getting a full tummy. That made for a bit of a cranky baby and some pretty sore nipples! But I knew those things could happen so I was hanging in there so far. Finally on Wednesday evening my milk arrived and boy did Lillian glug it down. What a relief for both of us!

Friday May 2, 2008
Sally, Howard, and Loren headed home to Oregon, so it was just the three of us on our own. Yikes! Much as we loved having our family visiting, it was nice to have our little one to ourselves for a while. We found our groove pretty quickly and just tried to enjoy every minute of it, even those minutes in the wee hours of the night! We were so smitten with our girl.

Sunday May 11, 2008
First Mother's Day! What a special day. I was really upset with myself though, because I hadn't managed to send cards off to our Moms. I had had high hopes of finding time to make cards while Lillian slept, but the days just seemed to fly by with me barely finding time to shower and cook a meal or two let alone haul out the crafting supplies! Of course our Moms were very understanding :) Ray cooked one of my favourites for dinner - caesar salad with teryaki prawns and chicken. Mmmmmmmm.

Auntie Kelly arrived for a visit. She was so excited to see Lillian, and reminded us that we needed to start giving Lillian some "tummy time" playing on the floor so she could strengthen her muscles. Again, terrible with photos - can't find one of Lillian and Kelly during this visit!

Monday May 12, 2008
My first venture out of the house without Lillian! Kelly and I went shopping for some much-needed nursing bras (for me, not Kelly), and it wasn't long before Ray called to report that Lillian spat up her last meal all over him. Perfect! We sped up a bit to get home and feed the hungry girl again. Should have known that first time away from Lillian wouldn't go smoothly!

Saturday May 17, 2008
Auntie Karen, cousins Trent and Brianne, and Oma came to visit. Uncle Ian, Auntie Lori, and cousins Allie, Eric, and Emily met up with us too, and we brought a picnic dinner to Gyro Beach. Everyone clamoured for their turn holding Lillian while the other kids played the evening away in the park. It was a great night - our out-of-towners got to see some of the best and not quite so great of Kelowna: We saw a young girl voluntarily collecting garbage and moving it to the trash bins, and we saw one man let his way too old daughter pee in the sandy play area! Ew! Oma headed to Vernon with the Landy's for a couple of days while Auntie Karen, Trent, and Brianne stayed with us, continuing the clamouring for turns holding Lillian. We had a great visit with everyone.



(Tip: When you hide from the camera, any single shot will be kept and posted for all to see, like it or not!)

Saturday May 24, 2008
Oma arrived back from Vernon a few nights ago to stay with us, and Karen, Trent, and Brianne headed back home. Grandpa John joined up with us too - the last piece of the puzzle for my side of the immediate family to meet Lillian. A very busy few weeks with so many visitors, but we were on top of the world getting to show off our baby girl. Yet again it seems I was bad with photos - I snapped one with Grandpa John, and I know I got video with Oma, but I can't find a photo with Oma anywhere! Terrible!



*Flash Forward to April 2009*

Along the way there was so much more I could have blogged about. Let's see, what else to share...

We had a dilemma about the whole "Back to Sleep" thing. Lillian was not a good sleeper to start, but we soon found out she slept great if she was on her tummy - which is not the current recommendation by the experts. Eventually the need for sleep won out, and I compromised for a short time by letting Lillian sleep on her tummy next to me in our bed. Never thought I'd be a co-sleeper, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to survive! I did not want to get hooked on that either, so after a while we decided to let her sleep on her own, on her tummy. Thankfully the experts aren't always right - of course Lillian never had any problems and ended up being a pretty decent sleeper despite us bucking the experts' advice.

Lillian's first tooth came in at around 4 months. She was fussy and fevery and generally just not herself one day - and voila! The next day, tooth number 1 had sprouted! Since then I have geeked out and recorded every date a new tooth has come in: August 29 at 4 months, September 12 at 4.5 months, November 13 and 15 at 6.5 months, February 16 at 9.5 months, March 1 at 10 months, on March 22 two teeth came in at just about 11 months, and the first molar snuck in around April 25 - just shy of Lillian's first birthday. That's nine teeth to date for those of you keeping track :)

It seems like our little girl went from baby to toddler in no time flat. Her mobility has been progressing right along, and I know she's going to take off walking on her own any time now. Lillian started off trying to crawl and rocked in the crawling position early in November at about 6 months. Shortly after that she started to pull herself up to stand against furniture and her exersaucer, then in her crib after naptime - which scared me into thinking she was going to skip crawling and go straight to walking! Yikes! Fortunately that didn't happen: she had success crawling on December 7 at 7 months.



In the New Year at 8 months Lillian took off walking holding two adult hands. Today she's still motoring along that way, and hits the brakes if we try to get her going with just one hand. No tricking that girl into anything she isn't ready for! On March 24 I finally found a great secondhand push toy (a Hungry Hungry Hippo no less) and it didn't take Lillian long to figure out how to walk with it - she caught on so fast I wonder how much earlier she would have hit that milestone had she had that toy sooner. In any case she loves that toy - if only she was strong enough to steer it! One of us has to trail around behind her to redirect her when she bumps into things. She's so tickled doing it, it's hard not to love it too!



Some of Lillian's other neat tricks are holding her arms up for touchdowns, showing off her hair and ears, and matching Gramma scream for scream in a very loud version of the shadow game.



She figured out how to climb into a regular rocking chair (not her baby one - an adult size one) on her own just a few weeks ago. She associates her receiving blankets with nursing so now has a habit of bringing one to me, wildly nodding her head, and pulling at my shirt. I found that trick pretty adorable at first - until she started doing it constantly, regardless of whether she had a full tummy right after a meal. She brought it back to being cute when she started trying the trick on other people. Sorry hun, everyone else in this household is dry :)

Well, that about catches us up! Ok, not really. It only scratches the surface. I left out the whole bit about moving to Oregon... but I guess that was more about us and less about Lillian. And then of course there was her first Christmas, which she didn't really understand, and the big visit to Ladner, which was awesome, and Easter, and, and, and!!!

Anyhoo... hopefully I will keep up this blog better now - if not, see you in a year! Until whenever next time is, enjoy one last video :) (Tip: It's better with speakers on!)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Still pregnant!

Had another non-stress test and exam with my doctor yesterday. Baby still seems to want to stay put for a while longer, and there are no signs of any problems with either of us, so that's what we're going to let it do - for now. We also put together a plan to induce that we will follow through on if nothing happens soon. First another non-stress test on Friday, then another on Saturday followed by the first of the actual induction steps. We'll be back and forth to the hospital to be checked and for more help moving things along on Saturday and Sunday, with a goal of delivering on Sunday.

(It occurred to me that Sunday is the 27th, which would be exactly five months to the day from my birthday. Perhaps Ray could remember our dates that way. It also occurred to me that the 27th is really not too far off from May 1, so if we changed our plans to induce a bit we could possibly please Karen by having a May baby. Finally two last things occurred to me: I am way too obsessed with dates (for example, license plate insurance dates - if you don't know, don't ask), and there is no way in hell I'm holding this baby in longer to please Karen. Sorry sis.)

I like having a plan. Much as I am aware that the plans could crumble if the baby so chooses, I like that we have a plan to look forward to if nothing happens in the next couple of days. And when the doctor and Ray and I were putting this plan together, I must say I very much liked that we might be able to plan it so that all of the hospital stuff happens over Ray's weekend (if all goes well I'd deliver on Sunday and we'd go home on Monday). Of course if things happened mid-week and Robyn was around, I know we'd get it sorted out and everything would be fine. But being able to have a hand in deciding the dates to avoid the need to sort that out is a nice perk.

I slept miraculously well last night. Maybe it's because we have a plan, so I was more relaxed. Or maybe it's because I'm about to go into labour any minute now and my body knew I would need full strength today. Honestly I don't care why, I'm just very pleased that it happened. I even remembered snippets of dreams, which I haven't done in a long while, so I must have been sleeping quite deeply. Only got up once to pee, too! I told you, it was miraculous.

Ray has noted that "His" ticker on this blog isn't quite right. If we're overdue, the ball should definitely be in the end zone, right? And really, since he started this whole thing off by "scoring," the ball should have started off in the opposite end zone as well. Hardy har har.

Have you tried the new Oreo Cakesters yet? Mmmmm.

Winter Wonderland?

What a strange day! We had a power outage at about 5:30am for around an hour and a half and I didn't hear anything by way of an explanation. When Ray got up he opened the windows to show me what had happened over night - snow! Not just a little snow, but a fair bit that actually stuck. Crazy! Last Saturday Ray spent most of the day outside and came back sunburned, this Saturday we have snow??? What is Mother Nature up to exactly? The snow didn't let up for hours. I took a few pictures around 11:30 this morning to prove it to you. Then a little less than three hours later I couldn't believe how much it had changed outside, so I took more pictures for you. Suddenly we had partly blue skies and most of the snow had melted away. Here are a couple of the pics, if you want you can see the rest here.



While the camera was out, Ray took a couple of photos of my pregnant belly. Yep, still pregnant. I can't believe how much bigger I look with the bare belly compared to the clothed belly! (Well, ok, they are zoomed differently but you get the picture. Ha! The picture!) Hopefully the next photos you see here will be of the baby instead of the belly.





I went to the hospital for a non-stress test today. Everything still checks out fine, just looks like things are moving slowly. Nothing much more to report. Unless anything changes, next up will be another non-stress test and appointment with the doc on Tuesday morning. Our friends who were due just three days before us delivered a healthy baby girl yesterday. Our turn next!

P.S. Yes, I did go back to that store today. Stocked up on cheap chocolate for under three dollars. Oh yeah.

D-Day

So. Today is April 18 - what I've been referring to as D-Day, as in Due Day. But baby's still enjoying it's time on the inside so looks like we'll have another D-Day - Delivery Day - some time soon.

Never buy a pool noodle for your kids. My two kids have gone nuts for one, and it's been driving me nuts! Allow me to start from the beginning. Our prenatal class instructor showed us how a cut-off section of a pool noodle can be a great back massager during labour because it feels great for Mom but doesn't take a lot of effort for Dad. So we bought one and cut off a section to pack with the hospital bag. The rest of it has been hanging around the house for a few days now. My eldest child, Ray, has decided it's a great toy and just loves to twist and bend it, talk into one end of it, make dirty jokes with it, use it like a telescope, etc. He's also figured out that you can hit someone pretty hard with it without it really hurting. So he's taken to hitting my other kid, Robyn, with it. Robyn has decided this is a really great game as well. The two of them have put a fair amount of time into the activity of slapping each other silly with a pool noodle, and I'm the Mom telling them to make sure they don't break anything, asking them to cool it when the noise gets to me, and of course being the first one to actually get hurt with the darn thing when Ray managed to hit me square in the glasses, pushing them into my face. Is this supposed to be parental training? If so, I'd like to opt out of the course. I've been getting ready for one infant, not two rough and tumble school aged boys in adult men's bodies.

Yesterday I found some Easter chocolate on sale for 75% off. Oh my goodness. Decent stuff too, even some Lindt brand. And some Russell Stover cream eggs (same idea and size as the common Cadbury ones, but with different fillings) for only 17 cents each! Holy smokes. Just what I needed! I spent a fair amount of time in the store aisle looking at all of the options, wanting to scoop them all into my basket but trying to give careful, logical consideration to my choices so I didn't load up too much.

I think I'll go back to that store tomorrow.

Doctor's update

Just back from the doctor's office, and basically the big news is... nothing. I'm a whopping one centimetre dilated which means pretty much nothing, and the baby is still sitting pretty high and not looking like it's ready for any action. Doc says it looks like we'll be fairly overdue. Assuming nothing changes, I'll go in for the non-stress test at the hospital on Saturday, then check in again with the doctor on Tuesday. If there's still nothing happening by Friday April 25 then we'll be talking inducement. So far I haven't felt anything I would call a contraction. I've had some moments of discomfort, and after I eat I'm often uncomfortable which I imagine is just because of lack of space. Today I've been feeling pretty nauseous so that's fun. Blah.

I'm still stuck between wanting to get the show on the road already and being completely freaked out in anticipation of the pain. Will keep you posted.

PS - Happy Birthday Trent!

Home stretch

Dang, these blogs are getting to be frequent. I must have a lot on my mind. Wonder why that is?

Oh yeah!


Only four sleeps until the due date. Sometimes I think I'm as ready as I'm going to be, so bring it on. Other times I think holy %&*# I can't believe I'm within days of this baby's arrival! No more countdown in months or even weeks. I'm talking in days (or sleeps) now. Soon I might be talking in days or sleeps overdue. Overdue! I can tell people I'm nine months pregnant. Decisions and tasks that I've been putting off until closer to the birth-day can't be delayed any longer. But I'm so good at procrastinating!

I've been working on what to pack in the hospital bag. I'm finding it much more difficult than I expected. Of course there's that bit of anxiety of forgetting something crucial, but then I remind myself that we live like 4 blocks from the
hospital and stores are close by, so it's not like Ray can't dash out for any forgotten items. Beyond that, I don't know how to actually get the bag ready when so much of what will go into it is still being used regularly. On the one hand I want the bag ready so we can grab it and dash out the door when the time comes, but on the other hand I'm still using the clothes and toiletries and whatnot that I would pack. I don't know what to pack for the baby, because I have a hard time picking a "coming home" outfit since I have no concept for how big the baby will be versus how big all these clothes are. How do you know if it will fit? Hey Moms, any tips?

We had a visit with the Landy's on Sunday, and that darn Lori went and gave me a box of girl guide cookies. Guess how long they lasted? Damn I just have absolutely no willpower with those things. (By the way, I was asked whether girl guide cookies are the same as girl scout cookies in the states - yes and no! Very similar organization, but in Canada they only sell two types that I know of - chocolate mint, and combo boxes of vanilla and chocolate cookies (oreo style). I hear in the States they have a zillion different kinds - I think I would be overwhelmed!)

Ray and I went out on a date last night. :) We had a gift certificate to a place we would not normally go to, and figured this was good timing - get in one last date night just the two of us. It was a steak and seafood place and boy was it tasty! Oh my goodness it was soooo tasty. I ate way too much of course and was uncomfortable for the rest of the night, but the meal was so worth it. Oh and the music was fabulous - I don't think they played a single song I didn't love, and it was pretty eclectic. I would totally go back, except that it was also soooooo expensive. It was a great treat but I can't imagine spending that again! Cost aside, it was a wonderful evening: just us, no distractions, beautiful weather for the walk afterwards. Perfection :)

Blah blah blah

Yesterday was probably the most productive day since I was told to stay off my feet, which means I didn't exactly follow doctor's orders, but actually my feet weren't so bad. Finished off the nursery, finished the last steps of putting the baby swing together (Ray did the nuts and bolts but left the cushion and mobile stuff to me), did some laundry including the last of the baby laundry (Ha! The last of the baby laundry! Did I just say that? It was the last of the pre-washing anyway.), did some general clean up, and started cooking in bigger batches so we can freeze more leftovers for those first few days after we bring baby home. (Side note - I doubled up on a casserole that I make infrequently because although it is sooooo good it is also sooooooooooooo fatty. So if you're in the mood for a disgustingly oily but yummy dish, let me know and I'll pass on the easy recipe.) So, things around here are certainly coming along. The last big task that I'd like to get done before baby & guests arrive, that probably won't get completed to my (or Ray's) satisfaction, is to clean up/organize/hide my craft stuff. It's taken over the dining room and I'm baffled as to how I can keep it handy enough that I will use it (don't want it to be out of sight and out of mind), but without having it on display in the current ugly mismatched rubbermaids and cardboard boxes, but keeping it portable enough for me to take it to crop days and retreats, and finally while keeping the dining room an actual dining room. So far the only solution I have come up with is slightly less than viable: move to a home with at least 3 bedrooms and have a craft room that is mine all mine.

There were quite a few sets of brackets in that run-on paragraph. (I'd count, but I'm too lazy.)

On an entirely different note, I'd like to tell you a story about my husband. I'm sure he'd tell it differently, but here is how I see it.

Scrabulous (an online version of Scrabble) has become part of the daily lives of Ray and I. Early on Ray introduced me to a website that helps you find words within your seven letters. He admits to using it when he plays against strangers, but we agreed we would never use it when we play against each other. Recently he beat me quite badly, with his score being well over 400 points - quite impressive, and slightly suspicious, but he vehemently denies cheating in this game with quite a bit of indignance, so I believe him. Today I suggested we play a game with both of us using that website he had shown me to help us, just to see how much of a difference it would make in our strategies and scores. It was neck and neck for a good while, but then Ray pulled ahead in and in the end beat me. As the game was coming to a close, he admitted to me that he cheated - his word, not mine. He had not been using the website we had agreed to, he was using a different website to cheat, one that not only unscrambles your letters into possible words, but also tells you the ideal place to put the word on the board based on all of the previous moves. It actually keeps a running mirror of our actual game board on the site, he just plugged in the letters he had each turn it and the program dictated exactly what the optimal move was each turn. In effect, he actually didn't play the game at all, the website did. When Ray confessed this to me, he was quite pleased with himself, and did not at all understand why I was angry. Well, that would be because he CHEATED. We flat out agreed to each use the one website for help, and he flat out cheated by using a different website unbeknownst to me. By the end of that discussion, he was backtracking and saying it wasn't really cheating since the whole game was a cheat with both of us using outside help. I maintain it was cheating because we agreed to one set of terms and he went ahead and played by different terms altogether. Bingo word of the day: CHEATER. Minimum 62 points.

I told Ray I was going to blog about this to expose him for the cheater that he is. He requested that I reiterate the point that he does not use those websites in regular game play - he doesn't want this blog to alienate his regular opponents since he enjoys playing the game so much. Karen et al, I'll leave that up to you.

Ray does earn a fair amount of brownie points though. He didn't say a word about me polishing off more than my share of those Girl Guide cookies or the ice cream before that. He brought home some chips I'd mentioned I'd been craving but hadn't actually asked for. He brought me flowers for no particular reason. Right now he is baking chocolate muffins, and a few minutes ago he even brought me a sampling of the batter. All of this and more just in the past week. He's a keeper I think. Love you, hun :)