Ramblings of a Stay-at-Home Mom

So we reach the end of Christmas 2011 and this year was a bit hectic.We had 4 gatherings in 3 days, never-mind with a 2-month-old baby to bring along. Oh well, it was worth it. Christmas Eve saw us at my parents place for supper. We ended up beating everyone else there and while V slept for her nap, I snuck outside to go get my first ride on Dollar since April! I was so pumped!! Afterwards (once everyone else arrived), we sat down for supper and opening up presents. I got a shopping trip with my Mom, a gift certificate for a paint store from my Dad and from my Secret Santa (aka: Brett, my brother-in-law), I got an awesome sweater and socks! Keith ended up getting a gift card for Cabela's from my parents and Killer Bunnies from his Secret Santa (aka: Sam, my sister). V got clothes from everyone, a big stuffed puppy from Uncle Chris, and a stuffed cow from Aunt Sam. And my niece and nephew loved the toys that we got them. Madison was in love with the My Little Ponies that we got her

So we decided to brave the city today. Keith wanted to pick up War Hammer 40 K and he said that there was something else that he wanted to pick up as well, but he wasn’t telling me what. Grr… We picked up Nathan around noon and then headed to the city. Keith said that he had to stop by Best Buy and see if they had something, and if they didn’t, then he had to go to Future Shop. So we stopped by Best Buy and told me to stay in the DS games aisle so that I wouldn’t be snooping. Well, while he was looking for whatever it was, I went and quickly bought him a $20 PlayStation Network card so that he can buy games on the PS3. He found me and said that he didn’t find it here, so he needed to go over to Future Shop to see if they had it there. I told him that I’d bring the car over there as we were talking about going to Mongo’s for lunch. Moving the car was an adventure in of itself. Sheesh. The parking lot was crazy and the intersection was crazy as well. Even going behind the buildings was

HAPPY 2 MONTHS BABY GIRL!!! At 2 months old, you weigh 11.1 lbs, are 22 inches long and have a head circumference of 39.3 cm. You’re getting so big already.  You’re starting to develop your own personality and even smiling at us. You love playing with Mommy and Daddy (especially Daddy) and being held by your Grandmas.   You’re getting really strong on your tummy and holding your head up pretty good, although we are not a big fan of tummy time and like to scream at Mom if you’re on your tummy for too long. You’re still sleeping really good at night and usually only get Mommy up about once a night for feeding.  You did go through a really bad growth spurt at the beginning of the month (about 3 days long) and you were not a happy camper at all. All you wanted to do was eat, sleep and snuggle with either Mommy or Daddy. Once you got past that, you were back to your regular happy-go-lucky self. 

HAPPY 1 MONTH SWEET BABY GIRL!!! At 1 month old, you weigh 8.4 lbs, are around 21-22 inches in length and have a head circumference of 37 cm.  You’re sleeping pretty good right now and even slept 10 hours through the night! Mommy was very impressed by that. You've gotten the breast-feeding down pat and have a big appetite, just like Daddy.   We've taken you to Winnipeg a couple times already and you do so good. Daddy puts you in the Snugli and you fall asleep while Daddy carries you around. You also like going to see your Grandmas and Grandpas and falling asleep on them.  You’re a very happy baby overall.  

Well, another busy day today. Woke up a couple times during the night to feed V and then me and Keith got our butts out of bed around 10 as we have a photo shoot with Mike and Lisa to do our newborn and family photo shoot at noon. While we were getting ready, Keith had the bright idea to see if the guys wanted to get together and head to the city to do some bumming around and go to Boston Pizza for supper. So he texted the guys and Josh, Dan, Cheryl and their kids said that they would join us. Once we were done getting ready, we headed over to Studios on Main to do our photo shoot. And again, it was fun! Violet co-operated throughout the entire thing and we got some great shots. A HUGE THANK-YOU to Mike Rogal Photography. When we were done with the photos, we headed home so that I could feed Violet and get ready to head to the city with some friends for some bumming around and go to Boston Pizza for supper. When we got home, Keith had to switch a blinker light on the car, and I told hi

Well, last night was pretty good. It seems that since my supply has come in, we’ve been having no issues with feeding and have been getting some decent amount of rest now. Woot! And also a bonus part to this is that the nurse came in this morning and asked if we wanted to go home today or tomorrow. I opted for today as I really want to go back home and sleep in my own bed and not be bothered by nurses all the time. So then she gave us a bunch of paperwork that needed to be filled out because V was born and then we slowly started packing everything up. It also seems that I may have brought along too much stuff to the hospital with me. Ooops. All I was doing was following the hospital bag instructions. Oh well, I’ll know better for next time. Once we were all packed up and had V ready to go, we left for home and got home around 2. And it was nice! Basically once we got home, I laid down on the couch as I was hurting seeing as it’s gonna take me a while to fully heal. Oh well, that’s why

I can say that I’m not a big fan of this pumping thing. After about the 3 rd time pumping milk for V during the night, the nurse had a better idea. She had brought along a nipple shield because she thought that maybe the problem was that the nipple wasn’t going far back enough in her mouth for her to latch onto properly and that we should give that a try. She had also brought in some infant formula because she was down to 6 lbs 11 oz and they wanted to get some weight on her, so she said that once she was done feeding, to give her up to 10 ml of the infant formula and hopefully that would help. I was just hoping that we’d be able to get some weight back on her as I was still feeling quite crappy about how much she had lost and just praying that my supply would come in soon so that I could feed her properly. Luckily after a couple tries with the nipple shield, she starting latching on and feeding properly. Literally once she figured it out, our feedings went from 20 minutes of fussing

Well, up at a some-what decent time this morning, which was around 7. I guess after snuggling with V last night, it helped both of us get some much needed sleep. The nurse came in around 8 to take out the catheter and the IV, and I’m FREE!! Although not much as my mobility is pretty limited due to surgery and healing. And I’m proud to say that I managed to finish off my entire breakfast, which consisted of waffle, breakfast sausage, eggs and oatmeal. Apparently I’ve got my appetite back. Lol. Keith got back to the hospital around 8:30 so that he could help me more during the day. The morning proved to be un-eventful, except that we found out V’s weight, which had gone down to 7 lbs .03 oz. The nurse said that was still within range, but it didn’t make me very happy that she had lost almost half a pound in one day. And then we started having problems feeding her during the day. I’m guessing because my milk supply wasn’t in, she wasn’t getting very much, so she was nursing every 2 hours,

Well, C-Section today. Still not looking forward to it, but because baby’s still on his/her butt, we have no other choice. Woke up around 5 am as we have to be at the hospital by 5:45 and I had to quickly have a shower before we left. And as much as I wanted breakfast (tummy was starting to grumble), I didn’t. Got to the hospital on time and registered and then went up to our room and got ready for surgery. Prep was going good until they tried to get an IV in my hand. Now my veins are pretty hard to get, even on a good day, and even more so in my arm and hand. So the nurse had gotten a vein in my arm, got the needle in and threaded it and then started the drip. Well my hand just started hurting like crazy and so I let her know. She said that wasn’t a good thing and double-checked it. Turns out that when she threaded the needle, it might have come out a bit and nicked a valve, which is why it was hurting so much when they started the drip. So she pulled out the needle and went to go fin

Got a sneak peek of our maternity photos! So excited to see them, especially since Baby will be joining us next week!

Another doctor appointment today and I finally get to see my delivery doctor. Only took forever to see her. Got there a couple minutes before my appointment and was told to leave a sample, yet again. Yuck. The one thing you can count on for pre-natal appointments is leaving a sample. Ick. After doing blood pressure (107/62) and being weighed (162 lbs), I had to get dressed into the gown thingy so that they could do a GBS swab to check for a certain infection. And then she checked for the baby’s heartbeat and felt as to where the baby was positioned. And that’s where my heart sank a bit. The intern couldn’t find how the baby was positioned. She was feeling down low and thought that she was feeling a bum instead of a head there. So she called in Dr. Trinh to double-check and Dr. Trinh thought the same. So she said to meet her at the hospital around 2 and she’d do a quick ultrasound to definitely see where the baby was. I was in tears when I left the clinic because if the baby is breec

Finally, at 34 weeks pregnant, the Baby Room is ready! We finally decided on what colour to do the walls, which is Sunshine Orange. I'm not a big fan of pastel colours and wanted something gender neutral. So orange it was. Although it might get changed in a couple years. I was lucky enough to have my sister Natalie come down and do all the priming and then my Mom came down and did all the painting. Once the paint was dry, I got everything moved in and assembled. The futon will stay in there until we can get rid of it as it's broken. I stocked the closet and dresser with all the essentials and have a clothes bin off to the side with both genders of clothes on there. The plan is that once Baby is born, my sister will come down and pull out the appropriate clothing so that it's ready once we get home.  6 weeks to go!

Why is my body starting to hate me? Lately, it's just been a lot of pain due to my hips being out of place and then locking up in place while I'm standing at work. My work doesn't have me move around a lot, so then the hips lock up and start causing me a lot of pain and then trying to bend over or get into my car proves to be slightly difficult. Thankfully my chiropractor works his magic on me and can get my joints back into place. And I think the Braxton Hicks have started. Been feeling my belly get tight and then loosen up and repeat through the entire day. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it’s kind of annoying when I’m trying to work, or sleep for that matter.

Brody’s birthday day today. Keith took the car because he had to do over-time at work today, so I slept in for a bit and then got up and did some stuff around the house while I waited for Mom to pick me up so that we could head to Tinkertown for Brody’s birthday. Mom picked me up around 11:30 and then we quickly stopped by their house to wait for Dad to get home from work. While we were waiting, Mom did some picking in the garden and I watched Dollar in the pasture with his new girlfriend, Echo, Natalie’s new horse. He was being really sweet with her, not leaving his side as all. Awww. So of course, I had to take some pictures of him. Dad got home shortly after 12 and said that he was going to be taking his Datsun 240 Z to Tinkertown so that he could give Brody a ride home later. Got to Tinkertown by 1:00, met Sam when we got there, and found Natalie, Brett, Jon and the kids pretty quickly. Brody was pretty happy to see us and so was Madison. They wanted to go on some rides and when Da