2 Months old!

My days pass by do fast now that all of a sudden it's been weeks since I've posted here again. I feel like there's never enough hours in my day. I make lists of what I want/need to get done for the day and then when Noah naps I never seem to get anything done. Most days I vacuum, do dishes, tidy up and do diaper laundry- every other day. And that's on top of dealing with the dogs and taking care of a newborn. If possible I always try to get in a half hour walk with Noah as well. I've lost my baby weight but I have about 10 more lbs until I'll feel great about my body.

He's napping now and I'm sitting here typing this out instead of doing dishes. I hardly get on my laptop at all these days though, so it's ok. Dishes can wait. We'll just make more dirty dishes tomorrow anyway.

Noah is 9 weeks old already, which just blows my mind. He's 14 lbs and 25 inches long. He's smiling and laughing all the time now, and yesterday he actually kicked and splashed in his bathtub. He absolutely amazes me every single day. We love him more than words can express. We aren't sure how we ever lived without him.

Here's a couple pictures from his 2 month photo shoot that I did the other day:

Introducing Noah...

Our little man, a few minutes old.


Wow. So now that I’m settled into being a Mama and have a pretty good schedule down with baby Noah, I will hopefully be blogging regularly again. Noah is sleeping now (he usually sleeps between 1pm and 4pm so I should have another hour or so before he wakes) so I figured I’d try to get this written, at least. I don’t have the internet during the day during the week – long story, but Paul works from home now and needs the full extent of the internet for his job, hence I get no wireless internet for my laptop while he’s working. It’s okay though, I would much rather hang out with Noah and the pups and go out for walks than sit around on the computer anyway. But I will try and type up a post hopefully every day or every other day and then post it here in the evening when Paul’s done work.

So I’m not sure whether or not I’ll post my birth story here. It’s very personal story and I don’t really want it that open to the public. I just finished writing it (almost four weeks postpartum) today. It’s an amazing story and it still blows my mind when I think about it. Just the fact that I gave birth to my son in my living room with no drugs for pain is purely incredible, I think. I’m not trying to pat myself on the back by any means – I know some women just can’t do it that way and I totally respect that. It is just the fact that my birth plan actually happened and I was able to do it the way I wanted to. Anyway, I’ll think about whether I’ll post the actual story here. It’s long. And detailed. So we’ll see.

I’m handling being alone with Noah and the dogs all day better than I thought I would. I thought that the dogs would be crazy and I’d be locking them up in their crates all day – they are crazy sometimes but I’m able to put them outside in the yard to play and get rid of some of their energy. I’m happy to say that I rarely put them in their crates during the day – only when I need a break or I’m going out somewhere. So I’m happy about that.

My only issue right now postpartum is this whole ordeal surrounding my decision to pump milk or not. My thoughts are that I’d like to have some in the freezer in case I get sick and can’t breastfeed or in case I go out somewhere and Paul has to feed him. I really don’t plan on going anywhere without Noah for the next few months (seriously!) but we’ll see. Also, I do feel like I’m wasting quite a bit of milk throughout the day when Noah’s sleeping and I leak into the breast pads. I don’t like wasting. My issue with pumping though is that I don’t want him to get attached to the bottle and then not want to breastfeed. This really scares me! I still haven’t made up my mind about pumping – I do know that I won’t be introducing the bottle to him for at least a few more weeks, maybe more.

Other than that, I’m feeling great. Noah is such a good baby. He sleeps great, he’s on a schedule now so I’m able to get stuff done during the day like laundry, cleaning up, etc. Also, cloth diapering is going amazing. I love it. Even Paul says things like “I can’t imagine us not cloth diapering”. Love him. Even though I’m the one who does all the diaper changes and all the laundry, haha. Oh well.

Noah is waking up so I’ll end this here. I’ll definitely make it part of my daily computer time to type out a post and add some pictures. He’s growing and changing so much already. Can’t believe he’s almost a month old!

Another month goes by...

Just realizing now that I haven't posted here in a month. Four weeks is a long time, but it sure passes quickly these days! I'm 34 and a half weeks pregnant - less than 6 weeks go to now! In the past month I had two baby showers - we feel so loved and blessed by everyone who came and celebrated our little guy and showered us with gifts! The first shower was at Paul's mom's house and hosted by her and Paul's sister - it was mostly family and family friends, and it was so much fun. My mom and my sister came for the weekend and besides the fact that it rained for three days straight, we had a great time.



Then this past weekend we had our "friends" shower at Paul's best friend's house. It was so much fun, all of our awesome friends came and brought food and gifts! We had an awesome time! Here's a picture of me and Paul from that party:



I only have three more shifts left at work before I go on maternity leave. It's so hot and busy at work now that I'm really glad to be almost done. I know it's going to be weird to be not working, but at least I'll have time to finish up everything around the house and the baby's room before he makes his arrival!

Here's a quick picture of the nursery from a couple weeks ago, before his bedding was set up:



I'll post a "finished" picture soon.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have more to write about next time. I can't wait til I can start blogging about the baby!

How quickly time passes by...

In two days, I'll be 30 weeks pregnant! I swear the last two months have just flown by, as I'm sure the next two will. I can't believe it'll be May in just a few days. May will bring lots of excitement, though, so I'm not complaining one bit. May is my last month of work. I have *two* baby showers in May. My Mom and my sister are coming to visit in May. Oh, and I also have a haircut appointment in May! I love May already!

My midwife appointments are happening every two weeks now, until 36 weeks - then they'll be once a week til the end. My appointment last Monday went really well - I got good results from my urine test (no bladder infection) and from my glucose test (no gestational diabetes!). She measured my belly and said I'm right at the right size. I will be having another ultrasound in about two weeks - we are excited to see our boy again as well as hopefully find out how much he weighs (approx.) and what percentile he is in.

I really have loved being pregnant. I love talking about it. I love feeling him move and kick. Everyone has been asking me lately if I'm "ready to be done", but I don't think I'm really there yet. I still have ten weeks of being pregnant and I plan on trying to enjoy every minute. This pregnancy has literally flown by and I already know I'm going to miss being pregnant. Not that I'm not *super* excited to meet our little boy - I am so stoked to be a Mom. I'm excited to see him in all the clothes he already has, and to put him in his cute little cloth diapers.

He's my 29 week picture, from Easter Sunday:



Ahh, 18 days til my Mom and my sister get here (and 19 until my first baby shower!). The countdown really is on now - I haven't seen my Mom since Christmas and I haven't seen my sister in... oh man, since *last* Christmas? Living far away from them is hard, but it makes getting to see them even more special!

13 weeks to go!

I can hardly believe that I'm 27 weeks pregnant today. I mean, I *feel* 27 weeks pregnant, that's for sure. My belly is getting pretty big now and my feet get sore when I'm on them too long. I am almost into my third trimester, and exhaustion has hit me once again. Naps are my friend. It's just really hard to believe that we will have our baby in our arms in less than three months now. Wow.

My baby shower is in about five weeks - my mom and my sister are flying here for that weekend! I can't wait to see them and have everyone (friends, family) together to celebrate our little boy.

This means I only have about seven weeks of work left, if I make it that long. As of right now, I'm planning to work til the end of May, taking off the month of June to relax and nest and get everything ready. I wouldn't ever have thought that I'd want to take four weeks off work before the baby comes, but my job is stressful that time of year and not to mention how hot the kitchen gets. Being on my feet at eight months pregnant doesn't sound good at all. Being Canadian is really awesome - especially when it comes to health care and Maternity leave. I'm taking off a full year - it sounds insane when I say it outloud, as I've never *not* worked, since I was 14. But I know that being a mother can be (and will be for me) a full time job. After the year, I'll go back to work part-time and hopefully my mom will be living here by then so the babe won't have to go to a babysitter or daycare.

I can't wait for my mom to move here. She has work to do on her house and then of course putting it up for sale and getting it sold - but I hope it doesn't take more than a year from now for all that to happen. I don't want her to miss out on her grandchildren. She's going to be an amazing Gram.

Okay, a couple of pictures to end this post. First, my 26 week belly shot (yes, my belly button has popped out, half way):



Second, some of my "stash" of cloth diapers, so far. I have about six more than this, but these are my "new" ones that I got last weekend.



I only need to get a handful of newborn diapers, then I'll be ready to go. Well, besides the 30 or so inserts/liners that I plan on making over the next month. I am so excited about cloth diapering, it's pretty silly. Paul is on board, though hardly as excited as I am. Oh well, that's husbands for ya.

March is going out like a lion, that's for sure.

You know what they say, "In like a lamb, out like a lion". Well, it's the second last week of March and while yesterday we had zero snow on the ground and it was feeling very spring-like (not to mention that it was the first offcial day of spring a couple days ago), last night and all day today we are getting dumped on. So far I'd say about a foot of snow and it's still coming down. The weather lady said it should stop by midnight - I'm sure by then it'll be more like two feet. I mean, it's really coming down out there. I am sort of in shock about it - it doesn't feel real. I had (as had many other people) convinced myself that spring was here, snow was gone for good. Good one Mother Nature, you got me.

It's my birthday in nine days. I can't believe I'll soon be 25. It didn't seem like a big deal when Paul turned 25 in September, but 25 now seems pretty old. It'll be my last birthday as a non-Mom. This weekend we are heading out for dinner with Paul's parents, his sister and her boyfriend. It's also Paul's Dad's birthday this week, so we are celebrating together, like usual. Next weekend, we are celebrating my birthday again with a party at our friends' place. I'm really looking forward to being around family and friends, but I do so wish my mom, brother and sister and best friends could be here to celebrate with me.

So, as of tomorrow I will be 25 weeks pregnant. Hard to believe there's only 15 weeks to go! Here's my 24 week "bump" picture:



Oh, and I've recently learned that I'm obsessed with cloth diapers. There are SO many brands and styles, and I've found many mothers who make them themselves as well. So far we have five - plus a bunch of liners. We have all pocket style right now, but I'm interested in some all-in-ones and fitted diapers as well. This is the thing I'm most excited about, I think, when it comes to baby. Diapers. :)

In a goosebump infested embrace... my over-anxious hands, cupping your face.

This weekend we are getting a new vehicle! I sort of can't believe it - we went to the place last weekend to talk to someone and crunch some numbers, it turned out we could totally afford to trade in our car and get an SUV. The payment will be a bit more per month but the insurace will be basically the same. We are getting a 2008 Pontiac Torrent, much like this one:



I am excited to have so much more space, plus I'll be able to get the car seat that I want for the baby without having to worry about whether it'll fit properly in the car. I'm sure the pups will enjoy it too, and they can now go in the "trunk" space when we go places and be safe to play and everything.

We are also heading to the cloth diaper seminar this weekend, and hopefully picking up our first few diapers! On Sunday we are going to Ikea with some friends, possibly getting a few small baby items there as well. It's too easy to spend money on the baby - he already has a few outfits and socks and stuff.

Here's my 22 week "bump" picture:



I definitely feel like everyone can tell I'm pregnant now, even when I'm wearing my winter coat. I've already had a few "when are you due?" questions from strangers, which is weird. Everyone keeps saying that I'm "big" more how far along I am. There's a girl at my work that's almost 30 weeks and I'm just as big as she is. Eeeek. Oh well. I love feeling him kick me all day long now - sometimes it feels like he's tickling the inside of my belly, other times it's definitely kicks/punches.

I talk to him all the time now, too. Some people might think I'm nuts, but I want him to recognize my voice. I am sort of wishing now that we were going to name him before he's born - just so I could call him by his name when I'm talking to him. We have decided to have two names ready and then when we see him, we'll decide what his name is.

Now I'm off to make dinner for myself and hang out with Ruby and Olivia until Paul gets home.

Little by little, bit by bit.

So, I had my ultrasound last Wednesday - and it's a boy! All is well with him as far as we know, the midwife said she would contact us if there was anything to be alarmed about. Otherwise we will just be going over the results at my next appointment, on March 7th. The ultrasound took over an hour - the first 45 mins was just the tech and me in the room, quiet, as she took all the pictures and measurments. Half way through, she had me to go empty my bladder and walk around a bit - she needed baby to change positions so she could get the rest of the measurments. Finally she called Paul in, turned the screen so we could see it and showed us our baby. He is perfect. She showed us everything - his face, hands, spine, heartbeat, legs, feet and then his "little boy parts". We had been convinced it was a girl for some reason, so we were surprised and very excited to hear he is a boy.

Here's his little profile picture:



And here's my most recent "bump" picture, at 20 week 2 days:




Tomorrow is Day 3 of me having to wake up at 7am. Thank god it's also my last day. Thursday and Friday I'll be back to my normal work shift, and getting to sleep in til 9am. Really, getting up at 7am wouldn't be so bad if I could fall asleep before midnight - but that never happens. Paul doesn't get home til around 10pm, then he has dinner and we watch some TV or a movie. I hate not really seeing him all day so I stay up as late as I can. Last night I stayed up til 12:30am, then tossed and turned all night because the baby is kicking harder now and it keeps waking me up. Don't get me wrong - I love the feeling! And once last night he was kicking so hard that I put my hand there and I felt him kick from the outside! It was amazing. I have no idea how I can love someone that I've never met, but man do I ever love him.

This weekend we *may* be going to look into getting a new vehicle. We have always wanted an SUV and now that we basically need a bigger vehice, it looks like it might be happening. The car seat that I'm looking into may be too small for our car. Plus, our car's trunk is so small, I worry about fitting the stroller and other baby/dog related items.

Next weekend is the cloth diapering seminar, which I am SO excited about. We will likely be making our first couple diaper purchases, as well. I can't wait to learn more about this - it's one of the main things I'm really passionate about, when it comes to baby.

My baby shower planning is also in the works, thanks to my awesome sister-in-law. It's going to be in May - so still pretty far away. But either way, I'm more than excited to be thinking about it, since it means my Mom and my sister will be here, as well as just having my friends and family together to celebrate our baby will be amazing.

Cursed by my imagination.

I'm finding it hard to believe that I'm already half way through my pregnancy. It doesn't feel like that long ago when I first got that positive test, back in November. Tomorrow is my first ultrasound. We are so excited to "see" baby for the first time, make sure s/he is growing and healthy and also (if s/he co-operates) find out if it's a boy or girl.

Paul started setting up the baby furniture this past weekend. The dresser and change table are both set up now, and the crib will get set up this weekend I presume. Then all we'll need is my glider and ottoman, which we'll get after the baby shower, and then the crib mattress and bedding. All of that we will wait until after the shower -which won't be until May.

Right now my main research project is car seats. We have chosen to forgo the "infant seat" all together, and are starting out with a convertible seat. These go from 5 lbs to 20 lbs rear-facing and then up to around 50 lbs forward-facing. The one I have my eye on right now is this Britax Roundabout 55.



Our issue is that it's a big car seat, and might not fit well in our small-ish car. Of course, we may get a bigger vehicle before baby comes, but that's not for sure yet. Plus, we'll have to special order this one and it might take up ten weeks to come in. Basically that means we have to order it soon. I have finished my research or come to my final decision yet. We'll see what happens.

I'm still exhausted, pretty much all the time. I can sleep ten hours at night and still need a nap after work. I thought my energy was supposed to come back in 2nd trimester? Oh well, I don't mind. I got plenty of housework done this past weekend, finally. I no longer feel like I can't keep up with it, which is all that matters. Speaking of naps, though... I'm going to lay down.

We are young, we have years ahead - maybe, we might fall in love, fall apart.

Today I am feeling a bit down. My grandma passed away on Friday - my Mom's Mom. She was in her late 80s, but this was still sort of unexpected. My family all live about 16 hours (drive) away. It's only a 1.5 hour flight. I thought my Mom would want me to fly home for the funeral, but she said she didn't expect me to. Partly because I'm pregnant (though flying in the second trimester is okay, I think) and partly because it was pretty short notice, and expensive. But she told me today that both of my cousins that live in my area flew home for the funeral, which is tomorrow. I'm annoyed that my Mom didn't tell me she wanted me to go. I'm sad that I'm not there. I'm... hurt. And I'm really sad that I'm going to miss my last living grandparent's funeral. Not that I like funerals, or anything. But now I don't have any more grandparents. My kids will have two great-grandparents - Paul's grandpa and grandma. But I hate that they won't ever get to meet their great-grandparents on my side. Being pregnant is making my feelings right now very exagerated, too. I don't like it.

~~~

On the opposite side of the emotional spectrum - baby has been kicking/moving around tons these last couple of days. I love feeling this - it makes everything feel more real. Sometimes it feels like little flutters, sometimes it's real jabs. I am so excited for my appointment coming up on Monday - we'll be booking the 20 week ultrasound! Oh yes, we are finding out the sex of the baby in a mere couple of weeks, not to mention "seeing" the baby for the first time. This will be my first (maybe only) ultrasound. We could not be more excited.

We picked up the crib/change table/dresser combo this past weekend, because we had a raincheck for it - 50% off. We have no set it up yet (we're not that crazy!) but Paul wants to set it up after the ultrasound. Here's a picture I found online of the three pieces:



It's a very simple, neutral set. We love the "expresso" color. The nursery walls will be a light green, with yellow/green/brown accents through the room/bedding/etc.

And of course, here's my last couple "bump" pictures:

Almost 17 weeks:



Almost 18 weeks:



I don't see a big difference between the two. Though I was wearing a tighter shirt in the 17 week one. Maybe I should start only taking pictures every other week? I may or may not be addicted to take these, though...

Home, is this a quiet where you should be alone.

Finally, I broke back into baking today. It feels great.

For the past two - maybe three - months I haven't felt like doing much of anything around the house. I load the dishwasher every couple days, I vaccuum when I absolutely have to and I do laundry once a week. Other than that, the nausea/vomitting/fatigue of the first trimester really wore me out, and housework (and baking) took the backburner.

Finally in the past week or two, I've gotten some of my energy back. I don't feel like I have to sleep 12 or 14 (or more) hours every day anymore. And I have desire and motivation to clean, cook and bake. Yay!

I've been promising my husband (and myself) brownies for the past few days, so today after work, I finally made them. Then I was still in the mood to bake, so I made mini Oreo cheesecake cups, as well. Mmm, we will be enjoying these delicious treats for the week, at least!

In other news, my belly has definitely popped now. I'm almost 17 weeks, and here are my last few "bump" pics:

13 weeks:


15 weeks:


16 weeks:


Two weeks til our next appointment, and probably about one week after that will be when we find out if we're having a little girl or boy! We can't wait.

It's kind of weird (and nice) that I'm finally feeling like myself again. Besides my slowly growing belly, I feel a lot more "normal" now. Much less nausea and hardly any throwing up, eating normally again (though still far more frequently) and I finally have some energy again. This weekend was great. I managed to clean the kitchen completely, as well as the living room. Paul managed to fix my vacuum, which has been out of commission for a couple months now. It was apparently just clogged (in the hose). Either way, I vacuumed the entire house, and it felt awesome.

We also finally transferred the dogs' crates to the office, out of the "baby room". Now the "baby room" is empty, other than the bunk beds that are used when we have guests spend the night, and a dresser. The dresser is an old one, that Paul is going to sand down and re-paint, and we'll also upgrade the handles. It will (hopefully) be good as new, for the baby's clothes. Oh, something else also now resides in the baby room. We bought it on the weekend and Paul couldn't wait to get it put together (a little early, honey, don't you think?).



It's our dream stroller, the Maxi-Cosi Foray, that we found on sale at Babys R Us for half price. We both love it, me especially because it goes along with my "plan".

I am not a big fan of "travel system" strollers, like this one:



To me, they are bulky and, while I'm sure convienent, just not my style. Instead, we will get a convertible car seat, which will stay in the car at all times, and be in use from newborn all the way up to toddler, and it also converts to a booster seat for older kids. This is the one I'm eyeing up currently:



I (we) plan to "wear" the baby as often as possible. The stroller will be for long walks, afternoons at the mall, etc. Otherwise, baby will go in the carseat and then be transfered into a sling, wrap, baby carrier of some sort. Surprisingly, Paul is looking forward to this, as well. My mom bought me this sling for Christmas (though mine is green and white):



And I'm also a big fan of this one, the Ergo baby carrier:



Wow, okay, that was a pretty long "baby stuff post" that I wasn't even planning on doing. Oh well. It was kind of fun.

I'm off to have a snack and play with the pups for a bit until Paul gets home. Mmm, veggie taco salad for dinner tonight. I'm so glad to have my usual appetite back!

And our lives will be forever changed.

Wow. Okay, so it was brought to my attention that I hadn't blogged since November. I feel horrible about this - I never meant to stop at all.

Not that it's an excuse, per se, but I've been sick, nauseous, tired and lazy for the last two months. Why, you ask? Well, because I'm pregnant! We found out back at the end of November, but only just "came out" about it on facebook, ie, everyone, yesterday. We had my second appointment with the midwife and we heard the baby's heartbeat! It definitely makes it feel more real now, and the fact that my ultrasound/when we find out the sex of the baby is only five weeks away is insane! We are so excited and have recieved so much love from family and friends, we were completely overwhelmed. This baby is going to be SO loved.

To rewind a couple of weeks... we had a great Christmas! We loved having my Mom here with us for a week, as well as my brother and his girlfriend were here for five days. New Years was good too - quiet, but still nice.

Also, I got switched to a new, way better shift at work, since telling them I am pregnant. I used to work mostly nights, 5pm to 11pm approx., sometimes until 1am. My new shift is 11am to 5pm - it's amazing. Besides the fact that the bus ride to work makes me super nauseous and I usually get sick when I first get there, I love working days! I'll hopefully be staying on this shift until I go on maternity leave, in June.

Now I'm off to get caught up on other blogs, as well as do more research on strollers and car seats. :D