Credit Where Credit Is Due

I have to say an internet thank you (one that he will probably never know about) to Awesome Father-In-Law and another one to Uncle Christian. They have both graciously agreed to work a casino for 2 nights next week.

The casino is important to us because it is a fundraiser for Camryn. Her Girl Guide group (troupe, whatever you want to call it) is going on a mega-field trip next year to Yellowknife. This trip has been priced out to cost just over $2,000.00. Of course, being that I am made of money I could totally afford that but figured I would let Camryn participate with the little people and do some fundraising.

Each night that someone works a casino is worth $75.00 toward her trip. Awesome Father-In-Law will work 2 nights. Uncle Christian has also agreed to work 2 nights. $300.00. Thanks to the truly awesome in-laws for their time and effort to helping Camryn get to Yellowknife.

Big Brother

I love watching this show. Every episode gets more interested. One question though.....who the hell is dressing Julie Chen? Clowns? A stylist with a grudge? Her dress tonight looks like a bean bag chair. Just saying....

Game Shows

I have been watching The Price Is Right lately. I don't mind Drew Carey now. He is no Bob Barker but he has his own charm. I especially liked when he all but called a woman an idiot for her near $60,000.00 bid on her showcase, which consisted of a scooter, a golf cart (or what essentially amounted to one) and an american car. You knew that she was way off when the whole audience groaned at her bid. When Drew read the actual retail price he just looked at her and told her she was off.....by a mile.

I love watching people when they "come on down" to be the next contestant. They are so happy, they get confused as to where they are supposed to stand and they have those awesome name tags on. I love it even more when they get to play and win at the pricing games. More jumping, some yelling, awkward hugging of the host.

Everyone on game shows are just so happy to be there. They make me smile with their excitement. I remember when I was little that there was way more game shows on television. And way less talk shows. Talk shows are horrible (except for Oprah). There are doctor shows scaring the shit out of you. There is Dr. Phil telling you that you have to stay in a bad marriage or that you are a horrible parent. Then there are the likes of Jerry Springer and Maury Povich. They are bottom feeders. What happened to shows like The Newlywed game? You know, games where they talk about good, clean whoopee. We need some good ol' game shows back on the air.

Heavy Weight

Today I took Kaiden for his 6 week (although he is almost 7 weeks) check up. He weighed in at a whooping 9 lbs. 3 oz. That is good. That means that he has gained 2 lbs. 3 oz. in 3 weeks. He is back on target to where he should be.

I now face the weaning from formula and bottles dilemma though. I have noticed that he is taking less and less bottles through out the day but he is also getting lazy about sucking....if it isn't one thing it is another....oh well. I am happy that my boy is healthy and thriving. That is all that matters.

Let the work begin....

Some Pictures of My Babies

Point Ryleigh

Last night Ryleigh was being entertained by her favorite Uncle. He had been playing with her for awhile when Darian asked if he wanted to watch a movie. He said he would so he left Ryleigh to her own devices.

You would think that when he left her room that he had taken her heart out with his bare hands. She was crying and yelling "tum ay wiff me" (translation: come play with me). With the movie starting to play I told her that if she was going to cry that she had to do it in her room. Her response was to sit in the middle of the hallway and continue to wail.

***WARNING*** This is the part where I threaten to spank my child, making me the worst Mother ever. I often threaten this to show that I am serious. I don't spank my children....much ;) (I am kidding of course) (I spank them on a daily basis) (Again, I am kidding)

Anyway, now that is out of the way. After a few minutes of Ryleigh crying and in the middle of my "go cry in your room or I will spank your bum" she announced that she was done. She was done crying but informed me that she wanted to talk loudly. I had to turn away from her lest I burst out laughing in her face.

She insisted that she was going to continue to talk loudly until her Uncle came back. I again told her to go in her room to "talk loudly" or I would spank her bum. She then pointed out that she had won the game.....I couldn't spank her....she was sitting down. Ryleigh 1, Mommy 0.

Late Introduction

I hope you will forgive me for the late introduction....

Kaiden Nathan John

Born June 24, 2009 at 8:59 a.m.

Weight 7 lbs. 4 oz.

Kaiden arrived a few days late but that really is par for the course with my children. I had worried about having to have another c-section due to a previous one and some scarring on my cervix. I am so happy to say that I had a successful VBAC.

My labour started with contractions every 20 minutes apart at around 5 p.m. while Nathan and I were trying to have a nap. By 8 p.m. I called my parents to tell them that the contractions were only a few minutes apart and that we were going to head to the hospital.

At the hospital I was checked and found to be 2 cm. I was not excited about that. When they hooked me up to the machine my contractions slowed down. I was not excited about that either. On doctor's orders I wandered the hall of the hospital for an hour while the girls sat in the family room waiting for something to happen. It was getting late and they had school the next day. They were excited about the thought of not having to go in the morning. At least someone was excited at this point.

To make a long story short(er), I was sent home from the hospital, after refusing drugs, only to return with contractions less than a minute apart within 2 hours. Once I returned to the hospital I was found to be 4 cm. I got a little excited at this point because I was dilating. I was not sure if this would happen or not and it did. I screamed for my epidural and my favorite person of the evening arrived and hooked a Momma up!

After a long night, well, more so for Nathan and my Mom, trying to get some sleep in very uncomfortable delivery room chairs, at 8:56 am (as marked down by the nurse) I started to push. Kaiden was delivered in 3 pushes at 8:59 am. My doctor had stepped out of the room to give the nurse some room to get everything set up and missed the delivery. I could not believe how fast he came. It was wonderful. Everything looked great with him. We went home the next day but had to return for night to put Kaiden under the lights due to jaundice.

That in a nutshell was my delivery story. It has been a rough month though. I think that I lulled myself into this false sense of This-is-my-4th-baby-how-hard-can-it-be-itis. Kaiden is 5 weeks old and we are still struggling to really see eye-to-eye (or eye-to-boob, however you want to think about it) with breastfeeding. It has been 5 weeks of sore, cracked, raw nipples, low supply, weight loss (his, not mine....because if it were mine it would be a good thing), supplementation, city wide searches for supplemental nursing systems and tears. Lot and lots of tears.

My new boss is calling....I apologize if this doesn't make sense!!

So Proud

I think that it is safe for me to say that we have a potty-trained toddler.  At least during the day.  Roo has been using her potty faithfully for sometime now.  We can go out during the day without diapers!!

I have some diapers left so we still are putting them on her at night, only because the few times that we have tried with training pants she woke up wet.  I am not worried about the night time thing quite yet as I know in a few weeks I will be up changing and feeding during the night and figure that I will start getting Roo up at that time to pee.

I am so happy for this milestone, especially since we just waited for her to be ready.  We bought her the potty, showed it to her and she just started to use it....it was minimal work on our part and did not involve "pee candy" like the little girl we encountered at the hospital earlier this week.

I remember trying the treat route when we were training Darian.  She would get a Smartie when she would use the potty...right up until the point where she spent most of her day sitting on the toilet expecting Smarties for every drip she managed to squeeze out.  That idea quickly left the building.

I remember telling Camryn that she couldn't turn 3 until she was trained.  I will never forget the day that she proudly announced that she could "turn free now" because she had used the potty!

I am wondering what it will be like to potty train a little boy but I guess I don't need to worry about it at this moment in time.  I am sure that by the time I get to that point it will happen.  I am fairly certain I don't know of any adult male in my life that is still untrained....at least on the potty.

Junk

I am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff we have.  Not all of it is junk but just stuff we don't need.  

I have literally bags upon bags of clothes that the girls have outgrown.  I have 2 bins full of baby clothes that will never again be used by us.  I don't want to just give them away as we can always use extra money but I don't know what else to do with them.  I know that there is a bunch of stuff that I will be giving away but there is just so much...

Two summers ago we rented a big bin and cleaned out our garage.  We could fit both our vehicles in it....it was glorious.  Now.....there is stuff piled everywhere.  Right now if we don't need it in the house out to the garage it goes.  Soon there is not going to be enough room out there for anything else.

We have new beds for Darian and Roo.  Great...saved us money as we didn't have to buy them.  Not so great....the box spring for Darian's bed will not make it downstairs....guess where it is?  My parents had the bed frame for Roo from when they lived in a bigger house.  They actually had 2 of them.  My parents wanted to bring me both of them so that they didn't have it in their house.  They have 2 people living in their house (which I am sure is bigger than mine) and we are on the verge of 6 people.  I am not sure where they thought we might put this extra bed.

I would love to have a garage sale but I have a broken van in my garage taking up space....I am just ready to cry....I just want my house clean, organized and junk-free.....and my bank account full...but that is a whole different post.

OMG

You see that widget over there...the one with the spinning baby?  Do you see how many days it has left on it?  Do you?  Do you know how much stuff I still have to do in those very few days?  OH. MY. GOD.

As I sit here we have still not finished painting the baby's room.  Although My Dear Nathan and our lovely Darian put on the primer today.  We should be finished painting it sometime this week.  One thing to check off the to-do list.

After said room is painted I have to make curtains.  I found the coolest material this week and it just so happens that we are making a trip to Grandma's house this week (Baby's Grandma...not mine, otherwise that would be Great Grandma....you get the drift).  Grandma knows how to sew curtains and it only takes her an hour where it would take me an hour just to contemplate cutting the material lest I screw it up.

 

Once curtains are taken care of and we return from Grandma's house bearing a new bed for the Roo and Darian then I will be able to proceed to set up the crib, move the futon into the room so I have somewhere to sit for late night feedings and then I need to figure out where to put the dresser and change table.

Once the dresser and change table are appropriately placed then I will have a thousand loads of tiny, blue laundry to wash, dry, fold and put away.  After that then the hard part....you know, the whole having of the baby part.

I have to go have another ultrasound to check on baby's position (which makes me nervous as my Dr. has always been able to tell me how my baby's were positioned but this time....well....she is just giving off uncertain vibes) and meet with the OB at the hospital to get his blessing to try a VBAC.

I really want to avoid another c-section but have realized that as much as I don't want it I should prepare myself just in case.  Speaking of preparing myself....there is also the whole hospital bag to pack.  Yikes....so many things, so little time.....where have the last 8 months gone?

Quickie

I feel so accomplished today!!  Nothing like a visit from the Grandparents to spur on some cleaning.

I have cleaned my kitchen, including the pain in the ass stove.  I have cleaned the bathroom, which I usually refuse to do.  I have done the laundry (just need to fold it....later).  I have swept the floor and cleared off my dining table.  I cleaned out the baby's room in order to prep for painting (just need to sweep the floor and wash walls).

I even had a nap today.  It was only a cat nap but I feel great.  I am not sure if that feeling is from the nap or the fact that I accomplished something today.  Don't get me wrong, there is still a million other things to do but at least I got started.  And lookie-here....a  blog entry.  I wonder.....has hell frozen over?

Easter Weekend

It is 1:00 a.m.  My house is quiet.  My kids are visiting my Grandparents with my Mom and Dad and My Dear Nathan is sleeping.  My baby is rolling and kicking and just generally doing whatever it is babies do 10 weeks before they are born.

We are painting bedrooms to prepare for our new arrival.  We are moving Roo into her new purple room on Monday.  We just have one more coat of purple to go.  And then we will move on and paint the baby's room.  We are going with blue...because we have never done that before.  This whole blue thing is new.

The Easter Bunny is coming soon.  I hope he brings me some energy.  I don't do chocolate but would like something sweet or beer.  Beer would be good......I miss beer.

I think spring is finally here.  We actually had a thunderstorm tonight.  Thunder shook my house and made my cats crazy.  The lightning was impressive too.  I love thunderstorms.  I am thankful for the rain too because that is what will turn this city from brown to green.  I am so happy to see that the snow is almost all gone.  I couldn't have taken one more second of winter.

9 Already!!

9 years ago....wow, I can't believe it has been 9 years already.

Today is our crazy Camryn's birthday.  She is so funny, outgoing, carefree, compassionate, spirited....and a million other things that I absolutely adore.

Her little sister loves her to bits.  Her big sister loves her too....just in a different way.  Roo affectionately refers to her as her "baby sister" and gets quite upset if she doesn't get a kiss before Camryn leaves the van for school.

I still remember the day that she was born.  I knew that she was going to weigh in around the 8 pound mark and in my head an 8 pound baby was about the size of an average 5 year old.  I still remember being in shock that such a tiny thing could weigh 8 pounds.

I was so anxious to hold her and get to know this little person who insisted on rolling around in my belly when I was trying to eat (not the most pleasant of sensations).  I had to wait a very long 3 hours before I could have her all to myself.  She needed some extra care after her surprisingly fast delivery.

When I finally got to hold my baby they put this bundle of black hair and chubby red cheeks in my arms and I was in love.  Darian loved her so much!!  She was thrilled that she had a sister (something I need to remind her about now) and was so relieved as she wanted nothing to do with a baby brother.....as she said "boys are nothing but trouble".

9 years.....when did time start speeding by?  I am sure that when I close my eyes tonight I will wake up and another 9 years will have flown by but I know that I will love those 9 years just as much as I have the last 9.

Happy Birthday Camryn!!  Love Mommy.

Adjusted....Finally!

See this picture here?  This is my baby.  This is my BOY baby. 

I have known for almost 2 weeks now that this baby is going to be a boy.  I think that I am finally used to the idea.  I honestly didn't think that I would ever have a son.  I thought that My Dear Nathan and I didn't have the ingredients to make a boy.  Lo and behold we did.  My Dear Nathan is convinced that it was all the drugs that I was on shortly before I got pregnant that did it.  Just to clarify....the drugs...they were blood thinners that I was required to inject myself with for 10 days after my surgery to repair a broken ankle.  Nothing exciting.  Nothing illicit.

Our daughters are all so happy that they will have a baby brother.  They have done the little sister thing and are good with what they have.  Everyone else that we tell about our son (I still get goosebumps from that word....son....hee hee) is so very happy for us.  To the point that I am starting to wonder if anyone would have been happy for us had this baby been another little girl.

I must have subconsciously known that this baby was going to be our boy as I could not for the life of me think of a girls name.  We also could not think of middle names for another girl.  All of our daughters are named after family members, middle name wise, and there are only a few people left that we thought to name another girl after...only thing was we really didn't like any of their names.  Bullet dodged.

This boy will also have middle names from a family member.  Unfortunately for our Dads....it will not be them.  Our Dad's name's....not our style.  As much as My Dear Nathan has protested it in the past our one and only son will be named after the most wonderful man I know...his Father.

Friday, at last!!

Even when I have a slow week of nothingness I am always happy when Friday arrives.  It means no having to get up at a particular time on Saturday and that My Dear Nathan doesn't have to go to work.

We don't have anything spectacular planned for this weekend as it is going to be stupid cold this weekend.  The official definition of stupid cold is approximately 30 degrees colder than it was this time last week.  We are currently under a windchill warning.  It really is somewhat tolerable when it is only -20 but when that wind blows, even in the slightest, that is when it turns stupid.

I have decided that I am going to win the $43 million lottery tomorrow and then head directly to Orlando on Sunday.  I may have to wait until Monday for the pictures with the big cheque and whatnot...but then....off to Florida to soak up the sun.  I will let you know how things are when I get there ;)  (If only it were that easy!)

I have been feeling exceptionally tired again.  Back to having morning naps while Roo watches cartoons.  I think that it has everything to do with the fact that I can't fall asleep until after midnight and then wake up a few hours later to an alarm, or a waking 2 year old, or to pee, or tingly arms, or a plethora of other things that keep me from sleeping.  It is getting really tiresome but I if I don't sleep I am liable to kill the first person who looks at me wrong.  So I sleep, Roo eats cereal in my bed (on Nathan's side of course) and watches cartoons.  So much for the 2nd trimester being the "honeymoon" trimester.  Mine includes sleepless nights and headaches.

Next week should be interesting....I have my ultrasound on Friday and have been anticipating it for sometime now.  Keep fingers crossed that we get to find out what this baby is.  

I should go finish making supper.  My family is hungry...sheesh...they are so demanding!!  Have a great weekend.

Sunday

Last day of the weekend.  I have a love/hate relationship with Sundays.  I love them because there is football on.  At least for 2 more Sundays that is.....then begins the long wait until October.  My Dear Nathan plays hockey on Sunday as well.  Most times I will go and watch, it really just depends on what is going on with football.

I dislike Sundays because it is the last day to our weekend.  Weekends never last...they are just not long enough.  This weekend we just spent an easy, relaxing weekend.  I think that we are all still recovering from a very long Sunday last week and then jumping right back into our non-Disney World life feet first.

We went shopping for a new stroller yesterday.  We know that we are going to need a double stroller for some time after this baby is gone because Roo will only be just 3 years old.  We found one that we really like that will fit our near future needs for a double stroller and our further down the road needs when we can go back to a single.  The only downfall is the almost $600.00 price tag that comes on it.  We still have 5 more months before we meet this little one so we should have that saved in no time.

My Dear Nathan took the girls out shopping with him this afternoon so I am enjoying the quiet in my house.  I know that they will be home pretty soon though as Nathan will have to get ready for hockey.  I should probably go and get ready for that as well.  Darian has to be at the rink early to time-keep the first game.  Her first job....she is so excited about making her own money.

Hope that everyone was enjoying our beautiful weather this weekend.  If it was not beautiful where you are I hope you had beautiful company to share your weekend with.  :D

Honesty

My Roo-baby can be very cuddly when she is in the mood for it.  Last night she crawled up onto my lap and was all cuddled in.  I asked her if she was going to love me that much when the new baby comes....her response?  "Nope".  

Darian then asked Roo is she was still going to love her, "yep", she will still love Darian.  Camryn, same thing.  She will still love Camryn.  And Daddy too, of course.  I asked if she will love the new baby, another affirmative.

"Are you still going to love Mommy?", just thought I would give her a second chance to change her mind...."nope".  Gotta love honesty.

Baby Update

This morning was another prenatal appointment.  I drove half way across the city (on extremely shitty roads) to find out that my doctor was delivering a baby.  The office did try to call me but I was already gone to drop the girls off at school.  Thankfully another doctor in the office had an early opening and so they fit me in to see her.  :)

Everything was good.  I didn't gain or lose a pound this month.  I was wondering what would happen with that seeing as I ate not so great in Florida but I did a lot of walking.  Blood pressure is good and other than being tired from a very long travel day on Sunday, I am feeling more energetic.

I heard baby's heartbeat although very briefly.  Baby was being squirmy so every time the doctor would find the heart beat the little bean would slip away into another corner.  I have been feeling it move every now and then but was still relieved to hear that beautiful little thump-thump.

I have my ultrasound scheduled for January 30th.  I am looking forward to seeing my baby for the first time and hopefully finding out whether defied fate and made a boy this time.

On another note....we are having troubles with names...both for a boy and a girl.....suggestions?

Monday

Has it really been so long since my last post?  Ugh!  

So what has happened here in the last few weeks?  I won't spill it all today as then I will have nothing to post about again.  On with the show....

We had a very busy December just like everyone else.  Although we had a very quiet Christmas.  Probably the quietest we have ever had.  We had some company on Christmas Eve and then Awesome-Father-In-Law came over for a few hours on Christmas Day.  

We didn't put up our tree until just a few days before Christmas and then it was down by the 28th.  I loved it.  We didn't have a ton of presents due to our trip to Disney World but everyone seemed happy with what they did get.  The girls got Guitar Hero World Tour so we spent a lot of time playing the Wii.

It was cold over Christmas just as it had been for the better part of December.  Not just normal cold, but stupid cold!!  I really need to move to a warmer climate but My Dear Nathan says it is not going to happen anytime soon.  He has told me that we can retire in Florida though.  Always nice to have something to look forward too!

After Christmas I didn't leave my house for 3 days.  It was great.  I would love if I never had to leave at all.  We took Awesome-Father-In-Law for dinner for his birthday.  It was not really that monumental an occasion but it was the reason I left my house so I thought I would throw it in.

Hmmmm.....not really that exciting of a post.  That was our Christmas in a nut shell.

Today I need to finish unpacking, go grocery shopping and maybe clean something.  All things that I am avoiding by making horrible blog posts.  For now I will end the misery.  I think I have lost my blog mojo.  Has anyone seen it?

Finally!!

Today I went for my prenatal appointment.  I am 13 weeks, 2 days and I finally heard this little one's heartbeat!!  Everything else is in proper working order.  I have even managed to lose 5 pounds!  Ultrasound is booked for the end of January.  Keep your fingers crossed that this baby shows me what it is because I need to know....

We are under the Christmas gun right now.  We haven't gone shopping yet and we still have no tree up.  The plan is to go shopping tonight and I hope we get it all done in one shot because I am not really in a shopping mood.  The plan is for the tree to go up tomorrow and to come down before New Years.

We are only 2 weeks and a few days away from our trip and I cannot wait.  It has been stupid cold here for the last few days and it is expected to hang around for at least another week and beyond that, who knows?  Bring on the Florida sunshine!  There is a 50-something degree temperature difference between here and there (-25 here, +27 there).  I totally live on the wrong side of zero.

Just another note that has absolutely nothing to do with anything else.  My cat snores when she sleeps!

Have a great day.  Will try to update more....if you care.  :D