Things That Go Pee in the Night March 28, 2013

I am so, so SO tired of having to wake up several times a night to go to the washroom. My bladder must be the size of a pea or something and the baby loves using it as a trampoline. The worst is when it’s around 4am and I feel that “I gotta pee!” feeling again and I debate getting up. I know I have to wake up, but I still spend a good 20 minutes debating whether I should just wait until I get up around 5:30-6:00 instead, knowing full well that there’s no way my bladder will wait that long, nor the baby. So what I manage to do is just wake myself up even more, making it impossible to go back to sleep afterwards.

When I’m not waking up for the call of the wild, I’m waking up for various other reasons. I’ll sometimes hear a weird noise while sleeping then realize it’s me! My throat makes this crazy sound because I get so dehydrated from peeing so much! So I have another choice to make here as well. Do I take a glass of water everytime I wake up to use the washroom? Won’t that just make me get up even more? I’m stuck in a loop!

Another thing keeping me up, my hips. I can’t seem to stay in one position very long anymore, so I’m constantly rotating from side to side, it must drive Chris crazy. The more I move, the more I slowly scrunch the blankets towards me, so I’m leaving Chris in the cold. I feel like a rotisserie chicken lately at night, just constantly turning.

I know these are all ways my body is preparing me for sleepless nights with a baby, but it’s still annoying. It’s not like once the baby’s born, I’m back to sleeping through the night, if he’s anything like Henry, that won’t happen for another year or so.

and to not end on a sour note, here’s a recent pic of Henry being super cute.

Henry took “care” of this snowball for our entire walk around the block.

and as an added bonus, here’s a video of Henry auditioning for Storage Wars. Chris was joking around a few days ago, imitating the guy Dave by saying “Yeeeeep!” and Henry started copying him. Now Henry will do it on his own, however he needed a bit of encouraging from Chris for this video.

You Spin Me Right Round March 24, 2013

Well, good news, the baby is no longer breech. When I went to my OB/GYN appointment last Wednesday, she felt my stomach and was pretty certain he had flipped to the cephalic position (that’s head down for non-doctors). She sent me for an ultrasound on Friday to make sure since she didn’t want me to go all the way to the hospital for a procedure I didn’t need (which was booked for tomorrow). Anywho, on Friday, I went to the ultrasound clinic and the super nice Scottish technician (who was a former midwife) checked right away and cheered the second she saw he was head down. She seemed even more excited than I was. I guess she had assisted in a few versions back home and knew it could be very painful so she was happy I could avoid it. I’m super overjoyed by this news.But then it got me thinking about everything else that’s about to come. I’m starting to panic a bit about labour. I know it hurts, I’ve been through it before, but I’m still scared about feeling that pain again. Today I had a scare where Chris was out bringing stuff to Value Village and I was with Henry at home. I got this sharp pain in the side of my stomach and I felt like I was paralyzed. Henry and my phone were out of reach and I had to basically force myself up and breath in and concentrate on getting through the pain. When it finally subsided, Chris was pulling into the driveway. It lasted all of 5 minutes but it scared the crap out of me. I really hope Henry’s at daycare or fast asleep when labour kicks in, and that Chris is at home somehow.

Well let’s more on from there to what we did this weekend. With less than 3 weeks until my due date, I’ve been trying to cram in as many activities and chores as possible. We did a bunch of stuff this weekend. We went out on Friday night to Almonte to have some Indian food with Chris’ family. Saturday morning, we went to the Sippy Cup cafe, very early and then had some visitors. Steph showed up with Logan and Niko. Steph and I had to go to Best Buy to sort out a gift card debacle that I got her for her birthday. I had bought the card at a pharmacy (cough SHOPPERS cough) and found out afterwards that those cards were void. Short story long, Chris ended up babysitting all 3 boys while we went to Best Buy. When I got back home he said it wasn’t that hard, which I took to mean “I want a 3rd child” but apparently that’s not what he meant.

We tried getting Henry to nap in his big boy bed yesterday which ended up with Chris having to lay down with him until he fell asleep, and when he woke up, it was freak out central. This transition is going to be a bit harder than we anticipated.

Today we went grocery shopping and price matching (I’m at a savings of over $350 in less about 2 months time!) We also went and bought a sand box for Henry at Toys R Us for this summer. I’m trying to make our backyard into a fun zone for Henry since I’ll be keeping him home twice a week when I’m on leave. We also went for a great walk around the block with a quick stop at the park. Henry seemed to both love it and hate it. I think the hate part though has more to do with the cough he developed last night and turned into a full blown fever this evening. I’m hoping it’s gone by tomorrow.

And now pics of our weekend!

So when I look at this picture, I think “Tin Man” and Chris thinks it’s more a like a fighter pilot. I wish I was right but I have a feeling Chris is closer to the truth on this one.

The boys looking at Chris before they sacrifice Ginger to the gods. Logan looks like he’s telling Chris “You’re next buddy!”

Henry choosing his future ride.

The saddest easter bunny ever. Should have known at this point he was getting sick.

This cheered him up a little.

From the noises he was making, going down this slide was both exhilarating and terrifying.

Not too terrifying though, since he kept going back for more.

Safer to go down with Daddy by his side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Birthday Bonanza March 12, 2013

Sunday marked another monumental birthday event. Henry’s best friend Luis turned two. Sandra and Doug went all out for Luis’ bday and hired Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo to come do a presentation with a few of their lizard friends (and one arachnid unfortunately). Unfortunately Henry was a little off at the beginning. He had fallen asleep about 3 seconds before we arrived so it took him a while to shake the cobwebs out (pun intended). He started getting a bit livelier once he got some food into him, and then even more so once he ate cake. I got over some of my fears and held a few lizards. I stayed far far away from the tarantula. I think both Chris and I learned a lot about our lizard friends.

One important note that I wanted to pass along to all parents out there is that pet store turtles, you know those tiny things that are under $10 keep growing. It’s recommended that adult red eared slider turtles be housed in at least 100 gallon tanks. That’s massive! The reptile zoo receives hundreds of these turtles who are abandoned each year because parents didn’t anticipate how big they would get. So please think long and hard before buying one. Apparently there are some small turtles that will remain small but you have to do your research ahead of time and pay a little more for them.

Anywho, PSA over, so here are some pics.

Sleepy kid trying to party.

Paying attention to the reptile guy.

Sandra being the bravest person in the world and holding a tarantula.

That’s my arm right there. And that’s a gecko on it!

Snake getting mighty comfy on the reptile handler. I was cringing inside the whole time.

I guess the snake is cool

Henry waking up a little to see the blue tongued skink.

This lizard is basically the cat of the lizard world. Apparently the laziest thing ever and will fall asleep in his food dish.

Touching one of those red eared sliders I was talking about.

The “piece de resistance” this python was massive!

Although Henry ran right by the python to play in the miniature kitchen.

Henry eating some late breakfast. I also want to point out the photographic proof that he does eat scrambled eggs even though he always refuses ours.

The birthday boy blowing out the candles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grand-Maman Guest Post March 10, 2013

Last night we were given a night off from parenting, well and overnight off which is always appreciated given that we can stay out/up a little later without having to worry about our 6am wake up call. Chris and I went for dinner at La Favourita in Little Italy then went and celebrated our friend Mike’s birthday party at the Heart and Crown in the market. I can’t remember the last time I was there. It’s been years. I felt I was silently being judged for being pregnant in a bar, I wanted to carry a sign that says “don’t worry, I’m not drinking”. Anywho, my parents offered a few weeks ago to look after Henry. They were also looking after Logan and Niko since Steph and Martin were supposed to go to a wedding. So they had 3 kids overnight. I thought it would be cool if my mom did a guest post about her experience and she happily obliged, heck she even took pictures knowing my loving readers would want to see what went down. So, without further ado, here are my mom’s thoughts on her overnight guests.

Three Amigos or Three Musketeers?

This is my first blog entry ever!  Sooo… here goes;

This weekend, in order to give Melina and Steph a well deserved break, Francois and I decided to have our three grandsons over for a sleepover and give their respective parents a night out on Saturday and a chance to sleep in on Sunday.

We had forgotten that when the three grand babies get together, they turn into their own version of the Three Amigos and the Three Musketeers all mixed in for good measure. Having three little boys, 4 years and under with two of them still in diapers is a lot of fun, but also a lot of work when you realize that your house is not quite as childproof as it should be and that you are much slower than you thought you were.

I swear, Henry and Niko can get into anything not specifically locked, taped down, wired shut, or seemingly unreachable, faster than you can blink. Logan for his part is becoming quite the little jokster, so mix all of that up and grand-maman and grand-papa were running ragged.

Luckily for us, the new toys were discovered and totally appreciated. Who knew that Playmobile Bernese mountain dogs would be such a hit? Still there was time for roughhousing, activity books and lots of juice and cookies. And of course pizza was served followed by the ritual three cousins in the bathtub routine as well as the requisite Ice Age movie.

One by one they fell asleep, one as lovely as the next, until all was quiet in the house, including us.  Actually especially us.

We all had a good night’s sleep except for our dog who did not appreciate being booted out of her usual napping place.

This morning, it was so much fun waking up to the sound of babies in the house, we brought them into our bed an cuddled quietly for a while until it was time to start the circus all over again.

After they left, the house felt empty and awfully quiet all of a sudden.

We realize that we are truly blessed to have such wonderful little boys in our lives and we look forward to the next time we will have them sleep over, but for now, I believe a nap is calling my name…

Breakfast buddies. You’ll notice Elmo in a lot of these pictures. Henry’s going through a bit of a phase.

Having a breakfast safari with all my animal friends.

morning play

Three amigos together

Niko crawling away to do his own thing.

One more of the three being goofy together.

 

 

 

 

 

Gymnastics Graduation (by chris) March 8, 2013

Last Saturday Henry graduated from Gymnastics for the second time.  We started star gymnastics in the fall.  Which at Henry’s age is just running around, climbing and jumping around in a padded environment.  He liked it so much we signed on for the winter session as well.  Henry loved it again.  We had a few rough classes in the middle were I was doing more of the activities than him but we persevered and he bounced back.  For his last class he was in a crazy excited mood where he wanted to do everything.  I could barely keep up with him(and sometimes didn’t as you will see).  Twice he ran up to the somersault station and started to do them without me holding/guiding him.  These things are better seen that described so here are some pics.

Pops was there to see Henry graduate

I find I looked crazed in this picture. Like I am about to attack someone who hurt Henry. In actuality he fell on his own.

Waving to the adoring crowd.

Fun in the foam pit.

Me sneaking into the graduating class pic. I worked so hard I felt like I deserved it.

Me shaking my sillies out.  Henry apparently didn’t have any sillies that needed to shake out

Rope Swing and somersault

And now the piece de resistance.  Me not keeping up with Henry as he suddenly decides it is time for the foam pit.

Refocus March 5, 2013

Well now I had written up a post a few days ago but had not published it. It was all about trying to find a balance between my kids. How I had spent so much time focused on my pregnancy with Henry and not so much time focused on this one since my time is still consumed by Henry. It was about trying to find a way to make things equal between my kids, to make sure one doesn’t feel like the other receives advantages or attention that the other doesn’t. I’ve seen it happen too much, a kind of inequality between kids and the time and activities they get to spend/do with others that I want to avoid going down that road.

Well the baby decided to take matters into his own hands. The day I was going to write about trying to find time to focus on this pregnancy and my last remaining weeks, I found out that Little Bean is a footling breech. Meaning, if I were to go into labour, he’d come out feet first. That kind of forced me to grind to a halt and seriously focus on what’s currently happening with my body and my baby. I’ve talked to doctors, mid wives, searched the internet, looking for anything that could help little Bean flip over. Henry’s birth was painful but fast and my recovery time was very quick. I had thought the same would happen with this little guy, so when the word “c-section” started getting thrown around by my OB/GYN, I started panicking. I’m not ready to think about that option right now. From what I’ve heard, a footling breech can be more complicated that other types of breech if I were to go into labour since there’s an increased risk of the chord coming out first which is a big no-no. So all my efforts have been focused on flipping him now, before it gets there.

I’ve heard people say their babies flipped right at the last minute so I still have time (a little less than 6 weeks to be exact) but here’s what I’ve done/tried so far:

1- Inversions. This is basically where I put my knees on the edge of the bed and lower my body so I’m resting my forearms on the floor with my head tucked under while doing a pelvic tilt. I do this for 30-60 seconds a few times a day.

2. Breech tilts. I put a plywood plank up against a settee in my bedroom at a 45 degree angle and basically lie on upside down on it for 20 minutes, about 3 times a day. This one seems to get the little guy moving. I felt him turn a little but not enough. For the entire weekend he felt like he himself was at a 45 degree angle and was kicking out my sides. I’m going to keep trying this one and hope he goes with the flow.

3. this one’s a bit silly but it got him moving, unfortunately not enough. While doing the breech tilt, I put a bag of frozen veggies on the top of my belly and a hot pack on the base of my pelvis. The theory is that the baby won’t like having cold on his head and will turn to seek out the warmth. They also encourage you to press a flashlight against the bottom of your tummy to “guide” him there. I did all of that. He didn’t like the cold, and let me know he didn’t like it, but he remained put.

Tomorrow I’m going to see my Osteopath to see if he can help flip this baby (I feel like that could be a cool title for a TLC show about blinging out a baby I keep picturing Ty from Extreme makeover Home Edition yelling “FLIP THAT BABY!!). I then have an appointment with my OB on Thursday and am hoping he’ll have turned by then. If not, then at week 37 I’m going to the general hospital for an external cephalic version (ECV). This is a bit more invasive version of flipping the baby that involves relaxing drugs, ultrasound and pain (from what I’ve heard). I’d have to be monitored for a while afterwards as well since it could start labour.

I’m not even ready to think further than this right now should the ECV not work. But now Little Bean knows he’s got my full attention!

Heeeeeeeere’s BEANY!! I got your attention now, don’t I?