Tuesday 29 May 2007

Atomic Bum!!



Those of you who have/had breastfed babies understand this. Those of you who don't, let me explain one quick thing. Breastfed babies have poop that is pretty much liquid, so it can come out with quite an unimaginable force! Why am I explaining this? Well, today I was changing Zach. And it was a full poopy diaper to begin with, so I thought there was no more in there. I was wrong. Dead wrong. It came without warning, without so much as a squeak or his "poopy face" (I've posted pics of the poopy face above). The mustard-like substance shot out from his tiny little baby body with the force of a firehose and got me good. He hit my arm from elbow to wrist, my side (including my white underwear), a bit of my thigh, my calf and finally a whole s*!tload (pardon the pun) on my foot. Even with all that on me, he managed to get some on the floor. Yay for hardwood floors! Luckily Daddy was still home and could come to Mommy's rescue with a bunch of paper towels. Zach just stared at me with a very contented look on his face....

Zach's fussy times seem to be intensifying. He's a pretty gassy little dude. He's also had an additional fussy time during the day today and yesterday. I'm hoping that doesn't continue!! "They" say fussiness peaks at about 6 weeks and should subside by 3 months.. Well, one month down, two to go.... I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

Monday 28 May 2007

Making progress..

First of all, thanks to Nana and Grandpa for coming on Thursday to help a sore Mommy take Alex to the doc (thought she might have another ear infection...) - especially Nana, who set herself back by coming down. (She hurt her back doing "yardwork". I won't go into details here.)

Also, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for coming on the weekend to help out and to visit. Alexandria really had fun with Grandpa this weekend. She was all over him this time! She still loves Grandma, but boy, did she LOVE her Grandpa!! It was too funny when Grandma was talking about grocery shopping and she asked Alexandria if she liked going grocery shopping. Alex replied with "Not with you." Out of the mouth of babes!

On the sleeping front, Zach has been sleeping in his crib from about 12, 1 or 2am or so until his morning feeding around 8am (or 9am this morning). He wakes up once (sometimes more) in between there to eat, but then goes back down. He still has his fussy time in the evening, which is hard, but it's not that bad in the whole scheme of things. Mommy and Daddy are enjoying being able to sleep in the bed again!!

And it was a great morning. We ALL slept in until 9am! Alex, Zach, Mommy and Daddy. Yay!

Saturday 26 May 2007

Back on the couch



But, in a good way. I didn't have to resort to sleeping with Zach in my arms again. I tried to get him to settle in his crib last night, which he wouldn't. It was pretty stuffy and humid in our room and we couldn't keep the window open because the people across the parking lot decided 2am was a great time to blast their music with the screen door open. Anyway, we came downstairs and I got him to settle in his playpen and I slept on the couch. He slept from about 2:45 or so until 4:30, then ate, then went down until 8:15!! I got some real sleep - and so did Jean-Paul, who was upstairs in our bed.

The downside is that Zachary likes to sleep on his tummy - and that's not recommended anymore because "it may be a contributing factor in SIDS". What to do?

(Also, Grandma and Grandpa are here for the weekend to visit and help Mommy out. Thanks!! And they came bearing gifts - always an added bonus:) The pictures above are of Alex helping Grandpa do Sudoku.

Friday 25 May 2007

I didn't sleep on the couch last night!

Hooray for The Baby Whisperer method. After Zach's 2am feeding, we tried putting him in the crib, rather than sleeping in my arms on the couch. I just kept going with the "pick up put down" method The Baby Whisperer suggests. It means pick the baby up when he cries, but as soon as he stops put him down again. I would put him down, leave my hand on him and slowly remove that, back away and try to get into bed. It took about an hour and 15 minutes of doing that, with varying lengths of time between pick-ups, to get him to settle and sleep in his crib. I thought it might even take longer, so it wasn't too bad. Then he slept from 4am to about 5:30 or 6am in his crib!!! (A poopie diaper woke him up and he was getting hungry.) YAY!! It's a start. Then I tried to put him in his crib again and he was settled pretty quickly and then I dropped something.... So, Jean-Paul shot up and I had to soothe him first (I put my hand on his back and said "It's ok. It's ok. Shhhh".) Then I went and did the same thing with Zach, but he decided he was still hungry. We'll see how tonight goes... It may take longer if we try to do it during his fussier time, but this was definitely a good sign that he will be in his crib regularly soon. No more couch!

Thursday 24 May 2007

Some videos for your viewing pleasure

(If this works) Here are some links to YouTube where you can view some video:

Monkey Welcomes Gobo Home (April 24)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnoJIxcjuos

Gobo's First Time at the Piano (May 9)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwV7MS10kGc

Jacki on The Mom Show (the makeover) (Last May)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuQWKQ46ABU

Jean-Paul as the Dough Dude on A-Channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGucIQ7UPKw

Monkey and her Big Girl Bed (Feb 28)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0jFAokpMNo

Any other videos I post I'll put either Monkey or Gobo in the title.

I really did it this time

Well. I was feeling better, so, guess what? I over did it. Just like I had told myself not to. Just like everyone else had warned me not to. But, you get to that point you THINK you're better, so you do what you normally would do and BAM... I set myself back at least a couple of weeks. I'm pretty sore again. Yes, I'm an idiot....

Oh - both kids are napping - at the same time!! And, of course I'm WIDE awake.. can't sleep!

An added note: ... I've just wasted over an hour of both kids napping AT THE SAME TIME. If I had known they would both stay asleep this long I would have forced myself to try to sleep!

That explains the helicopter....

Yesterday starting around 3pm or so I kept hearing a helicopter flying around every once in a while. I knew they must be looking for someone because it's not on a tour route or anything for site-seeing. Then I turned on the 6 o'clock news and saw the "school shooting" at CW Jeffreys. (The reason a put school shooting in quotes is because it wasn't really a school shooting per say, but a shooting that happened in a school.) This school is right around the corner from here. In fact, if we lived here long enough, the kids probably would have gone there. (See why we're moving?!) Apparently the shooting took place near the pool. I took Alex for a swimming lesson at that pool once, but cancelled the lessons because the pool was too cold. The news vehicles are still at the school today - and as far as I know, they haven't caught the shooter yet.. We'll see on the news what the status is.

Tuesday 22 May 2007

This little piggy...

Zachary is up to 8 lbs 3 oz already! You can see it in his face. He's getting rounder and he has a double chin :)

I was saying to the midwives today at our appointment that you'd think after a month we'd have gotten the hang of the "peanut" and not be getting peed on anymore. Just after saying that they were undressing him to take a peek at everything and to weigh him when - waterworks! I joked that even trained professionals can't avoid it! Then they took him over to weigh him and Tracy, the primary midwife, said he won't pee again - and bam! Peed on them again! And then about an hour later I was changing him and I had just pulled the diaper back when, you guessed it, he peed again!! I guess he's getting enough milk, eh?! I think it's his way of getting back at us...

And Alexandria amazes us every day. Yesterday we were driving and we passed by a lot with a pile of dirt and chain link fence around it and she said "There's no machines in there." I think it's pretty cool that she saw the lot, processed that it looked like a construction site of sorts and that there should be machines there. It may not seem like much, but I think it's pretty cool she makes those kind of connections. I think she may just be smarter than her mommy and daddy.

Monday 21 May 2007

I can't believe....

I can't believe...
it's been a month already! Time does fly. I look at Alexandria and that for sure holds true! I'm sure I'll be looking at a walking, talking Zachary before I know it, too.

I can't believe...
how idiotic some people can be! People in the complex have been shooting off fireworks all weekend. That's fine. (Even though you probably shouldn't shoot off fireworks in a townhouse complex to begin with..). But tonight - the neighbours are shooting them directly into the ravine that's filled with trees! We're keeping our eyes peeled for a fire to start... Well, at least they're not shooting them at the townhouses (that we know of). We need to move before our IQs drop too far simply by living here!

I can't believe...
how strong the Yovanoff gene is! With John, I think it was in his early 20s. With Jean-Paul, it was during his teens. With poor Zachary - four weeks. Yes, the poor little dude is losing his hair. And not uniformly all over his head. Oh no. Just the top (for now anyway). So, he's got a billiard ball top with the little peach fuzz he was born with on the sides and back. He really does look like an old man (I mean his daddy) now! (I know the hair falling out is a perfectly normal thing to happen to babies, but it does look a little silly at the moment!

I can't believe...
that I still haven't gotten around to taking those newborn pictures I really want to do. To quote Jack Bauer: "We're running out of time!" I want to do the "hands" and "feet" pictures, as well as some cute naked newborn shots I've seen done. If we're going to do it, we better get our butts in gear - at least Zachary's butt in gear.

Sunday 20 May 2007

Will I ever see sun again?

I was able to get out of the house when it was just Zach and I, but I'm finding it very hard to get coordinated enough to do it with two kids. We missed a beautiful day yesterday and it looks like today will pass us by without our getting outside, too. I'll figure out how to do it soon! I will make it outside again someday... Just not today!

Saturday 19 May 2007

That looks like a smile to me...


And Baby Wrestling! (Guess whose idea that was...)

What a show!

(Yes, yet another entry today!)

Tonight Alexandria put on quite the show for us (well first just me and a sleeping Zach, then Jean-Paul joined the audience as well). She started off by singing a few songs (original Alexandria compositions, I might add) then she walked "off stage" - after applause, of course. She then came back "on stage" and said "Welcome. Welcome back everybody" and proceeded with her second act! This set was an interactive sing-along. For her third act, she had to change sets! She then brought out her air guitar and sang some rock and roll. It was quite the show. I finally did catch some of it on video. Man, I wish I had the whole thing. If there was ANY doubt that she is truly Jean-Paul's daughter, I think this puts it to rest!

Progress!

There has been no banging/hammering next door since I dropped a friendly, neighbourly note through their mail slot gently reminding the occupants that we all lived in townhouses...

Also, Zach has been asleep in his bouncy chair, without being bounced or any sort of intervention, for 1 hour and 18 minutes so far! (Damn it, I think I hear him crying now....) Oh well, it was a good step in the not-sleeping-on-people direction! (I think he stopped crying.. Better go check anyway!)

My sweeties



Here are a couple pics of my wonderful kids! (And check out the older posts. I've added some pictures there, too).

Who's a big fat man?


Daddy, apparently! Out of the blue the other night Alexandria called Daddy a big, fat man. Poor Daddy!

Both kids are being quiet right now (hence my getting a chance to "blog"). Zach is sleeping in his swing (which he'll do from time to time). His location of choice is still in someone's arms - whose arms he's not picky about. Alexandria is chillin' on the couch watching Mightly Machines. Even though Zachary still won't let us put him down for very long, we're lucky that he's generally not inconsolable. Once he's picked up he does settle (usually). We do have to break him of this habit very soon, though! We're going to have to make a concerted effort to get him to sleep in his crib, at least at night.

Oh, and the poor little dude has a cold (courtesy of his sister). He doesn't get that he could just open his mouth and breathing would be easier. We're using saline drops to help ease the congestion a bit. He's not got it too bad, but it's hard to watch him struggle with it.

Less than three weeks until we close on the house! And then the REAL chaos shall begin!! :)

Thursday 17 May 2007

That's not supposed to happen yet!


Zach rolled over! A fluke I'm sure, but sheesh! I put him on his tummy in the playpen, went to the kitchen, came back and he was on his back.


He's already enjoying the piano - as shown in the picture. Alexandria still loves that thing! It's gotten A LOT of use - and it's going to get a lot more.

We're still taking shifts with one of us in the bed actually sleeping, and one on the couch with Zachary - sort of sleeping. We still need to convince him the crib is not a scary place. Soon, soon.... In the meantime, we're pretty tired and nothing is getting done around here! (Although I am doing laundry right now, so SOMETHING is getting accomplished today, I mean other than sustaining the lives of our children).

Monday 14 May 2007

It's raining men!


Thanks to Drew and Cary for creating a playmate for Zachary! Aidan arrived early (just like big sis Lilly). They were nice enough to make a playmate for Alexandria a couple years ago, so I guess they just thought it was fair that Zach would have a boy his age to play with. I just hope they all like each other when they get older! :)

As for us? We're doing ok. Alex have a cold and a bit of a fever over the weekend, but she's better now. We're still busy trying to get everything done for the house. Just little things here and there. On top of house stuff, I still have to call Angelcare to complain about the "new and improved" monitor and hopefully get my money back - it only picks up sound that's at a certain level. For example a baby crying rather than just making some sounds - stuff you can hear WITHOUT the monitor! I still need to call Graco to complain about the stroller and hopefully get a wheel repair kit. It's two weeks old and has been out about 4 times and the wheel's already loose! And I still have to deal with Wee Watch - they still haven't told us our caregiver is going away for 3 weeks as of June 1 - and they didn't give us a credit we should have gotten. They've been under new management for a few months and the new management still hasn't figured out things yet...

But all in all things are going pretty smoothly, really. I'm recovering pretty well and Zach is sleeping fairly well - again, as long as he's on us.. We'll have to try to get him to sleep in his crib soon. And we've also discoved he likes his tummy better than his back. Of course, you're not supposed to let them sleep on their tummies now. Oh well, it will all come together soon - and we'll be missing this newborn stage because it will be over before we know it. (Can you tell which one's the real baby in the picture?)

Thursday 10 May 2007

"Out" on my own

I left the house without Zachary for the first time today. I haven't been without him for, what, 9 and a half months! So, it's always a wee bit weird the first time. I went and picked up Alexandria from daycare and took her to the library for a bit of "Mommy and Alex" time. It was short, of course, since I have to fit in my "outings" between feedings!

Today Alex was telling me my tummy wasn't sore anymore and I could hold her now. I told her I was better, but still a bit sore and I would be able to pick her up soon, but not quite yet. I try to cuddle with her as much as possible and give her lots of kisses when Daddy is holding her up.

I'm soooo tired. Maybe I'll try to go to bed now... 'Night!

Wednesday 9 May 2007

They're at it again!!

For the love of cheese! The neighbours have decided that 9pm is a perfect time to begin banging away again! I don't know what they are doing next door, but they're putting up a lot of shelves, or pictures, or something. I'm ready to go next door - in my robe, holding Zach - and ask them what in the hell they are thinking. We're having a hard time getting Alex to sleep tonight.. wonder why..

Another curve ball!!


So far, this is how June was going to go...
June 7: close on house
Next two weeks: clean ducts, rip up carpet, take down wallpaper (you should see this wallpaper! Check out the picture), paint, put down laminate, put up fence, steam clean remaining carpet (and anything else that came up) - oh and maybe redo a bathroom. All the while packing in Toronto...
Final week of June: Finish packing, move and settle into new house

All this with a month and a half old baby and two and 3/4 year old (whose in daycare 3 days a week - thank goodness!). And, of course, a Mommy still working back up to speed...

Now here's the curve ball we were thrown yesterday... Our daycare provider is taking THREE WEEKS holidays in JUNE!! (Couldn't have been July, eh?) She told the administrators in FEBRUARY and she happened to bring it up in conversation with Jean-Paul yesterday assuming he already knew. NOPE! So now, we will have Alex around the whole time we're trying to do all this stuff. I guess on the upside - it will save us money!

So, looks like we'll try to sleep in July! (Right, Zach?!)

Screams to left of us, Banging to the right..

Here we are stuck in the middle....

Oh, how we are looking forward to leaving our townhouse! The family on one side CONSTANTLY screams at each other from about 7am in the morning onwards. The neighbours on the other side think it is perfectly fine to nail things to the wall at 9:00, 9:15 or even 10:15 at night! And then test the speaker they just hung on the wall by blasting the bass....

Grandma was here for a few days. She left a few hours ago. Thanks again!! You were a big help. Goofy Grandpa tagged in for the afternoon to help out the Alex and Zach. (Nana's back is keeping her at home today). Thanks so much to Nana and Grandpa for all their help, too!!

I gave Zach a bit of formula last night and he took to it pretty well. He wouldn't settle, so I thought "Let's try something different". He liked it. He looked a bit confused as to how he was getting milk when the jugs were tucked away, but he didn't seem to care! He did settle after that and we had a pretty quiet night. We did still take shifts, though. Zach slept on Jean-Paul downstairs for the first 2/3s of the night and then we switched off in the wee hours and Daddy went up the bed for actual sleep and Mommy took the Zach/couch shift. Although we don't want to make it an unbreakable habit for him to be sleeping on us, we really just need him to sleep at this point - however that happens!

Sunday 6 May 2007

Settling in..

Well, two weeks in and I think we're settling in a bit. He's doing really well at sleeping (during the day...). Today he did a five hour stretch! We also had a playpen breakthrough. I put him in it awake and he put himself to sleep and stayed in it for an hour! He also put himself back to sleep a couple times, too. He did a different 45 minute stretch later in his playpen, too. So, we really can't complain when he has an hour or two of fussy time at night...

Today Grandma, Alex, Mommy and Zach all went to playgroup, then grocery shopping, got some Wendy's and headed home to eat. Zachary slept the whole time and finally woke up when Mommy was trying to eat. Rocking him in the car seat with my foot while eating did the trick for enough time to scarf down lunch. It had been 5 hours since he'd eaten. Can't blame the guy for being a bit urgent! Alexandria was a very good girl almost the whole time, too. We are very blessed!!

I'll try to post more pictures soon, too. We've taken some, just haven't gotten them off the camera.

Saturday 5 May 2007

A blast at the farm!

Grandma is here for the weekend. Yay! More help for Mommy!! Grandpa was briefly here, too, to drop Grandma off and visit. Once Grandma got here, we packed a lunch, packed the kids (still getting used to that being plural!) and headed to Riverdale Farm. Daddy was working so it was Mommy, Alexandria, Zachary and Grandma. Alexandria loved hauling Grandma around to see all the animals, while Mommy kept up with Zach in the double (monster) stroller. Can you believe Zachary slept the WHOLE time!? He ate around 10:30-11:00 and then I had to wake him up at 3:00 to get changed and to eat! Then he went right back to sleep again for the whole car ride and back home for a bit until 6:00pm when he got hungry again. He's still sleeping as we blog. Now, if we could just get him to do that AT NIGHT!!!

Today at the farm the sheep got sheared (missed that part) and then they were herded. Alexandria thought that was pretty cool. She's watching Babe right now - since there's a sheep-herding dog in that, too. We're still trying to get her to understand the difference between the dogs "herding" the sheep and "hurting" the sheep. She's a bit confused at this point by the two words. They do sound very similar.

All and all it was a great day. Great weather. Great fun. Now we're all very tired! Good night.

Friday 4 May 2007

Still getting used to the difference in anatomy...

Daddy and I keep getting peed on. Zach's managed to only pee on himself once. We're still trying to used to this slight difference when changing diapers! I even got a gush when I was holding him. (Have to remember that it must point DOWN into the diaper!)

Losing body parts left and right


Poor little Zachary. His imbilical cord fell off Monday, then Tuesday we took him to get "snipped". He's probably wondering what he's going to lose next!

As far as the snipping went - it wasn't all that smooth... The actual event went well. They numb him with cream for an hour, then there's the needle and a 20 minute wait, then a pretty quick procedure and we were done. That was all wrapped up around noon and we went home. Then he had a diaper change mid-afternoon and he still had a bit of bleeding. I decided not to worry too much yet, then around 6:30 (next diaper change) he was still bleeding a bit, so I called the Doc and he met me back at the clinic. It's great they have a day or night number and are that accessible - but I guess it is a pretty important procedure to get right! The Doc's words were that it was "not worrisome, but not normal either". Great. He said to keep an eye on it, and if it got worse to call him anytime day or night. It got better over the course of the next day and we waited one more day to give Zach a bath. Everything seems to be ok now.

Last night was very exhausting. He was quite fussy. He was quite gassy, too, so I think that may have been it. Daddy and Mommy are pretty tired. Luckily Alexandria isn't bothered by the crying! She's still a great sleeper. She's also quite protective of Mommy now, too. I had said to Jean-Paul I was going to try carrying Zach in a sling. He reminded me I was still recovering and said "Don't be a hero". Alex said to Daddy, "Don't talk to Mommy like that!" She's so cute. She's definitley being more "bull-headed" lately. She loves her little brother, but is acting out in other ways to deal with all these changes. It's been nice that Nana and Grandpa have taken her overnight a couple times since Zach's arrival. We get to sleep a bit more!

Grandma's coming for the weekend, since Daddy has two 12 hour days on Sat and Sun. I could use the extra help. It's great to have all this support!