Best Laid Plans

Wow it has been ages since I updated

2010-08-10T22:11:00.008-04:00

In case anyone still reads this blog I thought I would post an update. So Kian is now 6 years old and will be starting grade 1 in Sept. Niamh will be 3 on Sept 4.

So this is a picture taken on Father's Day at the Toronto Zoo of Kian and Niamh.

I am not sure you can see that Niamh has no hair ... she started pulling it out just before her 2nd birthday and in peak times of stress does a number on her head. Just days after her 2nd birthday we shaved her head to try to change her habit of pulling it out. It did work until they decided to switch her to preschool from toddler rooms at daycare and we started potty training. Suddenly she had a growing bald spot so we shaved it again. She is still pulling out and even started on the front of her hair too. If anyone has experiences this I would love to hear what happened. Dr says she will out grow it ... I sure hope so.

Here is the before photo

and the after

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-06T14:26:00.002-04:00

MOTHERS
Real Mothers don't eat quiche;
They don't have time to make it.

Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils
Are probably in the sandbox.

Real Mothers often have sticky floors,
Filthy ovens and happy kids.

Real Mothers know that dried play dough
Doesn't come out of carpets.

Real Mothers don't want to know what
The vacuum just sucked up.

Real Mothers sometimes ask 'Why me?'
And get their answer when a little
Voice says, 'Because I love you best.'

Real Mothers know that a child' s growth
Is not measured by height or years or grade...

It is marked by the progression of Mommy to Mom to Mother...

The Images of Mother
4 YEARS OF AGE - My Mommy can do anything!
8 YEARS OF AGE - My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.
14 YEARS OF AGE - Naturally, Mother doesn't know that, either.
16 YEARS OF AGE - Mother? She's hopelessly old-fashioned.
18 YEARS OF AGE - That old woman? She's way out of date!
25 YEARS OF AGE - Well, she might know a little bit about it!
35 YEARS OF AGE - Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion.
45 YEARS OF AGE - Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
65 YEARS OF AGE - Wish I could talk it over with Mom.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears,or the figure she
carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes,
Because that is the doorway to her heart,
The place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole,
But true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.

It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she
Shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!

Obsessions

2009-04-11T10:47:00.003-04:00

As many of you know I tend to obsess over things. The most recent objects of my obsession have been the Twilight Saga and all that that entails as well as yes, again (I hear groans) The New Kids On the Block. Yes, it is like revisiting me when I was 13-18 right?

So I think I already blogged about Twilight so let's make this about NKOTB. Some of you might be aware that NKOTB announced their reunion a year ago April 4. Since then I have been to 5 shows. Two this tour and three last tour. Two in Toronto, one in Detroit, one in London and then one in Grand Rapids. The one in Grand Rapids was by far the best one.

I drove down with three friends who are big fans. We met some really great people outside the arena. Stayed in a fabulous hotel. I met the guys with 9 of my friends and got a photo (fav. guy's arm around me) and then watched the show from front row. Best birthday present ever (thanks gals). I will post the video I took and then the photos.

I think if you click on it it will be bigger.

Sorry Amy had to crop you ;)

Spring has sprung

2009-04-02T22:37:00.006-04:00

Well the weather here in London was a balmy 18 C when I got to the van today. I was actually warm in my light jacket. That being said I have a confession to make.

I am a bad Mommy

Niamh will be 19 months old on Saturday and today I finally managed to get her to her 15 month Well Baby checkup oops. To be fair I did take her in Dec but she had a fever, Jan fever again, Feb looks like she was getting something so they wouldn't give her the two shots she needed. In March I missed two appts because I completely overlooked them. <--there is my bad Mommy moment --

Today I made sure to have it written in both of my calendars at work, my outlook calendar, on the home calendar, Ryan emailed me and I wrote it on the daycare signup sheet incase I forgot. I managed to pick Niamh up and get her to the Dr on time ... yay me! She got two shots and boy was she angry. She watched the Dr put the needle into her arm and was ticked. She screeched in anger when it was over ... then, still screaming, she waved and said 'bye' to all the staff. I tried not to laugh ... it was quite comical.

I will try to post a few photos tonight of her. I took some after she asked to have clips in her hair.

March update - My son is now 5!

2009-03-16T13:08:00.002-04:00

Ok so I thought I should do a post about my 5 year old who seems more like 35 some days and 13 others. So yesterday being Sunday Ryan took Niamh shopping with him to get groceries . She loves to shop and her response when you ask if she wants to go shopping is 'Ooooo' which she says when she looks at new clothes etc. Such a girl. This means that my son was home with me. It was a beautiful day so I suggested he help me do laundry and then we could go play outside. He was ok with that and followed me upstairs to the laundry room. I was filling the washing machine and he was helping when I caught my left pinky toe on the metal tub that the washing machine sits in (to prevent overflow). It hurt so much I screamed and fell to the ground. Now Kian has seen me in pain before but man this kid is so calm. He simply said 'Mommy are you ok'. When I didn't respond he tried a few more times trying to see my face (which I buried in the carpet). Then he pulled my sock from the foot I was clutching and announced 'No blood ... Mommy that is very good.' Tears were now streaming down my face the pain was so bad. He then says 'can you put weight on it?' I almost started laughing. When did my 5 year old get so pratical? I tried to put weight on it and was able to hobble a bit. I hobbled down the stairs as he followed me. He says 'you are limping because you hurt your foot. It is making you slow.' I agreed and he told me how fast he could go. I had a basket in my arms and was blocking his way around me. He then says 'It's ok I can follow you I don't have to be fast'. I had to laugh ... silly kid.

As many people who know Kian have observed he is quite an entertainer. His latest facination is Mama Mia the movie. He really likes to watch it and sing along. His favourite line from a song? 'Money, Money, Money ... in a rich man's world' cracks me up everytime he belts it out.

This morning I was putting on knee high nylons (which I NEVER wear) and he is watching me. He says 'Mom those are just like the ones Grandma wears' lol Ryan tells him he thinks of his grandma too when he sees them lol

I think I already posted about my obsession with the Twilight Saga before. Well it has rubbed off onto Kian. He can't wait til I get the DVD Saturday and has been talking about the vampires all weekend. He drew a picture of them on the driveway in chalk. He put the three bad vampires with red eyes on one side and the Cullen family on the other. He keeps telling me he won't be scared at the end during the fight scene ... he promises. LOL silly boy!

Bad blogger

2009-02-10T22:19:00.002-05:00

Ok yes I am a terrible blogger. I joined twitter and got caught up in the Twilight Saga and there goes my free time!

We are almost at Kian's 5th birthday. He is in JK and sometimes I wonder where my sweet little man went. His favourite things are hot wheels, lego and super heros. We are still dealing with nightmares when he has watches something a little to scary.

Niamh on the other hand is approaching 18 months. She is starting to talk a lot more. The latest is 'ot ea' which is hot tea. She drops the first sound. Her favourite things are baby dolls. She also loves to shake her bootie. Her smile is infectious. She is just as adorable as her brother was at this age.

I am happy to say I have lost more than 20lbs since this time last year!!! I started working out in October with my friends Leslie and Laurie. We usually hit the gym Mon and Wed night and it is really motivating to lose the baby weight. 3 more pounds and I will be back to my preNiamh weight.

Other than my Twilight Saga obsession ... I am really into watching Big Bang Theory. Sheldon just cracks me up ... I could watch it all day.

Oh ya Ryan got a new job. He starts Feb 26th with Development Engineering (London0 Limited

The Official Canadian Temperature Conversion Chart

2009-01-16T14:21:00.000-05:00

50° Fahrenheit (10° C)

·New Yorkers try to turn on the heat.

·Canadians plant gardens.

40° Fahrenheit (4.4° C)

·Californians shiver uncontrollably.

·Canadians Sunbathe.

35° Fahrenheit (1.6° C)

·Italian Cars won't start

·Canadians drive with the windows down

32° Fahrenheit (0 ° C)

·Distilled water freezes

·Canadian water get thicker.

0° Fahrenheit (-17.9° C)

·New York City landlords finally turn on the heat.

·Canadians have the last cookout of the season.

-40° Fahrenheit (-40° C)

·Hollywood disintegrates.

·Canadians rent some videos.

-60° Fahrenheit (-51° C)

·Mt. St. Helens freezes.

·Canadian Girl Guides sell cookies door-to-door.

-100° Fahrenheit (-73° C)

·Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.

·Canadians pull down their ear flaps.

-173° Fahrenheit (-114° C)

·Ethyl alcohol Freezes.

·Canadians get frustrated when they can't thaw the keg.

-460° Fahrenheit (-273° C)

·Absolute zero; all atomic motion stops.

·Canadians start saying "cold, eh?"

-500° Fahrenheit (-295° C)

·Hell freezes over.

·The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup.

Music is my life at least my memories

2008-12-21T20:34:00.003-05:00

So I was watching Westlife live from Croke Park this morning and I realized as all these memories came to me as music played. Back when I was pregnant with Kian (and we are talking big ol belly time) Westlife released Turnaround. My lil sis Becka over in Australia sent me the cd and I use to listen to it every morning in the shower. I always started with track one Mandy and ended my shower with Hey Whatever which I sang at the top of my lungs everyday. When Kian was born he loved to listen to the cd. Even just hearing it now makes me want to belt it out.

My favourite Westlife song has and will always be World of our Own. I remember when Becka called me from the Westlife concert and let me listen to this song on my birthday. Watching that video of the lads brought all these memories back. I mean I have been a fan of the band since 1998. That is just a tad longer then I have been married.

I remember listening to Michael Buble's album Come Fly With Me when Kian was a wee baby. It use to be the only thing that could stop him when he was crying. I use to hold him in his dark room and just dance around to that cd and he would quiet and sleep.

Niamh on the other hand is totally different from Kian. Yes, she loves music and loves to dance like him but when she was a baby music didn't calm her like it did him. She has refused to go to sleep without her cd player playing Westlife's Love Album on repeat. If it stops she will wake up upset ... when I was watching the dvd this morning she recognized one of the songs and laid in my arms ready to snuggle for naps. What a creature of habit she is. She does get excited when I play the latest New Kids On the Block cd but that is just because it is the only thing she has heard for the past what 4 months? LOL

There is a song that every time I hear it it takes me back to the playground at Stoneybrook PS. My gradeschool best friend Sheila and I use to sing this at the top of our lungs while we swung on the tire swing. It was very popular back 1982.

If I go back a little further this song brings back memories of my early childhood playing in the basement of our house listening to the radio. It must have been either after Christmas or my birthday because I recall having just been given a new doll that walked away from you and then turned and came back. I could have sworn that this song was written for my doll called Baby Come Back to me. Now that I look into it I was likely 3 at the time.

Here is another memory that comes up everytime I hear this song. I was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast before going to kindergarten. This song was on the radio as we were sitting there. I thought it was about termites cause they eat dust was what I thought. Hehehe oh yes I was a complex child hehehe.

I need to go do my daughter's passport application so I will leave it here.

Photos taken today ... enjoy

2008-12-09T22:17:00.002-05:00

Ok so I took some photos tonight and lucky you ... you get to see them

Real Questions asked about Canada

2008-12-04T09:53:00.001-05:00

Q: I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow? (England)
A. We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and watch them die.

Q: Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street? (USA)
A: Depends on how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto-can I follow the Railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only four thousand miles, take lots of water.

Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Canada? (Sweden)
A: So it's true what they say about Swedes.

Q: Are there any ATM's (cash machines) in Canada? Can you send me a list of them in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Halifax? (England)
A: What, did your last slave die?

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Canada? (USA)
A: A-Fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. Ca-na-DA is that big country to your North...oh, just forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Calgary. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is North in Canada? (USA)
A: Face south then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Canada? (England)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Aus-t-RI-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-many, which is...oh, just forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Vancouver and in Calgary, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Do you have perfume in Canada? (Germany)
A: No, WE don't stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Where can I sell it in Canada? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada? (USA)
A: Only at Thanksgiving.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Toronto and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of Vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Canada, but I forget its name. It's a kind of big horse with horns. (USA)
A: It's called a Moose. They are tall and very violent, eating the brains of anyone walking close to them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you will have to learn it first.

Goodness it is almost Christmas!

2008-11-25T22:39:00.006-05:00

So I have been way slack as my past few posts have shown. September was a whirlwind of my starting back to work, Niamh starting daycare, Kian starting JK as well as Niamh turing 1. I added a few New Kids on the Block shows into the mix with travelling to Toronto and it was a crazy month.

October wasn't as monumental but we were still getting use to the changes along with all the birthdays to be celebrated (Aunt Kathy, Aunt Robyn, Aunt Teri). I added another New Kids on the Block show and a travel to Detroit so that was fun ... Aunt Robyn and I enjoyed our last day of being a groupie.

November has been very busy at work but thank goodness quiet at home.

Niamh update: Niamh is almost 15 months old and 25lbs. She is just outgrowing her 12-18 month tops in the belly and pants in the length. Last week she had a rough go that started with a high fever and a trip to the peds walkin on the Saturday. She was diagnosed with an ear infection in her left ear and pnuemonia. She was given strong antibiotics and sent home with an inhaler to help her breathe. By Monday her meds were finished but she still had a high fever ... daycare called me to pick her up and we ended up at Children's Emergency. Well let me tell you my little girl is more stubborn than even I am. She held her pee for 4 hours and refused to pee in the bag they strapped on her. Luckily they agreed to send us home with a bag I could attach and remove. All this after she had a chest xray and lots of poking and prodding. In the end they decided she had strep on top of her first two diagnosed issues. Well doesn't the daycare call the next day to say she has a full body rash. Off to the Dr we go and she now has a viral rash. Ugly little rash but luckily she didn't seem to notice it. Thank goodness she is back to her happy self now.

Kian Update: Kian is getting close to 5 years old and 35lbs. He is wee but has a voice that carries. His legs have finally grown so that his size 4 pants are high water ones. His top half is still small so no change in top size. He is very into learning his letters but not really interested in his numbers. He writes his own name and loves to pretend he is reading the books he has memorized. He and Niamh are really starting to interact (he is her idol). He is one of those children who is caring and thoughtful one minute and mean the next. Tonight on the way to Niamh's room before their bath he kicked her hard in the legs to trip her seconds after telling her how much he loved her. I was appauled! He got in trouble but I don't know how to prevent him from doing the act in the first place.

I will end this post with a few recent photos.

Dear Red States:

2008-11-04T13:24:00.000-05:00

Someone posted this on a Canadian board I belong to ... love it

Dear Red States:

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and

we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware,

that includes California , Hawaii , Oregon , Washington , Minnesota ,

Wisconsin, Michigan , Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe

this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the

people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas , Oklahoma and all the slave

states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the

Statue of Liberty . You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You

get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of

America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama . We

get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay

their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the

Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. Please be

aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're

going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need

people to fight, ask your evangelicals.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent

of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple

and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of

America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners)

90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most

of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and

condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford , Cal

Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to

cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected

health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100

percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent

of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all

televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University , Clemson and the

University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite , thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was

actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred

unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent

say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was

involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you

are people with higher morals than we lefties.

Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed

they grow in Mexico

Peace out,

Blue States

My night ... gahhh

2008-10-30T22:56:00.004-04:00

Ok so let's start with the msn late this afternoon where my husband tells me his mother is coming over. As you know my mother in law and I aren't the best of friends ... but we have been coexisting lately quite well. Short notice drop in and I do not get along, especially when it is a school night and we have plans (carving pumpkins).

Then I got home and read and email that sent chills through me. My friend Leslie had rushed her 2 year old son to the ER with concerns of another seizure. He has had a seizure before when his fever spikes quickly. So I was on pins and needles as my mother in law arrives.

On top of that Niamh had only had one nap that ended at 12:30 and it was now 6pm she was a mess. My kids are use to eating at 5:30pm so even Kian was starting to get grumpy. Ryan ended up cooking steaks on the bbq and reheating scalloped potatoes. We sat down to supper and I was feeding Niamh when my MIL decides we should pray. Now don't get me wrong I am not against saying thanks for the meal, we just don't on a regular basis so it is confusing to the kids. So I didn't pray I just kept feeding Niamh to stop her from screaming. I got the worst looks from her. Then my son being who he is (never backs down from an arguement) says that Batman can kill God. He has no idea what he is saying ... he is just blabbing and man my MIL loses her mind. The only way to get Kian to stop is to change the topic. I tried to redirect him to school but she would not let it go. LOL someday she will learn.

So then I hear that Leslie and Rowan are home and that no one knows what the deal is with him. Poor kid still has a fever but they sent him home as his xrays were clear.

Then I had to go to my bestfriend's place as her mother was being an inconsiderate 'B' man she never fails to surprise me that woman. As I am with her listening to what is going on in her life I get a frantic call from my husband. He tells me my 4 year old has peed the bed and puked. On top of that our 13 month old is screaming and can't be comforted. I ran out of my bestfriend's place so fast and literally flew home.

I get in the door to find out he overreacted. Niamh was upset but only cause I wasn't there. Turns out while Ryan was comforting Niamh in her room, Kian woke up and thought he saw the bat symbol in the sky. He then got scared of the Joker and started calling Ryan. When Ryan didn't come (he didn't hear Kian) he started to cry and wet his bed from fear. Then cause he has a cold he started choking on the snot and puked. Ryan then heard Kian and came running ... I got a call shortly after that. What a night!

For me this is exciting!

2008-10-09T11:59:00.001-04:00

I have wanted to see this band since what 1998 after they were last here. At least I can buy the DVD and watch them and pretend.

Western Homecoming!

2008-10-04T15:48:00.004-04:00

To hear the band playing he song click HERE

Western, Western, Western U

College fair and square
Arts and Meds are strong for you
Deny it if you dare.
White and purple colours are
worn by all who know
Just which college is the best
Come and let us show.
That this U is our U and for her we'll strive to
Do our best to fight with might and mane.
We will always adore her
Our old Alma Mater
Western School of Fame.

When Western U goes marching down the field
We know our team will never ever yield
And though the other team has lots of pep
When they see our team they'll
Know they're out of step.
And when the game goes down in history
It's just another Western victory
Let all our cheers go out for
Western U, Western U
Rah, Rah, Raaaahh.

KINNANY, KINNANY, KANANNY, KANOO
It's a HULLABA, HULLABA, HULLABALU
Rickity, Rickity, Rackity Roo
High up, Sky up, Western U.
W - E - S - T - E - R - N
WESTERN! WESTERN! WESTERN!

That songs brings back a lot of memories.
Here is my crew waiting for the parade this morning

Yes, I am around

2008-10-03T22:57:00.004-04:00

I am just posting this so you know I am still around. Life is very hectic and I will find time to post. Enjoy part of my recent history.

Video

Talk about being slack!

2008-09-07T21:57:00.003-04:00

Well it has been almost a full month since I last updated. Soooo much has happened it's crazy! So 1) I am back at work. I love my new job it is great! I love my boss and the people I am working with. Niamh had some issues starting daycare fulltime but things are slowly turning around. Her first day I had to go to the daycare at lunch to feed her to sleep. She had refused to eat for them as well as sleep for them. On her second day same thing so I went over at lunch to give her a bottle but she wouldn't sleep for me. Her 3rd day was her birthday. She decided to be a big girl, not only did she eat lunch for them, her bottles and have a nap in the morning but she also slept 2 hours in the afternoon for them! I was soooo proud of her. Friday she wouldn't eat lunch for them but she did drink her bottles and sleep so I was happy.

Friday Kian officially started JK! He goes every afternoon from 1pm to 3:30pm. The daycare walks the kids to school and picks them up. His teacher he tells me is old like Grandma lol I bet she isn't much older than me but to a 4 year old she is ancient.

So Niamh turned one on Thursday ... she is such a good girl. I sometimes find it crazy to just sit and watch her playing with her toys. Kian has only just started to play by himself at the age of 4. Niamh has been doing it since 6 months. We had her birthday party on Saturday. She got totally spoiled by family and friends. She ate cake for the first time and loved it. I will post some photos Kathy took and later add a link to more photos (I haven't uploaded them from my camera yet).

Anyone with a 4 year old sometimes want to stick a For Sale sign on them? I love Kian to bits ... wouldn't trade him for anything but sometimes ... aghhhh! An example tonight was around 6pm we were reorganizing Niamh's closets (we bought organizers) so I had the bumpers for her bedding on the floor (they are stored in the closet) my son took them and laid them out on the floor. Then he encouraged his sister to walk on them. As she stepped on them he pulled them out from under her and laughed hysterically as she fell. Of course he got in trouble for doing this and warned if he did it again he would get a time out. He then tries to do it again!!! I hadn't even moved away and he ignored me. He got his timeout, I had to block his door to keep Niamh from following him. Anyone else dealing with a child that totally ignores you or tries to hurt a sibling on purpose?

Ok here are two photos from Niamh's birthday

Trip down memory lane

2008-08-11T22:45:00.003-04:00

So many people have compared Niamh and Kian over the past year. I occasionally get confused in the middle of the night when Niamh wakes that she isn't Kian (she sleeps in his same sleepsack). Here is a little trip down memory lane of Kian and then Niamh at the same age.

Kian at 6 months in his jolly jumper

I could only find one of Niamh in the same jolly jumper at 8 months

Kian at 6 months eating bubbles

Niamh at 6 months after the bath

Kian at 6 months Detroit Red Wings for my dad

Niamh at 6 months Toronto Maple Leafs ... for me

Kian at 8 months taking steps

Niamh at 8 months taking steps

Kian at 8 months in the exersaucer

Niamh at 8 months in the same exersaucer

Kian at 9 months

Niamh at 10 months

Kian 10 months funny face

Niamh 10 months funny face

Kian my handsome man at 10 months

Niamh my pretty princess at 10 months

The climber is finished!

2008-08-01T12:20:00.002-04:00

Ok so this will be quick as I am packing for our vacation at the cottage but I saw Lisa post an update and realized I hadn't. So here goes it will be via photos. The total was about 25 hours off and on over a month.

The kids just love it so I am happy. I hear Niamh stirring so I have to run but here are two recent photos of the kids

Video of Niamh walking

2008-07-19T12:07:00.004-04:00

Ok so I finally got around to getting a small enough clip of her walking to post. Here goes:
and a second one since I cut myself off in the first lol

Wow it has been way too long

2008-07-11T22:59:00.006-04:00

Sorry for not updating sooner. Not much doing here except building a giant climber. We are a total of 10 hours into the project that has a suggested setup time of 20 hrs. Here is what we have so far then I will post a photo of what it should look like when fully setup.

Day One:

Ryan and his brother Craig working

Kian playing in his new sandbox (we put the turtle sandbox where they suggest you fill it with sand

Here is Niamh watching the action

Day Two:

Here the kids are under the sun tent I setup in the backyard for them

Norm and Ryan are working away

Day three will start tomorrow afternoon. I look forward to it being finished so the kids can play play play.

Day Three: We are at 16 hours now and here is what it looks like. Only thing left is the swingset part.

Where the heck is summer?

2008-06-23T20:34:00.003-04:00

Well it has really cooled off here lately. Rain, 15 degrees C and just sucky weather has been plaguing Southwestern Ontario lately. It is very sad that we had had to cancel so many plans due to weather. The July 1st long weekend is coming up and the weather forecasted is terrible. We go to the cottage every year with Ryan's brother and his wife and now their daughter as well as a few of their friends. I really don't want to have to keep the kids cooped up inside.

Let's see a little update first I guess. Well not only is Niamh a walking concern but she is now officially crawling. She would rather walk and has taken to pulling herself up on the walls as well as furniture. She started crawling last Thursday morning after an ant and has become very good at it. Today she surprised my mom by crawling away from her while they played in the basement.

Kian is going through the defiant 4s. He challenges everything we say and even has taken to talking back. I find that he ignores us more and more and I spend my days punishing his bad behaviour as this kid doesn't care about rewards. He thinks he is entitled to the rewards so now losing the tv is a big punishment that seems to get results. His latest facination is to watch himself pee ... therefore peeing all over our bathroom. Today we had to tell him that he must hold it down and pee in the toilet or lose his tv watching priviledge for the day. No wet floors/walls so far today.

I don't think I have mentioned this here but starting Sept 2 I have a new position. Still at the university but in the Registrar's Office. I am very excited to start something new and hope it will be a great building block to bigger and better things. My ideal job would still be working up in HR for the HRIS manager but for now I am happy. I start back to work June 30 on paper but will take 45 days vacation to bring me to the start of my new position.

We are looking into getting a play structure for the backyard and are likely getting the one at Sam's Club. Hopefully I will be able to post photos of our kids on it in the next month or so ;)

Niamh in the lake

matching outfits

Just a family photo to share

2008-06-09T17:16:00.002-04:00

We got the kids a turtle pool

2008-05-27T22:09:00.002-04:00

Well this past weekend the Toys R Us flyer came out with the turtle pools on sale 50% off. Each year I say I want one and then wait until the hot weather only to find stores sold out. So this year we bought it straight away. It was a warm day and Kian wanted to swim. Ryan was going to cut the grass so we put the pool up on the deck and filled it with about two inches of water.

Here is Kian the brave taking a dip it was only 20 degrees out

Here he is the next day it was 25 this day and the water was quite warm

This is Niamh's first time in a pool

She LOVES the water

So happy

She even tried to get back in when I took her out lol

Funny Kian stories from the past week

2008-05-24T22:42:00.004-04:00

Ok so I took the kids to my parents at the lake Wed to Friday of this past week. First off as I drove out of the city (it is an hour drive north to their place) Kian fell instantly asleep (he hasn't been napping lately) along with his sister. I drove the whole hour in peace with no questions of 'are we there yet?'. When we got there and I unloaded the van (including the kids) it took Kian a while to warm up to the place and wake up. When he did boy, he gave my dad the entertainment of a lifetime.

Now, Kian is a ham ... most of you know that. Well you should have seen the song and dance routine he did shortly after fully waking up. It lasted likely 15 mins and was quite the show. My dad said he was tired just watching him.

Fast forward to Friday when we decided to take the kids for a walk. Kian was in the wagon and Niamh in her stroller. We walked down the lake a few subdivisions and then turned around and came back. Kian decided he needed to pee half way back. I took him to some bushes and pull down his pants. Now he sits to pee still so standing up is new to him. Ryan did teach him a 'camp pee' but I wasn't around so I didn't know what this meant. I asked Kian if he held his own p*nis or if Ryan did. Kian told me he did ... first mistake listening to a 4 year old who thinks his Mickey Mouse doll comes to life as he sleeps to protect him. Well Kian lets her go and the pee archs in the air I can't see if he is holding it or not as I have his coat and pants to worry about. Next thing I see if the arch of pee hitting the brim of his baseball cap and landing on his face. The whole time he is laughing hysterically as I am yelling 'hold you p*nis down ... down Kian'. Well we came away with a pee covered hat, jacket and face.

The next thing that had my parents in hidden fits of laughter happened right before we were leaving to come home. Kian was sitting on the couch watching some Retro Toons show and holding his p*nis. My dad asked if he had to go to the bathroom. Kian's reply 'No papa I am just exercising my p*nis'. My mom had to leave the room she couldn't contain herself. My reply 'Kian p*nises don't need excercising' ... the whole time I say this I am thinking that his father and most other men would beg to differ lol.

If you haven't noticed we have entered the P*nis stage of our 4 year old boy. Everything revolves around it and all of it can have you in stitches honestly.

First time was a great time ... Second time was a blast ...

2008-05-12T23:09:00.002-04:00

Third time I fell in love, Now I hope it lasts

Anyone know what I am getting at? Yes, I was a blockhead ... yes, I went to many concerts. Yes, I am over the moon excited that they are touring again.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK ARE BACK!!!!! Oh yes and I have tickets to the Toronto show ... yay!!!!

So now I am hoping they announce more shows in my area so my co-fan Robyn and I can go relive our youth. Those who know me know my NKOTB connection from the past ... if you don't ... ask me sometime lol.

Niamh thinks walking comes next

2008-05-10T08:38:00.004-04:00

Well Niamh decided at 8 months old that walking should come next before crawling.

this was Niamh right before she turned and did this ...

So I thought it was a one time thing until this when I was trying to get a photo of her outfit.

End of April Update

2008-04-26T07:57:00.004-04:00

Welcome to Spring! Yay the weather has finally warmed up and we can all go outside to play. There is nothing worse than being cooped up inside with two kids.

So here is a little update. Niamh now has two bottom teeth, says 'Dada', screeches with happiness and as of the past few days walked holding two fingers. She is quite stubborn as we already knew. If she doesn't want to sit but wants to walk she will not allow you to bend her body. She loves water and the bath is a favourite right now.

We took her to my parents on Thursday and we took a walk down to the beach (my parents live across the street from the beach on Lake Huron). She was just in awe looking out at all that water. I am sure this summer should be a lot of fun.

Last weekend I went away with the girls for our annual Girls Weekend. We rented a chalet called The Aurora it was great. I posted photos on my facebook and will post some photos on here too in a bit. I would totally go there again next year only I think we will take our van instead of a rental. Also anyone thinking of purchasing a Montana just note there is zero room for storage. We had to put the luggage on our laps and all around us as the back is TINY.

End of March update

2008-03-31T22:56:00.003-04:00

So a lot has happened since I last posted a written blog. Let's start back with the household being sick, all except Ryan.

So March 14th (I think it was that day) I called the Dr to get an appointment for Niamh as her cough was getting really bad. She was throwing up and having issues eating as well as breathing. The Dr didn't find anything wrong other than a viral cough. So off we were sent home to wait it out. In the wee hours of Sunday morning Niamh woke up very upset. She was burning up with a fever of 102.8 anally. We gave her meds but she threw them up. We tried for hours to bring her fever down but she was getting worse. 4am I called the Telehealth and was put on hold. By 4:30am I gave up and hung up the phone. I saw that there was a walkin opening at 10am so I laid down with Niamh on my chest and we tried to keep her comfortable.

At 10am Ryan and Kian headed to church and I took Niamh to the walkin. We got in quickly and she was diagnosed with her first ear infection in her right ear. We were given a prescription and off we went to fill it. At home Ryan and I tried to get Niamh to take it but she just threw it up. We gave her tylenol by suppository and that helped to bring her fever down. We were to give her Amoxicillan 5ml 3 times a day. She threw it up each time but at least her fever was under control.

Monday I went to the dentist as I had a scheduled cleaning and I had a terrible toothache. Turns out it was a sinus infection so my dentist sent me home with a prescription for antibiotics. Kian also had his first dentist appointment and turns out he had two small cavities in his back right molars.

Tuesday morning I was changing Niamh and noticed she was covered in a rash. I posted on a local moms board and was strongly suggested to take her in. I called our Dr and was told it sounded like an allergic reaction to stop giving her the meds and call back after 4pm to see where the clinic would be that night. Instead I took her back to the Children's Walkin. The Dr saw her said she still had a raging ear infection but that she was having a severe reaction to the antibiotics. So off we headed to get the new prescription and some Benadryl.

Once on the new prescription Azythromicin (sp?) that she only had to take once a day for 3 days she was much better. One dose made a huge difference for her.

Now we are all healthy (knock on wood). I will post a few photos from Easter for you to see.
Kian and Niamh Easter Saturday
Niamh Easter Sunday
Kian Easter Sunday
The kids playing at my parents
Niamh and Kian horsing around at home

New photos

2008-03-21T10:50:00.006-04:00

So here are some photos of the kids I took recently. First my kids on St Paddy's Day. I had the shirts made for them I think they are adorable.

I also had to include Kian's highschool musical photos. Here he dressed himself and danced around the house. I told him to pose for a photo and this is what I got.

Since I showed Kian here is a photo of Niamh. She really has her own distinct personality. Very easy going as long as you follow her cues lol.

How did you spend your Spring Break?

2008-03-16T22:45:00.003-04:00

Well we spend ours sick :( Started the Thursday prior with a sore throat for me. Over the weekend it got worse and worse until Sunday I could barely swallow. That night the poops hit me on our way home from Kanya's shower. Monday Ryan headed off to work and he was barely out of the driveway before I began to vomit. I got to the couch and neither of my two kids were any the wiser. Then the poops hit again. 25 minutes on the toilet I was able to make my way back to the couch. Suddenly it hit again, by this time Kian was oolouring pictures at the table in the kitchen and Niamh was in her rocking chair. I was in the bathroom and felt like I was dying. I muttered something like I feel like I am dying and Kian heard me. This little voice from the kitchen called 'Mommy are you going to die?" ... I felt soooo bad. I quickly explained that Mommy was sick and I didn't feel very well. That satisfied him.

After another 25 minutes I had Kian bring me the phone and I called my parents. I knew my mom usually headed into the city on Monday for dance class so I thought if I could catch her before she left she could come to my place to help me. She had already left so my dad offered to call her on her cell. He called back to say he couldn't reach her but left a message with my Grandma as my mom was heading there for lunch. Then Niamh started to cry so Kian pulled her in the rocker to where I was on the toilet. He is such a good boy. I finally called Ryan and told him he needed to come home. I wasn't able to care for the kids in this condition. Ryan came home and took care of the kids so I could rest.

Tuesday I was still sick but my Mom came over to help me out with Niamh and Ryan took Kian to daycare. Around lunch time the call came in from the daycare that Kian had a fever so I called Ryan to go and get him. Ryan dropped him off and headed back to work. My mom left so the kids and I laid down for an afternoon nap.

Wednesday both kids still had low fevers and were not their regular selves so we hungout at home. My dad called to see if I needed my mom's help and I said no. I had already vomitted but didn't recall what had followed on Monday. Sure enough I turned down the help and then had to spend 25 minutes on the toilet. Kian brought me the phone and I called my dad back. He and my mom headed in to the city to help me.

Thursday Kian headed off to daycare and Niamh and I stayed around the house. She was starting to show signs of the cough I had developed. The poor thing sounded terrible.

Friday morning Niamh had a fever so I gave her meds, the poor thing just started to vomit all over. I called the Dr and got in for an appointment at 2pm. We had to meet a London Mom at WhiteOak for noon to pick up some socks. 12:30pm Kian had a hair appointment to get his haircut at All Star Cuts. I will post a before and after photo at the bottom of the post. We were early heading downtown so we called Ryan and met him at his new office for a tour. Then we headed to the Dr. It was determined that what Niamh had was viral and that her ears looked clear.

Saturday Niamh did the vomitting with the fever but it subsided in the afternoon so we went for dinner to Ryan's bestfriends place. They have a 2.5 year old and 7 month old. Their family was just getting over a nasty strep virus. While there Niamh proceeded to blow out of her diaper all up her back, followed by vomitting her entire bottle while she sat in their highchair. We didn't stay long and then headed home.

Sunday morning poor Niamh woke at 2 am with a fever of 101.6 F all along it had been no higher than 100.4 F ... she was so upset and uncomfortable. I brought her down to give her something to reduce the fever and she just started vomitting. It was 2am and I was flipping out. Her fever kept getting higher and I couldn't give her anything. I called Telehealth and after 30 mins on hold I gave up. I looked up the walkin clinic and it opened at 10am. I had Ryan set me up on the couch holding Niamh and we both slept a couple of hours. When we woke I took her to the walkin clinic. Turns out she has an ear infection with explains the higher temp and difference in how she was acting.

Now the fun begins as she does not take meds well. She is getting Tylenol by suppository and antibiotics by mouth (which she mostly spits/vomits out). The fever is under control now which is great.

Kids update

2008-03-05T14:07:00.003-05:00

So last night when we went to sleep it was raining ice pellets. We woke up this morning to 12 inches of snow ... great eh. Since I had to take the kids to the Dr for 9am I sent Ryan out at 8:15 to clear the way and clean the cars (he heads to work at this time anyway). After about 15 mins I started to get the kids ready to head out. I looked out the window to see Ryan still shovelling the laneway. I knew the drive would take awhile so I headed out the door to get the kids in the van. Ryan had been out that whole time and only cleaned a part of the driveway it was so deep. The snow at the front of the van was higher than the underside it was crazy. The radio was saying we only got 20 cm but there was definately at least 30 in our driveway (12 inches).

Lucky for us our neighbour two houses down is an on call volunteer firefighter with a snowplow on the front of his truck so he clears our street on his way to work. The side streets weren't so clear. It then took me an hour and a half to get to the Dr which is a 10 minute drive in good weather. We seemed to be the only ones that made it in so it wasn't an issue us being late.

Kian is officially 32 lbs and 41 inches tall, that means he is in the 15th percentile for weight and 64th percentile for height. I spoke to the Dr about his bowel elimination issues and she suggested I start giving him kids collace again. So we will visit Walmart after naptime.

Niamh is 19lbs and 27 inches tall and has a head circumference of 17 inches. That means she is in the 90-95th percentile for weight, 75-90th for length and 50-75th for head circumference. I find it amusing that my kids are so different in size but yet both have similar personalities.

Update from my rant

2008-02-29T15:47:00.004-05:00

Well as requested I am updating. No response from Customer Service from my letter but several Gymbofriends did receive the following form letter:

Hello,

Thank you for your email and sharing your specific concerns about the Baby
Sale Promotion with us.

Please be advised; select items, which are sold at regular price in between
$10.01 ~ $19.99, are currently marked down to $10.00 during the Baby Sale
Promotion. Similarly, select items that are regularly priced $20.01 and over
are marked down to $20.00. While promotion details offered in U.S and
Canada are identical, the sale prices for certain items may be different as
the base price offered in both countries is different.

We have a different pricing structure in U.S and Canada to reflect the
different business environments we are in. For this reason, items sold in
Canada are typically priced higher than they are in U.S.

It took most of the day but about half of the Canadians who wrote letters got that email in response. The other half of us didn't get a response. I do have to say that the letters must have been heard though as the current sale that started a day or so ago has brought some of the lines down to the US sale prices (not the ones for the Baby Sale). This is a start and I did pick some clothes up for Niamh on sale yesterday when I returned some of Kian's stuff. Below I will post what I ended up getting thanks to a good friend who shopped in the US.

I have also picked up the following from the Holland Days line for Niamh

Sometime in the future I will take photos of all their clothes. Kian got an entire wardrobe for his birthday and I have been picking away at Niamh's about 50% is a hand me down or 2nd hand (saves a lot).

Warning this is a bit of a rant

2008-02-20T15:02:00.002-05:00

So I am a member of a board called GymboFriends. I find it is excellent at keeping you informed of tons of kids brands Gymboree, JJ, Gap, Old Navy, etc. Well it was through this that I found out about the Baby Sale at Gymboree that officially started today. The price points in the US are $10 and $20. I was over the moon to learn that the Canadian stores were also having the same price points of $10 and $20. For those of you who actually shop at Gymboree you'll know that their prices are generally 30% higher here then they are in the US. An example is our pjs called Gymmies are $26.50 here and $19.50 in the US. Ok that said last year at the Baby Sale our lower price point was $12 but anything $26.50 and under was $12. This year our lower end only goes to $19.50. So those Gymmies are on sale for $20 in Canada but only $10 in the US. That is a 100% increase and down right sickening. I had heard head office was going to honor the US prices so our Gymmies would also go down to $10. Well the official word went out to the Canadian stores saying nope ... if it is under $20 CAD it can be $10 CAD.

So I go online and plan my cart ... $200 worth of $10 and $20 items. I go into my store and find out that the price points are higher here and come away with only 3 items. Those 3 items were the same in US as here (the purse, shoes and a jacket).

For those who know me ... you know that I don't go away quietly when I feel I have been wronged. So I wrote a letter to Gymbo Listens. Normally I will give kudos to my SA and SM after a good shopping trip via this but this time I wrote about how disappointed I was.

Here is the letter:
I was very disappointed this morning to see that as a corporation you disvalue your Canadian customers. I had read a lot of controversy over the Baby Sale and the price points recently but had faith that you would make things equal or as close as possible. I went to your online store and filled my cart with the items I wanted. I printed this out and brought it in to my store with me. I was appalled to see that I was expected to pay twice as much to purchase in Canada as my fellow Gymboree friends in the US. I was willing to spend $200 to outfit my two children in your adorable summer outfits and instead came home with only 3 things from the sale that amounted to $30.

I know that from past experience (last year) even though as Canadians we were charged $12 instead of the $10 Americans were charged at least we got the American price point. An example is your Gymmies, here in Canada they are $26.50 in the US they are $19.50. Last year we only paid $12 for these, this year at the Baby Sale Canadians are expected to pay $20 while Americans only pay $10 that is 100% increase. I completely understand the need to increase the price in Canada to cover your costs but 100% that seems dishonest.

I know I am but one customer but if I’ve learned nothing in my years as a mother, I have learned that with us word of mouth travels fast. We blog, we hold high profile jobs and in many cases jobs with influence. Please don’t ignore us as customers because you feel we don’t matter.

So as you see ... I didn't get what I want and am not happy about it lol!!!

Shopping fever

2008-02-19T21:16:00.004-05:00

Ok so my daughter and son are styling these days. I have been buying them their spring/summer outfits when the sales hit. Tomorrow is the start of the baby sale at Gymboree. Here is a preview of what I hope to pick up.

Ask and you shall receive ... yay!

2008-02-08T22:03:00.000-05:00

Again the name says it all, af arrived this morning cramps, migraines and all. I am jumping up and down with joy lol. I was pretty sure we were done with 2 perfect children and now with that little scare I am positive. Thank you to those who sent her my way.

I can't remember if I wrote about my increasing endometriosis pain or not but I start the bcp tonight to see if I can't limit the pain a bit. I know I will likely never be pain free but if I could have minimal pain that would be great. I am taking Yas*min ... if anyone else is taing this let me know. I have a few friends who are on it who warned me about side effects.

Now my new obsession ... kids clothes. I am obsessed with Gymboree and Gap clothes. I still love Old Navy but am not finding them cute on a little girl. I also have to admit I never knew boys could look soooooo cute in outfits. Here are some of the things the kids have in their spring/summer wardrobe.

Please send af my way ....

2008-02-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

Ok the title says it all. Yes, we did a whoops ... but I seriously had no thought to the fact that I could possibly get pregnant. Now I am late and I am praying for af. I swear I thought she was almost here ... I am crampy and have been spotting a wee bit for 3 days now (just there when I wipe). Who'd have thunk it after years of infertility that I might be praying not to be pregnant. We are happy with two little beans. Obviously we would be happy should we have a 3rd but right now isn't the best time, especially with my job status up in the air.

I am posting this in hopes of bringing her out of hiding. Generally when I was ttc everytime I posted that she was late she showed up. I am hoping the power of the internet will help me in this situation too.

Tiny update on the kids. Niamh is now 5 months old. She can sit by herself up to 25 seconds before she starts to lean. She is (I am guessing) about a solid 17lbs now. She wears size 12-18 month clothes comfortably and some 6-12 month outfits. I have been shopping a lot for her lately and must now start looking for her big brother. Kian was the same size for 2 summers and now I will need to buy him a new wardrobe.

Jan 20 update

2008-01-20T17:48:00.000-05:00

Well hello again. Since I last posted Teri and Craig have been in Thailand for a week and they are now flying solo with their daughter Kanya. I am so excited that they have finally got their forever family together, just the three of them. I can't wait to meet the sweet little girl that stole our family's heart almost a year ago now. *sigh*

Ok on to our little family of 4 + 2 cats. Let's see Kian is now part time at daycare so he is home with me Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We have been working on our letters lately and we are making a little progress. I just have to say that those Leap Frog dvds are awesome. The letters and words ones are really helping him. He also has the fridge letters to help reinforce what he learns on the dvd. He has started to draw figures instead of just scribbling. His figures aren't people however, they are transformers ... go figure. Right now he is obsessed with Star Wars, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He started dance lessons a week ago yesterday (so two classes so far). He did really well his first class but yesterday sat on the floor and would not participate. I was not amused since he begged to take the class. I think he fully expected to learn full dances and dance to current music but this is a preschool class to instrumental music. He will have more options once he is 4.

Now on to Niamh. Since I last posted she has weaned herself ... yes you read that right. She finally decided to take a bottle and then turned her nose up at the breast. I was in total shock when she did it. And get this ... she prefers formula to breast milk .... WHAT?!? I must really have a strange girl as that formula is gross! So since she went cold turkey I have been suffering. I finally had Ryan buy some cabbage only to have my engorgement go down after over a week of pain. Niamh is now over 15lbs and still our happy little girl. She went about a week of not sleeping well at night until I figured out it was a cold, wet diaper that was waking her up. I found if I change her diaper at 11pm before I go to bed and make sure she can't kick off her blanket she will sleep from 9pm until 5 or 6am thank goodness.

I will add a photo of my two precious little ones for Auntie Becka. Thank you soooo much for the care package. The outfit is super cute and I regret to say she is already too large for the dress but the top still fits. Kian really liked the Cars stuff and of course I loved the Westlife CD ;)

hugs to all

Niamh's 4 month update

2008-01-09T16:27:00.000-05:00

Niamh at 4 months old

This morning we took Niamh to her 4 month appointment. She is 14 lbs 8 oz naked and 24.5 inches long. She hates tummy time, loves her jolly jumpers and smiles at the drop of a hat. She is the apple of her brother's eye and I am sure they will be good friends when they are older. She is an easy going baby but knows what she wants. If you always keep her belly full, give her attention and she is clean, dry and well slept you will never see her upset. If any of those aren't met she lets you know. She will yell at you ... kinda like yelling 'Mom' ... short, loud sound bursts ... ignore her and witness her diva temper. LOL She will scream, turn purple and shake ... I laugh because it only happens to other people when they have her. When she is with me I pretty much have her figured out. I check 4 things when she calls ... in doing that I usually find her issue.

So my little man is starting dance class Saturday at 2pm. He is so excited. I will post his reaction.

Kian the light of the star

Niamh is the bundle in the manger.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2008-01-02T10:23:00.000-05:00

Welcome to 2008 ... gotta get use to writing that. So as you know I am off on mat leave and as of Jan 1 Kian is home with us Mon, Wed and Fri. He is a very active kid so I am trying hard to plan activities to keep him busy. So far today we have made our own colouring books and are currently learning our letters. I told him that during the day we don't watch tv except a learning show. So we have on the Leap Frog Letters Factory dvd and he is practicing.

Over the holidays Kian came up to me and asked if he could take dance lessons. I was about his age when I started too. I told him I would look into it. A few days later he asked me when he could start his lessons ... guess I had better get on that eh?

So I am happy to say we bought a new mattress! It is suppose to arrive today between 8am and 8pm ... nice 12 hour window. We got the new one on sale. Pre-Christmas sale was $2300, Christmas sale was $1600 ... Boxing Day $848 yay. Now if it would only arrive after naptime (Kian just went down).

Oh Christmas ... almost forgot. Christmas Eve Niamh played baby Jesus in the church play ... Kian was the light of the star. I will post some photos. Then we went back to our house for the Munday family Christmas (my family). Kids opened gifts and we had turkey dinner. My parents stayed overnight so they could be there when he kids got up. Christmas Day night we went to Ryan's parents farm for his family Christmas.

BIG NEWS!!! I am not sure if you can tell or not but I have been writing this post for over two days now lol. I keep getting interrupted. Well Teri just called to tell us she and Craig have a court date in Thailand. They get to go get Kanya aka Torri. Yay!!! Their court date is Jan 23rd and they have to be there a week before that so Jan 14th. I am soooo excited for them ... I can't wait for them to get their little girl.

Since it has taken me so long to write this post I will post the photos later.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

2007-12-20T16:06:00.000-05:00

Here is a short update: Niamh is now 3.5 months old, 13 lbs 2 oz and 24.5 inches long. She is very smiley and holds her head well. We are excied for her first Chrismas. Here are the kids in their Sunday best.

PS Our Niamh just may be playing the baby Jesus in our church's Christmas Eve nativity story.

Stories and updates

2007-11-20T09:41:00.001-05:00

So the other day I was thinking of some recent events that have caused me to giggle. A few weeks ago when I was driving Kian home from school we were talking about dates. I can't remember how it came up but I was explaining that when you are a teenager and have a good friend that you like, you can invite them out for a date. Some dates are group dates with all your friends and others are just the two of you. He asked could you go with boyfriends or girlfriends and I said yes. I explained that it was a time when Mommy and Daddy don't go with you. Then Kian asked if he could go to the movies on a date. I said a good date would be dinner and a movie. It was then that my adorable little son said he wanted to take me on a date lol. He said Mommy I want to go on a date with you to the movies. Awwww he is soo sweet. I had almost forgotten about this 'date' until we took him to see The Bee Movie. When we were leaving the theatre he said Mommy that was a good date lol.

Another Kian story happened a week ago at his little friend Makenna's 4th birthday party. A little background, Kenna is the niece of Kian's Aunt Teri. They have basically grown up together at this point like cousins. When the two were born Kenna's mom Steely and I agreed that they would never date since they shared an Aunt. We deluded ourselves. Kenna was Kian's first kiss. They were just tiny under one and she leaned over and grabbed him for a kiss. We have photos and video because of the timing. So fast forward 3 years. We were leaving for the birthday and Kian informed us that Kenna wasn't his girlfriend just his friend. This has become the big thing lately to have a girlfriend or 3. The birthday party was almost over with people leaving the house. Kian and Kenna were playing with her new toys and kept going for walks all around Kenna's grandma's house. There was one point when Teri and I went to find them and walked in on them KISSING! We were shocked. They were sitting on the couch like teenagers having a little kiss. We looked at Martha (Teri's mom) who then told us she had already walked in on them kissing a few minutes before. We left shortly after that and on our way out Kian turned to me and said Mommy I made a mistake before, Kenna is my girlfriend lol. The kid already has a marriage proposal from his bestfriend Bella, and 2 more girlfriends at school Rachel and Sarah.

Ok little update on Niamh. She was 11lbs 4 oz last Thursday and 23 inches long. She is sleeping 6 to 7 hours a night most nights with a rough one thrown in there every now and then. She is full of smiles and can roll stomach to back and back to stomach off and on.

Nov 5th 2007 - Update

2007-11-05T13:26:00.000-05:00

So since I last posted we had Halloween at the new house. Kian joined what the guys are calling the 'Waterwheel Place Posse' and went trick or treating with Brandt, Brody and Jonathan. They only lasted an hour before they were home again. I stayed home with Niamh to hand out candy. Kian went out as pirate with a cardboard sword I made. He was very excited to have the sword and still puts on the pirate hat just to wave the sword around.

Yesterday Niamh and Kian were baptised at our church. When Kian was a baby our church closed it's doors and we didn't have a church so he was never baptised. Recently we started attending a new church and decided to get them both baptised at the same time. It worked out well and I think Kian will always remember the day. Niamh only fussed after the water was put on her head ... she was good until then. Our camera is not taking pictures reliably. I have already ordered a new one with our rbc points but it hasn't arrived. The camera only cooperates 50% of the time and never when you want it to so we left it at home. That means until others send us their photos I can only share the ones I managed to get at home.

So with Christmas coming I am trying my best not to spoil the kids. With Kian he has a birthday just 2 months after so I can always spread out what I get him, with Niamh her birthday isn't until September so it is a bit harder. I tend to start my shopping in the summer and continue until close to Christmas ... I buy as I see sales. I really want to get them this indoor/outdoor kitchen but I want to get it on sale. Right now I have an easel for Kian, Baby Star Stage for Niamh, little robot dinosaur for Kian and then stocking stuffers for him. We have clothes for both of them as well. Is it wrong to want to get something else? LOL

Here are some photos I took of Niamh this morning

Updated photos and cute videos

2007-10-21T23:28:00.000-04:00

So I finally figured out how to add videos to this so I will give you one of my dancing Kian and one of baby Niamh.

Not much is new right now. Niamh is up to 9lbs 7oz now. She is smilin and holding her head a lot. She is getting so much stronger each day. I can't wait for her personality to start coming through.

Comparing Kian to Niamh

2007-10-14T15:55:00.000-04:00

Niamh 3.5 weeks old

Kian 3 weeks old

Kian at 6 weeks old after the bath

Niamh 9 days old after the bath

Kian in bouncer 4 days old

Niamh at 20 days old

Kian in car carrier 11 days old

Niamh in carrier 9 days old

This is Kian's first bath

This is Niamh's first bath

Weight Woes and Vacation

2007-10-13T15:26:00.000-04:00

Hello all ... we are back from our 'maycation' as Kian called it ... he missed his hotel room the minute we handed back the keycards lol. We did find that he was a good shopper but not so good when we weren't shopping. He acted out a lot and has started to do things to his sister that hurt her. I know he doesn't mean to hurt her but he knows what he is doing is wrong ... I have caught him looking at me sideways while he does it. Hopefully he will get over it soon. We try very hard to do things with just him or tell him something is special just for him.

We got some great deals at Birch Run Prime Outlet stores. I cleaned up for the kids at the Old Navy, Gap and Carters outlets. Mainly for Niamh but I also picked up 6 pair of pants for Kian (some size 4 for next year) and a wardrobe for Bella's birthday next weekend. I am quite excited with what I was able to purchase.

Now here are my weight woes. If you recall before getting pregnant I had finally returned to my preKian size 6. I then gained 50 lbs when I had Niamh and have at best lost 20lbs of them. With Kian I didn't shed any pounds until I stopped breastfeeding at 6 months so I know there will be heavy times ahead. Why am I posting about my weight ... well for the first time I know how hard it is to buy clothes. As a size 6 and 8 there is no shortage of cute jeans and well fitting tops. When I went shopping I found that I am now a size 14. Yes, a 14 ... I am not upset about my curvy figure but I was quite frustrated to find they barely make ANY nice clothes in that size. Well I guess I should clarify ... at the stores I normally shop at. So Gap, Old Navy, Aeropostale, Banana Republic and American Eagle. If the stores actually had something in a size 14 it would look terrible on me. I am still a medium on top so buying shirts hasn't changed (except up top I fill them out more) but I became quite frustrated looking for pants. I ended up getting two pair of pants at Old Navy (they had the best clothes) but only picked up a pair of sweat pants at the Gap and tops at the others.

On another note I am going to take a Postnatal Pilates class starting Tuesday morning at Pilateez (http://www.pilateez.com). I am still looking for the kettlebells ... couldn't find them in the USA when we were there.

I know I owe you photos of Niamh so I will try to upload more tomorrow.

5 weeks old

2007-10-10T08:26:00.000-04:00

Well Niamh is now 5 weeks old. On Friday at the Dr she was 8lbs 2oz and 23 inches long. My baby is getting big lol.

I had my postpartum checkup with Dr Crumley yesterday. Things are all healed from having Niamh. We did a pap test and discussed birth control methods. As I figured, to manage my endometriosis I will need to go on continuous birth control pills with estrogen. I asked to wait until I was done breastfeeding as with Kian I started the progesterone pill about 3 months and had no milk by 6 months. Dr C was ok with that. She said my scarring wasn't bad right now so I had a bit of time.

We are about to leave for a family vacation until Friday. I will post all about it when we return

My hair

2007-10-01T14:33:00.001-04:00

Ok so I went and cut my hair this morning. I didn't go really short but it is much lighter than it has been that is for sure.

I started working out again today. I figure tomorrow will be 4 weeks since I had Niamh so I should be ok. I have to admit I was soooo out of breath after using the elliptical. Tomorrow I am going with Nicole for a walk. I was watching a show yesterday that showed something called Kettlebells. I read online the are available at Target so when we take a trip to the US next week I will be on the look out for them.

If anyone has tried them let me know. I am also looking to possibly take postpartum pilates so if you have tried this I would love to hear. If you are in London which studio do you recommend?

Oooh new shows! I have to say I really enjoyed The Big Bang Theory last week, Private Practice, Gossip Girl, Biontic Woman and Big Shots ... they will be regulars on my pvr. House, the CSIs and Grey's Anatomy are also still on my play list. What are you watching these days?

Thursday I will post a baby update since it will be her 1 month checkup. She is still sleeping well, eating lots and is starting to be awake longer.

I am going to post a new poll about how old your little one was when they first smiled.

Almost 3 weeks old

2007-09-24T13:34:00.000-04:00

I took Niamh for her weigh in last Thursday and she was up to 7lbs. The nurse then decided that she was gaining weight just fine and we didn't have to go back until her on month appointment. Yay!!! I have noticed that she feeds much better and longer than Kian ever did. She sleeps for usually 3 to 4 hours at a time (Kian would go max 1.5 hours). For the past two nights she have been sleeping bundled in her carrier attached to the bassinet beside my bed. Last night she only slept 3 hours at a time but the first night we were 5 hrs and then 3 hrs.

I skipped my nap yesterday because Niamh was wide awake from 12:45pm until almost 4pm. Boy missing that nap nearly killed me last night ... I couldn't keep my eyes open and boy did they burn. So the first thing I did this morning after Kian and Ryan left was go back to sleep until 10:45am. I have a headache right now but other than that feel pretty good.

Tomorrow I am going to take Niamh to her first movie. There is a Stars and Strollers movie at Silvercity that we are going to with some friends also on mat leave. We are seeing Sydney White the new girlie movie.

I will edit this post a little later and add some new photos of Niamh. She seems to be on the brink of waking up so I need to organize a little before she feeds again. Later

2007-09-15T10:37:00.003-04:00

Photo Update

2007-09-15T10:37:00.001-04:00

I thought I would share some photos I took.
This is Kian at the Western Fair on the Helicopter ride. He would only go on rides that Mom and Dad were too big for.

This is a photo of Kian and Niamh before school on Thursday morning. Kian is a very proud big brother

Here is a photo of Niamh on her belly. It is funny to watch her use her crawling ability at such a young age.

I have noticed that she looks so much like Kian did at the same age that I tend to call her Kian a lot. Poor little girl ... I even dress her girlie on purpose to stop myself from doing that lol.

Niamh Update

2007-09-14T11:30:00.000-04:00

Monday I took Niamh to the Dr for her 1 week appointment. She was down to 6lbs and the Dr requested I bring her back today for another weight check. Kian had trouble gaining weight when he was small as he only fed to satisfy his hunger need not to fill up. Niamh on the other hand feeds until she can't eat anymore. So this morning after we dropped Kian off at daycare Niamh and I headed to the Dr. We got her weighed and she is up to 6lbs 6oz ... my little eater is putting on the pounds .. good girl!

For the last two nights she has slept at least 4 hours in her first sleep. Last night we went to sleep at 12:30am and she didn't wake to feed until 4:30am. Wednesday night she went down at 11:30 and didn't wake until 4am. I am very happy for the 4 hour sleeps as really I seem to work well on 4 hour stretches.

I have to admit the weight issue is starting to annoy me. Normally it doesn't bother me much but right now none of my clothes fit. I don't fit into my early pregnancy clothes or my 'fat' clothes and my late pregnancy clothes are not warm enough. When I had Niamh I was up to 180 lbs ... as of this morning I am down to 159 lbs ... my normal weight is 130lbs so I have about 30lbs to go but about 20 before my pants will fit again. I don't like to dwell on my weight as it can really get me down. When I was younger I was a dancer with a normal weight of 115lb to 120lbs ... I am 5'6" and had trouble adjusting to my post dancing weight. Now that I am that much heavier it is quite depressing to think of losing the weight. Since I am breastfeeding I won't diet .. not that I am any good at dieting. I generally manage my weight with excercise since I suck at diets. We recently moved so I cancelled my gym membership ... the weight loss this time around is going to be much harder.

I will admit that my belly has significantly gone down since I had Niamh. At first you couldn't tell I had had the baby but as of today I just look like I am a bit heavier no big belly anymore.

Oh and I want to say Happy 2nd Birthday to my niece Kanya over in Thailand. We are anxiously awaiting word of a court date so that her Mommy and Daddy can go and get her.

I want to say congrats to Lisa on the birth of her twins. I am going to attempt to locate her at St Joe's today to find out what she had and their names. When I find out I will update this post with the news.

UPDATE: Lisa had her boys. Baby A (Miles) was 6lbs and Baby B (Jonathan) was 4lbs 5oz. I wish Lisa well on her recovery and can't wait to meet her little men!

Hmm I think that is all of my ramblings today. Oh yes one more thing ... for those who have had a baby vaginally did you have a lot of abdominal pain post baby? I don't recall having this with Kian but my abdomine about my pelvic area is very painful. It is almost like having the pain from the strongest contraction hitting me off and on during the day. I actually had to stop feeding Niamh this morning because the pain got so bad. I took Advil but it just took the edge off ... I still hurt.

Also I am thinking about cutting my hair so I changed the poll to the right. Should I cut it off into a bob like I have in my profile photo, just trim it (right now it is to my shoulders) or should I just let it grow long like I had it when Kian was born? Let me know.

Niamh's birth story

2007-09-10T10:11:00.001-04:00

I got the call at 12:30pm to let me know that they would be ready for me in 1 hour. Ryan and I got ready and hopped into the car. We drove downtown to pick up Stacy (2nd labor coach) and were off to St Joe's. Ryan dropped us at the door and we headed up to triage to check in while he parked the car. We were still sitting at the triage desk when Ryan made his way up there. Once checked in we headed back to the delivery suites it was now 2pm.

I got settled and waited for the nurse to arrive. When she got there she let me know we had blood work to do and that it might be awhile before Dr Crumley came in due to some sections going on. The nurse went out to get the supplies for the blood work and returned with a game plan. She had run into Dr C who requested that my IV be put in and a scan done to check the baby's position and fluid location. My nurse was fresh out of school and hadn't yet had her IV training so she called for another nurse to come put it in. After two failed attempts to get an IV started (and I have good veins) they called another nurse who was good at getting them started. She came in and in one swoop got the IV in and started.

Once the IV was in Dr C came in and did the scan. Baby's head was down and the large pocket of fluid that had been between her head and my cervix was now to the front of her face. I can't recall if the Dr left and came back or did it right then but she broke my water at 3:10pm. She did what she called a controlled break where she put a tiny hole in the bag and slowly moved the baby's head to let a bit of fluid out. She did this a few times and then decided to let me go 30 minutes to see how strong my contractions would get on their own. With each contraction the nurse asked if I felt them ... I didn't know to pay attention so I was ignoring them as usual. They continued to get stronger and stronger but I still only ranked them 4 out of 10 on the pain scale. I did say 2 but she asked me to reevaluate because I am so use to them. At 5pm Ryan decided to go to get dinner for himself and Stacy (I wasn't allowed food). The nurse decided it was time to start the oxytocin, so just before her break I was put onto the drip.

I did learn that Dr tall, dark and nervous is actually not so nervous on the labor and delivery side just on the antenatal side. He came in shortly after Dr C broke my water to scan and break my water ... he was surprised to learn it had already been done. I also saw Dr Torres at the beginning of things before we got going.

When the oxytocin was up to 6 my labor started to get painful. I decided to stand and rock a bit after I convinced my nurse to request my epidural (will post about this in another post). The standing made the pain way worse than just sitting down. My contractions were now one on top of the other. Dr C said that she would check me again after I got my epidural and put a clip on the baby's head to anchor her down and monitor her heart rate. It took another 20 mins before the epidural lady came in. The first time she tried she hit an epidural vein she said and had to try again. Once in we were good to go. I was on my right side first and only flipped when my right foot started to feel very warm .. this never happened with Kian. It was great not to feel the pain with the contractions ... much better this time then last time.

After my epidural Dr Paul came back in and checked me. He said I was 4cm and 50% effaced. He hooked the monitor to her scalp and then we were left to progress. Time blurs so I can't quite recall when everything happened but I know it was dark outside by now. I think when Dr Paul checked me it was around 10pm. Around 10:50pm I started to feel pain and pressure with each contraction. I told the nurse I felt the need to push coming on. She checked me and said I was 75% effaced and 5cm dilated. The pain and pressure go worse and worse with each contraction. The nurse paged the Dr to come and check the position of the baby as she suspected the baby to be face up and the reason I was having the pressure. She didn't believe that I felt any pain ... but when I started to make groaning noised she decided to top up my epidural. It was 11:10pm and no Dr yet and I was started to scream with each contraction and demand to push. The nurse thought I was being a cry baby but grabbed another nurse and said I could push if I really thought it would help me. I pushed 3 times with the next contraction and boy did it feel good to push. The nurse decided to have a quick look ... oh look at that fully dilated and head crowning. Why she didn't believe me I will never know.

The nurse was freaked and paged the Dr again ... this time she said delivery happening. When my next contraction came they let me push again only her head started to come out. The nurse then told me no more pushing ... she said to pant and breathe through them. Easier said than done I am sorry to say. Luckily the nurse told me to focus on her and pant ... so I did all the while staring right at her. I felt the baby's head coming out on it's own without me pushing it ... the nurse said that was ok it would help stretch so I didn't tear ... it burned really badly. Dr C came flying in the room and was barely gloved when I couldn't supress the urge to push. Out came Niamh along with a flood of amniotic fluid ... my poor OB didn't expect to get soaked this late in the game. They placed the baby on my belly and she began to cry immediately ... Kian was silent so this was much better for me. Ryan cut the cord and they took her to the warmer to clean her off.

Dr C was worried that I would have negative effects of the excess fluid so she was very careful when removing the placenta. She said she was going to send it off for testing to see if it might shed light on my preterm labor. Just then Dr Paul arrived expecting to deliver a baby ... it was quite funny when he realized it was already done .. he arrived only 5 mins after Dr C. With no delivery he helped Dr C give me a few stitches .. I tore a bit on the same scar as with Kian. The nurse weighed Niamh she was 6ls 12 oz and 20 inches long. Her eyes were open from the minute she came out.

We stayed in the hospital until Thursday morning before going home. I am happy to be home and looking forward to getting a good routine going and sleep a little more.

Niamh Ailey is here

2007-09-08T22:59:00.000-04:00

Hi guys I am sorry it took me so long to post this. I swear I thought I had already done it.

Niamh Ailey was born Sept 4th at 11:25pm weighing 6lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long.

Here are some photos ... I will post the birth story as soon as I get a chance to write it all out.

37weeks 3 days - Getting Nervous

2007-09-02T09:54:00.000-04:00

Ok so today I am 37 weeks and 3 days pregnant and getting more and more nervous about Tuesday. For those who didn't read my birthstory from Kian let me fill you in on how caused me to have him.

Just like with this pregnancy I had been having preterm labor only then it was only for 4 weeks not 8 weeks. Feb 23rd I was having regular, painful contractions and decided these were stronger then they had been in the previous weeks. Ryan brought me to the hospital around 2pm. They decided I was 3cm dilated and bags bulging, they would break my water. Unfortuntely, by 5pm it was so busy they didn't have enough nurses and the Dr hadn't made it back to me to break my water. They warned me not to let anyone break my water should they show up until I had a nurse. I had to wait until 8pm to get a nurse. They moved me to a delivery suite and I got a nurse. I asked for an epidural as my contractions were very close and painful. I finally got the epidural by 11pm (on the 2nd try) and they broke my water by 11:45pm. They gave me oxytocin at that point to help keep the contractions strong. My epidural didn't really take well and they tried everything to make it better. It at least took the edge off. I was fully effaced by 2:45am but was still only 3 cm dilated so my nurse told me she was going for her break. One contraction later I was telling Ryan I needed to push. He went across the hall and got a nurse. She came over and looked, sure enough Kian's head was crowning. My nurse didn't even make it down the elevator before I needed her again. It took an hour of push to get him out.

So as you can see oxytocin doesn't bother me, nor breaking my water or the epidural. What I am nervous about is something happening when they break my water. With Kian his head was clearly engaged before they broke my water. This time because I have so much water Niamh's head isn't able to engage. I swear my dreams at night are all about the problems that could happen and I am freaking myself out!

36 weeks 6 day photos

2007-08-29T10:22:00.000-04:00

Ok I am going to post more belly shots ... be warned I have recently sprouted the dreaded stretch marks ... yuck!!!

Now I will post a few photos of the nursery. Other than the blind for the window we are pretty much done. I would love to find some white letters that spell her name NIAMH but I haven't found them yet.

Sept 4th it is

2007-08-28T19:44:00.000-04:00

Today I had an OB appointment. My mom took me since Ryan was working and I am not suppose to drive. After I gave my urine sample, the nurse took my blood pressure (129 over 79) and did the dreaded weigh in. Yikes up 5 lbs from last week!!!!! As I was sitting getting my blood pressure done my OB walked by. She saw me and again declared 'You're out'. Then she said 'and you are still pregnant ... that doesn't make me happy.' I said you and me both. Then I had a seat in the waiting room.

When it was my turn I went into an exam room and they almost had me do a Strep B test until I told the nurse I had one done on July 24th and it was negative (boy am I glad I am nosey). Then Dr C came in and asked me what I thought of Sept 4th. She pulled out her palm pilot and entered my due date then looked at where I would be Sept 4th. I would be 37.5 weeks along. She said what did I think of an induction. She explained that she would like me to be in the hospital when my water breaks due to the extra fluid and potential for a prolapsed cord. She then explained I might need to be given oxytocin to encourage contractions if her head didn't press hard enough to cause them. I had this drug with Kian after they broke my water to help my contractions stay strong. With Kian they broke my water at 11pm and he arrived at 4:05am.

So it appears I am on call Sept 4th until they have a bed open for me. The literature says they can call me anywhere between 6;30am and midnight that night. I would love a mid day call but will take what I can get. I am excited that my OB will be there ... I was really worried about going through this with a Dr not familiar with my situation. What would be better is if my residents from my antenatal days were there too. That means Kristen, Rebecca and Dr Tores (never caught her first name). I am pretty sure Dr Tall, dark and nervous would faint if he was there lol!!!!

So for now I am on a countdown of 6 days left.

Note: I changed the poll ... for those who voted that I would have her at 37 weeks ... you were right.

Night in triage ... still no baby

2007-08-26T17:34:00.000-04:00

Things started up on Friday morning about 7am. The contractions were quite regular but not very painful ... just darn annoying. They were everywhere from 5 to 10 minutes apart all day. By about 5pm things had calmed down but were still there. I had a bath and then rested for the rest of the night. Saturday morning I was feeling ok but the contractions started up by mid afternoon. They were VERY strong and starting to hurt. We had friends over for dinner so I just tried my best to ignore them. When they left and I relaxed on the couch I realized how strong and frequent they were.

To be on the safe side I called Kathy to get her to come over and stay with Kian while Ryan took me to the hospital to be checked out. My contractions were 5 mins apart and painful at the hospital. Turned out my own Dr was on last night and the same residents I had been dealing with in the Antenatal Unit. Dr Ashcroft (Rebecca) came in ... she's great. She was in a totally different role than I am use to seeing her in. The resident in charge last night was Hayley (not sure last name) and then Dr C. After a few hours of my contractions 3 mins apart they checked me and I am still 2 cm. She is head down though and there is a pocket of fluid (12 cm pocket) right by her head preventing from her head hitting my cervix.

A few hours later they checked me again and still no progress. Dr C told me that because I am 36 weeks she couldn't break my water. She said if I was showing any signs of progressing then she would but nada. They were worried that if my water broke at home the chord could prolapse because of the abundance of amniotic fluid. Finally, at 4 am they offered me some morphine for the pain to allow me to sleep. I fell asleep around 5am and slept solid until 7am. I then slept off and on until 9am when the resident from Antenatal Dr Paul (Tall, dark and nervous guy as Lisa calls him) came to talk to me. He asked if I felt ok to go home and jumped at the chance.

So for now I just sit here and wait. I really don't want to go back in unless I am going to have her. So everyone pray for my water to break so that I can have this baby and stop going through all this pain. I will update more after I go to the OB on Tuesday morning.

August 24th Update

2007-08-24T11:29:00.001-04:00

Hmmm let's see ... I don't have much to update as I have been sitting on the couch for the last week. Yesterday I did get up and vacuum the basement (couldn't help it). I baked a cake and decorated it, then I cleaned the kitchen. I have a huge need to clean with my lysol spray ... no explanation as to why.

I haven't been sleeping very well this week. Believe it or not my last good sleep was in the hospital a week ago. I find I wake up every hour to pee or take something for heartburn. I've tried not to eat before bed, I've tried to make my last food intake a milk product. So far I can get heartburn from water.

As of this morning my contractions are back ... very regular but not painful so I am just taking it easy. I am now 36 weeks pregnant so very close to term. I noticed my pain seems to be more centred down low instead of in the lower front as they have been for a few weeks. I think her head must be pretty centred now. We will just have to see how thing progress. I am expecting I have another week left. In my gut I keep thinking Sept 2 for the birthdate but we will see I guess.

Courtney

PS Here is a photo from the other day of my belly

August 17th update

2007-08-17T17:03:00.000-04:00

Well the last post I had on my computer while in the hospital but I could get to the lounge to upload it.

I was discharged from the hospital at 8:30am this morning. Now that I am 35 weeks pregnant the Drs were comfortable with my being on bedrest at home. They decided that if I went into contractions again they would just let my labor progress and not stop it. I am happy to be home, I really missed my husband and son a lot. Even though they came to see me every day in the hospital it was never the same. I am looking forward to my little guy arriving home shortly with me sitting on the couch.

I am still having contractions, sometimes worse than others but I have become quite accustom to it. It's funny ... when I saw my OB a few days ago and let her know they were sending me home today she laughed. She told me that since my pain tolerance was so high (managing these contractions daily) I have a higher risk of not acknowledging early labor should I go into it again. She warned me to return to the hospital if I was having them for more than 6 hours incase I progress quickly.

I still need to make an appointment with my OB for next week ... I will attempt to do that Monday if I don't receive a call from their office before then. Well that's all for now ... I am just hanging out at home ... and looking forward to watching Highschool Musical 2 tonight!!!

Since July 30th

2007-08-17T11:19:00.000-04:00

Ok since I haven’t anything written down from July 30th on … and since the days here blur together I figured I would just add some stories of things that happened while I have been there. How about roommates? When I first came in I had a great roommate Gillian. She and I got along great. She has a 3 year old daughter who is quite similar to my Kian. Turned out that her hubby was also an Engineer so we had many stories to share. After Gillian left my new roommate was Kassandra. She was a very young girl who was accompanied by her mom and boyfriend. Before she moved in I was warned that they had been informed that her guests couldn’t spend the night but the nurse wanted me to buzz if they didn’t leave. Her mom was quite down to earth and easy to talk to. Unfortunately, the boyfriend had a lot of attitude (immaturity likely) and she always had 6 or 7 visitors. I learned that he already had 2 other kids from other mom’s. At such a young age I was floored. It seemed wrong for someone suffering infertility to have to share with a pregnant teen. I didn’t let it affect me but it sure did make me giggle when I thought about it.

She had preterm labor like me only she had really progressed where I hadn’t. She was 4 cm dilated and was almost fully effaced. I was sitting at 2 cm dilated and not effaced at all. I will only share a few funny stories that happened. One of them happened after the boyfriend and Kassandra had been out for a walk. When they came back he made the comment that there were a lot of old people on this floor (our floor is the maternity/antenatal floor). I asked what he meant and he said that all the people were like 30! I had to prevent myself from laughing out loud. I then let him know I was 32 … he didn’t really comment. Then he was looking at an entertainment magazine and came up with the comment ‘OMG this guy is practically dead … why is he here?’ I asked who he was talking about … so he told me Mark Wahlberg. I said he’s only 35 or so … he told me that was what he meant practically dead. LOL I had to share with Ryan how he was just about practically dead lol!

If there was one thing I’d complain about about this place, I’d have to say it would be the variety of information you as a patient are told. An example would be two days ago. Throughout my stay here I have always been told that if I could go 24 hrs without contractions and 24 hrs walking around without contractions that they would send me home. Friday Dr P came by the room and informed me that I would be going home on Monday provided that the baby was still head down. I was confused as she told me this right while I was in the middle of a huge contraction. She said that I would always have contractions there was nothing they could do about that. She said that they would be ready for me to have the baby whenever she came. Then she continued to tell my roommate Barb (who is also due Sept 21 but has PROM) that they would like to see her go til 36 weeks if possible. When she left we wondered why 36 weeks was good for her but I could have the baby now at 34 weeks and that would be ok … weird. Then yesterday morning Dr D came by and told me that if I don’t contract they will let me walk about and then if no contractions send me home on bedrest for the rest of the pregnancy. Now many people don’t like Dr P … myself included … she doesn’t seem to have any tolerance for pregnant people. Strange to be an OB if you have no patience. She is the same OB who made my friend Robyn go 18 hours in labor before doing a c-section even though Robyn’s Dr N said due to previous issues during the delivery of her first she should have a c-section.

Yesterday I started contractions about 4pm. They were 10 mins apart until about 6pm when they just seemed to increase in intensity. My roommate went to get us some water and ice and ran into my nurse Jan in the hall. She mentioned I wasn’t doing well so Jan came down to see me. Then she decided that she would hook me up to the monitor. The contractions were coming every 5 mins so she went off to call the resident. Then she returned with Cathy the other nurse on during the day. They both had to convince me to breathe during the contractions because I kept holding my breath. The resident still hadn’t come over an hour later when they were due to end their shift at 7pm. They both waited with me until the night nurse Trish arrived. As she came so did Ryan and Kian along with the resident. The resident checked me and I was still 2 cm which is great I am not progressing. She then left and said to leave me here contracting. Trish wasn’t impressed but what could she do. I continued to contract regularly until about 9:30pm. That was when I felt Niamh move a lot. My belly looked like ripples on a lake. Then they lost her heartbeat and guess what … the contractions suddenly stopped! The nurse came in and searched … she moved the heartbeat monitor from the bottom of my belly to the top and there she was. She flipped breech again. I guess the squeezing of her head was too much for her lol. It has been 12 hours and she is still breech … so I guess when I have an u/s tomorrow we will see what position she is in.
More update later

July 23rd to July 30 update

2007-08-10T11:49:00.000-04:00

July 23rd
@ 5:30pm or so I called my sister in law and asked what they were up to that night. I had been having contractions all day and they were really getting bad. Teri said that she and Craig were free and did I want them to watch Kian. I said I did and they headed over. Meanwhile, I called Ryan and found out he was still out of town in Orangeville (2 hrs from London). My best friend Stacy suggested she could take me to the hospital while Teri and Craig remained at the house. I agreed that might be best and things were set. Stacy picked me up and we were off to St Joe’s. When we arrived we walked to triage and checked in. I was quite uncomfortable so they hooked me up to monitors. The next hour went by quite quickly. A nurse decided I needed an IV in to give me a bolus of liquid to re-hydrate me. This is usually the first thing they try to stop the contractions. Unfortunately, the first time she tried to insert the IV she missed the vein. When she started the drip I was in agony. I kept telling her it hurt really badly and she told me that was normal. Then I lost the feeling in my fingers and told her I didn’t think that was normal. She removed the needle and my arm was all puffed up. So she tried the other hand and we were good to go. Then a resident came in with the nurse and did the fFN test to see if labor is indicated. The resident asked if I was bleeding and I said no, so she let me know that there was blood there when she swabbed. Stacy called Ryan to find out how far away he was. He said he had just hit London, had to make a stop at the office and then he would be there. He estimated it would be 30 mins before he was there; it was 8pm at the time. Stacy and I estimated that we would see him in an hour. To our surprise he walked in 30 minutes from the call. Stacy headed out while Ryan took her place. We waited for the results of the fFN test while a fresh out of school intern took my history and asked all kinds of questions. One of the funny questions she asked was did Ryan and I share any relatives. We were not sure what she meant so she explained in some cultures it is common to marry first or second cousins. We all laughed and we said nope no relatives in common. After getting our history the nurse came back in. She said ‘I guess you will be staying with us.’ I didn’t get why she was making that comment but just shrugged ok. Shortly after that the intern was talking about our fFN test being positive. I had to let her know we didn’t know that. She explained that just because it was positive didn’t mean that I was for sure going to have the baby but that it was a good indicator. Then she did a scan to see what position Niamh was in … head down. We were quite happy she was in the right position this time. We were then moved from triage to labor and delivery for the night. As I was being monitored they noticed that they were finding Niamh’s heartbeat in a completely different place then across the hall. The resident deemed it fit to get the scanner in again just to be sure of her position … the silly git turned! She was once again breech. I was cut off all liquid and solids and not permitted to eat or drink. Again we were informed that if my labor progressed I would be having a c-section. I was now 2 cm dilated on the outside and 1 inside. Once I was settled in I sent Ryan home to get some sleep.

July 24th
First thing in the morning the nurse came in and informed me I would be moving to antenatal for a few days. Then the resident of the hour came in and told me that things looked settled and I would likely be going home. The nurse didn’t disagree with him but came back shortly to let me know that I would be staying a few days. I called Ryan and told him to meet me in the antenatal unit instead of labor and delivery. I was moved to rm B3 655A around 9:30am. I had a new roommate named Gillian. We chatted quite a bit while things got settled. I was sent for an u/s to see the size of Niamh. The day went by quickly and I was sooo happy when bedtime rolled around. 4 Hours of sleep in the labor and delivery is definitely not enough.

July 25th
I let the day nurse Kate know as she was leaving that I was having contractions and that they were getting stronger as time passed. When Judy came in I also let her know about my contractions. She thought I should be hooked to a monitor but I said that they weren’t as painful as I had been having and she decided she would talk to the resident on call. I ended up falling asleep before she returned.

July 26th
3am I woke up with nasty contractions. I waited until 3:30am before calling the nurse to let her know I needed some pain meds. When she came down to my room my contractions were getting stronger. The nurse called the resident on call to come over and see me. When she got there she requested a bolus of fluid and a shot of demoral. She looked at my contractions which had started to piggy back and decided to send me to labor and delivery. My u/s that day showed Niamh to be head down so she grabbed a scanner just to be sure. Yep, head down … we were good to go. Judy rolled a gurney in and I transferred to it and they wheeled me over. I told Judy her driving reminded me of Austin Powers, she loved that. Over in labor and delivery I was hooked to monitors and watched. My contractions seemed to level out around 7am and even drop down to just tightenings. They sat me up and allowed me to eat … as I did this around 10am I began to register large and strong contractions again. The nurse became alarmed but I explained that I didn’t really feel them they were just tightenings. She just shook her head and laughed. I had to go 30 mins with just irritable tightenings to be sent back to my room. 11:30am I arrived at my room again.

July 28th
I woke up to bleeding this morning; enough to scare me but not enough to cause any problems. I started having tightenings around 9am. The Drs came in but I told them everything was ok. The one Dr did not believe me. She said she could tell by my face I was uncomfortable. I don’t know her last name but her first name is Haylie. By 2:30pm I had tons of pressure in my bum. I got up to use the bathroom thinking maybe that might be my trouble. Nope, back to bed I went only to have the pain start. I was in such sudden pain I started to cry. I grabbed for my call bell and got a nurse down. They hooked me to the monitors and I was having pretty strong contractions every 5 mins, so I was hooked to the iv and taken over to labor and delivery again. After the demoral shot I still continued contractions every 3 minutes. Haylie came in again and mentioned if things continued as they were when the demoral wore off we would be looking to get an epidural if I was progressing and another demoral shot if I wasn’t. Well 4 hours after the demoral shot things started to calm down. I didn’t need another shot of anything and they didn’t check to see if I was progressing. I was unhooked from my iv and back in antenatal by 10pm.

July 29th
Today was a good day. All morning I had no contractions or tightenings. I talked to my grandma during the day and then she showed up at the hospital for a visit in the afternoon. I had a short rest in the afternoon, for supper Ryan and Kian brought fish and chips. Ryan found a wheelchair and took me for a walk to the Triage waiting room. We watched America’s Funnies Home Videos. While I waited for him to get the wheelchair I felt my first tightening of the day. Then while watching the show I had to ask him to bring me back because my back was starting to ache with the tightenings (this usually gets the ball rolling). After they left I watched the first 4 episodes of Entourage season 3 (I haven’t see season 1 or 2 yet). I went to sleep about 11pm but didn’t sleep much.

July 30th
I woke up about once and hour with severe pain down low but no contractions. I made several visits to the bathroom but nothing seemed to help. The residents showed up at 7:30pm.

In hospital quick update

2007-08-01T12:43:00.000-04:00

July 23rd my best friend Stacy brought me to the hospital with contractions. Today Aug 1st I am still here. I promise a much better update when I can get on a faster computer .. this one is a dinosaur. At least I have Lisa in here to keep me company.

I will post more soon I hope.

Belly shots

2007-07-17T10:11:00.000-04:00

Ok I thought I would be brave and share my belly shots from this pregnancy. I know compared to many ladies my belly looks small but compared to my last pregnancy (with Kian) my belly is now as big as it was at 37 weeks when Kian was born.

I will start with my 20 week shot and go from there. Here is a photo of me at 20 weeks.

This is a few days later at 20 weeks 3 days

This next one is at 24 weeks. I tried to get Ryan to take photos of me in the same outfit so you could see the difference.

This next photo is from 27 weeks and 5 days. Looking back I can see how high I was carrying her. Now I notice that she must have dropped compared to then. Funny how you notice things when you look back. I guess I don't carry my babies high for long. With Kian I doubt I was ever very high since he was head down and engaged from 20 weeks on.

Now I will post the photos I took this morning. I am currently 30 weeks and 5 days today. My next goal is 32 weeks, then 34, 36 etc.

Update and Niamh's room

2007-07-15T17:15:00.001-04:00

Last night we went out and bought the crib and dresser for Niamh's room. My parents were generous enough to buy the crib and mattress so we just had to worry about the dresser. Below is what they look like in Niamh's room.

Off ebay I managed to get a great deal on the Kidsline Camelot Princess 6 piece bedding. It hasn't arrived yet but now once it does we can set it up. I also bought the BabySafe mattress wraps for Niamh's crib and bassinet. I figure if there has been no reported crib death on a mattress wrapped in accordance with the BabeSafe protocol since 1995 that is good enough for me.
Here is a photo of the 6 piece bedding set and others from the Camelot that I bought:

As for me things are going great. I was on complete bedrest until Friday. When I would get up the contractions would come right away. Some days were worse than ever. Friday I did very well I was up and about quite a few times. Yesterday I only had two contractions ALL DAY! I went to see Kian at his last soccer day. He got a medal and a certificate. Then we went to Toys R Us to get the baby stuff. I admit I was toast after that. Today I have been up and around. My back is starting to bug me but no contractions only tightenings. I will also say that I only have one day left on my antibiotics. I am really starting to wonder if my chest infection is what started the contractions. Tomorrow I will go back to work. Ryan is going to drop me off and pick me up. I go back to the OB Tuesday morning. I guess I will know more then!

Thanks for checking on me.

Oh and a quick note that Joanne my former roommate in the Antenatal Unit had her baby girl Kaytie on Friday July the 13th at 12:45am. I spoke to her about 12 hours before that and she was doing great. Baby decided to push her way out despite the placenta ... even split it in two! Both mom and baby are doing just fine.

Preterm labor means hospital stay

2007-07-09T09:56:00.000-04:00

Well it all started on Tuesday July 3rd - I left St Joe’s after visiting my friend Lisa who is there due to placenta previa with her twins, I felt it in my back … kinda like my period was about to start followed by Braxton hicks (which I will call tightenings from now on). After a few hours of it I decided to try taking a bath to calm down the contracting. When that didn’t work I ended up trying to go to bed. I woke up a few times through the night thanks to the contractions but I knew I was going to the OB for 10:30am so I figured I would mention it to her then. I went to work like normal and left at 10am for my appointment. When I left I told my boss I was having contractions but that I wasn’t sure if they were real or not. I got to the OBs office and did my blood pressure (133 over 74), got weighed (163lbs) and then went into the exam room to wait for Dr C. When she came in she took a look at my face and asked what was going on. I explained the back pains and tightenings. We talked about preterm labor and then I started to cough. I have a bad cough from when I was sick a week ago. She immediately said she wanted to give me antibiotics for the cough and have me go up to triage for an NST (Non Stress Test).

I left the OB office and immediately called Ryan to tell him what was going on. I seriously thought I would be back to work in an hour, two tops. I got up to triage and they took me to room #2 to hook me to the monitors. They got Niamh’s heartbeat and then added the monitor for contractions. Immediately I was showing medium contractions every 10 minutes. Then they did the fetal Fibronectin test (fFN test); it is used to test pregnant women who are between 22 weeks and 34 weeks of gestation and are having symptoms of premature labor. The test helps predict the likelihood of premature delivery. I tested negative on the test and then they did an internal check … closed and tight. It was shortly after that that my contractions kicked it up a notch and started every 3 to 4 minutes at medium strength. During this time Niamh decided to go crazy. She moved so much that the nurse had to try for 20 mins to get her heartbeat. When that failed she called the resident to do a scan. This was when we found out Niamh was transverse (across my belly) with her feet straight down pushing on my cervix. It also turned out her chord was below her feet between them and my cervix. This put us at high risk because not only was she breech but she could have a prolapsed chord if my water broke. They then checked me again and I had dilated to a finger tip. Since they were so strong the Drs decided that I needed to stay for 4 hours of monitoring. Since it was already 4 pm I called Ryan to tell him I would be there until at least 8pm and could he find someone to watch Kian and come up to stay with me. Ryan left messages for Stacy (my bf and labor helper when I get there). Luckily she got the message and called him back. He dropped Kian off after school and headed up to see me. They then moved me from triage to labor and delivery for monitoring. With the contractions not slowing down they decided I would be staying for the night. Ryan headed home to get Kian about 10pm and I settled in for the night. They ended up giving me a shot of morphine with gravol to help slow things down. They also gave me a shot of betamethasone to mature the baby’s lungs incase of delivery.

By the morning they were ready to admit me. So at 10am or so they moved me over to the antenatal unit. I moved into a semi private room with a great roommate. They scheduled an ultrasound to check on the baby since she was breech the night before. At the ultrasound we found that I have a generous amount of fluid (reason unknown) that is likely causing my irritability. Niamh was totally breech at the ultrasound but measured 3lbs. She scored an 8 out of 8 and I was sent back upstairs. My contractions started again around 2pm and continued every 7 minutes for 2 hours. When they moved me to the antenatal unit they put me on bedrest with bathroom privileges.

Friday I was scheduled for another NST. My first one was at 10am … 60 minutes later I we failed it. Niamh slept the entire hour! The resident suggested we try again after lunch. So I ate and back onto the monitors I went. Another 60 minutes later we failed again. Her heartbeat would not remain steady at all. That was when the resident decided we should do a bedside scan. So we did the scan and … Niamh would not move! I think she scored a 2 out of 8 because she wouldn’t practice breathing or move at all. Then they decided I should do another NST after dinner. 8pm I was into the NST room, this time we turned on the TV while in there. Sure enough 60 minutes and one Bones show later we failed again. The resident showed up at 10pm but immediately let me know that she would be going off to do a c-section just as soon as they called her. Sure enough they called her just as she started the scan. The funniest part of this was that the nurse did not trust the resident. The resident didn’t understand the computerized NST. The nurse tried to explain it to her but there was this ‘I know more than you’ thing the resident was doing. So when the resident went to leave for her c-section she asked the nurse to hook me up again. The nurse asked to what should she hook me. The resident said the NST again … the nurse asked her if she was serious (I had already done 3 hrs on it). Then the resident got snippy and asked if that was too much to ask. Then the nurse suggested the bedside monitor so the resident said fine. So hooked to wires I went until midnight. Niamh again did not cooperate .. she went to sleep. It was then that I was exhausted and decided just to go to sleep. Sure enough I was almost asleep and the resident showed up again to do the scan. Luckily I think it woke Niamh and she cooperated. She showed breathing and movement so by 12:30am I was left alone to sleep.

Saturday they schedule me for another ultrasound to check growth and position. They seemed quite concerned that Niamh had not done well on the NSTs the day before. Kian had always passed within 10 minutes so I didn’t understand what was going on. During the ultrasound the nurse was able to test the new 3D probe they have. I ended up getting a cute 3D photo of her face. Niamh by this time was head down but she would not show the tech she could breath. So 6 out of 8 she scored and won us another round in the NST room. This time luckily she decided to cooperate. 12 minutes in we passed … yay we finally passed a NST!!! It might have helped that I had 2 very strong contractions during the 12 minutes to get the baby going. Dr C came by the room and plopped down on my bed … she cracks me up. She had a revelation after performing a c section. The girl had placenta previa (main reason women are in the antenatal unit at the hospital btw). The girl also had pain similar to what I was having. When they did her c-section they found lots of blood in her abdomen. Being that placenta previa should only have blood in the vagina they weren’t sure what was going on. They quickly delivered the baby and she was perfect, they went back in to close the mom and found she had endometriosis tags all over that had flared and bled. Dr C automatically thought of me and what could be causing my pain. Once she made the declaration she told me there was nothing they could do to stop it but she was happy to know what could be causing it lol.

Through out my stay at the hospital I could tell that my being away was really causing Ryan and Kian a lot of conflict. Kian started to wet the bed (never done this before), stopped peeing for Ryan and refused to poop. When they came to see me in the hospital on Saturday I noticed the tension between them. Kian told me that he had to tell Daddy not to yell at him anymore and be nice. My heart broke for him to have to go through that. So when the Dr told me Sunday morning that I would get to go home I was excited to be able to get things back in order. I called Ryan at 8:30am to tell him the good news. He and Kian arrived at the hospital for 10:30 to bring me home only I wasn’t let out yet. A Dr in flip flops, shorts and a tank top appeared and let me know that I would be going home just as soon as the paper work was done. By 1pm still no paperwork or nurse had appeared. Ryan and Kian were getting antsy so I went looking for a nurse, likely not a wise idea since I was on bedrest but I wanted to get going. The nurse came over to see me while Ryan took Kian for a walk. She told me that I needed a scan and I had to pass before I could leave. I then sent Ryan home and made arrangements with Tasha to watch Kian if I got the call while he was napping. My contractions started at 1:40pm, every 10 minutes for the next 2 hours … thank goodness the resident didn’t show up as I wouldn’t have been allowed to go home. Labor and delivery was very busy so the resident did not return until 5pm. She said she would go get the scanner and be right back … 6pm rolled around before she returned with the scanner. Then Niamh refused to move for her … I had to get an 8 out of 8 to go home. In the last 2 minutes she finally woke up and rolled around so we could go. I got out of the hospital by 7pm and was put on modified bedrest until my July 17th appointment.

One thing I have to admit is I felt much better in the hospital. Being home has really helped Ryan and Kian but not really me and Niamh. My contractions are worse at home because I have to get up and walk around all the time (even when I should be on bedrest). I am not sure that Ryan understands he can’t expect me to walk into the kitchen constantly … bedrest means not getting up. He still has no patience for Kian and I have to potty him, cater to him. I hate to see his little face when I have to tell him I can’t … I really do wish I was still in the hospital for the sake of the baby. I have my fingers crossed that things will calm down … these contractions are way stronger and more exhausting at home. When I was pregnant with Kian I spent the whole time contracting in the hospital so I never had to deal with regular life and the contractions I could just focus. Oh well I guess that is a mother’s sacrifice for her family :)

Hodge Podge

2007-06-20T21:43:00.000-04:00

Ok let's see ... since I last wrote Kian is 100% out of diapers and has just tiny accidents (gets to the bathroom but not the pants off in time). We are fully moved into the new house ... although not quite unpacked and organized. Oh yes ... and we are now positive that we are having a baby girl in Sept!

Starting with Kian ... once he decided that he was a big boy he only had 2 wet diapers at night and was completely dry after naps. We got rid of the nap diapers and a day later the nighttime diapers. We always potty right before bed and he holds it all night. Let me knock on wood just so I don't jinx it.

The house move was pretty smooth ... our wine got broken by FIL but we don't really drink it anyway. It took the first week to rearrange the kitchen as my MIL did it mostly her way ... which isn't close to our way. I haven't taken any photos of the house organized but have a link to where I posted some photos half unpacked.

Ok now to the good stuff. Last Friday we took a trip to Cambridge to do a 3D/4D ultrasound. Immediately the tech showed us that she is all girl. The first 10 to 15 minutes she kept her face covered with her arms. then when she moved her hands she rolled away from the camera so we got a good shot of her back. After a good long swig of cold water (she doesn't appreciate cold water) we started to get some good shots of her. I can't believe how much she looks like Kian did as a baby. Below I will post the top 3 photos as well as one of Kian when he was first born looking the same.

Potty training 101

2007-06-05T17:32:00.000-04:00

Ok so we have been telling Kian that the new house has no diapers for probably about a month. So last week I said to him on Wednesday you know there are no diapers at the new house. Then I said let's go potty. So we walked to the bathroom and he went potty on the toilet. Then he said he was a big boy and could he wear underwear. So off we trotted upstairs to pick out our underwear. Spiderman won out. That was the last of the diaper wearing during the day. At night I put him in a pullup but when he woke up on Thursday he was dry. Thursday was his first day at daycare in underwear. They put him on a 30 min egg timer so that everytime it rings he hits the bathroom. I believe he came home with only one accident that day. On Friday however he pooped in his pants twice at daycare. On Saturday we were dry except for a poop in our pants. I learned that this is where we seem to need the motivation. Sunday I went out and bought 3 Spiderman figure sets. I know how much he is obsessed with Spiderman so I figured I would play off it. When I got home from the store I found out that he had two pee pee accidents while I was out. After going all weekend without an accident I realized that he and Daddy might not be a good combination together. Daddy expects Kian to ask to go potty ... Mommy just sticks him on the toilet ever 30 to 40 minutes.

So we have almost been potty training an entire week now. Yesterday he pooped in his pants after promising to go on the potty for a toy. Then he peed his pants in the hall because he didn't want to take the time to sit on the toilet. He has been waking up dry every morning and peeing on the potty. Today he was dry all day at daycare ... very exciting. He hasn't pooped yet today so I am still hopeful that we can get that going too.

For having a completely dry day on Saturday he was given the X men movie ... which he is allowed to watch when he doesn't pee his pants (it's on now).

I am a little worried that when we move into the new house we might regress but we will see.

New gadgets for the house

2007-05-26T22:57:00.000-04:00

Well with the closing of the house coming up quickly we buckled down and bought a new tv and surround sound.

We got a good deal at The Brick for the Sony Wega 46" LCD tv with a stand.

Well once I figured out that our current surround sound has two speakers not working and one of the 5 discs not playing I decided that if Ryan got a new tv I should also get a new surround sound. When I got home last night I saw I had an email from FutureShop to say they were having an online sale tonight starting at 5pm. They even had the exact surround sound I wanted on sale! So at 5pm today I was on their website and bought it.

The Sony Wireless 5.1 Channel DVD Dream System is what we picked up.

So our livingroom in the new house is really starting to look up. On top of this new entertainment unit we also bought a Berkline 389 reclining sectional in olive.

As soon as the room is all setup in the new house I will post photos!

Getting excited now!

2 weeks til new house!!

2007-05-23T21:59:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't been posting much lately and I apologize ... I just have trouble finding time to post. I always think of great things to post and then they leave me before I hit a computer.

So tomorrow I will be 23 weeks pregnant. What's new? As of last night when she kicks you can see it on the outside and feel it. After I eat or drink something sweet it tkes her 30 mins before she starts to move around. At work today she was kicking out my right side ... very strange to watch. Tonight it was lower below my belly button.

Kian is really starting to get excited about the move and having a sister. He hugs her and rubs my belly daily now. If we are out and about he will randomly tell people I have a baby in my belly. We are going to take him with us to the 4D ultrasound ... I hope that he is excited to see his sister on the screen.

Well just two weeks until we get out new house! I am very excited about the move. We went by the house tonight and had a look ... I am a little disappointed that they did about 5 rows of mortar on the front brick to the right of the garage door in white mortar instead of the grey that the rest is ... Ryan is going to mention something to them about this. I also hope they fixed the 3 issues he reported to them last week (missing pot light in main bathroom, misplaced heat register in kitchen and warped window in basement office).

So we take possession June 7th but will wait until the 8th to move. We have the cable/phone/internet connection coming between 8am and 11am on the 8th, Tepperman's delivery of the new sectional for the family room, delivery of new kitchen table (story another time). We also have to pick up Kian's new bunkbed at the store as well.

We are looking into purchasing a new 46" Sony Wega tv and possibly new surround sound to go with it. Our main tv I got when I was 19 for Christmas from my dad. It is a good tv but a bit small for a main tv room. I also think Ryan has tv envy (he has watched his brother's large tv for the last months).

21 weeks

2007-05-10T20:07:00.000-04:00

Well today I am 21 weeks pregnant. I had my first OB appointment today. When we showed up the receptionist remembered me from 3 years ago! She said she remembered me from when I had my first baby ... awwww. Then I went and had to give a urine sample, got weighed (ouch) and had my blood pressure taken. I passed all of those tests (hehehe) and then we waited to see Dr Crumley. When it was our turn we waited in one of the exam rooms. Dr C walked in and smiled. She said she was happy to see us and then we started talking about how this had happened. We told her the theory Dr M had about the septic tube and then endo being made dormant that allowed it all to happen. She agreed and was facinated by the possibility.

She then pulled out my chart from Kian. We determined that my labor with him was 15 hours long and that he was 37.5 weeks. She figures this time my labor will be shorter. She also told us that now they have a swab test to tell when an irritable uterus will actually cause labor and when it is just being a pain. She said if I encounter it this time that I could have the test and then if I wasn't actually going to have the baby I could just go home instead of staying in the hospital. That would be much better for all of us as last time I spent 2 weeks in the hospital.

Since I have been having strange bruising on my arms I may have to repeat my blood work to determine if I have a hemogloban (sp?) issue.

On another note we booked a 4D ultrasound at a clinic outside the city. June 15 is the day we will have that done. I am so excited. We will confirm that we are having a girl and also allow Kian to see the baby. I am hoping this will make it real for him. Right now he talks about the baby in my belly but not in the sense that a real baby will come out of it.

Here is a photo of my profile at 20 weeks 5 days ... Kian decided to show his profile too.

Preventing SIDS article

2007-05-06T10:15:00.000-04:00

The article can be found here http://www.healthychild.com/cribdeathcause.htm

Has The Cause of Crib Death (SIDS) Been Found?
Toxic Gases in Baby Crib Mattresses
By Jane Sheppard

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). These four words can incite a considerable amount of terror in a parent of an infant. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as crib death or cot death, is the number one cause of death for infants from one month to one year of age. 90% of all SIDS deaths are in babies under six months old. Ongoing SIDS research occasionally leads to discoveries of risk factors associated with these deaths, but after almost 50 years, researchers say they still do not know how or why it happens. The prevailing official viewpoint on SIDS is that the cause is unknown (SIDS Alliance 2001).

It may seem inconceivable that over a million babies have died of this "syndrome", and after almost half a century and many millions of dollars spent, no one in this age of science and technology can tell us why. But what parents are virtually oblivious to (through no fault of their own) is that a highly convincing explanation for this tragedy has been found, along with a simple means of eliminating it. This explanation is backed by a significant amount of evidence, but has been and continues to be completely ignored by SIDS organizations, the medical community, and the government - for a variety of reasons, including politics, financial liability, and vested interests. Publication of these findings continues to be denied and suppressed. The result is that babies continue to be at risk from deaths that may easily be prevented.
Toxic Gases in Mattresses

Dr. Jim Sprott, OBE, a New Zealand scientist and chemist, states with certainty that crib death is caused by toxic gases, which can be generated from a baby's mattress. Chemical compounds containing phosphorus, arsenic and antimony have been added to mattresses as fire retardants and for other purposes since the early 1950's. A fungus that commonly grows in bedding can interact with these chemicals to create poisonous gases (Richardson 1994). These heavier-than-air gases are concentrated in a thin layer on the baby's mattress or are diffused away and dissipated into the surrounding atmosphere. If a baby breathes or absorbs a lethal dose of the gases, the central nervous system shuts down, stopping breathing and then heart function. These gases can fatally poison a baby, without waking the sleeping baby and without any struggle by the baby. A normal autopsy would not reveal any sign that the baby was poisoned (Sprott 1996).

In spite of denial and opposition from orthodox SIDS organizations, no research has disproved this gaseous poisoning explanation for crib death. No valid criticism of this explanation has ever been provided. This logical finding explains every factor already known about crib death, and is backed by scientific research (Sprott 1996, 2000) and 11 years of practical proof consisting of a crib death prevention campaign that continues in New Zealand.
Ongoing research continues to support these findings. A four and a half year study by the Scottish Cot Death Trust published in the British Medical Journal (November 2, 2002) has shown that the re-use of infant mattresses triples the risk of cot death (Tappin 2002). Dr. Sprott explains that the risk of death increases when mattresses are re-used from one baby to the next because the fungus has already had a chance to establish itself in the used mattress. When the next baby uses the same mattress, the fungus is soon active. Toxic gas production begins sooner and is generated in greater volume. It is known that crib death rates increase markedly from the first baby in a family to the second, and from the second to the third, and so on (Mitchell 2001). Dr. Sprott warns, however, that new mattresses can also be unsafe because fungal growth can quickly become established in a new mattress once a baby begins sleeping on it (Sprott 2003).

The fundamental solution is urgent action to eliminate all sources of phosphorus, arsenic and antimony from all mattresses. But this is not happening now, and is not likely to happen anytime soon, so exposure to these gases must be prevented. The intervening solution is to prevent babies from being exposed to the gases by wrapping mattresses in a gas-impermeable cover made from high-grade polyethylene and ensuring that bedding used on top of a wrapped mattress does not contain any phosphorus, arsenic or antimony.

A 100% successful crib death prevention campaign has been going on in New Zealand for the past 11 years. Midwives and other healthcare professionals throughout New Zealand have been actively advising parents to wrap mattresses. During this time, there has not been a single SIDS death reported among the over 100,000 New Zealand babies who have slept on mattresses wrapped in a specially formulated polyethylene cover. The number of crib deaths in New Zealand that have occurred since mattress-wrapping began in 1994 is about 810. The number of crib deaths that have occurred in New Zealand on a properly wrapped mattress is zero.
In early 2002, a German doctor published the results of the New Zealand mattress-wrapping campaign, including statistical analysis carried out in conjunction with the University of Munich (Kapuste 2002). The statistics showed that the proof of the validity of mattress-wrapping for crib death prevention was one billion times the level of proof generally accepted by the medical community as proving a scientific proposition.

Prior to the commencement of mattress-wrapping, New Zealand had the highest crib death rate in the world (2.1 deaths per 1000 live births). Following the adoption of mattress-wrapping by many parents in New Zealand, the New Zealand crib death rate has fallen by 70%, and the Pakeha (non-Maori) crib death rate has fallen by an estimated 85% (NZMH). Pakeha parents have adopted mattress-wrapping with enthusiasm. "These reductions cannot be attributed to orthodox cot death prevention advice," said Dr Sprott. "There has been no material change in that advice since 1992. The only significant change in cot death prevention advice, which has occurred since 1994, is the nationwide dissemination of my recommendations to wrap babies' mattresses."

Parents Are Denied FindingsSo why isn't this profound and critically important information making the headlines of major newspapers or all over the evening news? Why aren't crib death researchers and the government of the United States telling parents to wrap babies' mattresses? Why are the manufacturers still adding fire retardants and other chemicals to mattresses?

There are various reasons, but one possible reason is that mattress manufacturers are required to use fire retardants through government regulations. Admitting that these chemicals are causing deaths would mean admitting to major liability. Furthermore, crib death research has been a significant source of funding for medical researchers in the U.S. Crib death research funding has nearly stopped in New Zealand as more people become aware that mattress-wrapping is easy, cheap and 100% successful in preventing this tragedy. Unfortunately, the ongoing complex and expensive research that leads to the discovery of "risk factors" for a so-called "syndrome" has pushed aside the simple and inexpensive solution of mattress-wrapping; a solution that can do no harm.

The Cot Death Cover-Up? (Penguin books, NZ, 1996), by Dr. Jim Sprott, reveals the amazing story of denial on the part of crib death researchers and the medical community, and the failure of these entities to accept such a simple explanation. Dr. Sprott first suggested a toxic gas theory for crib death in 1986, and in 1989 Barry Richardson of Britain, also a consulting chemist acting independently, publicized outstanding research proving the finding. In response, the British government set up expert committees to investigate the findings. One committee published the Turner Report, which recommended the removal of the chemicals from baby mattresses and for babies to be tested for antimony. A second committee published the 1998 Limerick Report, which is frequently cited by SIDS organizations as finding no evidence to substantiate the claim that toxic gases cause crib death. Contrary to this publicity, the Limerick Report did not disprove the theory (Fitzpatrick 1998) - in fact, it provides further confirmation of it (Sprott 2000).

The main orthodox crib death prevention recommendation is to put babies to sleep on their backs. We know that babies do still die when sleeping on their backs, although face-up sleeping does reduce the risk. The gases are denser than air and tend to settle in a thin layer directly on top of the mattress, so babies sleeping face-down are more likely to inhale a lethal dose of the gases. The gases are also absorbed through babies' skin, and this is one of the major reasons why face-up sleeping provides only partial protection against crib death (Sprott 1996).
However, no babies have died sleeping on a properly wrapped mattress. This is crucial information for parents. Eight babies continue to die every night in the United States from SIDS. Parents should be provided with the information so that they are able to decide for themselves whether they want to wait for the SIDS research organizations or the government to endorse mattress-wrapping or to "play it safe" as many parents have done in New Zealand. As Dr. Sprott points out and no one has denied, "All New Zealand crib deaths since mattress-wrapping began in late 1994 have occurred when parents have not wrapped their babies' mattresses. An inexpensive, non-toxic protective cover can surely do no harm."

The assumption that our government agencies do everything they can to protect our children is naive. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission has stated that BabeSafe mattress covers do not constitute any safety risk to babies. These covers (manufactured in New Zealand) are the only mattress covers designed to protect babies from toxic gases generated in mattresses. Yet even though BabeSafe products are simple, inexpensive, and safe, the FDA requires the manufacturer to go through the expensive, complex, time-consuming procedure of obtaining pre-market approval in order for BabeSafe covers to be bulk imported into the U.S.
Instead of putting unnecessary hurdles in the way of a harmless and potentially live-saving product, why don't the authorities endorse mattress-wrapping in the U.S. to see if the results achieved in New Zealand could be duplicated here? The score in New Zealand is now 810 deaths (orthodox crib death prevention advice) to none (mattress-wrapping). With so many more babies born in the U.S. than in New Zealand, the potential to save lives is dramatically greater - thousands every year. Why should even one baby be denied something that could potentially save his or her life?

It's A .....

2007-04-27T14:32:00.000-04:00

GIRL!

She measures just right and all is well. She is head down right now and I guess I am feeling her punches.

I will update a bit more when I get back from Niagara Falls on Sunday. Now I am off for girls weekend.

Future soccer star?

2007-04-26T11:44:00.000-04:00

Well I just wanted to post a short update. I am still home ... not back at work yet. When this is resolved I will post the story.

Tomorrow is our big level 2 ultrasound. I am quite excited. We hope to find out whether we are having a boy (Shea Tiernan) or a girl (Niamh Ailey). The baby has been kicking a lot this week. The hardest was last night when Ryan leaned over in bed to give me a hug and a kiss goodnight. He leaned his arm on my belly and the baby did not like that. The baby gave a big kick and I told Ryan he had better move his arm that the baby wasn't happy. He then put his hand on my belly and the baby proceeded to kick him twice hard enough that he felt it. That was the first time this pregnancy that Ryan has felt the baby kick.

This weekend 5 of my friends and I are heading to Niagara Falls for our 2nd annual girls weekend. Let's hope for some good weather!

Got my job back!

2007-04-22T07:40:00.000-04:00

Ok I can't post much until next week when I find out the deal from HR. I can say however that I got my job back and that I will be back in the office next week sometime. I will report to the manager of WISG Rob (one who gives me Knights tickets) and I will work on some projects for him. That is all I know for now.

I just have to say phew! This last week and a half has been killer in the stress department ... I look forward to getting back to normal.

Courtney

The support is crazy!

2007-04-15T11:14:00.000-04:00

I have to admit that I am completely overwhelmed by the response I am receiving from the greater university community. The calls of support started early Friday morning as I sat at home for my first full day of unemployment. I didn't know how many people I had impacted over the years but all of their support is wonderful to see and hear. It really lifted my spirits to see university staff calling VPs on my behalf to express their displeasure in my layoff. I am sure that nothing will come of it but at the same time it is nice to see. I hope that it helps me to find other employement at the university quickly.

I also found it interesting that the 'restructuring' of the office that caused my position to be eliminated had nothing to do with the review of the office. I was contacted by someone on the committee who let me know this was a shock to them and that this has nothing to do with their restructuring.

Meeting with a lawyer on Monday at 10:30am. My goal is just to get at minimum on top of what I was offered my OT paid out. If possible I would like to be compensated for the lack of notice. I was informed at the layoff meeting that they had been trying for 8 months to get rid of my position. Could someone just have warned me? My contract says that they need to provide me sufficient warning and try their best to find another position within the office for me. Strange they couldn't do that when they are creating two new positions and I wasn't offered any of them.

Courtney

Position Eliminated

2007-04-13T08:37:00.000-04:00

Well for those of you that have been reading my blog for awhile you know there is no love lost between my now former boss and myself. Here is how my 'PMA preview' meeting at 3:30pm went yesterday.

I walk in and not only is my boss in the room but so is someone from HR. Bells started to ring very loudly in my head. His first words to me were 'The position of Functional Analyst for the Faculty of Graduate Studies has been eliminated due to the restructuring in FGS. The position will be covered by WISG/Registrar.' Then I asked about the Assistant Functional Analyst. That was when I was told that he would be getting a permanent position but I was being layed off. Then the boss left and I was just with the HR lady. I asked if I would be escorted out by security and she said no. I asked if I could go back to my desk and speak to the manager of the area and she said yes. So off I went. I spoke to the WISG manager who knew nothing about this restructuring. If you are going to use the reason of restructuring shouldn't it be true?

Anyhow when I mentioned to the HR lady that I am 4 months pregnant and the person getting the permanent position doesn't do his current position and I cover for him she told me to get a lawyer. So off a lawyer hunting I go ... if you know any good ones here in London let me know.

Wow here is a shoe that just dropped.

Courtney

Ok New House updates

2007-04-07T13:33:00.000-04:00

I will make this post mostly photos of the new house. I know I promised these awhile ago but I am just getting around to them now.

Here is a photo of the house with the shingles ( just put on a week or so ago)

Here is the back of the house. They just started adding the bricks

Here is a look at the den from the kitchen

Here is the kitchen from the den lol they look all white eh?

This is the windows of the Master bedroom

Here is what the basement looks like right now. They just poured the slab so it will be a few more weeks before it is drywalled like upstairs.

And finally a look at the sliding glass patio doors to the deck. I assume one of the last things they will do is build the deck.

If you have any specific questions about the house ask away and I will answer. I am never sure how much people are interested in this.

On another note I have my last GP appointment on Wed. Hopefully the baby is big enough that we can hear the heartbeat by doppler.

Not much new

2007-04-01T14:37:00.000-04:00

Well I don't have much new ... or I can't really recall what happened ... one or the other lol I am 15 weeks pregnant this week and not feeling much. Last week I think I felt a few flutters ... not this week.

Tuesday we went for our first walk thru of the new house. We had them adjust the light in the kitchen and reminded them of the bumpout for the fireplace in the study/den. They tell us the top two levels are right on schedule but the basement is a bit behind. They say nothing a week won't fix. They should be starting the brick work shortly which is encouraging. So as we are doing the walk thru the guy showing us through mentions that he doesn't see any orders for outside companies to come and wire the house before the drywall goes up. Ryan and I both speak up to say ... ah yes there should be. Apparently the company we hired to wire the house with satelite cables and security system has managed not to contact the builder. Ryan made a mental note to call them asap. Roy (one we were walking thru with) told us that they would have to come the next day cause they were going to start the drywalling on Thursday.

Ryan did call the company we hired and they basically blamed the builder ... come on people customer service!

Ok I am sure some of you remember my trials with my current job and my wanting to get out ... well that hasn't changed. I had planned to apply to the new jobs being posted in May but now I am having thoughts that regardless of how qualified I am and how suited to the position I am because I am pregnant I don't stand a change in H.E.L.L of getting anything. I find it quite unfair really. I know that the others applying for the position have 10 to 20 physical years on me, less experience and less knowledge of the position ... but all that seems to matter is that they are not pregnant. Has anyone else tried to change jobs while pregnant and been successful?

This afternoon we are taking Kian to see Meet the Robinsons ... he is quite excited to go. Hopefully we can get good seats for him.

Talk to you later

14 weeks and a trip to the hospital

2007-03-22T21:43:00.001-04:00

Alright so I am 14 weeks today. Yesterday I had an appointment with my regular Dr. Just about as productive as last times. She asked me how I was doing and then tried to hear the heartbeat. Another no go. We heard the placenta again and the Dr thinks a few kicks. We did catch the heartbeat for 2 seconds before the baby moved. Dr was happy so I guess I should be too. Oh and 3lb weight gain since last time ... ouch! I need to find a way to not gain a pound a week ... eeks! My next appointment with the Dr is April 11 and then on to the OB May 10.

So something started yesterday and sent me into a frenzied panic today. Yesterday morning at work I felt I had to pee and went to the bathroom to relieve myself. Easy eh? Nope ... it dribbled. It was the most frustrating thing to have happen. By the afternoon I was back to peeing in a normal fashion. Well this morning I had no trouble at 7am. When I got to campus I drank a large Tim Horton's Steeped Tea and then filled my water bottle. During my 11am meeting, with most of my water bottle empty, I realized I had to visit the ladies room right then. When I got to the bathroom ... nothing. I couldn't pee even a dribble. I sat and it just hurt. The more I sat the more it hurt. I returned to my meeting and sat uncomfortably.

By the time noon rolled around I was dying. I went for 4 more visits with no results before panicking and calling the Dr. Oh did I ever mention how they close for lunch? I tried the Dr, the OB and then called Ryan. I told him to take me to St. Joe's hospital to the Urgent Care to get looked at. When I got there I couldn't sit and standing was hard. I got there about 12:30pm and was brought to a room about 12:45pm. After a few hours where they checked my bladder and made me try to pee I was finally able to give them a sample. They were worried about a UTI but nope turns out I am good.

The Dr finally sent my sample off to be cultured but thinks that maybe the baby/uterus might have been cutting off the urethra. No idea how that might happen but I guess the baby moved and I can pee again. Yay! If anyone has ever experienced this please post on my board. I'd really love to hear I am not alone.

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Ok who watches Grey's Anatomy? Now it doesn't hurt that I am watching it as I type but OMG George cheated on Callie? That is just totally WRONG and makes me very angry. I am happy to say in the closet he stops Izzy's advance. I just hope that they don't make this a love triangle. I really hate them!

Another note: Jenn mentioned in an email she was unable to leave a comment on my blog thanks to blogger being a pain. Feel free to email me (kaberlesgurl@hotmail.com) if your comment won't post.

13 weeks 4 days - Still pregnant

2007-03-19T15:45:00.000-04:00

I know I know I haven't posted much about this pregnancy. I must apologize. It isn't that I am taking it for granted or don't care ... it has a lot to do with my inability to understand how this happened and of course how something good actually happened to me for a change. Yes, I know the whole birds and the bees story of 'how' it happened but come on!

I haven't come to terms with actually 'being' pregnant. I don't really feel the baby yet, my belly comes and goes depending on the day. Some days I look large other days not pregnant at all. I really think it will take actually feeling the baby move around daily to make me realize this is real.

How much in denial am I? Well we still haven't told Ryan's parents. Oh the world knows but we haven't told them yet. In our defense they were over seas for almost a month and returned while I was in Orlando. Now I just want to wait until after my Dr appointment on Wednesday to ensure there is still a heartbeat.

Ok past appointments cause I know I haven't posted about any of this in ages.

Let's see back in February I had two u/s where the baby looked good and measured right on target. I started to have a lot of pain the 2nd last week of February and called the RE office to request an u/s to set my mind at ease. Get this ... I was told NO. Yep you read that right ... NO. They said I could come in to talk to a Dr but that I couldn't have an u/s. I called back to decline the talk with the Dr and to indicate I just wanted the u/s to set my mind at ease. The tech called back to let me know she didn't make the decision on her own that the Dr (not Dr M) had indicated I didn't need one. I took a day to digest that and confirm with other friends that Dr M told them they could have an u/s whenever.

I called back and left a message indicating the only reason I called was because I was told I could and that if that wasn't an option maybe Dr M should stop suggesting it. I told her that after 6 losses a person can panic if something isn't going well and the u/s is just a nice way to set your mind at ease. I did get a call back about the fact I could have an u/s afterall but I was so steaming mad I didn't respond.

I had a regular Dr appointment about the pregnancy. We filled out paperwork and the Dr tried with the doppler to hear the heartbeat. With a retroverted (tipped) uterus hearing the heartbeat by doppler is very hard before 13 or 14 weeks. We tried at 11 weeks and could only hear the placenta ... ding ding ... another thing an anterior placenta means it will take longer to hear the heartbeat by doppler. Oh joy!

On March 8 we went to the clinic for our NT scan to ensure all was well. It was then that I learned my phone message caused an office meeting. The tech told me that she has had to learn to be more flexible with u/s and that Dr M said if she can't do one then he will do it. Infertility is something that can break anyone so when a pregnancy is achieved we should be allowed to do whatever comforts us. I smiled inside knowing that at least I helped someone else in a similar situation.

The tech put the wand on my belly and found the baby and the heartbeat immediately. The baby was asleep. Because of my uterus position she was having trouble getting the measurements she needed. She had to wake the baby up by jiggling my belly. It was funny to watch her giggle and the baby start to move. Ryan asked if I felt the baby move and I couldn't. The heartbeat was 172bpm so the guessing that it is a girl has already started. The NT scan went well and the baby moved to a good position and they got a measurement. I don't know what it was but she said it was good and normal. My next u/s ... the gender one is set for April 27th ... that is just over a month away!

I have an appointment with my regular Dr on Wednesday to have a PAP etc. I was also referred to my favourite OB ... my first appointment is May 10th. That seems so far away lol.

Have I missed anything? If you have questions post them and I will try to respond. I am also thinking I might just do short little posts every day or so to make sure I post lol.

Courtney

Orlando and Home or Bust

2007-03-19T11:11:00.000-04:00

Well I know I have been a bad blogger lately. It isn't that I don't have enough to say ... I am just way too tired to say it.

So last I think I mentioned we arrived in Orlando. We got to our hotel and checked in. Then the lady behind the desk pulled out this map and circled where we were. Then she highlighted where our hotel room was ... what??? not in the same building. Oh my goodness we had to walk around in the dark, at 3am looking for our hotel room. On top of that little walk in the dark we were staying in the Alligator Bayou ... hello what? Did that say Alligator??? We walked quite fast and finally found our room. We crashed for the night. In the morning we met Jan at her hotel (Coranado Springs) where the conference was being held. We had some breakfast and then headed out for a day at MGM. We had a great time. My favourite part was the High School Musical that travelled and played. Jan left early to go back to the conference to hear the opening speaker while Teri and I stayed at MGM for a few more hours before heading back to wait for Jan to call. We got some good rest time in waiting for the call and when Jan did call we were off to find our way to the Yacht Club where a fell collegue was hosting a UWO party.

An hour later *yawn bus service* we arrived at the party. We had a good time hanging out with everyone. End of the night we caught a cab home *much faster than the bus*

The next day the conference started. While I attended the conference Teri went shopping at Downtown Disney. The night we went to the Disney Magic Kingdom for a few hours. Tuesday was more conference and then the closing ceramonies with a Hootie and the Blowfish concert. Wednesday was checkout day and the last sessions of the conference.

The airplane was late leaving Orlando, then had to circle Cleveland for 20 minutes due to weather. When we landed in Detroit we were 10 minutes from the time our connecting flight was to leave. They told us to run so we did. We made it to the gate just 5 minutes late and they told us the plane left early due to weather. They said there were 6 people on board ... there were 12 of us left waiting at the gate. After a few minutes we looked out the window to see the plane still sitting there. 45 minutes late we were allowed to board the plane that had been sitting there the whole time even though we were told it had already left.

We got into London an hour late but we got here. Kian gave me a big hug ... said 'I missed you' followed closley by 'What you got me Mommy?' lol

Welcome to Atlanta where the players play!

2007-03-15T21:42:00.000-04:00

This was actually written in the airport March 10th during our layover in Atlanta. I couldn't post due to lack of wireless connection.

11:50am flight to Detroit cancelled and the fun began. We had to wait for our luggage for 15 minutes and then cart it over to the NWA desk where we were told that we had been booked on a flight from London to Detroit and Detroit to Orlando TOMORROW night! What? We had tickets tonight to Cirque … tomorrow are you nuts? Obviously that wasn’t good enough. We must have spent at least half an hour at the counter trying to figure out what the 5 of us traveling together would do. Ok time to act. Teri called her sister to see if she could locate another flight to Orlando while we booked ourselves on the earliest flight tomorrow from Detroit to Orlando. A split second decision had us at the Hertz rental counter where we rented two cars to drive right away to Detroit. Two of the ladies are booked to golf in a tournament starting at 7am tomorrow and come hell or high water they were going to be there for tee off. Jane drove the PT Cruiser while I took the boat … I mean the Grand Marquis. We made it to the boards in excellent time I must say. While Jane and Dorathy were stopped we sat back and watched. When it was our turn I was asked where I was from and for my passport … Teri and Jan weren’t asked a thing. Then the guard said ‘Have a nice day’ … that must have been the fastest border crossing in history! We made it to the Detroit Metro Airport around 4pm. We took the cars to the Hertz return area but parked them in the 30 min area incase we needed to get the cars again. Our goal was to get booked on an immediate (or within hours) flight to Orlando instead of spending the night in Detroit and flying out tomorrow. Well good news … we did it. 4:30pm Teri found that Delta had a flight from Detroit to Atlanta and then Orlando …. with room for all 5 of us … weeeeeee! The catch … cause you know there is always a catch was that we had to be back at the terminal with our bags in 25 minutes. If you’ve ever been to the Detroit airport you know how large it is so it was no small feet for us to make it to the Hertz parking, pack our luggage in a cab and get back to the terminal in 25 mins. Well we made it with 9 minutes to spare … yahoo!

Since we had changed flights and airlines we had the full security check on our way through. We made it to the plane and boarded. The flight to Atlanta was uneventful we had a layover and then caught our flight to Orlando. We arrived about midnight and then waited for our luggage. After half an hour 4 out of our 5 had their luggage. Dorathy was missing her suitcases but had her golf clubs. Teri and I got all of us registered on the Disney Express so that we could make it to our hotel. Teri and I arrived at the Disney Port Orleans Riverside about 2 am … just in time for the daylight savings time kick forward of one hour. But at least we had arrived.

The birthday party run down

2007-03-01T22:51:00.000-05:00

Well let's get to it, eh? Friday night was the first night for Kian without his soothers. This was a rough one. It took until 10:30pm to get him to fall asleep and then he was up a few times during the night and up for the day at 7:30am. This is not normal for Kian. If he stays up late he will sleep in ... must have been the excitement of his birthday.

We hit the Fleetway for bowling at 12:20pm and then waited for what seemed like forever to get setup on two lanes. Kian had 8 of his friends come to his party. They bowled and then chased each other around until lack of food and nap caused a few breakdowns. Finally after asking a million times they showed us to the party room where they had food waiting for the kids (good thing too they were starving). The room was silent as the kids chowed down on their chosen food (they get to pick chicken fingers, hamburger or hotdog plus fries). After food Kian opened some presents and then we had cupcakes with Cars characters on them. All in all a good day.

We were an hour later than we expected to be so when we arrived home We rushed Kian to nap and tried to get ready for the family that was coming over. They began arriving and had to sit and chat while we all waited for Kian to complete his nap. I ended up waking him up at 5pm so that he wouldn't miss his whole party.

Kian opened his gifts (mostly clothes yay!) then we had some dinner followed by cake. It was quite a day for Kian and by the end he was exhausted. He managed to sleep 12 hours straight without a peep. It was a nice change for Mommy for sure.

Kian's 3rd Birthday

2007-02-23T23:26:00.000-05:00

Well in just over half an hour my baby will be 3 years old. It is so hard to believe the time has flown by so fast. Today since he couldn't go to daycare (he threw up yesterday at lunch time and must be out 24 hrs) I took him to Build A Bear to pick out his birthday present from Ryan and I. He got to choose a bear, build him, put his soother inside, dress him and give him a name. Today marked the first day in Kian's 3 years that he would not have a soother to help him fall asleep. We've been talking about it for a long time and today it happened. His bears name is Mako. Kian came up with the name all on his own and is very proud of his bear.

Tonight Steph came over and we decorated two cakes for Kian's party tomorrow night. He has a big day ahead of him tomorrow. First, he has a kids bowling party at Fleetway at 12:30pm. Then he has a family party at our house at 4pm. We are having cupcakes for the kids party and the cakes for the family party. If you are wondering why it is because cupcakes are cleaner and also because the family party is to celebrate my birthday too. Kian's is the 24th and mine is the 27th.

I am making hashbrown casserole and chicken dijonaise for supper along with some veggies. We are expecting between 16 and 18 guests tomorrow night so it should be a full house. It will be good to see my parents and my brother and Alissa, we haven't seen them since Christmas.

I've attached photos of the cakes we made tonight.

TLC tonight - Ovarian tissue transplat

2007-02-21T21:43:00.000-05:00

How cool is the idea of an ovarian tissue transplant for a woman who is suffering from infertility. Here is the story (I googled it)

I watched the show about the identical twin sisters tonight. The one experienced menopause starting at about 14 years old and the other was fine. The one who was fine had 3 children with her husband while her twin was infertile. The fertile one agreed to donate one of her ovaries to her sister. When they were doing some testing they found a cyst on the fertile twin's ovary the size of a grapefruit. Turned out it was just fluid filled and when they removed the fluid it looked like a deflated balloon. In the end 3 months after the new ovarian tissue was transplanted into the infertile twin she was cycling. It was crazy. A few months later she was pregnant on her own ... no fertility treatments needed! I was in awe of the whole process. Science is a wonderful thing!

9 weeks 4 days

2007-02-19T20:58:00.000-05:00

Well as far as I know things are going well for the babe in my belly. I can tell you I am sick most of the day and my boobs hurt like heck. I find when I get up in the night is when I notice them the most *ouch*. I have been up several times a night to pee lately. I also have very painful gas! I know my uterus is severely retroverted but I am not sure if that is helping to cause all of this pain I am in. Mostly my pain is in my back around my hips and on either side of my tail bone. Today I have been taking tylenol just to be able to function. I do recall having pain with Kian but I somehow remember it being in the front not the back. As long is all is well I don't mind the suffering if it leads to a baby.

So most people now know about the pregnancy minus Ryan's parents as they are now away on vacation.

I will try to update about our Niagara Falls trip but I am in desperate need of some saltines right now.

8 weeks 5 days

2007-02-13T17:41:00.000-05:00

Hello and welcome to my strange and scary world.

The u/s turned out great today. The baby measured a day ahead at 8w6d. The heartbeat was about 161bpm today. They found the possible cause for the bleeding I have a bit of old blood just below the baby in my uterus. The Dr doesn't think that will cause a problem but warned me there may be more bleeding. He indicated if I ever want an u/s to calm my nerves to just drop in and they will do one. I am still having a lot of cramping and pain. More now that the u/s is done than before today. I have a feeling my irritable uterus has returned to haunt me like it did in my pg with Kian.

Quick Update

2007-02-10T21:32:00.000-05:00

Hello there sorry for the scare. I had red spotting Tuesday night, some brown on Wednesday and then the rest has been the yucky yellow cm that looks like snot. I think I remember having that from my pg with Kian so I hope it is normal. I have been having lots of pain and cramping so I asked for another u/s. They scheduled one for Tuesday afternoon at 1:30pm.

Hmmm symptoms ... sore boobs, sudden intense hunger, nausea, food aversions and large boobs (lol). I am already almost out of my 36 C cups and into my D from my last pregnancy. My pants are fitting quite snug by supper time and I prefer to wear loose fitting ones.

Right now I am in need of a one piece bathingsuit for next weekend as we are off to Niagara Falls for our annual family vacation. Reminds me I need to dig out Kian's swimsuit and some of his shorts.

Worried

2007-02-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

Hello all after my trip on cloud 9 I was shaken off tonight with the finding of bright red blood when I went for a visit to the washroom. I am quite upset and have left a message for the clinic to call me back. I am not sure what to do or what to think. I did have spoting with Kian's pregnancy but mostly brown and caused by my suppositories. Well I am not on any medication this time round so I know something must be wrong. Please keep me and the baby in your prayers.

*edited*

7weeks 4 days baby

2007-02-05T19:27:00.000-05:00

Well this has to be a short post as I am feeling quite ill ... (Tasha if I can manage the phone I will call you tonight for like 5 mins).

I know some of you are dying ... well we heard and saw the heartbeat today! Very clear and very loud ... baby measures 7 weeks and 4 days ... my edd is Sept 20th. Everything looks good and I go back for a maternal screening u/s on March 8th.

And boy do I have nausea ... I need to go lie down right now because I feel terrible. I will post the whole story tomorrow.

I just love this and it made me smile

2007-02-05T10:12:00.001-05:00

Watching this makes me really miss my dad. I should take a drive to visit him soon.

I have a bad feeling about this

2007-02-04T14:53:00.000-05:00

Well today is D day ... the day that will tell us if we are 100% pregnant or will experience another loss. Due to my history of losses I tend not to allow myself to experience any pregnancy until after it is confirmed by seeing a heartbeat. I was starting to get comfortable with this one and decided that I wouldn't go for repeated hcgs and that I wouldn't press for an earlier u/s I would just be patient (a first for me). Well now I am sort of regretting it. Up until this point I hadn't had any spotting and no cramping for almost a week. Well just before I laid down for a nap today I went for a potty break. Low and behold it has started again ... when I wiped it looked like my mucous plug. For those of you who have never experienced that it is like a bunch of snot with blood streaks. Shortly after that the cramps started. They aren't double you over painful but very annoying and unnerving. So now I wait. 2:45pm tomorrow I should know for sure one way or another and I will post.

For today we will be going to Stacy and Mike's to watch the Superbowl.

Meet my niece!

2007-02-02T07:29:00.000-05:00

I am so very excited to announce that Teri and Craig have been matched with a little girl from Thailand. They found out on Jan 31st at 8pm that they will have a little girl! Her name is Ganya (pronounced Kanya). Teri said she is pretty sure they will keep the name but likely change the spelling to Kanya. It will stil be another 6 to 8 months before they are able to bring her home to Canada but they hit another milestone in their long adoption process. She was born Sept 14, 2005. She has lived almost her entire little life with a Foster family so Teri and Craig are able to find out so much information on her. They know all her shot, experiences it's so much more than they expected.

Symptoms

2007-01-29T18:25:00.000-05:00

Ok ok I've had some symptoms .. let me share. So the day I found out I was indeed pregnant I had the following symtoms:
1. Sore boobs ..not only to touch but just in general
2. Nausea when I ate
3. Backache that just wouldn't stop
4. Cramps that came and went for hours and hours

Now that I know I am pregnant I have been having most of those same symptoms but on top of them this killer hunger and a craving for anything salty. No chocolate here, the thought makes me feel ill. I also want mashed potatoes and corn ... like for every meal. I made it last night but sooooo want it again tonight. Think that will fly with my 'once a week per meal' hubby? I am doubting it ... should have made extra last night.

So even though I wasn't very impressed with my betas I still have the symptoms of pregnancy so I am going with that. My u/s turns out is Feb 5th at 2:45pm ... for some reason I keep saying it is the 4th but that is Sunday.

My question to you ladies who read my blog and have had more than one child ... when did you start showing for #2. With Kian I didn't really start showing until I was about 15 or 16 weeks. All weekend I wore comfy pants cause I felt bloated ... I don't want work to know til after I get back from Orlando in March so I want to avoid pg looking clothes if possible.

I want to send a big CONGRATS out to my friend Lisa who got a positive beta today ... good luck on Wed babe!!!

Hmmm

2007-01-24T22:04:00.000-05:00

**Warning if you know me in person or know someone I know please keep anything you read here to yourself**

What would be the craziest thing you could see me post?

Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words ...

Hmmm let's see ... ttc since Jan 2000 ... never been pregnant without the help of a Dr. Have had many losses since starting this journey. I have done two fresh IVF and two frozen cycles, along with what was it 11 IUI cycles. On our last attempt in October we were successful only to have it end in ectopic with emergency surgery. So now on top of all our other issues I only have one tube but ovulate most of the time from the ovary where there is no tube.

My last period was Dec 18th ... we think it was either Dec 26 or 27 that we had sex ... mind you after we had a HUGE fight. According to calculators online I should have ovulated around Jan 1. My period was due Jan 14 ... never crossed my mind that I was pregnant until this week when I started to feel funny. Today however I almost lost my lunch and supper and forced Ryan to make a pitstop at Walmart to grab a test. I went home ... peed in a cup and the + came up well before the control.

I won't celebrate yet .. but will make a trip to the Dr to have a beta done.

Cross your fingers for us.

UPDATED: Beta was 10,611 today and I am going back Saturday. My u/s is scheduled for Feb 4th 2:45pm

UPDATED JAN 26: Second beta was 16,234 today ... guess I have to wait until Feb 5th to see if we have a bean or not. I was upset when I got that number since it didn't double .. but alas I have nothing to compare it to so ... I will wait :(

A wee bit sad ... but happy too

2007-01-16T22:57:00.000-05:00

This won't be a long post I just thought I should post what I am feeling instead of hiding it. *sigh* If my FET had worked in May my baby would be due in 2 weeks. Why am I feeling sad? Some friends I made who also went through FETs and IVFs with me back in May are having their babies now. They are so cute and truly blessed but that also makes me feel sad for my losses. As many of you know I have suffered several losses over my years of ttc. I always think about those losses but I never let them affect my life. Right now ... I am sorry to say it is affecting my life. I am avoiding emails from good friends who are expecting incase they want to talk about their growing bellies. I really do love them and am extremely happy that things worked out for them ... but I am sad that things didn't workout for us.

Strange that the only two I think about all the time is the May FET and the October IVF from this year. My due dates would have been Feb 2 and July 7th.

I am excited that Steely will be having her little boy Jan 25th by C section *unless he comes earlier* and that Emma just had her little boy Cameron (not sure if it was yesterday or today). I want to wish Jackie good luck with her IVF ... I just know that this is the one you have been waiting for ... blasts are good!

If I missed anyone I am super sorry ... I really don't have hard feelings I just can't figure out what to say right now.

((hugs))

The New House

2007-01-06T22:32:00.000-05:00

Well at 9:30am today we went to the Decor Centre and picked out the inside of the house! I was surprised how easily Ryan and I agreed on everything.

Let's go room by room:

Kitchen - We upgraded the cupboards to the Maple I posted before in the Salem style and the Nutmeg colour. We got silver hardware for the handles in a pull not a knob. Our countertop is called ebony fusion and since we are getting black appliances, we got a black rangehood. The lighting fixtures will be pewter. The colour of the kitchen and whole main floor will be Benjamin Moore Shaker Beige HC-45. Since our first floor is mostly tile (excluding study and livingroom) we got tile by C-Centura colour Toptono. In the photo you can see the wall, countertop, floor and cupboards.

Master Ensuite - We got the cupboards in the ensuite the same colour as the kitchen cupboards but in a different wood. We got Alder wood and the style is Templeton. Our countertop is called Fresco and again we got the silver pulls. The floor is V-initiator and the walls Benjamin Moore Rocky Road CC-470.

Main Bathroom - We got the same style cupboards as the ensuite but in the colour Tuscan this time. The countertop is called Mystique mount crystal and the same silver pulls on the drawers. All lighting in the house is pewter if there is metal. The floor is also by V-initiator but a different colour. When I look at the photo the paint colour looks so much lighter for the main bathroom compared to the ensuite but it is really the same colour ...must have been my camera phone or the lighting when I took the photos.

Master Bedroom - We got hardwood throughout the master because of my asthma. We chose sliver maple 2 1/4 hardwood in the colour sierra. The paint for the master bedroom and bedroom 3&4 is going to be Benjamin Moore Clarksville Gray HC-102 (which isn't gray at all lol).

Kian's room will be the Shaker Beige until he picks a colour in a few years. We chose Rocky Road to do the stairwell to the basement, the rec room and office in the basement as well as the main bathroom and ensuite. The rest of the house will be Shaker Beige. We do have paint that we bought to pain the loft here but will bring it to the new house likely to paint the livingroom.

The carpet on the main level and the 2nd level is a berber and called Boloria - pebble gray (seen below)

The carpet in the basement is also a berber but not as soft as the one upstairs. It's called Aztec - Llama.

The powder room on the main floor is the same colour as the mainfloor and has the same tile. The only thing we did in there was get the pedistal sink instead of counter/cabinet.

Below you can see photos of our mud. We swung by the lot on our way home today to get shots of the lot before they do the foundation.

This is a shot from the back. I outlined our property in red.

This is from the road before you turn onto ours.

And finally a closer shot of the lot from the front and the sold sign. The houses you see behind the lot .. that is where we took the photo of the back from.

Rant time

2007-01-05T07:27:00.000-05:00

So last night I was reading the London Free Press online and I discovered an article about how the Ontario courts have just approved a young boy to have two moms. Basically the gist was that this boy has a biological father, biological mother and a mom. When you read that do you see anything wrong with it? I sure don't happens all the time. Mom and Dad get divorced and then say Dad remarries. Now do you believe that nonbiological 'mom' should have rights where the child is concerned and be recognized as that child's mom? As I mother myself I say Hell Yes!

Ok now if the situation were that the biological mother was married to another woman who the boy knew as his mom would you feel the same way as what I portrayed above? This is where I get angry with this situation. If it is ok in the first situation WHY on earth is it not ok in the second. A mom is a mom. If a woman (or man in that situation) cared for a child and that child called them mom they should be recognized for that. Two women can adopt a child and both be recognized, two men can adopt a child and be recognized. The whole point of the ruling was to make it recognized in Ontario that if a nonbiological parent is a parent regardless of their gender.

Here is an article on the situation if you care to read it

What gets me is this group Alliance for Marriage and Family which my in laws actively participate. They are actually looking to appeal this decision because they think their one man and one woman family is the only way things should be.

This brings me to my arguement point. Many man/woman marriages end in divorce, there is violence in the home, women are abused, children are terrorised ... but this group only looks at what they want ... what does it matter to them anyway?

How does this impact you as a person. For me it doesn't at all. This ruling helps others but does not negatively or positively impact me so I say only those impacted should have the right to speak in the courts about it. Times are changing, same sex marriage IS legal here ... the laws need to be updated.

Ok that was my rant .. sorry :)

Christmas has come and gone

2007-01-03T21:57:00.000-05:00

It's funny how sometimes you look forward to something so much but as it gets closer you can't wait for it to be over. Christmas is like that for me. I really love the holidays ... I love them more with snow but at least driving was good this year. I enjoy being around family, I love seeing Kian's face when he sees what Santa left him but I dread the family drama. Every year there is drama, be it with my family or Ryan's.

This year the drama level was quite low ... I was so happy but the drama that occurred makes my blood boil. I am sure many of you will totally disagree with my stance on this so please take what I say with a grain of salt. I would never push my beliefs on anyone and think that every parent has every right to bring their child up in whatever way they feel comfortable. Let's just say Ryan and I are not religious people. I don't know if our infertility struggles make me shy away from it or if it is just Ryan's over zealous parents. Christmas to me has always been about family and just the joy of the season. In my eyes it is very commercial and not in any way Christian or religious ... at least in our house. Santa is just about Santa. Kian likely has no idea who Baby Jesus is or anything about the tale of that night. We don't attend church and have no plans to in the near future.

Ryan's parents are very religious and are always pushing it on us. They attend a church who do not support gay marriage or gay rights and do not believe in IVF or support ART. There are many other things that their church preaches and I can ignore most of them but those two items I cannot ignore. Kian is an IVF baby and one of his favourite friends happens to be gay. I won't have Kian thinking that either is wrong as they are not. Each holiday Ryan's parents invite Teri, Craig, Kian, Ryan and I to their church for whatever the Christian holiday celebration is. We generally always find an excuse to decline. I have talked to Ryan and told him we need to stop making up excuses and just tell them we would appreciate not being invited. He always says he will but makes up an excuse instead.

Fast forward to Christmas Day. We are all about to have brunch (my family and his family at our house). His parents insist on saying grace. I really don't mind when it is just our family but my family does not follow Christian faith so it puts them in an uncomfortable position to be expected to pray. They are good about it and just silently listen. Ryan and I don't say grace with Kian but we have brought him up knowing that when Grandma and Grandpa do this he is to be silent and bow his head. He does this while stealing glances around the room.

Christmas Day Eve we were at Ryan's Aunt and Uncle's place for supper. We had all participated in the grace and begun to fill our plates. I brought Kian to the kids mini table and he sat down to eat. Ryan's Mom raced over and told him he couldn't eat until he said his prayers. I was appauled! She tried to force his head down and make him say the prayer with her. He began to cry and say he already listened to grace. She got upset with him and told him he couldn't eat til it was said. I tried to tell her he was fine and didn't need to say it and she ignored me. She said some prayer that was quite indepth for a 2.5 year old. Then she told him he had to eat 3 bites of his supper and he could have a treat. Well Kian is very big on doing as little as possible to get treats. So instead of eating his supper he ate 3 bites and expected a treat. The rest of the night went downhill from there with him. He threw temper tantrums and we ended up leaving early to take him home.

Now what you do in your own home is your own business, your beliefs are your own but just because you believe something doesn't make it true and certainly doesn't mean you can push those beliefs onto others. I never argue with anyone when the talk religion. It is a very private and personal issue. I have read the bible many times and I have taken religion courses. We were married in the Anglican church and both Ryan and I are baptised. I chose this when I was in my early 20s on my own accord. The way I feel is something that has developed over the years. I have beliefs but I don't push them on anyone, not even Ryan. Now I have to figure out how to come right out and tell his parents to back down. We don't allow them to babysit Kian for fear of the terrible things they will try to fill his head with. They were only with him for an hour and he came back spouting all kinds of tales and was scared stiff that both Ryan and I were going to HE double hockey sticks because we don't go to church each Sunday.

Ok now on to the good parts of Christmas. Kian was spoiled as usual. He received Cars toys, a loud Dinosaur, accoustic guitar, electric toy guitar, remote controlled digger, Diego toys etc. The kid got toys ... he asked for toys and got toys.

Here is Kian and his Papa

Kian in his new bike helmet from Papa and Grams. Kian's Great Grammie is in the background.

Santa visits the Herns

Kian's race track is about the size of him

After all the gifts were opened here is our livingroom