Half a Year

Emily is now 6 months old! I can't believe it's already been half a year since she was born. I've said it before and I'll say it again, time is flying by!

 

3 Days Old

 

 6 Months Old

The other day as I was driving home from the grocery store my heart was so full of joy. Joy for my beautiful baby napping peacefully at home. Joy for my wonderful husband who loves everything about me (the good and the bad). Joy for our home, our families, and our health. Joy for my perfect little life. I'm in such a happy place right now!

I feel like I've finally hit my stride in my role as a mother. I know I still have a lot to learn, but it seems like for the first time since Emily was born I'm able to sit back and enjoy it all, rather than worry or stress about things. Her weight gain is great, her sleep habits are constantly improving (more on this soon!), and she's such a happy baby! It seems like she's at the perfect age where she loves her Mommy and Daddy so much, she's always curious and discovering new things, but she's still too young to need discipline and constant supervision. Best of all, she makes us smile every single day and I can't thank her enough for that!

Happy 6-month birthday baby! I love you!

Memory Lane: Our Engagement

Our engagement happened on May 30, 2007. I was talking to my parents on the phone while Steve was preparing the whole thing. When I was done I wanted to talk to him so I started walking towards the computer room, but from the bedroom he said "come here". I had a bit of a confused face as I walked in and noticed what was going on!

A while back I had told him that a really sweet place to propose would be our new house (which was being built at the time) since it also symbolized a big commitment. But that meant we would have had to wait a month and then it wouldn't have been a surprise.

Steve wanted it to be a surprise, so I walked into the bedroom and there, on his laptop, was my favourite picture of our house! Also, the song "Question" by Old 97's was playing, which is a song that I'm very familiar with and goes: "Someday somebody's gonna ask you.. A question that you should say yes to.. Once in your life.. Maybe tonight I've got a question for you". Then the cute/geeky side of him came out when the words "Nathalie will you marry me" were written on a Scrabble board (because we had been playing tons of Scrabble, of course!).

He got down on one knee, said some stuff that neither of us remembers, then said Nathalie will you marry me, opened the box (upside down! haha), and I said YES!

We hugged and celebrated then watched some TV! :)

Next up on Memory Lane: Our Wedding

Stranger Anxiety

Emily has developed a serious case of Stranger Anxiety. She starts crying within seconds of being in someone's arms other than her mommy's and daddy's. We noticed it starting a couple of weeks ago; she would fuss a little when we would arrive somewhere and "strangers" (including relatives) would go near her. It wasn't so bad though because often once she was fed and happy, she didn't mind being held. Now it's gotten to the point where it doesn't matter when, where, or who -- she will cry.

I think it saddens my mom the most because she was so used to holding and taking care of Emily. Luckily Emily will still smile for most people, just as long as they're not touching her. Someone asked me if I'm embarrassed that she acts this way with everyone... Absolutely not! I know that this is a completely normal part of her development so I really don't think much about it. I'm sure it will pass and in the meantime I get extra cuddle time with my baby :).

Steve was away this week (he just got back last night, yay!) so we were really curious to see how she would react when he got home -- whether she would treat him like a stranger or not. I was giving her a bath when he arrived so she was all smiles, then Steve entered the room and said "Hi Baby! It's Daddy!!". She gave me a funny look at then burst into tears! Poor girl (and poor Daddy!). I took her out of the bath and gave her a big cuddle. I think he just startled her because once she got a good look at him, listened to his voice, and touched his face, she was all smiles again. She let him hold her no problem and things have been back to normal ever since :).

Puppet Show

I got these adorable finger puppets at Ikea while I was pregnant. There are 10 different animals (one for each finger!) and Emily loves to grab them! Here is our puppet show adventure:

 

 

 

 

  

  

  

 

Turns out the label says they're for ages "3+"... Oops! I'll be putting the puppets away for a while now :).

Mmm... Milk

 

Oh Mommy, it's so delicious...

Memory Lane: When Steve Met Nathalie

Steve and I met in high school. My first memory of him was at a friend's house party in the 10th grade. We were all sitting in a room and I remember Steve and his friends reciting funny Simpsons quotes. Another moment I remember from that day (he's going to hate that I tell you this) is: At one point during the party we had some cake with little silver candy balls on them but Steve wasn't a fan, so he removed them and casually asked "does anyone want my balls?"... haha I'll never forget that.

During those first couple years of school, however, we barely knew each other. I just knew him as "that tall funny guy" and he knew me as "that small cute girl". In the 11th grade, it was ICQ and badminton that brought us closer together. I got to know Steve pretty well by chatting with him on ICQ after school and on weekends. We also formed a mixed doubles badminton team and kicked butt! It wasn't long before we became really close friends -- getting together to watch movies, play pool, and play backgammon.

I have to be honest though, the attraction wasn't there immediately. Steve had a bit of a geeky look going (pimples, bad hair cut, and funny clothes) and I had teenage issues of my own. Plus, the fact that I had a boyfriend and he had a crush on another girl meant that we weren't really "looking". Luckily this made it very easy for us to talk to each other, have fun together, and grow as friends.

Naturally the more I got to know Steve, the more I became attracted to him. It wasn't long before I noticed his gorgeous blue eyes, his amazingly sweet personality, his awesome intelligence (love the smart guys!), and his adorable silly side. We spent the summer of 2000 flirting like mad and then Steve asked me out on September 25, 2000. I said YES and we've been together ever since!

 

Summer 2001

 

Prom, Summer 2002

Next up on Memory Lane: Our Engagement

Lavender's Blue

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly

Lavender's green

When you are King, dilly dilly

I shall be Queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly

Who told you so?

'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly

That told me so

This song has been on my mind recently. A LOT. Why? Because our current sleep plan for Emily consists of rocking her in our arms to this song, on repeat, until she falls asleep. We then put her down and leave the song on for the duration of the nap. Putting her to sleep this way works quite well most of the time and I can already see improvements in her napping and our ability to put her down. I have to admit though that it is hard work and certainly not the most practical way of getting her to sleep. Plus, given that we listen to the monitor while she naps, it feels like I hear this song a gazillion times a day!

Let's do the math: The song lasts about 2 minutes. It takes anywhere between 10 - 45 minutes to put her to sleep. She sleeps for as little as 30 minutes or as long as 2 hours. She takes 2 naps a day. That's an average of:

[((20 min) + (75 min)) x 2 naps] / 2 min  =  95 times per day

Can you believe it?? I hear this song about 100 times a day! haha... Are we crazy? According to the books Emily should be able to self-soothe herself to sleep by now. Problem is we were so focused on her eating during the first few months that we rarely thought about the importance of her sleep. Now we're stuck taking baby steps (no pun intended) towards better sleep habits. That said, rocking her to sleep this way is a huge improvement from how things used to be! Hopefully the next time I blog about her sleep it will be even better.

Call up your friends, dilly dilly

Set them to work

Some to the plough, dilly dilly

Some to the fork

Some to the hay, dilly dilly

Some to cut corn

While you and I, dilly dilly

Keep ourselves warm.

Daddy & Me

I love my daddy. He's the best.

He burps me

and kisses me

and reads to me
and makes me laugh.
 He rocks me to sleep

and plays with me

and sings to me

and gives me baths

and...

 

 

  

 

My daddy loves me.

Bed Head

 

What? What's so funny?

Memory Lane: Labour & Delivery

This is a very long and detailed post, written so that I can look back and remember what Emily's birth was like. Only read if you are interested in reading about labour and delivery!

I was 38.5 weeks pregnant. I woke up around 1:30am because I felt a trickle of liquid. I went to the bathroom, but still wasn't sure if this was it. Steve was still up at his computer so I went downstairs and said "I don't want to alarm you but my water may have just broken". I wasn't feeling any contractions yet so we weren't sure what to do. We googled to find out whether or not we should go to the hospital -- all signs pointed to yes, just to be safe. We finished packing our bags and left for the hospital at 1:50am, sort of assuming we'd be sent back.

The ride to the hospital was very relaxed, not at all like I imagined it would be (I had visions of me being in awful pain, swearing at Steve to go faster but then swearing at him to stop speeding over the bumps -- totally unrealistic given I don't swear). As soon as we parked the car I felt a bigger gush of liquid, and while we were walking towards the front door of the hospital my water officially broke. It was everywhere. How exciting!

We got to the labour & delivery floor and I was so happy to find out that my obgyn was the doctor on call! In the end she wasn't even there for the delivery -- just a resident, intern, and nurse. A nurse gave me a robe, put us in a room, and since I wasn't having any contractions yet, left us for a while. We called my parents and Steve's mom.

Around 2:30am a nurse came in and hooked me up to some monitors to measure my contractions and the baby's heart rate. She checked me and I was already 3cm dilated! I couldn't believe it.. I was barely feeling anything! My parents came to join us so I hung out with them while Steve tried to catch some sleep. We sat in the common area, watched tv, and walked up and down the halls. During this time my contractions got progressively stronger. I would stop what I was doing, breathe through it, and wait for the next one to come.

Eventually the contractions got bad enough that I went back into my hospital room, woke Steve up, and suffered through them with his help. After a while my mom came in to check on me and saw how much pain I was in so she went to get a nurse. The nurse checked me and I was 7cm dilated! It was just going so fast! The nurse apologized for not checking on me sooner (apparently it was a busy night on the delivery floor and they figured since this was my first baby it would take a while). She asked if I needed anything to manage the pain. I said no. I had only been in labour for about 4 hours and felt that the end was near, so I figured I could handle it.

Since I was 7cm and moving along quickly they decided to take me to the delivery room. On the way there I distinctly remember having to stop halfway, at the nurses' station, to bear through a contraction in front of everyone.. haha. By the time I got in the room (I hadn't even gotten in the bed yet) I had a sudden urge to push. They checked me and I was 9cm! This was definitely the hardest part of my labour -- wanting to push through the excruciating pain, but having to wait until I was 10cm.

About an hour later (around 7:00am) I was fully dilated and ready to push. As I was about to start the nurse asked me if I wanted some Nitrous oxide. I had no idea what she was talking about then she told me it was laughing gas. I think I gave her a bit of a snooty face and said no (all I could think was "why do I want to laugh right now?"). Instead I just told myself "my body was made to do this!". The nurse told me I was brave :).

What I remember from the pushing stage is feeling like the first hour was accomplishing nothing (I'm sure it was I just couldn't feel it yet), Steve feeding me ice chips between contractions, and my arms hurting from pulling my legs back so hard. I don't recall feeling too much pain from the birth itself, although they say you tend to forget how bad it was. I do remember that in the final 30 minutes of pushing I could really feel Emily move with each push.

One thing that surprised me about the process was the amount of "down time". In the movies and on tv you see the women constantly pushing until the baby arrives. Reality is you're only pushing with each contraction so for a lot of the time I just lay there, trying to rest and waiting for the next contraction. Once I could feel it coming, I took a deep breath and pushed a few times until the contraction was over. The entire pushing stage took about 1.5 hours. It was exhausting.

When Emily came out they placed her on my chest while wiping her down. I remember feeling an overwhelming amount of joy and relief. My first two thoughts were "she has my chin!" and "she's so beautiful".

When it was all over (including stitches -- ouch!) I remember sitting there, in awe of my baby and what I had just done, thinking "I would totally do this again!".

Next up on Memory Lane: When Steve Met Nathalie

Operation Grow Baby

Like Emily mentioned in her interview, I've been checking with her doctor and my lactation consultant about her recent lack of weight gain. When she was born she was in the 25th percentile for weight. We struggled with breastfeeding and some weight loss at the start but with lots of hard work and the help of a breastfeeding expert, we were able to maintain a steady growth over the first few months.

It seemed like everything was going fine, but at her 4-month appointment she had dropped down to the 10th percentile. Since then she's only gained 4 oz. total (she should be gaining that per week!), now putting her in the 1st percentile. AHH!

I met with my lactation consultant last week and she said that my milk supply is low -- it likely went down over the stressful Christmas holidays. So for the past week I've been pumping for 20 min. several times a day to get it back up. Unfortunately it hasn't gone up quickly enough so the doctor has recommended formula supplementation. This breaks my heart because my goal was to exclusively breastfeed for Emily's first year (I feel like somewhat of a failure even though I know I did the best I could).

What's important now is Emily's health and growth. I'm still breastfeeding but then "topping her up" with formula at the end of each feed. We'll see how she does at her weigh-in next week! For those of you who know me well, you know that the breastfeeding journey has not been an easy one for me. Some days I just wish I was one of those women with a bountiful supply of milk gushing out at my baby's request (sorry for the weird visual). *sigh*. I'm glad that Steve is here to remind me that I have lots of other things to be thankful for :).

I'm determined to keep up the pumping and build my milk supply in the hopes of eventually weaning her off of the formula. Wish me luck!

My Pink Bunny Suit

I got this adorable bunny bathrobe at my baby shower. Here's Emily modelling it for all of you.

 

  

  

  

 

I was also thinking it could make a great Halloween costume.. Just add a drum and some sunglasses and you get the Energizer Bunny!

Thanks Sarah and Kayda!!

Toes

My baby doesn't suck her thumb...

... She sucks her toes!

 

Memory Lane: Pregnancy

I really enjoyed being pregnant. Yes, the first and last months were pretty rough; I had the all-day morning sickness at the start, and the swelling, heartburn, and constant urge to pee by the end. But for the most part I felt excited, beautiful, healthy, and happy.

I was lucky because my schedule was very flexible. I was working on my master's thesis at the time, so I was mostly able to stay home when I felt sick, sleep in and nap when I was tired, and not work when my brain felt like mush. I know that this is a luxury I won't have with my next pregnancy!

Some of my favourite memories include finding out we were having a girl (and hosting a "gender party" to announce it to our families!), working on Emily's nursery, doing prenatal yoga/pilates, and going on walks with Steve, my mom, and my sister. My absolute favourite part of the pregnancy was feeling Emily kick and move around inside me. Such a wonderful feeling!

The final trimester of my pregnancy was during the summer months and I remember everyone telling me how rough it was going to be. Luckily we had a relatively cool summer, so the heat was never really an issue! Plus, I felt super cute in my summer clothes. Personally, I think that being pregnant in the winter -- with the cold, ice, snow, cabin fever, and bulky clothes -- would be way worse!

If I had to do it all over, I don't think I would change a single thing! :)

I'll end this post with some of my favourite random pregnancy pictures. Enjoy!

 

I was feeling about as good as the soup looks...No wait, worse.

(5 weeks)

  

I can still see my feet! 

(30 weeks)

  

Feelin' good.

Working on my thesis... Did this A LOT.

 

Lazy day at the beach

(35 weeks) 

  

I love the way Steve's looking at my belly...

 

I have no ankle bone!!!

 

Wedding anniversary at the Waring House

(36 weeks) 

  

My belly is like a table

(38 weeks) 

  

I LOVE those pregnancy parking spots

  

Admiring my belly one last time

(38.5 weeks) 

 

Very last picture of me pregnant.

Next up on Memory Lane: Labour & Delivery