Oh hi there!

Well well well...if it hasn't been over 3 freaking months since I have posted! Woah! Life got really busy, I got really tired (and lazy...) and I just haven't written a thing. I have been reading religiously and have been cheering so many of you on in your new adventures (of TTC, pregnancy #2, life...etc). As for our life now...its great.
1. We moved. We love love love our new house. Definitely an adjustment from downtown living but now that I have joined a bunch of mom things and have many friends and playmates for Alexandra I am honestly loving it.
2. Some days I am so exhausted (and Alexandra is exceptionally whiney) and I sometimes miss working. I am looking forward to returning to my "other job" one day...i don't think I am "supposed' to admit it but, I don't think being a SAHM is for me. When A was one year old I was NOT READY to go back to work. But now that she is 16 months old (holy cow!) I am feeling like atleast part time work would be great. We shall see what the future holds.
3. But that won't be soon...baby #2 is growing big and strong! We will be 24 weeks on Monday and I am getting quite the huge belly.  Everything is goingn great. HE is kickign up a storm and making me very exhausted! But i seriously can't believe how much faster this pregnancy is flying by than the one with Alexandra. I am just so busy running after my crazy adorable toddler that i often forget i'm pregnant.
4. i'm scared of having baby #2. I'm scared I won't love him like I love Alexandra. Because I am so head over heels crazy for that little girl that I just don't know if my heart can make room for the little guy coming this August! I know many moms feel this way so I'm just hoping that they aren't lying when they say that the love just multiplies once baby 2 arrives.
5. This pregnancy, although it is going by quickly, is much harder than the first. I am not free to nap all weekend long or to exercise everyday (ok, maybe i'm just lazy but I have not worked out consistently at all this pregnancy, big change from my workouts with A), I am carrying around a 20 pound toddler for hours each day (little brat refuses her stroller - like psychotic screaming fits, and can undo those stinkin grocery cart seatbelts and thinks it is soooo fun to stand up in the grocery cart! Ahhh!) so my back and pelvis and everything just aches. I am also really struggling with pregnancy rhinitis which i never had before and to top it off I have had to have 2 root canals done in the past month...brutal! Ahhh...not that I'm complaining or anything! I'm pregnant and that in itself is so incredible and amazing.

So, I could go on and on but I will stop there since I need to go to sleep~ need my energy for Alexandra's gymnastics class bright and early tomorrow morning! here are a few pics of my girl!

Playing with her bestie...(Alexandra is in the back)

 Yummy...frozen yogurt!

Walking my doggie!

Bubble fun at gymnastics!!!

She may be a "toddler" but she's still rockin' the baby belly!

I love this kid!

Time goes by...

far, far too quickly! I can't believe its been over a month since I last posted and since my baby's first birthday! Christmas has come and gone, and was wonderful. New Years was fine but forcetd this pregnant momma to stay up far too late! So, yes, my baby girl is now 13 months and her little fetal sibling is now 10 weeks and growing strong (according to last weeks ultrasound). I have "graduated" from the RE and head to the OB for my first appointment next Friday.

That's not the only excitement in these parts though. We get our new house this weekend! OMG! I'm feeling excited and sad about moving. We are moving out of the city. I love the city. I have a nice routine here, I have mom friends, I have something fun for Alexandra to do every single day. We go swimming, we go to mom and baby drop in centres for hours of fun (and FREE!), we go to reading group at the library and play dates at friends houses. I will not have these things at my new place. I know I'll eventually be able to build new friendships and find stuff to do (its not like we are moving to a small town or the country so I know there are lots of things to do...just takes work to find it). We are comfortable here. And change is always scary. I know the move is for the best for our family. Our new house is amazing. Such a great place for kids to grow up. Lots of room for dog to run and play. Closer to our families. But its still bitter sweet. I will try to keep in touch with my city mom friends and invite them for playdates at our new house, but lets be honest...its a 25 minute drive from the city...that will only be fun once or twice. I'll try to come into the city a couple times a month as well.

This weekend we have a TON of new furniture being delivered to the new house before we move in next week. We basically bought all new furniture. 2 leather couches, coffee table, big screen tv, tv stand, dining table and 8 chairs, kitchen table and 4 chairs, king bed and new bedroom set, elliptical machine for our home gym....woah....

But its going to be an easy move going from a 1200 sq foot condo to a much bigger place. lots more room to hide/stash stuff !ha ha!

Anyways I hope to have some pics of our new house and my adorable walking machine daughter soon !

Happy Wednesday!

LTB

Those two lines...

I saw them last week (Mon December 5th to be exact) and they are a beautiful sight . I'm pregnant!!! I did an injectible cycle followed by IUI. It was so much easier this time than in the past. I only had to take injects for one week...in the past I had to inject (on much higher doses) for over 2 weeks! I only had one day of monitoring and I had one follicle ready to go! So, hubs and I went in the next two mornings and did back to back iui. Then the two week wait went by so much faster than in the past...obviously because I was chasing around my little monkey and enjoying her rather than simply focusing on the "am I pregnant or not" worries! We took a pregnancy test two days before the beta, it was positive. OMG! But we thought it could still be the HCG from the trigger shot so I tested again the next day...more positive! Then beta 1 gave us a nice number of 231. Beta 2 (48 hours later) gave us more than doubling at 631! OMG! Ultrasound to detect heart beat is scheduled for December 23rd. I'm so over the moon happy, so over the moon TIRED, and so over the moon scared that we won't see what we want on the 23rd. But all in all, I feel so much less pressure than in past infertility treatment cycles since I am so thrilled that I already have my angel who I love more than life. I'm hoping and praying that all goes well and this little baby keeps growing in my belly. This is love. xo

Party Pics

Woah!!! All these presents are for ME!!!!



Mommy! I love this teddy bear!!!


MMMMM... presents AND cake!!!


Now that my belly is full I'm ready to relax in my new rocking chair!


I think I like birthdays!

One Year...

It's been one year of laughs, tears, sleepless nights, cuddles, diapers, lots of crying and an abundance of LOVE. One year ago today my heart exploded. I fell in love beyond what I imagined I was capable. Happy Birthday to my precious princess. This year has been the best of my life. THE BEST.

At one year Alexandra:
-crawls all over, climbs up on everything (stairs, furniture, boxes...) and has taken one or two nervous steps.
-is just not quite confident to walk, I think she could but she's scared, and she's good at crawling so why bother!
-finally will eat off a spoon, but still prefers finger foods
-is extremely picky eater and basically eats the same thing everyday despite my efforts
-drinks whole milk like its no big deal (one question...did anyone else's kids poo get more runny when you made the switch from formula to milk? Also the colour is much lighter than her formula poo....?)
-has 7 teeth and the 8th on the way
-says mama....mostly when she's whining
-babbles all the time. She is LOUD!
-loves books. All books. They taste good...oh and the flaps on the peekaboo books are so fun to rip off! ha ha! She loves turning the pages and pointing at stuff in the books and listening to us read them. My little literary buff.
-sleeps great at night 8pm-7am
-takes 2 naps. one around 9:30 for about an hour and one around 2:15 for about 1 to 1.5 hours. All sleeping is in the crib.
-HATES the car. Screaming battles in the car are always guaranteed.
-HATES the stroller. I'm lucky if I get 10 minutes of peace when I attempt to walk with her in the stroller. My left bicep is huge. Carrying her is getting very difficult as she is definitely atleast 20 pounds now!
-will hopefully (fingers crossed that all goes well and i'm not jinxing anything by putting this out there....) be a BIG SISTER in August 2012!!!!

What a wonderful year it has been!!!

xoxo LTB
-

Woah!!!

Slow down world! How is it possible that baby A is almost 1 YEAR OLD??? Where the heck has the time gone! She is so amazing and learning every day. I often find myself wishing "she could walk", or "she could talk" but then I look back at all that she has learned in her short 11 months and I feel so guilty for wishing the time away! I honestly would be happy if she would stay at this cute, smiley, crawling, cruising, getting in to everything age forever! So much fun!

Lots going on over here in the last month. I'm a bit overwhelmed with everything actually. Here are a few highlights:

1. We bought a house. Outside of the city. We bought a beautiful home Oakville (a suburb of Toronto). It is very close to the GO Train, which means my husband can easily take the train to work and avoid traffic. It will take him about 30 minutes to get to work. Not too bad considering the subway ride if we bought within the city would be almost equivalent...and grosser! I never thought I'd want to leave the city. I love our condo downtown. Then we had a baby...and got lots of baby stuff...and need more space! Like...lots more space! A yard is going to be fantastic. But I'm scared. I will no longer have everything at my fingertips. I'll have to use the car more. I have no friends in Oakville. I have no job in Oakville....which brings me to my second highlight.

2. I resigned from my teaching job. I am going to stay home with Alexandra for atleast another 9 months. The school I worked at was not near the GO station in Toronto, so the commute for me would be way too much. Not worth it. So, we decided that since we are fortunate enough to be able to have me stay home, I will do it...for a while. I'm nervous about not having a job. I loved my job. But I also love being home. And I was scared shitless about the stress of going back to work...let alone finding daycare! We were on 2 lists for a year and did not get a spot! And if day care is going to cost us $1700 a month (INSANITY!) it almost seems ridiculous to go back to work. I'd be working for pennies! So, I will likely look for work in our new town for next September...unless we are expecting another baby...which brings me to highlight #3!

3. We are back in the throws of fertility treatments. I fully weaned Alexandra about 3 weeks ago and yesterday I went back to my fertility clinic and got my meds. Yesterday i did my first injection for this cycle. We will be doing an IUI once/if my follicles grow nicely and we get a good egg ready for baby making! Please cross your fingers for us!

So....that's what I'm up to. I am still reading all of your blogs but besides dealing with the above, and now selling our condo (major pain in the ass!!!) and also working on my masters in math...I am having a hard time blogging and commenting! But I am here, and I am following you all!

xo LTB

Happy Halloween from my little pumpkin!

Update

I feel so in touch with the blog world because I read blogs ALL THE TIME! Yet for some reason I never drum up the energy to do my own posts. :( Bad blogger.

Alexandra is now 9 1/2 months old. She is doing great. Getting really big and really active. She has been crawling for over a month now and she now cruises everywhere along furniture, climbs up steps, walks pushing her little walker-car-thing, and is generally into everything. This kid can not sit still. She is not a cuddly one at all. Sometimes I'm sad and wish she would just cuddle in my arms but she will not sit still for a second. She's also very tempermental. Either very happy and smiley or super pissed off. She's always been like that so I guess that's just her. She can go from a huge smile to a crying mess and back to giggles within a matter of seconds! I'm definitely anticipating an emotional teenager!!

She loves playing with other kids. She hates being home alone with just mom. BORING! We go out everyday for a play date, otherwise the whining would just kill me. Good thing I have a big network of mom friends to keep me company while the kids play. There are also a lot of awesome coffee shops nearby that cater to babies/kids and have big play areas with mats and toys and slides and swings etc. Very handy!

Alexandra has 2 teeth now and by the amount of snot and drool that is coming out of that kid I swear there are more on the way but I can't spot any. We don't go to the doctor this month but if I had to guess I would say she is 18 pounds. Getting heavy to carry (and unfortunately for me she still hates the stroller). My left bicep is huge.

In my last post I talked about weaning. Well, now is the time i'm going to get serious about it. I went back to the fertility doctor today and we are good to go with trying for a second as soon as I wean her! I had blood and baseline ultrasound done today and when I want to start my protocol (menopur injections and IUI) I just call and we begin! Crazy!

I am currently nursing Alexandra in the morning, before her afternoon nap and at night. I give her two bottles of formula a day. One with lunch and one with dinner. I'm thinking that I will next cut out the feeding before her afternoon nap. I don't think I will be ready to fully wean her for a while (a month...or 2? ) but maybe in November we will be ready to start the meds. It is exciting and scary to think about the possibility of a second baby! I really hope to give Alexandra a sibling (or 2 ...or 3!) but atleast I have her no matter what!

Anyways, my teething angel is waking from her nap and sounding miserable (wish me luck! ooooohhhh the whining!!!!! Argh!) , here's a pic of my girl on the go!


BEEP BEEP!!!

Weaning

I thought I wanted to nurse Alexandra for a year and then switch her directly to milk in a sippy cup, thus skipping the formula and bottle all together. Well, I'm having second thougths on that. I want to continue to give her some breast milk until atleast a year but I am feeling like such a prisoner and am ready for her to take a bottle. Until last week, my girl had NEVER taken a bottle. Utter refusal. And so, I have NEVER been away from her for longer than 3 hours when I went to get my hair done ONCE. Other than that it has been max 2 hours apart. In 9 months. That's a long time. Now, that she is crawling (yes...at 8.5 months that girl was off to the races!), sitting in my lap is SO. NOT. FUN! She is squirming and not interested in nursing. But the problem is that she is not interested in eating solid food either. Or bottles. In the past week I have been trying to get her to take breast milk or formula from a bottle once a day. I have some success when she is strapped in her carseat and I sit in the back with her. Or when she is really sleepy, but then she does this weird nursing/sipping the bottle thing. Probably not good. I should just put my boob away! I also decided to cut out night feedings completely since she was not eating during the day. That has been surprisingly successful and this weekend she actually slept from 8 pm to 8am without waking! (actually... not entirely true...when I cut out night feeds I introduced a dream feed around 1130pm so that if she wakes at night I can rest easy knowing that her tummy is full, she doesnt' wake for the dream feed though and I wish I had started that months ago!) So, this is major progress from the multiple wakings to nurse I was having just 2 weeks ago!

Most of this post is just my babbling, but I wan to know from others who have weaned, are weaning...how do you do it ? Did you cut out one feed and replace it with a bottle? Which feed is the best/easiest one to cut out? Cold turkey? Easier for you or dad to give bottle? How do you know how many ounces to give? She doesn't seem to ever want more than 2 or 3 ounces and I read about babies wanting 8 ounce bottles! Also, would love to hear how much solid food other babies are eating. she was eating a ton! but when she started crawling and got her first tooth all in the same week her appetite disappeared. Now we are lucky if we can get her to eat a couple cubes of squash and a butt ton of cheerios a day. She is obsessed with cheerios. That is one food she will always eat!

anyways, would love any advice! Hope you all had a great long weekend!

LTB

Teeth and Germs

Hello hello! I can't believe the summer is almost OVER! And that means that the school year is starting, and that means I am getting WAY too close to having to go back to work! My maternity leave is over at the end of December so I will go back to teaching in January after the Christmas break. Now, I know some of you are shaking your heads and hating on me for getting a year at home with my girl and still complaining...such is one of the pleasures of living in Canada (and paying super huge amounts of taxes!!!) I think it would suck to leave your child weather they are 4 months or 4 years old!

Things have been good over here. We went on a great vacation to a resort in the Muskokas (cottage country in Ontario) and it was so fun to be there with Alexandra at 8 months old! She was loving swimming and the toys in the kids areas and it was fantastic! Soooo much better than our trip to Florida at 4.5 months! I am absolutely loving this 8 month stage. She sits, stands, moves but doesn't crawl yet. She loves toys and interacting but is not all over the place yet! Best stage so far!

One thing that is not so good about this stage is germs. She eats everything and since we go to a lot of play groups she eats toys that other kids eat. Gross. Germy. We got our first cold. It sucks to see your baby all snotty and congested. She was (and still is) congested and is having a hard time nursing. She is dripping from the nose and its gross. When she's sick I feel like I have to quarantine her from the play groups so that we don't infect everyone else. This means we are cranky and bored and stuck inside the condo. NOT FUN. Even more not fun, I got the cold. And even MORE not fun, Alexandra got her first tooth simultaneously with getting her first cold. She was MISERABLE. It was so sad! She now has one lower tooth. I was hoping for two (the whining was enough to make me dread the other 19 that still need to grow in!). With the teething/cold she started waking more often at night. Atleast 2 to 3 times a night instead of the glorious one time a night we had gotten down to! Of course when she was sick/teething I went to her and I nursed her each time she woke. Well, its been a week now. The tooth is in. The waking is continuing. Any advice on how to break this night feeding/waking habit she has gotten herself into? I am thinking that at almost 9 months old we are ready to cut out night feeds. Do most people cut them out by now? I think I'm the last one around (in my mom groups atleast!) that still nurses her baby in the middle of the night! I just don't know how to cut out the night feeds without an enormous amount of tears. She fall asleep instantly while nursing but won't fall asleep when I just comfort her in the middle of the night. I know she knows how to put herself to sleep since I always put her to bed awake for naps and at bedtime and she goes to sleep after just chatting to herself for a minute or two. I just don't get what is so different for her in the middle of the night! I know people reduce night feeds by watering down bottles/decreasing amount given but Alexandra will not take a bottle and never has.

Another thing to compound this is that I think she might be hungry since with the sick/teething she also started refusing to eat. She barely eats any solids (except for Cheerios! Which she LOVES!) and is even nursing less during the day. Such a conundrum! Do other babies lose their appetites with teething?

Anyways, that's all that's new at the LTB household! I leave you with a couple pics from our holiday!

Gotta love those thighs!!!



Daddy is so fun!!!

First Word?

I don't know how to post a video on here but here is a link to my baby girl's first word! She said it and then I repeated it and now she's been saying it on her own and whenever I say it! So proud of my girl!!!

First Word

Three Randoms...

1. After thinking my poor child would be swaddled for life we finally pulled the plug and let her loose. About 2 weeks ago when she was sick I didn't want her to overheat with the swaddle since she was already feverish, so I thought it a perfect time to get out of the swaddle for good. I also figured she wasn't sleeping well anyways because of being sick so it was going to make that any worse. I went out and bought an Aden and Anis thin sleep sack (they have winter ones too and I will definitely be picking one of those up in the fall!) I put her in the sack and she slept amazing! In fact, she is sleeping much better than she was with the swaddle! The wonderful thing is that now that she is hands free she can retrieve her own soother in the middle of the night. I toss her in the crib with 3 soothers and it is fantastic! She is also now a side-sleeper. So cute! It's so crazy how much she moves around in that crib now! I put her in with her head facing north and by morning she always has her head at the south end of the crib!?!

2. Baby girl loves swimming! I started taking her to "lessons" and also take her to the community pool almost everyday! It is so fun to watch her splash and kick around in the water. I am loving this age (where she can fully sit up on her own and not so fragile)! It is so fun to actually play with her!





3. I'm thinking of training to run a 5 or 10k. I do alot of cardio but almost never run. I stick to the elliptical or stairmaster usually. I decided to try running last week and I ran 3 miles (5k) on the treadmill in 25 minutes...i'm not sure if that is terrible or decent. Anyone with running experience want to tell me what a good time to strive for would be? I don't want to over-do it with the running since I'm worried about my milk supply (anyone have experience with this? does running lower your milk supply?) so I think I will just strive for running a good 5k now and then maybe a 10k when I am nursing less in the winter time. I would love any tips about running from other running mamas!

Well, those are my 3 randoms for the day! I'll leave you with a quick pic of my baby working hard:

Baby Food

We started Alexandra on solids around 5.5 months. At first it was nothing more than an exercise in body painting. She would literally purse her mouth shut and grab at the spoon full of rice cereal and smear it all over her body. Cute, but nerve wracking! I made multiple attempts to feed her oatmeal or rice cereal. I was always unsuccessful. My husband found a bit more success so he became the feeder. Alexandra became comfortable eating cereal after about 3 weeks of trying it. However, she rejected any new flavours I would introduce. Hated bananas (what baby hates bananas!), hated pear sauce, hated sweet potato. I was starting to get devastated that I wouldn't get to put my Baby Bullet to good use! Then i started to realize that what Alexandra seemed to hate the most was eating off the spoon. I started giving her chunks of watermelon or apricots and she seemed to do a bit better sucking/gnawing on those than eating them in pureed form. I just wasn't really all that comfortable with giving her "chunks" of food. I contemplated maybe just doing baby-led weaning but I was a bit nervous about it. Then I saw some other bloggers talking about Baby Gourmet organic baby food pouches. I bought a couple and Alexandra would suck the food right out of the pouch. Suddenly, without the spoon in the way, my baby girl was loving these new flavours! I was so happy, but very disappointed that maybe I wouldn't get to make all of my daughters food because I would have to resort to buying these "pouches" in order to get her to eat! Then I was struck by some mommy-genius (ok...not really but I am proud of my "invention"!) I put some pureed sweet potato in a ziploc bag, snipped off on corner and squeezed the food into baby A's mouth. She loved it just as much as the Baby Gourmet! I have now found a wonderful (non-messy! very portable!) way to feed my baby without the spoon that she for some strange reason hates! So far some homemade combo favorites include:

Mango Chicken
Banana, blueberry, avocado
Squash and green bean
Chicken and pear
Chicken, blueberry, apple

And let me tell you...my child loves to eat! At 7 months she finally "gets it!" and she loves it! And I love it...because ever since she really started eating she is SLEEPING much better! And we all know that is what really counts! She is sleeping pretty regularily from 7:30 or 8pm until 4 am, up for a quick 5 min feed and down again until 8 am. Of course there are still some terrible days but she has officially weaned herself down from 2 night feeds to one. I'm sure I could pop the soother in her mouth at 4 am and she would go a few more hours without a feed, but right now (since I don't have to get up for work) I would rather feed her at 4am, and then get another good stretch out of her until 8 than not feeding her and have her wake up for the day at 6:30 or 7.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! We are going to a friend's pool tomorrow and I can't wait to get A into the pool in her new floatation device (its like an inner tube that she sits in)!

:)LTB

Bad Weekend :(

This weekend promised to be glorious! 3 days long, a trip to visit my parents and siblings, BBQ with friends and gorgeous weather.

This all went out the window on Friday when Alexandra started acting funny. I could tell she wasn't feeling good. The cries weren't the normal fussy/pick-me-up-Mommy! cries, but serious achy cries. I thought she seemed constipated since she was straining but not pooping. We gave her some baby Tylenol and hoped for the best. She woke up every single hour (or less) that night. We were at my parents so I know she was in unusual surroundings but this was just god awful! I was exhausted. Saturday morning she had a fever. So, we gave her tylenol again and went to our friends for a BBQ. She seemed to cheer up and we thought she was on the mend. Unfortunately on Sunday morning she woke up and was BURNING up. She was soooo hot and sad and it was breaking my heart! We took her to Sick Kids hospital here in Toronto (amazing place!!!) and they checked her ears (fine) and then decided to check her urine...by giving her a catheter! That had to be the worst thing ever to witness. Poor little thing! Urine came back fine. So, we were left with a fever and no known cause. Went home and took it easy (she was soooo sleepy!) and Monday she seemed a bit better, but still sleepy. By nighttime her fever was back. I was starting to panic and my mind was going to terrible places thinking that she was seriously ill with some freak virus or worse..like cancer. I of course resorted to Dr. Google and that only freaked me out more. I know it had only been 3 days with a fever but to me that was a looooonnng time to have a fever for no known reason! Well, today she finally seemed better. No fever. Still a bit sleepy but hopefully on the mend! phew! oh...and to make this weekend even more crappy....my husband punched me in the face on Friday night! Now before you get crazy thinking i'm a battered wife, here's the story: Hubs was trying to cheer up sick Alexandra by doing a funny "dance" that involved flailing of the arms. I happened to approach as he flung his fist out to the right...and right into my eye. I am now sporting my first "shiner"! We definitely were a sad pair all weekend:




Here's to a happy and healthy week ahead!

LTB

6 months

Time flies when you are having fun!

Just a quick post to document my baby turning 6 months old! I don't have the energy for a long or interesting post (despite many issues on my mind that I want to discuss with my blog-buds!) since one thing 6 months seems to have brought is sleep troubles.... :(
Alexadra turned 6 months old on Sunday! Holy cow! How did my little new born suddenly become closer to a year than to a fetus in my belly! How did my once tiny 5.5 pound baby become a totally normal sized chubby 15 pound baby! She is so much more interested in toys and fun stuff (like mommy's cell phone and the tv remotes) than ever. Here she is hard at work at her "desk":


She now sits totally unassisted! She did this for the first time on her 6 month birthday and now is a pro! I'm so proud of my little girl and it is soooo cute!



She also found her feet in the past week or so and thinks it is so fun to play with them. She is still not interested in rolling over in either direction. She has done both directions but will not do it consistently. She is pigging out on organic brown rice cereal but is not interested in pureed carrots, peas or sweet potatoes and for some reason she will only eat when my husband feeds her. From me she just closes her lips tight and turns her head away! She knows I've got the good stuff!


She is the love of my life.

Happy half-birthday baby girl!

Simply Irresistable!

Yippee! I got an award! Thank you Carla for giving me the Simply Irresitable Award!



So here are the rules

* Thank the giver: Thank you Carla!! I think you're sweet too!
* List 7 things about me:
1) I have 3 tattoos. One on my lower back, it's big and if I could see it I would definitely regret it. One on my foot, its a pieces symbol and I like it and one on my hip, its an infinity symbol that the hubs and I got when we got married.
2) I am currently doing my Masters in math by online courses. It's tough to find time with the baby! Thank goodness for the new 2 hour naps she has started taking in the mornings!
3) I have been napping for two hours in the mornings. Ooopss... I'm supposed to be working on that Masters course!
4) I love California. I wish I lived in California. I even wanted to call my daughter "Callie" because it reminds me of the happiest most beautiful place on earth. Perfect weather. Beaches. Mountains. Heaven.
5) I want to have 4 kids. I love big families.
6) My dream job is to be a talk show host. Like Oprah or Barbara Walters. I would love to be on the view. I picture myself being like Elisabeth Hasselbeck (minus the strong political opinions). I actually voted "most likely to be a talk show host" at my highschool graduation!
7)In highschool I was also voted "Inseparable buddies" with 3 other girls. We were a fierce foursome! Now, I only talk to one of them. Sad but true :(

My little one is waking up now so I can't think of 15 people to pass this on to! But if you are reading, then of course I think you are sweet! So this award's for you!

LTB

Not Invited!

We are having a crisis in my family right now. My little brother is getting married in September. I am a bridesmaid and was also asked to be the MC at the wedding. I was totally looking forward to it and my plan was to bring Alexandra to the wedding and reception and then leave around 7 to take her home and put her to bed and then have a babysitter there so I could go back to the wedding for the nighttime party. She will be 8 months old at that time. Since I'm the MC I emailed my bro and his fiance to tell them that I would be gone from about 7 to maybe 8:30 to put the baby to bed so they might want to ask someone else to either be the MC or to step in for me while I'm out. Well, last night my brother called me to tell me they didn't want Alexandra to come to the wedding at all. Not the ceremony. Not the pictures. Not the reception. They want me to get a babysitter for my breastfeeding baby for the entire day/night. Ummmm....NO!

I can't believe my brother is being such an asshole! Actually I think it's for sure the fiance but my bro is obviously on her side. So, basically I said I don't want to be in their wedding and he told me that was my choice and I could wait until August to make the final decision! WTF!
I told him to screw off and hung up!

Am I crazy or is it totally psycho that my baby is not invited to my brother's wedding?

Tell me she wouldn't make the cutest flowergirl????

The Most Wonderful Sound in the World

Baby Laughing....Melt My Heart!

Ignore my ugliness and terrible voice. Focus on the child. Precious, cute, sweet little child!

Alexandra Laughing

So What Wednesday

So what if:

It has been raining here steady for 2 weeks. And thus...I have been a sloth. No power walks with the stroller and I'm feeling gross!

Its 1:30, I have a pediatrician appt at 1:45 (atleast a 15 minute drive away) and Alexandra is still napping. I can't bear to wake her! Oops...guess we'll be late!

I bought a cookie yesterday for $1.25. I paid with a loonie (dollar coin) and a quarter. The cashier gave me a toonie (2 dollar coin) back as change. Hmmmm.... I love stupid cashiers! Yes, I kept the money. Every toonie counts when you are on mat leave!

I made a tray of rice krispie squares 2 days ago, my husband hates them, and it is 90% gone. Wasn't me!!!

My baby girl got me out of a speeding ticket! I was going 58 km/hour in a 50 km/hour area (for those US folk that's 36 mph in a 31 mph area), and got pulled over. Shit. Baby is crying. She is in a major "hate-the-car" phase. Start talking to the cop, digging for my license and registration and she starts going nuts. He looks at me and says..."Go. Your baby saved you this time!" Woo hoo! Crying baby saves the day! And yes, I know I should not be speeding with a baby in the car (but seriously...5 miles/hour too fast...?)

That's it that's all! Time to wake the sleeping babe and head to the doc...hoping i'm not about to wake a dragon!!

Travelling with Baby

We took our first family vacation this month. We flew to Florida and stayed in a condo for a week. I thought I would write a post about some of the trials and tribulations of travelling with a baby.

Sleeping arrangements:

We rented a studio type condo with only a sliding divider (not noise proof) between the bedroom and the main living/kitchen area. This was probably the most stressful part of the trip. We felt very restricted after Alexandra went to sleep. It was so scary to move or talk in the condo since we didn't dare want to wake her! Luckily the weather was wonderful so we spent the evenings on the balcony. I would recommend trying to get a place with a real bedroom (or a hotel room that is a suite with a separate sleeping area).

I am super paranoid about sleep. So I took precautions before we left to ensure that Alexandra's sleep environment would be as close as possible to the same as at home while we were away.

I brought garbage bags and duct tape. Why you ask? To cover the windows since in my experience I have found that condos/hotels we rent don't often have great black out blinds and with Alexandra going to bed at 7pm, it is definitely not dark in Florida at that time. These worked out great and the room was dark.

We decided to bring Alexandra's travel crib (the one she was sleeping in in our room until we moved her to her big real crib). It folds up but is in no way light or small. We didn't want to pay the airline to bring the awkward item so my husband bought a giant luggage and we stuffed it in there. He didn't need much space for his stuff anyways ;) It was just easy to bring on the airplane this way. But definitely a pain in the butt that we had to do this. Next time we go somewhere we will ask/request a crib so we don't have to bring ours.

We also brought our white noise machine. No way was I leaving that thing behind!

In fact, I brought her noise machine and her swaddle in my carry on...i wasn't risking losing those in the luggage!

We also made good use of the bath tub. For her naps, that's where she slept! We swaddled her up, laid a thick blanket in the tub and in she went. She slept great in there and since the bathroom had a door we were free to make noise and do our thing in the main living area.

Traveling with so much stuff: The airlines were actually better than I anticipated. We got to bring our carseat and check it for free. We could bring our stroller right to the gate and check it there for free. And Alexandra got a luggage (on the Canadian airline we used...not true for US airlines where you have to pay for any checked bags!). I also got to bring on my carry-on, my purse and her diaper bag.

We were nervous about bringing our Uppababy stroller for fear of the airline ruining it in travel so we bought a $150 umbrella stroller to bring. In hindsight, not necessary since we could bring the strollers right to the gate they weren't getting tossed around with the other luggage. I think we would have been fine to bring our real stroller, and that would have been handy because the carseat can go on our Uppa but not the umbrella stroller.

Definitely, we had way too much luggage and it was a mega pain until we checked the bags and car seat. Not only did we have more bags/stuff but we also had a baby! Give yourself extra time to get organized and navigate your way through the airports with all this stuff!
-stroller, car seat, luggage

Sun: Stay out of it. Duh! We also bought a UV shield (like a net) to go over the stroller, it is breathable and blocks 100% of UV rays so you can take baby out in it. We didn't use this because Alexandra didn't co-operate and hated the umbrella stroller we had bought.

We also bought her a sun/swim suit that is like a wetsuit and a hat with a big front rim and a hangy thing at the back to cover her neck. This was great and allowed us to take her out for a swim without worrying about the sun. Also kept her warmer in the pool. I will use it for the indoor swim lessons I am going to do with her next month.

"They" say not to use sunscreen on infants under 6 months but we used it on her feet and arms when we went out just to be extra careful.

Naps: Slow down..and let them happen. I am such a go go person that I was hoping A would just nap on the go or at the beach or whatever. Not so much. We had to respect her nap schedule and go back to the condo for her first 2 naps of the day. Otherwise it was a shit-show! Crabby baby alert! We tried to get her to take her 3rd nap on the go, which was sometimes successful and sometimes not. I know other babies may be more flexible and go with the flow type babies, mine is not. She is a mess if she doesn't get her naps and then everything just sucks. She also doesn't just "fall asleep" when she gets tired. I have to swaddle her up and put her down.

Airplane: No problems . Except maybe being "those annoying people with the baby". I suggest nursing on the up and down. Alexandra slept most of the way.


Schedule: As I said above, don't plan to do too much. Everything just takes longer with a baby. And a baby's attention span is short (atleast mine is!) So she most likely won't want to go on a full day of outlet shopping...even if it is for stuff for her! Try to just enjoy being in the moment and do one thing a day.


Eat early/Eat late? This was one problem we had. Since A goes to bed around 7 and I have to nurse her before bed (she won't take a bottle and I am also a control freak and don't trust anyone else to swaddle her correctly....ya, i've got issues!) so even though my parents were there to give us a hand we had to be there at 7pm to put her down. So we could either go out to eat at 5pm and leave her with my parents and then get her at 7pm and then my parents would go out to eat. Or we could let my parents go eat early and then we could go after she was asleep.

Once the baby's asleep, unless you have help you are hostage to your condo/hotel. This made for a very different vacation than we are used to since exploring the night life used to be so fun! We spent most of our evening relaxing on the balcony.

I also have to say that Alexandra's sleeping sucked while we were away. She was in our room and woke up ALOT at night. I didn't let her cry or do any sleep training stuff while we were away. It was not worth it. I feared we'd have to start from scratch with sleep when we got back but we came back and she adapted right back to her big crib, in her own room and with much less night waking. Phew!

All in all...vacation was great, but different!

I miss my tan...but I loved watching A explore new things!

Happy Vacationing!