Week 6

It's Thursday afternoon around 4pm and I'm once again typing madly in between trying to calm his royal fussiness and playing a game of suck & spit with his soother. My day has gone as follows: Woke up at 5:30am (couldn't go back to sleep) and begged for Ian to put on a pot of coffee, fed & changed the dictator, saw Ian off to work, did 2 loads of laundry, fed & changed the dictator, got barfed on, changed again, piled the dictator and all his necessities in the car, drove to the hospital to visit a girl in my prenatal class who just had her baby yesterday, cut my finger putting the car seat adapter on the expensive stroller, bled all over the place, managed to grab a bum wipe & bandaid (we actually have a mini first aid kit for our stroller - apparently for moments when mommy decides to slice & dice herself - oh well, at least it happened in the hospital parking lot), grabbed a card from the gift shop on the way up to visit the girl from my prenatal class who just had her baby yesterday, had a 5 minute chat, dropped off the card & gift and managed to pee on the way out. Piled the dictator, stroller etc. back into the car and drove all the way back downtown to meet Ian for lunch. Stopped in to say hi at work on the way, fed & changed the dictator, piled him back into the stroller and hoofed it to Ian's work. Had lunch & topped up the dictator (again), went shopping for some work related items, walked Ian back to work, piled dictator, stroller etc. back into car, dictator screamed all the way home. Changed the dictator, put him in his bassinet, did the dishes (while running back & forth to the bedroom to keep putting the soother back in his yap), fed & changed the dictator, put him back in the bassinet. Decided to use the nasal aspirator to get rid of the giant booger in his nostril, sucked it out and then wondered how to get the booger out of the aspirator. Squeezed the aspirator and the booger shot out the end at mach nine and landed on the dictator. Yuck! This takes us to the present moment where I have moved the bassinet next to me so I can conveniently shove the soother back in his mouth each time he spits it out. Currently we are looking at roughly 11 suck & spits since I started typing. I am starting to wish that I could dip the soother in the massive bottle of coconut rum my parents brought back from the Bahamas and duct tape it to his face while I do a couple of shooters myself. Mommy could use a little liquor to unwind!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous this week so we have been going for lots of walks with my mom & sister. Has become a daily routine to pick a destination and go for a couple of hours. Plus it knocks the dictator out (bonus). Tuesday I decided to strap him in to the Baby Bjorn carrier and add some weight and challenge to my walking workout. Unfortunately it was way too hot and I had too many clothes on him so he overheated and screamed his little head off for 6 hours straight. Nothing like overheating your baby to make you feel like a crappy mother. A couple of cool cloths and some baby Tylenol and he finally went down at 11pm. Of course I got over my guilt the next day when he woke up feeling just fine and this time I put a light outfit on and kept him in the stroller. Since he has a bad diaper rash my doc recommended airing out his bum as much as possible so my mom and I decided to let him stick it to the breeze at the beach. No sooner had the diaper come off he peed straight up in the air and all over his face, hair, body and the stroller. My mom & I just stood and laughed - what are you going to do? While young buff guys and itsy bitsy teeny weenie bikini clad girls were tanning lazily on the beach & reading cosmo, I stood in the shade with all the other parents and their kids, holding my bare bottom, urine covered baby and airing out my expensive (now urine covered) stroller. Welcome to my new life!

Last night dinner consisted of a Crispy Chicken Deluxe Meal with fries and diet coke - unfortunately this equaled gas induced breast milk. The entire night I could hear farting noises coming from the bassinet. Note to self: McDonalds makes your kid fart. The diaper changes post Crispy Chicken Deluxe were not pretty either.

I am going to finish my tea and continue folding the laundry. After that I am having a coconut rum drink with dinner. That's what spare bottles of breast milk in the fridge are for - so that daddy can feed while mommy gets relaxed!

Stay tuned for more next week......

A Tribute to Aunty Kae

We just got a phone call from Ian's mom - sadly his great aunt Kae passed away this morning at 1:30am in her sleep. Apparently yesterday she was looking at her first photos of Liam so at least she got to see her great great nephew before she died. I never did get to meet her but hear she was a very kind hearted person with a great sense of humour, so I'm sure we would have got along nicely. Ian remembers as a child that she would never forget a birthday and was kind of like a grandmother to him. We wish she would have had the opportunity to meet Liam. I'm sure she'd have just loved him. Even though she was in a nursing home she still thought about us and sent us a cute congratulations card a couple of weeks ago - so thank you Aunty Kae, we will keep it in your memory and show it to Liam when he grows up.

Week 5

Once again we have a week of firsts - the night before last Liam decided to become sleeping beauty and did his first 4 hour stretch during the night from 12:30am - 4:30am. Needless to say we were ecstatic! There is light at the end of the tunnel after all. Of course I was not expecting to have history repeat itself last night, but he did do 2 stretches of 3 hours each which is also a first so I can live with that. He does not like falling asleep and fights going down with all his little might (i.e. high pitched combination of yawning and wailing) but once he's out, he's out for the count (well usually). On Friday night we went to the hospital armed with boxes of cookies and custom made thank you cards for the labour & delivery and postpartum care staff and visited one of the couples in our prenatal class who had just had their baby girl 2 days before. Suddenly realised how much Liam has grown in 5 weeks - she looked tiny compared to him. I am now affectionately calling him our chunky monkey since he has puffed out and has a nice chubby baby look to him. He still looks exactly like Ian and I'm starting to wonder if there is any of me in there. He does frown like me (lovely) and has a wave to his hair like mine but that's about it. Oh - I forgot he also has my toes (thank goodness - Ian has ugly feet!).

Today we got up extra early to do a 5km walk for the deaf with Ian's company followed by a beach picnic. Of course I brought the entire house (you never know when you may need 10 diapers, 2 packs of wipes, 3 outfits, first aid kit, plastic baggies, extra snacks, extra clothes etc.). Lugged a back pack that was heavier than the baby the entire way and ended up using one diaper and one outfit. Go figure. I also refuse to sit in the front seat and sit in the back to check that Liam is still breathing at all times. Ian is thinking of getting a blow up doll as a stand in until I stop being paranoid. At least the doll won't tell him how to drive.

Yesterday my girlfriend Sarah came over with our professional pics of Liam that we had done 3 weeks ago - they are just gorgeous! Thought I would put a couple up for everyone to see. She is so talented and considering what a challenge it was to do the pics (took 5 hours and we had to give up) they turned out amazing. Sarah does all types of photography and has excellent pricing for anyone interested - such a nice thing to do for special memories. She is going to design an album with us for when he grows up which is pretty cool. Her website is www.sarahboothphotography.com

Have now lost 26 pounds thanks to my mom forcing me to walk every day. Have also started doing pilates to firm up the rest of the jelly belly which is NOT an attractive feature. Speaking of not so attractive features, I had leaked through my shirt on Friday (I should work for Island Farms) and needed to get cookies for the hospital, so I quickly changed into another shirt which was a bit form fitting, hopped into the car and to a bakery close by. The young guy behind the counter smiled at me the entire time - of course I thought to myself "gee, I just gave birth and I still have it - ha ha!". Unfortunately when I got home my mom got me to look in the mirror - my nursing bra pads were sticking through my shirt like two giant fried eggs. Nice!!!!! No wonder the guy couldn't stop smiling - he was trying not to laugh out loud! Note to self - always check myself in the mirror before leaving the house. The fried egg on the chest look is simply NOT hot right now.

11lbs, 8oz!

The lil' fella had a visit from his Grandma Marg last weekend (this new Liam photo was taken by Grandma). This week he also went off to the doctor for his regular check-up. We knew he was healthy and eating well...but not this well! The little guy weighed in at an astonishing 11lbs 8 oz! We had figured he was somewhere around 10'ish. No wonder Daddy's lower back aches when he's packing around the lil' bundle of lovin'!

Splish Splash...bathtime with Daddy

Today Liam once again decided to make a mess on Daddy...except this time instead of regurgiated milk, he blew past the supposedly impregnable Huggies and soaked Daddy's leg in..."Number Two"...eeeewwww.

Off to the bath! Daddy took the lil' fella and had some bathtime fun. Liam loved every minute of it and almost fell asleep. He lolled around on his back with his limbs splayed out and head thrown back, "lounging" in the warm water and safely ensconsed in Daddy's arms.

Of course, Baby Murphy's Law, took him out, dried him off, and rediapered him...WHAMMO...Huggies practically overflowing with more "processed moo juice". Guess that warm water was REALLY relaxing!

1 Month Birthday

Today is Liam's one month birthday - where has the time gone? Took a nice long walk along the ocean this morning and got some much needed fresh air while talking about pee, puke & poo with Grandma Marg who is visiting from up island - topics of conversation are somewhat different these days. Definitely getting more comfortable with the outside the house trips although it still takes a couple of hours to get ready and out the door. Yesterday we had a successful grocery shop (no beverage aisle screeches) and I even breastfed in the sit down section. Wow - things have really progressed. Amazing how fast you adapt and how much less you panic when your baby starts to wail. Instead of frantically charging for the nearest bathroom like last time, I calmly picked Liam up when he wailed and rocked him back and forth while following Ian down the aisles. We now put the car seat straight into the trolley so we don't have to push an extra stroller like the baby parade. Novel concept for us newbies. The rain was pouring down but we kept him dry with me playing personal umbrella escort and Ian just getting plain soaked. What can I say - you'll do anything for your baby.

Ian chalked up the best projectile vomit so far when he decided to spin Liam around for fun yesterday morning and was rewarded with barf all over himself and the floor. I laughed my head off (until I had to clean it up). Note to self for Ian- Liam does not like the spinny rides (just like daddy).

Went shopping this afternoon at La Senza - by passed all the sexy lingerie and went straight for the big drawstring pants & oversized t-shirts. Lingerie is overated - I'm all about the comfort!

The Pacifier

Another big milestone was achieved yesterday when my mom (once again Grandma to the rescue) successfully got Liam to take the pacifier after countless fruitless attempts by mommy. Of course everytime I tried to pop it into his mouth he would scream and spit it out projectile style. We discovered that the snap shut soother is a waste of time since it instantly closes when he spits it out, so we switched to the orthadontic Nuk soother. Grandma figures that he took the soother yesterday because he is now getting used to a bottle - I figure he's screwing with us & getting onto Grandma's good side early so that he continues to get thoroughly spoiled by being cute & compliant.

In any case, I don't care who successfully got the soother to work - as long as it keeps him happy, even for 5 minutes! I had vowed that I would not be the type of parent who would put a soother into their child's mouth to calm them down - never! 3.5 weeks later I'm a soother advocate. Not sleeping in our bed? No soother? Down the toilet my friends! Keep the pint-sized dictator happy is my philosophy. You'll be miserable otherwise.

Week 3

Ok lets be real - this mom thing is REALLY hard work! It seems to get harder every week, but maybe that's because I haven't slept more than 3 hours at a time in almost a month! That has to make you somewhat loopy. The past couple of days Liam has been going through what I imagine to be a growth spurt because he has been incredibly fussy and cries A LOT. For all of you that do not have kids - crying = screaming. Ear splitting screaming. It works like this - baby screams, you pick baby up, run through the "are you hungry, need a new diaper, gas pain" checklist and barring all that don't know what the problem is. So you start to try different positions, toys & other forms of entertainment and the baby keeps screaming. So you start to cry & phone your mother up to come and rescue you. Mother shows up and baby is instantly angelic. Go figure. Even Ian a.k.a. "Mr. Mom" has had his flustered moments when he's more than happy to hand the baby over to me for consoling.

I have also discovered this week that what I eat or drink really does affect Liam. On Mother's Day I had 2 cups of strong coffee and boy did I pay for it. Liam was so jacked up he didn't sleep more than 45 min until 10pm that night (combination of caffeine and growth spurt = day from hell). Ian and I were complete zombies with blood shot eyes. Yesterday was no better. Hello mom's help phone! I called my mom in a complete state and she promptly came over. Of course Liam pulled his "I'm an angel for my grandma" stunt and went to sleep. My mom proceeded to calm me down by feeding me & making me tea. Her friend Susan popped by shortly after and the two of them went on a cooking spree and made multiple meals for freezing while getting happy on coconut rum from the Bahama's (my mom is having a hard time giving up her daily rum drinks!). I left Liam still sleeping and went down for a much needed nap. When I woke up the meals had been cooked, the house cleaned and dinner was ready for when Ian came home. What a pleasure! Don't know what I'll do when my mom leaves - she is such a huge help! Of course I have tons of people I can call, but it is still nice to have family to rely on (which I do heavily).

My big achievement was that I managed to express half a bottle of milk yesterday (have you seen what a breast pump looks like? They are totally intimidating!) which I fed to Liam - he took it without so much as a squeak. I felt like running around the neighbourhood screaming "FREEDOM!!" like Braveheart. What a liberating feeling knowing that there is an alternative to being a jersey cow! The plan now is to have me go to bed earlier and Mr. Mom will do the late night feed with the bottle = more sleep for me. Mmmmmm.......more sleep. I miss my sleep.

What is Liam up to now? Well he has now moved onto the size 1 Huggies diapers and continues to grow rapidly. We take him for walks strapped in to his Baby Bjorn which he loves - sleeps the whole time from the movement. It's a nice alternative to the car seat which he hates. Saturday we had our first mom & baby bath together and he loves stretching his legs out and swishing around. He is much more verbal & more awake during the day and can lift his head up and look around (does that a lot), at the moment he is snoozing in his rocking bouncy chair with the vibrate option on (he likes the feeling of the vibrations, puts him to sleep) while I sip on decaf coffee & type madly. I do everything faster, eat, pee, dress, you name it. You never know when your window of opportunity is going to end so you move quickly.

Last night Ian & I were in a stupid mood (no doubt from severe lack of sleep) and giggling madly - of course the noise almost woke Liam up and we resorted to being quiet. Felt like a couple of naughty teenagers. My whole "the baby will adapt to our lives" philosophy has clearly gone out the window. It is so NOT about us!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today we celebrated my very first Mother's Day (and very first Grandmother's Day for our moms). Had a lovely breakfast at the Ocean Pointe Resort with my mom & sister Caylin and got thoroughly spoiled (which I deserve being a new mom of course!). Ian presented me with a beautiful basket of gifts which included a card from himself and one from Liam to his "special mommy", a coffee holder for the stroller, a Starbucks coffee mug that holds photos & a couple of books on being a new mom, one of which is just hilarious called Wiped - Life with a Pint-Sized Dictator. Having a sense of humour when dealing with a new baby definitely helps you get through those moments when you think "What the hell have I got myself into!".

Happy Mother's Day to everyone! It is truly an amazing feeling to be a mom!

Week 2

Today is Liam's 2 week birthday & the second week of new parenthood. Took him on his first grocery shop this morning (strategically timed after a diaper change and feeding so he would calmly go into his car seat and not cry) which started off well until he suddenly got fussy and screamed his head off in the beverage aisle. Ian had just received a call on his cell so I frantically undid all his straps and hauled him off to the closest bathroom at top speed only to discover that he wasn't hungry and just wanted to be cuddled. Upon my return to the dairy aisle Ian expertly traded baby for trolley and Liam quietly snuggled up to daddy without another peep while mommy threw in all the rest of the grocery items, paid the cashier, loaded all the bags into the trolley & transferred into the car. With a second trip to another store and lunch we managed to take 3 hours. Note to self to take the baby sling along as trying to navigate a baby, trolley & stroller is somewhat challenging! Ian remained as cool as a cucumber while I was much more flustered. Sigh - I wish he'd grow a set of boobs.

Had our second weigh in at the doctor yesterday and Liam went from 7lbs 12 oz to 8lbs 9oz in one week. Not bad for a growing boy who eats really well.

This week has definitely been more challenging now that Ian has returned to work and I am taking advantage of Liam's daytime naps to catch up on some much needed sleep. He is still very regular with his feedings (every 2-3 hours) and most nights I get up 2-3 times which is not bad in baby world. Ian has resorted to wearing ear plugs which are a godsend for getting a good night's sleep when he has to work. Simply too hard to function otherwise and after having to upgrade to the Starbucks quadruple americano & coming home with blood shot eyes it was time to go with the plugs. Lack of sleep was my main concern pre-mommyhood and now I appreciate what all other parents have to go through and I don't even have it that bad! I am sooooo looking forward to my first 4-5 hour stretch!

Have to go rescue Ian who is currently cuddling Liam singing nursery rhymes to his 30 year old Fisher Price record player - as soon as the record stops Liam cries and I have to run and wind up the player. Second note to self to get CD with exactly the same songs for those really fussy days when your nipples feel like they are going to drop off & you're desperate for an alternative!

Week 1

Well I am back in the land of the living (well almost) and have survived the first week of parenthood. Hard to believe its been a whole week already since the arrival of our little bean - has been both overwhelming and wonderful all at the same time. The labour, although long & definitely tough at the end was a positive experience and the hospital staff were just amazing. Was hard to leave the comfort of the mother/babe ward for the wide world but luckily we have had lots of support from family & friends which helps tremendously. Ian has been nothing short of an incredible dad and jumped right into his role within minutes of Liam being born. Even the sleepless nights, constant changing of poopy diapers (believe me there are lots of them) and dealing with my leaky boobs & hormonal weeping has been taken on with enthusiasm. I am truly lucky to have him! Was hard when he had to go back to work but great that we had a week off together to get used to being new parents - of course we're extremely paranoid (who isn't with a newborn?) and everything makes me cry. Thank goodness for the 24 hour nurses hotline and my parents for support!

Liam is a perfect baby - not only is he just plain gorgeous, he is also textbook with his needs and only cries when he's hungry or has gas or a poopy bum. Other than that he sleeps and looks cute. I know everyone thinks their child is beautiful, but mine is truly a looker (just like his daddy). We love to just sit and stare at his perfect little face, fingers & toes and can't believe we created something so wonderful. His eyes are open a lot more now and he can hold up his head for a few seconds at a time - likes too throw himself backwards and look at the world upside down. He looks so much like Ian and the two of them are so cute together - definitely daddy's little boy.

This week of course has been a week of firsts - had his first bath (hated it), first car ride (hates the car seat) and first walk in the fancy stroller. Was so nice to get out and be able to walk without being out of breath in 3 minutes. With the weather getting nicer each day we'll be going for lots of walks (have to work off those extra pounds). Now that I have almost fully recovered from childbirth I'm ready to be super mom! Ok - maybe I'm being a little too enthuasiastic - I'll just settle for mom, or jersey cow as I like to call myself!