Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Ten weeks

Kate turned ten weeks old yesterday. She's been sleeping pretty well - through the night every few days, although she's far from consistent. She's continued to be very clingy and cuddley during the day. She wakes up if you put her down even if she seems to be in a deep sleep. She is the same way in the mornings. After her morning feeding (usually 7-ish) she is still sleepy, but won't go back to sleep in her crib. We have a nice routine instead of her coming to our bed and snuggling with me for an hour or so until I'm ready to get up. I don't sleep terribly well, but the snuggling time is worth it.


Dad and Donna have been here this week and have been a help with Kate as well as around the house. Kate has them both totally charmed, of course.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Happy Birthday, Erika!

Happy birthday, Auntie Erika!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Passport success (tentatively)

We're heading to Toronto next weekend for Rebecca's wedding, which means with the new rules that Kate needs a passport. It is all a bit tricky since it takes 6 or so weeks to get a birth certificate, and then it takes 3 weeks to get a passport and that is if you expedite it. In other words, if she'd been born on her due date, it wouldn't have worked at all. There is a faster option than the expedite process. It involves going to regional passport office, but you have to be travelling within 14 days. There is an office in Houston - about a 3 hour drive away.

Today we headed for Houston. We had a 1 pm appointment, so I made sure we left in plenty of time in case we had to stop for nursing breaks. I was really expecting the worst - crying the whole way, a long wait at the passport office, parking nightmares, etc. etc. Instead, it was super great. Dad and Donna went with me, which helped a huge amount. We had little traffic, Kate slept the whole way, we had time for lunch before the appointment, there was hardly any wait at all, and then she slept most of the way home again. We could have waited a couple of hours and got the passport today, but I decided not to push our luck and instead they are overnighting it. We'll have it on Monday.

Phew. It seems that the american government can be efficient occasionally. But, apparently you have to be a citizen to have them do anything reasonable. Alas.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Congratulations to Heather and Matt!

Heather gave birth to Nora yesterday. Everyone is healthy and happy. Photos will appear on her blog sometime after they come home tomorrow. Welcome to the world, Nora!

Doctor visit

Kate had her two month check up and first round of immunizations today. Graeme and I had a bet about her chubbiness. I said she would be at least 95th percentile for weight. He thought that was too high, and guessed 85%. I rock. Our little chubster is 97th percentile for weight, 90 for height and 25 for head size. Yup, she's a Weeble.

The doctor said she's doing great. Her neck muscles are unbalanced - one side being tight. She does tend to tip to one side (look at pictures on the blog. She tends to lean left.). We were given some stretches to do with her to strenghthen it, and she needs more tummy time. She isn't a huge fan of tummy time, but we'll work on doing it more.

She is pretty fussy now, probably from the shots. They gave us some Children's Tylenol, so if it's bad tonight we can give her some to ease her aches. Poor wee one.

Still, I think the whole thing was harder on me than on her.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Two months

Dear Kate,
Two months! It's been a big month of changes for you, but I guess that's to be expected when it's 50% of your life so far. You have been sleeping well this past week, from midnight until the just before sun up for three nights. It started after we started having you sleep in your crib, and I'm not sure if they are related or not, but whatever the reason, I love it.


You're getting stronger, and can hold your head up quite well. We're still waiting for the smiles though. You do smile at us sometimes, but we aren't positive that you're smiling at us, or if you're smiling because you just had a great fart. And you're a champion farter.


You still have your witching hour every night from around 9 until midnight. You are often inconsolable, and we pace around the house with you, often resorting to walks around the neighbourhood.


You continue to get bigger - big for your age, although we won't have that confirmed until your check up this coming week. But you're certainly bigger than other babies we see out around town, even those quite a bit older than you. But we looooove fat babies.


You are the light of our lives. We can still just watch you sleep, and you've totally charmed your Aunt Erika who has been visiting. You are a very cute baby, and we're not at all biased.


Thursday, October 18, 2007

Oh, sweet sleep

For the last nights, Kate has slept from midnight until 7 am. Wowsers. The first night I had to get up at 5 am to pump because I was engorged, but I fell right back to sleep. Heavenly. I know that it might not last, but it has been lovely.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Making up for yesterday

Kate has been an angel today. Mostly because she's been sleeping all day. As she should, since between 8:45 am and 11:30 pm yesterday she slept for maybe 2.5 hours. Total. The witching hour last night was from 8 til 11:30 and was the worst ever. But today? Angelic.

We (Erika, Heather, Kate and I) went to a movie this afternoon. The Alamo Drafthouse has baby days on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Kate slept through nearly the entire movie. It was bliss to have some lunch and enjoy a movie while she slept. And now she's sleeping again.

The first night in the crib was good (once she fell asleep at 11:30. I've now said 11:30 three, no four, times). She slept great. i slept crappy though. I moved her all of ten feet away, but I was listening harder, and just not sleeping well without her next to me. I'm sure in another night I'll be back to sleeping like the dead between feedings, but today I'm tired. At least she didn't seem to mind the crib.

Keep your fingers crossed that the angel will stay through the evening and the devil won't return.

Monday, October 15, 2007

8 weeks

Kate is eight weeks old today, and boy has she been grumpy about it. It's been a grumpy, grumpy day. She was awake much of the day, with only very short naps, rather than a very long one as she often does (along with a few cat naps). My gut has felt a bit off today, which makes me think that Kate is feeling similarily yucky.

Erika arrived today for a week long visit. I'm hoping that Kate is feeling better tomorrow. She didn't get to see how great Kate can be today. We're all hoping tomorrow is better. Hell, I'm hoping tonight is better.


Sunday, October 14, 2007

Rearrangement

Tomorrow morning, Erika arrives for a visit and begins over a month of nearly continuous visitors. There is a week without visitors in there, but during that time we will be travelling to Toronto for Rebecca's wedding. Right now, the sleeping arrangments around here are Kate and I in the master bedroom, and Graeme sleeping soundly in the spare room (which is also Kate's room). Before Graeme moved into the spare room when Kate was about three weeks old, we all squeezed into the bed, which worked fine. But now Kate is bigger and it would be a bit cramped. So, in the interest of sleep and comfort, today we moved her crib into our room. We also brought the glider rocker and ottoman so we have a little nursing station set up (usually I just sit up in bed to nurse her during the night).

We'll keep the crib in our room at least through the month of visitors, and it will act as a good transition to get her to sleeping in her own room sometime after that. We'll try out the new arrangment tomorrow night and let you know how it goes.

Friday, October 12, 2007

So many things

The problem with not posting for a few days is that there are a bunch of things that I was planning to post about, but now I've forgotten most of them. It's been a pretty busy week, so I'll see if I can remember.

Kate: She has been sleeping great at night, with 4 hour stretches of sleep between feedings. This makes my life much nicer, since I only have one middle of the night feeding, which even if I'm up until midnight isn't so bad. She also broke her routine of the witching hour the other night and slept between 9 and midnight. It was only one night though, she was back to her cranky ways last night. Yesterday she was so great - awake and alert and very cheerful for much of the day. Today she's been sleeping for a long stretch, allowing me to get a bunch of things done (see next paragraph). I'm hoping we're heading over the hump that people report at the two month mark. I've heard a lot of things get better and easier after that.




Me: I got new glasses! My glasses broke months ago, so I've been living just with contacts. It's so nice to have glasses again.


Westley: He's doing much better. He's learning what makes him hurt, and avoiding it. He hasn't had any pain meds today and seems to be ok, although not as sprightly as last night. We'll continue to rake it easy through the weekend.

General life stuff: Since we got up early this morning to go to the records office, suddenly I had more time today. This afternoon, I straightened up the house, cleaned the bathroom (which was disgusting), and tackled the 'to do' pile, which has had things in it since DECEMBER. DECEMBER. I was totally avoiding things in the pile, and it's so good to have them handled. I sent more time worrying about not having done it, than it took to actually do it. Silly me.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Poor Baboo

Last night, Westley went to the nearby unofficial dog park, as he often does a few times a week (not because we are good dog owners but because our friends Kelly and Sarah come and pick him up and take him there with their dogs). Last night after coming home, he started to yelp when getting up on his ottoman. Yes, he has an ottoman. It seemed to get worse through the evening, and I let him sleep in the bedroom since he seemed to not be feeling well.

This morning, he was much worse. He yelped when I pet his side, and although we poked and prodded him, we couldn't find the source of the pain. The yelping always happened if he was climbing onto something, but then happened other times too - if you pet him (but not always) if he turned a certain way, if he bumped you even lightly. So, we decided to take him to the vet this morning to get checked out.

Essentially, it's a sprain either in his back or his leg (the muscles attach to the spine above the pelvis). She found the exact spot that made him yelp, and confirmed that one leg seems more sore than the other. He's now on anti-inflammatories and pain meds, and essentially on bed rest for about two weeks. If it doesn't clear up by then, he'll have to get x-rays to make sure it's not something more serious.

Poor Baboo. He yelped just now when he moved wrong as he woke from a nap.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Weekend report

It's been a good weekend so far. On Friday night, we went to Sheryl and Jonathan's house for movie night. We were really late getting there though, so we didn't watch the movie instead we just ate, hung around and played Wii. Graeme played Wii while holding Kate. It certainly kept her quiet for awhile.




Yesterday, we had a super busy day. We were getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. We cleaned the house, cleaned the yards, made the turkey dinner, started a new batch of cider brewing and got the A/C fixed. We had a bunch of dog walking friends from the neighbourhood over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was really fun, and dinner was delish. I'm cooking up extra cranberry now for our leftovers. Yum.

Kate had a better day yesterday, although that could be my view of it since Graeme was home to help. We did try out the swing, which someone had given us, and it kept her quiet and happy for about 25 minutes, which gave me enough time to get the turkey in the oven. She slept through most of dinner and afterwards, which came back to bite us in the ass when she stayed awake until 1 am. We'll try for an eariler bedtime tonight.

Friday, October 5, 2007

She's so cute when she's sleeping

It's been a rough day. Kate has been very clingy and very fussy. She is finally now asleep, but I have had to carry her most of the day and deal with screaming that the boob could not quiet. I'm working on preparing part of Thanksgiving dinner, and doing that with a screaming infant is less than relaxing. Tomorrow we're getting batteries for the bouncy chair. I have high hopes. High hopes.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

And the winner is...

Sharon, with her guess of 11 lbs. Kate weighed in at 10 lbs 14 oz! Sharon, your prize is fame and fortune! Well, maybe not the fortune. And only a little fame.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Six weeks

We had our six week check up today. Everything was great. They were impressed with her pudginess. Any bets on how much the chunktastic Kate weighs? Post in the comments. I'll post the number tomorrow. (If I told you already, you're not allowed to guess.)