My Two Girls

I am feeling really great today - Meagan has been eating and growing like crazy, but nighttimes have been a struggle with her waking up every 1-2 hours for a feed. Last night we turned the heat up in the house and put her in a sleep sack with an extra blanket on top and she slept from 8-12, 1-4:30, and 5-10! Actually she woke up before 10 but just babbled and grunted for a while before asking to be fed. Hopefully this is the beginning to something wonderful!! I haven't slept good in months.

On to Kaitlyn... Being able to brush Kaitlyn's hair has always been a war between myself and Kaitlyn. She will let Aunty Krista french braid her hair into 25 mini braids, but she will run and scream when she sees me approaching her with a comb or a brush. I have tried pretty much everything, and she just will not let me do her hair without a struggle.

So yesterday I bribed her with what she has been begging for since Meagan came home from the hospital.

And notice all I did was brush it and put two clips in. That is all she will let me do, and not without a fight either:

Baptism

Baptism for Meagan will be on December 6 in the afternoon service (2 PM) in our church in Chilliwack. There is a pulpit exchange next Sunday and my parents are still out of town, hence the delay. Hope to see you there!

Meagan - 1 week old

Well it's been a week since Meagan entered the world and changed our lives. Life has been full of adjusting this week, adjusting to being a family of 4, dealing with baby stuff everywhere, changing diapers oh so frequently, getting used to feeding a hungry baby all night... oh, and trying to go anywhere takes a good 15 minutes longer to get ready so I've been consistently late for everything. Kaitlyn is also adjusting to being a big sister and for the most part does well. Unfortunately she also has a cold making her a little irritable and a little more difficult to deal with. I was nursing Meagan the other day and Kaitlyn climbed up beside me on the couch, was stroking her head and said "I like her". Moments like that make up for the temper tantrums when we're not paying enough attention to her.

Meagan had her first doctor's appointment today and is very healthy. Her weight is now 7 lb 2 oz, up 4 oz from her birth weight and up 10 oz from her weight when we left the hospital. The doctor was pleased and surprised she had exceeded her birth weight but I let him know, she eats ALL THE TIME! There have been a couple nights where it is pretty much every hour, and a few nights where it's been every 3 hours, but I feel like my new purpose in life is being a milk factory. The doctor was very pleased with her colour - she is still mostly a bright red on parts of her body which will fade with time, but is a sign of being healthy which is good!

Today we don't have too much planned so I'm hoping to get some laundry done and I promised Kaitlyn we would go out and buy her a new colouring book. Pastor I. is coming out to visit us tonight and we will firm up the baptism date (most likely first Sunday in December). The church is taking good care of us with meals for a couple weeks which I am very thankful for. By the time dinnertime hits, I am finished and am thankful I don't have to worry what's for dinner every night!

Alright - off to feed my girls breakfast!

Meagan - A few photos

Meagan Elisabeth is Here!

Our baby girl is finally here and we are home from the hospital today!

Meagan Elisabeth was born November 18 @ 6:47 PM, weighing 6 lb 14 oz, 19.5 inches long. Everything went really well.

I was becoming impatient the day before so I called my doctor and asked for an induction. He agreed not to wait any longer and the hospital scheduled it for the next day. We were to call the hospital at 7 AM to see if we would be bumped and to get further instructions. Well, after that I started re-cleaning my house and contractions began on their own. They continued all night, about 8-12 minutes apart, but we still managed to get some sleep. We headed to the hospital and were immediately told we would be bumped until I told them I was already in labour. They induced me anyway since things were not moving too quickly and the doctor decided it was eviction day. After labouring all day, things started moving very quickly at around 5 PM, and I was in the delivery room sometime between 6 and 6:30, and very quickly, Meagan was here.

Because she was pushed out so quickly, she did swallow some amniotic fluid and managed to get some stuck in her nasal passages. The first night, she threw up a few times (the amniotic fluid) which the doctor was happy about, but he wasn't happy that she was still snorting and grunting because she was having trouble with her nose. So we ended up staying until today, and I was very thankful to be discharged and am home now!

We are both doing really well and trying to rest a bit before the 3-year-old monster returns tomorrow. Baptism will probably be a few weeks away but I'll keep the family and friends posted.

Here are a couple pictures borrowed from my sister. I still have to go through our camera and upload them, which I'll try to do this week.



Our family of 4:

Still Here

Well the pineapple I ate did nothing last night and I am still here waiting. Had great intentions of doing a few things today but was very lazy instead.

Hopefully my next post will include some baby pictures!

Waiting

Still here, still waiting. Waiting for this baby to start moving on its own and for a telephone call from the doctor with an induction date. Wondering what I will do today besides a couple loads of laundry...

Belly and Head Shots

Here's my 40 week belly shot:



And got my hair cut today too so here's a headshot:

Kaitlyn's Preschool

I had a good chat with Kaitlyn's teacher after preschool yesterday. Kaitlyn is the youngest in her class by over 6 months (which I didn't realize - just thought she was the shortest). Kaitlyn is 3 (birthday is in May) and most of the children are over 4.

The teacher said she will really be working on encouraging Kaitlyn to speak up and becoming less shy. It has become very obvious, especially in circle time, that she is afraid to speak up, and the other kids actually tell the teacher not to call on Kaitlyn because "she's too shy". When she does speak, she's very very quiet, but it's apparently rare that she does speak up unless she's forced to. It's hard to think of how to work on that with her since whenever she's with me or people she's comfortable with, she really doesn't stop talking.

Besides this one issue, apparently she is a very focussed child and really applies herself to any task the teacher gives her, which the teacher thinks will be great for her as she gets older especially with schoolwork. She has no problem listening, understanding, and doing what the teacher tells her, without having to be told more than once (now if only she would do THAT at home!).

Here's another picture she drew today of her family. She says she will add the baby once the baby is born:

Due Today

I just got back from the doctor's and there's really no news to report. The ultrasound results were good and baby is measuring right on track (head and body in proportion to each other) and the doctor's estimate is it will be another 6 pound baby but might be very long. He did not want to strip my membranes as the baby's head is still too high and accidentally causing my waters to break wouldn't be good with the baby so high still. We're discussing induction dates at this point and I've pretty much given up on the baby arriving without an induction.

So I'm hanging in there, keeping the house in decent shape, cooking dinner daily, and even baked cookies and apple tart with Kaitlyn yesterday. Which was interesting. Baking with a 3-year-old takes a lot longer, makes for a much messier kitchen, and she wanted to "test" everything along the way. But it was a fun experience and one we'll do again :)

Kaitlyn's Artwork

Kaitlyn has definitely come a long way in a short period with her drawing and colouring, and I'm pretty sure preschool is to thank. Here are a couple of examples from the last couple days:

She coloured this all by herself with no help at all:



And this is "a kid, like me Mom!":

Ho Hum

Nothing new to report. Still no baby and no sign of when he/she will arrive. At least we're finally settled on names (and no, we're not telling yet).

We decided a few months ago that we would park the car when the insurance ran out this month to try to save on money. Problem is with the weather, it's near impossible for me to walk Kaitlyn to preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I would need to drive Ryan to work in Abbotsford in the morning, so I could have the car, and then pick him up again at the end of the day. Doesn't do much in saving money if I'm doing that at least twice a week with a minivan, plus I hate feeling stranded the rest of the week. But oops - thought the insurance expired on Monday but it actually expired on the weekend so I had to run out last night and get a 1 day permit to get it aircared today so Ryan can re-insure it tonight. Oh well - at least I'll have my transportation back! Ryan also didn't like the idea of my being at home without a vehicle and 9 months pregnant, or him being without a vehicle and the chance of my going into labour at any time.

Anyway, better run - Kaitlyn is going to help me clean out the car as we are having a break from our torrential rainpour we've been experiencing this week. Better get it done before the rain starts up again!

39 Weeks

So I am 39 weeks now. Not much surprise here - I always figured I would end up going overdue and have to be induced again, but the doctor tells me there's still plenty of time and not to be too negative. I told him I wasn't being negative, just realistic :)

We had the ultrasound yesterday and was thankful to have Ryan by my side in case there was any bad news. No bad news - the technician said everything looked good and the doctor would go through the results in more detail with me. Size is looking good though, which is a relief.

Today I took Kaitlyn with me to my 39 week doctor's appointment. She loved it. She puts on quite a shy show when she goes to things like this and was good as gold. She was very concerned when the doctor gave me my B12 shot, and was thrilled when she could hear the baby's heart beating. She even accepted Dr. D's invitation and stood on the stool as he measured me and listened intently as he explained where the baby's head, body and feet were.

Kaitlyn has been a little of a handful this week, especially yesterday. We think she might be acting out a little, which is to be expected. Ryan and I have been super busy getting the house ready for our new addition, including moving baby furniture upstairs, into her room and moving some of her stuff out. Well, she had an "accident" at preschool yesterday, and then 3 more when she came home :( She also ate barely anything yesterday and refused almost anything I offered her. I worried she was maybe getting sick but today she's a totally different child. I put her in a pullup as I really didn't want to keep doing laundry all day, and she's stayed 100% dry and is eating like crazy. I guess she gave up her little act when she realized she wasn't getting anywhere.

Anyway, time to get the next load out of the dryer :)

Halloween Sugar Crash

Today at 3 PM I found this on my couch....