Crawling

At just shy of five months, Declan started to crawl today.  Yay, or oh boy, not sure.

Toddler Trampoline & A Talking Cat

This is one of Spencer's favorite pastimes....Jumping

He can go from this to the "jumping" couch and then try and get you to let him jump on the bed (which we reserve for just before bedtime to expel any last energy).

He occasionally has a great dismount too, he sit/swings down from the bar and then stands.  Other times he just gets off.  The fact that gives me a few grey hairs is he is starting to test not holding on.  We try not to make a big deal out of it otherwise he challenges it.  Stubborn little guy when he wants to be.

This is Declan "Talking".  When he really gets going he sounds like a cat.  He is growing so quickly.
Spencer has had his hear test that was ordered by speech therapy.  He can hear 100%.  So that is good.  He was never a big babbler, which apparently will hinder his speech.  So we have been ordered to get him to be "Louder".  So far it is getting better.  He can say "cheese" in lieu of please.  And now he will say Again.  We almost had him saying more, but again has taken over for that.  Slowly words are coming.  Mom and Momma are still not here.

Brief update on babies and toddlers

Above is a rare moment of them together. 

Declan is a big mommy suck (Deb only). Spencer was never big in cuddling unless he was going to sleep willing (aka nighttime). He is a prett y happy baby though. Still not sleeping through the night. Getting worse lately. Deb is contemplating giving infant cereal soon but not before talking to the nurse at his four month shots next week. If she says ok the we may give some before bed. He is definitely an eater and Deb is keeping up pretty good with breast feeding. But that means I don't get much cuddle time.  He eats every two ish hours during the day and at night sometimes as frequent as every hour. I'm convinced it is time to add solids. We started Spencer on solids at five months because his appetite was growing. But it was no where near what Declan's is now. 

Above is his four months photo. He is getting so big so fast. 

Above is Spencer at the petting Zoo. He did very well. And had lots of fun. 

Above was Spencer's first major owie. He was running down a ramp and tripped and down he went. He was a trooper though. Cried for a little bit but then did well Deb cleaning it up and putting Polly on it. 

CIBC Run (or walk) for the Cure - Calgary Run

After a long period of radio silence here in the blogosphere, here is what I have been up to.  

Since going on vacation around Canada Day and gaining 5 pounds on that trip, I went to ground 0 and over to my highest non pregnant weight.  So it’s time to get serious.  I have been battling changing what I am doing to lose weight and keep up with Spencer.  Spence is now able to run like the streak.  Getting him to sit still usually requires TV, which we try not to use all too often.

My struggles of weight loss include having to resist the free food provided at work, which is everything from chocolate, to cookies, to candy, to ice cream, to anything bad, and some good snacks too. My slight saving grace has been they have babybel mini cheeses.  So in an effort to be lower carbs and higher protein I have two of those as my snack. 

So for part motivation to keep going and keep walking and exercising I have made the plunge and signed up for the CIBC Run (walk) for the Cure for Breast Cancer. 

Over the weekend I did a test run to see if I can walk 5 km on a treadmill in under 1.5 hours.  Approximately, One hour, 23 minutes, and two treadmills later I made it.

   

It was tough but was able to do it. I even ran a small section near the end.  I did need to periodically slow down, but kept going at a pace of about 2.7 mph.  Maybe C25K isn't impossible.  Probably not for this run though, which is slated for October 4th.  

If anyone is reading this, and would like to help support me

(The badge also shows on the top of these page) My page for fundraising is http://cibcrunforthecure.supportcbcf.com/site/TR/RunfortheCureFY16/PrairiesNWTRun?px=4289423&pg=personal&fr_id=2320

Even though a treadmill died in the making of this blog post, I hope no other exercise equipment will meet their demise in doing this challenge.   Let's see how I do on the actual route this week and how long it takes me.   

I don't know why this is all of a sudden highlighting, sorry.

Not a good blogger recently

Well, I guess I am growing away from blogging, but I kind of miss it.

We have been crazy busy, with two lovely boys.  I changed jobs near Declan arriving, we were selling our house, then it sold and more crazy arrived of moving.  It just ins't a move as we needed to prep the basement at the new house for Randy and Cherry to move into the basement "suite".  Then we had to get them moved down, then finish clearing the upstairs (Still not done), then move us over, which has been slowly happening, then last night we moved our bed and such over, so we had our first night in the house.  There are piles of things everywhere, some ours, some theirs, no space for anything, and there is more to come; oh my.  We are both going to need to get rid of more stuff.

Anyways, here is the Declan update.  He has been a typical newborn.  Eats, doesn't sleep any length during the night for Deb to get sleep.  But at 10 weeks on the dot, he rolled over from back to front.  We were visiting friends in Sechelt, and he say their baby, which is about one month older roll over, and he decided, Ok, I can do that.  Declan is also much more chatty than Spencer was.  We are still struggling to get Spencer to talk.  He now can say Cheese, and Ah for apple, or almost any fruit, and the sound a monkey makes.  But that is about it.  Once we have moved over we have the number to call for speech therapy.  When we try and get him to talk, he would rather get up and walk away.

Here are some random photos.

This was taken at one month.

 Same, at one month

 This was taken when we were going to a wedding around 6 weeks old.

 Spencer, as we ditched the wedding to go to the park.

 Spencer baby surfing in Sechelt, he love to crouch and let the waves hit him and keep his balance.

 And Declan's first haircut at 11 weeks, we shaved the sides and left his mohawk.

  Spencer didn't need one until 14 months. 

 Spencer dudded up for Stampede

 Declan sleeping.  Awe

He has Arrived

At 40 weeks and 5 days and a lot of aggravation. 

Delcan Oliver Cade Nottingham.   

 

Saturday afternoon we went to the hospital because Deb's contractions were getting worse and she was having sharp pains in between the contractions (as it turns out that wasn't much to worry about.)  But while at the hospital Declan's movements were slow for him.  So they ordered an ultrasound, which was a fairly long wait.  We finally got into the ultrasound at 7pm, but didn't get the results until after 9, which by this point doctors had changed and this one felt it was worth doing induction.  So we were put on the list for Non Emergency Induction.  Which means there has to be no one else remotely dilated more than you to get a room.  We kept getting hope "You're next" but then someone else would come in.  Buggar. 

 

After being in triage for almost 24 hour Deb had a bit of a breakdown and then agreed to have drugs for the pain to help her sleep. 

 

About an hour into Deb's sleep they woke us up and moved us to a labour room and broke her water.  Then started her on Oxitocin to help labour along.  After a few more hours of coping with the contractions she finally broke down and got an epidural.  That helped a lot.  But meant she couldn't walk around.  They kept upping her Oxitocin, but that only did so much.  After 24 hours of her water being broken and many exams later she wasn't dilated enough, she was at about 7.5 cm.  During this whole thing Declan was pretty happy and doing well, which was good.  Because she wasn't going into "Active" labour soon enough they decided to do a C section.  So shortly after the decision was made we were in the operating room.  This was Deb's worst case, being in labour for 2 days (plus contractions varying in degree for a week prior) then having a c section, kind of worst of both worlds. 

In prep for surgery Deb's epidural fell out and all of a sudden she could feel everything.  So they did a spinal block.  She doesn't do anything easily does she?   Surgery went relatively well, she lost about a liter of blood.  Declan was born at 4:05 on April 20th, 8 lb 11 oz and 20 3/4" long. 

 

Recovering from the spinal block went relatively quickly, which was good.  In the evening however they were taking Deb for her first walk after regaining movement in her legs and unfortunately the incision partially burst.  They eventually got her patched up again at 3 am. She wasn't emergency enough to warrant the resident coming quickly.  (Facepalm.) 

 

Deb still hasn't had much sleep but is trying to get some as she can.  She should be out of the hospital today, provided she can get her blood pressure up, as it has suck fairly low yesterday. 

 

So far Declan seems to be a well tempered little boy.  Spencer is going to need to adjust to baby crying though.  He was visiting yesterday and Declan crying sent Spencer into a crying fit himself.  It will be  a work in progress.  I hope to take Thursday off to ease the transition to Deb and Declan being home. 

 

More photos soon.

And we are still waiting

April 15th has come and gone.  No baby yet.  Deb's contractions have slightly eased off, and are now starting to gear back up again in the form of back pain, but nothing regular.  If she is still pregnant next week she has two scheduled ultrasounds.  If she is still pregnant by Thursday they will book induction.  Let's hope he shows up this weekend instead. 

On another note, still no word from the mill in BC.  It has now been more than two weeks, but they aren't fast acting, so they could be just taking longer, or I failed the tests and I won't be receiving a call.  Alas, I'm at my new job for now, in production and so far it has been nice, but I am kind of looking forward to going to BC work instead.  I hope this is my last hurrah to production work.  As much as I love it, with little ones it is too long of days, and I'm not even on the true production days at the moment that can go upwards of 12 hrs.  So far I've been at closer to almost 10's.

I owe Deb $5

Saturday afternoon Deb started having slightly more painful contractions.  Other ones the only way she knew they were happening was to poke her tummy.  Her doctor said when you're having a contraction, your tummy will go from feeling like the softness of your nose to the firmness of your forehead.  When you have contractions for an hour that are consistently 5 minutes apart, that is when to go to the hospital. 

Deb wasn't focussing on contractions, as she couldn't feel them she had to then continually poke at her tummy to know when one was happening.  I was getting upset that she wasn't sitting and timing them, or paying attention to them.  I tried to get her to go to the hospital, as in times when she was focusing, they were about 4-5 minutes apart.  I was trying to say, this is go time, and she was fighting me about going to the hospital.  She didn't want to waste time going. 

Back history for the past week.  She has been experiencing general constant uncomfortable/pains in one way or another, and that really hadn't changed that day.  She had also had two membrane sweeps.  One on April 1st, she was 1 cm dilated, which the day after she lost her mucus plug.  No baby.  The following week, April 8th, she went to her doctor, and had another, she was 2 cm dilated.  Next day she lost her mucus plug, again.  Did you know it grows back if you don't have the baby in a few days?  I didn't. 

Saturday night she finally said that she would have a shower and if the contractions don't stop or ease she would go to the hospital.  In the end she had two contractions in the shower that had mild pain, so she agreed to go to the hospital. 

I went from grumpy, as I hadn't felt she was taking doctor's advice seriously.  She figured that there was no major pain involved so no rush.  I didn't agree, a contraction is a contraction, when it is regular. 

Alas, after Spencer was in bed, we packed the last minute stuff into her bag and off we went to the hospital.  At the hospital, she got her band and into maternity triage.  They hooked her up to the monitors for 20 minutes and asked the book of questions for medical history.  Yes she was having contractions every 2-4 minutes, but she didn't feel one of them.  Once monitoring was done we waiting for a doctor to come in and do a cervical exam.  She was still 2cm dilated.  Very disheartening.  While the doctor was there she did yet another membrane sweep.  Deb mentioned this one was much more invasive, and Declan wasn't too happy with it. 

While we were waiting for the doctor Deb and I made a bet.  She said they would send her home, I said no way, because her contractions were too close together. 

The doctor said that she could send us walking around the hospital for a couple hours and see if that helps.  But I mentioned that we had been walking all day, as we had gone to Aggie days and grocery shopping and what not.  So we got sent home. 

Since then Deb has been "feeling" the contractions more, but the next benchmark for us to go in is if she has regular contractions that she has to breath through.  She is still a ways off of that, from what she has been telling me. 

So we are still in the waiting game.  Today is one of her due dates.  The doctors either say the 13th, or the 15th, depending on menstrual cycle or insemination date, but the ultrasound doctors and her OB don't agree.  So lets hope that he comes soon.

Babbling has finally taken off

On Saturday April 4, I almost jumped out of my seat.  Spencer finally started saying mumum or momma.  More in a babble sense, but those tones have finally come back.  I am so excited.  He used to say it when angry or just babble when he was about 4-6 months old, but those syllables left fairly quickly.  For the past while he has been stuck on dadadada. 

On the same day, bababa, and hahas started to come out, along with various other sounds and combinations.  He is finally catching up with babbling.  Hopefully recognizable words are coming soon.  I think mum and moma (how we refer to ourselves) are starting to take meaning. 

I have been a little worried about his vocabulary development.  Lets hope things are finally coming into place for his synapsis in his little brain, and now they are forming, they will come fast and furious, well as least a few here and there.  The goal is 6 words for when he turns 18 months, otherwise that is the red flag to get help. 

Planes, trains (boats), and automobiles, well almost.

This past weekend has been a stretch of my self.  Last week I get a call from HS, the place I applied to in Sechelt.  They have two positions open in the general clerical pool, which is kind of where you need to start there.  The first round of stuff you need to do is testing, but of course I needed to be there.

So, I hopped on a plane Sunday, and rented a car, and took the ferry to the Sunshine Coast.  On Monday I had 5 intense hours of testing, which including mechanical reasoning and spacial awareness, not my strong suite.  There was also a small amount of typing and excel testing, then the usual clerical testing, like proof reading checking spelling, without the aid of spell check, eek.  There was also long form division, and extensive multiplication, no calculators, oh boy.  I think I did well on the multiplication, but long division, was a little too far back in the knowledge bank, I don't know how I did on that.  Then there was area calculations, and personality testing, and basic math checking, and random list items.  It made you think that is for sure.

Directly from the testing I went back to the ferry, back to Vancouver, and back to the airport.  I don't drive much now that Deb drives, I'm usually the navigator, and I'm not very good at that either.  So driving through down town Vancouver was stressful, and my Tom Tom was not doing well giving me directions.  But I made it there and back.

Because I made it to the airport early, I tried to get on an earlier flight.  Which in theory happened, but my flight was late and the original flight I would have taken was early.  So I paid extra fees to be home about 15 minutes early.  Damn.

I should hopefully hear back from in a week or two.   This is sooner that planned, and I do hope I can fulfil by contract with HOW and work the cast payroll until November, but I don't want to miss this potential option.

And luckily, Declan staid where he was supposed to and Deb is still pregnant.  She is going in for a membrane sweep tomorrow.

And the climbing has begun

Earlier this week, Yaya had noted to give us trouble for not saying he could climb on the blue couch. (Climbing on the futon has subsided for now, and that seems like a one time deal.) He had climbed and then started to bounce on the couch, but then he loves to do a bum drop, but he usually needs to be spotted when doing that because he isn't a good judge of distance, and sometimes almost falls off, we are usually there to guard him from falling, as he bounces and does drops and bounces again.  But now he can climb up there all by himself.

Well that night I was doing the dishes and I herd a grunt and went to look at what he was doing.  He then looked at me to make sure I was watching and climbed on the couch.  He then wanted to bounce, but I had to stop him from doing that.  He then sat down and patted the couch beside him, as if to say, "Come and have a seat with me." and so I did.  We read some books and then started to watch some LBB nursery rhymes.

Well now, Yaya has informed us that he can also climb on the kitchen chairs.  We have a climbing structure downstairs, but he has no interested in climbing that, he wants to climb everything else.

A Couple photos to update

Even though this was taken a little after his birthday, this is his one year old photo.  Our favourite photographer no longer works at Walmart for Smiles photos and it just isn't the same.  

This is post hair cut and as he is trying to eat cream cheese on toast.  

Braxton Hicks

Deb is doing well, baby is doing well, measuring at about 6 lb 7 oz at today's ultrasound.  This morning Deb started having Braxton Hicks contractions.  She is 35 weeks today.  Baby is coming soon enough.  Can't wait.

The Start of The Hot Bot

AKA Hot Water Bottle. 

In January we started the Ferber method to get Spencer to sleep at naps without being rocked/cuddled to sleep.  We should have done it sooner, but I liked to cuddle him to sleep, and I guess I paid the price.  When he was about 4 months old he had a short stint where he wanted to fall asleep by himself in the crib.  But then we went to Sechelt and that routine got crushed.

Originally, for the Ferber method, we were just going to do naps, and then we still got cuddles at bedtime (he wasn't much of a cuddler otherwise).  The first time, Deb started it.  It was an impromptu nap on a Friday evening because he was very tired, and the weekend following was when we were going to start.  Good idea right?  She fought with him for a little over two hours to get him to sleep.  Needless to say by that point he was down for the night.  That weekend naps went to pot as we were out and about and he kept falling asleep in the car, and like I mentioned bedtime was going to be cuddle time.  So our first attempt was foiled.

We were going to start on a weekend, because I wasn't sure I could go through that stress of seeing my baby cry for extended periods without being able to reason with him on why.  However the next weekend was booking up with things we needed to get done, and we needed to have this in place before I went back to work so Cherry didn't have to go through the process solo.  The reason we wanted it in place, was for when Deb was home with new baby and couldn't necessarily commit to 30-50 minutes to put him to sleep without interruption. 

Because the following weekend was filling up, I was getting courage to start mid week.  By Wednesday I had the stomach to start.  My first day was not too bad.  The time ended up being a little shorter than Deb's attempt the previous Friday.  So time getting shorter and following the Ferber theory.  That night we did typical routine bedtime which included rocking to sleep. 

Then, the next day happened.  This wasn't good.  I was leaving naps until he was visibly tired, to make sure the timeframe wasn't too long.  We were going in every 4-6 minutes to soothe him and lay him back down, and cover him up etc.  For comfort reasons I had taken off his jeans and he was just in a long sleeve onsie, which was not out of the ordinary.  That day was exhausting for me never mind him.  It took a little over four hours for him to fall asleep.  He is stubborn.  In which time, he did get some water, and some milk, from a straw while standing in his crib because this had passed through his lunch (even I was getting hungry) and I didn't want to have him get dehydrated crying so much, (plus it is hard to sleep when hungry) most of which he refused.  After about and hour and a half I put some sweatpants on his legs because he was getting cold from standing in his crib crying, not covered, as I laid him down I tried to warm him up, but couldn't hold him long or that would defeat the purpose.  I even had to do a quick change of diaper half way through, because he had pooped and leaving him in that wasn't fair.  He was crying to the point his voice got hoarse.  Near the end he was falling asleep standing up, and then waking again to cry, he was being that stubborn.  After a few rounds of that he only had the energy to get to sitting position, and then fell asleep sitting up fading in and out of crying.  At about hour three I had to call Deb for support at work.  She was adamant that we had to persevere otherwise all would be for naught, so I kept going, maintaining composure as I went in, so he didn't see me upset. 

Once he fell asleep, eventually, I also needed to just lay down and recover.  I called Cherry to respond to a call I had missed and started bawling.  She came over and brought me lunch, and talked me through this.  This is where the Hot Bot idea came up.  I'm sure one of the reasons Spencer wasn't falling asleep was because he was cold.  I know when I am cold, which is most of the time, I can't sleep until I warm up.  She suggested putting a hot water bottle in with him to warm him up and keep him warm until he feel asleep.  I thought that was a great idea.  Wish I would have been able to do that sooner.  I can sympathize with him though, before Deb, I needed electric blankets to fall asleep in the winter.  My internal furnace seems to need an outside source to get going, and now Deb acts as a great heat source to get warm.  Once I am warm, I can keep warm, but I can't get myself warm.  Before now, Spencer had us cuddling him, acting as a heat source to get a nice cuddly warm to fall asleep, then we took that away.

So night time came, Deb and I had discussed that we needed to follow Ferber for night time as well after that afternoon's experience, as he doesn't know the difference between naps and bedtime routine, and Deb said she would handle bedtime.  I had had enough.  Well, with the hot bot, and perseverance from the afternoon, it only took 18 minutes for him to fall asleep.  It was a bitter sweet victory.  Deb got the easy route, but at least it did work. 

So now he needs his hot bot at a fairly warm temperature, otherwise he complains, to fall asleep.  Sometimes he needs it on his feet, sometimes on his torso, sometimes used as a pillow, but it works quite well.  Occasionally we need to go in after about 5 minutes to lay him down again etc (his stubbornness pops out again), but for the most part we get a grumble and a cry then he either lays there till he falls asleep, or falls asleep fairly quickly. 

Our little man is cold like me.  Poor little guy.  On the upside, now when he is awake, he is a bit more of a cuddler, which is nice.

Updates, so long overdue

This is going to be a very random post.

Let's start with Spencer.  A cute story.  Spencer isn't dependant on suckies (pacifiers) by any stretch, except to sleep, but he likes to hide them, swap them out and in general play with them.  We used to keep a stash on the shelf of his change table that he could reach.  But to be honest his hiding places are getting too good and we were having trouble finding them all (around 5).  This, in turn, dwindled his stash and we couldn't leave him access. While at the dollar store we bought some more to increase his stash, and so we could find one to use at night.  We brought out a couple and kept an eye on them more so.  One morning, I decided we had bought quite a few and he missed his suckie stash, so I found all that I could and opened the new packages and put most of them on the shelf.  When he discovered them he was ecstatic.  He was picking up 2-3 in each hand and putting them down to exchange the one in his mouth.  Then he crouched down so he couldn't see them, then slowly crept up, and low and behold, they were still there and he began to giggle.  He played with the stash for about 20 minutes while we got ready to go to work.  He would grab a few and walk to us to show, then take them back, drop them on the floor and put them back, swap out the one in his mouth.  It was quite comical and precious.  He had missed his suckie stash. 

That brings me to going back to work.  I have handled this fairly well.  Don't get me wrong, I miss him like crazy, but at least he isn't in day care, and it is his Yaya looking after him.  The transition all around has gone well.  We are super busy at nights doing the things I used to do during the day, as well as playing with Spencer, but worth it. 

The down side to work has been work itself.  At the end of last year I finally gave up my union membership to work on films because I figured I would be at Pyramid for ever, or until we moved to Sechelt (pipe dream).  So no use paying for dues for something I won't use, and my extended medical coverage had run out.  Fair enough right, WRONG.  In January I finally applied to a job in Sechelt, (turns out the job I was applying for wasn't being replaced).  On the application they asked if they could contact my employer, so I gave Anne the heads up that someone might be calling, and that I wasn't job shopping, this was a one off on the just in case.  Anne then sent an email back saying no problem, and gave me the slight warning that my job might go to part time in the next year or so.  I figured if nothing else that would be good timing for Deb to return to work, and then I would be part time and we would only need part time daycare.  WRONG.  Less than 20 hours back at work and I get notice that I would be going to part time in two weeks.  F#*%^&.  With Deb about to go on Maternity leave that is not an option for me.  We both can't be on reduced income. 

Immediately I email my union and ask if I can be reinstated, it is less that a month from when my official resignation took place.  WRONG, national office is insisting I pay the hefty reinstatement fee and the union dues.  Had Pyramid warned me a month earlier, I wouldn't be paying this fee.  Production work isn't stable work, and the only way Deb is agreeing to me going back to film, which I like more, as corporate work is pretty boring, is to sell the house and move in the Yaya and Poppi.  This was a fleeting idea that had come up the week before me going back to work but at that point I was a mess and couldn't contemplate that idea.  The reason behind it is, SHOULD something come up in Sechelt, and we were to move, we would only be dealing with one house instead of two.  So in the past 10 days our world has been shook up to say the least.  We are moving next door into shared accommodation, I'm looking for work, and with living with Yaya and Poppi we are hoping Deb will be able to be a stay at home mom permanently.  There is a show starting up soon and I have my resume with the accountant, I should hear back next week on whether I got the job as a first assistant.  There is a possible other job available, but it is as a second assistant, so less money, but for longer work.  It was a hard decision to pick which one to "accept" so to speak. 

Enough about work, at Spencer's 12 months vaccinations, which happened closer to 13.5 months old, Spencer was 23 lbs, which is at the 50th percentile and 31" tall which was 70th percentile.  So pretty good on average.  He was a trooper getting his shots.  Afterwards we needed to wait around for 15 minutes to make sure there wasn't a reaction.  He just kept walking around the halls and squealing with delight.  So that was good.  True to form, the next day he was fine, but the following two days he was a grump.

For Christmas, we got Spencer swimming lessons.  He loves them.  The first one he didn't quite know what was going on as we were getting ready, however the next trips, he was running through the parking lot to get to the door and get ready. We missed one due to stomach bug, but that day there was a maintenance issue and we got a credit for that day anyway, so that was nice.  We have finished the lessons, but I think we need to make a point to go once a week or so since he loves it so much.  But then again he also gets to go in our hot tub for water play as well, when the weather is nice enough. 

 

Deb's pregnancy is doing well.  Her gestational diabetes tests for the first screen came up positive which was a scare, but when she went in for the detail testing, she got an all clear, so that was a huge relief.  And because her belly was measuring a bit large we got to go in for another ultrasound, so we got to see him again. 

 

Spencer still isn't talking much.  He still uses a sound for animals, that is remotely like the soft U sound, as our pup is Tuffy, and he associates that name with all animals so far.  Then he also does the soft A for any fruit, it started with me trying to get him to say apple, but then translated into any fruit, as that is his favorite food.  But then again he randomly says A while playing too.  I hope he starts talking soon as he is a little behind development wise for speaking.   Hopefully that picks up soon.  We also need to work on shaking head for yes and no, which we don't do often, so that is something we need to work on ourselves. 

 

That brings you generally up to speed.  We will see how things develop in the near future.

 

 

My last day

As a stay at home mom. Tomorrow is the weekend which is the norm for me and Deb being home. Then Monday I go back to work. I am going to miss him like crazy. I can take solice in the fact that his Yaya will be looking after him and not some random day care. However we do need to look into emergency care as Yaya's back is acting up and she is afraid she won't be able to look after him. We are praying she can make it until Deb is off for mat leave in April ish. 

We have had some quality time today. But I am going to miss him while back at work. Although I'll enjoy more adult conversation. It's just he changes so quickly and I know I'll miss seeing it as it happens instead of second hand from yaya. 

Snack shaming

I just read an article on snack shaming. 

http://www.ivillage.com.au/snack-shaming-teacher/

This brought up an incident we had at an indoor playground. The rule is no outside food so we left Spencer's snacks in the car. There was a woman with her baby that was about 7-9 months old, not a petite baby. She was feeding him some Cheerios. Spencer noticed the Cheerios and was kind of stood waiting for some. I had said to him they aren't for him and tried to get his attention to something else. This is when the mother started snack shaming without even seeing what we feed him. 

Here are some of the comments she made: 

"These are plain, not sugar coated" 

"I don't have any chocolate ones" 

"I don't have candy for you". 

She then poked his tummy and said "it doesn't look like you have missed a meal". 

Had that been me with the Cheerios I would ask if it were ok with the parent and give him one. He is interested, so why not. That is sharing. 

Now Spencer is not chubby even, thankfully, he can have a little tummy depending on how much he has drank or eaten recently (when hungry he can eat a decent size meal). We do try and give him healthy meals and snacks. He loves fruit. For cereal choices he gets some plain cherrios and some honey nut (yes I know not the best but not the worst either), he also gets ordinary puffed wheat or infant puffed cereal with low Salt/sugar, our bread is 12 grain or flax variety, he actually doesn't like white bread very much.  Proteins are our fight with him. I'll get into that in another post. 

Anyway, back in to the point. The mom had assumed that because we aren't skinny that we feed him crap. That is our battle, not his We don't want Spencer to have the same weight issues we had growing up so we are working fairly hard at giving him balanced meals and snacks. Does he eat 100% organic healthy choice items, no, but we do our best to get him to like the healthy foods. He is a very active boy and we limit tv time to 10 minutes before naps to give him down time while having milk and if he wakes up a little too early for us, then he comes into our bed and watches little baby bum or something on our phones. 

On his percentiles he is in the 95th percentile for height and in the 50th for weight. Which is a great combo in my eyes, tall and skinny. At his one year appointment he was 81 cm (31.89") and 10.5 kg (23.1 lb) fully clothed. 

In the end I didn't respond to those comments as I would have gone off the deep end  I'm sure and blown things out of proportion. But the comments of that one judgemental mom hurt me, and got me fairly riled up for hours afterward. And obviously still a little bent out of shape about it because I'm posting about it. And this article proves this is going to something I am going to have to learn to deal with as too many people jump to conclusions. I will say there are times when teachers need to step in as there are reasons to occasionally. But a one off day shouldn't be the end all day. 

To that mom who made those comments, don't pass judgement and you should only care what you feed your baby not what others feed theirs. 

On another note after my last post I went in for bloodwork. I have been very tired lately and moody to put it lightly. As it turns out my vitamin D is very low and could be the cause of some of it. 

And here is a photo just to show you how he is doing. Our favorite photographer that could get Spencer to smile every time no longer works at Walmart and so we haven't been going in for smiles much since. 

So here are some home photos. 

Bad hair day. 

An after hot tub time. 

Cabin Fever, Agoraphobia, with a side of Lazy

The countdown is on. I will be returning to work in three weeks. Well less than that now. My Anxiety about this is growing. What will I miss when I am at work and not with Spencer?  Will Yaya (grandma that will also be looking after him) replace me in Spencer's eyes? Once Deb is home too will I be completely replaced to him?  Will Deb have even less time to focus on us (selfish thought I know)? Will I be replaced and put aside

I  know most of these fears are unfounded and probably PMS Enflamed emotions but things like that keep welling up. 

For the past year I have been home what feels like ALL the time, which is the start of cabin fever. (Christmas holidays to Sechelt  was a good break, even though I fell down stairs twice, at least I didn't break anything) 

I get to go out with Deb and Spencer on weekends. In the past I haven't made much of an effort to leave the house during the week. In turn I'm not sure if this is turning into a fear of taking Spencer out alone, worried I'll forget something, not be able to handle him alone in public, snowball worst case scenarios from there. 

Or am I just lazy to not leave the house. For a while I was getting out to play groups but I didn't hit it off too well with the moms (not sure what I was expecting) but Spencer had fun. Then we had colds and freezing cold temperatures and colds and Christmas to do lists, the excuses not to go seemed to get worse.  Now it doesn't seem worth it as I am going back to work in three play date Thuradays. 

Are my fears manifesting because I have been inside in my bubble for too long? Am I creating scenarios that would never happen to hide the fact I'm afraid to go back to work? be in the real world every day? Will I hate myself for loving going to work more than taking care of Spencer? (Being a mom is hard work, even for the less inspired mom) am I afraid that Deb will be a better mom and think I have done a shit job during my turn at mat leave? She has motivation to do everything. I have motivation to get the required done (laziness)

It is that kind of snowstorm that is in my head at most given moments and I don't know how to make it stop. 

Deb is trying to understand why I'm a basket case and would do anything to help but she doesn't understand why I'm afraid or angry or mad or upset in the first place. She understands that I will miss Spencer during the day because she does every day. But she doesn't get the other stuff. She doesn't get why I'm upset over things that haven't happened and probably won't. Neither do I.