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.