G’n'R Out West

And a happy birthday to Grandma Fran and to cousin Noam!  We love you guys so much and wish we could all be together on your birthdays!

We had a great weekend with Keith and visiting our friends around town.  Adelle and I spent the day with some girlfriends crafting whileGreg and Keith went to the mountains.  Adelle slept through most of our visit at Shannon’s that afternoon despite the fact that the doorbell rang and the dog barked about half a dozen times.  It was like I really had a handle on things…little do they know she is normally napless and grumpy!  If only I knew it took a really loud room full of distractions to put my daughter down for a nap!!!

I spent most of the weekend telling everybody how great our night times have been going with our little girl sleeping from 11pm until 8 am (with just one feed).  She even obeyed the time change on Sunday and slept in an extra hour.  Well, last night it was like we were right back to a month ago.  It was terrible, and both Adelle and I (as well as Greg) were grumpy this morning.  Of course, if it had been a month ago, I would have considered last night a successful sleep…funny how your standards change so quickly!

Hope everybody has a safe and Happy Halloween!

Boo! 

Our beautiful smiley and slightly cross eyed daughter

Well, for the first time in a long time Adelle and I have been spending our days together, just the two of us.  We still have company…Greg’s cousin Keith just came into town for some interviews, but he has been out all day, so Adelle and I have been alone during the days.   It has been fun to have Keith visiting.  It is so nice to share our joy with family.  Keith is currently finishing his MBA…and we are hoping he’ll be moving out west when he is all done…Keith tells us Angela will be soon to follow….right Angela?

Adelle has kept up her stellar night time sleeping.  She sleeps from 11 pm until 8 am every night, with just one night time feeding.  In the morning she is in a great mood and after I feed her she loves to hang out in her crib and look at her mobile while I get ready for the day.  I feel very spoiled.

I feel like for the first time I am really well rested and we are starting to figure each other out. I am told that as soon as you figure something out as a parent, your child changes, but I’ll enjoy this for as long as it will last. 

I still don’t have naps figured out yet.  She sleeps brilliantly if Greg or I cuddles with her but she isn’t much of a daytime independent sleeper.  Since she spends the nights alone, maybe she needs a few extra day time cuddles.  I know I certainly enjoy our daytime cuddles.  I’m not too concerned, except we don’t always have the time to cuddle her and then she is particularly grumpy.  So obviously she needs some sleep.  Anyway, I’m working on it and hopefully we’ll start having some more success in that department.

We’ve had a great week back home.  Greg took Monday off so we could have some good family bonding time.  Then Tuesday I had yoga.  Although, the class itself is just 1 1/2 hours, it is a full day event, since all the woman meet for lunch afterwards.  Wednesday we visited with Shan and Paityn.  Thursday was filled with some Daycare tours…no success in that department yet.  We had some friends over on Thursday night and today was playgroup.  It is a hard life…but somebody has to live it….how will I ever return to work?

Tomorrow I get together with some girlfriends for an afternoon of cardmaking while Greg and Keith go hiking in the mountains.  I think this weekend will fly by too.

Our friend Paityn, she is lots of fun to play with and we love her lots, despite her surprisingly large feet!

This weekend

Adelle had her two month anniversary in Ontario (away from her dad….which is sad). She has changed so much this month, it is amazing.

Sleep:
The one word that comes to mind….LUCKY. I have no clue why we got such a great sleeper, but I’m not complaining. She sleeps fairly consistently now for at least 4 hours the first time we put her down in the evenings. More and more often that first stretch is getting to be longer than 4 hours. After she eats in the night her second sleep is usually not quite as long and a bit more variable. We tried putting her in her crib this month and she seems to really like it. At first we just put her there for the first sleep, but she seemed to be sleeping better in the crib than in our bed, so we’ve since been leaving her in the crib all night. I miss her a lot at night, but it really does seem like this is what she wants.   While we were away in Ontario she slept in her stroller at night.  She loved it in there.  Even though she was more fussy in Ontario, her night sleeps were some of the best she’s ever had….probably tired out from all the daytime crying.

Eating:
She is a super eater. Recently, it seems like she is having some problems with gas while she eats. But I am working on figuring that out. Sometimes she just really seems to suck in so much gas while eating that she is actually in pain. Or maybe that isn’t the problem…who knows…that is just the latest theory.  The amount of time it takes for her to eat seems to be less so she must be getting much more efficient.  Last night I had her fed and changed and I was back in bed in 1/2 an hour…the night time feedings aren’t all that short, but they are much quicker than the 1 1/2 snacking buffets we were working with last month.

Bottle feeding has been a bit of a struggle this month. She was doing so well, and then she just started refusing the bottle. We bought some new nipples and we are still working on getting her used to the bottle. We are having mixed success.  Who knows what it will be like when we return from Ontario after 10 days with no bottle.

Hair:
According to my sister her hair is less thick than it was at birth. Although, it seems that some new hair is really starting to grow. Her hair definitely seems like it is getting a bit lighter.

Eyes:
Still a greyish-blue, not sure if it is newborn grey-blue or my colour…I think it is still a bit too early to tell.

Personality:
She is just like her mum…in my opinion. She is very quick to over-react, but luckily for us with a lot of cuddling and some serious bouncing we can calm her down pretty quickly. She loves to smile. She seems to have the most smiles for her dad, which is nice because he only gets to see her a few hours a day on the weekdays. She has also started to act a bit strange with people. I’m hoping that will be a SHORT phase, but my mom reminded me I didn’t like anybody to even look at me when I was a baby. I really hope she didn’t inherit that quality from me. So far she is still happy to interact with other people some of the time, but she has made it clear that she would prefer if Greg or I hold her.

Stuff that happened this month:
- with our trip to Ontario she met all the rest of her family on my side…it was wonderful.
- she started to smile and now she smiles all the time
- she still loves to be held and often gets disappointed if we sit while we are holding her
- she started going to playgroup
- she pooed on her dad in the tub (funny for me…less funny for Greg!)
- she started acting strange some of the time, but luckily she cheers up pretty quickly when Greg or I take her back.
- she has her first plane ride, bus ride and subway ride (overall she is a great traveller)
- she had her first trip to a bar (to see Pam’s Standup), I had to sneak her in.   Although tall for her age, I don’t think she would have passed for 19!

Adelle is growing up:

Hours after birth
 

One Month Old
 

Two Months Old
 

So Grown Up

Greg and Adelle are re-united!  To celebrate Adelle laughed for the first time with Greg this morning.  I missed it, but apparently it happened more than once.  I can’t wait to hear it myself.

The last few days of our trip are a blur.  We left my sister and her family (it is always so hard to say goodbye).  But Wynne  told me that we should just close our eyes and think of each other whenever we get sad and then it will be less sad.  I find it funny that a 4 year old needs to console me.  But she actually always has such great advice, and is now quite used to me crying in the hours leading up to a goodbye.  She is wise beyond her years.

We left Toronto on a bus heading to Ottawa.  There was one extra seat, and so Adelle and I had plenty of room to spread out.  I guess nobody wanted to sit next to a woman with a 2 month old.  I was grateful for all the extra space.

Adelle had a good time with my mom and Fred, we were there for Fred’s birthday.  Happy birthday Fred!  Adelle met all 4 of Fred’s grandchildren.  She was very happy to sit and watch them play and had lots of smiles for them.  She was often quite grumpy at my mom’s.  I wonder if she was excited for the stimulation of the other kids, but still found it all a bit overwhelming.

My friend Missy and her husband Chris joined me at my mom’s for a quick visit too.  Which was a treat since she drove in from Kingston to see us.  Unfortunatly, I have no pictures from the meeting as I was preoccupied with a fussy baby!

At my dad’s she seemed much more relaxed.  My dad also had an exercise ball which is Adelle’s favorite.  She was very content to sit and be held by my dad, my brother or Al’s girlfriend Meagan as long as they were bouncing.  We took a stroll down memory lane while at my dad’s.  I was fortunate to grow up in a beautiful housing co-op that backed onto a river and had a little forest and a few fields to play in.  We went for a walk at my dad’s which is where I grew up and so much has changed.  Most of the little forest still remains but the field is gone.  It has been replaced by a very fancy housing development.  It was sad to see our field gone.  For all the co-op kids who read my blog, our beautiful old owl tree is gone, along with the private man’s house.  Imagine, a whole generation of co-op kids will no longer wonder about the intriguing life of a ‘private man’.

The plane ride back to Calgary was not as good as the plane ride to Toronto.  However, it all payed off as Adelle had her best sleep yet when we got home.  So I won’t even begin to complain.   I feel so well rested today.

Below are a few fun pictures from our trip:

Wynne at Harvest Festival

Noam at Harvest Festival, he loves corn and was very confused by the dried version.  He was not impressed when it became evident that this corn could not be eaten.

Auntie Amy with Adelle resting peacefully on her back

Getting re-acquainted with Grandad

With Uncle Allie, Adelle was so relieved that my dad had an exercise ball…

Hanging out with Percy and Finley

With Grandma Sue

With Alison and Aaron (Aaron is only 9 days younger than Adelle)

With Lori - Lori’s mom Jan baby sat all us kids growing up.  We all grew up together like one big family.  When we were in Ottawa I got the opportunity to introduce Adelle to Jan and Lori as well as their partners Nick and Andrew.  I was so lucky to get to do that.

Greg and Adelle looking like they belong in a magazine

Our friend (well, really our second sister) Pam invited us to go watch her to do stand up comedy tonight. The place was packed. She was funny, people laughed, she looked fabulous. We were so proud!

Things Adelle loves about Toronto (in order):
1. The way that her mum holds her all the time
2. The kitchen sink, and the wall over the sink. It’s best if she is crying to bring her in to have a look.
3. Her cousin chi chi when he is being gentle.
4. Her Auntie Amy and her cousin Lily, and her uncle Hugh.

Things Adelle does not love about Toronto (in order):
1. That her dad isn’t here.
2. That her dad is in Calgary.
3. That her dad doesn’t spend several hours each day bouncing her and lifting her and holding her and swinging her, and moving her.
4. That the apartment is so hot she can barely wear any clothes.
5. That there is lots of loud noise and bright lights and movement ALL THE TIME.

It has been a little while since I have posted and so I thought I’d better write something down to tell everybody what we’ve been up to. Greg found out last week that he needed to do some interviewing at the University of Waterloo. So, Adelle and I decided to pack our stuff up and join him in Ontario for the weekend.

Adelle and I actually flew out here all by ourselves. Greg’s hectic schedule meant that he wasn’t able to fly into Toronto until quite late. We decided it was easier for Adelle and I to fly alone early in the day, than for all of us to fly together really late. I think we made a great decision. Adelle is often quite fussy in the evenings and as it turns out she is great on the plane. It was a very easy flight. She got lots of attention at the airport in her little sling. The one downside is that Transport Canada prohibits the use of slings on airplanes, so we were slingless for a few hours. I was a bit nervous about that rule, but we both still managed to sit comfortably on our one little airplane seat.

We’ve had a very busy trip so far. We spent some time in Hamilton with our friends Kevin, Alison and their little boy Aaron. Aaron is only 9 days younger than Adelle so it was really fun watching all the things that are the same and different about them. Alison and I had a fun day hanging out as stay at home moms together. Obviously our little babies had no interest in each other, but hopefully one day they’ll get to know each other.

We also visited with Greg’s friend and old roommate Roy. Adelle was at her finest while we were there. She spent a fair bit of the evening having us dance around Roy’s living room. She did go down for a nice little nap just as we sat down for dinner (sometimes she has such perfect timing!). She even took her nap on the floor (which was a little odd for her, but oh so nice for us and our backs).

While Greg spent Monday interviewing I was able to spend time with my friend Rosie and her family. She has a little guy that is just two and he was so fabulous with Adelle. He even rocked her in his old bouncy chair when she cried. It was pretty cool, because he was rocking her about 3 times as hard as I would have, and she calmed right down…apparently two year old Aiden knows best!

The rest of our trip in Ontario so far has been spent with my sister and her family. It has been so cool to be here. Both Adelle’s cousins adore her. It was super neat when we first arrived to see Noam and Wynne just crawling all over each other to get the best position next to Adelle. They have both been very excited to see her each morning too and have so much love for her all day long. I think it is a great start to a wonderful cousin relationship. I look forward to the three of them (and hopefully one day more than three) knowing each other for their whole lives. Family is so special.

Unfortunately, Greg had to get back to work for Tuesday. Adelle and I have been in Toronto without Greg since Monday afternoon. It is sad for all of us to be apart, but a great opportunity for me to spend a little extra time with my family here. It has been a lot more difficult without Greg (and we miss him like crazy), but my sister and Hugh have been a wonderful support and I’ve gotten away with doing very little apart from consoling my daughter who seems fussier and more particular than usual.

The good news though, is that Ontario sure does sit well with Adelle. She has been travelling in cars much better here, and she has had some of her best sleeps here. So although, she seems fussier I have been lucky to have some things go smoother than normal.

One more day with my sister, and then it is off to Ottawa to visit with my parents, my brother (who’s never even met Adelle) and a few more friends.

I’ll be sure to send another update, and post some of the pictures I’ve taken when I return home!

We’ve had a wonderful week.  Adelle is growing so quickly.  There are lots of outfits that she no longer fits into.  I can’t even believe how fast she is growing.  I notice such a difference in her myself, and I see her everyday.

Recently she has started cooing.  Which is pretty cool.   It is still only occasional, but it is like music to my ears. 

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner last night.  Greg’s family is still here and his mom made a fabulous turkey for us.  Our friends Troy and Tera were in town for a wedding and were able to join us for turkey dinner.  We haven’t seen them in months, and they’d never met Adelle so it was great to have them over. 

Greg’s parents leave tomorrow.  It is officially the end of our company.  Now I’ll get to see what this stay at home parenting thing is all about.  I have been so spoiled these last 2 months!  Poor Adelle is going to get bored of me. 

Grandpa Ron sure is going to miss baby Adelle.  You can’t tell from the picture but Ron and Adelle were dancing when this was taken and she was smiling like we’ve never seen her smile before!

Grandma Fran having a little cuddle with our girl

Adelle had her six week check up today with the  midwives.  This was also our last appointment with them.  I was so sad, I cried when we left their office.  They were such an important part of our whole experience, it just doesn’t seem right to have them out of our lives….guess I’ll have to start working on baby #2 soon so that we can see them again! 

She is 11 lbs (2 1/2 lbs more than when she was born)
She is 23″ long (2″ increase)
She has a 15″ head circumference (1″ increase)

By all accounts, Adelle is healthy and progressing well.  Yippee!

We are still having a great visit with Greg’s relatives.  It has been such a treat to have them here, everybody seems to want to hold Adelle which means I’ve had lots of spare time on my hands.  It has been great, especially the last 2 days when Adelle has been a little fussy.  We aren’t sure if I ate something that didn’t sit well with her, or if she just had some little issues, but she has been alternating between mad and sad the last few days and she’s had some crumby nights.  Today she seems so much better, so hopefully tonight will be a bit better than the last two.

Here are a few pictures from our outing today:

Getting ready to go out, in the hat that Greg’s Nana made for Greg’s sister many years ago…
 

Adelle all tuckered out: