G'n'R Out West

We were lucky this weekend to have our friends Kevin and Alison (along with their son Aaron) visit us.  It was so wonderful to have lots of company for a few days and I do love a full house.  Aaron is just a few days younger than Adelle and it was so much fun to see them together.  I found it especially interesting as they are very different kids in some ways, so it was neat to see the ways they are developing differently, and the ways they are developing the same.  They played next to each other for the first few days, but by day three they were really enjoying each other.  There was lots of foolish laughing and goofing around.

Their favorite game was for Aaron to pretend to fall over and for Adelle to help him up. I am pretty sure Adelle didn’t realize Aaron was pretending, and she just thought he was really clumsy and not very capable of recovering as he would lie on the floor for quite some time waiting for her helpful hand!  Each time he’d fall she’d make like she was such a big deal to go over and help him, but you could tell she loved to have this responsibility!

We took the kids to the zoo one day and I was a bit worried about having them in the double stroller together.  They had a blast together in it.  There was lots of feet kicking and random squealing.  Towards the end of the day Adelle was getting a bit tired (I think she might have been a little sick), so she wasn’t interested in sharing her stroller anymore, but I was impressed with how she did.

All in all I think that Adelle did really well all weekend.  She has been having a few issues at daycare lately.  We are told she isn’t much for listening these days (I can’t say things are much different at home!).  Apparently she convinced all the kids to take thier jackets off on Thursday at outdoor playtime.  The teachers had to ask them to put thier coats back on 3 times before Adelle finally gave in and stopped getting them to take thier jackets off.  I gather she is a bit of a handful these days.  Since she’s been having some issues at daycare, I was a bit worried she’d have problems sharing with Aaron, but I think all in all she did an amazing job.  They got along so well.  I was sad to see our friends go…but I think it will be the hardest on Adelle as she was really enjoying having Aaron living right here in her own house!

So, for Adelle’s birthday, my mum gave her the dollhouse that my Granddad and Granny made for my sister and I many years ago.  She also re- furnished it!  I was excited to see the dollhouse that I loved so much growing up and curious to see how Adelle would react.  She is really into her babies and pretend playing, but I wasn’t certain if she was old enough to enjoy that tiny world of dollhouses.  Turns out she is.  In fact, watching her play with it has lead to some interesting observations.

So, the dollhouse came with a mum and a dad, a little boy, a little girl and a baby.  At first she didn’t see the baby and so the dollhouse inhabitants were (Greg and I, Adelle, and her friend Blake).  When she saw the baby, the big Adelle was put in the bed and a cover was put over her head…then Adelle announced that the baby was Adelle.  If you tried to play with the big Adelle you were told no and it was quickly put back in the dollhouse, in the bed with the cover over its head.  This insanity lasted about 3 weeks.  I took it as a bit of a sign that we were over playing the ‘big sister’ card.  She knows it is happening, she has told me on a few occasions now that she doesn’t want to be a big sister…and then this whole dollhouse thing.  So I decided to back off the big sister talk.  I know she knows it, and so there is no point in bringing it up, unless she does.  We still talk about the baby from time to time, but I am trying not to focus on her role as a big sister…she is our Adelle and always will be and she will find her own place with the new baby when the time comes.

Last week she did acknowledge to Greg that the big girl was Adelle but the big girl remains in the bed with the blanket over her head.

This morning she dragged out the bed (and the big Adelle) very carefully lifted the sheet, put about 40 twist ties into the bed with the doll, put the blanket back on doll (and twist ties) and placed it back in the house…I’m not sure what that is all about.

Anyway, the dollhouse stuff is really neat to watch and participate in.  I am curious as to why big Adelle spends her life in bed and hope it is meaningless.

The dollhouse was a huge hit even before all the new people, pets and furniture arrived.  Mostly, she put her toy eagle in the house.  Once it fell off the roof and cried for a long time, but after some hugging and a 30 min nap I was updated that the eagle was ‘all better now’.  Have a close look at the vintage wallpaper my Granny used to pretty up the house…pretty nifty!

Adelle loves the little dollhouse baby.  She spends a fair bit of time feeding it.  Not unlike Adelle the person, this baby appears to have a large appetite (check out the size of the bowl relative to the size of the baby!).  Adelle is also very concerned about messes in her dollhouse.  The dog is constantly knocking over his food bowl and Adelle always needs to get a cloth to clean it up.  Pets really do create a lot of extra work!

Last week I felt a whole bunch of very serious internal baby reorganizing.  I had a suspicion it was ‘the big flip’, since normally there isn’t that much activity, especially that much painful activity!

Adelle and I went to see Kimberly, our midwife, on Saturday, and sure enough the baby is in just the right spot now.  Such a great little baby.

We had a great time with Kimberly.  She hadn’t seen Adelle since she was six weeks old, so it was a little emotional.

We got to hear the baby’s heart beat (and Adelle’s).  Then Kimberly drew a picture of the baby on my belly so that Adelle could see.  I thought it was super awesome and Adelle seemed really into it.  Adelle loved hearing the baby’s heartbeat, and really loved getting to hear her own heartbeat too.

I have been having all sorts of really mixed emotions about the baby lately.  I am just loving spending time with Adelle and I worry about the impact of another baby on our relationship.  At the same time, I am excited to have another baby…but then that is moderated by the fact that I just love sleeping so much.  However, yesterday I was almost in tears looking at a stranger’s new born baby while we were out and about.  I think I forgot how incredible they are.  Just working so hard to eat and poop that they get all exhausted….sigh.  I guess sleep isn’t quite as wonderful as a tiny little baby.

The heart rate was 145 today…so not exactly conclusive one way or the other…but we are still stressed about finding a good boys name.  It was 145 when our midwife (Kimberly) put the Doppler on my belly, and 10 seconds later the heart rate jumped to 170…obviously the baby was on the move but I couldn’t feel a thing…so odd.

Kimberly felt around for the baby’s position and he is currently breech.  She helped me to find and feel his tiny little head.  I tried to show Greg when I got home, but I couldn’t find the head by myself- so sad for Greg because our baby has a really great head. 

Our next appointment is in two weeks and Greg is coming, so hopefully Kimberly will be able to find some fun body part for Greg to check out. 

Being pregnant is so fun.

well, maybe.  ok, probably not, but maybe.

So the old myth goes, high heart rate = girl, low heart rate = boy.  I have it on good authority that there is absolutely no validity to this, but what is the point of not finding out the sex if you don’t get to spend some time speculating.

So the deal is that a normal fetal heart rate can vary from 120-180 beats per minute (or something around that).  Early in the pregnancy the rate tends to be high and then varies more the older your baby gets.  Adelle was ALWAYS on the high end.  My last midwifery appointment they checked the heart rate and it was 120.  It sounded so low to me that for a moment I was concerned because it sounded too slow.  As soon as I was done at the appointment I called Greg on the phone and started freaking out. 

Don’t get me wrong, having a little boy thrills both Greg and I, as much as having another girl.  Where the problem comes in is the name.  Greg and I both tend to agree that there is an unlimited supply of beautiful girls names to choose from but a very limited number of boys names.  So…naming a boy is causing a lot of tension.  Last time around we really didn’t have a boy’s name picked, which is odd since we were fairly certain Adelle was a boy.  We totally dodged that bullet.  This time I am not sure we will be so lucky!

If anybody out there has any boy suggestions that aren’t Rudigar, Spyder-man, or Desmond (Greg’s suggestions), they are encouraged to share them with us.

I realized recently that we are 30 weeks already.  Greg and I are shocked.  This baby is coming so so so fast.  We are feeling remarkably unprepared.  Some days I feel like having a second baby is going to be no big deal.  Then 10 min later I remember how much I love sleeping…then it seems like it might be a tiny bit hard after all.  I do love to sleep. 

The good news is that we are planning on having a baby that loves sleeping as well.  So I think it will work out much better for us this time around.  Part of the reason I keep forgetting I am pregnant, I think, is because this baby is much more layed back then Adelle was.  I am pretty sure this confirms my theory that we will have a relaxed baby.  He is so unassuming and hardly ever bothers me.  Last weekend he did stretch out pushing my belly from bottom left to top right, it was some pretty serious excitement…but it was very gentle and only happened twice. I guess he got tired and fell asleep after all that commotion.  Other than that all I get is the odd roll over when I go to sleep at night.

Here is my big old 30 week belly.

The next appointment is on Thursday…so we’ll see what the heartbeat tells us then.

We’ve finished our last camping trip of the season, it was sad to pack up all the gear and put it away for the year.  Hopefully we’ll be out there again next summer.  This past weekend we went to Drumheller and hung out at the Royal Tyrell museum.  Adelle liked the museum as much as I do so it was really fun to be there with her.  She couldn’t even believe how many dinosaurs were there.  They also had some live fish and a turtle, so can’t really go wrong with entertainment like that around every corner!

We went camping with Lisa, Andrew and Blake as well as Lisa’s parents Marie and Roger.  The kids once again had loads of fun chasing each other around the trees at the campground..and of course Adelle was facinated by trailer life and was always trying to think of excuses to get into Blake’s trailer.
 

We did a few little hikes (or maybe more like walks) in the badlands.  Adelle was mostly excited by the dried clay insisting that she play with the sand.  On our first hike we got about 1km in, sat down, and that was that.  Mostly we drew pictures of snakes, made birthday cakes and then sang the snake happy birthday.  We sung to the snake a countless number of times.  She is really starting to learn songs now and one of her favorites is ‘happy birthday’.  Also at the top of her list are: itsy bitsy spider, hokey-pokey (she calls it the pokey-pokey), twinkle twinkle little star and there are also a few that she learned at school..but we can’t figure them out.  One of her favorite songs has something to do with yelling out your name.  She sings it all the time and when she points at you, you have to say your name.  When we point at her she yells ‘Adelle Forgeron’, Greg is Greg Forgeron, but I’m just Mummy Forgeron…
 

And of course, Adelle came home from the camping weekend sick.  She isn’t super sick, just a terrible cough.  She has officially asked to go to bed 3 times this week.  One night she asked to go to bed at 6:15…I’m pretty sure that is one for the record books.  Greg and I were so shocked at the request that we didn’t oblige her immediately because we sort of both assumed she was confused.  Once we realized she was serious we took her up to bed and she was asleep just a few minutes later.  Poor bean.  Apparently she has been the best sleeper at daycare all week!

Something really cute that Adelle has started saying lately is ‘no fanks’.  Whenever we ask her to do something she doesn’t want to do, or if we offer her something she doesn’t want she offers us that very pleasant response.  It is super cute, and makes me want to oblige her, even when I wouldn’t normally.  I really do find that child irrisistable at times.