Firsts

First ski trip, first trip to Tim Hortons and first trip with the Rainbow families. All happy adventures.

Stroller fit rocks!

Today was our first mom and baby fitness class. Wow. It was so much fun and a great workout. We were lucky that it was a beautiful sunny day. I am hoping to sleep well tonight. The baby bee is sleeping longer stretches, but I am awake. Awake and disappointed that i am awake. According to google this is a post partum thing that sometimes happens. I am sure it can’t last forever and one day we will all sleep through the night.

Bf’ing on the street

I am a girl on the go and not really a stay at home mama at all. My latest experiment was breastfeeding while on the skytrain. The Bee was in the ergo while I was buzzing around the city when she got a rumble in her tummy. We were on the skytrain. I loosened some straps and shuffled us around in there and it worked perfectly. I was wearing a nursing tank from Glamourmom and zip up hoody, which made it easier. We only had a short ride and she hadn’t finished nursing when it was time to get off the train, so I tightened the straps up and she nursed while I walked. It pretty much rocked. I did find using the infant insert with the ergo awkward at first, but I am used to it now. I haven’t yet had to go pee in a public washroom while out with her alone in the ergo. I am sure one day I will get to experiment with peeing while wearing her in an ergo. I hope that is as successful. I am not entirely sure. Have you peed while wearing an ergo? What other breastfeeding experiments have you tried?

She cried

I cried and we learned about purple crying. Our honey bee doesn’t cry much and until the last couple of days has been mostly easy to soothe. The times when she has been the most fussy it was because her tummy hurt and it all made sense to me. Last night she just cried and I did all kinds of things, it didn’t make sense and finally stuffed her into the ergo where she settled. I felt terrible. When F got home she jumped right in and helped after her long day of work and reminded me about Purple Crying.

Purple crying is the new fancy smancy name for when babies cry and don’t soothe easily. I turns out I did everything they suggest on the website. I tried different things and put her in bed so I could step out of the room when I needed to think. The one thing I did wrong was feel like a failure. Even when I finally got her to settle in the Ergo I felt like a copout because I used that instead of teaching her to soothe herself. Wow, that is a little much. All the information about purple crying even says I am not a failure. Tonight I am so much better prepared. Babies sometimes cry and I am not going to put myself on fail blog if it takes a while for her to stop. Jeepers.

F had a rare morning off and got to see the honey bee doing some of her morning exercises. The bee listens to Breakfast with Bach while she does them. Thanks LS for loaning us the mat! After that she went swimming. She currently only swims in our private pool (the bath tub) and she loves it.

Morning workout

Half way

January is a full on month. I love feeling better and being out of the hospital and taking care of the baby bee. We do different activities everyday and I feel like a scientist watching her and trying to figure her out. Is she tired? Hungry? When should she go to bed? Why is she eating non stop for two whole nights?

What makes this month full on, is that F is working a crazy schedule and is gone 13-14 hours a day Monday to Friday. She leaves before we get up and comes home when I am going to bed. Not ideal for any of us, but we are half way through it and there are only two weeks left. I heart weekends.

So little time and so much to say and now it is time to sleep.

A house full of babies

All these babies were in my house. My house was full of babies and it was so much fun. We hosted the one month reunion for our prenatal group. We couldn’t resist piling them up on the couch again. It is too much fun watching them tip into each other. Our little bee is the one on the right with the crazy amount of hair.

Sooo much cuteness!

Don’t hate me because…

I woke a sleeping baby. She slept for six hours. Six! She trained me to sleep for three to four hours, so while she slept I kept waking up ready for our nighttime business. The dam burst at 2am. I stood there over her bassinet checking on her when my milk let down. These were some seriously overfull breasts and I have some serious let down. I am estimating that I had enough milk to feed all of our babies including those yet to be born and conceived. Holy Batman! I went straight to the bat cave and set up the pump meanwhile milk poured all over my shirt, sweatpants, the floor and the table. I emptied the main culprit and kept the other one for sleeping beauty. After some more baby staring and fretting and remembering comments from when she was first in the hospital about sleepy babies and blood sugar I woke her up. I was nice about it, but I woke up a happy sleeping baby in the middle of the night. F later pointed out that she is no longer a newborn losing weight, but a healthy baby gaining weight. Good point. She also said that waking her up or letting her sleep wasn’t going to make or break her. She nursed and we all went back to sleep and resumed our get up ever three hours lifestyle. Next time I will let her sleep a little longer. I do feel oddly refreshed this morning.

Hmmm

I probably could have fit into them a couple of weeks ago, but I put it off even trying. Today I bit the bullet and tried on my pre-pregnancy jeans again. They fit, but I choose to wear the elastic waist band maternity ones anyway. What does this say about me? Am I addicted to the elastic waist band? Have I let myself go? Will I ever go back to regular pants? I am using the my stomach is sore from the c section excuse. I do have pins and needles feeling across my belly from the surgery, but it isn’t that bad. Tomorrow is another day. Maybe I will try again to transition to regular pants or maybe not.

The new lifestyle

I love activities. I have a high need for fun recreation. There are two exciting things coming up; mom and baby activities and a rainbow family ski trip. I am so excited about both. This week was going to be the beginning of mom and baby classes, but instead I am doing physio appointments and more exercises at home to get stronger. Not what I had hoped, but Monday’s appointment is already helping and I am hoping that next week I will be ready to do more. Today I did the first mom and baby activity and met another mom and baby from prenatal class and went for a walk around the lake. It was pretty exciting. We talked about all those things that would bore most people such as how much sleep are you getting, breast pumps and which care provider we had when we delivered.

The ski trip is at the end of January and I have been planning on going since I first got pregnant. I can’t wait. I love cross country skiing and some of my favorite people are going. I ski both classic and skating and couldn’t tell you which was my favorite without a lengthy description of snow conditions, terrain and waxes. This trip will be my big ski outing for the season. The local mountains are far enough away that I doubt I will make it. On the ski trip though the trails are right outside the lodge so I can do a short ski and come back and feed the baby. Short will be better for my body too as I get work on getting some abs back again.

I am also working on our new lifestyle and figuring out what will work best for us. In December we had two hospital stays, F’s mom for 11 days and holidays. Now it is about us and figuring out what works. How to use the baby ergo, how to breast feed in it, what are the best ways to get her to sleep, when do I take her in the bed with us and when does she go in the bassinet, will she take a bottle from someone else…there are so many things to learn about. In the last two days I realized I was sometimes waking her up. Crying and arm thrashing do no necessarily mean she is awake and if I tuck her arms back in she often settles. Darn not always she is awake now. Hmmm. Forget proof reading this post. Gotta go.

Jumping for joy in January

Actually it is looking like January will involve lots of walking with good posture and lifting with my knees rather than jumping. The pregnancy, c section, the terrible cot at the hospital, relaxin hormone’s effect on the ligaments and constant baby lifting out of the bassinet and our bed is making my back sore. Time more than anything will fix this. I am also doing a few exercises and have moved the bassinet up higher.

I have to be more careful on the outside, but inside I am still jumping. I am so happy to be starting a new month and finally having the three of us at home. No more hospital and no mil staying here (even though she is great it is nice just to be the three of us). I am looking forward to starting mom and baby activities and pushing that stroller around.

I am hoping that we all have the best year ever and that everyone who is even thinking about pregnancy suddenly finds them self looking at two lines on a stick. Careful what you think about if you are at the just considering baby stage. I am sending powerful baby vibes to everyone!