Newsletter

excerpt from Mika's bi-monthly daycare newsletter: "Mika loves to read books. She also likes to dance with the other kids."

I may have blogged this before: (but I'm too lazy to go back and check, so will just risk re-blogging) Mika also acts as though she owns the centre. She goes from room to room visiting various friends and staff. They love her in the Transition room (between toddler and preschool) because she can count, knows her colours, and is working on getting the alphabet down pat. Apparently, she helps the other kids learn or something. Mika also has friends that she regularly visits in the infant room. She also has a good friend in the 4-5 year old group, Zoey. Mostly, though, Mika is into the boys. At any given time, there seems to be no less than two boys trailing behind her still. There's often a receiving line to bid her goodbye for the day. Daddy just shakes his head.

I tried to contact my ob-gyn for an appt. to see why I still have major ripping pains on the right side of my incision wound/scar and other issues that I won't gore you out with. I thought they would tell me just to address it when I came in for my 6 week followup. Instead I was told that they were booking into April and a 6 week followup was not possible. Thankfully, my gp is going to worry about me instead - she booked me a double appt. for Tuesday so she can check me out and find out what's up at the same time as Declan's 4 week checkup. Yay. Sheesh.

Declan's 2-week Stats

Weight: 10 lbs, 7.5 ounces
Height: 22.5 inches
Head Circumference: 38.5cm

His physician loves him. Big healthy baby.

I Hate Award Windows

Happy 2nd Birthday, Mika!

My wee baby girl turns 2 years old today. I can't believe that two years have gone by since she was pulled out of me. She's currently in the basement having a dance party with Daddy - her fave CD is on repeat. Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang.
Soon we'll try and get her to nap and then it's off to the TriAlta Leisure Centre for the party. Mika has been looking forward to going skating and swimming with Daddy and her friends.

Declan continues to do well. Eat, sleep, expel waste. Eat, sleep, expel waste. He's looking forward to meeting Brighid - the only person we currently know who is close to his age. He's been practicing his focusing so that he doesn't look all cross-eyed when he meets the girl.

More later...

Stats

According to our bathroom scale, Mika weighs 27lbs and Declan is exactly 10lbs. As exact as a cheapo bathroom scale is in the first place.

Suilean Dubh:

Declan was born with dark eyes. A very deep dark hazel that we expect to turn brown at any moment. Some innerweb sites suggest this to mean that he is not caucasian - wonder how much of Daddy's Metis blood the kid got!?!

Boy

I'm sitting in the bedroom posting on the laptop. The installers are working on getting our bay window in, so Declan and I are sequestered in here. Declan is loving the construction/destruction. The sounds of hammers and saws and everything is seemingly appealing to the little guy. This kid is 100% boy. Dark back and arm hair, sideburns, wee biceps, and the need to see a bare breast once per hour are just a few of his 100% boy traits. Yes, I know the back and arm hair will probably fall out, but for now it's almost funny as it adds to his 'dude' qualities. Declan's cry is very masculine too - sort of sounds canine - suitable for one born in the year of the dog - just like his Daddy. The kid is still feeding like mad and my body has become, more or less, used to it. No feeding routine or schedule yet - he's all over the place with his hunger. Declan still only sleeps well when he is touching another person. Now that my feeders are not cracked and bleeding and that he has a better latch, we can do the side-lying hold again, which is nice. I am lazy and out of it at 3AM. The ability to help him latch and then pass back out until he is done feeding rocks. All in all, things are going quite well. I'm more sore from the surgery than I remember with Mika and am out of pain meds. Well, I have t3's, but do not like being out of it while looking after Declan. Ah well.

Mika continues to do well with her brother. She asks to kiss and hug him a lot and is getting better about Daddy touching the baby. She woke up from what we assume was a bad dream last night. Her shrieks could scare away a banshee. Mika wouldn't tell Daddy what was wrong. When I asked her, she said she was scared. We let her get up for awhile and snuggle with Daddy. She cried for a bit when we put her back to bed an hour later, but she was out cold within minutes. Mika had a good valentines day. We gave her a stuffed pot of flowers that she has been happily arranging. I baked a cake for Mika and Daddy. Daddy gave me a beautiful bouquet - lots of orange-coloured flowers. Mika has two boyfriends now. She and Sammi are back to just being friends. On V-day, Mika told me: "I like Shaun. and I like Jonathan." I asked her if she played them against each other and she said "yeah." Petra at the daycare confirmed that there has been some tension between Shaun and Jonathan. Toddler drama madness.

I'm escaping the bedroom for a while - off to find some food. We have an awesome kosher bakery nearby with a donair place next door for Daddy. There is at least one place in the world where a Muslim family business and a Jewish family business can peacefully exist beside each other. Good old Edmonton.

Champs

Declan slept through the night yesterday. He was curled up on my chest the whole time. He had marathon feedings from 8 to 11 - I must admit that they left me very cranky and tearful....maybe even bawling because he is difficult to feed and I was sore and tired and whatever. The latch is slowly getting better, but on average we make about 5 attempts before anything close to a good latch happens. Ugh. I start trying to get him to feed when he starts rooting - just like you're supposed to, but by the time he is on he is usually crying. Meh. It's not as bad as I am making it out to be, though. Honest. And every once in a while, I talk about something other than breastfeeding. Just not often. :P

Declan had his first outing yesterday over to the westmount mall safeway. I don't really like shopping at safeway, but didn't want to go far. Declan slept through the whole trip. Today we went and picked up some party supplies and a present for Mika's birthday on Sunday. We need to get to Ikea sometime this week and buy cabinets. The window replacement starts on Friday and will be done by the end of next week. The installer said he was thinking of starting with the kitchen, which means the current cabinets will be torn down (yay!) to get the window in. Of course, we need something to put in their place. Seeing as the island that came with the house is from Ikea, we may as well match it. Makes things relatively inexpensive and no-brainer. Daddy plans on saving some of the nice old character window frames er, is it mouldings?, anyway - to reuse.

Busy weekend ahead with the whole window thing plus Mika's birthday. Her party is at the leisure centre - swimming, skating, and indoor playground for all. Plus an hour's worth of party room usage for cake and snacks and the like. Best part to me is that we don't have to clean up afterwards. Or worry about cramming a bunch of people into our tiny house. Knocking on wood and hoping that Mika doesn't come down with another cold or flu by the end of the week. She's been snotfilled the past few days.

Mika has been practicing her sad face a lot lately and giggles like mad when I make it back at her. She asks me to be sad just so she can laugh at me. The abuse is never ending in this house. :)
Technically, it's *my* sad face - I recognize it from my own baby/toddler photos.
Mika's jealousy re: Declan was coming out a bit more tonight, but she was still very good about everything. She insisted on using a soother. Declan has been using them as he is a big time suckler and seems to enjoy it. Mika never used one. Until Declan arrived. Yeah, I know - just take them away from her and tell her that they are only for the baby. I tried. She freaked out. I gave in. Foolish Mama. Bigtime Sucker Mama too.

Back hurts. Done posting.

Fightin' Irish

Fightin' Irish
Originally uploaded by MamaT.

Kids

Mika has surprised us with how well she is (so far) handling a new baby in the house. Jealousy only occurs when Daddy tries to get near Declan. Go figure. Mika has allowed Daddy to hold Declan at least once though. She's possessive about what is hers and (so far) respectful of what is Declans. Mika brings Declan his stuff, like blankets, hats, and socks. "Here baby Declan it's your blanket". She keeps running tabs on him "Baby's sleeping/crying/loud/" She's a great big sister so far.

Declan is doing well. He's lifting his head and turning it around, visually tracking well, creating big loads of diapers daily, trying to crawl and push off things - but he cannot be left alone for any amount of time it seems. He has to be touching another person at all times or its a fuss. We slept on the couch last night (Declan on my chest) so that I could be near the one chair that's comfortable for nursing. His frequent feedings have left me sore to say the least. Cracked, bleeding, and sore. The clutch hold is the only one that we can do right now (Hi Kris!) and that's with the assistance of a nursing pillow. I'm hoping he gets on a routine soon - in the meantime, it's lanolin ointment and grimacing. We're getting better with the latching, but even when its perfect, it hurts from the previous damage. Aside from that, all's grand!

Declan Cardinal Reid

Declan Cardinal Reid was yanked into the world on February 6, 2007 at 20:34 MST. He weighed in at 4430 grams (9lbs, 12oz.) and was 52cm (20.5 inches) long. Happy and healthy boy.

Induced!

I am sitting here with a catheter in my cervix. Just what you wanted to know, eh? If nothing happens tonight, I'll be going into the hospital tomorrow morning to be further induced. Doc is still predicting csection. - I don't want a smeggin' csection... - Feeling whiney and cranky and generally upset, so the post stops here.

Fourth Trimester

Non-stress test passed. Nurse claimed it was the best graph she had seen. Declan is happy and comfortable and doing just fine. I had a feeling that the test would show that. Like Mika before him, Declan shows no signs of wanting to leave his comfy womb. No distress, no leakage problems, supposedly no signs of the placenta giving up. I think Declan plans to live inside of me until he is ready for preschool.

The doctors and nurses at the Alex were wonderful today. I called ahead and asked if there was a good time for me to come in. The nurse laughed and laughed about this and told me to come on down whenever I wanted and to be prepared for a bit of a wait. Daddy and I were expecting to wait for at least an hour and have the test running for another hour. But no! As soon as we arrived, we were brought into a room and monitors were strapped to me. Everyone that we encountered was super friendly and nice. Dr. Jiwah came in to check on me and she was awesome too. We were in and out within an hour - mostly because Declan's readings were so good.

Still hoping for labor to start, like, now or something. Otherwise the next big thing will be going to get that catheter inserted on Monday. ugh. I feel like a 10-pin bowling ball is going to fall out of me without any cervical dilation, let alone with a balloon in me trying to push the cervix open.

Maybe Tuesday?

Had another doc appt. today. I'm a whole 1cm dilated. I expected the doc to tell me that I had to go in for a csection a.s.a.p., but he didn't. He gave me the warnings again that I am small and Declan is big. Nonetheless, I am *allowed* to go one week past my due date before they start calling the shots. Or something. In any case, I am to go to the hospital for a non-stress test for Declan tomorrow. If he hasn't made an appearance by Monday, I am to go back to the doc's office at the end of the day for an induction. We're going to try the Foley Catheter - the no-drug induction method. After that, who knows what will happen. My guess is "failure to progress resulting in csection" - yeah, I know...I'm such a positive thinker.

Mika is doing well. She's like a little tornado blowing through the house - destroying whatever gets in her way. I just love her to bits. We bought her some hiking boots for the spring that she now insists on wearing daily - no matter what. She's been asking for TV a lot lately. The good thing is that if we switch it on, she immediately loses interest. I guess Simpsons and Arrested Development reruns are not her thing. On the other hand, she will watch the same YouTube Elmo videos over and over. I have a TMX Elmo stashed in the baby's room to distract her once Declan actually arrives. Based on past experiences with this kind of toy, she should remain distracted until Declan turns 5. I just can't believe that I actually bought a smeggin' TMX Elmo in the first place. I am officially blaming pregnancy hormones for that purchase.