-Noah is still not 100%. It's been a full six days, but I am fairly certain he is not back to normal. He still has diarrhea, and his eating is still being affected.
-In the eating department: Noah is nursing a little more than he was when he was sick, but not completely back to his normal amount. He is hardly eating any solids, though. Today was the first day he wanted to eat anything during the daytime, so he ate most of a small orange. But he would barely eat two bites of dinner. And then at bedtime he barely nursed.
-Ever since he's been sick, Noah has been nursing way shorter overnight. He still wants to nurse at around the same time, but he only does for 4 or 5 minutes and then pops off still awake. I put him back in his crib and he goes back to sleep, but it's weird. And everytime he does this I get nervous, because when he had the flu, everytime he threw up it was during a nursing session. He would pop off prematurely, look at me, and then vomit everything up. So everytime he pops off, I'm terrified.
-Noah is now down to 1 nap. He would have to sleep less than 10 hours at night to be able to fit in 2 short naps during the day. He just can't fall asleep before the 4 hour mark. Bummer. He would have to get up at 6am in order to be able to fit in two naps and get to bed by 8:30pm. I think he's actually getting more sleep with just the one nap than he does if I force him to have two, since having two naps really pushes his bedtime too late.
-This one nap thing is not very welcome in our life right now. It makes it so that we can't go anywhere in the car in the late afternoon/early evening. We live 25 minutes from the main nearby town, and even though Noah can't fit in two naps a day, by 4 or 4:30pm he is at the point where he will almost certainly fall asleep in the car. This just happened on Sunday, and he ended up sleeping until 5:30pm. So he didn't fall asleep for the night until sometime after 9pm.
-I knew it wasn't going to happen, since Noah has never needed as much sleep as most other children his age, but I was hoping that he would have 2 naps throughout part of the summer, mostly because of the long daylight hours. Bummer.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Stomach Flu: 3 Us: 0
Well, I got it. I was up ALL night last night. I got maybe an hour of sleep sometime past 6:30am. That's it. As soon as I went to bed at about 10:30pm, I knew I was in for it. I spent all night either throwing up or lying perfectly still trying my hardest not to throw up.
I'm not feeling too too bad right now. Maybe it's a mental thing. Justin is in really rough shape, and Noah still has diarrhea really bad (I've changed his bum 6 times in the 2 hours he's been awake). I can't afford to be sick, so I'm trying my hardest not to be. I also don't want to lose my milk supply again, especially since Noah is still sick and doesn't have much appetite for anything, much less solid foods.
We are missing Easter, which really bums me out. I was really looking forward to going to at least one Easter service this weekend, and I was also really looking forward to getting together with my siblings and parents. I'm very disappointed :(
(And seriously, I never get the stomach flu. I think I had it ONCE between the ages of 10 and 25. But I've had it 3 TIMES since December! What the heck!?)
I'm not feeling too too bad right now. Maybe it's a mental thing. Justin is in really rough shape, and Noah still has diarrhea really bad (I've changed his bum 6 times in the 2 hours he's been awake). I can't afford to be sick, so I'm trying my hardest not to be. I also don't want to lose my milk supply again, especially since Noah is still sick and doesn't have much appetite for anything, much less solid foods.
We are missing Easter, which really bums me out. I was really looking forward to going to at least one Easter service this weekend, and I was also really looking forward to getting together with my siblings and parents. I'm very disappointed :(
(And seriously, I never get the stomach flu. I think I had it ONCE between the ages of 10 and 25. But I've had it 3 TIMES since December! What the heck!?)
Friday, April 22, 2011
The House of Doom
So, Noah is not better. He has not thrown up since 4:30am Friday morning (about 24 hours after the first time he threw up), but he had diarrhea about every 15 minutes all day today. It was brutal.
And now, I am this close to living my nightmare. Justin is sooo sick, throwing up and having it come out the other end. I have a mild case of the runs, but I am not throwing up. I don't feel nauseous (yet?) but my stomach feels weird. I don't know if it feels weird because I am hungry (I am afraid to eat much) or because I am going to start throwing up later tonight.
Seriously, I cannot handle having the flu again. And I CANNOT handle me having the flu and Justin having the flu at the same time. Especially since our kid has diarrhea every 15 minutes. Like, what the heck are we supposed to do?!?!?!
Justin is staying downstairs tonight so he can use the couch and the downstairs bed and the downstairs bathroom. I have been trying to take care of him but also trying to keep my distance. There was so much I had to do for him. Clean towels, clean clothes, a supply of water and straws and toothpaste, set up nightlights so he can see in the dark, change the sheets on the upstairs spare bed, clean his bathroom, and put a load of laundry in the washer. I am hoping it makes it into the dryer before I go to bed.
Beyond that I have had to set things up to run smoothly tonight if Noah is throwing up again. Just because he hasn't thrown up for 19 hours doesn't mean he won't again. He was barf-free for 15 hours before the last time he threw up, so he could very well get going on that again. I have to have clothes for him and myself and blankets and sleepsacks all set up within arm's reach.
Plus I had to set things up to run smoothly for myself in case I end up throwing up tonight. Because there will be no one to take care of me or help me, and I will have to take care of myself and Noah.
I can handle having a sick baby and a sick husband. But both of the adults in this house can't be sick with the stomach flu at the same time. Seriously, what are we supposed to do with the baby? Who is also sick? And besides that, I just can't handle having the stomach flu again. I can't handle throwing up.
This is seriously my nightmare. And I don't feel well. I don't know if it's because I'm getting sick or because I'm hungry and REALLY REALLY NERVOUS. But seriously, I am terrified, and I feel so so so alone.
Seriously, if anyone has any advice about how to handle a sick baby when both you and your spouse are sick, send it my way!
And now, I am this close to living my nightmare. Justin is sooo sick, throwing up and having it come out the other end. I have a mild case of the runs, but I am not throwing up. I don't feel nauseous (yet?) but my stomach feels weird. I don't know if it feels weird because I am hungry (I am afraid to eat much) or because I am going to start throwing up later tonight.
Seriously, I cannot handle having the flu again. And I CANNOT handle me having the flu and Justin having the flu at the same time. Especially since our kid has diarrhea every 15 minutes. Like, what the heck are we supposed to do?!?!?!
Justin is staying downstairs tonight so he can use the couch and the downstairs bed and the downstairs bathroom. I have been trying to take care of him but also trying to keep my distance. There was so much I had to do for him. Clean towels, clean clothes, a supply of water and straws and toothpaste, set up nightlights so he can see in the dark, change the sheets on the upstairs spare bed, clean his bathroom, and put a load of laundry in the washer. I am hoping it makes it into the dryer before I go to bed.
Beyond that I have had to set things up to run smoothly tonight if Noah is throwing up again. Just because he hasn't thrown up for 19 hours doesn't mean he won't again. He was barf-free for 15 hours before the last time he threw up, so he could very well get going on that again. I have to have clothes for him and myself and blankets and sleepsacks all set up within arm's reach.
Plus I had to set things up to run smoothly for myself in case I end up throwing up tonight. Because there will be no one to take care of me or help me, and I will have to take care of myself and Noah.
I can handle having a sick baby and a sick husband. But both of the adults in this house can't be sick with the stomach flu at the same time. Seriously, what are we supposed to do with the baby? Who is also sick? And besides that, I just can't handle having the stomach flu again. I can't handle throwing up.
This is seriously my nightmare. And I don't feel well. I don't know if it's because I'm getting sick or because I'm hungry and REALLY REALLY NERVOUS. But seriously, I am terrified, and I feel so so so alone.
Seriously, if anyone has any advice about how to handle a sick baby when both you and your spouse are sick, send it my way!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Illness #11
He's not even over illness #10 and has already been afflicted with illness #11.
Last night I couldn't fall asleep until after 11pm. Then I slept fitfully, partly because of AF reasons, and partly because I was waiting for Noah to get up. It was just one of those nights.
At about 5am he was just making a little noise. Not fussing, just making some shifting noises and sighs. So I went to the bathroom and then went to check on him. He was sleeping, but there was barf all over his crib sheet. Dark coloured barf (from the sloppy joe meat he had for dinner the night before). I was kind of thrown for a loop, because he hadn't made any barfing noises, nor had he been crying. And the barf was still damp. Did he throw up because he was coughing? I didn't remember hearing him cough, but he does tend to throw up when he coughs a lot. I went back to my bedroom and didn't even bother trying to go back to sleep, because I was a little worried.
Shortly afterward at 5:15, Noah got up to nurse. I woke Justin up to change his sheet while I nursed him. I had to change his sleep sack, because there was vomit all over it, as well. Noah nursed, and then popped off a little early so that he could throw everything up. It was just breastmilk, but it was so much of it. Like 8 ounces. It soaked his sleep sack, sleeper, onesie, my pants, my shirt, the 3 fitted bedsheets on my bed (long story), and the mattress cover. Oh, and the nursing pad I held under his chin to catch the barf... I don't know why I did that.
I nursed him again before putting him back down in his crib, and he didn't throw that up. He did seem to lurch a few times, but didn't actually bring anything up. He was in his crib for like 5 minutes and then started crying. I went to get him, and he asked to nurse again. I let him, and then he threw all of that up again. All over his new sleep sack, sleeper, my clean shirt and pants, and onto the floor.
I nursed him again, because he asked for it, and put him back down in his crib. He went down fine, but within 5 minutes he was crying again, so we got him up. By then it was 6:30am.
Since then he has had more explosive pukes and major diarrhea blowouts throughout the day. I have no idea where he got this from. We haven't been anywhere, and the only people who have been in our house are my parents and Mark, Erin, and Aubrey. Neither Justin nor I have the stomach flu (knock on wood). It really is a mystery.
Hopefully it's a 24 hour thing and we can enjoy our Easter weekend with our extended families. When Aubrey was sick with the stomach flu a couple of weeks ago she had it for four days. I really hope that's not the case here. That would suck.
Update: I called Erin and solved the mystery. Mark gave it to us. Again. He gave us our last stomach flu. So annoying.
Last night I couldn't fall asleep until after 11pm. Then I slept fitfully, partly because of AF reasons, and partly because I was waiting for Noah to get up. It was just one of those nights.
At about 5am he was just making a little noise. Not fussing, just making some shifting noises and sighs. So I went to the bathroom and then went to check on him. He was sleeping, but there was barf all over his crib sheet. Dark coloured barf (from the sloppy joe meat he had for dinner the night before). I was kind of thrown for a loop, because he hadn't made any barfing noises, nor had he been crying. And the barf was still damp. Did he throw up because he was coughing? I didn't remember hearing him cough, but he does tend to throw up when he coughs a lot. I went back to my bedroom and didn't even bother trying to go back to sleep, because I was a little worried.
Shortly afterward at 5:15, Noah got up to nurse. I woke Justin up to change his sheet while I nursed him. I had to change his sleep sack, because there was vomit all over it, as well. Noah nursed, and then popped off a little early so that he could throw everything up. It was just breastmilk, but it was so much of it. Like 8 ounces. It soaked his sleep sack, sleeper, onesie, my pants, my shirt, the 3 fitted bedsheets on my bed (long story), and the mattress cover. Oh, and the nursing pad I held under his chin to catch the barf... I don't know why I did that.
I nursed him again before putting him back down in his crib, and he didn't throw that up. He did seem to lurch a few times, but didn't actually bring anything up. He was in his crib for like 5 minutes and then started crying. I went to get him, and he asked to nurse again. I let him, and then he threw all of that up again. All over his new sleep sack, sleeper, my clean shirt and pants, and onto the floor.
I nursed him again, because he asked for it, and put him back down in his crib. He went down fine, but within 5 minutes he was crying again, so we got him up. By then it was 6:30am.
Since then he has had more explosive pukes and major diarrhea blowouts throughout the day. I have no idea where he got this from. We haven't been anywhere, and the only people who have been in our house are my parents and Mark, Erin, and Aubrey. Neither Justin nor I have the stomach flu (knock on wood). It really is a mystery.
Hopefully it's a 24 hour thing and we can enjoy our Easter weekend with our extended families. When Aubrey was sick with the stomach flu a couple of weeks ago she had it for four days. I really hope that's not the case here. That would suck.
Update: I called Erin and solved the mystery. Mark gave it to us. Again. He gave us our last stomach flu. So annoying.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Cycle Info
It's Wednesday. I wanted to go into town to run errands today. Instead I am stuck in my house. On Monday I got my period, and its so heavy I can't be away from a bathroom for longer than an hour. So instead I am baking a chocolate cake (I've been craving chocolate like nobody's business), listening to music, and hanging with my little man.
While I'm feeling annoyed at being house-bound, I thought I would write out my last cycle information (since this blog is my catch-all space).
-It was a 42 day cycle.
-CD 1 was Monday, March 7.
-I had EWCM from CD 27 to CD 32 (April 2 - April 7).
-I had moderately sore nipples from CD27 to CD 31 (April 2 - April 6).
-I had really sore nipples from CD 32 - CD 35 (April 7 - April 10).
-My period came on Monday, April 18.
I'm really not sure when (IF??) I ovulated. I'm guessing maybe on April 7th, give or take. That was my last day of EWCM, and also the first day of really, really (I mean really) sore nipples. That would make my luteal phase about 10 days long. When I was doing treatments and was actually successfully ovulating, my LP was 12 days. This was only my second cycle after giving birth, and I'm still BFing 10+ times a day, so it's normal that my LP be short for awhile. Just like it's normal to have such a long cycle at the beginning.
I do know that I never noticed so much and such pronounced EWCM in the whole time I was TTC. So I do wonder if I actually am ovulating. I wish I didn't have such a bad track record with OPKs. I just can't trust them because of my high LH.
I'm glad I decided to keep track of all this. I'd like to see a pattern emerging. I had EWCM for 6 days, which is kind of a long time, and sore nipples for 9 days, which is quite a long time. And I got my period a mere 7 days after all the symptoms were gone. I was expecting it before Sunday, but really didn't think I was going to get it on Monday.
So I will continue to track my cycles and symptoms. And we will continue to sprinkle a few 'marital relations' in amongst the EWCM, just in case.
It's the Infertility in me. I just can't let a cycle go by without giving it a try. Even though I don't have the burning desire to get pregnant again right now, and I like things how they are, I do want a couple more children. And a natural-miracle-pregnancy would still be welcome.
I wonder if this is what normal people feel like when they decide to have a baby. Not all high strung and "LET'S GET PREGNANT RIGHT THIS SECOND!!!!!!" but just casually seeing what will happen. I wouldn't know, because it was never casual for me. From the second I was able to try to get pregnant, I wanted it to have happened 3 months earlier and was very bothered when it didn't.
And even now, we most likely will not be getting pregnant without ART. So why is there this little tickle in my brain telling me that just maybe we will??? My logical side tells me otherwise, but that teeny voice is still there.
While I'm feeling annoyed at being house-bound, I thought I would write out my last cycle information (since this blog is my catch-all space).
-It was a 42 day cycle.
-CD 1 was Monday, March 7.
-I had EWCM from CD 27 to CD 32 (April 2 - April 7).
-I had moderately sore nipples from CD27 to CD 31 (April 2 - April 6).
-I had really sore nipples from CD 32 - CD 35 (April 7 - April 10).
-My period came on Monday, April 18.
I'm really not sure when (IF??) I ovulated. I'm guessing maybe on April 7th, give or take. That was my last day of EWCM, and also the first day of really, really (I mean really) sore nipples. That would make my luteal phase about 10 days long. When I was doing treatments and was actually successfully ovulating, my LP was 12 days. This was only my second cycle after giving birth, and I'm still BFing 10+ times a day, so it's normal that my LP be short for awhile. Just like it's normal to have such a long cycle at the beginning.
I do know that I never noticed so much and such pronounced EWCM in the whole time I was TTC. So I do wonder if I actually am ovulating. I wish I didn't have such a bad track record with OPKs. I just can't trust them because of my high LH.
I'm glad I decided to keep track of all this. I'd like to see a pattern emerging. I had EWCM for 6 days, which is kind of a long time, and sore nipples for 9 days, which is quite a long time. And I got my period a mere 7 days after all the symptoms were gone. I was expecting it before Sunday, but really didn't think I was going to get it on Monday.
So I will continue to track my cycles and symptoms. And we will continue to sprinkle a few 'marital relations' in amongst the EWCM, just in case.
It's the Infertility in me. I just can't let a cycle go by without giving it a try. Even though I don't have the burning desire to get pregnant again right now, and I like things how they are, I do want a couple more children. And a natural-miracle-pregnancy would still be welcome.
I wonder if this is what normal people feel like when they decide to have a baby. Not all high strung and "LET'S GET PREGNANT RIGHT THIS SECOND!!!!!!" but just casually seeing what will happen. I wouldn't know, because it was never casual for me. From the second I was able to try to get pregnant, I wanted it to have happened 3 months earlier and was very bothered when it didn't.
And even now, we most likely will not be getting pregnant without ART. So why is there this little tickle in my brain telling me that just maybe we will??? My logical side tells me otherwise, but that teeny voice is still there.
Monday, April 18, 2011
13 Months
At 13 months old, here is what Noah is up to:
-I'm guessing he weighs about 21.5lbs, but I didn't get him weighed today
-He is about 32-33 inches long (when comparing him to other kids who measured 31.5 inches, he is visibly taller than them by at least an inch, but we haven't been able to get a good measurement of him ourselves).
-He wears size 3 Pampers Cruisers during the day, size 4 Baby Dry at night, which he often leaks through.
-He still nurses 10+ times a day, and signs for it a lot more often that that!
-He signs for "nurse" and "water". I don't really do any other signs consistently.
-He is still about 75-50% breastfed, with solids making up the other 20-25%. He has gotten more picky this month, and will spit out any vegetables he puts in his mouth. He loves meats and fruits, and most starchy foods (potatoes, stuffing, etc). But he is no longer a fan of vegetables. This would bother me more, but since he is still breastfeeding I'm not at all worried about any picky eating habits because he is getting more nutrients from breastmilk than he would from vegetables.
-He doesn't eat much "baby food" anymore. Not because he won't, but because we just usually feed him from what we're eating since we never know how much he will eat. We have a ton of purees and baby oatmeal left though. I'm not totally sure what we'll do with it.
-He enjoys a balance of being fed and feeding himself. He's not totally in one camp or the other.
-He wears 18 and 24 month clothing, depending on what it is. For example, he wears 24 month footless sleepers, but 18 month footed sleepers. He wears some 18 month onesies, some 24 month onesies. It just depends on the piece. The funniest/weirdest thing is that he fits in 6-9 month shorts, but the waist on them is kind of big on him. I thought he would wear them last summer, but they never ended up fitting him. I tried them this year... almost perfect! I wonder if it's the brand?
-He still has just 8 teeth, the four top and four bottom. He hasn't gotten a new tooth since he was 8 months old.
-He currently has his 10th illness, another cold.
-He goes to bed at about 8pm (sometimes early, but sometimes closer to 8:30), sleeps until sometime past 5am, nurses, and goes back to sleep again until who knows when. It's totally hit and miss with how long he sleeps, but I don't get him out of bed until close to 7:30am.
-Bedtime has been later this month because Noah is in an awkward transition from 2 naps down to 1 nap. He is increasing the length of his daytime naps (generally to about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes), but slightly decreasing his amount of total sleep in 24 hours, so his nighttime sleep has been shortening. I'm actually liking the later bedtime. I'm in less of a rush in the evenings to get dinner cooked, eaten, and Noah bathed and in bed. We have more time to be a family. It's nice.
-We're having a hard time fitting 2 naps in everyday. About half the time he only takes one nap a day, the other half he takes two naps. This depends on what time he wakes up in the morning. If he gets up at 7am, he'll definitely have 2 naps. If he gets up at 8am, whether he has two naps would depend on how early he's able to get to sleep for his first nap, and then how long he sleeps for (this nap is almost always about 1 hour). If he wakes up at 8:30, he definitely only has one nap. If he only has one nap, his awake period before bed is usually about 7 hours, give or take. Sometimes he is 100% fine with this, sometimes he is kind of cranky. This occasional crankiness is why we haven't just made the leap to one nap.
-(By the way, I don't consider this transition to be a sleep issue at all... it'll work itself out soon I'm sur - probably within the next month - and until then we are just playing it by ear. I don't mind at all. His nighttime sleep and daytime sleep are still doing well).
-He is almost running now!
-He is very careful, and almost never hurts himself.
-When he goes to climb the stairs, he opens the baby gate at the bottom, walks through it, climbs up the first stair, turns around, closes the baby gate fully, and then proceeds to climb all the way upstairs. He needs the gate to be shut first. It's funny.
-He is really good at picking up his basketball, walking across the room, reaching the ball over his head, and scoring a basket.
-He still "talks on the phone" by putting the phone (or an object that resembles a phone) all the way behind his head and "talking." He also hands us the phone to talk, too.
-He's still very cuddly, and loves to hug and kiss Mommy. He also loves to hug and kiss babies of any age. He is such a little sweetie-pie.
-I am still his number 1 favourite person, and I'm who he wants when he cries, but he is getting friendlier to other people that he knows and is slightly less of a Mommy-suck.
-He still loves to play in the curtains. He breathes really excitedly, giggles, and pops his head out with a huge smile when I say "Where's Noah?!"
-He loves to walk around with a blanket over his head and giggle.
-He still loves to lounge around on the floor and lay his head on pillows.
-Diaper changes are still torture. I've discovered that actually belting him to the change pad works to keep him on his back, though (with the belt thats attached to the change pad, not an actual belt). So I just have to deal with the screaming, which I can handle. I often just change his bum when he walking around to avoid the hassle.
-He is understanding so much language now. He follows many directions and points to objects and pictures when we ask where they are.
-His expressive language is still the same. Besides babbling and gibberish, he says "Uh oh," "Dis," "Dat," "Mama," and "Dad" or "Dada".
-He loves to "read". If he is allowed, he will pull every book off his bookshelf and still flipping through them. If he is allowed, he will also eat every book on his bookshelf. His favourite book for us to read to him is still Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? He gets a huge smile on his face when we start it.
-He continues to happily allow me to shower while he is awake, and plays in the bathroom while I'm doing so. This is going better (for me) since I reorganized the cupboards and drawers. There's less for him to pull out and toss around, now. (This is a new development since shortly before 12 months... before this I was always having to shower while he was sleeping or else he would scream his head off).
There's 13 months for you! I can't believe Noah is 13 months old already. It seems so old to me. And I can't believe I'm on time with this update! I better post it now before a week suddenly passes...
-I'm guessing he weighs about 21.5lbs, but I didn't get him weighed today
-He is about 32-33 inches long (when comparing him to other kids who measured 31.5 inches, he is visibly taller than them by at least an inch, but we haven't been able to get a good measurement of him ourselves).
-He wears size 3 Pampers Cruisers during the day, size 4 Baby Dry at night, which he often leaks through.
-He still nurses 10+ times a day, and signs for it a lot more often that that!
-He signs for "nurse" and "water". I don't really do any other signs consistently.
-He is still about 75-50% breastfed, with solids making up the other 20-25%. He has gotten more picky this month, and will spit out any vegetables he puts in his mouth. He loves meats and fruits, and most starchy foods (potatoes, stuffing, etc). But he is no longer a fan of vegetables. This would bother me more, but since he is still breastfeeding I'm not at all worried about any picky eating habits because he is getting more nutrients from breastmilk than he would from vegetables.
-He doesn't eat much "baby food" anymore. Not because he won't, but because we just usually feed him from what we're eating since we never know how much he will eat. We have a ton of purees and baby oatmeal left though. I'm not totally sure what we'll do with it.
-He enjoys a balance of being fed and feeding himself. He's not totally in one camp or the other.
-He wears 18 and 24 month clothing, depending on what it is. For example, he wears 24 month footless sleepers, but 18 month footed sleepers. He wears some 18 month onesies, some 24 month onesies. It just depends on the piece. The funniest/weirdest thing is that he fits in 6-9 month shorts, but the waist on them is kind of big on him. I thought he would wear them last summer, but they never ended up fitting him. I tried them this year... almost perfect! I wonder if it's the brand?
-He still has just 8 teeth, the four top and four bottom. He hasn't gotten a new tooth since he was 8 months old.
-He currently has his 10th illness, another cold.
-He goes to bed at about 8pm (sometimes early, but sometimes closer to 8:30), sleeps until sometime past 5am, nurses, and goes back to sleep again until who knows when. It's totally hit and miss with how long he sleeps, but I don't get him out of bed until close to 7:30am.
-Bedtime has been later this month because Noah is in an awkward transition from 2 naps down to 1 nap. He is increasing the length of his daytime naps (generally to about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes), but slightly decreasing his amount of total sleep in 24 hours, so his nighttime sleep has been shortening. I'm actually liking the later bedtime. I'm in less of a rush in the evenings to get dinner cooked, eaten, and Noah bathed and in bed. We have more time to be a family. It's nice.
-We're having a hard time fitting 2 naps in everyday. About half the time he only takes one nap a day, the other half he takes two naps. This depends on what time he wakes up in the morning. If he gets up at 7am, he'll definitely have 2 naps. If he gets up at 8am, whether he has two naps would depend on how early he's able to get to sleep for his first nap, and then how long he sleeps for (this nap is almost always about 1 hour). If he wakes up at 8:30, he definitely only has one nap. If he only has one nap, his awake period before bed is usually about 7 hours, give or take. Sometimes he is 100% fine with this, sometimes he is kind of cranky. This occasional crankiness is why we haven't just made the leap to one nap.
-(By the way, I don't consider this transition to be a sleep issue at all... it'll work itself out soon I'm sur - probably within the next month - and until then we are just playing it by ear. I don't mind at all. His nighttime sleep and daytime sleep are still doing well).
-He is almost running now!
-He is very careful, and almost never hurts himself.
-When he goes to climb the stairs, he opens the baby gate at the bottom, walks through it, climbs up the first stair, turns around, closes the baby gate fully, and then proceeds to climb all the way upstairs. He needs the gate to be shut first. It's funny.
-He is really good at picking up his basketball, walking across the room, reaching the ball over his head, and scoring a basket.
-He still "talks on the phone" by putting the phone (or an object that resembles a phone) all the way behind his head and "talking." He also hands us the phone to talk, too.
-He's still very cuddly, and loves to hug and kiss Mommy. He also loves to hug and kiss babies of any age. He is such a little sweetie-pie.
-I am still his number 1 favourite person, and I'm who he wants when he cries, but he is getting friendlier to other people that he knows and is slightly less of a Mommy-suck.
-He still loves to play in the curtains. He breathes really excitedly, giggles, and pops his head out with a huge smile when I say "Where's Noah?!"
-He loves to walk around with a blanket over his head and giggle.
-He still loves to lounge around on the floor and lay his head on pillows.
-Diaper changes are still torture. I've discovered that actually belting him to the change pad works to keep him on his back, though (with the belt thats attached to the change pad, not an actual belt). So I just have to deal with the screaming, which I can handle. I often just change his bum when he walking around to avoid the hassle.
-He is understanding so much language now. He follows many directions and points to objects and pictures when we ask where they are.
-His expressive language is still the same. Besides babbling and gibberish, he says "Uh oh," "Dis," "Dat," "Mama," and "Dad" or "Dada".
-He loves to "read". If he is allowed, he will pull every book off his bookshelf and still flipping through them. If he is allowed, he will also eat every book on his bookshelf. His favourite book for us to read to him is still Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? He gets a huge smile on his face when we start it.
-He continues to happily allow me to shower while he is awake, and plays in the bathroom while I'm doing so. This is going better (for me) since I reorganized the cupboards and drawers. There's less for him to pull out and toss around, now. (This is a new development since shortly before 12 months... before this I was always having to shower while he was sleeping or else he would scream his head off).
There's 13 months for you! I can't believe Noah is 13 months old already. It seems so old to me. And I can't believe I'm on time with this update! I better post it now before a week suddenly passes...
Friday, April 15, 2011
Bullets on Friday
-Noah is sick. Again. Another cold. His 10th illness in 13 months of life. Or rather, in less than 10 months, since the first time he got sick he was 3.5 months old. Seriously, my child and I both have the worst immune systems ever.
-Noah slept over 12.5 hours last night, just getting up to nurse once at 5am. I did not sleep nearly as well, and by 7:45am I was starting to worry he was dead. When I checked on him he was just sitting up in his crib, so obviously not dead.
-I think Noah had an allergic reaction to taco seasoning. A couple of nights ago we had tacos for dinner and he ate cheese, tomatoes, and taco meat. His chin broke out in hives and his little patches of eczema, which were almost completely cleared up at his diaper change before dinner, flared up bright red again. He eats cheese, tomatoes, and ground beef on a fairly regular basis (cheese is almost everyday). Taco seasoning was the new thing. I'm skeptical though, because he's had chilli before on many occasions. Chilli seasoning and taco seasoning have almost the same ingredients. I guess we'll see next time we have tacos. I will admit that we checked on him about 5 times between putting him to bed and going to bed ourselves. We never do this, but again, we were worried he would stop breathing.
-I'm babysitting Aubrey right now. Is it wrong that I'm annoyed that she keeps trying to steal my kid's toys right out of his hands??
-Is it wrong that I think it's ridiculous that she's given chocolate milk because she won't drink regular homo milk?
-My principal has still not acknowledged my resignation in any form. No call or email saying he got it. Well, he must have. Otherwise he would have called me to see what was up, since today was the deadline. I'm fine with not having to talk to him, but I do think he is a crappy boss who doesn't handle things properly. Not even acknowledging an employees resignation? There are like 15 staffers at that school altogether, including all the part timers, secretaries, and custodians. The least he could do is acknowledge my letter! I'm so glad I'm done with that place.
-I don't know what to make for dinner tonight. I go through this everyday. About a month ago I made a meal plan for the week and didn't stick to it at all. I'm ridiculous.
-I started painting my coffee tables about 3 weeks ago. I don't even have one table done. It would have been done, but I sanded it before applying the second coat because of the extended drying time, and for some reason some of the greyness from the sanding is still showing through the second coat. I think that's weird. The other two tables are only primed. I lost my groove. And I think my paint brush is drying up in the fridge. I'm considering buying a new one instead of trying to clean it. It's oil paint. And mineral spirits smell like crapola.
-I still haven't organized Noah's closet. Or the front hall closet, or the closet by the door. I lost my groove there too.
-I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself for not finishing these things. I need big chunks of baby-free time in order to do them, and I haven't gotten that at all in the past several weeks.
-I'm tired. And kind of cranky.
-Noah slept over 12.5 hours last night, just getting up to nurse once at 5am. I did not sleep nearly as well, and by 7:45am I was starting to worry he was dead. When I checked on him he was just sitting up in his crib, so obviously not dead.
-I think Noah had an allergic reaction to taco seasoning. A couple of nights ago we had tacos for dinner and he ate cheese, tomatoes, and taco meat. His chin broke out in hives and his little patches of eczema, which were almost completely cleared up at his diaper change before dinner, flared up bright red again. He eats cheese, tomatoes, and ground beef on a fairly regular basis (cheese is almost everyday). Taco seasoning was the new thing. I'm skeptical though, because he's had chilli before on many occasions. Chilli seasoning and taco seasoning have almost the same ingredients. I guess we'll see next time we have tacos. I will admit that we checked on him about 5 times between putting him to bed and going to bed ourselves. We never do this, but again, we were worried he would stop breathing.
-I'm babysitting Aubrey right now. Is it wrong that I'm annoyed that she keeps trying to steal my kid's toys right out of his hands??
-Is it wrong that I think it's ridiculous that she's given chocolate milk because she won't drink regular homo milk?
-My principal has still not acknowledged my resignation in any form. No call or email saying he got it. Well, he must have. Otherwise he would have called me to see what was up, since today was the deadline. I'm fine with not having to talk to him, but I do think he is a crappy boss who doesn't handle things properly. Not even acknowledging an employees resignation? There are like 15 staffers at that school altogether, including all the part timers, secretaries, and custodians. The least he could do is acknowledge my letter! I'm so glad I'm done with that place.
-I don't know what to make for dinner tonight. I go through this everyday. About a month ago I made a meal plan for the week and didn't stick to it at all. I'm ridiculous.
-I started painting my coffee tables about 3 weeks ago. I don't even have one table done. It would have been done, but I sanded it before applying the second coat because of the extended drying time, and for some reason some of the greyness from the sanding is still showing through the second coat. I think that's weird. The other two tables are only primed. I lost my groove. And I think my paint brush is drying up in the fridge. I'm considering buying a new one instead of trying to clean it. It's oil paint. And mineral spirits smell like crapola.
-I still haven't organized Noah's closet. Or the front hall closet, or the closet by the door. I lost my groove there too.
-I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself for not finishing these things. I need big chunks of baby-free time in order to do them, and I haven't gotten that at all in the past several weeks.
-I'm tired. And kind of cranky.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Officially Resigned
As I type this, Noah is dancing to Holla Back Girl...
Yesterday, I officially resigned from my teaching position.
Some of you really might not know I was a teacher! It's been 15 months. I talk a lot about being a SAHM, but I don't blog a lot about my life before being a SAHM, or what has been going on behind the scenes with my job. Or rather, my old job.
I haven't taught since I injured myself at work on January 20, 2010. I was 30 weeks pregnant and ended up going off on WSIB for the remainder of my pregnancy. I blogged a lot about it back in January/February 2010.
This didn't affect my maternity leave, which didn't start until Noah was born on March 18, 2010. I had a full 8 weeks of paid disability leave through WSIB (which is 85% of your wages) before I went on maternity leave. Parental leave is awesome in Canada. You get a full year, and you're paid at 60% of your wages. I had Noah during March break, so I was due to go back to work on March 21, 2011.
We knew I wasn't going to go back unless something drastically changed in our family situation. Me staying at home with Noah (and any future children) is extremely important to us. We would pretty much do anything for me not to go back, including move to a smaller house or even rent an apartment to make our cost of living lower. So far we haven't had to move, but Justin does work basically an extra part time job on top of his more-than-full-time teaching job (he's a private Crossfit trainer). He probably works 60-70 hours a week during the school year, and during his "summer off" he trains 32+ hours a week.
Despite knowing I would not go back, I wanted to have a little wiggle room just in case something happened. So back in January, instead of completely resigning, I asked for the rest of the school year off (unpaid, of course), and we would revisit me coming back in September. I did this mostly so I could have the chance to see what life would be like without the EI pay from parental leave. My leave was granted, but I was required to give my intentions for the 2011-2012 school year by April 15.
Considering my EI pay didn't stop until March 22, that didn't give us much time at all to see what life was like with just Justin's income. Sure, we could have just put my EI pay in a separate account and tried to live on just Justin's salary. But he gets paid by cash and personal cheque for the private training, and it's kind of a month-by-month thing to see how much money we'll be left with each month, or if we'll have to pull some money out of savings because our expenses were higher than expected (like when we finished the laundry room floor this past month, or when Justin re-did the floor and layout in our garage/gym last weekend to make it more functional and able fit more clients at once).
All the details aside, we didn't get a good chance to see how things would go with just Justin's income, but like I said before, we would do anything for me to not go back to work. April 15 was fast approaching, and I had to resign.
I obviously knew my decision, but I procrastinated. A lot. My boss and I are not exactly the best of friends. He was not very nice to me when I was pregnant. He gave me crap for the stupidest little things, like being 5 minutes late to the first staff meeting of the 2009-2010 school year because I was 10 weeks pregnant, live 25 minutes from work, and was throwing up all morning. I explained it to him, but he "didn't want to hear excuses."
He also called me "unprofessional" because I was protecting the best interests of myself and my unborn baby when signing up for extra curriculars for that year (we are required to do 100+ hours of school extra curricular activities on top of our regular teaching). Everyone was giving me a hard time about signing up for some things that would be happening once I was off on parental leave, but these were activities I had done every year, like Track and Field in the spring, and school musicals. And I signed up for my fair share of things that were happening while I was still working. For example, in the fall on 2009 I was the only coach of the Cross Country team and was the sole organizer and convenor of the Cross Country meet for all the Christian Schools in a 2 hour radius around our school. I think that's a pretty big job for an exhausted, nauseous pregnant woman (yes, I was still nauseous in my second trimester). But I had done it the previous 2 years (I was forced to, it's not really something I desire to do), so I figured it only made sense for me to do it again since I knew what I was doing.
Anyway, I said that it was not fair to expect a pregnant woman to do 10 months worth of extra curricular activities in just 6 months, and that the person taking my maternity leave should be expected to do my entire job, not just the teaching portion of it. It's not like I signed up for activities that were all taking place during my leave. All my activities were evenly spaced out throughout the school year.
Apparently that is "unprofessional."
He also accused me of being the last person to arrive and the first person to leave everyday - which was COMPLETE bullsh*t. I was there before him most days, and was always there 25 minutes before the bell rang. And occasionally I left "early" (15 minutes after the kids were gone), but it was always for a doctor's appointment.
I should mention here that his own wife - who is a teacher at the school... figure that one out - was pregnant as well. She was 9 weeks behind me. She would arrive at work literally 5 minutes before the bell rang at the beginning of the day - EVERY SINGLE DAY. And she completely missed staff meetings - which are mandatory - all the time. Of course, this was all fine.
Furthermore, just a few days after Noah was born I received a letter in the mail from my principal informing me that the school was suffering from another redundancy, this time 50%, and my previously fulltime position was now a halftime position (I was still the most recently hired person, so was the one affected by the redundancy). I didn't care about the redundancy, but I did care about how I was informed about it! A letter in the mail? They know about possible redundancies for months before a final decision is made, and it is discussed or mentioned at pretty much every staff meeting. Yet no one thought to inform the person it would affect. Yes, I was off on WSIB, but they had no problem calling me all the time to bug me about this, that, and the other thing. And my principal had no problem telling me I "would have to help with report cards" (umm, like heck I would "have" to help! I only had those kids for the first 3 weeks of the term, and any grades from that time were neatly recorded in my gradebook. Report cards are supposed to be based on the most recent and consistent behaviour and performance. Whoever has been filling my position for the last 8 weeks of the term can do the report cards! You're not even paying me! WSIB is!) So if they thought I still had responsibilities to them when they weren't even paying me, the least they could do is keep me informed about a possible redundancy that only affects MY job!
Needless to say, I was not in a hurry to have a conversation with him. I have never liked talking to him, it has always been awkward. So I procrastinated.
However, it was time. This Friday is April 15, the deadline. So I wrote a nice letter of resignation, signed it, and brought it into the school. He was busy teaching at the time, so I left the letter on his desk in his office with a note on top saying I'm sorry I missed him. I went and visited the grade 5/6 class, which happens to be my very first class of my own back when they were in grade 2/3. This was the class my principal was teaching at the time, which was awkward, but I really wanted to see the kids. I obviously have a soft spot for them.
Until I wrote this particular blog entry, I was feeling like maybe I didn't handle the situation quite right. I thought maybe I should have waited until he was on a break and talked to him and given him my letter then. However, after rehashing just a few of the crappy things he's said/done to me, and that was all just in 4.5 months, I don't feel bad anymore. I wrote a very nice letter of resignation, I handed it in 4 days earlier than I had to, and I visited my old class.
Frankly, the way he treated me while I was there, and the way he treated me while I was pregnant, I should have just emailed him.
But it's a nice weight off my shoulders! I'm glad it's done. So is my Mom, who was getting really sick of pretending she knew nothing whenever someone from church or the school community asked her what I would be doing.
It's official. I am done with formal employment for who knows how long! Probably at least a decade. Weird.
Yesterday, I officially resigned from my teaching position.
Some of you really might not know I was a teacher! It's been 15 months. I talk a lot about being a SAHM, but I don't blog a lot about my life before being a SAHM, or what has been going on behind the scenes with my job. Or rather, my old job.
I haven't taught since I injured myself at work on January 20, 2010. I was 30 weeks pregnant and ended up going off on WSIB for the remainder of my pregnancy. I blogged a lot about it back in January/February 2010.
This didn't affect my maternity leave, which didn't start until Noah was born on March 18, 2010. I had a full 8 weeks of paid disability leave through WSIB (which is 85% of your wages) before I went on maternity leave. Parental leave is awesome in Canada. You get a full year, and you're paid at 60% of your wages. I had Noah during March break, so I was due to go back to work on March 21, 2011.
We knew I wasn't going to go back unless something drastically changed in our family situation. Me staying at home with Noah (and any future children) is extremely important to us. We would pretty much do anything for me not to go back, including move to a smaller house or even rent an apartment to make our cost of living lower. So far we haven't had to move, but Justin does work basically an extra part time job on top of his more-than-full-time teaching job (he's a private Crossfit trainer). He probably works 60-70 hours a week during the school year, and during his "summer off" he trains 32+ hours a week.
Despite knowing I would not go back, I wanted to have a little wiggle room just in case something happened. So back in January, instead of completely resigning, I asked for the rest of the school year off (unpaid, of course), and we would revisit me coming back in September. I did this mostly so I could have the chance to see what life would be like without the EI pay from parental leave. My leave was granted, but I was required to give my intentions for the 2011-2012 school year by April 15.
Considering my EI pay didn't stop until March 22, that didn't give us much time at all to see what life was like with just Justin's income. Sure, we could have just put my EI pay in a separate account and tried to live on just Justin's salary. But he gets paid by cash and personal cheque for the private training, and it's kind of a month-by-month thing to see how much money we'll be left with each month, or if we'll have to pull some money out of savings because our expenses were higher than expected (like when we finished the laundry room floor this past month, or when Justin re-did the floor and layout in our garage/gym last weekend to make it more functional and able fit more clients at once).
All the details aside, we didn't get a good chance to see how things would go with just Justin's income, but like I said before, we would do anything for me to not go back to work. April 15 was fast approaching, and I had to resign.
I obviously knew my decision, but I procrastinated. A lot. My boss and I are not exactly the best of friends. He was not very nice to me when I was pregnant. He gave me crap for the stupidest little things, like being 5 minutes late to the first staff meeting of the 2009-2010 school year because I was 10 weeks pregnant, live 25 minutes from work, and was throwing up all morning. I explained it to him, but he "didn't want to hear excuses."
He also called me "unprofessional" because I was protecting the best interests of myself and my unborn baby when signing up for extra curriculars for that year (we are required to do 100+ hours of school extra curricular activities on top of our regular teaching). Everyone was giving me a hard time about signing up for some things that would be happening once I was off on parental leave, but these were activities I had done every year, like Track and Field in the spring, and school musicals. And I signed up for my fair share of things that were happening while I was still working. For example, in the fall on 2009 I was the only coach of the Cross Country team and was the sole organizer and convenor of the Cross Country meet for all the Christian Schools in a 2 hour radius around our school. I think that's a pretty big job for an exhausted, nauseous pregnant woman (yes, I was still nauseous in my second trimester). But I had done it the previous 2 years (I was forced to, it's not really something I desire to do), so I figured it only made sense for me to do it again since I knew what I was doing.
Anyway, I said that it was not fair to expect a pregnant woman to do 10 months worth of extra curricular activities in just 6 months, and that the person taking my maternity leave should be expected to do my entire job, not just the teaching portion of it. It's not like I signed up for activities that were all taking place during my leave. All my activities were evenly spaced out throughout the school year.
Apparently that is "unprofessional."
He also accused me of being the last person to arrive and the first person to leave everyday - which was COMPLETE bullsh*t. I was there before him most days, and was always there 25 minutes before the bell rang. And occasionally I left "early" (15 minutes after the kids were gone), but it was always for a doctor's appointment.
I should mention here that his own wife - who is a teacher at the school... figure that one out - was pregnant as well. She was 9 weeks behind me. She would arrive at work literally 5 minutes before the bell rang at the beginning of the day - EVERY SINGLE DAY. And she completely missed staff meetings - which are mandatory - all the time. Of course, this was all fine.
Furthermore, just a few days after Noah was born I received a letter in the mail from my principal informing me that the school was suffering from another redundancy, this time 50%, and my previously fulltime position was now a halftime position (I was still the most recently hired person, so was the one affected by the redundancy). I didn't care about the redundancy, but I did care about how I was informed about it! A letter in the mail? They know about possible redundancies for months before a final decision is made, and it is discussed or mentioned at pretty much every staff meeting. Yet no one thought to inform the person it would affect. Yes, I was off on WSIB, but they had no problem calling me all the time to bug me about this, that, and the other thing. And my principal had no problem telling me I "would have to help with report cards" (umm, like heck I would "have" to help! I only had those kids for the first 3 weeks of the term, and any grades from that time were neatly recorded in my gradebook. Report cards are supposed to be based on the most recent and consistent behaviour and performance. Whoever has been filling my position for the last 8 weeks of the term can do the report cards! You're not even paying me! WSIB is!) So if they thought I still had responsibilities to them when they weren't even paying me, the least they could do is keep me informed about a possible redundancy that only affects MY job!
Needless to say, I was not in a hurry to have a conversation with him. I have never liked talking to him, it has always been awkward. So I procrastinated.
However, it was time. This Friday is April 15, the deadline. So I wrote a nice letter of resignation, signed it, and brought it into the school. He was busy teaching at the time, so I left the letter on his desk in his office with a note on top saying I'm sorry I missed him. I went and visited the grade 5/6 class, which happens to be my very first class of my own back when they were in grade 2/3. This was the class my principal was teaching at the time, which was awkward, but I really wanted to see the kids. I obviously have a soft spot for them.
Until I wrote this particular blog entry, I was feeling like maybe I didn't handle the situation quite right. I thought maybe I should have waited until he was on a break and talked to him and given him my letter then. However, after rehashing just a few of the crappy things he's said/done to me, and that was all just in 4.5 months, I don't feel bad anymore. I wrote a very nice letter of resignation, I handed it in 4 days earlier than I had to, and I visited my old class.
Frankly, the way he treated me while I was there, and the way he treated me while I was pregnant, I should have just emailed him.
But it's a nice weight off my shoulders! I'm glad it's done. So is my Mom, who was getting really sick of pretending she knew nothing whenever someone from church or the school community asked her what I would be doing.
It's official. I am done with formal employment for who knows how long! Probably at least a decade. Weird.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
"Water"
I think I have mentioned before that Noah sometimes generalizes the sign for "nurse" to mean other things. Mommy, hungry, thirsty, I want that thing... It's funny. To a point.
Well, we have a new sign!!! At 12.5 months Noah started signing for "water".
I always sign for water by pretending that I'm drinking out of a cup. I curve my hand and move it up to my mouth and down again... I'm sure you know what I mean. Anyway, Noah doesn't sign it like that, but he does sign for it. He kind of waves his forearm up and down in front of his face/torso. I figured out it was water when he was trying to reach for his sippy cup up on the kitchen table and he started whining and signing "nurse" to me. He had just nursed like 10 minutes beforehand, and he clearly wanted the sippy cup, so I had a clue that he didn't actually want to nurse. I said, "Noah, do you want to nurse?" (signing "nurse") "Or do you want water??" (signing "water"). He started flapping his forearm up and down. Ever since then he has flapped his forearm whenever he wants water. Sometimes he signs to nurse, and if I think he might be misusing the sign, I double check by asking him if he wants water. He lets me know then.
I'm happy he's gained another sign to tell me more specifically what he wants.
Now if he would just start speaking in full sentences...
Well, we have a new sign!!! At 12.5 months Noah started signing for "water".
I always sign for water by pretending that I'm drinking out of a cup. I curve my hand and move it up to my mouth and down again... I'm sure you know what I mean. Anyway, Noah doesn't sign it like that, but he does sign for it. He kind of waves his forearm up and down in front of his face/torso. I figured out it was water when he was trying to reach for his sippy cup up on the kitchen table and he started whining and signing "nurse" to me. He had just nursed like 10 minutes beforehand, and he clearly wanted the sippy cup, so I had a clue that he didn't actually want to nurse. I said, "Noah, do you want to nurse?" (signing "nurse") "Or do you want water??" (signing "water"). He started flapping his forearm up and down. Ever since then he has flapped his forearm whenever he wants water. Sometimes he signs to nurse, and if I think he might be misusing the sign, I double check by asking him if he wants water. He lets me know then.
I'm happy he's gained another sign to tell me more specifically what he wants.
Now if he would just start speaking in full sentences...
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Opening Doors
A few days ago, at 12 months 3 weeks old, Noah learned just exactly how to use door handles to open doors in order to gain access to restricted areas.
This was not a welcome development in our household.
He now reaches up, pulls the door handle down, and waltzes right into the rooms he is not allowed in. I pick him up, close the door, and take him across the house, and he proceeds to walk right back over, open the door, and enter the same room. Over and over.
We have the lever handles on our doors, and the baby proofing things for those types are doorknobs are very hard to come by. So we are going to have to baby gate the upstairs hallway. Except that I can't find the kind of babygate I want. We have another extra tall walk-through gate that's still in the box, but I hate that gate. We have one at the bottom of our stairs. It's too tall, it's hard to carry a laundry basket over, the door of it is so skinny and it swings shut instead of staying open. I don't want to have to maneuver my vacuum and deal with that beast. That would lead to less vacuuming. I would much rather use a regular pressure mounted gate that you can put up and take down all day long if you want to. We have one of those, and I actually love it. It's from when my husband was a baby, and it's so easy to use. But we use it when we're downstairs so Noah doesn't get into all of those bedrooms and bathrooms and the laundry room/litterbox room. All of the other gates that seem similar have really bad reviews. Erin has one and we have never been able to figure the stupid thing out, so it's never securely attached to the wall.
Honestly, I didn't think my 12 month old would be walking through closed doors. Seems a tad early to have to deal with that.
This was not a welcome development in our household.
He now reaches up, pulls the door handle down, and waltzes right into the rooms he is not allowed in. I pick him up, close the door, and take him across the house, and he proceeds to walk right back over, open the door, and enter the same room. Over and over.
We have the lever handles on our doors, and the baby proofing things for those types are doorknobs are very hard to come by. So we are going to have to baby gate the upstairs hallway. Except that I can't find the kind of babygate I want. We have another extra tall walk-through gate that's still in the box, but I hate that gate. We have one at the bottom of our stairs. It's too tall, it's hard to carry a laundry basket over, the door of it is so skinny and it swings shut instead of staying open. I don't want to have to maneuver my vacuum and deal with that beast. That would lead to less vacuuming. I would much rather use a regular pressure mounted gate that you can put up and take down all day long if you want to. We have one of those, and I actually love it. It's from when my husband was a baby, and it's so easy to use. But we use it when we're downstairs so Noah doesn't get into all of those bedrooms and bathrooms and the laundry room/litterbox room. All of the other gates that seem similar have really bad reviews. Erin has one and we have never been able to figure the stupid thing out, so it's never securely attached to the wall.
Honestly, I didn't think my 12 month old would be walking through closed doors. Seems a tad early to have to deal with that.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Back on the Fertility Train??
I think it might be time for me to jump back on the fertility train. Or rather, the infertility train.
As I mentioned in my angry post about getting my period back, approximately two weeks (a little less, actually) before I got my period, I was showing fertility signs. Really sore nipples when Noah was nursing, egg-white CM, maybe a few twinges in the ovarian area.
Well, my first day of this cycle was March 7 (I only know that because I blogged about it), and now, April 4, I am having those fertility signs again. Starting on April 2 I was having lots of EWCM, and my nipples are starting to get sore again. Not as terrible as they were last time, but that might still be to come.
I'm not wanting to start actively trying to get pregnant, although we're not preventing it. Still, I think it might make sense for me to start paying a little more attention to my body. Who knows when I'll want to get pregnant again (I could say 'we,' but really, my husband will just follow my lead). When I do want to, it's quite possible I'll want it to have happened YESTERDAY (since that's how it goes with me and my "ideas"). It'll probably be good to have just a basic amount of cycle information. Just cycle start dates and maybe the EWCM and sore nipple thing. I think its probably a good thing for me to track.
I've also been thinking about asking my doctor to give me a requisition for Day 3 bloodwork. He knows nothing, but I know a lot. So I can interpret my own results and decide what to do. If my FSH has gone even higher, I'll probably want to start trying to get pregnant earlier. Earlier than what? I don't know, because I seriously have no plans in that area.
I'm feeling kind of blaaah about this. I have liked not paying attention to these things. But Noah's 12.5 months old, and we're infertile, and I don't want to have my children 5 years apart, so I feel like I should at least be slowly shifting my focus in that direction.
Plus, every once in awhile I get an "Awwww" nostalgic feeling about being pregnant or having a newborn. It's really such a magical time.
Then I remember 24/7 morning sickness, being on crutches for the last 2 months of my pregnancy, and how I was only getting 2 hours of sleep in every 24 hour period leading up to and after Noah's birth. For months. And I realize that I already HAVE a baby, who will make having another baby more complicated than it was the first time around.
And the nostalgic feeling starts to fade... ha.
As I mentioned in my angry post about getting my period back, approximately two weeks (a little less, actually) before I got my period, I was showing fertility signs. Really sore nipples when Noah was nursing, egg-white CM, maybe a few twinges in the ovarian area.
Well, my first day of this cycle was March 7 (I only know that because I blogged about it), and now, April 4, I am having those fertility signs again. Starting on April 2 I was having lots of EWCM, and my nipples are starting to get sore again. Not as terrible as they were last time, but that might still be to come.
I'm not wanting to start actively trying to get pregnant, although we're not preventing it. Still, I think it might make sense for me to start paying a little more attention to my body. Who knows when I'll want to get pregnant again (I could say 'we,' but really, my husband will just follow my lead). When I do want to, it's quite possible I'll want it to have happened YESTERDAY (since that's how it goes with me and my "ideas"). It'll probably be good to have just a basic amount of cycle information. Just cycle start dates and maybe the EWCM and sore nipple thing. I think its probably a good thing for me to track.
I've also been thinking about asking my doctor to give me a requisition for Day 3 bloodwork. He knows nothing, but I know a lot. So I can interpret my own results and decide what to do. If my FSH has gone even higher, I'll probably want to start trying to get pregnant earlier. Earlier than what? I don't know, because I seriously have no plans in that area.
I'm feeling kind of blaaah about this. I have liked not paying attention to these things. But Noah's 12.5 months old, and we're infertile, and I don't want to have my children 5 years apart, so I feel like I should at least be slowly shifting my focus in that direction.
Plus, every once in awhile I get an "Awwww" nostalgic feeling about being pregnant or having a newborn. It's really such a magical time.
Then I remember 24/7 morning sickness, being on crutches for the last 2 months of my pregnancy, and how I was only getting 2 hours of sleep in every 24 hour period leading up to and after Noah's birth. For months. And I realize that I already HAVE a baby, who will make having another baby more complicated than it was the first time around.
And the nostalgic feeling starts to fade... ha.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Dear Weather: Please Look at the Calendar
Seriously. It is April 3. Maybe, just maybe, IT'S TIME TO STOP SNOWING!!!
I don't know when I'll have time to paint a second coat on that table, much less paint the other tables! Patience...
In the meantime, I am still organizing. Here's Noah helping me:
Here's my closet before I got at it (it's totally embarassing, I can't believe I've posting this):
I was pretty ticked off when I looked out the window on this otherwise lovely Sunday afternoon and there were enormous, gigantic snowflakes falling fast and furious.
Alright, I live in Canada. I get it. But every single time we have a thaw and have a yard that is free or almost free from snow, it freakin snows again!!!
I need for the weather to warm up. Along with the organizing streak I've been on, I'm on a furniture refurbishing kick, and when paint is drying - at least the paint I'm using - it needs to be at least 10 degrees (50 F) while you're painting and for at least 48 hours afterward. This weekend I started refinishing some hand-me-down coffee tables we have that I was not in love with. I was able to prime all three of them and paint one coat on one of them, but I'm using oil paint and it's a longer dry time than latex. So I couldn't move the table into the house where it's warmer, because the paint stays tacky for a really long time. I have an insulated garage, but it's expensive to keep electric heaters going constantly to keep the temperature at 10 degrees. Plus, my garage is also a gym where my husband trains clients and works out himself pretty much every day of the week.
I don't know when I'll have time to paint a second coat on that table, much less paint the other tables! Patience...
In the meantime, I am still organizing. Here's Noah helping me:
He's carrying the attachment to my dustbuster. Here's my closet before I got at it (it's totally embarassing, I can't believe I've posting this):
Here's my closet after:
Here's Justin's closet before:
Here's Justin's closet after I removed the strange objects piled underneath all that clothing, threw things out, and built him a "shelving unit" (I use that term loosely):
The wire shelving unit in there was something I've had since high school. I used it in university, but for the past 4+ years have had no idea where it was. When I was cleaning out Justin's closet I kept thinking of how perfect it would be for him in there. I really didn't know where it was, though. Then we were cleaning out our crawl space (a whole other story), and in one of the boxes I found it! I was thrilled. It also reinforced why I have such a hard time getting rid of things... I always find I really need them later on!
And while I'm at it, I'll show you my new arrangement under the kitchen sink. Unfortunately, I didn't take any before pictures. If I had, you might realize just why I keep opening up my cupboards to look inside.
The bins stacked on the left are containing all of our plastic shopping bags that we reuse as garbage bags. Before I reorganized, they were just strewn all over in there. Just a messy mountain of tied up plastic bags.
And here is with the garbage can in:
Sigh. I love organizing.
Friday, April 1, 2011
My Birthday
My birthday was great, as I anticipated.
I was supposed to go out for lunch with Erin and Aubrey, but I had been babysitting Aubrey the day before, and she unfortunately ended up fulfilling my diagnosis of having the flu. She was very fussy all day Tuesday, wouldn't eat much, and threw up the small amount she did eat - but the amount of barf was small, and could have just been spit up. So when Erin called me a few hours after picking her up and told me that Aubrey threw up her entire huge dinner (and proceeded to spew enormous amounts of vomit all night long), I was sadly proven correct. We appropriately cancelled our lunch plans on Wednesday, and I have been living in fear ever since that one or more of the three members of this family - two of whom were exposed to Aubrey for a good 8 hours while she had the flu - would get sick and start throwing up. Again. Seriously, I wouldn't be able to take it.
It's Friday now, and she was here on Tuesday... I think we're in the clear, yes? Happy birthday to me!
So lunch was cancelled, and I just spent the day hanging out with my best little dude. Noah was lots of fun, of course.
My parents came over at about 2:30 and stayed until 5:30 (my Dad was working nights that night). They brought dinner and a cake. Justin trained a client until 4:30, then had to shower, so we ate as soon as he was clean.
After my parents left I was suddenly inspired to clean and reorganize under my kitchen sink. This necessitated me cleaning and reorganizing the bottom of our bathroom closet. This might sound like a horrible birthday project, but I am obsessed with organizing and cleaning right now, so it was actually perfect. And I am so happy with the organization under my kitchen sink that I just keep opening the cupboards to gaze lovingly at its neatness (this is annoying, considering we have child-locks on our cupboards. If not for those, I would probably gaze into those cupboards about 4 times more often).
While I was finishing that up, Justin bathed Noah and got him ready for bed. I nursed him to sleep, and then Justin and I hung out for the rest of the evening, as per usual. Honestly, I have no clue what we watched on TV or what we did, other than eating our favourite ice cream. I think this is weird, because it's only been 2 days, but whatever.
So yeah, good birthday. It's not so much that so many outstandingly wonderful things happened. It was pretty much a normal day. And I suppose there was even the "disappointment" of a cancelled lunch date. It's just that after going through infertility and then being blessed with Noah, I feel like I've lost any sense of "entitlement" on my birthday. I just don't feel like it has to be this perfect, special day that's all about Lauren. Heck, I'd make my own birthday dinner and cake. I really don't care. I'm just happy to spend the day with people I love.
And I did that:)
I was supposed to go out for lunch with Erin and Aubrey, but I had been babysitting Aubrey the day before, and she unfortunately ended up fulfilling my diagnosis of having the flu. She was very fussy all day Tuesday, wouldn't eat much, and threw up the small amount she did eat - but the amount of barf was small, and could have just been spit up. So when Erin called me a few hours after picking her up and told me that Aubrey threw up her entire huge dinner (and proceeded to spew enormous amounts of vomit all night long), I was sadly proven correct. We appropriately cancelled our lunch plans on Wednesday, and I have been living in fear ever since that one or more of the three members of this family - two of whom were exposed to Aubrey for a good 8 hours while she had the flu - would get sick and start throwing up. Again. Seriously, I wouldn't be able to take it.
It's Friday now, and she was here on Tuesday... I think we're in the clear, yes? Happy birthday to me!
So lunch was cancelled, and I just spent the day hanging out with my best little dude. Noah was lots of fun, of course.
My parents came over at about 2:30 and stayed until 5:30 (my Dad was working nights that night). They brought dinner and a cake. Justin trained a client until 4:30, then had to shower, so we ate as soon as he was clean.
After my parents left I was suddenly inspired to clean and reorganize under my kitchen sink. This necessitated me cleaning and reorganizing the bottom of our bathroom closet. This might sound like a horrible birthday project, but I am obsessed with organizing and cleaning right now, so it was actually perfect. And I am so happy with the organization under my kitchen sink that I just keep opening the cupboards to gaze lovingly at its neatness (this is annoying, considering we have child-locks on our cupboards. If not for those, I would probably gaze into those cupboards about 4 times more often).
While I was finishing that up, Justin bathed Noah and got him ready for bed. I nursed him to sleep, and then Justin and I hung out for the rest of the evening, as per usual. Honestly, I have no clue what we watched on TV or what we did, other than eating our favourite ice cream. I think this is weird, because it's only been 2 days, but whatever.
So yeah, good birthday. It's not so much that so many outstandingly wonderful things happened. It was pretty much a normal day. And I suppose there was even the "disappointment" of a cancelled lunch date. It's just that after going through infertility and then being blessed with Noah, I feel like I've lost any sense of "entitlement" on my birthday. I just don't feel like it has to be this perfect, special day that's all about Lauren. Heck, I'd make my own birthday dinner and cake. I really don't care. I'm just happy to spend the day with people I love.
And I did that:)
(Please excuse my appearance, I wasn't really camera ready:)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)