Welcoming Miss Lily

She's finally here...or should I say I'm finally close to a pc again to announce it ;)

Miss Lillian Madeleine arrived April 6, 2010 at precisely 7 pm and weighing in at 6 lbs 12 oz, born at 38 weeks 5 days

To say April 6th was a busy day would be an understatement. I'd been pretty miserable all weekend with some pregnancy complications and after my apt on Wednesday I had shown no signs what so ever of being close to delivery. Although...I did get a whole lot of cleaning done before I got sidelined, heck I even cooked a turkey for the boys on Easter Monday.

At 5:45 I woke up to a weird sensation and thought I should run to the bathroom. It would have been quite amusing to watch in hindsight because I was waddling down the hall with my knees together whispering 'sh*t, sh*t, sh*t' the whole way there. I was worried that if it really was my water breaking I'd ruin the finish on the new hardwood floors. Needless to say it was that...and the floors are still in tact ;) This time around wasn't nearly as bad as when I had Alex, I wasn't trapped in the bathroom for half an hour.

So after I got myself comfortable, it was close to when we get up for work and get Alex up for school so I woke Matt early and I think he was running on pure adrenaline and shock. We decided not to tell Alex and then unleash the waiting big brother on the school system. He seemed to have a sixth sense though as every little thing we did he asked if I was having the baby. So we got him ready, I demanded we make a pit stop into Tim Horton's knowing they wouldn't let me have anything delicious again until this kid was out and dropped Alex off at the sitters as per the norm.

We arrived at the hospital just before 8 and because I was positive for Group B strep the wired me up immediately. My OB just happened to be finishing up rounds and dropped in to check me, I was soo discouraged that besides my water breaking I had no progress what so ever :( I began to panic. They wheeled the ultrasound machine in to make sure Baby C wasn't breech and I had a really unsettling feeling. Head was down so we were good to go.

They started me on Pitocin because apparently my body has no problem breaking it's water on it's own, which is only supposed to happen in 25% of all pregnancies but it just does not want to go into labor. After my experience with Alex I knew I was in for a long day. Mid afternoon I made it to the grand 4 cm but there was something in the monitoring that was beginning to worry my nurse, and the dr on the floor and subsequently my OB. When they started talking surgery I was needless to say devastated. I wasn't the screaming patient (although the one beside me was frigging hilarious, nothing breaks the mood like someone screaming 'poop'/'pee' every so often), I was polite, I wasn't complaining through my contractions , I was trying to go as long as possible without meds to get things working, and darn it all I'd done all of the walking, sitting on the ball, exercise you're supposed to leading up to delivery...why was I getting the shaft? When my OB, who is one of the most cool calm and collected doctors I ever met came in and said his recommendation would be a section I was hysteric. I wasn't at an emergency point so he let me see how things went for the next hour. It was the fastest hour ever, I spent it all crying, or more precisely in chest racking sobs.

The hour passed and my body had done nothing, I was so mad. I think signing those consent forms was one of the most laborious things I have ever done. I'd love to have a writing analyst tear apart my signature as it looks nothing like my loopy lofty signature that I'm used to signing with. The worst part was being wheeled to the OR, all I wanted to do was crawl in a corner and die. No one wants to be seen mascaraless (or at least when you're a redhead this is not ideal), puffy, scared crapless, disappointed beyond belief...

The OR was so bright I was blinded, or maybe it was the initial 'happy' drug they'd given me, a small concession they'd made because I was pretty adament about not being awake through this whole thing. Although as soon as things stopped looking like a supernova I happened to notice one of my old elementary on friends behind all of the scrubs. I never thought I'd want someone I knew in L&D with me but she was a godsend. I could at least relax some, or at least behave knowing someone would later keep me accountable for my actions.

A section has to be one of the most degrading things in the world. Being strapped to a table fully exposed, and poorly shaved for that matter did nothing for my dignity. You'd think if you have an epidural in they could at least do a bikini wax ;) It's about the only way I'd get one done. Anyway, I was back to cracking jokes, and attempting to get a liposuction out of the whole ordeal by the time it started. It wasn't too long before Lillian made her entrance into the world. It seemed like forever between Matt looking over the curtain to see her head (I would have passed out) and hearing her first cry. Apparently my little girl tried the same sunny side up position her brother did but because she hadn't dropped like he had (the joys of a first pregnancy) she just wouldn't come down and had her cord tangled up. I got to see her before she was whisked away, the sleepy time doctor gave me some wonderful concoction that made 'putting humpty dumpty back together again' as she put it go by in a blur and while they did that Matt disappeared to whatever location they were cleaning up Lily.

Shortly therafter I was wheeled to recovery, which would in fact top the degrading experience surgery was. I hated my postpartum shower with Alex but the 'sponge bath of shame' as I've dubbed it was worse. Being moved on a blanket and then having two older ladies scrubbing you down and rolling you around, isn't fun, no matter how stoned you are. I was so frustrated with my arms too which weren't as under my control as I'd liked. I couldn't hold Lily unassisted although we somehow managed to get breastfeeding going.

All that aside, my heart grew about 10 sizes that day. Lillian is adorable, extremely petite compared to the 8 lb 6 oz brother I delivered. She's strong, loves to smile and has hair that depending on the light, either looks strawberry blond or blond. I love her to bits. By the time I was cleaned up visiting hours were over so her big brother had to wait until the next day, he was not pleased with this. It's hard to keep him away from her, he's deemed himself her protector and loves to cuddle with her, this warms my heart. :)

We're home now and recovering well, and without further ado, some pictures :)

Now to go feed one demanding little monkey again as I can hear her from down her on another floor... ;)

Finally - Some Non Baby and Non Reno Pics :)

See, I still stitch. Or in this case frame as this pregnancy finally has my hands too swollen to do much detail work :(

Lizzie Kate's Beware of Cat - Finally framed for Halloween (frame a lucky find from the Dollarstore)
Lizzie Kate's Happy Hoppers, omigosh it's up in time for Easter after almost 3 years in the craft room. Another Dollarstore frame find (both painted by moi of course)

Mill Hill Treasured Diamond kit stitched up over the March Break

1 Month Until Baby - Let's Renovate!

Dear goodness, I'm being punished for my hours logged in HGTV. 5 weeks before our EDD my wonderful DH decided to pull all of the carpet in the main floor of the house...yep the living room, hall and bedroom. To say we live in chaos at the moment would be an understatement. I've also learned that if you don't have your ceilings finished when you rescrew your subfloor, any exposed areas of your semi finished basement will look like a beaver upchucked in it! Anyway, here's some in progress photos of what's been going on ;)

Our living room in October 09, at this point we'd replaced the ugly old beige baseboard heater and all of the old light toggles for deco white ones
March 2010, picture window replaced in December, carpet replaced with Cappuccino Ash hardwood, upside down chair rail stripped to make room for wainscotting, 46 inch tv replaced after contractor scratched it with a 50. God bless the previous owners and their sense of sadism for painting up to that border. You won't catch me doing that!!

Painting in progress, Behr Crimson Red on top to eventually have white wainscotting on the bottom.My sexy painter painting the entry (one end of the living room) and hall Behr Pumpkin Butter.

Update:

A little dark but an idea of what the red kind of looks like with the white, and some new drapes ;) Not all of our furniture has been added back in, mainly the lamps, hence why the pic is sooo dark!

And the entryway fixed up a bit. My poor china cabinet's contents are in the basement :( 6 panel white bifold closet door to go in this weekend and MAYBE some trim.

Now onto our room, no pictures exist of it before hand because lets face it...it became the catch all rooom. The room where clutter piles went to hide when company came ;) So here's a start. DH is in the process of painting it Behr Skipper so I should have another update tomorrow.

What it looked like when I got home, and the suitcase I lived out of for most of the first week!My closet, what a mess it was now it's almost fully organized!! I hated the semigloss paint in the room, the colour not so bad with the floors but we didn't have the swatch. There's nothing worse than trying to read or having your spouse read, you turn in the opposite direction of the light but it just bounces back in your face regardless!DH's closet and eww more semigloss paint.

Alex-isms

Today marks the first storm day of the year for my son's school district. So Alex made himself comfortable on the couch watching the Women's Hockey Medal distribution. Last night on facebook I noticed that Jennifer Aikman-Smith's (Dragon Dreams) status mentioned her uncle was handing out the golds which I thought he'd find cool. So when team Canada's turn came about I mentioned it. 'Gee, he's not looking to bad for his age'....so apparently anyone I know who 'still has' living relatives must have ancient ones??

Then it was on to women's figure skating and Joannie Rochette's bronze medal, God love that girl, to put on a performance like that in such a tragic week. Anyway, we kind of talked about that and I commented on how beautiful her skating outfit was (oh the bling) and Alex pipes up 'Well she's not wearing too much mom'...oh how in a couple of years he'll 'appreciate' that soo much more ;)

A Note to Canadian Sports Editors - You Suck!

Seriously, I'd be ashamed to be one today. Rewind to yesterday February 25. 2010, and if you want even rewind a day more. Complete coverage & build up to the 'great' showdown between the men's Canadian Olympic team and Team Russia in hockey. Sure it's what we claim to be 'our sport' and yes the game was very exciting but it wasn't even a medal match.

Yes, Canada beat the Russians and completely dominated the ice, but there is no way that this should be the top story on just about every single sports page. Especially if you consider the other accomplishments of the day.

Has Canada ever had another 4 medal day in Olympic history? Apparently it's not news worthy enough to make the top billing. Clara Hughes' swan song bronze, Canada's highest medal holder in both Olympics...that barely made a blip. A surprise silver in the women's speed skating relay, mentioned like a footnote. A gold-silver women's bobsleigh wins, again treated like a side bar. However, the world knows we beat the Russians because we beat them over the head with it.

It's truly a sad day when we glorify 'just' a game, a game played by professionals that are paid millions to train for their sport as a job instead of celebrating people that actually pay to train and have medals to show for their hard work.

Hockey may be 'our' sport...but it shouldn't be the only thing we're proud of :(

Realty Bites

No, that's not a typo ;) Although I wholeheartedly agree that reality is highly over rated as well.

The other night I was unwinding watching some shows on HGTV and there was a show 25 biggest mistakes to make in real estate. They went on to comment on paying too much for a home that it should be around 1/3 of your salary. Anyway, my husband has had 'garage fever' which somehow wasn't even on the list when I bought the house. And yes...I bought the house. So, giving due consideration to his whole 'garage' obsession just for giggles I looked up what houses that would be double the price mine was 5.5 years ago would be, say if someone else was chipping in the same amount that I currently do for the mortgage. Now before I go further, just to be fair, he covers the majority of the renos.

Anyway, so on to MLS I got trolling. For comparison's sake I didn't even take in location as a major consideration. I popped in the area we live in and the city we border and boom, a little list appeared. What a disappointment that was! Any of the double garages were not attached and on a smaller house, the 'attached' ones compromised basement space and were the 1.5 variety. Any of the remotely promising ones had pending renos to do that we've already done in our current abode and I don't think any of them had the 5 bedrooms and semi finished basement ours does. Mind you I didn't take into consideration how much my home has appreciated in value, but still... So the hubby can wait it out and build what he wants sometime down the road. It'll be a heck of alot cheaper ;) To justify the pain in the butt it is to move, I had better be moving into my dream house, otherwise the good things will come to those who wait ;)

Hello 2010!

So much for my New Year's Resolution to blog more, I've done much better on my resolution to take more bubble baths ;)

To be honest I've been very preoccupied. Before Christmas it was confirmed that our hospital had removed it's nursery and has an expectation that new mother's just seem to be able to pick support people out of a hat. While that may be a safe assumption for first time moms, for us 'pro's' it is a terrible step in the wrong direction in my opinion. Seriously, I wouldn't be staying in the hospital if I didn't think I needed rest and observation, I really don't give a crap what some university professor thinks is the best way to establish breastfeeding. I love every member of my family, I would never think to spend 24 hours in the same room as any of them. Bonding does not necessarily mean proximity for me. I think what ticks me off the most about this is how sweeping a change it is...and how quiet they've kept it.

2010 is shaping up to be a decent year for stitching at least, apparently lack of mobility helps in that case ;) Alex is already contemplating what dragon he'd like for Christmas ;) Although I think there will be a stocking that'll have to come first. He's already informed me that he would like to help choose his sister's stocking from my SB collection. It's so cute to have a son that's actually interesting in some of my 'girly' hobbies :)

Merry Stitchmas

Just a couple of things I couldn't share before the 25th :) I had bigger stitching plans this year but a certain little belly got in the way and changed some plans for certain gifts. However, these did make the final cut

Peter's Stocking by Shepherd's Bush for my brother Steven

And this little LK :)

We attempted to take a serious family picture on ther 24th, especially where it marked Baby C's 24th week but this is what happened ;)

Wishing You A Very Merry Christmas

Hooray, I successfully escaped Chateau Chaos Saturday morning and trucked it up to my parents house for the holidays. I left my beloved DH home to finish filling, sanding and painting the mouldings as it does nothing for my respiratory system. I loaded him up on food at my branch's Christmas party the night before and had him well socialized with a game of Rock Band that went until after 1 in the morning. Originally we had planned on having people come to us ofer the holidays but with the finishing lingering and this pregnancy not always agreeing with me, I sought solice in my old home :)

Needless to say it's been great. I finally got around to getting my cards done. It's amazing how much pressure we put ourselves under to get everything done. I'd facebook'd one of my Ottawa friends to find out her address and I got the 'are you crazy? you don't need anymore stress', true! But then again she's a bit more understanding with a 6'ish month old at home ;) I got to help out at a leisurely pace instead of the Martha Stewart mode that no matter how crappy I feel or how immobile I've become in the last month would surely have felt compelled to be, regardless of what others expected of me. I finished off one last stitched gift and actually had some time to make something for me! Omigosh! So here's my latest Mill Hill ornament:

Tomorrow Matt is supposed to join us for a couple of days and then it's back to Freddy and some decluttering.

Merry Christmas One and All :)

Katie

Christmas Bells Are Ringing

Today after a relatively uneventful trip to the OB\GYN I got to attend Alex's Christmas concert, his class and choir sang beautifully :) What a crazy day though, apts, concerts, meeting people and now getting someone's supper on the table at precisely 6:30 so he can sand Alex's window mouldings...C'est la vie.

Garden Creek Harmony and Boy's Choirs

Pain in the Butt

Oye, I thought being sick was bad enough but apparently my daughter and I disagree. I've been hobbling around most of the day with symptoms very similar to sciatica, which apparently in my case is more than likely PGP. Great! Just what I needed at least I have an appointment with my dr tomorrow to discuss if there are any sort of exercises that could help. Well at least the decorating is done so I can take it a bit easier.

Other than that I've been sneaking a little stitching on the side, nothing I can show at the moment unfortunately as it's personalized :) Oh well a couple of weeks should be worth the wait :)

Greetings from Chateau Chaos

For some people the Christmas season means decorations, baking, shopping, gift exchanging...then there's my husband. Christmas to him seems to involve renovating! Which makes the task of decorating, baking, wrapping and the list could go on and on, very difficult.


Last year we needed to redo the children's floors after a bout of Norwalk turned Alex's white carpet into one with an unbleachable stain dead center. This year? New Windows! I love them! The original ones on the house were wood, with thin mouldings that weren't always mitred properly, cracking, mildewed and sucking energy. Although it has come at a price, absolute chaos. It's not just clearing out one room it's cleaning and minimalizing every room! Plus my box of exterior lights was used as a stand for the moulding painting that took up our entire storage room! It wasn't safe to put my precious decorations out until they were done. Even with all of our precautions, there was one casualty...our 46 inch plasma. We moved it far away from the window and covered it but apparently one of the workers tripped on his equipment with a board in hand. One very expensive reason to always double check that your contractor has insurance! Although goodness only knows how we love dealing with that profession. It is supposed to be resolved by Monday.

This picture doesn't do justice to how truly annoying it is, sigh.

But on the brighter side here's a glimpse of what Alex's room used to look like pre reno

Alex's room Circa 2006 - dingy chaos

With new larger (building code req) window, new heater, new floor, decluttered, fresh coat of paint and just missing those last two pieced of mouldings :)

Replaced closet door, door and thermostat as well

Now to just find window coverings! So now I'm desperately trying to get caught up on Christmas stuff and get back into that stitching groove I had not so long ago :)

Define Frustration

Arghhh...I signed up to refresh my french and my placement makes me miserable :( It's so frustrating. Yes, I graduated 15 years ago bilingual but didn't use it. I retained comprehension and pronunciation but to regurgitate? That theory is long gone. So based on the first two I got placed higher than I'm comfortable with. The whole point of me taking the course was to redo the grammar portion but now I'm looking on about.com for what on god's green earth a préposition is, sigh. There...that's my rant for today ;)

Plus this crap is impeding my stitching, bummer!

Progress

Well here's my In The Arms of an Angel as of dinner time last night with 2 weeks and change in. The blogger gods were working against me last night so I couldn't post :( Thankfully there's been a bit more progress but I decided to not tempt the fates waiting to process another picture ;)

Stitching For The Princess

One advantage to feeling like crap for the next 5 months is that I definitely have alot more time for stitching :) I set aside the ornament I have been working on in order to work a bit more on TIAG's In The Arms of an Angel. I'm pretty impressed with my progress after two weeks of work and hope to post a little picture of it this evening.

Alex and I had our first trip out baby shopping/looking and after alot of research I think we're going to definitely give cloth diapering a try with some of the new products out there. I picked up Baby C's first cloth diaper Friday at a tax free sale. It's pretty cool, it has an insert that you whip out and replace, instead of having to wash the liner and the shell. Will we be completely independant from disposable, probably not, they have their place when out and about and travelling but if we cut back our waste a little bit, it should definitely make the world a greener place :) Now to pick up a shell and soaker pack about once a month to get our supply up.

We also spotted a bedding set we absolutely adored, although considering the markup on this side of the border we'll definitely be sucking up the hit in duty and shipping, if we can get Matt on board.

It's quite amusing, I had alot of people ask if we were finding out or even to let them know if we found out the gender of our baby. So of course now that it's out there we've told people who weren't in the original group and most of those have been 'didn't you want to be surprised'. Ironic ;) Believe me, it was no less special finding out. There were no less tears of joy and quite honestly I feel the bond deepened that day beyond any bond I had while expecting my delivery day surprise son. I was actually quite jealous the other day when I was getting my hair cut and my stylist was talking about enrolling her son Logan in daycare, who is due in February. There are no more impersonal he/she's, it's, the baby, no more trivial well if it's a boy here are the names, if it's a girl here are some more...Looking for names is much more passionate, I want one that fits her, not random baby. Heck, it should also cut down on an argument or two with DH, now that we've eliminated boys names ;) So yes, I'm happy I know what we're having (even if she had have been a boy), and am even more anxious to meet her. She's not just a bun in the oven any more, she's the ultimate cake :)

It's A....

!!!!!GIRL!!!!!

Needless to say, we were all 'tickled pink' to find out. Matt took one look at that little face and instantly changed his mind about finding out. Which is good, his son has been scheming for ways that 'we' could find out and not him...who knew a nine year old would be that interested?? One of them involved bonking his dad 'lightly' over the head and asking...of course in his plan I was the one doing the bonking, lol. After two brothers and a son, I've been hoping desperately for a little less testosterone in the house, and even though the Old Wives tales were all pointing girl (verysick, high heart beat, etc), I tried hard not to get my hopes up too high.

Our little girl has all 10 fingers and toes, ok...8 fingers and 2 thumbs, is right on track with our dates, and everything else was either 'strong' or 'solid'. She's also extremely flexible, she spent most of the exam with her feet above her head and her arms either tucked behind there too or grabbing on to her toes, except for the brief moment it took her to 'wave' in another picture.

Now I can finally start picking out an SB stocking for her, I was dreading that task if it was a boy, with stockings for Matt, Alex, my dad and maybe someday my brother's all picked out I was running out of nice boy stockings that didn't have the ridiculous hand dyed perle cotton that made an already expensive project insane. I can also go back to some guilt free stitching with my L&L In the arms of an angel and Mirabilia's Mother's Bliss, those two pieces can now stay up much longer in the nursery :) I've also avoided the conundrum concerning the pink arm chair we inherited. It's been here in the 'office' for awhile and fit in with the neutral colour scheme, it's perfect for late night feedings (daytime I see myself in our extremely comfortable reclining furniture in the living room) but pink didn't work for a boy and it's actually a style that's pretty hard to find a slip cover for...and reupholstering was crazy expensive, especially over a silly colour. At least we dodged that bullet ;)

Let the shopping begin! :)

Sponge Bob Scary Pants

Apparently we were able to make Sponge Bob look a little scary ;) It's almost a personal challenge each year to take a cute and innocent costume and make it creepy for Alex. So this year it was either a haunted pumpkin or this ;) In the past he's been a haunted warlock, a haunted crayon, etc...

Hopefully the new baby will want to be a cute little skeleton or bumblebee...or may I dream of a princess? Only time will tell.

H1N1 Vaccinations - Done!

Omigosh, it feels so good to put that worry somewhat behind me. For months, weeks, I’ve agonized over what to do and how we were going to coordinate this as a family. Thankfully after almost a week of persistant phone calls citing my concerns about me being high risk and waiting in the inevitable 4 hour line ups with 700 plus people I managed to get Alex into the prenatal clinic with me with just a 1 hour wait with a whole lot of bellies around. Yes…you read that right, WE'RE FINALLY PREGNANT AGAIN!! :)

To be honest, that’s part of the reason my blog has fell to the wayside. We managed to keep it a secret (well except from some close friends) until Thanksgiving. Mathieu had this GRAND idea to make our family announcement at our annual Thanksgiving dinner. Arghhh… I had to be ultra secretive to find a way to ‘get’ maternity clothes for my birthday from my family without telling them two weeks before. Plus I’ve been uber nauseated, and it’s only ‘controlled’ with Diclectin. I still can’t eat much but at least I don’t feel like being sick all of the time. It was fun trying to avoid food and commitments and people just thinking your flaky...yeah right!

Back to the vaccination clinic, Alex was a real trooper. I honestly wasn’t looking forward to taking him to any needles, it’s been a long time since he’s had one so he’s got ‘that’ apprehension. Factor in a lot of screaming toddlers also being done and he was pretty white in there. He didn’t even blink, said a little ow when they were putting the bandaid on and he was done. He was wiggling around less than me after ;) I was soo proud.

In stitching news, I’ve been on an ornament kick, while waiting for fabric for the two pieces I want to do for the nursery, L&L’s In The Arms of An Angel and Mirabilia’s A Mother’s Bliss. Now that they’ve arrived I really need to figure out which I want to do first :)

Vacation

After a week long vacation I finally feel recharged!! The last Friday in July Alex and I packed up the van and headed north to the Miramichi to visit my parents for the week. The weather finally decided to cooperate and there was only a couple rainy evenings and the rest was glorious sunshine! Despite lots of sunscreen, Alex and I are two of the most golden red heads going :)

It was fun not to have to be 'somewhere' or doing 'something', there were lots of visits to the outdoor pool, the beach in front of my parents home, a nice girls only shopping trip to Moncton, trips to market and a lazy afternoon at the Escuminac beach. I got to the gym, caught up with some old girlfriends that were also vacationing in the area and got to have some great walks and dinners out. I don't think there's any other place in the world I'd take off for a 10k walk at 8 at night to catch up for hours :)

Matt joined us for the last weekend of our stay which was nice. His back wasn't cooperating with doing anything extravagent but who cares. I can veg quite well with my stitching (2 more pieces down) and some books :)

Playing with Pappy

Hiding out in the hole he dug to China...

Catching up with his favorite four legged friend

Involuntarily going for a dip

My view every evening

Nice Surprises

Who doesn't like a nice surprise now and then? I had a little time to check out the Silkweaver site for a new piece of fabric for a pattern I recently picked up and saw that the gallery winners had been announced. I was thrilled to bits to see my Trick or Treat fairy in the finalist, but even more excited to see her in first place, you could have pinched me! I love the way she turned out but to actually win, wow. I'm going to have soo much fun picking out my prize :)