Happy Birthday Hannah!

It's hard to believe that Hannah turned 4 today. We had princess pool party for Hannah this weekend that Kara, Kelly, Elizabeth, Katy, Jayda, Noah and Nana all came to. It was a real splash with everybody:

After that we went back to the house for cake and the princess part of the princess pool party - All in all, a really good day, but looking back, I still can't figure out where the last 4 years went...

Speech assesment

Sara-Lyn had her speech assessment on Monday, and they diagnosed her with a phonological disorder. This is most likely the same thing I had as a child, but they didn't have a name for it back then. Essentially it means that her brain has difficulty organizing sounds into words. She has an amazing level of comprehension, she started getting the questions wrong when they were asking questions from the 5/6 year old set. But her spoken language skills are really low, she estimated that only about 10% of what Sara says is understandable by anybody other then me. Normally a 2.5 year old should be around 50% intelligible. She was pleased with how much Sara was attempting to talk, even if it wasn't understandable. Anyways they put her down as high priority for therapy and she should be starting in January.

Personally I am having a hard time with this diagnosis, I was really hoping to be able to go the speech assessment and have them just tell me that she was a little behind but not to worry she would catch up. Now I have to face the reality that there is something wrong, and while she will one day talk, after all I can talk, she may struggle for a long time with it. Personally I started speech therapy when I was three, and continued until the end of grade 4. I was still having difficulty pronouncing certain words well into highschool. I remember the frustration of not being understood as a child, and then mocked as I got older when I mispronounced words. This is something I really don't want Sara to have to go through. But it seems that I have very little choice in the matter, and she will most likely face the same scenarios. Especially seeing how I went and named her a name she that will probably be one of the last sounds she is able to pronounce correctly.

Halloween

Halloween was a success at our house this year. Hannah and Sara-Lyn both made it all the way around the block and through both cul-de-sacs, filling two full buckets of candy each. So they both now have a gigantic bulging bag of candy. Hannah went to her preschool Halloween party as Cinderella, and had fun decorating cookies, and eating them. Sara dressed as Snow White, and we went to a drop in gym time, where they had a halloween theme. Then of course we went trick or treating. For Trick or treating Hannah wore her Cinderella dress and a pretend pony on top of that. We had decorated pumpkins a couple of evenings prior to halloween, so I will post some pictures of those and their costumes.

six month stats

Rebekah weighed 16lbs and 3 ounces, and is 26 inches. She is in the 75% for everything. A rather boring appointment, the Doctor suggested we slowly introduce fruits and a few vegetables high in sugar to help her adjust better, and then introduce grains much later.

Six months already

It is hard to believe but Rebekah is six months old today. It is amazing how much a baby changes in six months. Her favorite things to do right now are jump in her jolly jumper and blow spit at everybody. She also really likes to say "dat dat dat dat" over and over again. Particularly at 6:00am when she should be sleeping. She is rolling over easily now, although she doesn't really like spending time on the floor, she doesn't get as much practise as she probably should. She loves pretty much anybody but both Hannah and Sara can get a giggle from her just by stopping to say "hi" or making a funny face. Our biggest concern with her right now is introducing solid food, we started about three weeks ago and have had nothing but problems. I'm hoping the Dr. can give us some suggestions this afternoon at her six month appointment, because at the moment I am at a loss as to what to try with her. The only thing I am giving her right now is pears because they are supposed to be high in fibre, and easy to digest, but even the pears seem to be making her sick. She loves to eat though. She eats two large meals a day, and if you even think about skipping them she gets a little orniery. She is definenitly a morning person, and wakes up each morning (way to early) with a gigantic smile, then she sticks her tongue out and blows some great bubbles. But I am off to pick up Hannah so we can go to Rebekah's apointment.

more firsts

At Rebekah's appointment she weighed 14 lbs 7 ounces, which is exactly average for her age. She was also exactly average in length and head size as well. Otherwise she was perfectly healthy as expected of course. Sara has decided that she needed to have a first this month as well, so she took it upon herself to go to the potty all by herself, twice in two days. My goal is to have her potty trained in time for preschool next sept. so I definitly think we're on the right track. Sara has also discovered that she can turn the light on in her room, so bedtime has now become a new game, where instead of coming out of the room a dozen times, she gets up and turns her light on, and if we don't check her and Hannah will play for hours. I think that is everything for now, and I'll post some pictures just to make everybody happy.

Firsts

My poor neglected blog, I think it was starting to feel a little abandoned. Well I haven't given up on it yet, I just took a little break while our life was so hectic. It has been a months of first for the kids. Hannah started her first day of preschool on Monday. The Friday before was a brief 1 hr long orientation where I stayed with her, and she pretty much ignored me. I was the parent standing off to the side awkwardly looking around wondering what I was supposed to do with myself. Of course better that then the parent desperately trying to unglue their child from their leg. Monday was her first day by herself, and she did great, she was excited for me to leave, and excited when I came and picked her up. I feel a little bit sad that there wasn't a little bit of a moment where I could be the loving Mom and reassure her that preshcool was as much fun as it promised to be. But I guess I am glad that she has the self-confidence to run head long into each new experience. Hannah also had her first day of dance school today. It was perhaps an even bigger event as we had to buy a whole dance outfit and two pairs of shoes, so she has been waiting for dance school all week. I would have loved to stay and watch her for the dance class as I just know she was adorable in her little outfit, dancing with all the other pink princesses, but the class has a strict closed door policy, so I have to trust Hannah's big smile to say that she had a good time.

Rebakah has also had a few first this month as well. She rolled over two weeks ago for the first time, she was on her stomach one minute I looked away and there she was on her back. It was quite exciting other then the fact that I completely missed it. She has also started spending sometime in her jolly jumper. She is growing like crazy, she has her shots tomorrow so we will find out exactly how much she has grown.

I'm feeling bad for Sara-Lyn that there isn't a whole list of things for me to say about her, but I'm afraid she isn't in any exciting classes, and as she has achieved all the majoy milestones already there isn't much I can say. Of course that doesn't mean Sara isn't doing stuff. She is learning words everyday, and is starting to use them in a very forceful manner. Her favorite expression right now is to cross her arms, stick her lip out, and go "hmphf" with this ridiclous frown on her face. She is becoming a little dare devil at the park. She makes me cringe lots, when she insists on following Hannah up everything.

Well I guess that is everything, perhaps if I remember I will post the results of Rebekah's shots tomorrow, or maybe some pictures.

Back to work

Dan went back to work last Monday. So it has just been me alone with the kids for the last week and a half. It actually hasn't been as bad as I though it might be. I've actually ventured out of the house a few times. I've been to the mall twice, for Dr. appointments, and we went grocery shopping, and the park twice. Really I think we're doing pretty good considering I am now outnumbered. I've been meeting with people for my dayhome, so hopefully I will have some more kids soon to add to the numbers. Then it will really be an adventure to get out of the house.

Summer Vacation

We went to little bear lake this year for our summer vacation. We were lucky enough to gets lots of hot sunny days, and only one really rainy day. The girls had a blast hanging out at the beach, and playing in the dirt at our campsite. And when we got tired of playing outside we were lucky enough to be able to retreat to Grampa's cabin for some edible food, and television. It was great visiting with everybody who made it out to the lake. We even got adventuresome one day and took Hannah and Sara tubing. They both had a great time and I wish we would have had more time to take them again. Sara unfortunately got dunked when we were forced to abandon ship. She seemed to recover pretty quickly though and I bet she would get back on again. Rebekah mostly just hung out in her car seat and took lots of naps, but I guess that is what babies are supposed to do, so no surprises there. She did however capture every bodies hearts with her constant smiles and giggles.

Happy Birthday Sara-Lyn

Sara-Lyn is two today, and there is no denying that she is a two year old. She is becoming more and more independent everyday. One minute demanding that she do everything herself, and then next wanting to be picked up and cuddled when things don't go quite as planned. Sara loves to take care of other people giving out lots of hugs and kisses to those she deems acceptable. Sara loves to be a big girl, and to do everything the way Hannah does it. From eating with a spoon to climbing the play structure at the park. Her favorite toys right now are her babies, and sneaking Hannah's jewels whenever Hannah puts them down. Her newest words are butterfly and flower, and she is learning new ones everyday. She likes to give Rebekah hugs and wipes her face with any blanket on hand.

Dan's Personality/Intelligence Profile

Pictures

Congratulations Angela and Marc

Six weeks already

Wow, how time flies. I can't believe that Rebekah is six weeks already. And it has been a very busy six weeks. I think Rebekah is probably one of the most well traveled six weeks old babies out there. We've travelled to Edmonton, stayed at a condo on the Shuswap, and then travelled on to Vancouver to visit some University friends and Dan's cousins. Then the weekend after we arrived home we packed up again and headed off to Edson for the long weekend. We're off to Edmonton this weekend and then Edson again on the 21st for Dan's sister's wedding. After which we will make our way to Saskatchewan for some camping.

Somewhere in all of this we had Rebekah's six week appointment and she is doing great, she weighs 10 lbs 12 ounces. and is 21.5 inches long. Her neck is getting stronger everyday and she is starting to smile at anybody who looks her way, at least when she isn't sleeping.

more pictures

Since coming home

It has been a rather hectic couple of days for us. I got home with Rebekah on Wednesday and we started to get settled in. On Thursday just as we were started to get settled in, the public health nurse stopped in for her visit. She decided that Rebekah looked a little jaundice and sent off a blood sample to the hospital. By 8:00pm on Thursday we were back at the hospital so Rebekah could go under the lights. It took a full 24 hours for her levels to come back down to a safe amount so we just got back from the hospital last night. Sara has been sick with a fever since Monday night. It bounces between 100 F to 104.5 F. So things have been a little rough for her over the last few days. And as she seems to have a tendency to puke whenever her fever spikes, Dan has had a lot of fun cleaning up puke, while I have been at the hospital. So we're hoping whatever it is that is causing Sara to be so sick will end soon so we can really get a chance to relax and find a routine that works for us. That pretty much sums up what has been happening here since Monday, I can definitely say it has been an exciting week.

Pictures

Birth story

On Tuesday morning around 8:00am my water broke. Thankfully by a whole bunch of coincidences Dan was only 5 minutes away from the house on his way to work when I called him, so he made his way back here, and I called our babysitter. Around 10:00am I was having contractions so we headed off to the hospital. I got a bed in triage and hooked up to the monitors around 12:00pm. The monitors showed that I was having contractions about every 10 minutes, but the babies heart beat was dropping off occasionally with the contractions so they were worried that the cord was pinched. They decided to keep me hooked up to the monitors to make sure it didn't get worse. Unfortunately this meant that I couldn't get up and walk around so the contractions I was having stopped. Once the contractions stopped the babies heart rate stabilized so they let me get up and walk around, which we did.

At 7:00pm because my contractions hadn't started again, I was given the option to go home and try to get them going again, but I had to come back in at 7:00am to be induced if they didn't start. Or I could get induced right now. I really didn't feel that going home was going to get the contractions started so we decided to get induced right away, with the stipulation that before they started the cytosine they would do an exam to make sure there wasn't a pocket of water. They did the exam at 8:20pm and found that I was 4 cm dilated and had a pocket of water, which they promptly broke. They agreed to wait another 2 hours before starting the cytosine to see if rebreaking the membrane would start labor naturally. At 11:00pm my contractions were getting to be intense but they were still 5 minutes apart, and the nurse really started to push me to start the cytosine to get things moving. I eventually agreed but I wanted to get the epidural put in first. So at 11:45pm I got my epidural, immediately after getting the epidural my contractions moved to being a minute apart, so we didn't end up using the cytosine after all.

At 12:45pm the babies heart rate starting dropping with each contraction again, so they did an exam to see if I was ready to push and I was 9.5 cm dilated, but the heart rate was becoming a concern so I was put on oxygen and an internal monitor was put in, we then started trying various positions to get the heart rate back up. We eventually got the heart rate to go back to normal by having me stay on my hands and knees. Shortly after getting into this position I started to feel the urge to push, but as they figured going back onto my back to push would cause the heart rate to drop again, they wanted to wait for the baby to move down more on it's own, so I stayed on my hands and knees for another 40 minutes while we waited for the urge to push to become pretty much unbearable.

At 1:35am I announced that I couldn't wait any longer and that this baby was coming out now. I rolled over and started to push pretty much right away. Things got a little hectic here, as she came a lot quicker then the nurse expected and after only three pushes the babies head had not only crowned but was out. At this point the nurse started calling frantically over the intercom for the somebody to get in there now! She also discovered at this point that the cord was wrapped around the babies neck and was causing the babies heart rate to drop. So while I think she might have wanted to take a quick break at this point and give the Dr. a chance to arrive we had to get the baby out right away. So the pushing resumed and she was out just in time for the Dr. to run in and catch her. She let out a big cry right away to let us know she was okay. So Rebekah Lauren was born at 1:45am, 7lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long.

She was perfectly healthy, except for being mucusy from being born so quickly, and she had bruises on her face because she was facing up when my labor started and in the process of turning she got some bruises on her face.

Off to the hospital...

Apparently this baby has a mind of it's own and doesn't want anybody to tell it when it should come... my water broke this morning, so we will be off to the hospital soon. Check back soon to find out about baby.

baby.. baby.. where are you?

Oh wait I remember now, still in my stomach. I saw my Dr. on Wednesday and she feels that I will probably go into labor any day. She even went so far to suggest that Friday worked well for her, as she is on call that day. But if I don't go into labor soon, when I see her next Wednesday she will break my water, and I will be off to the hospital. I am excited to have an end date to this pregnancy as it seems to be dragging on forever, but I can't help but hope that her first prediction that it would be sooner rather then later was true. So for those who haven't put in a guess yet for the birth of this baby, I just narrowed the field so you might want to throw a day out there before they're all gone.

Ultrasound

I know some people are actually wondering about the results of my ultrasound on Thursday so I guess I can take the time to write it down. The baby was measuring exactly average for how far along I am. They are guessing around 6 and 1/2 lbs, although ultrasounds are plus or minus a pound so really that weight means nothing. I am actually very happy to hear that this baby isn't ridiculously large like the last two were. I was getting worried that I was going to end up delivering a 10 lb baby. Of course the bad news is, that so far this pregnancy has been exactly average, which means if I continue on this trend of averageness I wont have this baby for another two weeks. I think I will go crazy if I have to wait another two weeks, or even possibly longer. I have officially carried this baby one week longer then I did with Sara and it feels like I should just have this one any day now.

In other news we celebrated Dan's birthday last night by having a few friends over, it was fun although it seemed that this has been a long week for everybody so we kept it pretty mellow. And well let's face facts I'm as big as a house how much fun can I possibly be. Sara and Hannah are doing great as always. Sara is starting to slowly expand her vocabulary. Although I have to admit that her grunting is amazingly effective. Hannah is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the baby, which she has nicknamed 'Tickely'. She has predicted that Tickely will arrive on Wednesday. I am predicting Saturday the 5th. Anybody else care to wager a guess....

Easter Weekend

Well Easter is officially past, and I am still pregnant. I really thought that I would have had this baby by Easter, but it appears that this baby has decided it needs to be full term. I will officially be 37 weeks pregnant tomorrow, which is considered a full term baby. I am glad that I made it this far, because it means that we don't have to worry about any complications from having an early baby. However I am starting to get a little impatient and I would be just as happy to have this baby any day now. I have an ultrasound on Thursday to check on the size of this baby, seeing how I have a tendency to have really big babies they want to check and make sure this one isn't going to 10 lbs.

Easter was fun, we had Dan's sister and her family visit us from Edmonton. So the kids did the easter egg hunt in the morning, then colored eggs. The weather was beautiful so we made our way to the park in the afternoon. I cooked a turkey complete with stuffing and everything. Last Christmas I made a pre-stuffed turkey, so this was my first attempt at doing turkey and stuffing completely from scratch. And I think it turned out pretty good. Next time will be better though. The kids had a great time finding eggs. and then eating them of course. Hmm well I can't think of anything else of importance to write about, and to be honest I'm kind of tired today after all the excitement over the weekend so I think I am going to go back to sitting on the couch like a big lump.

Preschool Registration

It is preschool registration night tonight, and Dan has been nice enough to volunteer to go register her. This is actually a bigger deal then it may seem as we live in a city that is growing much faster then it's infrastructure. So Dan is going to go stand in line at 5:30pm for a registration that doesn't even start until 7:00pm just to ensure that Hannah actually gets into the program of our choice. We actually have it easier then most people as we are trying to get into a location that is opening for the first time in September, which means that after the preregistration for siblings of already registered kids, there are 11 spots open, and not the 2 or 3 that most locations are boosting. Well wish us luck.

sleep please ...

I think at this point I would gladly pay to have one night of completely uninterrupted sleep. Tuesday night I woke up at 3:00am to the sound of Hannah puking, two hours later and another two puking episodes I finally got back to sleep only to have Dan's alarm go off. Wednesday night I woke up at 4:00am because of Hannah coughing. And for those who have experienced Hannah's coughing you already know that to ignore her is just asking for another puking episode. So I was up getting her propped up on a pillow and waiting for her current coughing fit to subside. This of course woke Sara up who then decided that getting in and out of bed until 5:30am was a good idea. So finally at 5:30 with Hannah no longer coughing and Sara asleep I went back to bed, and then Dan's alarm went off. Last night at 3:30am Hannah woke me crying because her stomach hurt. I tried to calm her down for 20 minutes in her room, succeeding in mostly just waking up Sara. Finally I woke Dan up and sent him downstairs to watch the fire with her. Unfortunately though Sara would have nothing to do with going back to sleep without Hannah, so we all ended up downstairs. 40 minutes later Hannah's stomach finally stopped hurting and we were able to get both of them back asleep in their beds. Of course it was now 5:00am, and does anybody want to guess what happened at 5:45am. A big gold star for anybody that guessed that Dan's alarm went off. I have to admit that I am starting to have violent feelings towards Dan's alarm. Well anyways that has been my last few nights, lets all hope the weekend goes a little better. On the bright side Dan's alarm wont be going off.

All In!

Well last night was certainly fun! Carmen and I got to participate in my Company's annual No-Limit Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament at the Stampede Casino last night.

Despite a good start, I had a hard time making hands and was pushed out sometime around 7:30, surviving longer than about half of the other competitors. After some well timed heckling once I was out, I won a gift certificate to the local malls as a door prize. But that's none of that is the fun (or really all that interesting) part.

Carmen was the real star of our household (and the show in my not-so-objective opinion). When I was pushed out, Carmen was the short stack at her table, and we both were thinking "Oh well, at least we had a fun evening out"... And then Carmen started winning. Within about 30 minutes, she had massacred half of the table, leaving a trail of shattered dreams and wounded pride as she eliminated player after player, sometimes two at a time...

Before all was said and done, she was the last woman in the game, she was at the final table and she was one of the final two to not have gotten up from her seat even once. (considering the fact that she is six months pregnant, I think she should have won a prize for not even needing a bathroom break). Her run of good play lasted for a while, but as other tables started paring down, a few big stacks joined her table (which hadn't seem any new blood, er chips all evening) and the sudden shift in play, combined with a run of mediocre cards, starting eroding the big stack.

In the end, Carmen placed 6th out of 71 people, taking home a purse of $100, so all-in-all, an evening well spent :)

Ultrasound

We had another ultrasound today, and everything is fine with the baby. We finally know the sex of the baby after waiting what seems like forever. I'm feeling a little mean today though so I'm not telling what it is. You'll have to phone us or wait another 10 weeks to find out. I didn't get any pictures from this ultrasound because the baby was positioned with it's feet up by it's head so the pictures all would have been a mess of random limbs. Baby was measuring exactly average for size, which really doesn't surprise me, because Sara measured exactly average as well until I was into 34 weeks then she all of a sudden grew like crazy. But at least I can still hope for a small baby this time.

Our Weekend

We have had very busy weekend. It started with Hannah's sportball lessons with Dan on Saturday morning. Me and Sara decided to tag along as we were going to stop at home depot on the way home in order to pick up paint for Hannah and Sara's bedroom. Well of course as much fun as Hannah was having playing sportball Sara was not happy to sit and watch so we left the gym to wander around the rec center, possibly stopping at the library. Unfortunately we never made it to the library because I was unfortunate enough to fall down a set of horrible scary looking concrete stairs. It was a rather nasty fall too, as I was holding Sara in one arm and the railing with the other hand. I fell forward, which means that I fell forward and into the railing, as I wasn't letting go of the railing for anything. Unfortunately though without another free hand to catch myself my forward momentum continued to propel me forwards and downwards. So I was forced to let go of the railing as I continued my trip down the stairs in a very awkward backwards sideways somersault. Anybody who has ever fallen while carrying a child knows that absolutely no attempt can be made to save oneself any pain as all effort is being put into stopping your child from cracking their head on the horrible scary not rounded stairs. So while I may have managed this trip down the stairs without any injury to myself had I been by myself, I have to console myself with the knowledge that by some amazing miracle I did make it down the stairs without injuring Sara.

What amazes me about this whole experience though, and perhaps the reason why I have decided to post about it, is the absolute indifference that other people showed to our plight. There is one person in particular who I am wishing at least three weeks of bad karma on. This is the person who passed us on the stairs just moments before I fell. This man actually continued on his way exiting the building while I was still laying at the bottom of the stairs trying to figure out if I was going to pass out from the incredible pain coming from the back of my head. I heard two sounds as I assessed my situation, Sara crying, and the click of the door at the top of the stairs opening. Some people may of course excuse this guy's behavior with the assumption that he wasn't aware that I fell down the stairs, but I have to dismiss this as I let out a small audible yell as I began to fall, and there is no way a pregnant women and a toddler gracefully fall down a set of stairs without making a sound, and come on, the toddler was screaming. So anyways I have to wonder how it is that anyone could possibly ignore a pregnant lady carrying a toddler who has just fallen down the stairs, I always thought that the image of motherhood was supposed to evoke the utmost generosity in people. So anyways enough about that guy there was a nice woman with a child of her own coming from the other direction who stopped to ask if I was okay, and so I hope she has a really good three weeks, and for the other half a dozen people who looked right at me sitting at the bottom of the stairs with a screaming toddler and didn't stop I wish them two weeks of bad karma.

Just to reassure everybody I did go to a medicenter mostly because my head hurt like you wouldn't believe and well I am pregnant and I did roll down a set of concrete stairs. Of course I later discovered that the reason my head hurt so bad was because I had hit it not in one place but three, and I just couldn't narrow down the sources of pain until the main one started to subside. So I have two goose eggs on the back of my head and a bruise above my one eye. and of course more bruises then I care to count going from my shins all the way up to my head. But hey Sara doesn't have any!

After this whole excursion we decided not to attempt to paint the kid's room on Saturday and instead finished organizing our basement after the kids went to bed Saturday evening. But Sunday we felt a little at a loss as what to do with ourselves so we went to home depot and picked out the paint for the kids room anyways, and I am glad to say that it is over half way done. Hopefully we will have it finished tonight and the kids back in their room by Tuesday night.

Swimming Lessons

Hannah started her swimming lessons on Wednesday and she seemed to really enjoy them. I have to say that I do not envy the instructor for a class of 6 three year olds. There was a few moments where he a little difficulty keeping one or two from wandering off. Hannah enjoyed the splashing and floating on a kick board and can't wait to go back next week. Me and Sara paid to go to the Parent and tot swim time which was available during Hannah's lessons so we got to go swimming as well, and Sara really enjoyed swimming, although she seems to have no concept of her own safety. She ducked her own head more times then I can count, first when she was using the kick board in the shallow water, and then when she was walking in the deep water. The whole outing was a success anyways and we will definitely continue to take advantage of the parent and tot swim time during Hannah's lessons.

Christmas Summary

I know Christmas was a month ago, but I can't help but feel that it is important enough to warrant a post even if it is ridiculously late. We started our Christmas holidays by traveling to Edson to relax for a few days and then celebrate Christmas. It was of course enjoyable with lots of good food. Hannah had a blast as she got into the Christmas spirit, she enjoyed Papa's lights and took great offense when the blowup figures weren't turned on. She decorated cookies and of course was ecstatic with the phone call she received from Santa on Christmas eve. Sara was a little more mellow about the whole Christmas thing, mostly wanting to play with other people's toys rather then open her own presents but she enjoyed torturing her cousins, looking for cars out the window and riding on her dump truck that she got for Christmas.

We then traveled on to Saskatoon where we spent the rest of our holidays celebrating two more Christmases and New Years. Once again we really enjoyed ourselves in Saskatoon. Hannah really enjoyed playing with her two aunts and well opening more presents. Sara continued torturing her cousin, and her two aunts. Me and Dan got to play lots of board games which always puts us in a good mood so the whole visit was a success.

We headed home on New's Year day and spent the next two weeks relaxing after our vacation.