Trick or Treat

Tonight was an awesome night! We took Claire 'trick or treating' for the first time. I wasn't sure if she would be too young at not quite three, but thought we would give it a go and try going to a couple houses. 


The first two or three houses, she was kind of shy, and hadn't quite figured out that you needed to wait until the person opened the door before saying 'trick or treat'. She didn't know that you had to hold out your bucket so the person could put some candy in it. But after a few tries she had it down pat. 


It was pretty much the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Hearing her say in her sweet little voice, 'trick or treat'. And then, 'thank you' after she was given some candy. She would excitedly run to the next house, not sure if this was too good to be true. 


Denis dressed as a zombie, so Claire referred to him as 'zombie' the whole night instead of daddy. "Come on zombie. Thank you Zombie." Jack rode along in the stroller. Every once in a while we had to empty Claire's bucket of treats into the stroller basket because it was too heavy for her to carry. 

Jack checking out Claire's candy

Jack helping himself to Claire's candy

Claire not really wanting to share her candy

 And just because I love comparison pictures...

Claire on her first, second, and third Halloween

And both Claire and Jack on their first Halloween. Claire at nine months, Jack at six.

Jack's Birth Story

Today my sweet little man is six months old. I will wait to share his stats, since he has his six month appointment on Monday. But I thought I would share his birth story.

39 weeks pregnant

After weeks of labour stopping and starting I was getting exhausted. On Thursday April 29 I started having contractions around midnight. They were very sporadic, but I knew they were getting stronger and I was getting closer to delivery.

I had a stretch and sweep booked for 9:30 that morning, so I thought I would just go ahead with that and let my midwife know then that I thought maybe labour had begun as well as get checked to see of my cervix had made any changes. She checked me, and did the sweep and told me I was now 5cm dilated. She felt my belly during a contraction to see how strong it was as well as timed it. because they were only lasting 25 seconds, and she said they felt relatively mild that this was not necessarily going to turn into active labour today.

I shed a few tears at this point as I had barely slept in a couple days because the contractions were painful enough to keep me awake. I told her, I did not think I could go on like this for days on end anymore. She asked me if I wanted to have my baby today, and I of course said, "yes please". She told me to go home and try to get some sleep so I'd have energy for delivery and she would come over around 3 or 4pm and break my water. She said because I had been in early labour for so long, and was quite dilated that my body might just need a little push to go into active labour.

So I went home and tried to sleep but the contractions were too strong for sleeping even after taking gravol and tylenol. I sat on the exercise ball through the contractions as well as standing and rocking my hips side to side. Around 11 we tried to eat some lunch, but I could only get half of it down because the contractions were getting so strong.

I went upstairs to my bedroom at this point and alternated between sitting on the toilet and kneeling on the floor with my arms on my bed through contractions. Around 12 I told Denis I think he needed to call the midwives. My contractions were still not lasting a minute, but my gut told me it wouldn't be long.

The midwives got there sometime between 12:30-1:00pm, I'm not exactly sure when. I threw up right before they got there, so I knew I had made the right decision calling them. My midwife checked me and I was a good 6cm. I was so happy and relieved. By the time I was 6cm with Claire, I was asking for drugs and wanting to die. This time I found it painful and hard work, and I just wanted it to be over but I was coping so much better. I knew I could do it.

She broke my water at this point and we noticed the fluid was slightly stained with meconium. It wasn't dark and thick though, so my midwife was not too concerned. I expected the contractions to really pick up in intensity at this point, but I didn't really notice a huge difference. My midwife encouraged me to make a deep moaning sound through contractions which really helped me focus. After a few more contractions I could feel the baby getting lower and knew it wouldn't be long before it was time to push.

At just before 1:30 I got on the bed and started to push my baby out. That feeling freaked me out. It was a lot harder than it was with Claire which should have clued me in to his position. I pushed through the intense burning and at 2:05pm Jack came into the world weighing 8 lbs, 12 oz, almost two pounds bigger than his sister was. He was 21", 1 " bigger than his sister was.

 
He came out not making much noise and his colour wasn't the greatest, so the midwife had to cut the cord right away and take him to suction out his lungs. He had swallowed some meconium. After a couple minutes, he started crying and was placed back in my arms. At this point they told me he had come out in a posterior position. I couldn't believe I had just pushed out a sunny side up baby. No wonder it was such hard work pushing him out. And I didn't even tear. I was so happy to not have to be stitched up this time.

Having him at home was so nice. I had a shower and got to climb into my bed and just cuddle, and nurse my baby. My mom brought Claire home a couple hours later and she has proven to be the sweetest big sister. She is quite taken with her little brother, and proudly shows him off to visitors.

Claire meeting Jack for the very first time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting Daddy

Brother and sister bonding

Beautiful Boy

Baby Led Weaning

I knew when I was pregnant with Jack that I would use a baby led weaning approach to starting solids this time. With Claire I made all her food and started her with things like millet, oatmeal, avocado, and banana instead of the traditional rice cereal from a box. But it was still all pureed and fed to her from a spoon.


This time we waited until Jack was developmentally ready to pick up the food and eat it on his own. Jack has been eyeing us eat for months now, but his ability to grab something small and put it in his mouth had gotten really good in the last few days, so I thought we would give it a go. Last night we had chicken and veggies for dinner, so I gave Jack some and he dug right in.

And today I gave him some avocado to try. It was pretty cute watching him try to pick up a piece because it;s so darn slippery. But he did manage to get some in that mouth of his. 

I love BLW because I know his body is ready for solid food, and he's controlling how much he's taking in. Probably not very much is actually going in right now, but that's okay. For the first year of life, food is meant for fun and exploring. He's still getting all the nutrition he needs from breast milk.


Here's a couple videos of Jack eating. So cute!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures done this weekend. I was a little bit nervous since I don't really like being in front of the camera, but the photographer Nikki was so good at making it relaxed and fun. She also did an amazing job working with Claire who is in a 'refuse to look at the camera' sort of stage.


Check out the sneak peak here. I just love how these turned out. And Nikki loves comments as much as I do, so please feel free to leave a comment on her post. 


If you are looking for a photographer for your family, might I suggest Nikki at Bittersweet Photography. You can find all of her info here. She can also be found on facebook here

Thanks again Nikki for capturing these moments with my family so beautifully! 

Love

I know I've said this a million times, but I can't get over how much Jack loves his sister. Just look at his face when he sees her...

Preschool Update

Claire has been in preschool for over a month now! I knew she would have a hard time separating from me. She was in day care for about five months when I worked to get another mat leave. She cried all day, every day for almost the entire five months. It was really hard on both her and I, and left both of us a little traumatized. Her teachers were really good, but Claire was only 18 months old. She just wasn't ready yet. Fast forward to my almost three year old, and I can't believe how far we've come.


When we talk about preschool, she gets very excited and will even ask to go on non preschool days, but when we walk into the building, the tears start flowing. She's started saying she needs to go pee when we get there, which I know is a stalling tactic because she has just peed before we left the house. I'm not quite sure how to handle that one. She will just sit on the toilet, but not actually pee. When I tell her it's time to go to her class, she says, "I'm not ready yet".


Once we get into her class, I try to make it pretty quick. She's usually clinging to me, and the teacher has to pry her away from me. She has attached herself to one teacher in particular which was helping, but that teacher has been away for over a week now. I was pretty impressed with her teachers because they anticipated Claire missing her favourite teacher, so they arranged for me to drop Claire off in the second class with the other teacher, picking up on the fact that Claire does better when it's quieter, and less people around.


This morning when I passed her off, she went willingly, instead of clinging to me. I heard her say to her teacher, "I'm sad". As I walked out of the school, I peaked in on her through the window, and she was already happy and playing. I almost think the tears are more of a habit than anything.


So, even though the drop offs are hard, they are getting better, and the fact that she stops crying right away, and enjoys herself is huge! She always comes home with lots of crafts, and singing new songs. I really like her teachers too. I can't wait for the day where there are no tears at drop off. That will be a big milestone for her.

Thanksgiving

What a beautiful thanksgiving weekend! We headed up to my parent's trailer in Sauble Beach on Saturday. This was the last weekend up there until spring which is always a little bit sad. 

Jack woke me up nice and early on Sunday morning, so we got to see the sun come up. The trailer is right on a little lake. It is just so beautiful.

We got to hang out on Sunday morning, and we took advantage of the opportunity to put Jack in the little ottoman. We have pictures of Claire in it at the same age. Jack loved it, and we got some cute pictures of him in there. He is a seriously beautiful baby if I do say so myself.

 Jack loved playing with my parent's dog Lars. Lars adores both Claire and Jack and has from the day they were born. It's sweet how gentle he is with them.

 We watched Claire entertain us, which she was quite happy to do. She sang, and danced, and jumped, and spun. She is so funny that beautiful girl of mine.

 Then we headed to Wiarton to have thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle's beautiful property.

 We were greeted by their labs, Bear and Clover.

 We relaxed with drinks and family.

 Claire discovered jelly and decided it was the best thing on the face of the earth. She took huge spoonfuls and put them on her cracker, which she would then eat off the cracker and repeat without ever taking a bite of the actual cracker. And we let her because it was cute, and funny, and why the heck not?

  We played, and explored and enjoyed being outside on such a beautiful day.

 Claire found a decorative rooster that she fell in love with. That girl loves animals regardless if they're real or not.

We all went on a leisurely walk through the trails with drinks in hand, stopping for pictures, and to enjoy the scenery.

 

We also stopped for an impromptu play in the leaves.

And Jack fell asleep on daddy's chest

 

And then we all sat down to eat a delicious turkey dinner. Good food, family, a beautiful fall day. Life doesn't get much better than this.

I have a lot to be thankful for.