The Finale Of ‘The First Birthday’


09/15/21

Lake slept through his first night in Holland, minus a bottle delivery somewhere in there.

We messaged the Oma downstairs, to come retrieve him at 8:00 if she would so desire 😉

We wanted him up to try to help the jet-lag become fully extinguished, but we ourselves really did not feel like getting up at that time 🙈

So, Oma and Opa did take him, and a happily decorated downstairs awaited him for the morning of his first birthday 😉

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He had a fun morning with them, a ‘special bonding time for just them’ let’s say…the fact that us parents still slept, having nothing to do with it🤪

Come afternoon, Opa had a break to take from work, so it was time for Lake to open his present from them 🎁 

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A super cute little Vespa was unwrapped and made for the perfect photo prop as well 😉

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Though I’m not so sure what the chances of getting it back home with us are 😬🙈

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Later in the afternoon the little one wasn’t super pleased with the idea of a nap, so Mike and I took him for a walk, which is almost always a guaranteed way to get him asleep, for at least a little while.

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We ended up going almost 5.5 Km, walking through the neighbourhood and to the bridge/‘water lock’ nearer town, reading how they created a way for the fish to swim upstream, despite the river technically being blocked off.

Lock – A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways.

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Journeying on, we walked by ‘the switch’, a second hand store we frequently went to when we lived here, but they’ve since downsized and it was a little bit disappointing 😒

Back at John and Inge’s, it wasn’t long until Opa and Oma De Jong came over for a little afternoon dessert in honour of the day 😊

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A cornflake, white chocolate and almond base, topped with whipped cream and strawberries.

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A really nice, light and simple dessert that satisfies the sweet tooth without being over filling ☺️👌🏻🍓

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Uncle Erwin also popped in for a little while on his way home from work, getting in some soccer training with his nephew – aka, keeping him busy so us other occupiers got a break 🤪👍🏻

It was also the night for broccoli tart. A celebration treat especially for the parents for keeping Lake going for a year I suppose 🤪😅

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All in all, I think it’s a good thing in a way that Lake won’t recall this birthday, as it would be a fair bit to live up to 🙈

A pre birthday cake & gift giving in Saskatchewan, a pre birthday at his Aunty Judith’s with a meal, cake and gifts and then decorations, gifts and treats, after a morning spent with Oma and Opa on the actual day OF his birthday 😅

Special or just spoiled? You decide 😉💗

Sunday – Truly A Fun Day

 

09/12/21

How can such a small human body, take up so much space in a bed ? 🤪

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Lake continued his night in our bed after the early morning waking, resulting in feet and hands in our faces, as well as the occasional head bonking. Enough to make the rest of our sleep just ‘ok’ and his pleasant 😏

10:30/11 was the time the boys rolled out of bed, and after a morning of packing and preparation and a little play, we headed to Mikes sisters home in Germany, in timing with Lake’s nap 👍🏻

 

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We have to drive on the autobahn to get there and I’d slightly forgotten about how pleasant that can actually be… though some may not be comfortable with the speed of those who travel on the left side
😜 It was  around 3:30 when we arrived at Judith’s and the greeting committee was at the driveway watching for us to get there, opening the car door the moment it stopped to get a look at Lake 💗

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Once the aunts, uncles and cousins had also gotten a look at him, lunch awaited.

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A spread of burgers and all their toppings were prepared and we happily partook
☺️

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Lake still wasn’t playing shy/strange with anybody and so he was kept busy by the cousins and family members, all of us outside enjoying a beautiful day.

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As the meal/day had been in honour of Lake’s (early) birthday, coffee and dessert came out and presents followed not long after 😉

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Aunty Sarah made the number 1 brownie and he was not overly interested in the aspect of helping himself, just as he hadn’t been with his cake at home. Still seeming to prefer using a spoon or being fed 😜

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Aunty Judith helped him with the present opening and as always, the wrapping was more entertaining than the gifts were to him, but we the parents appreciated the items and thoughts behind them 😉💗👍🏻

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The guys went off to play soccer, Lake went down for a late nap and is sisters-in-law went for a 5km walk, while Inge stayed with the children.

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(It was nice to take a new route for a change😉🤪)

A little more visiting ensued once we returned, but with an hour or so drive to return to their houses, the others left and we stayed to spend a night or two with Judith and her family.

Lake wasn’t at all interested in going to bed until after 12:30 am.

 

 * I ask that you do your best to ignore any spelling mistakes, as on my iPad the set up is different and I can’t find an easy way to do a spelling / grammar check. Thank you for your understanding 🤪

Day One Desynchronosis 

09/11/21

Lake awoke crying about 45 minutes after he’d went to bed, so I settled him down and he joined us for the remainder of the night.

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So much for bringing his crib sheet from home so his bed felt more familiar 😜 My sleep was restless until around 2, when Lake then awoke, ate a big bottle and didn’t want to go back to sleep 🤪

Mike took him to the play room for a while and then Inge took a turn because she said she was awake anyways. Eventually he began to seem drowsy again, so they tried to lay him down, but that was a no go 😅 So we took him bed once more, where he flip flopped around, watched some Luca, crawled all over us and then finally settled enough to be slowly rocked back to sleep around 5.

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We all slept in until 10:30 and could have kept sleeping, but figured if we wanted to attempt to get into the rhythm of the days ahead, we’d better not. It was just us three for  the morning, as John and Inge had left that morning to attend a weekend church camp being held nearby.

We figured we’d see how the night/morning went and go from there if we’d join them at all or not.

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Mike made us coffee and sugar bread toast for brunch and by the time we ate, tided, cleaned up the room from the night before and got the diaper bag restocked etc.etc. It was time for Lake’s first nap of the day, which he took easily, in his crib.

We had to wake him up in order to go to the camp, which was around 25 minutes away.

He sat calmly and lazily in his car seat (not something he’s really done for any amount of time before🤪) for more than half of the drive, looking up at the trees through the sunroof. Here they let babies sit front facing from 9 months old, so he’s been enjoying the views I think 😉

We shall see how much he likes being faced back again, once we go home 🥴🙈

We arrived, and the meet and greet began 🤪

It was a lot of family/extended family, so it was nice to be able to see them there for a moment even,  in case we didn’t get a chance later on. 
Lake did so well with meeting everyone and being squished and squeezed and  handed around, not playing strange or getting upset at all, so that was relieving 😅 
So many remark that, ‘he is so soft?!’… I thought all babies were but it’s seeming like perhaps that isn’t actually the case? 😜

He got to meet both sets of great opa’s and oma’s and sat for a ‘four generations’ photo with his great opa Hagenouw, opa John and daddy 🙂

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We went to a cabin the family was renting for the weekend and used that opportunity to change him out of his wet clothes and give him a snack. The rained on grass having been too much of a crawling temptation 🤪

The coffee table was spread with tea and coffee, cake, cookies and sweet treats. The most classic of Dutch spreads 😉

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I truly still do not understand how they stay so slight of stature here 😅 Bread in the morning, the afternoon and the in-betweens, as well as some warm drinks and sweets sprinkled in and possibly some cakes/tarts depending on where you are 🤪

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We visited there for a while as the rain came down outside and then Lisanne took Lake to the nearby park before the church service began. Mike wanted to stay for the songs at least but midway through, Lake had more than enough so we tried to quietly exit and head back to the house.

Lake fell asleep on my shoulder a few steps out of the church, which I don’t think has ever happened during this first year of his life 😅


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He’s always been too easily distracted to relax enough to sleep out in the open, since he passed 5 months or so. 
The poor little guy was very done with the big day, but he did very well despite the lack of naps and all of the new faces 💗

He awoke at 1:30 am and played calmly for a couple of hours before I got him back to sleep for the duration…

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 * I ask that you do your best to ignore any spelling mistakes, as on my iPad the set up is different and I can’t find an easy way to do a spelling / grammar check. Thank you for your understanding 🤪

Lake Life Half A Year In

Today marks Lake having been with us for 6 months now!

‘Time flies by ever so slowly,’ as they say 😉Actually I’m not sure if ‘they’ say it or if I have simply wrote it before 🤪

It is a little wild to think that we’ve been parents for half a year already but when I think of the day by day passing of time, it hasn’t felt THAT crazy quick.

Something that brings true awareness of how far Lake has come, is his newly arrived cousin who joined the family on March 9th. She in all her newborn ‘6 pounds and a bit’ littleness and he in his ’20 pounds and some’ largeness, make his advancements in size VERY apparent  😜

He has begun eating some solid foods… though I’m not sure why they called pureed carrots, mashed avocado and baby cereal ‘solids’ but whatever 🥴 He has enjoyed it all thus far and it seems to be helping stretch the hungry spells, just a smidgen longer 😅

Rolling from back to belly is no problem whatsoever but rolling the reverse way, though possible, is not as enjoyed. Pushing himself up with his arms has just begun to happen and sitting unassisted is an option, though a blanket nest built around him is still necessary for when an out of reach toy, or sneeze, causes the balance once had, to be lost 😜

Three naps a day are taken without too much fuss (naps with mommy are still the best though 😉) but the nights of 10 hour sleep stretches are no longer and I think we’ve only had two solid nights, in the last month or so. The 8 am wake up has been replaced by 6:00-7:00 and easily falling asleep at bedtime without a paci has now turned into waking up crying anytime the paci vacates the mouth 😬 He sleeps with a floppy bunny from his great grandma in Holland and hates if his feet are covered with the blankets.

Drool soaks the bibs or clothes rather rapidly and chewing on anything, or anyone, is considered an enjoyable passtime but no signs of the impending teeth yet.

He has begun to reach out his arms to get held and is very ticklish all over.

Blowing/spitting bubbles (with a fair bit of force) is an extra fun way to communicate, along with the usual screeches and coo’s.

Aside from a one recent hour long episode of great discontentment (crying/screaming) in the truck, he typically doesn’t mind the vehicle too much and is now out of the baby carrier and into the carseat, since he is too squished in the carrier.

He will sometimes give lovely mouth open, tongue out kisses on the cheek when asked and can finally use his hands enough to put his paci back in his mouth and hold his bottle.

He wears size 9-12 month clothing, smiles often and easily and for the most part, is still a pretty content and easy baby… especially if he doesn’t have to be wearing pants 😉

 

It just so happened that one week and one day after Lakes welcome into the world, a lady we know who happens to be an amazing photographer, was coming out to take photos of my sisters little people and as I was around, I got to join in on it.

Meaning I got some amazing photos of, and with, our fairly newborn son ☺️

She did a wonderful job, giving cues, directing poses and delivering the beautifully edited images speedily. I was in turn reassured with the fact that I’d forever have a reliable photographer on hand ☺️

So, happy 6 months to my already ‘not so little anymore’, little person and thank you to Talitha Rinas Photography for capturing some of his first days here 🖤

Talitha Rinas Photography

 

Follow Up Feelings

It was requested that when time allowed, I write a follow up to the post I wrote about my thoughts and feelings pre Lake being born.

You can find that post here – Aren’t You Excited ?! A Slightly Different Perspective On Pregnancy

Truly, I don’t have much to write about it, as the transition went a lot smoother than I was gearing up for 😬

I’m extremely thankful that Lake was (and still pretty much is 😉) a very content, happy and easy baby. Sleeping decently, quickly (though that’s slowly been changing as of late 🤪).

So I had time and a rested body on my side when it came to being eased into the baby thing.

When the occasional crying fits and long nights DID happen, I couldn’t imagine having had that to get through from the get go as some people do 😬
That could have very drastically changed the transition.

It sounds crazy to even me, but the fears and feelings I had, pretty much disappeared once Lake was with us in real life, physical form.

Not as in a huge wave of motherly love and emotion washed overwhelmingly around me the moment I first lay eyes upon him, in turn wiping away the past 10 months…

More like… maybe the pregnancy hormones just immediately began levelling back out the moment Lake left my body 😜

I just know I didn’t stay in the state I was prior to him being born.

Thank goodness 😅

I can’t give any tips or tricks, answers or reasons as to why or how those feelings changed, other than – they did.
That’s not very satisfying or helpful I know but maybe it can be considered at least ‘hopeful’ for someone who’s dealing with those pre baby emotions.

In conclusion, it is safe to say that I most certainly love him and am glad he’s a part of our family and that the trepidation of his arrival was indeed, uncalled for.

Still not saying that those were feelings I could have changed, because trust me, I tried to and I wanted to and it did nothing 🤪

In the end, all I can do is simply be thankful that they didn’t stay, that I have a happy and healthy baby and trust the feelings I expressed having prior to his birth, were read and of help to someone else going through the same thing ♥️

This is probably one of the most pointless seeming posts I’ve put up, as I have no answer, explanation or solution but it was asked that I post an update and thus, I have.
My apologies for the anticlimactic ending 😉

A ‘Rash-ional’ Recollection Of Post Babe Peculiarities

Though I can’t really give you great details as to what exactly happened/was felt on what day (that’s all totally gone and lost from the memory bank) I will detail (some in a semi discrete way of detailing) a few ‘things’ about what I and my person have experienced after having given birth to this blob 🤪

During the first days of that first week home, evenings were weird.
I realized I was probably overtired and dealing with a lot of hormonal things going on but for some reason, during the day I’d feel pretty good and ‘with it’ and then as soon as it started to get dark outside, the feelings got heavy.
It felt sad and lonely and scary inside the house…probably outside too but I didn’t find that out 🤪
It didn’t feel like there was any place for good feelings.
Not as in baby blues or a dislike of Lake or myself, just ALLLL the emotions of the day and the thoughts of facing the upcoming night, (though he was sleeping pretty decently) felt like a weight falling on me with the setting of the sun.
I felt like I couldn’t get enough light in the house and the realness of having a little life to care for became really, real.
The tears came nearly nightly for 3-4 four nights.

The patience with the husband was nearly non existent 😬

I found out I had burst blood vessels in both my eyes (most likely due to pushing) after my sister seen and told me.
I showed my mom and you’d think she would never have been able to be in the room with me WHILE I gave birth, by her repulsed reaction 😂

I’m bottle feeding Lake, so you can fill in the blanks as to why cabbage leaves and ibuprofen had to be purchased 4 days in 🤪
That was … different. Gravity didn’t exist and I don’t ever need/want to pay for the effects that were imitated… if you catch my drift 😂 If you don’t, too bad because I’m not going to explain 🙈

One nice-ish thing about being pregnant, was that I didn’t have more than one zit, for 9 months 😳
But that came back in a smattering of little pimples and an extremely, desert dry face 😬

Clinical strength deodorant had to be purchased to deal with a change of those hormones and extra strength meds were bought to combat the daily headaches, which began a couple weeks in and then lasted 5 weeks or so.

The doctor said the headaches were most likely caused from holding Lake so much and the way it twists your neck/shoulders, especially if you are prone to using one arm more than the other, which I am. His recommendations for relief were time, hydration and stretching.

I had some MAJOR baby brain.
If thinking coherent thoughts were represented by bouncy balls in baskets, all my baskets were thrown in the air and the bouncy balls were ricocheting off every single surface, not to be caught 🤪

I was forgetting stuff and also having trouble formulating thoughts and making decisions on new things, without feeling like the bouncy ball thoughts were also going to start exploding, along with their unstoppable bouncing 🙈

It has mostly revised itself… I think 🤓

A couple days post birthing him, my muscles began to feel very strained when I’d move around…my arms and neck having that same lingering feeling as your leg has after a bad Charlie horse.
That lasted a few days but the sore upper abdominal muscles/ribs when using them in specific movements, lingered for a good 9 weeks.

Haven’t had enough information yet?

Let’s talk rashes 🤓

During the following days of being home, the stretch marks on my stomach were a bit itchy but I tried to ignore it best I could.
Come Thursday the 22nd, I gave them a good, hard, relieving, amazing feeling scratch… and so it began. A rash then began to appear on my stomach and I figured it was just due to the extensive scratching.
During the day it progressively worsened and spread to my limbs and hands and come end of day, my face, ears, legs and feet, including the bottoms of my feet, were all rash ridden.

The itching was insane. I was able to call my doctor and get some cream for the husband to bring home and I applied that liberally and tried not to scratch.
The next day it was even worse. The desire to shred my skin off has never been so strong and writing about it, is almost making me get itchy again 😅
The sister mixed up some essential oils she’d read to try online and brought them over in the morning and then I went over to her house that afternoon to try an oatmeal bath. It eased it minimally while IN the bath but the gentle pat dry with a towel afterword, pretty much reawakened whatever it had calmed.

And it just got worse.

Come evening, I was standing trying to get up the courage to apply the cream, clenching my fists and teeth so hard I was quivering and near tears due to the current itch strength and the thought of having to touch my skin and make the itch even worse.

Via ‘the google’, it seemed like PUPPPs but that’s typically something gotten before the babe is born.

 

Come Saturday I went into the walk-in clinic and got some stronger meds.
The doctor said it seemed like a reaction to something and asked if I’d changed anything at home but Lake was the only thing I could think of 🤪 He then asked if I had a husband home to help, because the night time meds would knock me out and the day time ones could almost make me feel squirrelly 🥴🤪

Whatever they were… they worked 🙌🏻

Praise. The. Lord.
Seriously. I don’t know how to explain the itch properly or how a person would handle it DURING pregnancy when you’d have all the discomforts of pregnancy to add to it 😳😖😰
The meds took care of it within a couple of days and after that, any other post Lake body happenings, seemed pretty bearable 😅

I still feel a little paranoid when I get a strong random itch but besides that I think I’m pretty much back to my normal 🤪

I do believe that pretty much covers the most apparent and perhaps slightly unexpected, side effects I experienced after having had a baby.  Though most of these occurrences are ones I didn’t read or hear about before hand, when I was looking up what to expect after having a baby.

So I hope you found this enlightening, insightful or at least entertaining at my expense 🤪

If you had any unexpected side effects of having a baby and are willing to divulge, I’d love to hear about them! 🤪

I do believe I’m now out of the immediate danger zone for experiencing anymore overly weird bodily things in relation to this, so in ending the topic, I now leave you with this, the sincerest of wishes…

‘May you never itch, as I have itched’. 😂

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