Tag: Parents

The ‘Firsts’ Of Many!

Well, I never thought it would take me over 9 weeks to write a blog post about daily life 😅🙈

That being said, let’s just dive right in to this overview of Lakes first week home!

No pun intended 😜

16th – (The evening)

I finally opened up the gifts that had been left on the kitchen island! My sisters ‘new mom’ care package consisted of celebratory sparkling grape juice, a confetti birthday cake for Lake 😉 a starbucks gift card, travel coffee mug, hair masks and facial oil ❤ There was also a bag containing some sherbet colored tie-dye pj’s from the hubby 😉

The first NIGHT home with Lake, was horrendous 😣

It felt so wrong to have him in his own crib in his room, so we made up a makeshift bed beside ours and thus began the night of zero sleep for mommy 😬😜

‘Is that a normal noise or a not normal noise? Why is there no noise?’ and so the questions went, running through a very alert, yet at the same time very over-tired brain 😬
Fairly normal I’m sure but also SO exhausting and morning was pleasantly welcomed… just, very groggily 😬

17th –

Mike had went to work, so I had my first morning at home with the babe. I ate one of the blueberry bran muffins the sister-in-law had dropped off the day before and was super thankful for that easy and tasty way to begin the day… accompanied by a confetti cupcake from the sister for balancing out the health levels😉
Slowly trying to tidy the house between feedings, changings, swaddling and just trying to figure him out, as well as managing my own aches and pains, is what filled my morning.

My mom stopped by on her way to town later in the morning and after I tried to talk with her and had a tired (little😉) hormonal cry, she dropped me off at to my sisters and I ended up being there for the remainder of the day.

The process of getting ready to go to her house took much, MUCH longer than it ever had before and I still felt very unprepared 😅
I had to get dressed, feed and dress the babe, pack some stuff so I could have a bath there as we don’t have a tub and then try to pack up the diaper bag too. Although none of those tasks should be tricky, my brain function wasn’t at an all time high after having had roughly 8 hours of sleep over the previous three nights 🤪

I had a quick bath (as I still abhor baths) and changed into actual semi publicly acceptable clothes and was then treated to a yummy fried eggs and toast brunch before going to take a nap in the sisters room, whilst she babysat.

I slept for 2, VERY wonderful hours and probably could have continued but figured I shouldn’t 🤪

Next, I was served a tasty fruit smoothie and then she and I traded shoulder rubs.
I was served a healthy and delicious supper of spaghetti squash with blackened chicken and tomato sauce, as Mike was working a long day and wouldn’t be home for supper anyways.

My day there ended with a coffee and newly brightened outlook on life, after having been served all day 💗

We put Lake in his room that night and it was a much better sleep for us all.
His room is literally just a few steps across from ours and with the doors open, there is more than enough nearness to be aware of his needs 😉
It still felt a little wrong… knowing that he’d only known a warm, dark, comfy and noisy place up till this point in his life, where he now lay all alone in a ‘big’ empty bed 🤪🙈

18th –

It was a very pretty morning that awaited me prior to Lakes breakfast feeding ☺️

Mike went into town to take care of a few things and I tried to finish cleaning up the house, give Lake a little wash cloth bath and get myself ready for the health nurses visit.

Mike was back at the house before they arrived that afternoon.
One asked me questions about my recovery etc. while the other looked over Lake.

It took three try’s to weigh him, during which on the third try he went #1 and #2 on their scale🤪

Besides a bit of a rash under his one arm, he was looking good and we just had to try to not keep him too warm and air out his little pit/put some rash cream on it for a few days.

A call with Oma Inge gave us some more tips on how to care for it as well 👍🏻

A family photo was snapped since we looked semi put together… note the vacuum behind us though 🤪

Thanks to a reminder from a friend, I actually snapped a picture of just myself and Lake later that day, not really having thought to do that up to that point.

19th –

I took a picture of his fuzzy little ears, wanting to document them before the hair went away, as there are few opportunities in life where hairy ears, are considered cute 🤪🙈

(Even here, they are almost verging on creepy more than cute 🤪 )

Mike hung out around home for a little bit before he went to Saskatoon to buy a vehicle 🤪

I then went to the parents house for dinner/the evening.
Where Lake enjoyed a leg massage via grams 🤪

Mike came there with the new vehicle and informed us that it was MY and Lakes car… cause I drive so much 😂
But whatever 😉💁🏻‍♀️

New baby, new car… typical Mike 😏

Once home, there was some laundry to be tended to before bed 🤪

20th –

We stayed home and listened to a sermon that Sunday and then actually had some family friends over for lunch ☺️
Sundays can feel long when spent at home after a Saturday at home too, I was feeling fine, Mike was going to grill and they wanted to meet Lake asap, so it all worked out perfectly 😉

Beside the fact that our guest insisted on bringing the salad and dessert, so I didn’t have a whole lot to take care of preparation wise 🤪

We spent the afternoon visiting with them, the sister and her littles came over too around the dessert portion of the day and the husbands went to look at an acreage that Mike had seen was for sale and we’d taken a look at before Lake was born.

Atlas was caught by Mike, sneaking a peek at the babe in his room 😏

21st-

Monday brought with it some beautiful weather that needed to be taken advantage of 😄
So, after Mom came over and helped me give Lake another bath, we bundled him up for his first ‘walk’.

It was most definitely a slower walk then we’d went on pre Lake, every bump and jostle seeming like it must feel as though there was an earthquake in the stroller seat for the babe🙈

After we completed our walk, we enjoyed some of the creamy potato soup my dear friend had left with me the day before ☺️🙌🏻

Atlas was found asleep in Lakes crib, multiple times.

The funny thing is that prior to Lake being in the house with us, she had zero interest in his room.
It had been finished and ready, door open, for weeks. During which she never went in it but after laying Lake in his bed for half an hour or so the first day we were home, she was later found asleep in his crib.
Attempting to reclaim her territory I would presume 😬😅

22nd –

My friend who moved to Ontario was back visiting and had a chance to come make Lakes acquaintance ☺️ She MADE him this thick, cozy blanket and putting aside the face he is making, he loved it I’m certain 😉

I somehow did more socializing and being ready to see people and having a clean house in Lakes first week of life, then any of the months before he was born 🤪
It was so nice to be able to see her though, since if she hadn’t happened to be visiting, it would most likely have been some time before she’d get to see him.

The health nurses called to check up on me and the babe again, just making sure all was still going well, which thankfully, it was ☺️

This doesn’t really detail the many night wakings and general emotions that also occurred during this first week but perhaps a post on those ‘pleasantries’, shall follow 🤓

À La Babymoon

Day 1 – July 23rd 2020

Well, the decision was finally made to take a little ‘pre babester trip’.
We talked about doing some sort of trip off and on, back and forth for awhile but I couldn’t make up my mind…

On one hand it sounded appealing and like something we should indeed do while we could still enjoy the freedom of not having a small person to tend to and on the other hand it sounded like a very, very uncomfortable drive and a frivolous use of funds when the list of needed baby items isn’t checked off yet 🤪

What really did it was when friends/family from BC told Mike that they were going to be in Jasper area during an upcoming weekend.
Due to the Covid nonsense, our June guests hadn’t been able to come out and any other travel plans were not sitting high on the predictability scale, so Mike was feeling the need for socializing pretty strongly, so it worked to make the trip dual purpose 😜

We decided to leave Thursday afternoon after a morning of doctor appointments.
One ultrasound and check up for me and the babe and one check up for Mikes knee which had been swollen and inflamed for over a week, due to too much kneeling at work 😬

The ultrasound tech said the baby was looking like he weighed around 4lbs 10oz annnnd then asked who in the family had the big head because his was big.

Great, thank you, JUST what a pregnant lady wants to hear, that her ‘not to be born for weeks yet’ child, already has a big noggin 🤪👍🏻
All else was fine though, so we continued on, trying to dismiss that bit of information 😉

(I also think he looked better at 20 weeks…lets hope it was just a bad picture day 🤪)

Mikes appointment was supposed to be routine but turned into them draining off some fluid to send to the lab.
As he sat getting clammy hands and taught limbs, I tried to reassure him that it was more than likely just gonna be your average size needle and not to worry.
It WAS NOT your average sized needle and I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle this whole ‘birth a baby thing’ 😂🙈
I knew I did NOT want to look but even while turned away, the doctors instrument sounds and then Mikes intake of breathing while the doctor took his sweet time moving the large needle around in his knee, was enough to make me want to be somewhere else.
I know to anyone in the medical field that will sound utterly pathetic but it’s the truth 🙈

Once we were finally done those tasks, the babymoon could officially commence!

Mike wanted to take me to eat at ‘The Lark’ in Shell Lake.
A restaurant he and his fellow construction comrades had ate at during a stint working in that area and they all talked about its delicious menu options 😉

We shared a Cajun burger and onion rings and it really was worth their glowing reviews 😉

A large patty, really tasty sauce and that sloppy aspect that generally come with when it’s a good, flavourful, juicy burger 🤓👍🏻

From that area it was only a 4.5 hr drive to Edmonton, where we’d be making our first stop.

It was a pretty uneventful drive.
The canola fields were in full bloom, so they periodically brightened up the landscape with vibrant yellows and greens.

We listened the first ‘Father Gilbert’ mystery produced by Focus On The Family to pass some time, didn’t snack to too much at all and generally just passed the time in contemplative silence and watchfulness of the passing surroundings 😉

We did broach the subject of naming our soon to be offspring… not sure we got very far, though it was my hope that by the end of the trip we’d have come to an agreed consensus 😏
I thought we had it narrowed down to three possible names and would make our choice from those, when Mike begin chucking out all these ‘other’ names, in turn aggravating me because I’ve read so many stupid lists of baby names and he just repeats the most common ones around cause they are what he’s comfortable with and I feel like it would be easier to leave the child UNAMED forever at this point 🤪

Moving on, we arrived at our place of rest and because we’d gotten an email earlier in the day, we knew that it was actually a bedroom in someone’s house, apposed to it being the actual ‘house’ as we had at first thought.

Airbnb Edmonton Room

It felt a bit weird, going in through someone’s place of living, especially since they weren’t home to give a little ‘hello and what’s what’  but we had booked it and couldn’t change much at that point and the room itself seemed nice enough 🤪

So we dropped our bags and headed back out to find some food.

Maybe we weren’t in the best area of Edmonton but neither of us were very impressed with the cleanliness of the city nor the genres of folk that were out and about 😬
As we walked to the restaurant I asked Mike if he felt bushed and like we didn’t belong in the city and his immediate response was ‘yes!’ 🤪🙈
We went to ‘Meat’ and decided on sharing the brisket sandwich with pickles, a horseradish mayo and served with their garlic fries.
It was super tasty.
I’m not a big fry lover, homemade or not but these homemade style fries, not too thick and not too thin, perfectly crisp on the outside and covered in a light, almost gravy like garlic coating, were delicious 🙌🏻

The sandwich was also really good, the dill pickle and mayo adding that needed zing to the butter spread bread and brisket.

Back at the ‘room’ it was pretty much straight to bed… having been up since 5:30, gone on an early morning walk with the sister and mumsie, made breakfast, packed up, done town, doctors and 5 some hours in the truck, I was more than ready for sleep and the idea of being creeped out in someone else’s house dissipated as quickly as dream land came 😉

Oh, Baby 😳

Well, if you haven’t heard it yet via the Instagrams and the folks who assemble there… then I’m a little surprised but it’s totally fine 🤪

First question – Due date?

Come September (9th if we are trying to be specific) of this year, our family is going to grow by a mini person 😬

That’s right, we’re expecting.

That still sounds so weird ^ 🤪😬

As of this moment, I’m 16 weeks along with our visit ever offspring and things have been going good 💁🏻‍♀️

Which leads us to the second question- How I’ve been feeling?

I experienced ONE instance on a Sunday morning while preparing for church, where I suddenly got nauseous and hot and shaky but as soon as it came, it then left, never to happen again.

Thus far 😜

There was also a week or so nearer the beginning where I slept most of the day and felt hungry but absolutely nothing held appeal and opening the fridge invited disgust, so suppers for hubby were, lacking 🙈
I consider those symptoms prettttty minimal compared to things I’ve heard others go through during this stage of life though 😬

Now it’s mainly been hunger and having to eat ASAP 😜
Which doesn’t stray THAT far from my usual I guess 🤓

Next question – Are we finding out the gender?

YES! I’m not a patient person when it comes waiting for a thing that could otherwise be known and neither is Mike, so the decision wasn’t even really a decision, so much as an appointment booking 🤪

Now it’s your turn to answer questions that I have!

I can give as little, or as much detailing about this all, as you want.
I don’t want to overdose you on stories and happenings to do with this ‘situation’ 😜 unless the information is desired.

Do you want to know who we told, when and how?
Do you want to know room plans, LIFE plans?! 🙈

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW ?! 🤪

Keep in mind that the above question is asked in an ‘only slightly raised volume but mostly nice and happy’ way… I know caps can be confusing 😉

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