Bed Time Shenanigans

Posted by: Jose

Funny things that happen when you have children. Many times we have walked into James's bedroom when he is supposed to be sleeping and find that he is not sleeping at all but playing with the blinds or taking off his clothes. Tonight I went in there thinking that things were too quiet. First thing you learn when you are the parent of a toddler is that if they are too quiet nine out of ten times they are up to no good. So when I went into his room this is what I found:

The little chair was on the floor when he went to bed, some how he managed to pull it up and decided that he wanted to sleep sitting down. It is quite hard to tell your kids that they have done something wrong when you cannot stop laughing.

 

Healthy and Growing

Posted by: Jennifer

 

Julia had her first doctor's appointment yesterday, and everything went well. She is up to 6lbs 14oz, an increase of 9 or 10oz from when she came home. She's done very well with eating, especially now that we're back to strictly nursing, and have been since Sunday evening. She sleeps extremely well too. I put her down at 12:30 last night, and she didn't get up again until 6:00am. I think probably because she eats so much at one go, she's good for awhile! She does have a tendency to fall sound asleep though, and if she's not willing to be woken up, this can cause a nursing session to drag on for quite some time. Tickling her feet helps, or lying her on her back by herself. If all else fails, a good diaper change does the trick. She just gets too cozy!

James is settling back to more his normal self. What with all the coming and going, and not having much of a routine, he was having outbursts that were not like him at all. It doesn't help that he's two though either! Yesterday he went to Elena's house, and was really excited about it. He'd been asking all weekend to go see her, and was over the moon when he finally was able to. He was quite cheerful for the rest of the day. This morning, I had Julia still in bed with me from her 6am breakfast. We both passed out, and just stayed that way. She was only interested in sleeping after nursing on one side, so I just kept her with me in case she changed her mind. James woke up when Jose did, and came to watch some Kids' CBC in bed with me while Jose got ready for work. James was so good. He just watched his shows very quietly, and let me keep on sleeping for another hour or so. Finally, I jerked awake, and realized that I had been sleeping sounder than I thought - James was gone, and very quiet. Never a good sign! However, I went into his room where I found him quietly reading a book. What a sweet boy! He was also incredibly good while I stole some time for a quick shower. Julia was sleeping in her cradle, and James was quite content to watch his movie.

The rest of the day has progressed quite well. No major meltdowns which makes me very happy. Julia did go through three diapers in one attempt to change her, but other than that, not too much craziness! James and I have coloured, painted, played with play dough, read, and watched some Spider-Man. Julia has mostly just slept, breaking for the odd meal.

 

 

A Day in the Life of a New Mother of Two

Posted by: Jennifer

 

I know you all missed the scooch stories from when James was an infant. Well, now we have a new infant, which means new scooch stories. This morning, I was changing Julia on my bed with a change pad underneath her. James isn't willing to share his change table yet, and we haven't pushed the issue. It's just a plastic one, and I didn't have a blanket under her like I usually do. She had scooched earlier in her sleep, so I wasn't too concerned. Sheesh, you'd think I was a rookie or something! All of a sudden (aren't those great words?) she scooched and peed at the same time! Thank goodness James was in the room watching Spider-Man. I enlisted his help grabbing a blanket out of Julia's cradle while I tried to contain the scoochy pee on the mat without letting it run down Julia's back. James was the hero of the moment. He brought me the blanket, and I was able to absorb the puddle, and then get the whole mess wiped up. At first I thought that I'd saved Julia's jammies from touching the scoochy pee, but as I started to snap her back up, I noticed a tiny spot of scooch on the foot of her sleeper. So close! Julia got dressed, I fed her, and the three of us went down for breakfast.

At breakfast, I got James his porridge while carrying Julia in one arm. Then I sat down at the kitchen table with James while he ate, and nursed Julia a bit more. James finished his porridge lickety-split and wanted more. Knowing the patience of a two-year-old is limited, I managed to get him another bowl while still nursing Julia! How's that for talent?

As you can see, life is never dull around here, and it didn't end there. Just a moment ago, I was sitting in the living room, and keeping an ear out for what James was doing. He was looking at stuff on the counter while he was standing on a chair. Or so I thought. Apparently my ears aren't as reliable as I imagined they were. James started asking to bite some ice. I didn't think too much of it, just told him that maybe later would be a better time. All of a sudden (there are those words again), I heard a crash. Well, that got me out to the kitchen pretty quick. There were ice cubes all over the floor. Until now, I've loved my fridge with the freezer on the bottom. Until now. I got in there to start cleaning up, fending off James who wanted to bite them and Sam who managed to grab one for himself as well. Then, being distracted, I dumped the one remaining ice cube tray that hadn't been emptied yet. Argh!! Luckily, it was just ice. James and I put the ice cubes in a container so I could dump them easier (after I managed to convince him to put his own down for two seconds) while Sam crunched his ice cube by the deck door, and after that, James sat down to enjoy biting his ice while I wrote this post.

Some days, if you don't laugh, you'll just end up crying! Fortunately, today is a laughing day. :D

 

Two Posts in One

Posted by: Jennifer

 

Just a note on this post - the first part was written on July 10th, the day I arrived home from the hospital. Jose forgot to upload it. The second part was written today, July 14th. So I apologize for the longevity of this post - you may want to take a coffee/potty break partway through.

Part One:
Julia and I arrived home today, and we are both doing very well. I for one am very happy to be out of the hospital. The nurses were awesome, but there's no place like home. Jose put up the basic information about Sunday, but I thought I'd fill in a few details.

Labour:
I woke up just before 2am Sunday morning with contractions, but tried to just keep resting and timing. Contractions were between 5 and 10 minutes apart. Jose was able to go back to sleep which was good (I'd woken him up by getting up). I phoned my mum at about 3am, and she answered on the first ring. I have to say I felt kind of bad because she'd just gone home about 12 hours earlier! At about 5am I got up and showered and Jose got stuff together for James so he could go to Michelle's house to play with Elena. My mum arrived not too long after that, and we gradually made our way out the door. James went happily off to see Elena, and the rest of us got to the hospital. Jose drove very carefully, but going over bumps and the general movement of the car wasn't particularly enjoyable.

At the hospital, I got hooked up to a non-stress test machine, and was checked out to see how things were progressing. I was at about 1cm, and a little while later the nurse came to ask me how I felt about going home!! It almost seemed like she wanted labour to stop because she suggested I go have a warm bath, and if it that stopped labour, I'd know it wasn't for real! I'm not sure if she was ignoring the fact that I was a week overdue, or whether I wasn't dramatic enough for her during contractions! However, we talked to the doctor on call (who was actually from out of town because all of the Lethbridge OB's were away for the weekend), and pointed out that with James, I stayed at 2cm forever, then all of a sudden was ready to deliver. She also witnessed a contraction, and got me put into a labour room. Good thing too because things started progressing quite well after that. I had an epidural around noon, and after the doctor finished her lunch she came to break my water. When that happened, we learned that little Peanut had pooped herself, so there was a concern for when she was born about inhaling that stuff. I had to be put on oxitocin because the epidural slowed things down. The oxitocin sure worked though! The nurse stayed and monitored the machine I was hooked up to because of the epidural. She asked me to let her know if I felt like pushing. Then she kept asking, and sure enough, pressure was building! The nurse was noticing the baby's heartbeat slowing down with contractions. She asked me if I wanted to be checked right away or after she came back. Kind of ho-hum about it, I said "Why not?" So she checked, and baby was on her way!

Delivery:
Because of the concern about yuckies in the fluid, several people had to be called besides the OB, including a pediatrician. There was a great flurry of activity, we got set up, and now, this is the part where people who had long, horrible labours will hate me. I literally had two big pushes, a couple of little wee ones, and out she popped! All the poopy stuff got suctioned up, and she didn't inhale anything. The pediatrician arrived, and said "Already? I just got paged 2 minutes ago!" (Sorry, I know people who had to push for 2 hours!)

And that was about it! Julia was whisked away for the first assessments and so on, and she peed all over the table! She was just too eager to empty out her little system! Everything was pretty much perfect. She was a little cold, but they got her under the heat lamp and she warmed right up.

Since then, Julia has been doing lots of sleeping, and she's eating really well. James is a great big brother - very gentle and excited about his little sister. He likes holding her, but not for too long. He needs to learn about putting her down - yesterday at the hospital he just started pushing Julia away when he was ready to be done!

And now we're home, and settling in. Jose's dad and Chico left shortly after we got home, and my mum is getting ready to leave right now. I think we'll spend the rest of the afternoon resting up.

***Intermission***

Part Two:
We're adjusting to life at home with two kids. Overall, James has been great, but he's pushing the limits in ways he didn't really do before. I think it's a combination of vying for attention, and having family around who he knows don't know all the rules. He helped me feed Julia her bottle (more on that later), and he'll be my little gopher from time to time. It's really sweet. He's had a wonderful time with various aunts, uncles and grandparents around. Jose and I have been so happy to have people with energy who will play with James at his energy level. We're rather tired, so it's been great, and James gets lots of attention. James has gone to the spray park, played outside in the pool, gone for walks, had ice cream, the list goes on and on.

Julia continues to be an easy-going baby. She eats well, and sleeps a ton. When she's awake though, she's incredibly alert. Jose's grandma is amazed at how much she opens her eyes and looks around. I've been having troubles with nursing. I think Julia has a really little mouth, so she wasn't holding enough, and I ended up with blisters that bled. So not cool. So right now, I'm pumping, and Julia's been drinking out of a bottle. I'm trying to heal as fast as I can so we can get back to breastfeeding as soon as possible. I'm not interested in pumping milk for the next several months! It makes me feel a bit like a dairy cow. Moooooo!

Julia's been quite the little adventurer this week. On Thursday she went to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and yesterday she went shopping for clothes at Superstore. Both times she slept through the event, although she scooched during Harry Potter and had to be changed :o)

Other than boob issues and making sure we're not too tired, life is great. Right now, Julia is snuggled up on the couch snoozing away, James is off for a walk with Mamas Loli and Juli, Jose is downstairs trying to rush me via MSN to get this post done so he can put it up, and Sam is dozing in his favourite spot - the mat by the front door, so things are quite peaceful (aside from the nagging!). Jose went up to Calgary yesterday, and had the rest of his stitches taken out. His eye was quite sore yesterday as a result, but he seems to be doing well today.

Before I sign off, I want to list some thank yous.
To Mum - she has made 4 trips down to Lethbridge in the last 3 weeks, and is about to make another one tomorrow. While here, she cooked, cleaned, did laundry, took care of James, and was an incredible support in the labour room.
To Claire and Miguel - they were here twice, once before Julia was born, and once after. They also cooked and did laundry, and James loved playing with them. They took him to the spray park on Thursday, and out for ice cream afterwards, and yesterday, Miguel refilled his pool and played outside with him for a long time. Also, Miguel pulled weeds on his first visit, and mowed the lawn on his second.
To Antonio - Antonio is the official Sam caregiver. While I was in the hospital, he made sure Sam was well taken care of, which gave me peace of mind. He also did things like water the lawn and drive Jose to Calgary yesterday for his eye appointment.
To Loli and Juli - they've been cooking for us, and helping out tons with James. The first person James called to when he woke up this morning was Mama Loli!
To Natalia - Who helped take care of James bathed him and played with him many times. James loves his Tia.
To Chico - before Julia was born, Chico babysat James while I went for my NST appointment, yesterday, he kept James occupied while the health nurse was here, and he joined James and Miguel outside for their fun in the sun.
To everyone who has called/e-mailed/visited - thank you so much for your support and love. We appreciate hearing from you all, it lets us know how much you care.
Last, but most importantly, to Jose - the best husband a woman could ask for. He's been amazing about pitching in when I was supposed to be resting, and shouldering most of the household things. He gives back rubs and foot rubs, and a shoulder to cry on and comforting words when things seem just too overwhelming. And finally, for being an incredible father. I couldn't have got through these last few weeks, and this most recent one especially without Jose. He can't possibly know how much I love him.

Day 2

Posted by: Jose

 

Jennifer is still at the hospital. She will stay there tonight and depending on what the doctor says she might be home tomorrow. She looks great and feels the same. Little Julia is also doing great. I got more pictures up, enjoy (I know I do).

 

Just Minutes old (Julia Elizabeth Samayoa)

 

2nd Day with Julia

 

Meet Julia Elizabeth Samayoa

Posted by: Jose

 

Julia Elizabeth Samayoa was born today at 1:48 p.m. She weighted 6.10 pounds, and is 20.5 Inches. Check the picture and stay tuned for more news.

 

Appointment Results

Posted by: Jennifer

 

I had my appointment at the hospital today (because my doctor is on holidays). The hospital was super busy, especially the delivery ward, so it took quite awhile to get hooked up to the machine. Baby's looking really good, unfortunately, my blood pressure is back up again. The first reading was 130/90, the second one was 130/96. They still sent me home. I'm thinking it's because they were too busy to induce me, but the doctor on call told the nurses to book me for an NST on Monday, so he can't be too worried. I hope. I'm really quite sick of waiting. I know it's better for these things to happen naturally, but it kind of would have been nice to get things started today. It did surprise me somewhat that the doctor sent me home with high blood pressure when I'm over my due date, however he's the expert, right? In the meantime, I guess I'll just keep resting waiting. Jose's taken to just wandering around aimlessly, which gets a little nerve-wracking, but I can't blame him. We've had tons of family around, and everyone's been really helpful, pitching in with laundry, cooking, cleaning, changing poopy diapers (yes!!), etc. It's so awesome to have so much support. We also appreciate all the phone calls and e-mails - we feel very loved!

Officially Overdue

Posted by: Jennifer

 

As of today, I am officially past my due date, and we are all a little on edge. I think the reason that we're all so ready for this to happen NOW is that we've been ready to go since I had to quit work 2 weeks ago. My mum and sisters are all down this weekend all hoping for some baby action. I continue to feel just fine, and I'm not feeling any high blood pressure symptoms, it's just waiting that's hard. I still haven't quite got over my cold, and the stuffed up nose is irritating, but not too big a deal. Unfortunately, James has caught it, and we've spent today blowing his runny nose. He was also a bit crabby, although whether that's from not sleeping long at night or from the cold, it's hard to say. He does enjoy having his aunties around, but we've noticed he needs some down time to just play quietly with his playdough or something like that. Then he's recharged and ready to go. Last night, he was laughing so hard with Claire that he couldn't even stand up. Luckily she's good at getting him wound down as well as worked up! That's all to report for now. Keep an eye on the site. Happy Canada Day!