A new era - new bed and new room!

At the beginning of January, we started the process of getting Ellie's new room set up. We started with clearing out the bed Grammie and Papa Butter had used when they visited in September, then put all the Christmas decorations back in the attic. We then assembled the bassinet and Ellie was a HUGE help to Mark - he quickly learned where he can and can't put his bowl of screws!
Ellie was very excited about the "pretty" bassinet and seemed to understand that it was for the baby. When she went over and pulled herself up to peek into the cradle, she seemed quite disturbed that there was no baby actually in it yet. We went and got one of her dolls and put it in the cradle and that was a sound solution to her problem!

The next step was finishing her valance - something I made without a pattern. It was scary becuase I drew out what I wanted from my head and wasn't entirely sure if it would look as good in real life as it did in my mind! I get the feeling that my husband shakes his head when I get nervous with my sewing - until I reminded him how nervous he gets with his wood-working...it seemed to speak his language. Although I was nervous, the valance came together very quickly and I am very proud of how it looks and the little finishing touches I did to make it look professionally made that only I know about (or someone who is a better seamstress than myself).


The fun part came the day we brought Ellie's new bed up and got it all assembled. Again, she was in there like a dirty shirt climbing all over everything and being of great assistance to her Dad.


I found this bed last Spring at the awesome second hand store in our neighborhood and since it came with a mattress that was in really good shape, we snapped it up. Mark was a little unsure of the loudness of it, but I loved it - I especially loved that it was made from wood (versus plastic) and would appear to last. Ellie laughed at all the animals and talked about each one and the sounds they make. As soon as Mark brought the mattress up and put it into the bed, she climbed on and exclaimed "bed!" This was the first time we thought that it would be a fairly easy transition.

That very night, Ellie came down with the stomach flu and graciously passed it along to myself and Mark. We spent the following weekend in Radium recovering (while Ellie played at Grandpa & Grandma's), and then had a weekend at home and then finally last Friday decided it was time for the big move.

Ellie and I started moving all her clothes from one dresser to the next - which took forever because my fashionista daughter needed to try on EVERYTHING. It was fun though, and once Mark got home he started helping too and I think Ellie enjoyed it. I had made her a new quilt for her new bed, so after supper we gave it to her and then we made the bed together - she kept saying "oh wow!" over and over and then jumped and played on the bed.

The hardest part for me was when we moved the bassient into the baby's room and told her this was now the baby's room - she pulled her footstool over to the crib and tried climbing back into the crib crying "bed!" over and over. We weathered that storm fine and while I hid my tears till after she was asleep, she was very excited about her new bed.

As of this morning, she has had three successful nights and two successful naps in the new room and bed. We are very proud of her and hope that the transition is exciting and not overly stressful.

6 weeks and counting!

Today is 6 weeks until our due date, according to what the doctors say (I'm sticking with my on-line calculator thingy that said March 6th (not the 7th) was the official due date). It's hard to believe that we're in the final stretch of Baby Project#2!

So far things in preggie land have been good, aside from the normal malady's that strike a woman when she's building a baby. The big watch lately has been my blood pressure - it was an issue with my first, and likely contributed to Ellie being so small at birth (4lbs 11oz, or 2138 grams).

Since Ellie was so small, she was placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) immediately after birth. They called her a "feeder-grower" in that they just wanted to watch her closely to make sure she gained weight and grew properly. She was short (only 17" tall), so she never looked scrawny like the majority of the NICU babies did, and she soon became the favourite NICU baby to care for. They rated her size as "<<<3rd percentile" - I wondered how many "less than" signs could be put in front of a percentage to make it reduce to the next-smallest number! Though we had excellent care from our nurses and doctors, there was a lot of emotions for us to deal with because we didn't know when we were going to take her home, and thanks to the kindness of my nurses on Post-Partum, I wasn't discharged until Ellie was so we were able to go home as a family the first time.

Very early in this pregnancy, I was on the maternity floor at Rockyview Hospital and walked past the NICU and emotions surfaced from Ellie's birth that really surprised me. Who knew that two years later things would surface that could surprise you! Mark and I started praying that this baby would not be little or need to spend time in the NICU at all - I forget that sometimes when you pray, God answers you quite literally.

So at my ultrasound two weeks ago, when the doctor met with me after to review the results, I burst out laughing when he told me that this baby was rating in the 95th percentile for size. Uh, wow!! Of course I had to explain myself to this kind doctor, so since he found out that our fist baby was a miniature one, he wanted to see me again just to keep an eye on Baby's growth.

I am very thankful that we appear to be having a baby that will not need to spend time in the NICU, and am humbled again by God's sense of humor to our prayers. I guess I'll be tucking away all my preemie-sized baby clothes that I was going to have ready "just in case" we had another miniature baby!!

Christmas Spirit

The last few weeks have been difficult ones for me, as I have been navigating the often tumultuous waters called Christmas Family Drama (CFD). I’m sure many people experience this, but this year it feels like my CFD has reached new and epic levels. As I’ve stepped back and evaluated my response and past/future involvement, I have come to the conclusion that some of this is probably heightened by the fact that I’m 2 years pregnant with my second child (okay, 7 months) and the raging hormones and exhaustion do not seem to have been given a wide berth and extra care.

This drama has brought on a period of discouragement, sadness and frustration and it has been very difficult to get excited about Christmas or even wanting to participate in it. When I told my husband that I didn’t have any Christmas Spirit and he asked “what is that supposed to look like?” I guess for me, it’s the Joy of what Christ did for us – celebrating the birth of Jesus so that we could all be saved.

Then to top it all off, my husband and I had a fight – something that is rather rare at our house. As we were sat in frigid silence on separate floors, I took my Pity Party, Kit-Kat, and Pepsi to the basement bathroom for some quiet and mentally reviewed the year. I had to find out if 2010 just totally stank or if good things happened.

I started my mental review with the month of January – our daughter spent a week on the Children’s Hospital with pneumonia, taped up to oxygen tubes and monitors because she didn’t have enough oxygen in her blood stream to keep her body going at safe and healthy levels. My first reaction was “this year has been a total write-off” after just assessing the first month. However, I kept going and realized that we have been showered with many blessings. An excellent day-home for Ellie just across the back alley; finishing my Bachelor of Management degree; successfully getting pregnant with our second baby; having a wonderful first camping trip as a family; meeting new people and developing wonderful friendships as a result.....I could keep going.

My Pity Party came to an end and my husband and I had a good conversation and resolved the issues that needed to be resolved at that time. Still, I knew that I just wanted 2010 to be over and I really could care less about Christmas, even though I knew 2010 was a good year.

And then today I did something I’ve never done before. My younger sister and I delivered a bunch of Christmas presents to a family we know who’s had a rough couple of months. It was one of the most fun things I have ever done in my life, and I’ve had this inner warmth and glow in my heart for the rest of the day. It was incredible to see the smiles and excitement on their faces as we showed up at their door with two wagons filled with thoughtful gifts from family, friends and our churches – I think Ellie even got into it as she was in one of the wagons stuffed between baking and bags of presents. I realized that THIS is what Christmas is about – sharing Christ’s love to others, not waiting for some internal feeling. I had so desired this family feel blessed and loved, and I was the one to came away feeling blessed and loved.

I am now looking forward to Christmas 2010 and pray that I will be able to continue to share Christ’s love to those around me.

Events, big and small

A week or two ago, one of my oldest girlfriends inspired me to write a blog post again. She has a blog as well and as I read it, it challenged me to get back at my blogging - if anything to get the thoughts out as they come. Inevitably, stuff happened in my week and both words and time were lacking.

Last week was not an easy week in my grown-up world. Relationships were tested and communication abilities completely dissolved, all making me ask my husband if we could sell everything and live like kings in some developing country just to get away from it all. Yes, it could be seen as the easy way out, but I was ready for anything.

I learned a few things last week though, support comes even when you don't ask for it or explain the situation to anyone. While experiencing the low-points of the week, I had opportunities to sit across the tables from amazing Christian friends and just be. None of these ladies knew what was going on, how close the tears were to the surface, or the emotional turmoil I was tamping down to just try and get through my participation in the event. It made me so thankful that I have a support network of friends that just let you "BE".

As I watched my daughter this week, I was challenged yet again to learn how to enjoy the little things. The most distressing part of her day is getting her face washed after a meal, but then when all the fuss is done and she bounds down from her high chair, something grabs her eye and she's off, laughing and giggling and running around - no hurt feelings from the infraction we just made her sit through. How I wish that a simple face washing would remain to be the thing that distresses her most in life.

Here We Go Again!

Well, here we go again...Baby #2 is going to join us in early March 2011!! We are very excited about this new addition and though Ellie has absolutely no clue how this is going to impact her life, she's excited to.

We have updated our "to do" lists and have been amazed at how fast this pregnancy seems to be going compared to our first pregnancy! The big project for this one is to get Ellie moved into a new room (probably by Christmas) and then weaned off of bottle-drinking - that will be a big one, but I'm equipped with some good tips from those who have gone before me as well as a couple "special" cups just for milk!

Wish me luck!!

Talking and Speaking

Thanks to the worry of one Public Health Nurse, Mark and I have started an adventure called Speech Therapy. While initially I was really annoyed with all the phone calls, assessments and forms I had to fill out, it has been beneficial.

It all started at Ellie's 18-month shots back in March - she didn't really have any identifiable words at that time which according to the "normal" standard (what is that anyway?) was behind. So then the process began which was followed by completing a questionaire to get Ellie on the waiting list. I received a phone call almsot immediately and we had a telephone assessment - the verdict: Ellie had gross motor delay. The reason: because she wasn't walking upright, up and down the stairs.

At this point, I was quite furious - the woman on the phone couldn't understand that my daughter is so incredibly short that her legs are the same length as the rise on a stair! Only after the fact did I think that I should have asked her to climb onto a table in the upright position without holding onto something. Thanks to the wisdom and insight of a dear friend, we started going through the processes that were recommended to us, and I am thankful we have.

We have learned how to play differently with Ellie that makes sense to her (not us). I'm learning how dumb we can be as parents, something I am sure I will re-learn in the teen years! I have also learned that there is a difference between speech and language - Ellie speaks, anyone who has had the priviledge of 5 minutes in her presence knows how well she communicates. Her issue is that she just doesn't speak a language - a valuable difference to know! Mark and I went to Speech School For Parents 101 that the Health Region put on and we've taken a few things to try and implement - it's been very neat to see her words sharpen over the last week as we've tried these new tricks.

Maybe we'll figure out this parenting thing yet!!

2nd birthday prep already!

Today I put together the invitations for Ellie's second birthday party. How has two years passed by already?

Many years ago, I read an article about Martina McBride (country singer), who had two daughters at the time. She told the interviewer that they had always intended on having more children but had been surprised that their youngest was now 4 as time had passed so quickly. When I read that I thought "yeah right, what a load of baloney", not having any clue as to how fast time does fly with children. Now I realize just how right she was!

As I was walking through the living room just moments ago, a photo flashed up on our digital picture frame of Ellie in the delivery room. One of those typical photos of a screaming naked baby covered in goo. How is it possible to be transported back in that split second and hear the crying and the hustle and bustle, and then look down and there's this little girl in front of me who's independence is growing on a daily basis?

I love the moments I get, like last night when I was tucking her in bed, how she snuggles into my neck and holds onto the neck-line of my t-shirt. Those precious moments are so sweet to treasure in my heart.