Growing the Family

My whole life I've imagined taking pictures of my children while they're laying on a blanket and I'm hovering over them waiting for the perfect shot. Not that this one is 'perfect' in the sense that a photographer would be proud of it but I LOVE it! My boys are everything to me and I'm fulfilling my childhood dream of taking a picture of my growing family. My whole life all I wanted to be was a mum and now I'm able to do that. How many people can honestly say that their job today is what they've wanted to be for their whole life? I remember as a girl when we would be asked what we wanted to be when we grew up I'd always say a mum. Most of my teachers at the time would comment something like, 'you can be a mum, but what else do you want to do?' Nope, I never bit. I always wanted to be a mum and that was it. What a life I have!!!

Am I Completely Sick?

I set up Shaun with some water colour paints to try and pass some of the morning away and then when he seemed to be busy and content I quickly ran down the basement to fuss with the laundry. When I came back upstairs to the kitchen there was Shaun with his paintbrush in hand and he was painted head to toe with black paint and there were stripes of black paint all over the floor. THEN I saw the wall! He's never, ever drawn, painted, scratched, not so much as smudged dirty fingers on the walls. And here he had painted black all over my kitchen wall! I shouted for Craig to come and see and then sent Shaun to the stairs for a timeout. Craig had the forethought to bring Shaun to the tub instead of allowing him to sit on the stairs since he was covered with black paint and our carpets are white, thank goodness! I stayed in the kitchen to wipe up the mess. As I was cleaning I kept finding more and more spots. I have no freaking idea how Shaun managed to get so many black paint spots in so many places in so little time, but he genuinely apologized when he came down after his bath so I couldn't be angry at him any longer. I'm just thankful that this is the very first time he's ever done a thing like this. Hopefully it'll be the last!

At least it was washable paint! Thank you Crayola!!!

Is it completely sick that the first thing I thought of after sending Shaun to timeout was to take a picture? ;)

Sticker Fun

A while ago I bought a huge tub of foam stickers. They were from the dollar store and it was a tub of 'seconds' so not every letter/number/animal is shaped correctly and sometimes you can't even make out what the shape is supposed to be. But Shaun doesn't mind and he always has a great time filling his paper with colourful foam stickers whenever I pull out the tub.

Today he filled up the paper and then decided he was going to make them into tattoos and went ahead with covering his body with his foam tattoos. He ended up with tattoos on all his extremities, including his bum cheeks! Just as long as they're removable...

[aside] Yeah, at the local hospital it's only $550 to have a tattoo removed by a laser treatment.

Family

I've always appreciated my family. Not just my immediate family - brother, sister, parents - but my extended family too. Never as much though, as once I had children. Something about becoming a parent made me realize how important the love and support from family really is. We just spent a weekend at my side's cottage for a family reunion and I couldn't have enjoyed my time more. Man, I love those people!!!

My brother-in-law Wes. He's going to be a new Daddy for the first time in October. He got a lot of practice with Ian while at the cottage!
How many men does it take to dig a hold beside a well? Wes, my dad, Craig and my Grandpa all pow-wow'd how best to dig, and then fill, a trench. Hmmm.

My mum enjoying a snuggle with Ian. I was floored that he had such a hold on his thumb. Shaun's an avid thumb-sucker but we've been putting forward a really valiant effort to get Ian to take a soother. Guess desperate times call for desperate measures.

My dear ol' Grandpa. The man is 86 years old and just recently we caught him on the roof of the shed at the cottage sweeping the leaves off it!!

Certainly not the most becoming picture of me. I yelled at Craig when I saw this for not tellingme to at least sit up straight! The slouching puts on at least 20 pounds, honest! My cousin Natasha just came back from a 5 1/2 week working tour of Jamaica and Trinidad and we were going over her photos.

Dad and Wes examining the ribs on the BBQ. I'm not a rib lover but man, those ribs sure were yummy!

Just Quickly Between Boobs

Ian is one week old and we couldn't be happier. He's a dream and Shaun is completely in love with his new little brother. I thought I'd post a couple of photos while I have a moment between boobs. A one week old eats a lot!

Ian's first bath. He loved the warm water and was bobbing around like a cork. It really was funny! The water is a greenish colour because my midwife gave me an herbal concoction to add to the bath water that is supposed to promote healing of the cord stump and help heal me quicker too. I just liked sharing a warm bath with my newborn.

Craig and Ian enjoying the Olympics together. Well, 'enjoying' in their sort of way.

Who said that babies only smile around 3 weeks old? I wish I hadn't missed the big gumm-y smile he gave me before this photo was taken. It was a smile that just makes one melt, even if it is from gas.

Ahh Shaun, forever the entertainer of the family!

21 Minutes Overdue and We're a Family of 4

Okay, here goes.

I started getting contractions around 7:30 PM while Craig had Shaun in the shower. They were about 7 mins apart but I wasn't having to work through them at all so didn't think too much. Just figured it was false labor... again. I finished up the dinner dishes and played around on the computer for a while.

Around 9:30 PM I told Craig I thought I may be in labor but to wait and see what happened in the next little while. I still wasn't having what I thought should be 'working' contractions. By now they're 5 mins apart.

By 10:30 I had Craig call Pooja, my midwife. She offered to come here to the house to check me but I was still joking around between contractions and they were coming as a strong one, then a weak one so still not serious. I didn't want her to waste her time coming just to tell me it wasn't true labor. We agree to meet at the hospital once my contractions are 3 mins since my intention was to labor at home as long as possible.

11:00 Pooja calls back and says she's coming to the house anyway. She reasons that Craig sounded more serious on the phone than I did and she wanted to know how far dilated I was. I tell Craig to call the family and tell them I'm in labor then I jump in the tub to try and get some relief.

11:30 Pooja arrives and I'm really having to work through the strong contractions but I'm still getting a pretty good break between them. By now I'm out of the tub and Craig is running around gathering everything to put in the van to head to the hospital. She wants to check me right away and I joke with her that if I haven't made any progress from the 4cm I was on Tuesday that I'm going to slap her. She checks me and says "we're not going". I almost cried: that meant nothing was going on; no progress. Craig came into the bedroom and Pooja told him the same thing then asked him to find something plastic to put on the bed because I was 9cm. We weren't going to the hospital. I panicked.

Around midnight the back-up midwife arrived and she and Pooja finished setting up their stuff. In the meantime Craig and I had remade the bed with the shower curtain protecting the mattress. As soon as I laid back down I felt the urge to push. I gave 3 not-so-good pushes and then my body remembered how to actually do it. Three more good pushes and Ian was here at 12:21 AM, 21 minutes overdue.

I ended up having a minor tear that needed 2 stitches. Ian nursed right away and I got to hold him for a full 30 minutes before anyone took him off my chest: while birthing the placenta and getting stitched. My parents arrived about 5 minutes after he was born (they were driving in from an hour away to be with Shaun while we went to the hospital). Shaun slept through the whole thing and Craig woke him up at 1:30 AM to meet his new baby brother.

My next birth will undoubtedly be another homebirth although next time we'll plan it that way.

On a Brighter Note:

With all the negativity from that 40 week post I thought I'd add a little sunshine to my blog today.

We had a terrific time at Craig's uncle's cottage. It's a Martin family tradition to head up there on the first long weekend in August. We took a chance with my due date looming and went up anyway. It was completely relaxing and Shaun really enjoyed being able to play with all his cousins. Next year there will be a 1 year old toddling around trying to play with the big kids. Hard to believe...

40 Weeks

Honestly, never in a million years would I have thought that I'd make it to 40 weeks this time. Isn't that the rule? That subsequent babies are early? That's what I've been told. At least on time for heaven's sake! Shaun was 8 days overdue. Okay, I can handle that. He WAS a first baby afterall. But Shaun was HUGE, and made a HUGE path for this baby. I'm already 4cm dilated. This baby should be falling out of me by now! My mucus plug came out over a week ago. I've thought I was in labor twice. Yep, twice. Contractions never increased in strength though and never got closer than 8 minutes apart. Enough is enough with all the mean tricks my body is playing on me. I'll bet the baby is just giggling hysterically inside me saying, "jokes on you again mum! You walked for an hour in the middle of the night last night for nothing. But thanks for lulling me back to sleep!"

I have another appointment with my midwife early next week to talk about what we do next. Craig's already wasted a whole week of holidays. I'm terrified that he'll end up wasting another week waiting. The house is so clean because every time I think I may be in labor I try my best to stay on my feet to keep the contractions coming. I don't think the living room has been dusted or vacuumed so frequently since the beginning of time. I keep trying to tell myself that labor will start when my body and the baby are ready but come on! This waiting game is killing me. And the contractions - I just wish I wouldn't get a single one until labor really began. That way I'd know for sure and could stop wasting my time and energy with all this walking. All I can say is if I've gained more than a pound by my appointment next week I'm going to be seriously ticked!