Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Month 1

Well, we are at 5 weeks now actually but Greta, you are a second child so I'm afraid these details don't get dealt with as speedily as they did when your big sister was born. Don't feel slighted my love, its not because we aren't excited about you. We are amazed every day by you and at by just how much love there is to go around in our little family. Violet is always saying "what a wonderful family" and "we are so lucky".

We are having so much fun with these girls. Greta started smiling just before she turned one month. We weren't sure it was really smiling at first but she quickly convinced us by smiling more often and when she was being smiled at. She is also trying to mimic other facial expressions. It makes our hearts sing when she smiles, it is so perfect and innocent. She currently only smiles at the faces in our household, other faces are for studying at this point.

Violet has only become more enamored with Greta as time has gone on. She hugs and kisses her constantly and talks to her all the time. Mom and Dad are no longer the focus of her attention when she first wakes up, its all about baby sister.

Greta and Violet are also good at sharing. They are currently sharing their first cold. Violet brought it home from preschool last week and quickly gave her sister a dose. So far, neither are suffering too badly, they have runny noses and coughs that I hope will be gone soon. Greta is not sleeping so well with the congestion. I was a little panicked at first when I realized (in the middle of the night) that our 4 week old was getting a cold but so far she is showing that she is tough and game for getting her immune system kick started early.

Violet is really becoming a creative gal which she is really showing in her independent playtime/quiet time that she has instead of a nap.  She usually chooses to do a craft or colour or to have tea parties and conversations with her animals during that time. The other day she appeared from quiet time with 2 small paper bags that she has turned into puppets. Her drawings were adorable, one was a nice monster and one was mean. She also created a leaf collection in an old journal by collecting a big pile of leaves and gluing them into the book - oh boy what a mess! She was so pleased with herself and so proud of her creation, it was worth the clean up. She also loves to make up oh so silly songs which she sings constantly. Its mostly hilarious but it is a challenge to get her to stop singing long enough to eat meals with us and have a conversation.

Her most recent creation that kind of blew us away was a book. She took a notebook and drew about 30 pictures, mostly people who I would say resemble the little miss and mister characters from the books that Violet adores. On some pages she drew letters or symbols to represent letters. When she finished quiet time she presented the book to me and proceeded to walk me through the story page by page. This piece of artwork is a keeper!

Greta has had her on month check up and it turns out that she is quite accomplished in gaining weight. She is now 10.5 pounds - 2 pounds heavier than her birth weight - and is gaining an average of 2 ounces per day. The human body is an amazing thing.  She is obviously a good eater. She is not just getting round but long and has outgrown the length of her first set of clothes already.

More pics and videos have been added to our fall/winter 2010 album.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Hi I'm Greta


Well, its been 3 weeks since I made my escape from the cramped conditions of mom's womb (even though I did make a fair amount of space for myself in there!).

Things on the outside are pretty cool but there is so much to take in! Apparently I have a mom, dad, big sister, dog and a whole lot of other people in my life. The mom seems to be the one I see the most. She feeds me the milk and gets up with me all night. She seems pretty relaxed about the sleep thing though, she keeps telling dad that she is tired but 'functioning tired' because apparently I am a pretty good sleeper. I was having sleep stretches of 7 hours or so but now 4 is the max. Mom still isn't complaining because I just eat and go back to sleep, generally, and I seemed to come out of mom knowing my days and nights which apparently is extrememly helpful. I like to be helpful.

I am over 9 pounds already and going through my first growth spurt. I love to eat but these days I love to eat more than usual, thankfully I am starting to figure out this whole nursing thing so I don't have to work so hard at it (and scream my little head off) and mom doesn't cringe every time I latch on for some food. I am also getting very long and have long feet and hands with toes and fingers to match!

They say I'm easy going, so far anyway. I like to be held a lot but I'm also cool with hanging out in my crib to watch the lights on my turtle and play with a black and white toy. Mom is actually getting showers and eating (though quickly) without too much trouble.

Everyone keeps saying they don't know who I look like. Not as easy to figure out as my big sister apparently. Speaking of her, she is great. I do get a little smothered in kisses and hugs which I enjoy and only sometimes find a little too much. She makes sure my music and lights are turned on to entertain me in my crib and she stands on her step stool next to me when I'm in there to read me books or sing to me. I bought her a princess dress and some sparkle shoes when I arrived - she loves them apparently. Rarely takes them off and plans to wear them for halloween. She talks about halloween a lot, and christmas and easter - the girl seems to like special occassions.  She started school this week and loves it, can't get rid of mom and I fast enough when we drop her off. She also took Dad camping last week - she loves smores.

I gotta say, I'm having a pretty good time on the outside. I love an opportunity to pee or poo when I have no diaper on - so liberating! - and I'm very bright eyed and nosy for several hours a day. I've also been spoiled my my family, friends and neighbours with so many well wishes, gifts and food for the family - which is nice seeing as my parents don't really feel the need to buy me much since I'm the second daughter around here. Call me the hand-me-down kid. Oh wait, I did get some of my own sleepers in size newborn which didn't exist in my sister's wardrobe but I've pretty much grown out of them already.

Here are some pics and videos.

Later, Greta

Friday, September 3, 2010

Greta Robyn - her welcome to the world

I've been trying to publish this for about 5 days now so here we are. I am going to post regardless of wether or not I've finished because I just want to move on to new posts about our family :) Obviously, despite the fact that Greta is a dream baby, so far, life with even a dream baby and a big sister is very busy and very fulfilling...
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Well we are 5 days in to life as a family of 4. We are so happy to have a happy healthy girl to love and cherish along with her wonderful big sister.

Greta was born on Monday the 23rd at 4:30 pm. It was a trying day despite the scheduled c-section which we expected would make it all very stress-free but it ended in the best possible way and everything went smoothly with the surgery.

We were told to be at the hospital for a 6:00 admission and that the surgery would be at 9:30.  We arranged for our friend Kym to keep to keep Violet for the night so that we wouldn't have to disrupt her morning on the day she was to become a big sister. When we arrived at the hospital, we were sent to the wrong desk 3 times and finally arrived at the mother-babe unit to the surprise of the nurses who weren't expecting us until 9:30 as it turned out the surgery was actually scheduled for 1:30 in the afternoon.  After a quick discussion with the nurse, we found out there was only one private room left and if we decided to leave we would probably not get a private room which was a major priority for us. As we couldn't really go home without completely confusing Violet, who would soon be at home with our babysitter Laura, Jon negotiated with the nurse to hold the room for us while he took me for breakfast as I had been fasting all night. After some oatmeal at whitespot and picking up some magazines and a little something for Violet from the new 24 hr shoppers drug mart, we were back at the hospital for 7:30 and the wait for baby Greta began.

Jon and I spent the day in the hospital room, waiting, planning and anticipating. The nurses were wonderful and they came and went as they got me ready for the surgery. The IV part of the preparations was a bit difficult as I am squeamish about big needles and it took 3 tries for the iv to work - the first 2 times the iv drip went into my arm and made the arm very hard and swollen which was really painful.

After all the preparations, we tried to relax by watching some bad movies and eventually the clock hit 1 pm which is when they told us they would come to get us for the surgery. 1pm came and went and we eventually realized that we were not going to surgery on schedule and that no one knew when we would get there.  I had mentally prepared myself to be a mom again by about 10 am and the wait was starting to make me more and more anxious to meet our daughter. Finally at about 3:00 the nurse came to the room and said they were ready for us in the O.R. We had almost resigned oursleves to the idea of not meeting baby until Aug 24th and it came as a big surprise to have no warning, but away we went and I immediately got a little stressed and excited.

As I sat outside the O.R. waiting to be wheeled in, Jon took a video of me because he thought "your daughter would love to see your raw emotions about her birth". I was not so sure but I didn't really have a choice about it. Instead of being wheeled into the O.R. we were sent back to our room due to a half an hour delay. There are more videos of that too.  Half an hour turned into an hour and a half but finally we were wheeled back to O.R. and the fun began. Videos are online here.

There must have been 9 people in the room, I don't remember there being so many last time but I don't remember a lot about the last time. There was the OBGYN, Dr. Cooper who we have met with on a couple of occasions and who did the surgery. There were at least 2 nurses, of course I forget their names already but one of them was focussed on my care during and after the surgery and she was awesome. When they put in the spinal, she held me in place and talked me through it like a friend would - she knew I was scared. There was an anesthesiologist, a pediatrician, another random doctor and I forget the rest. It certainly makes a person feel well cared for and that they are not just having a minor procedure when there are that many medical professionals in the room.

It all got underway pretty quickly, as soon as Jon was in his scrubs by my side, they started and it was so weird. I could 'feel' nothing and everything at the same time. I really couldn't wait for it to be over for so many reasons.

Dr. Cooper talked me through the surgery without too much detail. Jon stood up to look over the barrier when the head was delivered and took a picture. "I've got a picture of the head, do you want to see it?" he asked. "Uh, no" was my response, not sure I could have stomached that one as anxious as I was to see our baby girl.

Soon she was out and crying - loudly. What a beautiful sound to hear! The nurse who was taking care of me said she sounded like a teradactyl and I think she was spot on! Greta had a lot of mucus to get rid of so she did a LOT of crying right off the bat which at first was reassuring and then had us thinking we were in trouble with this loud and unhappy baby.

The Drs and nurses remarked on baby's huge umbilical cord and set about checking her out. It is so frustrating to not be able to see your newborn for her first 5 minutes of life but luckily Jon was able to be with her right away to check her out (reassure me) and cut her cord.

I finally got to have a look at our little beauty and couldn't wait to be stitched up so I could get her in my arms.  We were both shocked that she didn't look like Violet did when she was born (we both assumed those Gleed genes would be prevalent - still not sure who she looks like!) and that she was smaller than Violet was - we could tell even before she was weighed. With the count'em 45 pounds that I gained during this pregnancy and the ENORMOUS belly I grew, we were sure that Greta would be a very big baby - no question she is still bigger than average and a very strong and healthy girl. She was bright eyed, nosy and lifting her head from the moment she was born.

Getting that girl in my arms was a dream and we couldn't wait to introduce her to Violet. In the next couple of hours, we got settled back in our room, got me eating chicken broth and jello - the only food allowed after surgery and brought big sister in for a visit. It was so sweet to see Violet immediately hug and kiss Greta - no hesitation at all, she has immediately taken on her role as guardian angel of our little baby and has only had the most slight hints of jealousy when she wants the undivided attention of one of her parents - even that is just a small request to maybe put the baby down while playing with her. We are so proud.

After spending a whole day in a hospital room waiting to give birth, I was ready to leave the hospital asap! I had my healthy baby and as soon as I shed the catheter and iv I was ready to go. We stayed monday night and tuesday night and managed to convince the Dr we were ok to go home wednesday morning (I even got dressed and put on makeup to make the Dr impressed by how well we were doing :). Our stay was as good as any hospital stay could have been, private room, great nurses and excellent care but there is only so much stale air, nurse pop-ins at 3am and horrific food one can take.

Greta so far is a sleeper, I'm amazed at how much work it still is to take care of her, I am having trouble remembering what it is like having a baby that struggles with sleep. Dear Greta - please keep it up little darling :)