Sleepwalking

I think we've got a sleepwalker now. Over the past few weeks I've caught Matthew sleeping in weird places in the house; on the floor beside the dining room table, in the doorway of his bedroom, and even near the front door (trying to escape?). He's always cuddling his beloved Blankie, and sucking his thumb! So I think the next stage of baby/toddler proofing the house is upon us; getting locks for the fridge and freezer (he likes to play in there sometimes, although he has yet to climb in) and those things for the doorknobs. And maybe a security system so when a door or window is opened up sirens go off. Or maybe a baby gate for his bedroom door so he can't get out. Or maybe I should just start sleeping on the floor of his bedroom so I'll know when he gets out of bed.

Defying the laws of gravity

How is it that Maya is able to poop UPWARDS? It's bad enough having to deal with this bodily function, but she seems to always get it in her most delicate areas and it creeps me out having to clean it up. I never believed people when they said girls were harder to clean up than boys because of extra folds; now I know what they mean. And while I'm complaining, can anyone tell me why she'd save up a whole day's worth of poops and blast off all at once? I thought it was annoying when she'd do little ones throughout the day at first and I'd have to change her a million times a day, but this is just darn inconsiderate! Oh, and she only does it for me; she NEVER saves it for when Daddy looks after her. Perhaps there's a conspiracy here. Has Daddy bribed her somehow so he doesn't have to clean up the mess? Hmmmm, sounds like something he'd do.

Is it too early to start potty-training her?

Who's the boss around here?

Well it didn't take long for Maya to figure out how to get my attention!

Yesterday afternoon she was in her carseat carrier on the floor, while Matthew was laying on the couch beside her watching (what else!) Shrek. She starts fussing and is thisclose to screaming when I go over to her and put her pacifier in her mouth. I stay there and talk to her for a few seconds and she watches me intently. I then get up, go around the back of the carseat and over to Matthew to give him a kiss on his cheek. As soon as I'm out of her field of vision, she spits out the pacifier and starts screaming. OK, I go back over to her, insert pacifier, say a few words, and go off to do something else. Again as soon as she can't see me she spits it out and starts screaming. I go back, reinsert pacifier, and hide behind her carseat. Yup, she does it again. This time I tell her she's on her own if she spits it out again. She did. I refused to go over. After a few seconds of hissy fit, she stopped.

She tried to pull the same stunt again today but this time I wised up and told her I didn't want to play this game today and she'd have to wait til I was done. 5 minutes of crying and she was out like a light. Woohoo I won!

Is this what he really thinks of me?

Matthew's favourite game lately is to pretend he's Shrek. He'll run up to me excitedly and say "Hi Mommy. It's me Shrek!". It's very cute until he informs me of which character I get to play. Unfortunately it's not Princess Fiona; he's made me Donkey!

Should I be offended that he made me the jackass?

She's already his scapegoat

Picture this: I'm sitting on the couch feeding Maya. Matthew comes over for a quick visit. I smell something terrible.

Me: "It smells like poop in here"
Chris: "Matthew did you poop?"
Matthew: "Nooooooo"
Chris: "Are you sure cuz it really smells in here"
Matthew: "I didn't poop"
Chris: "Well then who did?"
Matthew: "Maya pooped"

They're conspiring against me already!

Today is my first day alone with Matthew and Maya. I had everything organized in my head as to what had to get done, and how and when, so I thought everything would go smoothly. I knew Matthew's schedule/routine, and Maya seemed pretty easy and predictable thus far so what could go wrong?

Well for starters Maya decided she wasn't interested in sleeping today, unlike every other day so far where it's been so hard to wake her up to eat. And she also decided that she's hungry now and wants to eat constantly. So I make her a bottle and sit down with her. I figure as soon as she's done she'll fall asleep like she has done ever since she's been born, and then I can get to Matthew. Nope! I put her in her cradle and she starts screaming. After I see that she's not going to get over it, I pick her up and bring her out to the living room to hang out with Matthew. The 3 of us sit down and watch Shrek. Matthew comes to visit and I see a huge wet spot on his butt. Dammit I forgot to change his bum before we turned on the TV! Since Maya is the louder of the two I decide to let her finish her umpteenth bottle and then I'll go take care of Matthew. Shortly after deciding this in my head, guess what I smell? Yes Matthew decides to poop! Ugh! Maya finishes, I put her in her crib, change Matthew and we go sit down to finish Shrek. No more than 20 seconds after I sit down she starts her blood curdling screams again. Dammit she's not asleep yet! I pick her up and the 3 of us continue with the movie.

The two of them decided to alternate their feedings throughout the day too. Maya needs a bottle. She finishes. Matthew wants milk. No wait, he wants juice. No he really did want milk. He'd also like a hamburger. Ugh! He finally sits down with his snacks and drink and eats. Now Maya poops so I fix that up. Now that that part of her is empty she decides she's hungry. I make another bottle and start feeding her. 4 sucks and she's done. She'd prefer a pacifier. She sucks on that, and spits it out, I have to put it back in, she spits it out, I put it away, she decides that yes she really does want it. Ugh!

Now it's 11 am and I still haven't showered! I sit Matthew down for more TV, put Maya into her carseat and bring her into the bathroom with me. I start my shower. 5 minutes into it come blood curdling screams again. She spit out her sucky! I get out of the shower, reach over and pull her closer to the shower so I can stick the sucky back in. Of course at this point my eye/hand coordination decides to take a vacation and I can't seem to pick the damn thing up. And water is dripping all down my arm and I'm basically raining on my newborn. By the time I reach the damn sucky she and the carseat are wet. I finish my shower in nanoseconds and I get out. She spits out the sucky again and starts screaming again. I guess she's hungry again. I get dressed as quick as humanly possible and go get another bottle. She finishes and goes down for a snooze.

I make lunch for Matthew and I and we eat. I finish first so I get up to go clean something up. When I get back there are pieces of tomato thrown onto my carpet and throw cushions. Dammit! So after a 30 second argument with him Matthew agrees to clean up his mess.

Now it's naptime for Matthew. Phew I can get some sleep too! He goes down with no problems. But wait, what about Maya? She may be sleeping now but how long is that going to last? I change her bum and top her up with another bottle, put her down, and I settle down for a nap too.

We all get up around 4 pm and everyone seems to be much more cooperative. Daddy comes home around 5 pm and now the numbers are finally even: 2 against 2. I have never been so happy to see Chris in my life! The rest of the night goes far smoother than the day.

So basically I have to get up that much earlier tomorrow to get my shower and morning pumping session out of the way before everyone else wakes up. Oh and this time I have to remember to change Matthew's bum before he gets out of his room.

Wish me luck!

Heeeeeere's Maya!

Maya Gwendolyn finally made her appearance on Saturday, August 5th at 3:45 pm. It was a short labour - only 6 1/2 hours - but I cheated and got induced so it's not nearly as impressive as it sounds when you get the details. She weighed in at 7lbs 9 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. I should be happy that she came out so healthy considering all the health problems that plagued me throughout pregnancy, but I must admit I was a little disappointed she wasn't any bigger because that meant the rest of the weight gain was all me! :(

So far she's a pretty content little girl; barely cries at all except when her diaper gets changed or you change her clothes or when the pacifier falls out of her mouth. She's figured out the faces she needs to make to garner sympathy out of visitors and she practices them several times a day. We also seem to have a 2am cuddle nap policy she's set in place, whereby she projectile vomits and then dry heaves until I feel so guilty I pick her up and have her sleep with me in my arms. Yes she's already proven she's smarter than me!

Matthew has warmed up to her and now admits he likes her. At first he was stand-offish at the hospital but that probably had more to do with seeing me hooked up to machines and holding this stranger he hadn't previously authorized. After about an hour here at home he was giving her a bottle and kissing her forehead. It probably also helped that Maya stopped at Toys R Us before we made it home and bought him a huge toy car (Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars). Bribery isn't all bad!

Chris and I are still trying to figure out/negotiate a sleep schedule that works for us all. So far I'm doing a lot better with the postpartum thing than I did with Matthew and can survive on far less sleep than I used to. I guess all those months of having to wake up to pee 6-8 times a night helped me prepare for sleep deprivation!

Check out the main page for some pics.

Up at 6:20 am???

Huh? He went to bed at 10:30 last night. What the heck is Matthew doing up at 6:20 am? Watching Shrek, that's what! Ha ha!

I was totally expecting him to be hard to wake up this morning so at least I don't have that to contend with.

The day of Matthew

I'd say Matthew had a pretty good day yesterday and was fairly spoiled.

It started off with a viewing of Shrek in his jammies shortly after 7 am. He drank his warm milk and honey, ate his 2 vitamins (and tried to tell me I forgot to give them to him so he could have more), and chomped on 2 suckers (one was originally mine but he stole it as soon as he finished his own).

We woke up Daddy, picked up Grampa (my Dad) and went for breakfast. We ordered pancakes for him, which are usually his favourite, but he ended up eating from everyone else's plates for the most part.

After we drop off Grampa, we head to the bank to do some business and came home. I wasn't feeling great so I took a nap while Daddy got stuck with another viewing of Shrek. Ha ha! He and Daddy took a nap together and we all woke up shortly before 3 pm (hey when are we all gonna get another chance to sleep that long again?).

We took him to see his first movie in a theater. Only one cinema in town was playing Cars, and it just happened to be the oldest and crappiest theater in town. But Daddy really wanted to take his little guy to see the movie so he sacrificed comfort and decent audio/visual to treat his little guy. Matthew had Pepsi and popcorn for lunch at the theater (hey it's only one day so no comments please!) and for the most part was pretty well-behaved. He did get a little restless after a while but I'm not that good at sitting still for 2 hours either.

After the movie Daddy and Matthew dropped me off at home (still not feeling that great. What a party-pooper!) while the two boys went to the park to play. When they got home they came downstairs where I was watching TV on the big screen and Matthew wanted to watch - you guessed it - Shrek on the big TV. OK buddy, Mommy will put it on for you. So we watch the movie for what, the 3rd time? I did get lots of cuddles on the couch though so it wasn't too bad.

We ordered pizza and ate it upstairs. Daddy and I got to watch maybe 10 minutes of normal TV upstairs when someone asked to watch something else. Guess who? And guess what we had to watch? Yup, Shrek again! So are we up to the 4th or 5th time today? I dunno; I've lost count! After this last time he and Daddy took a shower and went to bed.

All in all it was a good day and we hardly had any "terrible two" issues from him. I just have my fingers crossed that he doesn't expect it everyday cuz I don't think I can handle Shrek again.

I'm off to the hospital this morning for 8am for the induction. Please say a little prayer for me, and if you could include the words "quick and painless" in your prayers somewhere I'd be forever grateful!

See you all in a few days!

Tomorrow's his last day as an only child

Tomorrow is our last day alone with our baby boy before we add another one to our brood, and of course I'm getting all sentimental about it. No phone calls, no appointments, no visitors; just me, Chris and Baby Shmear all day.

We're planning to take him to see his very first movie in a theater - Cars. He should like it since he's a big fan of cars (won't sleep in anything other than his racecar jammies and cries when we have to take them off to get him dressed in the mornings). I just wonder how he'll handle sitting still for 2 hours. But he can alternate between sitting on Daddy's lap and then Mommy's so he should be OK.

I promise I'll let him watch Shrek as much as he wants tomorrow without complaining about having to watch it AGAIN, as long as he gives me some cuddles here and there.

He can eat whatever he wants (heck it's only 1 day). Even if it's suckers for breakfast I won't make a fuss.

I'll watch the dreaded Dora the Explorer a few times before we head off to the movies.

And hopefully it won't be stifling hot outside tomorrow so we can take him to the park like he's been asking for the past week or so.

I just want one last special day with just the 3 of us.

Now I'm getting all emotional and blubbering like a twit. Damn pregnancy hormones!