Couch Potatoes

We've been enjoying the last week with Daddy being home by mostly just staying home and adjusting to life with our newest addition. We love, love, love the Olympics and have had a LOT to do around the couch. It's pretty funny that the world's biggest celebration of sport turns us into hard-core couch potatoes.

We did venture out a little bit. Declan went to his 2 week Dr. appt., where we learned he grew an inch and gained a pound since leaving the hospital about 10 days earlier. It appears as though he will have his father's gigantification if he keeps this up! I was glad to see how much he grew, since he lost a lot of weight in the beginning and I was worried he was going to be a slow gainer like his big sister was - hard as that is to believe when you see her now, lol.

Talia seems to be adjusting to her role as big sister pretty well. She is constantly hovering around "brotter" and likes to pile toys, books and blankets on top of him. She crouches beside him as he sleeps, optimistically chirping "Hi! Hi! Hi!" even though her little brother never answers. We were glad to get these grinning shots of our big girl when Susie dropped by early in the week.

Talia did get a wee bit spoiled with all the grandparents around for so long, she learned a new word ("cook-eeeeeeeeee!" - thanks a lot, Grampy!!!) and developed a taste for something sweet after supper (again, thanks a lot, Grampy!!!) She wants us to feed her, even though she's been feeding herself with utensils for at least 4 months now. We've had a few battles, the most recent being today when she refused to say or sign please at lunchtime. She's been signing please for months and was saying please consistently before Declan was born, so I know she can do both, and will accept either from her. So when she misbehaved at lunchtime (throwing her food over the edge of her highchair tray) and I took her lunch away from her, I expected her to do one or the other if she wanted her lunch back. She chose to have a tantrum instead. She'll be getting her lunch as her afternoon snack once she wakes up from her nap.... IF she says please!

Declan the Amazing Sleeper continues to make nights easy on Mama, sleeping 5 and 6 hour stretches. My brother is incredibly annoyed by this, lol. He has a son who is the same age as Talia, and he is still not sleeping through the night consistently. My bro thought this was because boys sleep through the night much later than girls, and when Declan was born, he was all "You'll get yours!!!!" (He's clearly still irritated that our first baby came home from the hospital sleeping from midnight to 6am.) He can't believe we were lucky enough to get another sleepy baby.

As for me, I feel really good, have lost almost all the baby weight already (the secret clearly being to be sick as a dog so you can't eat much of anything) and am super stoked to be wearing regular clothes again - even though those clothes are yoga pants and flannel pyjamas. (I scored a new pair of jammies at Zeller's this week - $7.50. What a deal!) Now, if only spring would hurry up and get here so I could get both of these kids outside for some nice long walks and playdates at the park.

One Week

Hard to believe it's been one week of Declan already! For my faithful followers NOT on Facebook, (I'm talking to you, Donni!) here's how it went down:

Last Tuesday we got up nice and early, dropped Talia off at Daycare, and made our way to St. B for 8am. We were all geared up to meet our babe after our 10am c-section.

Around 8:30 we were all checked in, hooked up to monitors, etc. My dr. swung by and said she would see us soon. She also said very rarely, an emergency comes up, and there was a slight possibility that we may be delayed by an hour or so if that were to happen - but that was highly unlikely.

Around 10:15am she came back and said sure enough, an emergency had come up, she would see us in about an hour. And so began our day of being continually bumped, emergency after emergency. I hadn't been allowed to eat or drink anything since about 8pm the night before, so I got progressively more and more miserable and thirsty as the day went on. But really, when Talia was born, we were the emergency that bumped other c-sections back, and we were certainly glad that they made that decision for us. And while we were waiting in the triage room, we could hear the women who were coming in with the emergencies. At one point, the woman in the room next to us was CLEARLY in labour at 31 weeks with twins. She definitely needed the OR more than we did. I mean, how can you argue with a tiny baby in distress? So it was a long day, but I hope all those babies arrived safe and sound in the end.

Finally, around 6pm, we got the word that we were up next. They ran a bag of sugar water into my IV (which made me feel so much better!) and off we went.

I had a spinal instead of an epidural this time (that's just the way they do it for a planned section, apparently.) The first one froze me from the ankles down. I loved that the doctors and nurses totally gave the anesthesiologist a hard time about it - lots of "Oh, NICE work!" and "That would be perfect if we were operating on her ankles" and "You know the baby is a little higher up, right?" I did NOT love when his response was a confused "That's so weird!" Um, I really wish that wasn't a mystery to you, dude. But whatever. The next one took so well it was actually a little hard to breathe, lol.

When the dr. got to the baby, she said "Oooooh, baby has lots of hair!!" which wasn't a huge surprise to use, considering the little ape that Talia was when she was born. Then she said something that WAS a huge surprise: "It's a boy!" Rainer and I both said "a BOY?!?!?"

Declan was born at 7:22pm, but since I'd had a double spinal, we were in the recovery room for hours and hours afterward, waiting for the feeling to come back to my legs. It was after 3am before we got transferred to a room, and after 4 before we got settled in. Then I was woken at 5:30am to get up and walking - the earlier, the better, apparently. I didn't have time to nap at all that first day, so I was pretty wiped out. But I got a good sleep the next night, and felt like a million bucks the second day.

I wasn't lucky enough to get one of the private rooms (there are only a few on the high-risk ward, which is where you are automatically sent when you have a c-section at St. B) so I had to share. When Talia was born, I shared with a crazy woman. She was not coping well, her baby screamed 24 hours a day, and she would get up and scream-sing back at her "JESUS LOVES ME, THIS I KNOW....." Oy. So soothing. And to make matters worse, the baby's name was Katrina, so when Crazy Mama would get up and yell "Katrina! Settle down!!" (so effective with a newborn, no?) I would always think she was yelling at me. This time, my roommate was quiet and really lovely, her baby never made a peep, etc. So it really took my by surprise when she and her husband had a HUGE fight over each other's drinking on the other side of the curtain. I was frantically looking for my call button, thinking I was about to hear a physical domestic dispute, when the nurse randomly walked in. Phew.

Anyway, we were really glad when Friday rolled around and it was time to come home. Talia stayed at my bro's all week with my parents, when we finally got home on Friday night, she laid down on the floor in the living room and sobbed. She had a great time playing with "Landy, Nantie and Cuncle" but she was exhausted and missed her home. She has adjusted to being a big sister so well, she loves "Decal" and asks for him all the time. She gives him lots of kisses and rubs his little head, saying "Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice, niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice." So far, she hasn't shown any jealousy at all - although she did say "No!" and push him off her lap when we tried to get a picture of the two of them together, lol.

Grammie & Grampy moved out here for the weekend as well and left to go home yesterday. It was wonderful to be surrounded by family, and to have their help and support for the last week, but it was also wonderful to settle in with our family of four yesterday. It will be nice to be by ourselves for a few days - but I'm sure we'll be ready for some help again when Grandma and Grandpa arrive here tomorrow night!

As for Declan, he has slipped right into our family like he's always been here. He is very similar to his big sister - never makes a peep, is so content whether he's being held or just hanging out, looking around in his cradle. He has already rolled over twice - once on the couch, which I didn't think really counted since the incline sort of gave him a head start. But the second time was in his completely flat bassinet, so I suppose there's no ignoring that one. Talia rolled at 3 weeks, and we thought she was a freak of nature. Our babies are apparently determined to be on their backs as little as possible, lol. He sleeps in long stretches at night (4 hours, gets up and nurses, then 5 hours), and is an overall very easy baby. We lucked out again!

Room For One More

Well, today is our last day as a family of three. Sadly, we're not even spending it together, as Mama is still on bedrest, Talia is still an 18-almost-19-month-old-whirlwind, and Daddy is crazy busy at work (who knew that February would be the ABSOLUTE. WORST. TIME. for an accountant's family to have a baby?) So Tally has gone to be spoiled all day by Grammie & Grampy at Uncle Kenty's, Daddy has gone to put in a marathon day at work, and Mama is stuck on the couch, thinking about cheating on her bedrest in order to get a couple of last-minute things done in preparation for our big arrival tomorrow.

I stole this cartoon from my friend Fish - her oldest daughter and Talia have the same birthday, and they have also recently become a family of four:

Of course, we're just kidding. We're super thrilled about our newest addition. We're slightly terrified about the days ahead while we adjust to having a newborn in the house again, but we're really excited about our expanded family. It will be interesting to see Talia settle into her role as big sister! And of course, how will Bert decide who to dote on 24 hours a day once we have 2 babies?? And more importantly, WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE GOING TO NAME THIS BABY?!?!? (We are less than 24 hours from the birth of Cold November, and as things stand right now, that is going to end up being the name we put on the birth certificate.)

Auntie Shannon snapped this pic last summer at Tally's first birthday, and sent it to us last night, wondering if there was room for another tiny shoe in there. Judging from the last fetal assessment, Cold November's feet are already as big as his/her big sister's feet are right now, but don't worry, Daddy has another shoe.

Stay tuned for news of our newest little Raine Drop! See you all when we get home from the hospital!!

Who's the Boss?

Talia has always been Daddy's girl, right from the start. Mama's okay, but Daddy rocks her little 18-month old world. She squeals with delight when he comes home, she doesn't think Mama gives baths or reads bedtime stories correctly, and her favourite thing to do on the weekend is climb up on his lap for a little "second breakfast" after she's done eating her own.

So it was no surprise last night when our little family was hanging out, talking about the new baby, and I asked her "Tally Raine, who's going to be the new baby's best friend? Mommy or Daddy?" and got a definite "DADDY!" for a response. I was surprised, however, when I went on to ask her "Tally Raine, who's the boss around here? Mommy or Daddy?" and got a just as definite "MOMMY!"

What can I tell you? M'girl is a genius. Take that, Daddy.