The Margenau BabyBlog

An end and a beginning...

2008-06-26T18:23:00.001-07:00

We're changing our blog address. Update your links and favourites to direct you to the new Margenau Family Blog.

www.margenau.wordpress.com

When we first started blogging, blogger was really the best tool available. Since then, a lot has changed. I am constantly annoyed by blogger downtime, by the photo uploading, but the ridiculous little quirks of the site. Additionally, we are reaching the point where we need to integrate our two blogs together. It makes no sense to have two, especially with the new baby on the way. We can't continue to keep 'baby developments' separate from 'family developments', and the maintenance of both is getting exhausting. Wordpress is a new blogging tool that seems a bit more user-friendly and effective, so for now, thats where our blog lives. Come visit us there, as there will be no more updates here at Blogger....

The end?

2008-06-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

Its been three days now since Luke last nursed. Some of you may be surprised to hear this is only happening now. We have definitely heard more than a few comments along the lines of "is he STILL nursing?!?". And up until a few days ago, he was. I was determined to nurse Luke until he was 2. There are a huge number of benefits to maintaining breastfeeding through the toddler years. And our main indicator was Luke himself. I always believed that he would stop nursing when he didn't need it anymore. As long as he felt it still necessary, I would continue nursing him.

So for the last couple months, we have been following a 'don't offer, don't refuse' policy. I would follow his lead, and if he asked to nurse, he could nurse. But I tried not to suggest nursing as a way to help him fall asleep, or to get over a bump or scare. Some days he would nurse a lot - every few hours. Other days, he would go almost 12 hours before remembering, then would nurse a few times. Other times, he wouldn't ask at all. I haven't gone through any engorgement, probably because there is very little milk left due to the pregnancy. His nursing is primarily for comfort, rather than for nutrition. So he has now gone three days without asking to nurse. A good friend of mine always says 3 days is the start of all new trends for babies, so if that holds true, its possible this is the end.

I must admit I'm a bit sad about it. Despite the fact that I know I'll have a new baby to nurse and all the complications that will come along with that. I definitely had no interest in nursing two, so I'm glad Luke is also feeling ready to move on. But I just feel like I'll miss looking down at my beautiful boy in those minutes when both of us are focused entirely on one another. I'll miss how his eyes would roll back in contentment and relaxation when he nursed before falling asleep. I'll also really miss having an sure-fire way to soothe his little aches and fears, or to help him fall asleep in a noisy or confusing new environment. I guess I'll just miss him being my baby. And evidently I'm pregnant and hormonal because the thought of him not nursing anymore brings me to tears!!

It has been a while since a new blog post. We've been busy - outside lots - and have had lots going on in the evenings and during naptime! But here are a few pictures to show you what Luke has been doing lately.

Luke sleeping on the couch, one morning when he woke up WAY too early. (Kyle got up with him, as evidenced by his fashion disaster of an outfit)

Luke practicing his use of chopsticks with Chinese Takeout. Much to our surprise, he loved the food, and did pretty well with the chopsticks too! He is branching out to eating unusual things lately, thankfully. Although someone at daycare has taught him not to eat sandwich crusts, which is a bit annoying.

In other food news, Luke is a bit of a Yogurt fiend. We call this charming look "Monsieur yogheurt". Check out the video to see how keen he is... (check back... waiting for it to upload)

Luke had a great time in his new pool with our neighbour Nora. It has a slide, and water-spouting seals. What more could you ask for?

On Fathers Day we went to the Ottawa "Touch a Truck" show. Luke got to see dump-dumps (anything that dumps dirt), whee-a-whee-a's (anything with a siren) and a bunch of other exciting trucks that he hasn't invented words for yet.

Lots and lots of Luke

2008-06-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

Luke has had a busy week. His much-loved daycare provider Bev is on a much-needed two week vacation, so he's got all sorts of new people taking care of him. For a couple days that included Grandpa and Nana Sue! They were out in Ottawa for a couple days on their way to a conference in Quebec City. Although we didn't get to see them for as long as we would have liked, they got a great dose of Luke while they were here. Within a couple hours of arriving they got to be Luke's babysitters for a few days, and he loved hanging out with them. It was an exciting week near our house - lots of construction going on. We spent a lot of time watching the backhoes build a new entrance to our townhouse complex, then watching the landscapers put in some interlock in our neighbours backyard. And luckily for our blog, Nana Sue loves taking pictures of Luke! So here are a few photos of what they got up to while in Ottawa...

Watching the dump-dump's near our house

The new sand table that Grandpa and Nana got for Luke. Complete with its own digger! Luke can't quite figure out the digger yet though, but he sure loves having it in there.

Luke also figured out pretty quickly that he could climb into the table to play

They brought Luke a wonderful little John Deere Backhoe that works really well with his little Tonka truck. He and Grandpa had great fun making those work with a pot of dirt on the patio!

We all went out for lunch at a pasta place and Nana Sue caught Luke making goofy faces (And waiting patiently for his lunch...) In case you don't recognize it, the last picture is of the Itsy Bitsy Spider... of course!

Having one of Luke's new favourite snacks: Pudding!

Our baby bean

2008-05-20T12:48:00.001-07:00

So we had our big ultrasound today, and I think we were both successful in NOT seeing if this little one is a boy or a girl. Although I don't totally trust Kyle... He had a funny smirk on his face after the ultrasound and I have a feeling he may have peeked.

Our little bean seems to be doing very well - its heart and all organs are formed perfectly. Its about 16cm long from the crown to rump, not including the legs. Somehow it grew a lot more than I had remembered for now! I still figured it was around 10cm long total, including the legs. Its almost a pound in weight and otherwise all the features seem to be perfect. It spent most of the ultrasound with its legs crossed at the ankles and its arms up over its face, just like the 12 week ultrasound.

Overall, this pregnancy, I am still feeling great. I mostly forget I am pregnant, except sometimes when the bean gets an energetic kick. I forgot how at this early stage of pregnancy, movement is so monstrous. Its not the subtle pushes and flexes that you feel later in pregnancy - which I remember well. No, its a full-on sommersault with arms and legs flailing. I'll be sitting in class and start to feel the baby move, then all of a sudden my bladder gets kicked and for a brief second I have to pee, then the urge is immediately gone. Then I'll feel my stomach get compressed, and feel instantly nauseous for a second before it disappears. Its such a funny experience and it always makes me smile to myself.

Out! Out! Please Out?

2008-05-16T17:06:00.001-07:00

We haven't really been inside for the past week, so its no wonder the blog updates are few and far between! If Luke is up, we're outside. "Out" is one of his favourite words these days sometimes with a signed "please" added in if he feels we're really ignoring his requests. So we spend just about every waking moment doing things like digging in dirt, finding sticks, shovelling and dumping sand, and dropping rocks down the sewer drains. Luke comes in filthy every night, with his shoes full of sand, leaves in his hair, his fingernails caked in mud, his clothes a disaster - - and as happy as you can imagine. If he leaves grunge marks on the bathtub after his bath, I know he's had as perfect a day as a toddler could ever have. So I guess, for this summer anyways, "out out out" is going to be our daily routine.

He's getting a lot of exercise, which you'd think would make him a better sleeper, right? Oh no, not our munchkin. We've had a very rough few nights in the past week, with him awake for up to 3 hours at a stretch in the middle of the night. Its really very painful for everyone. Kyle sometimes ends up just sleeping in there with him, the both of them curled up on the La-Z-Boy recliner. Its a nightmare but it gets us through. We're coming ever closer to the October deadline when I was hoping he'd be happily sleeping through the night - leaving us the energy to care for a newborn all night. It seems he didn't get that memo.

Luke had a VERY exciting week. On Monday morning at 7am one of his favourite things in the world - a dump-dump - pulled up right in front of our house. And it stayed here for 4 long days! Not at minimal cost, either, to mom and dad. But worthwhile in the end. I meant to ask the landscaper if he does birthday parties - that little bobcat is better than a clown anyday! Kyle's going to post some pics of our new landscaping on our regular blog, hopefully tomorrow. But all that meant that Luke got to watch a dump-dump in action for days. He's also started differentiating between "dig" and "dump" - so his vocabulary is getting a bit richer! Here are some pictures of him greatly enjoying our new scenery.

Luckily the dump-dump owners were really nice and let Luke climb around on it!

We also made it out for a nice walk to the construction site at the hospital by our house last weekend. Who knew that we'd consider one of the best assets of our new home to be the nearby construction site! How priorities change when confronted with a screaming, flailing, bored toddler...

We had our good friends Rich and Jo over for lunch last week. Luke managed to have a great time rolling down the little hill in our backyard with Rich! Oh, and eating rocks. Rich didn't eat any, but Luke sure enjoyed them.

18 weeks

2008-05-11T04:18:00.000-07:00

Luke and our Baby Bean have a new cousin this week! Sullivan Turner Wright was born on Thursday night, after making Jamie and Johnny wait almost 2 weeks past his due date. We can't wait to meet him this summer out in BC!

I figure as the posts lately have been pretty Luke-focused, its about time to mention our baby bean, and how s/he is growing. So far, everything seems to be going really well. I first felt a bit of movement around 16.5 weeks - the very same day I was going to the midwife to hear the heartbeat. The flutters were definitely the baby moving, I knew right away what I was feeling. Then we got to hear the heartbeat at the midwife's office. It took about 3 midwives almost 10 (nerve-wracking) minutes to find it, I guess this little one likes to hide. No wonder, doppler waves being beamed at you must not be a comfortable experience... but I'm glad s/he at least gave us a clear heartbeat for a few seconds. It was great to hear. Since then, our little bean is getting more and more active, and I can feel the movement further and further up my tummy.

Pregnancy-wise, I am feeling great. I have gained 2 lbs total at 18 weeks, and don't have any of the heartburn, indigestion, or food aversions I had last pregnancy. I crave a LOT of things, it changes every day, and lately I have really loved drinking coffee again. This pregnancy feels so different from Luke's, where I felt nauseous and could barely eat until a few weeks past now. I'm just really hoping it means this baby is more laid-back and easy than Luke was!! I don't think we could deal with two of them with his personality.

My delightful spring allergies have returned in full force. I never had allergies until I was pregnant with Luke, and they continued last year in Washington. I was hoping we had moved away from whatever tree was making me miserable, but it appears Ottawa has those too. I feel awful, I'm on drugs every 12 hours to take the edge off the itchy eyes, sneezing, and itchy throat. But they do nothing really for the congestion and runny nose, and there is nothing else I can take without worrying about harming the baby. I can't sleep - I'm so stuffed up every time I swallow my ears pop and I have to breathe through my mouth. Its just an awful, awful feeling. So far its been going on for about 3 weeks, and if Washington is anything to go by, there will be at least another month, maybe more.

We got back the results from those ultrasounds and blood tests we did a few weeks ago, and everything looks good! We won't be doing any follow-up testing as the chances of this baby having many of those neural tube disorders is much lower than average. This week our baby bean is about the size of a Bell Pepper, and weighs more than half a pound. My next ultrasound is May 20 - just a week and a bit away.

Luke's new ride...

2008-05-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

Grandma got Luke a beautiful new tricycle, and needless to say now we'll never get him inside. It truly is pretty fabulous. It's a Kettler Trike, one of the best brands of Trikes, and after doing a lot of research we spent more money than I think we paid for either of our own bikes and just got it. But it was worth it: we're all pretty much in love.

Luke loved it from the moment it arrived last night. The box was exceptionally fun to play on, plus it had all those great pieces inside! Seats and hats and wheels, what fun. Kyle managed to get the thing assembled in just about an hour last night. And as it can hold up to 400 lbs (yes - four HUNDRED pounds!) Kyle took it for a spin to try it out. No, I don't have pictures but I should, that was pretty hilarious.

Luke got to see it this morning, and since then has rarely gotten off it. Its so much fun. It has this great wheel system, so we can lock the front wheel and then actually steer using the push handle on the back. Because the wheels are big and air-filled, its as easy to push and move as our jogging stroller. The pedals are also free-spinning, so even if the tire is going around, they don't make his little legs spin. The seat is big and comfy, and the best part -- its got a dumping bucket on the back! For a little boy whose favourite expression is "dump-dump!" thats pretty much the best thing ever. So we spent hours today pushing him - and his new bike - around the neighbourhood. He absolutely loves it, and grins the whole time he's on it. Thanks Grandma!

Pictures Pictures Pictures!

2008-05-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

These are just a few things we got up to this weekend...

We bought a new patio set to replace our old one - a lovely romantic two-seat bar-style table... Home to many wonderful happy hours spent on our beautiful patio overlooking the lake in Alexandria. How life changes - now we need space for high chairs and a glass top that won't break if a sippy cup is banged on it repeatedly! This was the cheapest set at Home Depot that fit our needs - so its not exactly a home decorating statement, but it'll work for the next 2 summers. (We're told our high-rise apartment in Shanghai probably won't work well for Barbecueing and eating outdoors!)

Luke and I also planted some flowers to make the garden brighter. Its still early in the year here, and as we've got so much landscaping yet to happen (a fence, deck, patio, etc.) we don't want to put anything in the ground. So we put a bunch of plants in planter boxes. Luke got the hang of it pretty quick and loved dumping dirt on top of everything!

We also got a tree! The City of Ottawa is giving out 100,000 free trees this Spring, so we signed up to get one. We got our little notice in the mail last week and Kyle headed out on Saturday morning to get our Crabapple tree! We got to choose what kind to get, this one flowers really nicely in the Spring and will grow to about 15 feet. We had a great time planting it - as our subdivision is built on an old river bed, we had about a foot of nice topsoil then solid shale from there down. Kyle is still exhausted from swinging the pick-ax for about an hour, digging out a huge hole. Our little tree sure looks happy in our backyard though!

Luke and I took his Retro Rocket on the open road. He loved spinning around the neighbourhood on it - he could get going so fast in a straight line, with none of those bothersome indoor things like tables and stairs to worry about. He had a great time, and the Rocket seems to have held up well to its outdoor excursion. Now I'm off to order him a tricycle online...

Oh yikes it's been a while!

2008-04-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

Evidently I have been neglecting this blog lately! It has been weeks since the last update!

My mom came to visit, and I'm ashamed to admit we didn't take a single picture the entire time she was here. To be honest, we were way too busy, but still, we should be documenting her time with her favourite grandson! If not for the blog's sake, then for Luke's. Roundabout a day before my mom arrived, Ottawa decided to do summer. Yup, overnight we went from freezing temperatures and snow falling, to +20 and sunny. Our snow - all 15+ feet of it in the front yard - melted in under 3 days. Remarkably, it was only 2 weeks ago and I can barely remember how it looked to be that snowed in. Anyways, that made for a wonderful time for Mom and Luke. All the playgrounds re-emerged, and although they were a bit squishy under the feet the first few days, the two of them barely came inside for 10 days. Luke is a confirmed outdoor child, he pitches quite a fit when its time to come inside. We can't wait to get a fence built so he's not playing in the front yard (hence, needing good supervision) all the time.

We also spent a lot of time shopping - because we went from -10 to +20 in literally days, Luke had no clothes to fit him. Grandma bought him some gorgeous new spring & summer clothes. His favourite is a t-shirt with a backhoe on it - when I'm getting him dressed in the morning he points to his tummy and says "dump dump?" becuase he always wants to wear it! Its got matching socks too. It was also nice because Grandma quickly became Luke's favourite. Instead of insiting I play with him all the time, he always chose Grandma over me. Leaving me with some well-appreciated down time! Here is a quick video I took right before Grandma got here - I picked up some bubble bath for Luke. To be honest, the first night he was a bit perplexed. He couldn't figure out why the water kept sticking to him when he moved around. Now he LOVES it and demands bubble bath all the time. But he tends to drink it, so we try to limit it!

Pregnancy wise everything seems to be going well... I still haven't felt our little bean moving around at all, which is somewhat surprising to me. I thought I would have felt it by now. I felt Luke at 19.5 weeks, but it was my first pregnancy, and his placenta was on the front - against my tummy. This little bean's placenta is on the back, and I know now what baby flutters feel like, so I thought I'd feel it by now. Maybe I just never have a spare minute to focus on it! My next ultrasound is May 20. In the meantime, I'm growing and growing and growing. MUCH faster than I showed with Luke. Here are some fun pictures to see the difference between then and now - both 16 weeks:

LUKE:

BABY BEAN:

I have to say, though I feel great. This pregnancy so far feels much easier than my first one, I don't have any heartburn at all, no nausea anymore. Lots of funky cravings (anyone down in DC want to ship me some salt water taffy??? Can you believe not a single online store will ship that to Canada?!) and a great appetite overall. I would love to hear the heartbeat though on the doppler, so I may invent an excuse to demand a midwife appointment this week, just to check that out! :)

Sick sick sick

2008-04-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been a quiet week on the blog. WE have been VERY sick for the last week, and still haven't fully recovered. We did get lots of great pictures of Luke from when the Duttons were here, that we will (energy pending) get loaded up on the internet and onto the blog sometime soon... really.

Luke got a fever at daycare last Thursday, and by the time I brought him home it was hovering around 104. Despite all our best efforts at intervention with Ibuprofin AND Aceteminophen, it wouldn't go down below 102. He had an awful runny nose, a lot of bloody noses, and a terrible cough. When he slept he would wake up whining and crying out every few minutes, probably because of such a high fever. I finally got him to the Doctor on Sunday who put him on some antibiotics, and the change has been remarkable. The fever went away in about a day, the cough and runny nose followed a day later, and now he's doing really well. Definitely on the mend, finally, after a long winter of coughs and sniffles.

Then, inevitably, I caught it. I'm on day 4 now of this miserable cold, hoping it will go away soon. I've got an awful cough that leaves me with barely energy to breathe. Even walking up stairs leaves me too winded to speak, and I think I'm losing my voice. All in all, just miserable.

I had a midwife appointment on Wednesday. They are very laid back about everything, they don't seem to worry about all the measurements and statistics my last doctor took so seriously. They listened for the heartbeat with the doppler, and although the midwife said she could hear it (faintly), I never really heard it. Oh well, we trust the baby is growing just the way s/he should be! I'm 14 weeks pregnant tomorrow, and we'll be making an appointment for 5-6 weeks from now for our big Level II ultrasound around 19/20 weeks. I won't go back to the midwife until after that appointment - so different from my last experience! This time around we won't be finding out if its a boy or a girl, and I think Kyle and I will have to spend most of the ultrasound with our hands over our faces... With Luke, it was evident - even to untrained eyes - from the moment they put the wand on my belly. And now we know what to look for, so apart from peeking at the face, we'll probably cover our eyes for most of the baby's measurements!

The first inkling of second child syndrome...

2008-04-03T16:51:00.001-07:00

Sorry everyone! Yes, our ultrasound was on MONDAY and its now almost FRIDAY and I still haven't updated the blog!! Life has been pretty busy this week with our friends the Dutton's arriving from Kentucky for a visit on Wednesday, the return of my miserable morning sickness, and Luke getting a high fever and the flu. What a week. I guess this is what people talk about when they say the second child is often forgotten in all the rush... sorry baby bean!

Needless to say, our baby bean is just fine! Happily rolling around in my tummy, his or her little heart ticking away at 153 beats per minute. Kyle and I both got to go to the Ultrasound, and the baby was sleeping at first while they took some measurements. It was so neat for both of us - the baby was sleeping happily on its back, with one hand up beside its face and its little legs crossed at the ankles... exactly how Luke sleeps! We both thought it was remarkable how similar the tendencies were. Then the movement woke up the baby and it moved its head from side to side and rubbed its arms across its head, all in all really neat to see. I forget how dynamic ultrasounds really are - I see the pictures from Luke and think they are all simple still photographs, but nothing prepares you for that moment when you see the baby wake up, stretch a bit and start looking in different directions. So amazing.

This baby has implanted on the back wall of my uterus (posterior) which is exactly the opposite from Luke - he was on the front. Hopefully it means I'll feel the baby moving sooner! We got one picture from the ultrasound, and when I get a minute I'll scan it and get it up here for you all to see. So far so good, we are just waiting for the results from the blood tests and ultrasound to let us know whether our baby has a higher than normal chance of neural tube defects. We should know in a week or so. My next midwife appointment is next Wednesday, when we should get to hear the baby's heartbeat using the doppler. I'm 13 weeks tomorrow, and I sure wish this morning sickness would remember that its supposed to STOP tomorrow when the 2nd trimester starts! Ugh...

I think we need a jungle gym...

2008-03-27T17:56:00.001-07:00

Feeling a bit better these days

2008-03-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

Today I'm about 11.5 weeks pregnant - officially in my 'twelfth' week of pregnancy. I'm a bit nervous as all signs of morning sickness seem to have disappeared over the weekend. I can eat absolutely anything - and in great quantity! I always feel pretty hungry and don't have many food aversions. Compared to my last pregnancy, that is very strange. Last time, all throughout the pregnancy, I could only eat small amounts, and I couldn't stomach a lot of different things.

I also finally delved into my box of maternity clothes over the weekend. My pants are just not comfortable anymore, and I really needed something to accommodate my growing tummy. Unfortunately, due to that great weight loss idea we had in the Fall, nothing fits anymore! All my nice clothes that I saved specially because they were good quality and fit well - none of them fit me anymore. The pants positively hang off me, and it all looks pretty ridiculous. So this week I'll be packaging them up for the consignment store, and heading off to overpriced Canadian maternity stores to buy new ones. We went to the Mall yesterday evening and I bought a pair of jeans at the Gap - from the clearance rack, they were still $50. Are you kidding me???

We have an ultrasound next Monday afternoon - March 31 at 3:00pm. Its the first screening ultrasound, where they will take measurements of the baby's nuchal fold and other parts and use that to determine whether we have a higher than average chance of having issues. They will also do a few blood tests in the weeks following. We are crossing our fingers that our little bean is growing like s/he should be in there, and hopefully we'll get confirmation of that on Monday.

Dear Family...

2008-03-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Heather is officially better than me. She's barely been here 2 days and already she has two blogs posted with lots of pictures of our excursions. In contrast... I didn't even bring a camera. Bad mom. So check out her blog to see them!

10 weeks

2008-03-14T17:01:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write an update for a couple weeks now, but can honestly say I have just been really uninspired. I guess thats a good way to describe life in general right now. Uninspired. It may be a combination of the winter that never ends, and the fact that taking care of Luke is just an overwhelming task lately. Or perhaps I could really argue it is pregnancy hormones making me a miserable person lately. Whatever it is... BLAH. I think Kyle's about ready to trade me in for a friendlier model.

So today I'm officially 10 weeks along! Things are going pretty well so far, no issues at all. I can't believe how fast my belly is growing this pregnancy. Last time I remember barely having a baby bump at 16 weeks. As of around 8 weeks I had a definite rounded belly. Now at 10 weeks, it feels like I'm already in the 2nd trimester - about halfway through it!! Its amazing how quickly I am looking 'pregnant'. I am holding off on wearing maternity clothes until the start of the 2nd trimester - its a little superstition thing I have. And I also don't want a lot of people at work to know until later on, so I don't want them seeing me in evident maternity wear. So for now, I just unbutton the top of my jeans when I sit down, and try my hardest to suck in when I'm walking around, so I don't have a noticeable baby belly!

I am also seeing a difference in cravings this time. Last time, cravings didn't seem to develop until later in pregnancy. I couldn't see past the nausea of the first trimester to think about eating anything. This time around, I definitely crave things. Usually really awful junk food - McDonalds, Blizzards, Kraft Dinner, hotdogs, cinnamon buns, just about anything high fat and really bad for you. I try not to indulge all that often, but when its a choice between not eating anything (and subsequently feeling really sick) and eating junk, usually I pick junk. The good news is it isn't having much effect - I am still down 3 lbs from when I got pregnant, which is around 30 lbs less than when I got pregnant with Luke. Maybe thats why my belly is so evident this time! Oooorrrr... more likely its just my relaxed tummy muscles saying 'oh no, not again! what have you done to us??"

I think I have decided on a midwife, and my next ultrasound is March 31. So far so good.

18 months old

2008-03-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

Because I am now finding those little pregnancy updates so helpful when we're going through it all again, I wanted to document who Luke is as an 18 month old, so we have this to look back at. And here are some pics of us playing outside in the snow yesterday.

At 18 months, Luke has a pretty limited verbal range of three words. The first was GUNG (truck). Second came mama, and just recently, we got a new word: dump. Funny that two of his three words refer to his favourite things on earth - trucks. He also has a very extensive, and growing, sign language vocabulary. I feel like we should learn more signs to teach him, he likes to learn new signs and picks up on them very quickly right now. Instead of showing much interest in speaking words that we give him for things, he seems to catch new signs and use them right away. His sign vocabulary includes eat, water, more, please, thank you, plane/helicopter, cracker, apple, help, hat, dump/pour, and ball, although I feel like there are some I am forgetting. His signs are somewhat limited though, I feel by his fine motor skills. He can't quite differentiate between signs that are similar, yet have different fingers held out, or that use different positions of his hands. Here are some videos of his new word, and his signs. (Actually just one for now - the other 3 didn't upload... I'll try to get them up tonight!)

Comprehension wise, he is quite advanced. He not only understands complex commands like "take this over there, get this, and bring it back to me", but he also has a memory for discussions and can understand 'after we do this, we'll do this' and 'later on, do this'. For example, if we're in the car going somewhere, and Kyle or I mention having to vaccuum when we get home, Luke will often get home, run straight for the vaccuum cupboard, and pull it out. Sometimes a long while after having the conversation. Its really interesting to see his mind work. He does understand a lot, but he is definitely getting to the point where his hearing is selective.

One discipline issue we are having involves learning what NO means. Luke is now at the age where nothing can be 'baby proofed'. He can climb everything in the house, and knows how to drag a chair over to the counter to climb up onto that, how to get onto the desk where the computer is, basically how to get to anything he wants. Which is, of course, very dangerous. I'm terrified of all the faucets in the house - he loves to turn water on and off, and could easily burn himself without realising it. He could also suffer a pretty good fall from a lot of these places. So we are trying to communicate the idea that some places are NOT OK and are off limits to him. It isn't really going over so well. He is of course frustrated about not being allowed to do something he wanted to do, and as such, he either laughs and continues climbing up there, or else throws a monstrous tantrum. He does the same when we tell him not to hurt the cats, not to bite mommy & daddy, not to throw things, etc. Discipline is becoming much more a part of our daily lives, and I think Kyle and I need to develop a strategy for how to handle it consistently. We feel pretty out of our element here!

Luke is also developing some really neat play skills. He figured out pretend play a few months ago. At first, he would watch me pick up a play spoon from his kitchen, pretend to eat and say 'yum!' - with confusion. He's take the spoon, turn it over a few times, then lick it, realize it still tasted like wood, and give it back to me as if to say 'can you make it taste good?' But then he figured out how to pretend with different things, and now he loves to play with his kitchen, or to make his trucks work. Its really neat to see that skill developing. He is very adept of course at stacking rings and blocks, and at doing big wooden block puzzles. He can mostly get the shapes on his shape sorter right, usually I help by pointing out what goes where. His favourite games involve being chased, like we'll chase him around the house, or push the popcorn popper at him and he'll run squealing to his 'safe' place on the stairwell, then come back down to be chased again, giggling the whole time. Too bad his favourite games take SO much energy! He still doesn't have much time for stuffed animals, and trucks remain his absolute favourite toys.

He still sleeps terribly. He goes to bed between 7-8pm, and thankfully often sleeps until around midnight or 1am. Then the fun begins. Sometimes he's up every hour or two until morning, sometimes he'll be up for an hour at a time, then sleep for another hour, before doing it all again. And by 'morning' I mean 5:00am. That absolutely painful dark cold hour of the morning when all you want to do is roll over, curl up with your blankets, and go back to sleep. We have got some strategies to work on his early wakings, so we hope to have some difference soon. For now, he's not getting as much sleep as he should (not that he EVER has, not once in his life!) and we're still waiting for that elusive first time when he sleeps through the night. Yes, we're at 548 days since we last slept through the night, on September 4, 2006. And still counting...

All good!

2008-03-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all the happy heartbeat thoughts. Luke was sick today at daycare so I had to come home early to get him. That meant he got to come to my ultrasound with me, which had all the makings of a disaster. But I strapped him into his stroller with a few snacks and thankfully the ultrasound tech was really quick, so it went well. She was really fast this time, I didn't even really get a good view of the baby, but as she said, everything looked great, the heartbeat was nice and healthy, and the dates seem to be correct - October 10 is the due date. No pictures though, can you believe here in Canada you have to pay for them?!? We'll do that later when there is more to see.

So far so good!

Ok I caved.

2008-03-02T12:18:00.001-08:00

My new midwife - at our meeting on Wednesday - suggested an ultrasound to verify the due date and the size of the baby. REALLY, it was her suggestion!! I of course did the "are you sure I should get one?" and she was, so I'm going in tomorrow. If everyone could please think healthy baby heartbeat thoughts around 3:30pm EST tomorrow, we would appreciate it. I'll post once we know more.

Our little blueberry

2008-02-25T11:56:00.000-08:00

This week our little blueberry grows arm and leg buds. Good fun huh?

I wonder if thats why I am feeling more and more miserable. Morning (aka ALL DAY) sickness is officially here. I'm pretty much always nauseous, most foods don't seem appetizing, and it takes a LOT of effort to do every day things like play with Luke or just get dressed. I still haven't told anyone at work about being pregnant, so I am trying to keep up the facade as much as possible, which is pure misery.

I saw my family doctor today. He's not really a believer in the midwifery model of care, and keeps saying he wants to see me throughout the pregnancy "just as a second check to make sure they are doing what they should". Right. He's a really great doctor and is wonderful about most things, but I think he has just never had a patient work with a midwife before! Although I fell short of begging him for an ultrasound, I did suggest it and he said he didn't see any reason that I needed one. So we're forging ahead for another long few weeks until 12 weeks when I get the screening ultrasound for birth defects. Believing that my body is growing our little blueberry just like it should.

(p.s. I know that I have neglected news of Luke lately. I'm working on a blog all about him for his 18 month birthday - coming up next week! Just waiting on some pictures... Sorry everyone!)

Luke has something to show you!

2008-02-17T13:32:00.000-08:00

Now click here, scroll all the way to the bottom of that page, and read upwards to read the story of the last few weeks.

Yeah... that.

2008-02-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

So far so good. No indications that I'm NOT still pregnant, so I'm operating on the belief that our little bean is staying put and growing just like he or she should be. 1.5 more weeks till my first Dr's appointment.

I have really tried to enjoy the last couple of weeks because I have a feeling misery will soon befall me. Last night we went out for Mexican food (chicken of any sort was revolting last time around). I have been enjoying having dinner with Kyle and the baby, and playing with Luke instead of lying on the couch moaning. Today I got my first indications that morning sickess is likely to come back full force. I had a pretty rough morning, lots of nausea, and general exhaustion. We went grocery shopping and I could barely stand up, I felt so sick, and everything we needed to buy seemed just disgusting. The timing's about right. Today I'm 6weeks, 1day pregnant. The last time I wrote a post at 6 weeks 2 days pregnant and said something very similar, so it appears things with this pregnancy are progressing very much like they did last time.

I also laughed when I read how my face was breaking out terribly last time. I seriously look like I'm about 15. I have awful red blotches all over my face, and on top of that, there are so many pimples below the surface that my face actually aches. It is so gross. No amount of washing seems to help. I also just today started noticing some icky indigestion, taking the form of manly burps. I seem to burp most of the time, especially when I am hungry. Ugh. All in all, great signs of pregnancy, but I am really not going to enjoy trying to mother a toddler while going through them. I almost wish I had enjoyed my freedom more last time. You want to lie on the couch and moan for 4 hrs? Go for it! Stay in and watch movies on the weekend? Sure! Life was so simple then... If only I had thought to enjoy it more.

This time I am going to try to remember to take weekly pictures of my tummy. Here is the first one - 6 weeks. I promise not to post them all, but will try to update every once in a while. I'm thrilled to be starting this pregnancy about 28 lbs lighter than the last one. Hopefully that will make a difference in my energy levels! And no, that little bump is not yet a baby showing - its just tummy chub.

5 weeks along

2008-02-10T09:34:00.000-08:00

Its funny. Although I do feel like this past week has taken an e.t.e.r.n.i.t.y to go by, I definitely still forget that I'm pregnant at times! We went to a Chinese New Year party with a bunch of other Chinese language students yesterday. As I was standing in a room talking to three very obviously pregnant women, I had a quick thought "oh, being pregnant is so fun. I wish I was pregnant". Then of course, I almost burst out laughing when I realised - I AM!

I don't seem to even have the dull cramping any more than I had last week, and considering I have no breast tenderness, no nausea, no extreme exhaustion, no other symptoms, its hard to remember I'm pregnant. Sure, my period is way late and when I pee on those drugstore sticks they show two lines instead of one, but really, from day to day its hard to remember!

Luckily, I kept pretty good records (call me obsessive if you will...) when I was pregnant with Luke. This pregnancy seems to be very similar. I had a brief honeymoon period when I found out I was pregnant, before true misery set in around 6 weeks. So by my count, I've got another 7-8 days until the world falls apart. To make up for it, I'm eating everything I can (particularly chicken, that was particularly revolting last time) and trying to get in a lot of time playing with Luke and being a good mom & wife. Because it I remember anything from being pregnant with Luke, it would be lying on the couch moaning for hours on end because I simply couldn't function through the nausea, dizziness, exhaustion, etc. I no longer have that luxury!

In other news, I made an appointment with not one, but TWO midwifery groups! I figure, its best to shop around, right? I want to make sure I find a midwife who will fit really well with our birth philosophy, and help me have the birth that I want to have this time around. However, before we even start considering birth, we have to get through the next 9 weeks of worry and misery to safely reach the second trimester. All our fingers are crossed!

Oh and in case anyone wants to hear it all over again: this week our baby is the size of a sesame seed. (Actually, Kyle made a yummy broccoli dish with sesame seeds last night for dinner. Wow are they ever small.) This week, the baby's heart will begin beating. But otherwise, its still pretty basic, made up of three layers, and looks more like a tadpole than a munchkin.

Has it REALLY only been two days???

2008-02-05T17:34:00.000-08:00

I thought time was supposed to go faster this time around, having a toddler to chase and all? But seriously, this has been the L...O...N...G...E...S...T... two days since... well probably since the first 2 days we knew about Luke's existence!

How am I feeling? Actually, great. I feel so fine I question whether I am pregnant. I have a general dull achy cramping in my abdomen, which - thanks to this blog - I realise I also had with Luke. Otherwise, no sore breasts like last time, I think because Luke is still nursing, which is confusing the hormones somewhat! Not tired yet, no morning sickness, all in all very comfortable. However, I realise from reading this blog from 27 months ago that I also felt fine then, until just after 6 weeks. So to make up for it, I am eating like a horse trying to enjoy pregnancy while I can!

One thing that is very different this time around is my obsession level. Oh don't be fooled - it is still there. Only this time, there is NOTHING I can do about it. My midwife won't see me until 9 or 10 weeks along. My family doctor is going on vacation next week for 2 weeks and basically told me I'm in the midwife's hands from now on. Last time I had a gynecologist AND an obstetrician fussing over me. I was doing blood tests every second day to make sure beta HCG numbers were multiplying. I had regular tests for hormones like progesterone and thyroid, and was taking a whole bunch of supplements. When there was a concern, I got an ultrasound at 6 weeks, to see the heartbeat. And another one at 8 weeks just to 'quell my fears'. This time, I'm going cold turkey. Trusting that my body is growing a baby in the right way and that it will all turn out. I'm trying to ignore the 20% chance that something could go wrong, and focus on the 80% chance it'll all be fine. My first appointment is February 27 with a local midwife. ...Unless I give in and go to a walk in clinic and beg for an ultrasound. I still reserve the right to obsess, ok?

A boy of few words

2008-02-05T17:04:00.000-08:00

Luke is 17 months old today! Kyle and I had a moment of amazement on Sunday, when we were watching the SuperBowl. We realised that last year, the day of the SuperBowl, we were in Ottawa, picking the flooring and colors for our new home. Luke sat up by himself for the first time on SuperBowl Sunday. He would sit for a couple of seconds on his own, then usually fall over. Here is what he looked like last year at this time - amazing huh? This year we watched Luke stack blocks in his Skid Steer truck, and move the buttons to make the bucket lift up. Then he'd drive it over to his dump truck (complete with 'gu-gung-gung-gung' noises) and dump the bucket into the truck bed! Then, he'd push a few more more buttons and make the dump truck dump the load back onto the floor, where the game would start all over again.

Unfortunately, despite all that Luke has learned, he still doesn't talk. We did have a small breakthrough earlier this month. We took Luke to a Speech Pathology clinic to have him assessed for speach delays. Our doctor recommended we try it out and we are glad we did. Although upon arriving there, we realised that Luke really has minimal - if any - problems compared to a lot of other kids, so that at least put things in perspective. We got to spend about 20 minutes with a speech therapist, who said she wasn't at all concerned about his lack of words. She said it was slower than normal, but that he doesn't seem to have anything impeding him from speaking. She gave us some forms to fill out, to get him on the 'watch' list for the speaeh pathology clinic here at the Childrens Hospital. In about 9-10 months, if he still doesn't have average speech, then we will start him in a program there. But for now, he's fine.

She showed us a fun game to play with him. She sat on the floor a few feet from him, and held up a ball to her face. Then she said "Luke, say BALL". I guess, without realizing it, every time we ask him to say a word we say "Luke, can you say BALL?" - instead of making it a request. So she did that a few times, and before he would get frustrated she would roll it to him, then have him roll it back. Well after about two times of this, the little monster looks right up at her and says "baawww". Seriously, is it just that easy? Wow we are bad parents! Using the same tactic I got him to say "duunnn!" today for "dump" the dump truck. I guess we just need to work with him more specifically. I still wouldn't say he says Ball - he won't point to one and ask for it - but he at least articulates and copies what we are saying, which is a huge first step.

He does, however, have one official word! The very day AFTER the speech therapy clinic, Luke watched me walk upstairs, came to the bottom of the stairs and yelled "mama!". He has been babbling mamamama for months now, with no knowledge that mama means me. Lo and behold, he connected the two! Now wherever I am - especially if I'm not paying him as much attention as he would like - he shouts 'mama!" Its really cute... but I'm quickly seeing that this speaking thing could be in the "watch what you wish for" camp!

Another two lines...

2008-02-03T17:26:00.000-08:00

On Sunday morning we saw another two lines. Sometime around the middle of October, Luke will be a big brother.

We decided to try for a second baby sooner than we had planned. I feel bad saying that all our children will be planned around the posting cycles of the Foreign Service, but to some extent, its true. We realised that we would likely be able to leave Ottawa in 2009, if we got pregnant sometime soon, with the baby due in Fall 2008. Luckily, getting pregnant this time was much easier than last. After only a couple months of trying, we saw those beautiful two lines. We are still very anxious to have more confirmation about this pregnancy, so we don't completely believe it yet. But hopefully - if all goes according to plan - around October 11, 2008, Luke will be a big brother.

You'll notice that we are 'letting the world in' on this little secret much earlier than we did with Luke. A while ago I read a really interesting article in my favourite parenting magazine - Mothering. It was called "In Praise of Telling too Soon" . It talks about the fear that all new parents feel for the first couple of months of pregnancy when - realistically - one out of four babies does not survive. So in this case, we're hoping that we are beating the odds. This time around, we're telling. And keeping our fingers crossed that everything grows like it should.

Dinner with Luke

2008-01-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

As nothing of interest seems to be happening - to blog about - I figured I would take some pics of our nightly dinner experience to share. This will make you appreciate how clean your home is.

Dinnertime is becoming a full contact sport. Luke generally eats about half of what we give him. But god forbid, no meat or veggies. Then after samping the nights offerings, the fun begins.

First, he tries to brush his hair with his (full) spoon. Nothing better than a hunk of oatmeal in your hair. Hey, doesn't it have conditioning properties?

When he realises that doesn't work, he starts slamming his water cup or another bowl into the splashiest food item he has - in this case, apple/raisin oatmeal. Often, it ends up flying everywhere - which of course only makes him laugh and splash harder.

He then tries to offer anyone in the vicinity a bite of his food. He HEAPS up a spoon, then flings it towards Kyle or I. When we look unimpressed and discouraging and try to take it away, he looks around for our cats, and if he happens to see one - he has an amazing wrist flick that always ends up leaving spoonfulls of slop on the floor. The cats have so far escaped unscathed, but I figure its only a matter of time before his aim improves.

He then starts tipping bowls over and does this shockingly fast arm sweep, which results in flinging food from side to side.

So all this is to say that if you come over for dinner, bring a raincoat.

Random updates & photos

2008-01-13T18:31:00.001-08:00

So we are still piecing together Luke's history, and have been able to find a bunch of photos in various places. We also got all the pics that were left on our camera memory cards - in some cases, almost 6 months worth! Here are a couple recent pics and updates so you can see what the monkey is doing. One note on the formatting: for some reason, when I load pictures at the left or the right of the text, they are 'clickable' - clicking on them means a much bigger version of the picture will open. If I put them in the middle of the blog, they remain small and I can't seem to click on them. The reason I know this is that I have been digging through many months worth of posts, cursing when a picture is not clickable - because the quality when I 'save' it onto our computer is so much less. So from now on, all pictures will be off to the left, so if we (god forbid) erase Luke's life history again, we can at least get back better quality replacements!

Did we mention he likes Rum Balls? We discovered this at Christmas - a case of "really, kiddo, there is no way you'll like this. Here, really, try it, I'm sure you'll spit it out". Oops. We're really bad parents. Notice the rum ball in his hand in the first picture - thats about his third of the night...

Then notice the gleeful picture of a baby who has just eaten about 2 shots of rum, and a half cup of sugar. And I remember with shame that just 3 short months ago I wouldn't let him eat anything that wasn't organically grown... my how far we have come!

Luke continues to love being outside. We took a couple of these pictures around New Years Day, when we got a bunch of snow. We also had a huge melt last week and Luke loved running around without snowboots, snowpants, and a huge mitts on. And yes, we bought him long underwear. Its Ottawa. Its a necessity.

Good news! He can still fit through the shelves under our coffee table! Its getting to be a tight squeeze, but of course, fun nonetheless.

Speaking of tight squeezes, we finally said goodbye to our infant car seat. Not that we've been using it - Luke's been in a toddler seat now since 11 months. But we held onto the infant seat because it was so hard to part with. To be honest, we bought one we really liked, and we wanted to keep it for future babies. But we found out that Transport Canada restrictions on carseats are stricter than US ones, and as our carseat was bought in the US, it was actually ILLEGAL to use it here! We are pretty sad, we sure loved that seat. I put it up on ebay, expecting to get no response and to have to throw it in the trash - only to end up in a bidding war! In the end we got almost half the price of the carseat back, which is nice to have these days. So I put Luke in it one last time before we boxed it up to mail. My how times have changed. (Here is where I get a bit sad about our missing pictures, it would have been neat to look back at his early pictures in his carseat and see how big he is... but they're gone). So trust me when I say he is definitely bigger now! :)

Luke had lots of fun with Grandma, Grandpa & Uncle Scotty at Christmas.

Here are a few fun photos of him with Kyle's old Harmonica, that he loves to play.

Aunty Janie made Luke some gorgeous wool pants and a few other accessories with some wool I bought. One of them was this little green hat. Its got fleece inside and is just so soft and warm. Luke LOVES his green hat. Its always around the house with him, and he can put it on and off by himself. Most days, he wears it around while playing. It is seriously so cute.

And finally, because there really is nothing cuter than a just-out-of-the-bath baby avoiding putting on his pajamas and reading himself bedtime stories!

Dear Luke: Mommy & Daddy screwed up.

2008-01-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

Well kiddo, eventually at some point in your life you will be reading this blog to hear all about who you were as a baby. This is the week you will probably hear referenced many times in your life. This week, we erased every single picture taken of you since birth. All those times you will ask us whether you looked like mom or dad when you were little, if your brother or sister has the same expressions, what you did with this or that toy. All those times we have to say "Well babe, we'd look if we could, but all those pictures are gone."

We had the best of intentions - really. We were trying to create a video tape for the Grandparents, all these cute little videos of you. The main household computer just wasn't working right, it was slow, cloggy, just didn't want to process. I'm sure by the time you read this it'll seem funny that computers could get that way, but it did. Everything we read said we should reload Windows.

First, though, we backed up every picture of you & our lives - 6 years worth of digital pictures, almost 80GB worth. We put them on an external harddrive - all of them - and then, on second thought, backed them all up AGAIN to our laptop computer. Daddy took a deep breath, popped in the Windows CD and hit "OK" when the computer confirmed "Clicking OK will erase all files. Are you sure you want to do this?". Confident in the knowledge that we had backed them up not once, but twice, we knew we would be ok.

But oh, kiddo, we had no idea. We still don't know what happened. When we reloaded it all, only one month's worth of your pictures could be found - anywhere. The rest are all gone. We don't know where, or if its possible to get them back. We are definitely trying everything. We would both happily trade the pictures of our trip to Germany, the 300+ pictures of Oli as a baby kitten, or pictures of our apartments in Vancouver and Ottawa - for some stupid reason those all came back. The only ones missing are of you, baby boy. We're pretty heartbroken.

Luckily, we have spent the last 16 months spreading our favourite pictures of you amongst cyberspace, so we can at least get back some of them. Unfortunately, they will be poor quality, their size reduced to make uploading faster. Hopefully the Grandparents will send us whatever photos they can find of you, and we can piece together a bit of last 16 months and 1 week of life. But one day you are going to wonder why an entire month is missing here or there, or where those cute first bath pictures are. You're going to want your baby pictures to put on a wedding slideshow, or to show your kids someday. We're so sorry munchkin.

New Blog Settings

2008-01-10T18:47:00.000-08:00

Because I evidently don't have anything new and interesting to post (we're in the process of rebooting our computer - all pictures are currently lost in space so a new post is a while from reality) - I updated the settings on this blog. The biggest change was that I have created some post tags for every blog entry since Luke was born. So if, for example, you want to see all the video we have ever posted - click on "Includes Video" on the right hand side menu over there. They will all pop up. Same thing with "Checkups & Growth", "New Developments", "Travel", etc. Enjoy! :)

Our merry little Christmas

2007-12-28T13:49:00.000-08:00

Its been a busy few weeks chez nous, and now that the chaos is finally quieting down, I can load some of these pictures and videos, and finally post a new blog for the family members who weren't here with us on Christmas!

The Margenau family all made the cross-continent trek from Hawaii to be in snowy cold Ottawa for Christmas. Much to our delight, not only did we have a white Christmas, we had a 2+ feet of snow Christmas! Everywhere you look there are huge snowpiles and yet, thankfully, the temperatures were close to freezing, so not too cold to enjoy being outside. They still got cold, but they were good sports about it! We took them to Quebec City with our friends Rich & Joanne for 2 nights, which was amazing. We always love seeing Quebec City, and I think they really enjoyed it as well. Here are some fun photos:

Isn't it so beautiful there? Especially at Christmas. How magical

We had many llloooonnnnnggggg restaurant dinners. The french are great for dragging out dinner time, which is never fun with a toddler. Good thing we had fun friends and Luke was pretty well behaved!

We also went snow tubing, at a local ski resort. They have about 8 runs for tubes, but due to the warm temperatures only a couple were open. But we did get to go up the hill on a chairlift (no trudging up a hill lugging a sled!) and it was a lot of fun. We were even allowed to take Luke - which I'm sure shouldn't have been allowed, given the speed that the tubes flew down the mountain, and the fact that there was NO safety gear like helmets or straps to protect him in case he fell off while going down the hill. But, the 16 year old girl working the cash register assured me 'kids' were allowed to go tubing - after repeatedly asking "what about babies" she shrugged and said "I guess its ok" so off we went! Needless to say I don't think Luke loved it (the wind factor was pretty high... and hey, if adults were scared, I can only imagine what he thought!) but he was a good sport until I took him into the ski lodge and we ran around for an hour in the warmth!

We also had a wonderful time Christmas morning, opening presents and hanging around the house. Luke got some great gifts - lots of things he now uses all the time. Kyle and I made Luke this train table, using our old coffee table, a bit of woodworking finess, and a lot of paint! WE then put Kyle's old BRIO train set on it, and Luke is in heaven. He could spend hours playing with it! He was so thrilled on Christmas when he saw it.

He also got a wonderful little wooden kitchen that he loves to put things in and out of. He's not quite ready for pretend play yet but he sure loves opening doors, putting things in and - voila! - finding them again. He gets this funny look of surprise, like he thought it would disappear!

Luke also got a whole bunch of amazing presents, like a few new trucks and trains, and a set of wooden blocks. All in all, he's a spoiled little boy, but he's so cute he deserves it!

We discovered that Luke LOVES washing his hands. So I got him some funky kid handsoap, and needless to say, his hands are now cleaner than most 1.5 yr old's!

Aha! A truck!

Fun new wooden blocks from Uncle Scotty. Lets see... when they came out of the box there were 60. How many will we have by NEXT Christmas??

He also (much to my mom's delight, I'm sure!) got a snowsuit! We were really balking at spending $200 for a snowsuit that he'll only use for 4 months, but its so cold here in Ottawa he really needed something good to wear. Luckily, a local kids outerwear store had a 40% off sale on Boxing Day. Carla and I headed out to the store aiming to be there at 9am - and luckily, we got in the door right after it opened. It was packed! And I grabbed the snowsuit in 24 months size just as another family was looking for it, so I'm thrilled we got him a good suit even though I feel somewhat guilty about the other poor cold baby in Ottawa. Tant pis! Its a bit big on Luke still, but we can hope it'll still fit him next winter. Grandma Margenau also bought him a new sled, which he is still warming up to, but its fun and easy to pull! Kyle can't wait to go snowshoeing with him.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T04:52:00.001-08:00

Scary Drugs

2007-12-13T17:30:00.000-08:00

I'm on the fence about vaccines.

On the one hand, I recognize that vaccines have brought tremendous benefit to a number of societies around the world. I myself had all my childhood vaccines, so did Kyle. We both continue to get vaccines for things like Hepatitis, Tetanus, and Diptheria. I understand that the severity of health problems from getting Meningitis, or Hepatitis, or Mumps vastly outweigh the concerns of adverse effects after getting the vaccination. I also understand that our life in the Foreign Service means that our kids will encounter many more health threats than your average North American child.

On the other hand, I really disagree with the reasons most vaccines are mandated. In reality, vaccines are drugs created by drug companies who exist - fundamentally - to make money. I think that the fact that governments require children to receive a number of vaccines in order to go to daycare, or school, is no more than a tremendous achievement for the lobbying industry. Take the new HPV vaccine for example - here is an interesting perspective on that. I am absolutely shocked that children in Canada and US are expected to receive 26 different vaccinations before their first birthday. I am also concerned about the manufacturing of vaccines, including the use of preservatives like thimerasol, and all other sorts of additives that are perhaps not yet known to be a concern - but one day will be.

As a result, we have chosen to follow a delayed and selective vaccination schedule with Luke. We have chosen not to give him some vaccines at all - like Varicella (Chicken Pox) and the Flu vaccine. We have chosen to delay other shots. For example, at his 2 month appointment, Luke was supposed to receive vaccines for Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Diptheria, Tetanus, Polio, Meningitis, Hepatitis B, and Pneumococcal Conjugate. Doesn't that sound like an awful lot to bombard a teeny little 12 lb body with? We chose to only give one of the shots, and continue to do that, so that he isn't getting multiple vaccines at once. In other cases, I don't agree with the logic of starting a vaccine regimen so early in life. I refused to give Luke the Hepatitis B vaccine when he was 2 days old. Hepatitis B is only transmitted through sexual contact or blood transfusions. It seems strange to me that by 12 months of age, babies are expected to have had 3 vaccinations for Hepatitis B.

So after we met our new physician here in Canada, he (as all physicians do) expressed concern about our reluctance to vaccinate Luke according to the prescribed schedule. We decided to go ahead and get him his first MMR vaccine. Everything went fine, and although Luke was not happy about the needle, he didn't seem to have an adverse reaction. We must wait and see though, as a fever often results 10-14 days after the vaccine. The doctor also wanted us to go ahead and do the Meningitis vaccine this time, but we deferred. Unfortunately, the day after giving Luke the vaccine, we got some scary news. After cross-referencing, we found out Luke had received this exact Merck vaccine which was recalled one day later:

Mumps vaccine being probed for allergy links

Although so far all the issues found with it have been linked to young adults receiving the vaccine, I think this points to the potential for a larger issue which is - frankly - quite terrifying. Today Merck also recalled the Meningitis vaccine which Luke would have also received, had we gone with the Doctor's recommentation:

ABC News: Merck Recalls Childhood Meningitis Vaccine

Although neither is life-threatening, it is very scary. It is so hard to know what is best for your child, and what decisions you can make to keep them healthy. We will be talking to our Doctor about these two recalls, but can only wonder - what other ones will come? Is the only answer to not vaccinate at all? Or would that be even more dangerous than getting potentially hazardous vaccines?

This parenting stuff sure is harder than we expected.

Fun in the snow

2007-12-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

Luke is getting more used to spending time outside - and the 20 minutes of getting dressed it takes before we even walk out the door! He isn't any happier with his snowpants, mitts & hat. But the boots & jacket are going on easier, and that makes the whole procedure less painful for all of us. There are times though that I have been fighting him for so long to put on his snow pants (which for some reason are e.x.t.r.e.m.e.l.y. offensive to him...) that I just give up and we don't go outside. Its exhausting trying to talk a toddler into putting on so many clothes it renders him immobile! ... And THIS is why we didn't want to come back to Ottawa! Anyways, here is a blog of pictures to show you Luke, Kyle & in the snow.

Helping me shovel a path around our backyard. There's a funny thing about toddlers in 2 feet of snow. They can't walk. Luke gets REAL cranky when he can't go anywhere, so we made him a little race track. So far, its a hit.

At the park on the swings.

Mom, I'm cold. Please stop taking pictures of me.

Tobogganning with Dad

Helping dad shovel the driveway. We need to get him a kid size shovel, he's a real hazard with an adult one.

Ever wanted to throw your kid in a snowbank? Well, we did it, and he hated it. But the picture is cute, right?

Evidently he got some ideas, he started trying to climb the snowbanks himself!

Poor cold baby face. And yes, that is peanut butter between his eyes. Bad parents.

And one indoor pic, just cause he's so cute. He LOVES this puzzle, and can finally put the pieces back in the right spots.

GUNG!!!

2007-11-24T18:14:00.001-08:00

Anyone know what language the word GUNG GUNG GUNG GUNG comes from? Its Luke's first word, and we'd love to know what language he has decided to take for his own. Anyone?

In other communicative news, he learned how to wave! Only 1 week before the 15-month birthday when your kid is effectively pronounced "delayed" if he's not waving. He's still on the verge though unless he comes up with a substantive recognizeable word in the next 9 days. No matter if he knows signs, apparently those don't count as words... I guess that for child development specialists sign language isn't an official language? That sounds controversial to me. Anyways, NO, still no mama, dada, cat, water, truck, apple... nothing. Just a lot of pointing, signing, grunting and repetitive GUNG-ing.

One day he'll talk, right?

Fun times with Grandma

2007-11-09T17:54:00.000-08:00

My mom has been out visiting for the last 10 days. Luke absolutely loves having her around because - unlike his lazy boring parents - she spends every waking minute on the floor playing with him! Its so much fun. Grandma invented a lot of new exciting games and taught Luke more in the last 10 days than he has learned in the last 10 months! He is amazingly knowledgeable now - and it still shocks us to realise he really does understand every word we say to him. If you ask him to bring you the blue truck, he'll make his way past the yellow one, the red one, the yellow & blue one, and get the actual BLUE truck and bring it to you. He'll easily find items that are in boxes or baskets - tonight I asked him where his keychain was (a favourite object for putting in the blue dump truck & dumping out) and he dug through the boxes until he found it, and brought it to me. He knows the parts of the house, and when I say "lets go to the kitchen" he often leads the way! All this - and still not a single word comes out of his mouth!!! Seriously, kid, its about time. TALK already.

We had a great time with Grandma, and managed to get out and see some of the Ottawa sights. We did the standard tour of the Ottawa hotspots - like the Governor General's residence, Parliament Buildings, and downtown. But it was rainy that day so we didn't take many pictures! We also made it out to Wakefield Quebec for a quick lunch at a wonderful baby-friendly restaurant, and then went for a quick hike in Gatineau Park! Its a beautiful time of year right now, with lots of leaves changing. The 2.5 km hike was much enjoyed - especially by Luke who got to actually WALK for his first real hike! Well... half the time. As you'll see in the photos below - little legs only go so far and he got pretty tired after a while. So he hitched a ride with Kyle.

Grandma also exercised her grandparental rights to spoil Luke senseless. He now has so many toys even HE doesn't know what do play with first. The toy he's playing with here is actually one she got him last time she came to visit - but he never really knew what to do with it until now. Then Grandma showed him that if he held the string and walked - not only would it do cool things, but Piko (his favourite cat on earth) would chase him! So off he goes, round and round our house - remember, its not that big - dragging that wooden snake for hours on end. Good fun.

We also finally got Luke a ride-on toy. We have been looking for ages for one to get him, and in the end - the one I loved and was CERTAIN was the best, he barely looked twice at. I wanted to get him a wheelybug but lo and behold, we finally found one in a store, and he was NOT interested. My mom had seen a cool Radio Flyer toy at a store in Sidney, and we turned to the collective wisdom of the Ottawa Moms group to find one in this city. Remarkably, someone had seen one at a Zellers in a suburb shopping mall a few months ago, so off we went, and actually found it! Much to our amazement, Luke actually liked this one. So Luke is now the delighted owner of a Radio Flyer Retro Rocket - a little rocket-shaped toy that makes blast off noises, lights up and - most importantly - has a hidden seat compartment for storing blocks. What fun! I took about 30 pictures of him, but he seriously moves too fast for my camera to focus properly! So these are the only couple that aren't blurry... He also quickly realised that he'd like to pursue a career as a stunt driver - hence the photo where he seems to be perfecting his ability to stand on the rocket while moving it. I envision an upcoming trip to Childrens Hospital when he learns a valuable lesson about the unforgiving nature of hard wood floors. Good thing we live right next door.

Chunky Pumpkin

2007-10-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

Luke FINALLY had his 1 yr Dr's visit this week, and it turns out his tumble down the growth charts around 9 months (when he was in the 75th percentile) was merely a brief flirt with normalcy. Luke jumped back up to the 99th percentile in height (33 inches tall) and the 85th percentile in weight (26 lbs). His head is also back up in the 90th percentile for size... so hopefully the kid will be smart! He STILL does not sleep through the night - he's usually up anywhere from 3-5 times each night. Other parents are shocked at the thought of this, but I have to admit, we have gotten so used to it we can't imagine it any differently!

We have had a busy few weeks. We had lots of fun rain, which necessitated getting Luke a raincoat. He loves loves LOVES to run through puddles. Hmmm...wonder who he gets that from... and we have spent a good few rainy days hanging out in the street dropping rocks into the sewers. Who knew those little things in the streets would one day be such a great baby-amuser?! Luke is still fulfilling his role of being the neighbourhood's dirtiest kid. We're pretty proud of him!

He also GREATLY enjoyed pumpkin carving. Last year he was more of an unwilling pumpkin treat (see the pics! ) but this year he was a very active participant in the carving! He is definitely not a fan of pumpkin gook though. Every time he touched it he would wrinkle up his face and make his "ick" noise! It was pretty funny. He LOVED digging in the pumpkins with little tools though.

Luke also recently learned how to walk backwards. It is now one of his favourite activities. He prefers to walk most placed backwards, and often ends up rubbing his head as he is starting to realise that when he goes backwards, he can't see where he's going... Ahh, life lessons!

Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

2007-10-15T17:01:00.000-07:00

Our baby is so smart. Despite the fact that Luke (...depressingly...) still does NOT speak any recognizeable words, he is definitely learning to communicate. He has two good signs - more and water. He uses those all the time. He is also learning cracker and a few other new ones too. For the last couple weeks, every night when I say "Lets go have a bath!" Luke turns and runs for the stairs. He LOVES the bath and usually giggles all the way upstairs.

And just today Kyle realised that he understands where his head and toes are! He asked Luke where his head was, and immediately put his hands on it! He does the same with his toes, although he was unwilling to perform that particular skill on camera this afternoon.

He also knows "toothbrush" and "toothpaste" (which ought to make Grandpa Jim - our family dentist - very proud!). He does a great job of grabbing both for us whenever we request it. (sorry this one wouldn't upload - you have to watch it on Youtube by clicking the link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG_AgGWMX1A

He is so much fun to be around lately. He is great to play with, laughs a lot, and is really curious to know more about the world around him. Although we don't really know why he does this every time he eats spaghetti. Must be something that feels good about mashing it into his hair and rubbing it in his eyes. We just don't get it.

He spends most of his days climbing up on things. One of his favourite spots is here by our big living room window - where we put an ottoman. He climbs up there, and watches trucks and buses out the window. Notice his two favourite toys are watching out the window with him - he always has one of those with him wherever he is!

Bye bye baby hair

2007-10-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

Our baby turned into a little boy today. Kyle took him for his first hair cut, and it is amazing what a difference it makes. I came home and was shocked to realise that the little baby I left this morning was now a little boy. His haircut makes him look so much older than his baby hair! Here are some pictures of this momentus occasion. (Forgive the soother (pacifier for those Americans reading this!) - he never uses it except for sleeping, but Kyle needed a way to make him stop trying to get out of the chair, and that was the only way to do it!). We don't have any great pictures of the finished product, but hope to put some up soon!

Luke has also really loved getting outdoors while it has been raining a lot! We bought him a pair of little boots that keep his feet mostly dry as he splashes in the puddles. Now he just needs a good jacket - his little sweatshirt hoodies just don't cut it for rain! And unfortunately his nice Roots raincoat from last year is too small. It seems the kid just never stops growing. So we're on the lookout for some good rain / winter gear. Any parents out there have recommendations?

MY baby's dirtier than YOUR baby.

2007-10-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

Luke loves dirt. And I feel that, as his mother, I have bigger battles to fight than keeping him clean. Seriously, dirt washes off - usually really easily. If he gets stains on his clothes - so what. If he eats some dirt, or a rock thats alright - its all in the name of building up his immunities, right? It has been interesting to realise that I am a very laid-back mom when it comes to getting dirty. I never thought I would be this ok with it - but now I realise I actually encourage it! As one friend of ours said: if its dinner time, and the baby is clean, he's had a boring day inside. I guess I really do believe that babies should explore, touch, splash, and yes, even taste, to learn about the world.

But I realise that mentality is actually not that common among other moms. Recently, in meeting other moms and our neighbours, I often feel like a terrible parent. I'll be talking to them and can actually watch the expression of horror and disgust as my half-naked little boy runs headlong into yet another mud puddle, or scoops handfuls of mud into his mouth. Yes, I do tell him to stop if its dangerous (like running in the street) or potentially sickening (like eating manure... ick) - but by and large, I let him have fun. Lately I have just been feeling like a bad mom for that, because he's never clean and tidy like the other little kids on our street. So anyways, here are some pictures of our poor sad dirty baby whose parents obviously don't care enough to keep him clean. For the record, I think he's cutest when he's dirty.

The landscapers haven't yet finished putting all the grass in around our development, which means a huge part of our backyard is nice, thick, slimy mud. GREAT for playing in! Luke spent over an hour with his truck there this morning, picking up stuff, dumping it out, seeing how the truck wheels worked in mud. SUCH fun!

Lately he has also really enjoyed the HUGE mud puddles in front of our house - left from the landscapers watering the lawns. He loves to run in and out of them, and sit in them to splash... Hmm... sounds familiar. (Surely mom or Heather will post the picture of me doing the same thing - naked - when I was Luke's age! - I don't have a copy here!). At least Luke has cute diapers, huh?

Today we took Luke out to an orchard near Ottawa, where they have lots of fun activities and a pick-your own pumpkin & apple spot. We made sure to dress him appropriately so he would blend in with the crowd (Sio - this is the vest you got him last year - it finally fits!!). He loved eating apples from below the trees, although some were evidently a bit sour - look at his little expression in the picture where he's biting the apple! He and Kyle picked out a HUGE pumpkin for our front patio. Should be a good year for trick-or-treaters with all the kids in our neighbourhood. And our annual pumpkin carving party is going ahead with new participants: Joanne and Rich!

And now, just because our baby is so cute, here are some great new pictures of him being gorgeous

Being One.

2007-09-22T18:06:00.001-07:00

Being one is exhausting. We've been so busy since Luke's birthday we haven't had time to update - sorry everyone! We were out West for 10 days. Luke got to see every member of his extended family on my side - Grandpa, Nana Sue, Aunty Heather, Uncle Dann and Aunt Jenny, Aunty Jamie and the family's new addition: Uncle John. And then Grandma and Aunt Janie and some more Aunty Heather in Victoria! It was a whirlwind week and we loved having so many people around who love Luke and were willing to chase him around for hours on end. Sure makes for a relaxing holiday for Kyle and I!

Luke got to do a lot of new things while we were out west. He had his first true sugar rush - thanks to the amazing angel food cake and icing that Grandma made for his birthday. He got to go on lots of different boats - on the Whaler (which was a bit scary - too much wind for a little one) and on Ceara which he loved. He also got to go kayaking with Nana Sue. We've decided he'll probably like it more when he's older - for now he's a bit too wobbly for it to be enjoyable. He much preferred the post-kayak bubbles. He had his first (and second... third... ) potato chips. Luke was eating dinner with Grandpa and I guess we neglected to impart certain wisdom of baby-food choices on Grandpa. He gave Luke a few chips and - of course - the little monster loves them. So much for his organic, holistic, sugar-free diet. He got his 8th tooth - now he has 4 on the top, and 4 on the bottom. He also got to see lots of our friends - including Siobian and her baby Juliette who came to Victoria for the day to hang out with us, and Julie, Braeden, and Toby, and Julie's sister Lara and her little boy Dylan! Then we got to see Erica during our day in Vancouver. All in all there was lots to do and Luke loved all the attention.

We evidently saved the highlight of the trip for the end -- we stayed at the Fairmont hotel at Vancouver Airport prior to flying back to Ottawa. For a kid that loves planes and trucks, he literally could not tear himself away from standing at that huge big window watching all the action. It took my almost 20 minutes to get him into the bath - he kept running back over to the window (no, he isn't always naked!).

We're now happily home and settling into being one. So far its shaping up a lot like being not-yet-one. Luke still runs - FAST - in any direction he can. He is babbling lots and lots, but still doesn't say a single sensical word. He is potentially hitting a napping plateau, and may be dropping his morning nap (god forbid) so we're trying to get through that. He is starting to get a bit pickier about food, and doesn't gobble everything up like he did a few months ago. His toddler tantrums are definitely starting and he's got a great ability to throw things -- a deadly combination. He's a pro at the stairs and spends most of the day going up or down them. He loves running water - and has learned how to turn on the bathtub faucets (but doesn't yet get the concept of turning it off when he's done playing), then yesterday he figured out how to flush toilets. Seriously, with his love for "dipping" anything he can get his hands on into bowls, boxes, baskets, and other things that look suspiciously like a toilet -- we are entering some very dangerous times. I caught his bathtowel on its way down the toilet last night. Not a good situation.

Luke turns 1

2007-09-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

Luke turned one last Wednesday. Unfortunately we've been so busy I haven't had time to update our blog yet! We flew to the West Coast on Friday morning and have been here ever since. My sister Jamie got married on Saturday so amongst that, and the whirlwind excitement of LOTS of aunts and uncles playing with Luke, life has been really crazy lately.

Although it was a relatively quiet first birthday for Luke (we miss all you friends in Washington!!!) Kyle made Luke a great carrot cake for his birthday, which Luke took a while to warm up to. At first he would really only poke at it with his fingers, then make his "ewww, ick" noise where he pokes his tongue out and blows out - showering everything nearby with spit. Then Kyle had the idea to give him a bit of cake on a fork - Luke is at that age where he LOVES forks and, well, if it comes on a fork, its GOT to be good, right? So once he started tasting the cake, he dove right in. He ate almost a whole piece, and didn't even spear icing in his hair. I think he really liked it!

Luke has loved being in Comox with all the family - Grandpa and Nana Sue, Aunty Heather, Aunt Jamie and Uncle John (the family's new addition!), and Uncle Dann and Aunt Jenny. Its been great for us to have baby-chasers too - there is always someone who thinks Luke is pretty cute and is willing to chase him around the house, so Kyle and I get a bit of a break. Luke really loves Comox. A huge big backyard with fun toys (like his new ride-on tractor Grandpa bought him) and fun dogs to play with. He also keeps getting naked and running around in the sprinklers in the yard! It has been a great week so far - tomorrow we're off to Grandma's house in Victoria. We'll hopefully get to see Julie and her munchkins Braeden and Toby, as well as Siobian and Juliette.

Luke's big move

2007-09-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

Ontario Bound!

Not even a year old and he's already changed countries... I guess that is fitting given the lifestyle Luke will grow up knowing! He has remarkably handled the move really well. He loved playing in the house once all the furniture was gone - he tore around in circles for hours, chortling happily to himself! He loves the vaccuum and we did plenty of vaccuming, so he really enjoyed that as well.

He has eaten and slept in all manner of places - here he is having lunch on the dining room table (not yet packed in the truck) after his highchair went out the door. We have set up his little pack-n-play in lots of different places for naps and bedtime. Here at the house, he slept in our master walk-in-closet for a few days while painters and electricians came in and out, then he slept in the storage room in the basement while the movers were here! All the while, he has put up with everything really well.

He loves hotel rooms (so do we - they are all naturally baby-proofed!) and has gotten some great restaurant-eating experience in the last few weeks. Unfortunately his nighttime sleep habits are still awful. Oh well, we knew it was a long shot to hope the move would make him sleep through the night. Last night he was up every hour. It was a nightmare. I have heard from so many people that babies who never sleep through the night often start to around a year. Well, Luke, thats Wednesday. So get moving.

So you all already know how much Luke likes trucks. Well imagine his excitement when a BIG one pulled up in front of our house - not once, but twice!! - and stayed there all day. Moving days have been his favourites so far. He has done his best to get in the way of the movers and shrieked with glee every time he realised how close he actually was to that BIG truck.

He spent most of the day running up and down the ramp into the truck - we would pull him quickly out of the way each time the movers returned with more furniture!

By some feat of baby karma (when all the stars align to create a perfect world for babies) it had also rained the morning we moved. He could not only play in a truck, he could run through puddles. What a great day.

So he's now settled into his new home happily. One new thing he learned: how to go DOWN stairs! We have officially retired the baby gates, and he loves playing on the stairs. He's had a couple small tumbles - but luckily we have stairwells that turn, so even if he misses a couple of stairs, he bounces off the wall before tumbling down all 20+ of them! He's got more than a few bumps to show for it, but he's happy and loving his new freedom, so we hate to get in the way of that! Otherwise, he is desperately in need of fun new older-baby toys. Unpacking all his toys here made us realise just how bored he is with all his baby toys, so we're scouring the garage sales and consignment stores to find new fun toys for the munchkin.

Luke turns 1 on Wednesday - hard to believe. I am already feeling nostalgic, remembering what we were doing last year at this time. I think in fact my mom, Kyle and I were sitting around staring at one another waiting for me to go into labor... it was the night before my due date, and NOTHING was happening. Amazing how life has changed in a year. We won't be doing anything special for his birthday, although we may bake him a gluten-and-sugar-free carrot cake with dairy-free icing to try... sounds like heaps of fun, huh? Maybe we'll wait till we get to BC on the 7th to let the grandparents coat the kid in blue frosting. Lovely.

Life as a single mom

2007-08-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

Its actually not half as much fun as you'd think it would be. Seriously. I change ALL the diapers. I do ALL the feedings. I'm the only one who can chase the munchkin around stores, the pool, the parking lot... I'm the person who ALWAYS picks him up, no matter how tired my arms are from carrying around 25+ pounds of baby. There is no more "please will you take the baby so I can just have 20 minutes to relax with a glass of wine" - its all me, all the time. And he's (finally) got a new tooth coming in, so life isn't great lately.

So today we were bored and looking for something to do. We wandered out front (Oli's new favourite place to play) and I decided to water the grass. Well Luke just thought our little sprinkler was the best invention ever. I guess it does look like his own personal spray park. So I stripped him naked and he had his first sprinkler-dipping experience. Of course, I realise we were in the front yard, not the most modest environment for sprinkler dipping, but the neighbours didn't seem to mind.

I got some cute pictures of him playing in the sprinkler. Then he became fascinated by a rock that he would throw off the curb, then practice his up/down hill skills to go get it, and do it again. Well, around about that time he picked up what I thought was a rock, and started eating it (this is his funny little "hmm... tastes good" face). Of course, he's a baby, he eats everything. Only I looked back and realised that the rock was still on the ground. So off I went - only to fish a beer bottle cap out of his little mouth! Seriously, how much more white trash can I get? ...My kid's naked in the front yard eating bottle caps. It was a great day.

So back to life as a single mom - I'm getting somewhat concerned my time in this misery may be extended. The story below is from the New Zealand Herald. Kyle should be leaving Hawaii tomorrow night, but at this rate, who knows when he could be home... I wonder if I really should start planning for that 13 hr drive with a screaming baby AND two yowling cats???

Hawaii braces for Hurricane Flossie

New 1:15PM Tuesday August 14, 2007

HONOLULU - The island of Hawaii declared a state of emergency, closing schools and setting up shelters, as Hurricane Flossie approached the Pacific state's southeastern waters.
Flossie weakened from a Category 4 to a Category 3 today, but remains a "dangerous hurricane with a clear, well-defined eye," according to the National Weather Service's Central Pacific Hurricane Center.

Flossie's strength is not expected to change over the next 24 hours, it said.
The service put the island of Hawaii under a hurricanelation of 160,000. "We're taking this all very seriously," said Janet Snyder, Kim's press secretary.

For the rest of the state, the main impact will be high surf along shores facing south and east, Tanabe said.

"All the islands of Hawaii are at equal risks for hurricanes," Tanabe said. "There is still a chance the hurricane could take a jog a bit to the north, but it has been fairly well behaved."
The weather service has also issued a flash flood watch.

The last recorded hurricane to hit the island of Hawaii was the Kohala Cyclone in 1871, Tanabe said. More recently, tropical storms Estelle and Jimena both passed south of the island of Hawaii in 2004 and 2003.

11 months old!

2007-08-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

Luke turned 11 months old yesterday. Its amazing to think about how different our lives were last summer, and yet - how similar. I had 3 weeks of work left before my maternity leave would start. We were busily packing up things from all over our house to make more room for the little tyke. And we were preparing to have life turned upside down, in a way we couldn't even imagine. Now, a year later, the whole scenario seems to be repeating itself. No, I'm not pregnant (thank god, seriously, how does ANYONE have two kids? One is so exhausting!) - but the preparation for what is to come is pretty all-consuming these days.

We just returned from our grand 9-day roadtrip through New England and Ottawa. Luke did great. He really was a champ in his carseat, and despite some moments of misery, he played well and listened to endless stories, and napped quite well - comparably. We realised just how many big trucks travel those highways, as every rest stop was another great chance to sit and watch trucks speed by. Luke would point and make a loud "aaghhhhhheeeiiii!!!" noise every time one went past. We had some good picnics too - there is nothing like eating outside, where dropped peaches and bananas don't matter!

He did pretty well at Maria & Mario's wedding in New Hampshire - despite the fact that we spent most of it behind the pews throwing a ball around, or outside on the front lawn playing with the limo driver! 1.5 hours of Catholic wedding ceremony is a LOT for an almost-11-month-old. And the church - although spectacularly beautiful - had no air conditioning. Luke even had his first hotel-room babysitter, found via craigslist, while Kyle and I went to the wedding reception! It was great, and he slept through it all, thankfully.

Once we were in Ottawa we started a few days of what can only be called baby misery. We endured hour after hour - even day after day - of very-important-fancy-office meetings with lawyers, bankers, mortgage brokers, more bankers, real estate people, more lawyers, etc. All in places where baby fingerprints on the glass walls were a real no-no, and wild babies tearing down hallways into offices with other clients in them was definitely frowned upon. But he was a real trooper, and despite all our miserable meetings, he amused himself kicking his little soccer ball up and down the halls, or getting rides on the mail cart courtesy of dad! Wish we had gotten a picture of that... but the mail cart owner came looking for it and dad was told pretty quickly to get his kid off that deathtrap! And he really enjoyed appliance and kitchen reno shopping - those sinks are great playpens!

He did really well sleeping in the hotel rooms, and eating out every night. Although Kyle and I got quite tired of how intense dining out with a baby can be, he was generally good about it and didn't disrupt too many restaurants. He had the waiters at the Indian restaurant playing soccer with him for a while, and then he crawled into the fountain at the Mexican restaurant... but other than that, he was very well behaved!

We have uploaded some videos from the trip, click on each one below:

Breakfast, southern style

Learning Diplomatic picnic skills

Developing 'ticklish'

Our little acrobat

Lunch with dad

2007-07-25T10:14:00.001-07:00

What could be more fun?

This is a rare foray into the baby blog for me. I just figured it was too good of an opportunity for me to pass up.

Today for lunch we started with one of the new foods, some kind of pasta and chicken or beef mash with veggies. It hasn't been a big hit, but Luke will normally force it down with some fruit mixed in.

You mean this isn't mixing fruit in?

Anyway, the stew wasn't going down so I gave him my nectarine. It was a bit mushy for me but he seemed to like it just fine. If the video won't play for you click HERE to see it.

No, this is not what lunch is like everyday, usually we have more fun!

Although cleanup required a kitchen towel today.

... Thats gonna leave a mark...

2007-07-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

We figure its only a matter of time until one of Luke's tumbles lands him with stitches, something broken, or his very first scar. Today's tumble may accomplish the scar. Poor little baby nose. He got super excited at - where else - the splash park, and nose-dived onto the concrete. Needless to say there were tears. And now he just looks funny. I know this isn't a great photo, but it does show off his scrape pretty well. Good thing babies heal quickly!

He is also becoming a bit of an acrobat. Anything he can climb into, over or under is his new favourite toy. No wonder the kid is so banged up. He keeps trying to climb up the counters - he latches his little fingers over the cupboards, and pushes his feet against them. Next thing you know we'll look down and he's a foot off the ground, grinning the whole way. I think its time for Daddy to take him to the climbing gym.

Want to know what Luke is busy eating these days? He really enjoyed this spaghetti and broccoli. He also loves a piece of rice cake smothered in hummus. Or dried fruit, like apples, bananas, apricots, and raisins. Some days its just easier to take him out back and hose him and the high chair down at the end of the meal.

Another week, another waterpark

2007-07-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

We spent another fun day at the waterpark with Luke today. He is so happy there, he absolutely loves it. Its hard to drag him away, and he almost always falls asleep on the drive home because he's so tired! We got some video of him standing up and playing with a ball, click on the links below for the videos.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

He loves this ball...

Playing with the water jets

Going through a crawl-structure

Peek a boo!

Someone call Child Protection...

2007-07-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

Our poor little munchkin is looking very abused these days. We've had a rough couple days, where Luke wants so much to run and climb, but his not-yet-coordinated 9-almost-10 month old little body just isn't quite up to it. There is a little 3-inch lip from our back door onto the patio, and he almost always navigates it perfectly. He's been practicing for months. But Saturday morning something happened and he ended up head-first on the deck. That was a good one. He's got a huge bruise on the side of his forehead that gets blacker by the day. Yesterday, he took a dive into the coffee table again so now he's got a bruise in the middle of his forehead, along with an angry red welt.

And then, unfortunately, his little shoes got the better of him. We were at the baby store buying him a potty (oh yeah -- big news, we're starting potty training!) and he was happily trucking all over the place pulling things off the shelves. We think he tripped over the tip of his shoe when he was trying to run, as he ended up face-down on the concrete floor. Oh boy the screaming. And then his nose started bleeding! So we vacated the store pretty quickly, and now a big dark bruise has developed over the whole bridge of his nose and into the corners of his eyes. It doesn't seem too tender to the touch, but he is a bit stuffier than normal, so its possible he broke his nose. I called the

pediatrician though and they say that there's nothing they can do for a broken nose, so its just got to get better. (And I'm scared to take him to the pediatrician - with the number of bumps and great explanations I have for them, I imagine its only a matter of time until we get a visit from a social worker!)

We tried on a bike helmet a few days ago... maybe we need to get him one to wear all the time? Only problem - it was so heavy on his head he couldn't stand up. Hmmm... any other ideas?

We took Luke to another spray park yesterday - he loves them so much. Its funny to see him chasing after all the big kids. He ends up so cold and shivering, but WON'T get out. No matter how many times we pull him out and dry him off, he screams and fights until we put him down and off he goes again. Here are some pictures taken on Kyle's cell phone, so sorry for the bad quality!

I have also uploaded some more video of the munchkin wandering around (and one in the pool), so you can see how far he has come from his first steps a few months ago! He loves shaking things when he's walking, and will almost always pick something up to carry around with him - as you will see!

In the pool

Walking with his push toy

With his favourite rattle

With his giggle stick

Some more pictures

2007-06-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

Luke is getting much more comfortable in his stroller when its used as a bike trailer! At first he had this look of absolute fear, and he clenched his little hands and held them in the air. Its understandable... the bikes go REALLY fast and he gets jostled around a LOT going over bumps in the trailer. But today he actually fell asleep for part of the trip, and seems to be getting used to it.

BAD baby. Someone taught Luke how to unroll toilet paper in the last month, and its his new thrill. Whenever he catches the bathroom door open he takes off running and its amazing how fast a little boy can make an absolute mess of unrolled toilet paper.

And this is what happens when we run fast and get the door closed before he gets there. Ummm... how soon can the "terrible two's" officially start? This little boy could be a real monster if this is just a preview...

This is the result of Luke's nightly avocado hair follicle treatment. Surely he's heard somewhere that the essential oils in avocado do wonders for his dry hair, and so he makes sure to get a good lot of avocado on his hands and apply it liberally every night before bed. And someone recently asked me if it was REALLY necessary to bathe him every night -- seriously, its not even just for the hair -- you should see what he manages to get in his ears and nostrils!

All the toys in the world, and all he wants to play with are remote controls, cell phones, and charging cables. We're going to start shopping at used electronics stores for his upcoming toys!

Oh, and bad news - he figured out how to CLIMB stairs. Only he doesn't come back down very well.

Is anyone else exhausted with the image of all these things he does where mommy or daddy needs to run in and intervene? I am. Off to bed! Goodnight!

Happy First Fathers Day

2007-06-17T10:35:00.001-07:00

Click the picture below to see the video.

Happy Fathers Day 2007

So tired

2007-06-13T16:47:00.000-07:00

I have all these good ideas for blog posts, and keep meaning to update... but I'm just so tired. Luke's sleeping is again - if you can believe it - going downhill. Kyle and I have each only gotten about 4 hours the last two nights. So although its only 7:45, I'm on my way to bed. But in an attempt to stay in Dad's good books I figured I should post some pics.

Things are going well. Grandma and Grandpa Margenau are here now and Luke is having lots of fun playing with them all day! He is branching out in his foods - he's now eating just about everything we eat (presuming its not junk food and totally unhealthy!!!) - he loves real fruit like this nectarine!

He also discovered beer. Well, beer bottles. Seriously, isn't this just the most disfunctional picture? I love the fact that in the background you can see my glass of wine and Kyle's beer bottle. Seriously, someone call CPS! (Honestly, I cleaned it all out, and gave him his own bottle to play with because he liked the feeling of it on his gums!)

No more teeth yet. We're still stalled at 6, with none appearing to be coming soon. Luke continues to walk EVERYWHERE and is getting really good at it. He can change directions, walk around in circles, and bend down to pick things up while standing unassisted. We're pretty impressed with him! So was the Dr. at his 9-month visit on Monday.

Our sweet little munchkin is positively falling off the growth charts. Well not really, but this month he dropped from being int he 95th percentile for height and weight, to being in the 75th. He only gained 1lb in the last 3 months! He's close to becoming an average baby - how shocking! I knew his weight would even out as he got more mobile, but its still surprising to hear how little he is now gaining. Especially after how tired my arms feel at the end of the night!

He's now almost 22 lbs and 28 3/4 inches long. His head circumference remains in the 95th percentile though, go figure.

Empty Threats / More pictures

2007-06-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

So Grandpa Jim has threatened to cut us out of the will if we don't post pictures. Hmmm... lets see. Leaving all his debt to Heather, or sharing it amongst the two of us... Thats a toss-up. :)

Regardless I'm sure others out there are interested in seeing pictures of Luke and it HAS been a while since we did a post. Things have been super busy here lately - with my mom around for 3 weeks, then she left and Grandpa John arrived last week. Work has been crazy for both Kyle and I... excuses I know, but its been a busy few weeks. Luke is doing well - walking everywhere, starting to get really fast in fact. He still falls down after he walks for a while, and needs to crawl to something to pull up on. But otherwise he's doing really well, generally happy and loving having so many great relatives around to play with! Grandma Lynne discovered his excitement for opening and closing doors. He could do that for hours. And Grandpa John is learning that Luke LOVES to swim, now that our pool is open! All in all, things are going well. (P.S. - to the demanding Grandpa Jim: there is a CD of EVERY photo ever taken of Luke on its way to you... now about that will...!)

Our culinary adventure continues. Luke's still getting the hang of most finger foods, but will give usually them a try before rejecting them all together! He especially likes Hummus on his rice cakes. Makes for a good 'ole mess but he LOVES it.

His favourite place to play remains the kitchen. So many fun cupboards to open and close! And the tupperware is always a great bonus.

He still LOVES the Mei Tai style baby carrier Aunt Janie made for us! When he's super fussy around 5pm and we're cooking dinner, I always strap him on and he's so happy just to sit close to me and be involved while we get dinner ready!

Kyle and I finally got the bike carrier hooked up, and although its still illegal for him to be in (he needs a helmet, won't THAT be a fun experience...) we went for a short bike ride to the grocery store one night. Luke seemed to really like it, and its great to see him so comfy in his cool new stroller / bike carrier!

Luke had LOTS of fun with Grandma while she was here. We really miss her a lot now that she has gone home and we hope that he gets to spend time with her again soon! It was great having her take care of the munchkin.

Because I've been working a lot of overtime lately, I've taken a few afternoons off to spend with the munchkin. This week we had his friend Sophia (and her mom, Betsy, from our Bradley Childbirth class) over for a swim and some time to play. Luke LOVES Sophia's hair... I think he's jealous. Betsy and I spent the whole time trying to extracate his sticky little fingers from her gorgeous dark curls!

No pictures here - big news there!

2007-05-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

Check our regular blog (link on the right...) for some exciting news about Siobian's new baby! I'll get some pics of Luke up here soon... just have to find the time to take some!

Shoes and Shiners

2007-05-19T17:50:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since our last blog, and my dad must be busy... I haven't had the regular weekly call to demand a new post! Hope you're doing ok dad! :)

Things with us are going well - Grandma arrived last Sunday to take care of Luke and things are going really well so far! It has taken a bit of time for her to learn all Luke's routines and get used to being with him all day long, but they are both loving spending time together!

Its hard for Grandma because Luke is such a walking disaster right now - he is in that phase of life where he WANTS to be moving and active, but his balance and skills are still a bit behind him in development, so he's pretty accident-prone. Today he took a good long walk from the ottoman to the coffee table. Done it a million times. And he almost made it. But somehow his feet stopped about 2 inches short. So he pitched forward and planted his cheek on the coffee table on his way to the floor. It is one of the worst shiners he has had so far, poor little guy. Every day he wakes up with perfect complexion, and as time goes on, his little head gets more and more dinged up - bruises on his cheeks, red carpet burns on his forehead, scratches on his scalp... by the time I come home it looks like he's been abused. But luckily he's pretty good natured about getting up, brushing himself off, and trying one more time to get it right!

He's also trying to get used to walking with SHOES! We bought him a super cute pair of new walking shoes that he loves... to chew on. He can't quite figure out why such fun chewable toys are strapped to his feet. SO he spends a lot of time sitting down trying to get his feet in his mouth. But because he's so active when he's outside we are trying to get him used to wearing shoes. I'll try to post a picture of them - they are really cute little elephant shoes!

Nana Sue took this phot of Luke in Hawaii and I just love it!

It's official

2007-05-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

Luke is MOBILE!

Yesterday evening as Kyle and I watched, he crawled about 6 feet without stopping to rest or put his belly on the floor, so we agreed that he was officially crawling! Little did we know that was just the start of his new tricks.

Today, Luke walked. He pulled himself up on the footstool for the rocking chair. Looked around happily, took his hands off and stood for a second, then walked calmly towards me. About 5-6 steps away, he grabbed my hands when he reached me. We got a video of him standing at the footstool, letting go, and walking after Piko - CLICK HERE. We also got a video of him trying out his new crawling skills to get over to the books in his room. CLICK HERE. What is truly monumental about his walking today is that he beat his Dad & Uncle Scott by one day - they both walked at 8 months 4 days. Luke is 8 months, 3 days today.

He also got his fifth tooth today. He now has both bottom teeth, and both side top teeth, and now, today, one of his front top teeth! All those teeth make eating so much more fun. His latest discovery are cheerios and fruit leather. YUM! I spent the weekend making a bunch of fun new food for him, as he started eating meats (turkey and chicken so far) and a lot of new veggies and fruits. So far he loves everything but the chicken...

Sleep is still bad. I promise I will tell you all when it gets good. Right now we're down to waking about 4 times per night - and thats not too bad, actually. He sleeps from 8-11, then is up at 11, 1, 3, 5 and then at around 6:30 for the day. Yes, we're exhausted, and no, we don't anticipate sleeping through the night for years. So please don't ask us about it. Its just depressing.

Now because some grandparents are demanding more pictures, I will include a bunch of recent ones below! I will try to burn you all CDs and put them in the mail... but, well... I think babyproofing the house is my first priority this weekend. We'll see what I get accomplished! :)

Luke contemplating where we should go for our next posting... Do we have an Embassy in Antarctica???

Kinda befuddled by his new Tickle-Me-Elmo Extreme (TMX). Kyle and I are too...

Doing some afternoon reading in the nude. He's just so happy naked I hate putting clothes on him! I realized today that his leg rolls are almost entirely gone - they are now just slight creases. He is thinning out a lot and getting more muscular lately.

Cat/Baby interactions occupy a lot of our time lately. We spend a lot of time yelling "Luke STOP!! - G-E-N-T-L-E!!!" Somehow he doesn't get it. And has some great scratches on his face to show for it...

Hmm... About that babyproofing. Good thing its summer and we're not using the fireplace - he LOVES it.

8 months ago today...

2007-05-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

Luke and I were sitting in the hospital waiting to meet one another. Amazing to think that our little one is on the downhill slope to being a year old, when I still consider him to be such a new baby! Here are some pictures from last weekend when we went to the park with some other baby friends!

Thats Ethan in one of the pictures, who is on the oppostive end of the growth spectrum from Luke. Around 3rd percentile. He turns 1 today - incredible huh? I think he still weighs around 16lbs. I weighed Luke the other day on our bathroom scale, and he's around 21lbs, 4oz.

At 8 months he is still on the verge of being mobile. He is working on perfecting all the pieces of walking, and can now pull up, let go, and start to move towards something - but then he inevitably falls down. He is really close to crawling - he has realised he can get across the room and so he does manage it, but he tends to push up with his legs and get in a downward-dog-like yoga pose about every 2nd or 3rd crawl! He's not a master yet, but I think its time to invest in some baby gates. Oli took off down the stairs today and Kyle and I were both shocked at how fast Luke followed after him! He's becoming more of a menace in the house as well - he can cruise himself around (holding onto furniture) to just about anywhere in the house now, and he's finding all the shelves, cupboards, tables, etc. that are just his height. I found him eating coins last week, from a jar we keep on the table by the door to put loose change in. I hope he didn't swallow any. He still loves electronics and is now fascinated by cords - any cords, anywhere are his most exciting things!

He still isn't talking much - he hasn't yet gained the ability to say consonants - but he does a great excited little "hoo - hoo - hoo - hoo" when he's chasing after the cats, and still screeches from time to time. We're working on MAMAMAMAMA and DADADADADA but it seems to be always Kyle and I saying them, not the munchkin. He is learning more sign language - not that he uses it yet, but he does recognize the signs for nurse, eat, more and done. We got some fun new videos and hopefully he'll get some more hand coordination soon to start talking back to us! Everything I have read says that boys develop language more slowly than girls, but develop physical skills faster. That seems to be holding true!

A new low for our creepy, crawly, cruiser

2007-04-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

So Luke has sunk to a new low in terms of sleeping. Yes, in fact his sleep is terrible - remarkably, worse than ever - he's only sleeping 20-30 minutes at a stretch ALL night long. Makes me long for those days when I thought sleeping for 1.5-2hrs was bad! Kyle and I are too exhausted to even think about how tired we are so it feels like we're handling it remarkably well... But the "new LOW" he is at doesn't refer to his terrible sleep - tonight we finally lowered the crib mattress! Up until now it had been up high, at bassinet height. Easier to put him in and out of. But last night in the height of one of his fits he realised he could not only sit up, but pull himself up - and that got scary. So down he goes, and it'll be a big learning curve for all of us. Still, the only way to put him to sleep is to put our hands on his head and his hip or shoulder, and literally hold him to keep him from flailing and waking himself up. Now that he's so low, we won't be able to do that without literally leaning into the crib all night - which will get exhausting for the 5+ hours we spend nightly doing just that. So I can only imagine sleep will get worse before it gets better, but hopefully there will be an end to the madness sometime.

He is also really working on perfecting his mobility skills. I'll try to get some video up here soon. He is pretty close to figuring out the crawling thing - he'll lean forward from a sitting position to get to his hands and knees, then he can move about 2 crawls-worth before he flops on his belly and gives up. I figure its only just a matter of time before he takes off after Piko (his favourite toy ever...) and doesn't realise he's done it until he's halfway across the room!

He's also mastering the various steps to walking. It seems he can do them all right now - he can pull himself up using the furniture or whatever he touches, he can stand unassisted for a good 30 seconds or so with both hands holding onto a toy (not supporting himself on a table, etc.), and if I put him standing a few feet away from something he can walk 6-10 steps towards it and grab on. But he hasn't yet done all these in sequence - pulled up, let go of his support, and walked towards something new. So until that happens I don't think he's walking. The poor kid has got a bit of a competitive deadline. His dad and Uncle Scotty both walked at 8months, 4 days. Thats coming up on May 9! Somehow I don't think he'll make it, but I guess he is always capable of surprising me!

Finally - Baptism Pics!

2007-04-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took us so long to get these posted - we didn't take any and so we had to get these ones from a family friend (thanks Evie!). Kyle brought them home from Phoenix today where he saw his dad and his brother.

Luke's baptism on April 1 was beautiful. All the more so because it was Palm Sunday, and Kyle's church

puts on a great show with special music and dance selections. The church was decorated really nicely and there was a great turnout of people. I think my family really liked it. Especially the donkey. Ask Grandpa Jim about that one. Good fun!

Pastor Craft performed Luke's baptism, which was really nice because he confirmed Kyle many many years ago, and he was also at our wedding. We are happy that we waited to have Luke baptized somewhere that meant so much to us both. Luke was in remarkably good spirits throughout... despite the fact that he interrupted Pastor Craft's sermon by pooping - very loudly - in the middle of it. Amazing how babies just can't keep those grunts and groans to themselves. The entire first 4 rows turned around to watch our grunting baby as he, red-faced, made another dirty diaper.

The Margenau's threw an amazing party that afternoon and we had lots and lots of people come to meet Luke.

We've got heaps more photos I'll try to get up sometime soon. Luke and I had a really rough weekend while Daddy was away - he's getting now one, but THREE top teeth, and he has been up screaming most of every night. And day. He's been a very high-need baby, refusing to be put down, wanting to nurse constantly, and just essentially being very exhausting to be around. So I'm off to bed to get some sleep before work tomorrow... ugh.

New things to eat.

2007-04-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

We're working on moving Luke to eating whole foods, rather than pureed. Its a theory known as baby-led weaning, which ultimately says that back in the day when doctors recommended that solids be introduced to 6 week-old babies, they needed to be pureed and bland. But with babies as old as 6 months starting solids, they know how to manipulate them, and should be learning how to put food in their mouths and only eat what they want to. We're still giving him some homemade baby food, but he LOVES playing with other pieces of food. Here are some pics of his dinner last night - acorn squash, a pear, and some green beans. YUM!

In other news, I have been wondering why the keys on my blackberry were starting to get sticky. I think I figured it out. I hope there's a way to clean that little device before I hand it over to my successor at the Embassy this summer. Luke has developed a fascination with anything technological - his favourite thing is to watch us while we're on the phone, or to chew on the digital camera. Those of you who have called lately know how he shrieks with excitement when he sees us on the phone!

We will add some more pics of Hawaii and another post soon - but the Grandparents (...you know who you are...) are starting to get antsy. So here are some pics to keep you at bay!

Mmmmm... Sand.

2007-04-01T23:05:00.000-07:00

Well Luke got his first taste of salt water - and sand - at the beach in Hawaii yesterday. I think it appears he liked the sand more than the salt!

We had a miserable trip to Hawaii on Friday - everything got off to a good start on Friday morning at 4am when we headed for Baltimore. No problems with our first flight, 3.5 hours to Dallas. Then in Dallas, we ran to make our next flight to Honolulu and it all started to go downhill. It was an almost totally packed flight, but had luckily one spare seat so we were able to bring Luke's carseat on board and give us all a bit of extra space. We waited as our departure time got closer, with no activity to indicate we were about to leave. Then they announced we were waiting on some luggage for transferring passengers. So a few minutes later as we waited, a thunder storm moved in. They closed the tarmac and the runways. So we waited some more. After about an hour on the plane, they announced it was back open, the bags were finally loaded and we were good to go. We headed out to the runway and got in line, only to be told that another storm had moved in. So we waited again. Only this time, to conserve fuel, they would turn on auxilliary power and turn off our engines. We listened to some interesting electrical noises for a while, until they announced that the auxilliary power wasn't working. Back to the gate we went - after waiting for the planes in front of us to move so we could turn out of the take-off lineup! By this point we had been on the plane for just over 2 hours, Luke had worked his way through most of his fun toys, and was starting to get cranky. He finally went down for his second nap as we waited for the mechanics to fix the plane. Then we need to wait for the jet fuel guys to refuel us before heading BACK out into the line to takeoff. All in all, we were on the ground almost 4 hours in Dallas before taking off. All the while, stuck in a packed plane with a cranky baby. All the while knowing that once we did take off, the flight would take ANOTHER 8.5 hours. It was pretty disheartening. Once we did get on our way we did the best we could to amuse the munchkin, and he did his best to charm everyone on the plane. Barely screamed at all, but the effort it took to keep him from doing that exhausted both Kyle and I!

Luke's sleep is again terrible - we had about 2 weeks of good sleep, and we're now back in sleep hell. So our first night here was miserable. Up every 30-40 minutes, and awake completely for 1.5 hours between 3-4:30am! I can't blame him, the time difference is a lot of him to handle. But all the same, we had been up for 24+ hours, were absolutely exhausted, and really needed a good night's sleep to catch back up. None of us got that.

We went to Kailua beach our first morning here, then to Waikiki that afternoon to see my Dad and Sue, and Sue's son Dann who flew in from Taiwan to surprise her! Luke has loved the beach - he really enjoys playing in the sorf where it crashes on the sand. He likes to walk up and kick his feet in it, and make his baby-dinosaur noises! We'll have to get a video of those, they are truly unique.

Today was his baptism and it all went really well - we'll post some photos once we get them downloaded!

Our little fish

2007-03-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

Last week our little fish graduated from swimming around in the bathtub, to a big huge swimming pool! Luke started swimming lessons at one of the local rec centers, and so far, its a huge hit. Apart from the fact that the class conflicts with his one scheduled nap of the day, so he often doesn't make it through the whole session without getting cranky... (but sleep is another story all together!) The class is really fun - lots of other moms, dads and babies. And to make it all much better for mom, Kyle volunteered to be swim dad so I don't have to deal with getting my post-pregnancy body into a bathing suit just yet! (But a trip to Hawaii is looming in just a couple weeks so I've got to get myself mentally prepared for that...). Luke is really great in the pool - he's comfortable putting his face in and out of the water already, and really loves to swish all around. We're working on floating and kicking, but all in all he does seem to like it! I think it would be more fun for everyone though if the pool was a little warmer. Brrr......!

Luke's exploration of the wonderful world of food continues to go well. I don't even know what he eats now - he's got quite the menu of various foods. The books say to introduce a variety of flavours with each meal. But I have more fun making sure he's got a full color palate to paint up his face with. Seriously, wouldn't he be much cuter with a bit of peas, some banana and some eggplant mixed in to this painting? It seems that he eats a lot of orange... carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, mango, papaya -- all orange. I know I've got to start branching out or he'll end up with an orange complexion! He hasn't found a food he doesn't like yet, so we're continuing the exploration!

Unfortunately, he is having increasing problems with reflux and spitting up. Just the last three weeks it seems, he has been throwing up - forcefully - everything he seems to eat. Its amazing the quantity of spit up, and we are somewhat concerned that he may not be gaining weight as he has been. We had him at the Doctor two weeks in a row last week, and using the same scale, weighed by the same nurse, he had lost 4 ounces. We're probably going to go back this week to check on his weight gain and make sure its nothing to worry about. It was happening before he started solids, so we know that its not related to that, and we have had him on reflux medication for the last 10 days which has also not produced any change at all. The doctors said he would likely just outgrow it, but it seems strange to have come on so suddenly at this age - particularly when he had gone 2+ months with minimal spitting up until now. Regardless, we're going to need some new couches when we move. I don't think we'll ever get the baby puke out of ours.

Sleep continues to be a challenge. We have definitely made some progress, like the fact that he usually does at least one 5-hour stretch each night, and that Kyle can get him back to sleep, and that he doesn't need to eat each time... But I wouldn't say that its the linear progression we had expected. For every 2 steps forward, it seems we take 1.5 steps back. And then there are some nights (like last night) that are just awful. So we continue to work at it, and luckily are able to email the sleep doctor at Children's Hospital whenever we have questions. Having his support and ongoing reassurance has made a huge difference in helping us stick with this strategy consistently. And on that note - its time for me to go to bed! Check Heathery's blog for some more pictures of the munchkin!

...And then all the stars aligned...

2007-03-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

And he slept.

Check our main blog for more details from Kyle, resident baby sleep guru.

Solids food = solid poop!

2007-03-07T17:14:00.000-08:00

Luke has been eating 2 meals daily of solids since Saturday. So far, we've gone a bit more quickly than recommended in introducing new foods. According to the books and the doctors, you should introduce one new food, then wait 4 days to see whether the baby has a reaction to that food. Well, I'm impatient. So we moved right along and so far - 5 days in - he has tried Oatmeal, Bananas, Avocado, Sweet Potato, and Apples. He really likes most of it - he gobbles up the oatmeal whether it is mixed with anything flavourful or not. He seemed to really like the sweet potato and the apples - here is is munching a hunk of apple I gave him to play with. He didn't love the way avocado tasted - he made a pretty funny face every time he would get it in his mouth! And he wanted nothing to do with eating pureed bananas - he much preferred to eat the banana whole! But otherwise, it seems to be going really well. Remarkably, he gets super messy when he's eating. I've ordered some super-toddler-sized-catch-everything bibs that I hope will make a difference, because right now he basically has to head for the bath after eating anything, and thats twice a day! I never thought about the fact that he eats with his hands, then smushes them into his eyes, hair, nostrils, etc. I've been picking sweet potato out of his ears for days - and he hasn't eaten any since Sunday! Seriously, every time I look at him there's another hunk of sweet potato in there. But he does luckily seem really keen on the foods. He even licked his high chair today when it was covered in apples and I was evidently taking pictures instead of shovelling more food into his mouth!

Something we had been dreading finally materialized tonight. Solid poop. The words are enough to strike fear in the heart of any cloth-diapering mom. Breastfed baby poop is really runny, kind of sweet smelling, and totally water soluble. Nothing tough to deal with at all. But by today it had been 5 whole days since he had last pooped - since before starting solids - so we knew it was going to be a doozy. In fact, I picked up some prunes at the grocery store today and was planning on mixing them up for him for breakfast tomorrow, because 6 days is a LONG time for a baby to go without pooping. He has been farting and grunting and straining for days. Then tonight, it finally materialized. I took him upstairs to get into the bath before bed, and saw a little bit of poop in his diaper - about the amount he would usually poop from breastmilk. I was excited because I thought that was it - he finally had gotten it out. But it sure stank. Ick. Anyways, as I was putting the diaper in the diaper pail, I heard him make a little grunt, and looked back horrified to watch as he started pooping for real. The little diaper one had just been a warmup. I tried cleaning with wipes to keep it from getting ALL over the change table, and quickly had to give that up as it was coming out faster than I could clean up! I finally ended up putting 3 diapers underneath him - all of which got covered. Amazing that much could come out of something so small. It is totally different in consistency, and unfortunately smell, than his previous poops. So now we're trying to figure out our new system of getting the poops in the toilet and the diapers clean afterwards. Its a whole new world. I'll keep you posted.

I also wanted to post some fun pics of the munchkin in the bath... for those of you who have seen him take his bath many a time you know how much he loves it. Well unfortunately last week his little baby bath sling became obsolete. He refuses to sit on it now - he MUST sit up on the bottom of the tub! At first he would lean over and put his face in the water reaching for toys, but that stopped pretty quickly with his first snort of water! He has fallen over a couple times, I've really got to be on my toes to catch him. But so far he's doing really well, and loving being able to move all around the bathtub.

Bad news about the baby food pictures...

2007-03-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

They are currently in Jamaica with Aunty Heather. She took them all on her camera, and we didn't download them before she left this morning. So it'll be a while yet before you get the photos of Luke covered in Banana. And I imagine by next week he will have been covered in many more things so we'll have even better pictures! Needless to say, the oatmeal went ok, but he didn't really like the banana milkshake... he much preferred chewing on huge hunks of banana or sucking on it through a mesh feeder. Here's a video - just a short one! Well he's up from his nap and its time to eat (again)... this solid foods thing sure takes up lots of time!

Look what I grew!

2007-03-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, Luke starts solid foods. I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate the miracle of breastfeeding. Up until now, he has not eaten a single thing that didn't come from me. He has grown from a teeny little 8-pound baby (because he lost his 11 ounces right after he was born), only 20 inches long, to being 20 pounds and almost 28 inches long. He has more than doubled his body weight in 6 months (imagine how scary that speed of growth would be for an adult!) and has learned to hold up his head, smile, laugh, roll over, hold onto toys, sit up, jump and do a million other things. Its truly amazing that he has done so much on nourishment that only came from me. Seriously, isn't that a miracle?!

So onto other news... sleep. He still hasn't learned how to sleep. Luckily for him, its baby sleep boot camp week. Our appointment with the sleep gurus went well - we got to sit in an intimidating room of 5 psychologists and another 2 doctors, who asked question after question about our sweet little munchkin. He performed admirably, smiling and cooing at everyone throughout the visit. Their ultimate recommendation is for a 3-part sleep plan. First, he is starting some reflux medication. The gastroenterologist who was there said Luke likely still has some reflux, and that contributes to the need to eat every 2 hours, and the waking up regularly. Second, we are starting him on solids. While they all agreed that there is no conclusive scientific evidence to suggest that feeding a baby solids contributes to better sleep, they think at least in his case, it will help wean him off his breastfeeding dependency - because a large part of why he wakes up is simply the closeness with me that he wants. Third, we have a sleep strategy... From now on, I wake HIM up to eat. Sounds awful, I know, especially as we've heard forever not to wake a sleeping baby. But their logic - and it makes sense - is that when he wakes up he is rewarded with getting to nurse. But if I simply put him back to sleep, reset his little internal clock, then wake him up a while later to eat - he learns that he can trust me to tell him when its time to wake up. We'll see how that goes. Of course, its hard to wake him up when he doesn't sleep, right? So Kyle is right now dealing with the non-eating nighttime visits. Its 9:30... he went to sleep at 8:20 and this is the third time he has woken up crying. Its going to be a long night.

In other news, we had our 6-month pediatrician visit on Thursday. Luke is now only in the 90th percentile for height & weight - which is a new trend. Before now he had always been in the 98th percentile, so his growth is starting to even out a bit. He only gained less than 2 lbs in the last 2 months, which is significantly less than previously. All that rolling, sitting, standing and walking is starting to tire him out! All the more reason to get him eating some fun new foods.

So tomorrow morning Luke gets his first bowl of oatmeal. If things go well with that, we may try him with some banana later in the day, but thats probably about it until Monday. I did put a banana in his mouth once, and he seemed keen to chew on it, so hopefully he won't completely hate the taste. I'll post some photos for you tomorrow!

Fun with Aunty Heather...

2007-03-01T03:51:00.000-08:00

If you're looking for some Luke updates, you may want to check Heather's Blog - she is providing daily updates of what she and the munchkin are up to while I'm at work all day! It saves me the pressure of having to update this blog! :) We're off to the sleep doctor and the pediatrician for Luke's 6-month appointment today. I'll write a post once we know more!

All good things must come to an end.

2007-02-25T18:11:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning I return to work. 6 months off, amazingly gone too quickly. Its hard to imagine that when I left work, Luke was still a bump on my belly.

I am understandably very sad to be returning to work so quickly. I now know why a year of maternity leave is so important in Canada, and I absolutely feel for my American colleagues who get as little as four weeks - unpaid - before having to return to work. I have been very lucky to have the 6 months I got. But in the future, I now know I will never choose to stay at a posting and take just 6 months. Its simply not long enough... (Although if you had asked me around 2 months, I probably would have happily returned to work, and left someone else in charge of bouncing Luke on the exercise ball for 9+ hours each day.) But now that he's fun, and really good company, I hate leaving him. Luckily he's in great hands - my sister Heather will be taking care of him for the next month and a bit. I couldn't imagine doing this any other way, and am so thankful to have her here.

When I think back on my last 6 months, its amazing, but I have a hard time remembering what I've done. 6 months is truly a long time off work - yet I feel like its all a blur. I know that I've spent hours and hours bouncing on that darn exercise ball. Lots of time walking up and down the stairs to and from the change table. Hours spent laying on the floor shaking bright-colored toys, hoping for a smile. Hours of kissing and tickling teeny toes and fingers. Hours rocking and rocking, singing random words to every lullaby I could remember. Lots of time spent at coffee shops and playgroups talking to other moms. Hours spent walking and walking - with strollers and baby carriers. Lots of time waiting desperately for Kyle to come home and take the baby so I could finally have a shower. Many more hours spent sitting on the couch nursing. And so many more hours spent carrying, cuddling, or just loving our gorgeous baby.

So I guess, when you add it all up, I've been doing the most important job of all. How could bilateral diplomacy ever be as important?

Breaking News!

2007-02-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

A tooth! We think there may be a tooth! There's something awful sharp in his little gum, and he's crankier than he has been in months. We'll keep monitoring the situation and will post an update as soon as we have confirmation! For now, I think I can see it - but its nothing photo-worthy yet.

My poor breasts are already recoiling in fear...

Fun new toys

2007-02-12T14:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, so all I have to do is post videos to get lots of comments? Seriously, we haven't seen this much action on the blog since our magic ball burst in November... Good to know. Here are some more updates on Luke:

He learned how to jump in his Jumperoo. He loves it - and its a great way to expend energy before going to bed for the night!

He got a new high chair. Seriously, I dont know why I ever spent money on toys. This this is great! Because he can see me while I cook or clean up, he's happy to spend hours sitting there playing with his toys. He loves his cups and spoons - which is good because he's getting used to the feeling of using them so eating solids in a few weeks will be somewhat familiar.

He discovered a new toy - packing tape! I was at the post office wrapping up a package, and Luke was absolutely cracking up in his carseat. I couldn't figure out what made him laugh so hard - and then realised it was the packing tape I was putting on the package! It was so funny to hear him laugh so hard. I tried to replicate it at home but he was a bit tired and not totally participating. All the same, aren't baby laughs magical?

Oh and I realise we forgot to update the blog about Luke's xray's. Everything looks good! Totally perfect, so no spina bifida occulta. Which is great news! Now, I've got to run and get him. Seems he thinks he wants to become a belly sleeper. But he gets scared every time he ends up on his tummy. Its been a long couple nights and this one is shaping up to be just as long. Goodnight everyone!

Look who's walking!

2007-02-05T17:38:00.000-08:00

Well not quite. But he wishes he was! Check out our video of Luke from last week - he's getting so big! We're going to have to start babyproofing the house soon at this rate. Anyways, I'll back up a bit - need to provide a bit of an update now that our baby is 5 whole months old! And I promise - no sleep talk this time. I'll just say it still sucks, and leave it at that.

I realise none of the family has seen him now for a month so I need to tell you how he has changed. One thing I notice is he's a LOT more vocal. He talks ALL the time. Little hums, hoo's, maha's, baba's, how's... etc. Its really quite cute. He especially talks when he's nursing (which is funny, he tries to do it while eating, and usually ends up getting both of us milky!) and when I'm putting him to bed. Its like he is just testing out his voice and needs to see what kind of sounds it will make! As you can see from these pictures he's still very much in an oral phase - everything he touches goes immediately into his mouth, so he spends a lot of time hearing how his different noises hear when spoken around blocks, soft toys, or in this case - alphabet links!

He is also a rolling maniac. He LOVES to roll. As soon as you put him down on his back, he'll be off. He will often roll continuously in one direction until he hits something - usually the couch or the desk. Its amazing to realise that I can no longer put him on the floor to play while I make myself some lunch - I've got to put something in front of the stairs in case he heads in that direction! He still can't really figure out how to make himself roll in certain directions, or to get to a certain toy, but he loves the feeling of it I think! He can also push himself up off his elbows and just rest on his hands. He hasn't yet gotten the idea of putting his knees under him though, so I think crawling is still a ways away!

He is just at the brink of mastering sitting. He can usually stay in a sitting position for 20-30 seconds before falling over, which is pretty impressive. He seems to get better at that every day, and we are trying to give him lots of practice. Click here for a video of him sitting - from our hotel room in Ottawa this weekend. Its hard though, because he would prefer to be walking, so he pushes his little legs out trying to stand up and then of course he falls over. He LOVES walking - holding onto our fingers and using his little legs to get places. The pediatrician we saw last week said he's very strong and likely to start walking early - which means we may need to explore the exciting world of babyproofing in the next couple months.

We had to go to the Dr. last week because poor Luke is pretty miserable. I'm not sure what he caught - because I haven't yet gotten it - but he's coughing and wheezing and snuffling terribly. I feel so bad for his little body trying to sleep & function when he evidently feels absolutely miserable. And then his terrible parents took him to godforsaken Ottawa for a weekend full of meetings & activities - so he didn't get any decent naps for days and had to run around in -16 degree weather! Poor little guy. We're taking it easy this week and hoping he starts to feel better soon. He only weighed 18lbs10oz at the Dr's office - which means a weight gain of about 6 ounces for this whole month, which is a huge slowdown compared to his growth up until now. I think now that he's moving more he'll trim down a bit. I sure hope so... my arms are killing me!

Our "exceptional" child

2007-01-22T11:37:00.000-08:00

I'm reading a book recommended by the Pediatrician right now - Raising your Spirited Child. Its one of those books that you open up, and start reading, and want to keep on going because what they are saying seems to have been taken out of your life. I really do think Luke fits into the category of 'spirited'. They say spirited children are just more. More intense, more sensitive, more enthusiastic, more perceptive, more persistent, etc. At the beginning the book makes a really good point - that we tend to put labels on kids that they are either 'bad' or 'good' babies - similar to how we always call Luke fussy & high need. But its important to change those labels around to positives, otherwise we always see his personality as a problem, not as something to work with. So from now on, we're going to call him exceptional.

The book is also really interesting in helping me understand our sleeping issues. As it says, and we have experienced - most babies, if left by themselves to go to sleep, will cry for a short time, realise nothing is going to happen, and fall asleep. But Luke, as is typical of other spirited kids, will just cry and cry and cry. Then he'll sleep enough to get more energy and will cry some more. This week I developed a little sleep strategy - I would always go to him when he cried, and I would shush him, pat him, rub his back, and soothe him. But I wouldn't pick him up and nurse him, which is all he wants when he wakes up. We tried that for a couple nights. It was bad. He cried for 2 hours, thrashing and flailing all around his crib until he finally fell asleep. I thought maybe that was the end of it. It wasn't. 15 minutes later he woke up and the cycle started again. Finally, after 1.5 hours of him thrashing & crying the second time, I gave up. By that point I had been awake for 4 hours, it was almost dawn, and I knew neither of us were going to get any more sleep unless we stopped fighting one another. And if you know anything about baby sleep, you know that sleep begets sleep - so making him super tired is in noone's best interests. So now Luke is nursing every time he wakes up, and he often will go right back to sleep. Its not ideal - and its entirely contrary to what the sleep books say, but I realise he doesn't really fit their mold at all. So for now, we're going to make do with getting up 4-6 times a night, and being awake for 15-20 minutes each time. It is sure a lot better than getting up 6-10 times a night and being awake for 4-6 hours total each night.

Luke also had his ultrasound and x-ray last week. Everything went really well, he was so fascinated by the hospital and all the equipment that he didn't even cry! He just loved looking around. And the x-ray wasn't half as bad as we had expected. So far we don't have the results, but the ultrasound technician said everything looked pretty normal - his spinal cord is not elongated and there is nothing connecting that dimple to his spinal column. Thats good news, for now, but I'll let you know what the final results say.

Alas, my exceptional child just woke up from another 15 minute nap. Its amazing I ever get anything done - when he goes to sleep I start running, to eat, go to the bathroom, feed the cats, get changed, etc. and next thing I know he's up again. And you all wonder why I never update this blog! Ok, he's getting more "dramatic" (a positive word for intensely screaming) so I'd better go get him! Here we go again...

Luke's new ride...

2007-01-13T18:55:00.000-08:00

Heather said it best in her Christmas poem to Luke - he's lucky to have not four, but six amazing grandparents! And all those wonderful grandparents got together for Christmas and bought Luke an amazing new stroller. Actually, you can't even call it a stroller, it is SO far beyond that.

Its called a Chariot carrier. Basically, you buy the main chassis with a couple of big wheels on it. Then you buy these add-on packages that turn it into a jogging stroller, a bike trailer, a carrier on skis (seriously!), an off-road hiking carrier, or something like a regular baby stroller. Luke LOVES it. Its got a really fun little 'infant' hammock in it right now - so it absorbs all the shock from his little body and just swings him gently whenever we hit bumps. It steers like a dream and is so feather light it often runs away from me in parking lots when I turn around to open the car door! Ok now that makes me sound like a negligent mother... I'm getting better at turning on the brake! Incidentally - this picture was taken last Saturday. It was well over 70 degrees (I don't even know what that is in celsius - it was just warm and beautiful!) so we were out for a walk in short, flip flops & t-shirts! I think I love global warming...

Four Month Update

2007-01-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

Luke had his Four-month visit to the pediatrician today. I think he had some bad memories of the last visit, because as soon as we got into the exam room, he took one look around - looked straight at me and his face just crumpled. He then proceeded to pitch one of his best fits yet - in true Luke fashion. He wouldn't even nurse he was so worked up, and thats impressive. ...You don't get into the 95th precentile for weight for refusing to nurse when stressed!

All this led the pediatrician to tell me we likely have a 'very sensitive' and 'more highly strung' child and to recommend reading a book called "Raising Your Spirited Child". We'll see if it makes any sense - I had heard of another mom locally who referred to her baby as 'spirited' so perhaps we're in that camp too.

Luke remains at the top of the charts for growth, at 18lbs, 4oz and almost 26 inches long. He is on track with all the developmental milestones as he should be, and the pediatrician was also impressed with his strength. Although... his thighs are so chunky they're the size of my forearm, no wonder he's so strong!

There is one item that may be a concern, and something we are looking into. I mentioned Luke's birthmark to the Dr., and she said that birthmarks along the base of the spine can sometimes be indicators for hidden birth defects. She then looked further and found a small dimple inside the top of his bum cheeks. She said the dimple is quite shallow, so thats a good sign, but having a dimple indicates something is not entirely right with his spinal development. Additionally, the line between his bum cheeks is not perfectly in line with his spine... I had figured that was due to excessive baby fat, but apparently all this can be an indication of something called Spina Bifida Occulta. We're going for an x-ray later this week and will hopefully know more then. Effectively, its estimated over 20% of the population has this condition, but doesn't know it. And apparently there are very few, if any side effects. Becuase he's on track developmentally, and really strong with his legs & back, he seems to be minimally affected, if he does indeed have the condition (which we still don't know). We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

Sleep? Who needs sleep?!

2007-01-07T13:55:00.000-08:00

Evidently not our little monster. Our lives are currently consumed with trying to understand - and hopefully fix - Luke's sleeping issues.

To start with, he barely naps. The naps he does take could be considered catnaps - usually only for 20 minutes at a time, usually only while bouncing, vibrating, driving, walking, or otherwise moving. Try to make him nap in something that does none of those and he would rather stay awake all day. Then during the nighttime, he will put up with sleeping on something motionless, but wakes up every 1.5 to 2 hours.

Since we have been back from vacation, I have been charting all Luke's sleeping - and things like how he goes to sleep and what he does immediately before sleep - in order to try to find a pattern. I do wish I had done this earlier, its really insightful. I am noticing that his morning naps are much closer together - up for an hour, MUST sleep for a while. Yet in the afternoon, he'll sleep longer - at first it appears to be a regular 20 minute nap, then he wakes up REALLY cranky, and if I feed him, he'll fall back asleep for another hour or more. He also seems to be awake for longer in the afternoon - 2 to 3 hours at a stretch.

Nighttime is still a bit of a mystery. I'm trying to determine if the times he falls asleep swaddled, he sleeps longer, or if he falls asleep with the pacifier in his mouth he wakes more regularly, etc. No real conclusions yet. Last night I reached my breaking point and had a complete fit over the fact that he's 121 days old, and still sleeping worse than most newborns. In fact, I don't know a single other 4-month old who sleeps as poorly as he does. They all have supposedly 'sleep deprived' mommies who complain about getting up once or twice a night. Boo Hoo. In the last week, our least amount of night wakings is 6, our most is 10. Well wouldn't you know it, as soon as I decided I couldn't do it anymore, he changed. Slept for 4.45 hours straight. A HUGE breakthrough - one I can only hope is replicated tonight.

We have made some good progress on changing his waking routine, though. He used to wake up and shriek frantically and inconsolably until he ate. The kind of shrieking that makes the neighbours think I'm injuring him, so I would usually just give in and let the whole neighbourhood go back to sleep. But after a night of forcing him back to sleep (despite the noise) he is now often alright with a few songs from his new lullaby CDs, being wrapped back up nice and warm, and having mommy (or daddy) put our hands on his chest to calm him. There are times we have to resort to bouncing on the ball or using the pacifier, but he's down to eating twice/night now - a huge achievement after eating 8-9 times a night over Christmas.

And so the saga continues. I'll keep you all posted, but we do seem to be making some progress. In other news, we got a really cool new stroller from the Grandparents this Christmas - Luke LOVES it and had a great nap in it yesterday. We took some pics of all of us outside - honestly - in shorts & t-shirts in 75+ degree weather... sometimes I DO love global warming. We're also woefully behind on posting new pics, and I apologize. We haven't yet downloaded those from xmas and haven't been taking many lately. Luke has his 4-month checkup on Tuesday so I'll post then with some more pics of our BIG boy... who knows what he weighs now!

A quick Christmas update

2006-12-27T15:27:00.000-08:00

Luke survived his first TWO Christmases! On the 25th we had a wonderful Christmas at Grandma's house, complete with heaps of presents and lots of amazing food. Luke especially enjoyed opening up his presents (who knew wrapping paper tasted so good? - I'll post some pics soon!) and playing with all his fun new toys. Then on the 26th he had another Christmas at Grandpa & Nana Sue's house, which he loved as well. This time he discovered that the toys were just as tasty as the wrapping paper! Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Margenau for the tasty bunny!

Luke also delighted in showing us all his new trick. The last few nights he's been sleeping horribly... he'll fall asleep while nursing then wake up screaming every time I put him down in his crib. Thrashing around from side to side, flailing his arms and legs, everything. All that, on top of his usual schedule of waking up to eat every 1.5 hours has made for a really tired and cranky mommy. But today, as we were practicing our Itsy Bitsy Yoga (another really cool Christmas present from Grandpa & Nana Sue) Luke decided to stretch his muscles some more! He rolled over! He's been rolling from his tummy to his back for a few weeks now - probably, we think, to get out of tummy time which he hates! Then today he rolled from his tummy over to his back, and just kept on going! Luckily, Grandpa was handy with the camcorder so we've got it all on tape. We'll try to edit the footage and put it up on YouTube so you can all watch.

Missing: One West Coast Sleep Fairy. Reward Offered!

2006-12-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately we misplaced our sleep fairy. She was working her magic when we first arrived - Luke slept for 4.5 hours one night! But we lost her a couple days ago, and things have gone downhill ever since. Last night, between 8pm and 6am, Luke was up 7 times. At 9, 11, 1, 3, 5, 6 then 7. Suffice to say when he wakes me up with his cries, and I realize we've only been asleep for 40 minutes, I don't really like him very much. He's NOT a newborn, he is chubbier than most 2 year olds, he doesn't need to wake up every 2 hours to eat. I know many other 3-month olds who are smaller than him, and also exclusively breastfed, who sleep 8 or 10 hours at a stretch. I will forsake all my Christmas presents is someone finds the sleep fairy and gets her back for us!

Heather posted some pics of our munchkin - see her new blog here. I copied some over here, but I didn't bring a camera with me so until Kyle arrives tonight we won't get any new pictures... The munchkin is screaming so I'd better go try to put him sleep. Only 3 more sleeps till Christmas!

Fun new pictures

2006-12-11T12:05:00.000-08:00

Luke made his modeling debut on Saturday! We had a professional photographer, Niki Clark come over to take some pictures of our little munchkin. We LOVE the photos that she got - its nice to have some pics of us with the baby, and she got some really cool ones of Luke. We'll share more once we get them all on CD in a couple days!

In other news, Luke and I are again counting down the days until our next plane flight out west - we'll be leaving Sunday morning, less than a week away! We can't wait to see whether the west coast sleep magic will hit again - he has regressed from sleeping 4-5 hours at a stretch to only sleeping 1.5 hours at a time. Every night. Needless to say Mommy isn't thrilled to have a newborn again, and is really hoping something will change soon! Its hard to think straight on so few hours of disjointed sleep.

I also realise I forgot to note a big milestone last week... Luke turned 3 months old! He is truly becoming a more fun baby as time goes one. He has far less fussy cranky time and is awake and happy for around 1-2 hours at a time. We still do lots of walking and meet other moms every day, but he also really enjoys grocery shopping. We've started taking him out in the baby trekker pack, and he loves to look at all the shelves and colours everywhere. He also gets a lot of attention - seems that lots of people think he's pretty cute! We sure do.

Our week of Snorfles...

2006-12-08T15:09:00.000-08:00

We have a cold. All three of us. I got it Sunday morning, and was hoping I wouldn't pass it on. But I guess sharing bodily fluids with the baby every two-hours finally caught up with us. On Tuesday night Luke got sick, and then today (Friday) Kyle started feeling it. We're all pretty miserable!

Did you know babies don't know to breathe out of their mouth when their nose is plugged? Apparently they learn how to do that at around 6 months. Poor Luke is all congested and so cranky. I try to suck the snot out of his nose with the nasal aspirator, but I think he hates that even more. Eating is pretty hard, trying to snorfle through his nose while sucking through his mouth! And every time he sneezes snot goes everywhere. He hasn't been sleeping well either - about 45 minutes at a stretch, and he refuses to be put down. So he's been sleeping with me in the spare bedroom, because he wants to nurse all night. Needless to say, we're both pretty exhausted.

My trip to Toronto went well, Kyle and Luke had a good bonding day. They went shopping and hung out at the climbing gym. Luckily Luke will take a bottle well - we have friends whose babies refuse to drink out of a bottle, which must be miserable! And on Sunday night, the Embassy's consular officer called Security to open the locked cabinet where my passport was being kept - so we went in to pick it up! No immigration jail for me! It was hard being away from Kyle and Luke all day - and having to pump every couple of hours. But I really enjoyed attending the meeting there and it was great to see all my colleagues again.

A week from Sunday Luke and I are BC-bound again! We can't wait to be back at the west coast - especially because he slept for 6-hours at a stretch when we were there, and I sure hope its a west coast phenomenon! That would be a WONDERFUL Christmas present for mommy!

Our surprising new social life

2006-11-30T06:49:00.000-08:00

Again, its been a while since our last post. Things have been pretty quiet since we got home from Comox, with no big new milestones to report. I have noticed that we are getting busier and busier during the week - which keeps us out of the house and active, so Luke and I both enjoy it. If I had known how great my social life would be with a baby, I would have had one a long time ago!

Monday's we usually get together with another bunch of moms who delivered at our hospital, from July to November of this year. Its a big group, and really nice folks who all live in Alexandria. We usually go for coffee and then a walk afterwards. I'm loving that its Gingerbread Latte season at Starbucks, and as they are only around for such a short time, I'm completely justified in having at least one a day...

Tuesdays we head into DC to attend a Breastfeeding support group at the Washington Breastfeeding Center. Its a neat group of other moms, and afterwards we always go have lunch at a nearby cafe and spend 2 or 3 hours chatting.

On Wednesdays Luke and I walk with our friend Betsy, and her little girl Sophia. Betsy was in our Bradley birth class, and she had Sophia - her first baby - at home! She had a great all-natural birth, about a week before Luke was born. Although unfortunately for her, Sophia is just as cranky as Luke. So we get along really well - its nice to know I'm not the only one suffering through fussy baby syndrome. Wednesdays we also attend a mom&baby yoga class in Arlington, which is really fun. Luke's learning all sorts of new exercises and I'm stretching my aching arms!

Thursdays we get together for coffee with a bunch of the moms who were in our baby massage class. They're nice folks, with babies ranging from Luke's age (he's the youngest) to 7 months old, so its nice to talk to other moms about what is coming up.

Fridays we go for a walk with other moms who live near us, in Cameron Station. There's a nice lake and some good walking paths, so Luke and I walk over there, have coffee, then walk with those moms.

All in all I've met heaps of new people - some who I am certain will become good friends, and have learned all about other moms experiences! We're getting lots of exercise (I'm now down 15 pounds from before pregnancy!) and enjoying our gorgeous weather out here.

In other news, Luke has hit a good milestone this week. He's grabbing at things - like toys - and holding onto them. Until now he would put his hand around it, then let go without realising what he was holding. But this week he started grabbing things, and putting them in his mouth. Its neat to see! I'll try to get some pics.

Tomorrow I'm flying to Toronto for the day for a short work meeting, and Kyle and Luke will get some bonding time for 16 hours. It should be interesting... my biggest fear is I'll get thrown in Immigration Jail in Toronto, as I don't have my dip passport! I gave it to the Embassy this week as they needed it to order Luke's dip passport... then I completely forgot I would need it to go to Toronto. I've got another passport, but its expiring in a month and doesn't include my married name, and I've got a bunch of other documents, so I'm hoping I find an immigration officer who is sympathetic to my new-mom scatterbrained mentality and lets me come home! I'll keep you all posted...

Surprise Grandpa!

2006-11-18T12:55:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to update the blog lately as we've been keeping a REALLY big secret from Grandpa! Luke and I flew to Comox last Sunday to surprise him! He's been recovering at home from a hip replacement surgery (see Dad & Sue's blog for more details) and has been looking forward to Christmas when he would get to meet Luke. Well, we thought that was a bit too long to wait. So Luke got to experience his first real plane ride and he did great! Luckily Auntie Heather was with us on the way up to Vancouver, but on all the flights our little angel slept, ate, and looked around happily. He barely cried at all, and when he did it was only for a couple seconds. Evidently he likes travelling as much as his mom and dad... good thing, too, given the life he's likely to have with us!

We had a great time in Comox for 5 days. Unfortunately, it rained most of that time. But we still got out for walks and introduced Nana Sue to a wonderful concotion called a Gingerbread Latte. YUM! Luke has spent a good portion of his short life in coffee shops, so luckily we found a good one in Comox. Luke got to spend lots of quality time with Grandpa and Nana Sue, and got to meet he canine cousins Calvin and Will. Remarkably, Will's tongue is actually larger than Luke's head, as you can see in this picture! Luke also got to see Grandma and Aunty Janie who came up from Victoria for a day to see him. All in all it was a great week with family, and I think he likes the West Coast. He was so much calmer and happier out there, and even started sleeping 7 hours a night! But then we got home and he's back to his usual 2-3 hours, unfortunately. We all miss the West Coast.

Two new discoveries

2006-11-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Luke discovered his hands this week! Actually, he gained the motor skills to connect his hand with his mouth, whenever he wants to, without it just being a random connection. Before now, he would suck his hand if he found it near his face, but once those darn muscles twitched again and moved it away from his mouth, he couldn't get it back. But this week (right on target developmentally, I might add!) he learned how to purposefully move his hand to his mouth - and its his new favourite thing to do! He spends most of his time sucking on his hand - so far the whole thumb, pointer finger, and knuckles. We're waiting to see what happens as his hand stretches out more (he still holds them pretty clenched most of the time) - whether or not he will suck a thumb or a finger exclusively.

Luke's other significant discovery this week was his penis! Now, in the interests of maintaining a G-rated blog, I won't put a picture of that on here. But it is really funny - in the bath he realised he could reach down and grab onto something interesting. The only unfortunate thing is he hasn't quite learned how to grab anything gently... so his sharp-fingernailed little hand gets a good strong hold on it then wrenches away, sometimes leaving little scrapes! I can only imagine all the men reading this are cringing right now, as it looks pretty painful! But he doesn't seem to mind. Its just neat to see him having more of an awareness of his body these days.

He is also developing more of an awareness of the difference between mommy and daddy. Unfortunately, he's becoming a really difficult baby for poor Kyle - he screams and shrieks whenever Kyle holds him. Yet when I pick him up he's fine. Thats really exhausting, because it means I spend just about the whole day holding the baby, and Kyle doesn't get any one-on-one bonding time with him. He also fusses when Heather or anyone else tries to soothe him. In the books it says this is a natural progression, as I spend the most time with him and I smell like his favourite thing in the world - breastmilk! But unfortunately the books also say it doesn't get better until he's about 2. Yikes. We're working on it.

Luke's first trauma

2006-11-03T17:31:00.000-08:00

Luke had his 2-month doctor's appointment today. It was pretty traumatic for both of us. Despite a lot of reservations, Kyle and I decided to go ahead and get him all his vaccinations as recommended by the doctors office. That meant 4 needles - 2 in each thigh - delivered in about a minute. It was awful. I think it was worse for me, knowing it was coming and seeing my beautiful happy little boy looking all around the doctors office, not knowing what was about to happen. He screamed. Like red-faced, not breathing, terrified eyes open and looking at me asking 'what are they doing to me' screaming. It makes my heart break to remember how traumatized he was! He nursed and then slept for a while, but his little legs have been really painful all day. Every time he moves them or we try to change him, he screams again. Poor little guy. And to think - we've got to do that twice more in the next 4 months. How awful.

In other news, he's still at the top of the charts. 90th percentile for weight (14 pounds) and 80th for height (24 inches). His development is right on target and the pediatrician said he looked very alert for a 2-month old. Aunty Heather arrives tomorrow to see us for a week - we can't wait!

8 weeks old today

2006-10-31T15:28:00.000-08:00

Oops. Another few weeks without a post! I've got to get better at keeping this up to date. Or maybe its just that the grandparents aren't as demanding lately!

Things are going well - Luke continues to have less screaming-baby time and more fun alert time. He's becoming a better daytime companion, and we're developing more of a daily schedule. Unfortunately, that involves waking up around 5am. Ugh. We're working on that. Every day we usually make it out for a walk or coffee with other new moms in the area - its amazing how easy it is to spend hours talking to people I hardly know, just because we all have babies in common! My social life has never been this active! :) Oh and all that walking has evidently paid off - at my post-partum doctors visit last week I lost 10 pounds - from my PRE-pregnancy weight! That felt pretty good... pregnancy has been the most effective diet I've been on in years!

We also took Luke to his first Embassy family picnic! Every year the Embassy does a family event. This year it was a bonfire and hayride. We even got around to buying him a little fleece suit to wear this winter. Needless to say we got a good one from L.L.Bean and didn't want him to grow out of it before Spring... so it's a bit too large! It sure kept him good and warm, despite near-freezing temperatures, massive wind and a rainstorm!

He continues to love his baths and some good naked time afterwards. His gas issues and tummy troubles are becoming less frequent, so he is definitely a happier baby. He is smiling more and more - although still won't really do it when we want him to.

He's almost 14 pounds now, so he's definitely a big boy! He's outgrowing some of his 3-6 month size clothing already. I'm not looking forward to when he outgrows his super-cute small size diapers - don't you love this one with little surfboards on it? Cloth diapers are so much more fun than disposables! Oh well, when he outgrows them I'll just have to buy more - how sad...! :)

6-week update!

2006-10-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry this update has been so long in coming... It has been a quiet couple weeks. We managed to pop another magic ball (this time with Kyle and the baby on it! That was terrifying but everyone is fine) and have since bought a couple more. Another great accomplishment was that we went to a baby consignment sale, and bought a baby bouncer. Its the old-style ones, really a fabric hammock on a metal frame, and Luke LOVES it! So luckily that is saving our backs and thighs somewhat, we only bounce on the ball for 2-3 hrs/day now!

We had a request for a picture of Luke awake, and not crying! Here's one from a week or so ago. He is starting to have more happy time, when he's not sleeping or eating... he loves his change table, and is often happy to lie there staring at his hanging toys for a half hour or more. He also loves bath time, and enjoys floating in the water. I'm sure he'll be a complete water-baby, given how much Kyle and I love the water! He is getting much better neck strength and is exercising his legs - pushing to stand up when we hold him- and arms - pushing himself up off his tummy.

Many of you have asked about sleep. Typically, he had been sleeping every night from 10-2, then from 3-6, then it would often be tough to get him back to sleep after 6. But we had a wonderful night on Tuesday... It all shaped up like a normal day, with the same amount of eating and sleeping as normal. Then I put him to bed at 10pm, and woke up at 2am waiting for him to fuss... nothing. So I dozed off and woke up again at 3:30, checked if he was breathing, and dozed off again! Finally at 4:30am I was in a lot of pain (remember than 'engorgement' thing we talked about in the breastfeeding post!?) so I woke HIM up to eat! I managed to get him fed, and back to bed for another 3 hours until 8am! I was absolutely delighted - this is an ideal sleep pattern. But unfortunately since then he seems to have become a newborn again. Last night we were up every 1.5 hours - at 11, 2, 4, 6, 8. All in all, not so fun for mommy. We're hoping its just a growth spurt and he'll get back to those long sleeps again because I'm starting to feel pretty wiped out!

We're taking Luke on his first out-of-town trip tomorrow. We're heading to Colonial Williamsburg - one of Virginia's former Capitals, and Jamestown, the oldest settlement in North America (its one year older than Quebec City!). We have been meaning to visit those places, about a 3-hr drive from our house, but were never up for braving weekend traffic to get there! My mind is already spinning just imagining all the baby stuff we need to bring with us! I'll try to post more in a couple days, and not leave a week between posts again!

A big red catastrophe

2006-10-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

This summer, our friend Maile came to visit. She gave us a book called "The New Parents' Book of Firsts" which includes a list of all those random things that you - in your logical pre-child mind - are certain you will NEVER do. Things like noticing you're standing in the grocery line swaying (even without the baby in your arms), making up words to songs simply to keep singing because it keeps the baby asleep, discussing the colour and texture of baby poop during dinner, wiping snot out of little nostrils without a thought to how gross it is, etc. Well we accomplished "First" number 94 last night: "The first time we went to ridiculous lengths to get our crying baby to stop".

At 6:43pm last night, disaster struck the Margenau household. Our red exercise ball (hereafter referred to as the "Magic Ball") suffered a failure. To provide a bit of background, we spend about 5-6 hours each day bouncing on the magic ball. If Luke is crying (... and when ISN'T Luke crying these days?!) some vigorous bouncing on the magic ball quiets him in a second. Click here... Click here to see a video of the Magic Ball in action!

Now what is truly funny is that we didn't even take a moment to consider that dinner was still cooking, or that it was almost 7pm. We immediately rushed to the computer to find the nearest still-open Sports Authority, bundled our now-screaming infant into the car, and took off into the night to buy ourselves another exercise ball. This time, however, we bought two - just in case. One can never have too many backup magic balls.

So much for "average"...

2006-10-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

At Luke's 2-week appointment in mid September he was a solidly average baby. In the 50th percentile for both height and weight - meaning 50% of babies would be heavier and taller, 50% would be lighter and shorter. Well at his one-month checkup we officially confirmed that he is an overachiever! He is now in the 90th percentile for weight (11lbs, 11oz!) and the 95th percentile for height (23.5 inches)! Check out his chunky thighs! Thats about the only place he looks fat though, he's just a big boy - not overall chubby. So evidently we are doing everything right in the way of feeding, and he is now going to go down to eating every 3 hours, instead of every 2.

Luke also got his first bottle yesterday! While he will remain on exclusively breastmilk, I fired up my fancy automatic pump and was able toto pump enough to make a bottle for him. We had held off until now as there are some studies that indicate babies may reject the breast once they get used to the relative ease of the bottle. But at the same time, holding off too long can mean a baby who will refuse a bottle! Kyle fed him his first one - and he drank it like a champ! In fact, he chugged it... He drank 4 ounces in about 3 minutes flat. If only he was that efficient for our nighttime nursings!

We had a good time at Baby Massage class last week. I got to meet a lot of other moms, and confirm that our child is enormous! There were two moms there with 6-week olds, and I seriously thought they looked like little elves! The teeniest tiniest babies, while our hefty little guy measured up to the 3-5 month olds! Oh well, at least he's not so fragile, right? We grow 'em big in our family!

In other news, we've spent much of the last 2 weeks building up our diaper stash. As you may remember we are using mostly cloth diapers with Luke. We initially bought a lot of cloth diaper options, only to find that many of them didn't work right, and others he just hated the feeling of! We have found some that we really like now - called Happy Heiny's. So through an online resource called Diaper Swappers, I've managed to buy a number of second-hand diapers to use, and he now has a wonderful array of colours and patterns to wear on his little bum. Too bad its so cold they always need to be covered up! I'm trying to upload some pics of his newly fasionable bottom, but Blogger isn't working... I'll try to get them up next post!

A whole month old

2006-10-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Luke is one month old. I know people say "they grow up so fast" but I truly can't believe it has already been a month. Where did September go!? I guess we've been pretty busy learning how to be parents! We'll let you know if we ever figure it out. :)

Grandma and Grandpa Margenau and Uncle Scott have been here since Saturday, and we have loved having an extra few people around for baby-holding and rocking! Luke's still really struggling with gas - he just shrieks for about a half hour every time he eats, which is heartbreaking to listen to. Poor Uncle Scott asked when babies stop crying so much - I guess he didn't expect his vacation to be this loud! Luke and I are starting a baby massage class tomorrow that is supposed to provide some good treatments for gas issues, so we're hoping that will make a difference! I feel so bad for him, his little tummy must just be in knots.

Although we don't need to visit the pediatrician this month, we are going to go on Monday so we can weigh and measure our little guy - to make sure he's gaining weight well. I think he is, but it would be nice to know that he's on track. I'm also going to talk to a lactation consultant, as I'm hearing a number of mixed things about breastfeeding. Pain-wise, things are going much better (thanks for all the support everyone!), now I'm curious about strategy. There are times that Luke wants to eat every hour, or even every half hour. Many of the books I've read say to respond to the baby - feed him if he's showing that he is hungry. But then I feel like there's no milk to give him because he's eating so regularly! And I'm also curious about pulling him off - generally I let him eat until he stops, but he often falls asleep and then wakes up angry because he's not eating anymore. I wonder whether this is contributing to his gas. I'm just not sure what the best strategy is so I'd like to talk to someone who has more medically-oriented knowledge about all this.

Luke still hasn't really smiled at all, but he is definitely getting more interested in the world around him. He really loves the mobile in his crib and will stare at it for a good long while. It will even calm him down when he's crying. He really loves lying around totally naked as well, as long as we put him in a spot of sunshine on the floor! He is developing much better neck and back strength, and isn't as miserable having tummy time as he used to be. We are pretty solidly into 3-6 month size clothing for him already, mostly because the feet and legs on newborn stuff are too short! I'm curious to know whether he is measuring tall for his age, because he sure seems long! We'll try to take some more video and post it soon!

Surviving our first growth spurt

2006-09-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

I'd just like to go on the record by saying I STILL don't think we will survive this growth spurt but I'm exercising positive thinking in my blog title. They say babies have a growth spurt at 3 weeks. Oh boy do they ever. Since Thursday morning, our little monster (and yes, I have every right to use that word) has been eating every half an hour. Seriously. He doesn't even sleep anymore, he dozes while eating (which is hell on the still-healing nipples, let me tell you) and then shrieks when he falls off.

We have done everything to console him - all our old tricks no longer work - and carrying him only leads to him frantically 'rooting' - turning his open mouth towards the nearest part or your body (right now he's sucking on my bicep) and snuffling - looking for a nipple to grab onto - and then screaming hysterically when he realises he's not getting anything out of it. All this is conducted with flailing arms and legs that are much stronger than you would ever imagine. Finally I give in and offer him the other sad, painful breast which, of course, has nothing for him to eat because he just ate on that side 40 minutes ago! They say after a couple days my milk supply will increase to meet the demand. That just can't come quick enough for me! We have tried a pacifier and a finger - which he will usually suck on when he's just looking to placate himself, but he just gets terrifically offended that we would even THINK to offer him that and shrieks louder.

Grandma and Grandpa Margenau and Uncle Scott arrive today - so lets hope our little munchkin puts on a better show for them! Screaming baby isn't fun for anyone.

A quick update

2006-09-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Grandma for reminding us that we haven't updated in a good long while! Honestly, it feels like it has been a really busy week. Maybe its just the lack of a third pair of hands around to take the baby, but it seems Kyle and I spend a lot of time negotiating who has the baby when, and what the other person gets to do in their 'off-baby' time!

Luke is developing more of a schedule. Luckily, in recent days, he has started sleeping a bit better at night. He usually falls asleep while nursing so our time awake has been cut down to 30-40 minutes, insted of the 1-1.5 hrs it was a few weeks ago! He is also sleeping for 3 hours at a stretch at night - which is delightful! However, all bets are off at 4am. He ALWAYS fusses after his 4am feeding and needs to be rocked to sleep - usually for around 20-30 minutes. Then he'll wake up around 5 and want to eat again, then usually again at 6, until finally at 7 I wake up Kyle and beg him to take the hungry monster while I sleep for a couple more hours!

During the day he definitely has his fussy time in the morning. No amount of rocking and consoling will do - he NEEDS bounce time! We had no idea our exercise ball would ever be this valuable! Then around 1pm he drops off for his 5 hour sleep of the day. We have not yet succeeded in moving this 5 hr sleep to the nighttime hours - despite lots of trying. Luckily, it means we can usually eat dinner in relative peace before he wakes up for the evening fussies before crashing around 9pm for bed. Then its up every 2-3 hrs throughout the night before the day begins again! His favourite place to nap is his little vibrating Baby Papasan chair. Good thing we got that - we get so much use out of it! He still doesn't love his really cool swing, though. I'm hoping he'll grow into it.

We're walking every day with him - sometimes we head down to Starbucks for coffee in the morning (about an hour return) or else we take him to a new neighbourhood or park we wanted to visit. Its great having Kyle around all the time - we never take vacations 'at home' so its fun for both of us to be around all day. We haven't taken many photos lately due to lack of time (no clue where it all goes, seriously - the days just go by so fast!) and we're working on getting some more video up. The Margenau's arrive Saturday morning so once we've got an extra 3 pairs of arms in the house for baby-holding, our free time will increase significantly!

And then there were three...

2006-09-21T05:39:00.002-07:00

Grandma left this morning. We're all very sad to see her go. My mom has been absolutely wonderful to have with us for the past 4 weeks! We can't imagine how we'll get everything done on our own at home, she was so great at keeping the house clean, making sure we and the cats were fed, and in between it all, being the best at settling Luke when he has his miserable screaming moments! Now its up to Kyle and I to figure out how to be parents on our own for the next week, until his family arrives and the house is once again full of grandparents (and an uncle!) Practice your baby songs Margenau's - he is definitely missing Grandma's repertoire! Kyle and I try, but we are woefully unknowledgeable in the baby song department...

We had a pediatrician appointment on Tuesday. Luke has gained a full pound in the past 12 days - so he is up to 9 pounds now. Thats great as he was supposed to gain back his birth weight, and he did, plus a bit extra. He also grew 2 whole inches to 22 inches long! Remarkable to think about how exhausting that must be for his little body. Otherwise, he is in perfect health! He has some dry skin issues, apparently because he was a little overdue when he was born, but those are getting better as time goes on.

We are also trying to get him some more vitamin D and also give him some 'tummy time' to build up his back and neck muscles - so once a day I undress him and lay him in the sunshine on the floor. So far he's not really a fan, but he's getting better at it. Newborns have a funny crawling reflex, so when I lay him down he actually tries to crawl! It will apparently go away before coming back again when he's a bit older and actually ready to crawl. He does tried to walk - if you hold him up by his body, with his little legs touching the ground, he will lift one foot up at a time and keep placing them in front of one another! Again, another newborn reflex that will go away for a few months, then re-emerge when its time for him to learn to walk for real. As you can see in the photo, he's already using his strong little legs and arms to try to roll himself onto his back from his belly. He should be able to roll himself over completely by about 2 months.

I also forgot to mention to you all that Luke has a birthmark! Its on his back, right where his diaper stops, so it'll be right at his waistline when he gets bigger. Here's a picture, if you can make it out. I have tried, but can't seem to get a good one of it!

I uploaded another video of him - you can see it by clicking HERE. Its also pretty boring, but watch for a surprise plot twist late in the segment! I'll try to take some more videos today and tomorrow and get them posted.

Goodbye stump!

2006-09-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

Today was monumental, because Luke finally lost his umbilical cord stump! When they cut it in the hospital there is still a small 1-inch long piece attached, which shrivels up and dries out, and eventually detaches. Luke's finally fell off this afternoon, which was good as it was starting to smell. Yuck.

We also undressed our poor little tyke and took some naked pictures of him. As you can tell he wasn't thrilled. Most of the pictures didn't work out very well, so we'll probably have to do it again - maybe after a nice warm bath next time! We're struggling with some dry skin issues - despite what the baby books say his natural oils have not made it better, so today we started slathering him in baby Apricot Oil. I think its getting better.

We had a bad night last night. After a few nights of him sleeping 3-3.5 hours at a time, we were starting to think we had lucked out with a good baby. Not anymore. Yesterday and today he has started fussing himself awake every time we lay him down. I think the issue is he mostly sleeps in people's arms, or in his little vibrating bouncy chair or baby swing. When we try to lay him down somewhere without any stimulation, he'll lay quietly for about 5 minutes, then start fussing - flailing his arms, smacking his lips, grunting and groaning until eventually he's completely awake and screaming. Last night he would do that every time I put him down, so it made for a VERY long night. Neither of us got more than 20 minutes of sleep in a stretch. He's been up a lot today, so I'm hoping it'll be better.

In other news, my dad bought us a video camera and we've started taking some video of him. If you take a look at our regular blog you can see the first video we were able to upload. We're trying to find a way to shrink the videos somewhat (anyone know of a good video editing software?) and will post more soon!

Week two with a baby...

2006-09-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

As my dad reminded me today, its been a good 3 days since our last update and everyone wants to know how things are going! So I took some more pictures of our little munchkin and thought I would post some of the quirky things about him that you might not know - things that make life with him absolutely priceless!

He makes hilarious faces when he's working on filling his diaper. And he has explosive poops, like the kind you can hear across the room! Here's one of his good faces!

His feet are so big they don't fit well in his little sleepers. But thats not a big deal, cause he's always got his feet tucked up and not in the foot pieces anyways! He sleeps in little sleep sacs which make changing easier. But that said, we anticipated he'd be HUGE and so we only bought 3 newborn sized pieces of clothing! We had to go to Target yesterday and get some more sleepers and pants, because the 3-6 month stuff just swims on him.

He prefers to sleep on his side, and despite our trying to lay him on his back in baby positioners (which keep him from rolling over) he will always end up halfway on his side. He also loves to suck on the side of his hand - we swaddle him but he fusses until he can work his hands free to suck on. I think once he figures out his hand opens and there are individual fingers and a thumb in there, he'll become a thumb sucker!

He does this funny little snorting thing, like a pig rooting for food, when he's hungry and I pick him up. Who knew babies could smell breastmilk! He actually smacks his lips too, when I get him in position to eat. It makes me laugh so much I can't get him latched on well!

Breastfeeding Sucks.

2006-09-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

Well lets start with the good. I'm a D! I know Jamie and Heather will have a good laugh over this - I have barely been a B my whole life, much to my dismay. And now, thanks to a delightful phenomenon called engorgement, I'm a D! I don't know quite what to do with my new chest, I keep hitting things with it cause it sticks out about 4 inches further than it ever has! Last week this time I could balance a drink on my belly, now I can balance it on my chest - NICE!

And now onto the bad. Did you know it is actually possible for nipples to blister, crack, and bleed? I truly didn't. I thought it was something that happened to some unfortunate women, maybe one in a thousand. Ahhh... nope. Talk to any new mom - apparently everyone has experienced this, they just don't talk about it until you ask! I guess its not really dinner conversation... We went to a picnic with a bunch of other new moms yesterday, and one said "it does go away. One day I realised the scabs fell off and I didn't cry every time the baby started sucking". Seriously, doesn't that just sound crazy?

I'm suffering through breastfeeding hell right now. I'd take pictures to share - because as a new mom I've got my boobs hanging out all the time and don't see anything wrong with everyone seeing them (amazing where your modesty goes when you've had a baby) - but it would honestly disgust you all. We're working through our issues - I've spoken with two lactation consultants, who confirm Luke is latched on well (a common reason for sore nipples is a bad latch) and we're doing everything right. I've just got really sensitive nipples and he could likely suck paint off walls. So until I toughen up and he gets a bit more polite, breastfeeding sucks. I'm on a cocktail of painkillers that keep me from sobbing every time he feeds, and now that my milk has come in (hence, the engorgement), he's a bit more relaxed. They tell me it gets better with time - here's hoping its sooner rather than later!

Luke's Birth

2006-09-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

I thought some of you may be interested in hearing the story of Luke's birth. A note of caution - for those of you who have been following this baby blog since the beginning - things can get a bit graphic! Read as much or as little as you want. Same goes for the photos!

As you know we started out Tuesday September 5 like any other day, with no indication of ever going into labor, and an ultrasound scheduled to determine how big our baby was currently measuring. The ultrasound showed that amniotic fluid levels were extremely low, and within a few moments all our plans changed.

Once we got to the hospital around noon on Tuesday it all moved pretty quickly – they had me hooked up to an IV, fetal monitor, and pitocin drip within an hour. The Dr. checked me and I was 2cm, 80% effaced. My waters were intact, and I asked that we leave them that way for the early stages of labour. If they are broken, contractions are often more intense and can sometimes move the baby into an unfavourable position for birth. The Dr. had also wanted the pitocin drip turned up 2mg every 15 minutes, but I asked him if we could do it every 30 minutes instead. I was so afraid of the pitocin getting ahead of me, and it getting to the point where I couldn't handle the pain naturally. By 2pm I was lying on the bed (I had tried to stand but the nurse told me to lie down, because the contraction monitor wouldn’t track if I was moving at all!) with tubes and wires coming out both sides, absolutely miserable because this was NOT what I had anticipated for the birth!

Around 3pm our doula Pam arrived, and the first nurse went off shift and we got a new one – which was wonderful! She was completely supportive of our interest in a natural child birth, and was so wonderful. She would disconnect me from the monitors so I could move around, and she said it was more than fine that they didn’t track my contractions – as long as I was feeling them – and I sure was!

Kyle arrived around 4:30pm, he was able to finish his first day at school. I had Pam and my mom there, and things were still progressing alright. I had strengthening contractions, that I needed to concentrate on, but could still move around and handle them. Things got pretty intense around 5 or 6 pm, as you can see in this picture, and Pam was great at helping me on the birth ball, and with the squatting bar.

By 7:30pm I was absolutely at my wits end. I could no longer stay on top of the contractions, and was panicking when each one arrived. Because of the pitocin, there was rarely a break between them and there were often 3 or 4 on top of one another, with no regularity. We were counting through them - each one would last 60-70 seconds, and would be absolutely awful from about a count of 15 - 45. I was completely strung out because I could feel them starting and all I could do was say "another one" and Pam or Kyle would start counting, I would start breathing, and try to get through it. Then often as we approached 70 I was just beginning to slow my breathing, and I'd feel another one coming. I was in tears at one point because it was so uncontrollable, I was so scared of the next contraction and when I had finally reached 70 and was supposed to be able to relax, I just had to start all over again at 1. That was the worst point. I was absolutely writhing in pain and couldn’t stay still through any of the contractions. I couldn’t stand up any more, it was too intense to stand through a contraction, or to have to move at all.

Around 7:30pm the wonderful nurse came back - she had gone on her break and someone else was supposed to be with us, but never showed up. Pam had been looking for my nurse or the Dr. since around 6:30 to ask them to turn off the pitocin drip, because we thought it would get more controllable, with regular contractions, once they did. So when the nurse came back I told her I needed to be disconnected from all the baby monitors so I could go to the bathroom - I felt a lot of pressure and was certain I would end up pooping on the delivery table! The doula heard this and said immediately to the nurse "did you hear what she said?" which I thought sounded a bit funny - especially as the nurse and the doula then exchanged a really interesting look and the nurse got right down to business and said she wouldn't wait to find the Dr, she was going to check me herself even though she wasn't supposed to. Lying on that bed while she checked me through a contraction was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but she maintained eye contact with me and helped me breathe through it. I was in mid-contraction and didn’t hear her when she said I was more than 8cm dilated – all I know is Kyle, Pam and my mom all started crying and saying “oh my god!” and I was absolutely terrified – I had no idea what was going on and why. When I finally could understand what they were saying I got really scared. Up until that point I was completely fine with being in labor, but somehow I hadn’t thought out the delivery component. It was coming up so quickly, I was actually going to push a baby through the birth canal – that was terrifying! Maybe I was just emotionally exhausted at that stage, but I really panicked.

I didn’t have much time to panic though, as things moved pretty quickly after that – they found the Dr. and he was in the room by about 8pm, when he checked me and I was 10cm. My water still hadn’t broken so he did that right away, which was surprising – I made it to full dilation with waters intact. No meconium and I really did feel a lot more pressure right away once he did that. Making the transition from dealing with contractions to actually pushing with them was really scary. I kept telling the nurse I couldn’t do it, because through each contraction I needed absolute concentration and couldn’t be disturbed or moved – to have to change my strategy was just too much to handle. But everyone helped me and once I got on the right pattern it truly did feel good to push. And the nurse had turned off the pitocin drip at 8cm, so suddenly my contractions were normal – lasting about a minute with 2-3 minutes in between. It was amazing what a difference that made, and I felt like I was finally able to work with the contractions, not fight them. We got the squat bar out and I pushed spontaneously while holding onto that for about 20 minutes. Then my legs were shaking and giving out so I lay back on the bed. Pam held one end of a towel and I held the other, and would pull on that during each contraction. Remarkably, it sounds complicated but it worked really well! When I was getting tired the nurse suggested some organized pushing (the count-to-ten kind) and I tried it and actually really enjoyed it, so we kept that up until 8:57pm when our little munchkin was born! I had a small tear – smaller than an episiotomy would have been.

I got to watch everything in a mirror, and helped pull the baby out once his shoulders emerged. He lay on me while they rubbed him and cleared his airways, and he was absolutely perfect – completely alert, really healthy and pink, and only cried a bit before settling down and just staring at me. Having that wet little body lying on mine was something I will never ever forget. Of course in this picture I look absolutely overwhelmed, but it was taken literally a second after he was put on me and I still couldn't believe he had come out!

Welcome to Luke James Margenau

2006-09-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

Check our regular blog for details on the baby's birth and some photos! I'll post more information on here once I get a few moments - amazing how exhausting it is and he's only 21 hours old!

...And then things got interesting

2006-09-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post - our ultrasound this morning showed that what I had thought was worsening incontinence (!!) was truly leaking amniotic fluid! Over the last week I had been noticing that, and thought it was just a symptom of late pregnancy. My amniotic fluid is almost completely gone, and the Dr. is scrambling to get me in the hospital hooked up to some machines to monitor the baby. Baby's heartrate is currently a good healthy 152, no problems at all, but they are inducing TODAY - around noon. We should have our little munchkin within the next day or two, and I'm just hoping it can be as natural as possible. We'll try to update from the hospital, but no clue if they've got internet!

The end of the road (or is it?!)

2006-09-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

For so long now we've been counting down to today. And it has finally arrived! ... But with nothing to make it different from any other day in the last week. I'm still pregnant, this kid still shows no signs of ever coming out, and I'm still impatiently waiting for something to happen!

Here is a belly shot. Can you see a difference from 37 weeks? 37 weeks on top, 40 weeks on the bottom:

Talking about watched pots, I think I'm watching myself most closely. I spend hours a day obsessing over the slightest twinge, hoping its some sign of impending labor. Needless to say, I am absolutely no closer to giving birth than I was 36 weeks ago. Here is what all the books and websites say to look out for in the weeks before labor begins:

Your baby "drops." (If this is your first pregnancy, you may feel what's known as "lightening" a few weeks before labor starts. You might detect a heaviness in your pelvis as this happens and notice less pressure just below your ribcage, making it easier to catch your breath.)
--> Mmmm... nope. Kid is still lodged solidly up in my chest, lower abdomen feels light and airy, and I've got no heaviness in the pelvis. Anyone know if a trampoline has been effective in 'dropping' babies? I'm willing to give it a try.

More frequent Braxton Hicks contractions. (More frequent and intense contractions can signal pre-labor, during which your cervix ripens and the stage is set for true labor. Some women experience a crampy, menstrual-like feeling during this time.)
--> More frequent? Mine stopped entirely about 10 weeks ago. I haven't felt a single thing that would ressemble a contraction since then.

Your cervix starts to ripen. (When you're at or near your due date, your practitioner may do a vaginal exam during your prenatal visit to see whether your cervix has started to change. It will change from being posterior (facing the back) to anterior, will soften slightly, will efface or thin out, and will begin dilating.)
--> Absolutely no action here. At my last exam (on Monday!) my cervix was completely closed, not at all effaced, and still very firm and posterior.

You pass your mucus plug or notice "bloody show." (You may pass your mucus plug — the small amount of thickened mucus that's sealed your cervical canal during the last nine months. The mucus may be tinged with blood (which may be brown, pink, or red), which is why it's referred to as "bloody show.")
--> I bet you know the answer... nothing happening here either. I'll spare you the gory details, but lets just say I look... and nothing.

Your water breaks. (When the fluid-filled amniotic sac surrounding your baby ruptures, the fluid leaks from your vagina. And whether it comes out in a large gush or a small trickle, you should call your doctor or midwife.)
--> Funny, I always thought this would be mortifying to have happen in public. Now I think I would start crying tears of joy that something was finally happening! But nope, no action here either.

So with that overview of the symptoms of early labour, I can only assume I will be pregnant forever. Actually, I know thats not true - there is no way my Dr. will allow it. He would like to induce me this Thursday (Sept. 7) but I'm trying to hold off until the following week. Its a bit of a negotiation - based on his belief our baby is exceptionally large, and my firm belief that I'm a tough girl and can handle birthing a big baby. I'll let you know how the negotiations go this week. We get another ultrasound Tuesday to check on the size of our monster baby, so I'll post some more pictures.

Now, for the baby's room - here are some pictures of how it looks right now:

The crib is from Vancouver company Storkcraft.

We managed to find enough space to leave our futon in the bedroom. It will be useful for extra guests, or for nursing if using the rocking chair isn't comfortable.

Our change table and dresser are also from Storkcraft. All our diapering supplies are lined up on the change table - we plan on using cloth diapers.

This picture is a little dark, but you can see our rocking chair and the dresser again.

So today we're heading out for a walk - at least when walking fast I get a few cramps, that hopefully are doing something to move this kid out. I figure I'll just walk all day and see what happens! Will keep you posted on here if there are any new developments in coming days!

Still Pregnant.

2006-08-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

So it has officially begun. We have started getting those innocuous phone calls inquiring whether the baby has arrived yet. And the email traffic is increasing - it seems if we don't respond within a couple hours everyone assumes we're off having the baby - not out grocery shopping or taking a walk! So let this serve as an advisory: we will update this blog when ANYTHING happens. So before calling us to ask if we are still pregnant, check here to see if there are any new posts. Not that we don't like hearing from you, I'm just starting to feel like a watched pot... and you know what they say about watched pots!

So we're 39 weeks today, and we are desperately ready to have a baby. For no other reason than extreme impatience. I'm still sleeping fine, feeling fine, eating well, no problems at all. I just want to get this show on the road. If only I was having some regular contractions, something to indicate progress was being made 'down there'. But nothing - baby is comfortably rolling around as usual and seems completely uninterested in dropping down into my pelvis to give me more breathing room. We're starting some natural induction techniques this week - all are recommended to varying degrees by doctors and the medical community. But all say if your baby and your body aren't ready, nothing will work. I've got a Dr's appointment tomorrow to check whether any progress has been made, but I'm not hopeful. I'm sure I'll be pregnant forever.

The baby's room is coming along - we hope to get the shelves up on the walls and take some pictures later on today. I'll definitely post them once they are ready. We'll also try to take another belly shot - although I don't notice much growth lately! My mom arrived Friday night and we're busy shopping, baking and cooking! All in all life is good... we just wish our little munchkin would get a move on! We are so ready to meet him.

Just the two of us...

2006-08-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

Kyle mentioned something really interesting on Friday night. This is our last weekend - probably for about 20 years - just the two of us. My mom arrives next week, and by the time she leaves our little munchkin will be in our lives. From then on, we will always have kids and family around - never just us two, deciding what to do. Of course we're excited about that, and can't wait to have my mom come visit next week! And we are really looking forward to being a 'family' and having a baby in the house. But in some ways it feels strange to realise that in the coming years, we will never sit around on a Friday night - just the two of us - and decide what to do for the weekend.

The baby's room is coming along well, I hope to get some pictures up on the walls and then we'll be ready for some photos - so check back next week! We had our final prenatal meeting with the doula this week, and that went well. I really feel like I'm in good hands with Kyle, my mom, and the doula - and I do hope that our birth goes well. Because our little munchkin is measuring large right now (in the 95th percentile for size) my obstetrician is starting to hint at inducing the baby either before, or right at 40 weeks (my due date). Because of our interest in having a natural birth, this isn't something we do NOT want and we are going to be talking with the Dr. to determine if it will indeed be necessary. I feel really strongly that my body would not grow a baby that was too big to get out naturally - unless I had a medical complication like diabetes (which I don't) or had gained an obscene amount of weight while pregnant (which I haven't). Kyle and I are just big people, and we expect our little munchkin to be as well! I'll keep you all posted on how the negotiations go... :)

I'm going to stop including the "Here's what is happening this week" feature in my weekly blogs. From here on out it gets pretty boring - essentially, baby is fully formed, acting like a newborn, only still hanging out in his nice warm watery environment. I've had a few cramps - maybe contractions - this week, but otherwise don't see much progress. I've got a busy last week at work coming up with my replacement arriving from Ottawa, lots of meetings and events to introduce her around town, and our baby shower on Thursday night.

Now that I'm full term, I'm delighting in shocking people about giving birth. Its great fun - people in elevators, meetings, etc. always ask "when are you due?" and its fun to smile, shrug, and say "Could be today!" The expression on their face is usually priceless - literally, most back away a bit and look at me like I may explode any minute!

Full Term

2006-08-13T07:22:00.000-07:00

Today is a very important milestone. Our baby is now fully developed, and if born, would not likely need any assistance breathing or regulating his body temperature. We now enter into the magical 5-week time span when birth could happen at any time. Of course we're hoping our little guy stays put until Grandma arrives in about 12 days (August 25), and as he doesn't show any signs of vacating the premises any time soon, I think we'll get our wish.

Here is today's belly shot. I really don't feel like I've grown a lot since three weeks ago. If anything my belly is just looking more pointed! Here's a black and white of my un-shirted belly, which is still - much to my amazement - stretch-mark free! ...Wonder how long that will last!

I'm still feeling pretty good, apart from the heartburn (which is getting worse) and the general inability to take deep breaths. Thats an indication the baby is still lodged pretty high up in my belly - he hasn't 'dropped' into my pelvis yet, something they say happens up to 2 weeks prior to the birth day. I haven't been having any contractions at all - just some dull cramps from time to time - so I doubt we're making much progress on the dilation front. It is getting harder to bend down and pick things up, and to get up and down from a sitting position - particularly from the floor! I'm still walking 3 days a week and going to the gym, so despite a bit more breathlessness than normal, I feel pretty good for having a fully-grown child inside of me! From the front, though I find it surprising that I barely look pregnant! Here's a front photo from today:

In other news, much to our own delight, we have finally narrowed down our name choices to three. We still expect to wait until we meet our little guy to see which name he suits best, but this is your opportunity to tell us why you absolutely love or hate one of our choices, and we will try to take that into consideration. Speak now or forever hold your peace - we don't want any complaints after the baby is born! Click HERE to vote. (Once you are done, hit "back" on your browser to get back to this blog).

Here is what is happening this week:

Your baby probably weighs a little over 6 pounds at this point and measures between 19 and 20 inches, head to heel. Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Your baby continues to practice breathing movements. Isn't it amazing how he can breathe "under water?" Grasp is firm now. It won't be long until you'll feel that strong little fist confidently grasping your finger (or tightly clenching your hair)! A few weeks ago, your baby would move his eyes toward light. Now he turns towards light outside the uterus. " As the uterine wall stretches and thins allowing more light to permeate, he develops definite daily activity cycles. You will want to be sure to establish good patterns yourself at this time, thus encouraging them in your child. Ever heard of a baby getting his days/nights mixed up? Now's the time to try to avoid that!