Winter Fun

Rough Start

I haven't recorded my thoughts lately - why? Because I'm super tired and have sick kids. Yip, both of them.

Poor Little Miss H has had a rough start to this life. She joined us two and a half weeks early, and because she was so little they took her blood every couple of hours to make sure her blood sugar levels were okay. The only problem with that is the little gadgets measuring her levels were on the fritz, so they had to get the phlebotomist to draw the blood, which meant a much bigger jab to her super tiny foot and instead of just a drop of blood, they had to squeeze a whole vial of it from her tiny foot. She was such a trooper about it all, and didn't even fuss that much, even though her feet looked like she had just hiked over a field of broken glass.

Then, we took her home and her bilirubin levels spiked and she had to go "under the lights". She was completely yellow, and it was such an unflattering colour on her. They delivered the light bed and what they called a light blanket (It pretty much looked like a paddle that I had to hold over her back or stomach) to our home and the poor kid had to lie on the bed pretty much 24/7. Now bear in mind that it was snowing outside and she had to be stripped down to her diaper with nothing covering her but this thin blue paperish type covering. She did not like it at all, and so I ended up having to hold her most of the time with the biliblanket over her back. She was "under the lights" for three days, and every morning we had to take her back to the hospital to get her blood drawn so they could check her levels. Eventually they went down enough that the doctor said she would be fine. Relief. But, then a couple of days later she turned all yellow again. Back to the hospital for more blood work. Her levels had risen again, so she had to go back "under the lights". Luckily this time, they only delivered the biliblanket, and she responded to it alot quicker. The guy who did the home delivery of the blanket told me he had never had to deliver to the same person twice before. Great, that made me feel lovely. (However he did share his most delicious recipe for chipotle chicken so I forgave him). By this time I should have just checked into the hospital again I was there so much. This time they had to try to draw blood from my babies teeny tiny little arm so they could do a series of tests to see just exactly which type of jaundice she had. Turns out there are two kinds. One that if left unchecked or if the levels get too high can cause all kinds of brain defects (panic stations), or one where its just an enzyme in the breast milk that the body hasn't figured out how to metabolise yet. Luckily for us, her jaundice was the latter. Her levels finally dropped and her body caught up with how it needed to function and my little baby stopped looking like a pumpkin. Whew.



Then, she developed this rash on her cheeks, which turned out to be a yeast infection caused by too much yeast in my milk (once again I'm the one causing her problems with my boob juice.) The rash cleared right up after I put a little tea tree oil on it though. Yay for natural remedies.

And, just when we think we're finally in the clear, Taz gets a virus that she passes on to the poor munchkin. AARRGH! It was inevitable that she caught it, no matter how I tried to keep Taz away from her. So, after a trip to the doctor's office, we're once again back at the hospital, but this time to get the mucus sucked from her nose and throat. Luckily the infection isn't RSV. She does not enjoy getting sucked out though- who would? The same guy who delivered the bilibed, came back and delivered a nebulizer this time. I told him I was sure he was a nice enough guy, but I didn't want to see him again, and he laughed at least. So its back to the hospital at least twice a day for suckage, and the nebulizer every 4hrs or when I think she needs it. She should be on the mend by this weekend. Hopefully. Crossing fingers.

Oh and to top it all off, she has baby acne so her face is all red and spotty. Sigh. I'm tired.

Who is That?

I walked past a mirror today, and wondered who that frumpy old lady was. Then, I realized it was me. Inside I'm still the skinny girl who could eat anything. Sigh, too bad I'm not still that on the outside.

Its a good thing I'll have my post pregnancy six week checkup next week, where I'll be given the go ahead to start exercising again. Also, its the week after my birthday, so I don't have to feel guilty about over indulging in birthday cake. But, then its diet and exercise till I recognize myself in the mirror again.

More Taz-isms

The other day we were sitting outside enjoying the warm weather. The garbage truck came by. Taz wanted to know what it was (the last time it was warm enough to sit outside, Taz was too young to remember). I told her it was the garbage truck that had come to take away our trash. She watched intently until the truck dumped our rubbish into it and then drove away. Taz jumped up and yelled, "Hey, thats our trash - BRING IT BA-ACK!" I started to laugh as she continued to yell at the truck to bring our trash back, cause it was ours. I tried to explain to her that we wanted the truck to take our trash away, but it just wasn't doing it for her. For the rest of the day, she told anyone who would listen, that the truck took our trash away and it needed to bring it back. I'm still chuckling.

Then, this morning she was watching me feed her sister, and a tiny drop of milk splashed onto little miss H's babygrow. Taz got this really worried look on her face and said, "Mommy, shes all dirty. She needs a new ow-shirt." Umm, a what? "I'll get her one." She said. And, off she went to get little miss H a new ow-shirt. I was really interested to see what she meant. She came back with a purple fleece babygrow. It suddenly clicked, she meant a new OUTFIT. How stinking adorable is that?

The end.

One Month Old

Meeting the Cousins

Little Miss Maeve was totally enamoured with her new little cousin and just wanted to sit and hold her. Eventually we had to tell her that the baby was not a toy for her entertainment. It was too funny. Even Ethan was taken with our littlest munchkin, and loved it when she cracked a smile for him. (We won't tell him it was just gas.)

Keeping Busy

This is how we stay entertained when its freezing outside and there is limited space to run and play. Works for us.

So Precious

Tazism

This morning Taz informed me that all she wanted were some "tiny, baby marsh-pillows" for breakfast.

How do you say no to a request like that?

So, I put a few mini marshmallows on her cereal.

Welcome Little Angel

A week ago today Heidi joined our family. She was 2.5 weeks early and only weighed 5lbs 13oz. She is tiny but perfect. I am so excited that she is finally here.

Hibernation

It has been so cold here the last couple of days that I'm considering changing my species just so I can become something that is allowed to hibernate. Ugh! I am really not a fan of the cold - Especially when its forced on me in the form of temperatures that begin with a minus sign.

Boot Fetish

The Tazling is obsessed with boots of any kind, but especially mine. This particular day, she was loving that she matched the boots. Man this kid cracks me up.

Here's the Proof

Our dear little girl will be induced into the world on Feb 8th. I figured it was probably time that I took a couple of pictures of myself during this pregnancy so she has proof that I really was pregnant with her. Here I am at 37 weeks, I look alot smaller than I feel.

Hanging in there

Just hanging in there waiting for little missy to make her appearance. If all goes well only 1 week left.

Sigh!

Dan, Dan, He's the Man

I wanted to do a few sessions of acupuncture before I gave an update on how its working. Well, its working fantastically. Even Mack who was incredibly skeptical about all that "woowoo" stuff is now a believer.

I went from not being able to walk, to being able to move around, stand up from the couch by myself, sleep at night, wake without numbness and play with my daughter. My mood has also completely lightened and I am able to feel hope again instead of the thick darkness that had been hanging over me.

I am such a believer now, and am incredibly grateful that I have been able to find some relief from the excrutiation I was living with on a daily basis.

Yay for the "woowoo"!!!!!

Big Smiles

Today was a good day. For the first time in months I was able to sit on the floor and play with Taz for a bit. We were singing Old Mac Donald, and she was drumming on her little drum set and I was shaking a tambourine. With the biggest smile on her little face she turned to me and said, "Mommy, I'm so happy! Are you so happy? I'm so happy."

My heart just melted. It felt good to be able to be a mom again.

Acupuncture

I met with Dan today to asses whether I'm a candidate for acupuncture. He spent almost two hours with me going over my medical history and asking me questions about my diet, lifestyle and so many other things. He was incredibly thorough. Then he asked me to stick out my tongue which he examined for about 5 min. (Apparently my tongue is slightly swollen and purple in colour which is not good.) At the end of it all, he told me that my chi was stagnant on a variety of different levels, and that he could definitely help me with my back pain, insomnia and muscles aches.

So, I get to be a pin cushion for the very first time tomorrow. If he can help with this pain and get me sleeping through the night again - his name shall be praised.

I'll keep you posted.

Collapse

I woke up this morning and tried to stand. Ummm, it didn't happen. My left leg, pretty much buckled underneath me. The pain was overwhelming. Good times I tell you, good times. Tomorrow I will try to find out if acupuncture will be something that can help. I need a miracle.

Taz-isms

Today during story time, Taz handed a book to Mack and said, "Dis one for djoo." then handed a book to me and said, "Dis one for djoo." Then she sat down with a book on her lap. We each had to take a turn reading our book out loud. When it came to her turn to read, she pointed at the words on the page and said, "Once upon a time, there was a turtle. The end." And she shut her book.

I could have just eaten her up.

I Swim in da Big Pool

Darren and family came over yesterday and we all went to the local rec center for a bit of fun in their indoor pool. It was so much fun. I swear though, in my current ultra large pregnant state, I displaced enough water to raise the entire pool by at least 2 inches. No pictures of this phenomenon - sorry.

A Very Merry Christmas

Christmas was pretty low key for us this year. I did all our shopping online to save my back from having to deal with crowds, or walking around shops or malls. I put up minimal decorations. (Our place is so small we don't have space to store a bunch of stuff anyway). And, we didn't go too crazy with a big meal this year. Christmas eve we had dinner at Mack's parents house with his family, and then on Christmas day we had lunch at my mom's place with Darren and family. Down to earth and fun.

Taz was adorable this year and was so excited to get and unwrap presents. When she walked into the lounge and saw the presents under the tree she got this huge smile on her face and said, "for me? Are those presents for me?" And then she kept thanking us profusely for every gift we gave her. She was excited for all of them, but the kitchen unit and tea set are her ultimate favourites and she hasn't stopped playing with them.

One thing I didn't think about was the wrapping paper I bought. It was all shiny and pretty, but it would not rip. Taz was very disappointed when she tried to rip the paper off her first present. Not a mistake I'll be making again I tell you. Anyway, we survived and a good Christmas was had by all.

A Promise is a Promise

Remind me next time to check on the weather before I make a promise to my child that I just HAVE to keep.

We promised Taz that we would take her to see the Christmas lights at the zoo, and typical of us, we kept using it as bribery through the whole day. Oh Taz, if you eat all your food, we'll take you to the zoo. Hey Taz, if you take a nice long nap we'll go to the zoo when you wake up. Well, she woke up and jumped out of bed and said, "Lets go to the zooooooooooooooo." And thats when I looked out the window and saw not just a slight drizzle, or even a steady downpour - oh no - it was bucketing down with rain. I couldn't suddenly tell her that we couldn't go to the zoo. Rain is no obstacle to a two year old, its only an obstacle to her infirm mother. So like the fantastically, amazing parent that I am, I started to pull on my thermal underwear.

I told Taz that she would have to wear her warmest clothes. She dashed into her room, and came out dragging her Butterfly costume from Halloween. Apparently the warmth of that costume had made an impression on the child, because she could not be swayed into wearing anything else (except one of my scarves that she insisted on adding to her ensemble).

And thats how we ended up spending our evening walking around in the pouring rain, with no animals to be seen, but with a 2 year old in a butterfly costume jumping into any puddle she could find with the biggest grin on her face.

Was it worth it? Every goosebump!


(Thanks to Ouma, she had her froggy umbrella.)

(Daddy, I saw Santa.)

(Hot chocolate on the go - no stopping this one.)

(The highlight of the evening - the carousel- twice.)

Cravings

I don't remember having one specific craving when I was pregnant with Tamsine. It was more like a constant need to be stuffing my face. If there was a food ad on TV, then thats what I wanted. I did crave Cafe Rio for about two weeks during my first trimester, and then I remember really enjoying KFC, but I didn't have any specific craving during the rest of my pregnancy. I also didn't have any serious aversions to food. My sense of smell was incredibly acute and I couldn't stand the smell of garlic, but I still pretty much ate everything and anything.

This pregnancy however has been a little different. My sense of smell is once again insanely sensitive, and I don't like the smell of garlic or any sort of hot chilli (which it seems is Mack's only source of nutrition at the moment), I can smell when people have had anything to eat with either of those in it. Awful! This time I have also developed an aversion to meat. I can eat it, but only in very small portions. It just doesn't seem appetizing to me in the slightest. I also went off sugar or anything sweet for the first and second trimester. I would gag on anything that had sugar in it. Too bad that one went away - I'm making up for it now though, sigh.

I have had very specific cravings this pregnancy. My first trimester all I wanted were big, firm tomatoes. I ate them constantly. I wanted them with lots and lots of salt and white pepper - oh my goodness they tasted SO good. Then I moved onto really juicy cantaloupes, still with salt on them though. I would slice them in half and have one half for breakfast, and the other for lunch. Yummy! But, for the last few months all I've wanted are kiwi fruit. I can't get enough of the little green nuggets of joy. I'm not sure what they have in them that my body needs, but I am loving them to the point that I want to write an ode to them. I've been remembering my days in London, where I could get a bag of about 20 kiwis for 1 pound. I would eat them ad nauseum then too. Oh kiwi, I love you so.

Another craving (and this one has been since the nausea and puking stopped) is for Milo. I drink about two BIG mugs a day, sometimes more. I have already gone through one and a half cans of the powder all by myself in the last few months. I have a mug of it next to me right now. Its a really good thing they sell it in this country or I would be up the creek.

I have to admit that I'm grateful my cravings are for healthy things and not for junk food, not that I'm not eating my fair share of cookies, ice cream etc.

Oh, and because I love the kiwi so, I'm putting in a picture.

Update

This is what we have been up to lately:

Tazling - My child has developed a vocabulary that she uses to its full extent. She talks almost non-stop which is adorable most of the time, and only annoying on occasion. She also loves to sing and will often sing through her repertoire while she is playing. It is too cute for words. she has yet to develop a vocal range though and so Incy Wincy Spider, Mary had a little lamb, ABCD, Old Mc Donald and Twinkle Twinkle are all fairly monotone. She has also developed her own sense of fashion. She gets pretty annoyed when I try to pick her outfit for the day, and will often refuse to wear something and then say, "No, dis one" and hand me some thing she would be willing to wear. She has also been know to tell me to "take it off!" and will hand me something she thinks is more appropriate from my closet. She does that often with the shoes that I'm wearing. For some reason she feels I should wear heels 24/7. Prissy! She is also quite a crafty kid and loves to draw and colour, especially in her Cares Bears colouring book. One of her favourite things to do however is to cut things out with her "squeezers" and then glue them onto another piece of paper. She'll lead me by the finger to where I keep her glue and scissors and then point to it and say, "Mommy, lets ga-loo". I also have a large plastic table cloth that I allow her to sit on and paint with water colours. When she paints though, she likes to get creative with the body art so she has to paint naked and then take a bath directly afterwards. I don't mind though - I like to encourage her creative side. She knows all of her colours, but refuses to say the word yellow - why? Who knows. She also knows most of her shapes, including heart, diamond, octagon and rhombus, thanks to her dad. And thats enough bragging for now.

Mack - My dear husband is still completely enthralled with his salt water aquarium and spends large amounts of time messing with it, and staring at it with a small torch (flashilight). Then, he'll come tearing down the passage with the hugest grin on his face and say something like, "Babe, there(s) a/are (insert random scientific name for aquarium bug) in the sump/refugium." Like I'm supposed to know what that means. He has completely corrupted the munchkin too, and she'll often grab the torch (flashlight) and yell down the passage, "Dad, daaa-ad, lets go look for ampopods." I just sigh. He is still doing well in his language course and is excited to put his Pashto to the test once the course ends in Feb. Other than that, he has shouldered most of the chores around the house while I am incapacitated with my back problems and pregnancy. He doesn't like all the extra work, but is taking it fairly well. Bless him.

Me - I spend most of my day sitting in a recliner with my swollen feet up. On a scale of 1-10, my pain levels are at a constant 7. My back has gotten to a point where I struggle to do most things, including walking, sitting and standing. I still have 10 weeks of this pregnancy however and its not going to get any easier. Its been really hard, surprisingly more so emotionally for me than physically. Because I am such in independent person I struggle to delegate, especially things like looking after my child etc. Also, I feel like a lazy bum just sitting on my butt all day. I know I have to take it easy, but there are things to be done and I have the time to do them - I just don't have the physical ability right now and its driving me crazy. I have finally gotten to the point though where I've realized I'm not doing myself or my family any favours by being stubborn and hurting myself because I need to feel useful. So, Taz is now going to a sitter in the mornings from 8-12, and I use the time to take it easy so that my back can relax a bit and I can then handle spending at least few hours in the afternoon till Mack gets home from work, playing with my daughter. My belly is getting bigger by the day (and so is my wide load bum - but we won't talk about that) and I look pregnant now, and not just like I'm getting fat. I do have to admit that I'm counting down the days till this little one arrives, and more importantly, till I can have an epidural and finally remember what its like to be pain free, if only for a few hours.

And I think thats enough news for now.

Shred Fest

We decided it was high time to do a little paper shredding at our house, so Mack dutifully shredded, while I snuck off to have a shower. He thought I was in the other room supervising the munchkin. She however was supervising herself - all over the couch. Did I mind - no. As long as she was having fun, and the mess could be cleaned up.

Blue and Sparkly

This is what happens when you don't notice that your 2yr old has found a bottle of nail varnish and sneaked it to bed with her. She has a grand old time.....I have to buy new bed sheets and pajamas.

Smells Like Puke

My house smells like puke!

Last night as we were putting the munchkin to bed, she climbed on my lap, held her hands over her mouth and said, "Mommy, I pook." I thought she just needed to burp, so I told her to go ahead, and that it was okay. The next thing I knew I was covered in vomit. I cleaned both of us up, only to be puked on again, and then again. After that we got wise and took her to the bathroom to puke in the loo.

She was so tired the poor thing that she fell asleep almost immediately when we put her down, but woke up a few hours later to throw up a little more. That is pretty much how my night went. She threw up 8 times over the course of the night. Eventually at around 5am, she asked for a glass of water. I held it for her thinking I would just let her sip it slowly, but as I held it to her lips, she grabbed the glass and chugged the water like a crazed woman. The child was so dehydrated it broke my heart. Alas, that too was spewed a few minutes later (into my lap). And for the next two hours she whimpered and sobbed about wanting water, juice, powerade, whatever she could think of. Eventually at about 7am, I gave her a few sips of pedialyte. When she held that down for 30 min , I gave her a little more, 10 min later I gave her a little more until eventually she had had enough. Finally at about 9:30am we both collapsed into bed for a well deserved rest.

Why am I telling you this? Because my house still smells like puke.

Trick or Treat

This year the munchkin was a butterfly. We've actually had her costume for a month. We went to the shops to get Mack a pair of pants and she came running up the isle with the butterfly costume in her had demanding we put it on her. Mack did, and when we tried to take it off her, she threw such a stinking tantrum that we just ended up buying it and she wore it out of the shop. She did look incredibly adorable though, so we didn't mind too much, and at least she picked a warm costume.

We first took her to the army base, where they were having a trunk or treat. When she realized that people were just kind of handing her candy for her to put in her kitty bag, she got so excited. She had this huge grin on her face and kept saying, "Mommy, I gotted de candy!" Then she started getting picky and told people she only wanted chocolate. Unfortunately it started to pour at the base, so we packed her up and drove to Mack's parents place about 20min away, hoping the weather would be a bit better so we could do some proper trick or treating with her. The weather was much better when we arrived, but we took a little too long waiting for her cousin to put his costume on, and so by the time we walked out the door, the rain had caught up with us. We persisted however, and Taz loved being out in the rain, jumping in puddles and playing in the gutters, and of course saying, "Trick or Treat" and getting candy.