Tuesday's Child: 3 Weeks Old

It's Tuesday!

You know what that means. 

I have a baby update for you at Tuesday's Child! 

Mommy-Daughter Day

Today was John's first day back at work. 

I was dreading this day a little bit, having enjoyed spending almost the last 3 weeks uninterrupted with my husband. It was wonderful.

I fell in love with him on a totally new level watching him in dad mode and seeing how caring he has been with her and with me as I birthed her and recovered from said birthing.

And now I'm home alone with a 2 week old, a dog, and a cat. 

None of whom speak or understand English. 

"Sit", "paw", "lie down", "okay", and "stay" not withstanding. 

Thankfully this little girl is an absolute angel.

She went to sleep at 11:45 last night, was up from 3:30-4:30 for a feeding, then went back down from 4;30-7:30 this morning. 

I feel like one well-rested Mama.

Next Dear Daughter post will include a promise to buy her a pony if she doesn't change her sleeping habits for the next few weeks.

This is my plan for today. 

Be warned, it's ambitious:

• Enjoy a hot cup of coffee. Real, caffeinated coffee.
• Watch the premiere of The Bachelor from last Monday.
• Do exercise of some sort. Use baby as weight.
• Do laundry.
• Blog about being a new mom.

___________________________________________________

Coffee - consumed in bed, snuggled with baby & dog while watching Breakfast Television. Coffee remained warm throughout consumption. Do not anticipate this trend lasting.

Bachelor - watched. Will this truly be the most dramatic season yet? I'm glad we can have some Mother-Daughter bonding over trashy TV. John has no interest in it. I need to start Evelyn early so I have a partner in crime. 

Exercise - did 25 squats. Then ate a ziplock bag full of skittles. Plan to continue to do some squats and lunges around the house with the babe. Maybe lay out the yoga mat and do some stretches later.

Laundry - 2 loads! This day has been QUITE a success.

Blog - I've started up a sister blog to keep track of all my parenting adventures so that this blog doesn't just become all about the little baby that I'm currently obsessed with. My goal is to post every Tuesday and I will post the link on this blog for convenience :)

The new blog can be found here at Tuesdayfullofgrace.blogspot.com 

Let's hope tomorrow is as successful as today was! 

Tomorrows goals include take a shower, eat something other than ice cream for lunch, and watch some Sherlock

Motherhood (and how it happened)

After waiting an extra week, our little girl finally made her way into the world.

Our sweet, perfect Evelyn Grace was born Tuesday December 30th at 5:18 pm weighing 7 lbs 15 ounces.

Birth story coming up - turn back now if you don't want to read about it.

On Monday morning I woke up, went to the bathroom as per usual, and realized I was losing my mucus plug. We had an ultrasound at 2:30 and an OB appointment afterward where we would be setting a date to induce me. 

The ultrasound was fine, so the doctor did an internal exam and immediately after my water broke. All over the exam table!

I didn't realize it had happened until the doctor said, "oh, I think your water just broke!" And sure enough I felt like I had peed on the table. 

Suddenly, plans were changing.

John and I had decided that, if given the choice, we would opt for an induction on Thursday the 1st for a 2015 baby. We even planned to go to the Keg for dinner the night before for one last date night before we were parents. 

The doctor went to get John and as soon as he walked in I told him my water had broken. His facial expressions mirrored my emotions - excitement, terror, happiness and panic.

The plan now was to go home and wait for contractions to start. If nothing had warranted a trip to the hospital by midnight, we were to head down to be admitted and I'd be given meds to get the contractions going.

We drove home, both managed to keep it together, and made our game plan. We would make sure we had everything ready to go, watch a movie, tidy up, and spend the evening on the couch relaxing.

By 11 pm I was only having mild contractions and there was no rhythm or increasing pattern to them. We dropped the dog off at John's parents' and got to the hospital just after midnight. 

I was 1 cm dilated so they hooked me up to the pitocin and we settled in for the night. 

I woke up around 4 with increasingly intense contractions. I also had a few episodes of diarrhea which is horrible when coupled with contractions. 

I had one very intense contraction that caused me to sit up and when I did I was convinced I had peed all over the bed. Turns out it was just the rest of my water breaking but I was convinced that the bed would be soaked (it wasn't).

After that the contractions continued to build and I opted for the epidural.

One blunt but wise nurse told us to get as much sleep as we could because labour could take days and I would need my strength for pushing.

I got the epidural and it was bliss after that. The epidural seemed like such a scary thing - a giant needle being pushed into my spine - but it was nothing. The only thing I felt was the initial needle to freeze the area. After that it was a tiny bit of pressure but nothing painful, not even uncomfortable. 

After that we tried to sleep but it was hard for me to roll side to side so my sleep wasn't great. And I can't imagine John got a much better sleep on his pull out bed-chair contraption. 

At 6 am the doctor checked me and I was only 2 cm dilated but much more effaced. Some progress.

Family started to filter in, I met Dr. Berger who would be delivering my girl, and I craved a burger while I made due with my jello and popsicle and juice. 
At around 10 am they checked me again and I was 4-5 cm dilated.  Half way there!

By 2 pm I was about 7 cm dilated. 
Around 3 pm I started to feel the contractions a bit more intensely. My pitocin had been upped to a fairly high level which made the contractions very close together with little relief in between. The nurse explained that when they initially put in the epidural they give a higher dose to ensure that the area freezes but that this wears off over time. John and I tried unsuccessfully to get back to the level of comfort I was at before by giving myself a dose every 10 minutes but after 30-40 minutes of that it was evident that the epidural was starting to wear off in the upper half of my abdomen. Thankfully they were able to give me a top up dose and after that I was in heaven again. A little dopey but much more comfortable. 
All I wanted to do after that was sleep. 
So I did. 
I closed my eyes and slept.
When I woke up around 4:30 the nurse was checking me again and I was instantly awake when she said, "okay, we're ready to push. Let's get set up!"
John went to get my sister from the waiting room and our family members then also left the waiting room and gathered in the hall outside of the delivery room. 
As scared as I was to actually be in the process now of actively having a baby, I was excited as well.
After about 30-40 minutes of pushing (pushing, for the record, is HARD. Way way harder than I expected it to be. I thought I was going to pass out a few times), our little girl had arrived. The nurse brought in a mirror so I could watch the birth and holy cow... watching her head come out and seeing her face... there aren't words to describe how magical it is. 

Our beautiful daughter entered the world at 5:18 pm on Tuesday December 30th. 

John cut the cord and the doctors went in for an intense internal exam because they were afraid part of my placenta hadn't come out. This was by far the most painful and uncomfortable part of the entire process. 
Thankfully I didn't need stitches.

We were moved into the post-partum room after about an hour. 
Family came to ooh and ahh and we did the same, just staring at this perfect little human we had brought into the world. 

I learned how to waddle to the bathroom and only peed my pants once. I made it right into the bathroom and had just closed the door behind me when my bladder just let go. 
Thankfully I was wearing one of the giant pads the hospital gives you so it absorbed most of the damage. 

Why did I share that? There should be no shame if you pee your pants after giving birth.
Those muscles need time to recover! 

We stayed 3 nights in total as the nurses wanted to be sure I didn't have an infection since my water had broken more than 24 hours before she was born.

I also had my first I'm-a-terrible-mother breakdown (highly influenced also by raging hormones and 2 nights of no sleep) when Evelyn spent the third night unconsolably fussing and the nurses couldn't give me any advice beyond "just keep breastfeeding". 
In the morning our nurse, and my favourite of all of the nurse we had, suggested we give her a bit of formula in case she was hungry and my colostrum wasn't producing enough just yet. She gulped down the formula then immediately settled to sleep.
So I cried. 
Because obviously it was clear that 2 days into motherhood I couldn't provide for my daughter. 
The wonderful nurse assured me this wasn't the case.

Thankfully, Evelyn continues to have her fussy, inconsolable moments but she does eventually settle and we know that she is well fed. 

We spent our New Years cuddled together on John's pull out bed chair sipping champagne and watching the fireworks at City Hall from the window. 
It was actually quite romantic and definitely a New Years Eve I will never forget. 

Hard to believe we've had our beautiful little bug for a whole week now.
Things are starting to feel like routine and we're getting the hang of this parenting thing - although every day is different and sleep is hit or miss. 

Pictures of the little bug to come! 

Sip Wine Bar

To celebrate Valentine's Day, on Thursday night John and I went to Sip Wine Bar.

I walk passed it every time I go to and home from the subway and I've anxiously waited to go since the sign showed up in the window saying Sip Wine Bar, coming soon.

When it opened I read about it in Toronto Life and my need to go got a bit more urgent. 

So, since John would be gone on Friday, we got ourselves a table on Thursday night.

And it was worth the wait.

We shared a bottle of riesling from Rosehall Run in Prince Ed County (where we may go for our 2nd anniversary). 

The pizza's are true Neapolitan style and delicious. 

I ordered the Aduja pizza which comes with mozarella cheese, anduja sausage, and basil.

It was very flavourful and I was heartbroken when I pulled the remained out of the fridge the next day to eat and in the few seconds that I had turned around, the dog had gotten a hold of the corner of the tin foil and pulled it onto the floor. Half she ran off with, so... not edible. And the other half was face down on the floor so...also not edible.

Heartbreak.

John opted for the Sip pizza - half is mozarella cheese, muchrooms and basil, and the other half is folded like a calzone and stuffed with ricotta and prosciutto cotto. 

I tried the calzone half and it was to die for. 

The aftermath.

John did significantly better with his pizza than I did.

I filled up on the bread with the hummus and the amazing tapenade.

And to finish a very romantic night, John got me a dozen gorgeous red roses.

Find out more about Sip Wine Bar here and make a reservation to go check it out.

Hope everyone's Valentine's Day was full of love, whether you celebrated or not.

Valentine's Day: 2 Cute Last Minute Ideas

Chalk it up to working nights last weekend but I found some more cute DIY Valentine's Day ideas that I want to share.

You've got one more day to get your valentine's in order!

Here are some last minute DIY ideas.

The first is Date Arrows from Sugar & Cloth.

Using some simple (and easy to get a hold of) supplies, you can become your very own cupid.

Come up with some fun ideas for dates for your valentine.

This works in many ways too, because if your valentine is getting on your nerves you can shoot these at them.

But they can't be mad because you're doing it with love.

Go here to see the whole post

The second is a Valentine's Garland Mailer from Oh Happy Day

This one you might need to hand deliver though, or express mail it if you want it to reach your intended in time.

You can see the whole post with instructions here

I'm going on a Valentine's Day dinner tonight with the hubs to a new pizaa & wine bar that just opened around the corner from us.

Expect a review later!

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day Round-Up

Valentine's Day is one of those polarizing holidays that people either love or detest.

Personally I love it. But I love any reason to celebrate.

While I understand (and support) the "you should treat every day like Valentine's day" argument, you better actually be doing romantic things on the reg to back up your argument.

But since I love to celebrate, I've rounded up 5 of my current favourite Valentine DIY ideas.

Let me know if you have some good ideas of your own!

1. Black, White & Glittered Valentine's Day card

The card is simple and elegant. I'd follow the Style Me Pretty lead and glitter my hearts in gold either by gluing then glittering them or by tracing them with glitter pens.

Then be sure to print out the envelope liner below to jazz up the way you present your card.

(The link for the card is here)

(You can open the link for the envelope liner here)

2. Rose Body Scrub

If you're looking for a DIY Valentine's Day gift I recommend this rose body scrub from Oh So Pretty.

You can follow the step by step instructions on the website here. Just go out and grab yourself some coarse & fine sea salt, rose essential oil & jojoba oil.

3. Less Mushy, More Silly

Because sometimes "There's no one else I'd rather lay in bed & look at my phone with" is way more accurate and heart felt than anything else.

The PDFs can be printed here

4. For the Book Lover

This is such a cute idea.

Follow the DIY valentine's day dust jacket tutorial over at Juniper Books here.

5. Talk Cake to Me

 

The idea comes from All You and can be found here

I love the different use for he conversation hearts and might make a few individual cakes like this.  

What are your thoughts on Valentine's  Day?

Introducing Reese!

Christmas came early for me this year!

 

After months (years?) of not so subtlety hinting that I wanted a dog, John surprised me with the greatest gift ever.

 

We went to see our puppy one night about 2 weeks ago then made our final decision and brought her home on Friday November 1st!

 

So without further ado, I'd like to introduce you all to my little love bug and the newest member of our family.

 

Introducing:  

 

 

She's a 5 month old German Wirehaired Pointer.

She is just the sweetest. We've been on a bunch of walks (still learning not to pull me into traffic) and I finally worked up the courage to let her play off leash at the park. She understands 'come' and never strays too far from me which calms my fears that she'll just take off.

 

She's almost completely housebroken, just a few accidents here and there.

 

And she's a real snuggle bug.

She loves being hugged and curling up against me for naps.

 

I'm in love!

 

Still learning to love her is our boy Murray, who hid under the couch for the first two days but now has somewhat begrudgingly accepted her presence.

He lets her get pretty close to him now without growling or hissing.

 

 

1st Anniversary Gifts: Part 1

**For some reason this was saved in my drafts and was never published! Oops!

Enjoy belatedly :)

 

As the big day draws closer I've been putting the finishing touches on John's anniversary present.

Sticking to my theme of the paper card encompassing the 5 ways to show your love, I present to you my 'Acts of Service' contribution.

 

I made a few coupons for John to use to 'get out of jail free' with respect to household chores.

I tried to pick some of the more common ones that we do.

 

I google image searched for the famous Monopoly card and opened it in picmonkey to customize it.

 

Tada!

 

 

The other gifts I'll be keeping secret until after the big reveal for fear that John will read all about them before hand.

Some of his co-workers have been reading the blog [Hi! I promise to keep stuff more impersonal ;) haha] and I fear he's worried about what I'm posting for them to read and therefore might pop on to see what's new.

 

Feel free to copy and print these coupons if you think you'd use them.

I can make more too!

 

First Anniversary: Day Two

After a nice sleep in our honeymoon suite we woke up and headed over to 5 Lakes Spa for our couple's massage.

I would gladly pay someone to massage me first thing in the morning every day.

I'd be so happy.

 

Then we got back on the road and made our way to a few more wineries.

First up:

 

 

The view was spectacular (as is the case with so many wineries in Niagara. Really, you need to see them all) and the wines were good (especially the rose!). We got a quick tutorial about red versus black soil and we attempted to taste the difference between cab francs grown in each. We didn't notice too much of a difference but once suggested you kind of catch it in the acidity.

 

We left with a bottle of the 2012 Cabernet Franc Rose and the 2011 Pinot Gris.

Then it was back on the road to finally visit a place I'd been dying to check out:

 

I had looked at this as a possible wedding venue but it's pricey... but so beautiful, inside and out.

If I win the lottery I'm throwing another big party so we can get married again here.

Not that I didn't love our venue, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't change a thing about our wedding.

I just want another one!

We tried more wines, John took a tasting "flight" with 4 pre-selected wines and I opted to pick my own.

We left with a bottle of the 2012 Aligote, the 2010 Gamay Noir 'Droit', and a 2008 Late Harvest Reisling.

 

Then, after some more fun pictures in front of the fountain, we packed up to hit another winery.

Our next stop brought us to one we'd visited in January:

 

I love the covered bridge and in January when we first visited there was a wedding party taking photos here. This would also be a beautiful spot to host a wedding.

Third wedding will be here.

We left with 6 bottles of the 2011 Vidal (it's $6.95, you pretty much have to get either a dozen or a half dozen). a 2009 Reisling, and a jar of red pepper ice jelly.

 

Then we decided to try another place we hadn't already visited:

 

The people here were especially lovely and chatty. I was surprised to find out this winery is responsible for the Sibling Rivalry wines! I suppose if I had bothered to read the label...

But we left here with a 2011 Baco Noir Reserve and a 2011 Estate Reisling.

There was one called 'Family Tree' with an amazing label but the wine we found too dry and we decided to go with the sweeter reisling.

This was obviously a reisling heavy trip.

 

Our last stop was reserved for the winery we had gone to on our actual anniversary but there was another wedding going on and we didn't want to crash.

 

They recognized us when we came in, saying, "the bride and groom are here!" which was so welcoming. We were given a glass of sparkling wine to celebrate, then we sampled a few and grabbed a glass each to take on our walk down memory lane.

We stopped for a few fun pictures along the way.

 

We sat on the secluded beach and just enjoyed our last day as newlyweds.

 

That first year went by entirely too fast but we had some wonderful adventures.

Now we're busy working on year 2 and the even more wonderful things our future has in store for us.

 

Including drinking the 21 bottles of wine we bought for ourselves.

 

And to cap off a perfect anniversary trip?

QPC-BLTs.

Barf.

 

First Anniversary: Day 1

After minimal sleep on Saturday morning we hit the road for our first anniversary weekend.

I was tired but I was more excited to spend the weekend with John and to visit more of the wineries in the Nigara region.

 

Our first stop was at Thirty Bench, where we were signed up for the Oysters & Reisling tasting.

 

 

The oysters (and much more after the event) were provided by Tide & Vine.

 

We were given a glass of the winemaker's reisling to start (we bought two bottles) and then they filled up our glasses with 3 more reislings and a pinot gris.

From left to right:

a 2009 Reisling that had a "wet stones'' quality to it.

2011 Reisling which was a little less acididc

2010 reisling with more fleshy fruit flavours

The pinot gris - any information I forgot to note, I was already pretty tipsy at this point. 

 

 

Let me start by saying this: oysters are gross.

I only signed us up for this event because I know how big a fan John is.

I tried them once long ago with my aunt and uncle who advised me to just swallow a little peice. It was like swallowing a booger.

So I thought, what the heck, let's chew this ugly looking thing and see if it doesn't taste any better.

It doesn't.

But I ate 4 of them. The last one doused in horseradish and some other wine-based sauce.

 

We had malpeque's from the actual malpeque bay, the "french kiss" malpeque which is from New brusnwick and is less salty (but is also HUGE so I gave this one to John), the "Beach Angel" from B.C.'s Quadra Island which had a more creamy texture, and lastly the Kumimoto from Japan which was also quite creamy but also had a bit of a metallic taste.

(Note: all of these descriptions are from the guy who was telling us about them, I wasn't concentrating on flavours. I just wanted to chew, swallow, and get back to my wine).

 

 

The things I do for love.

 

 

Anniversary Card

I saw the idea for this card on (guess where?) Pinterest and knew it would be perfect for John.

I meant to fancy it up a bit more and make it look more fishing vest-like but I forgot...

And spent my time working on the gifts that go with the card.

 

As I mentioned it's a fishing vest. With 4 pockets. And in each of those pockets is a fish on a tongue depressor (thanks, place of employment).

 

 

 And on each of those fish is a way to show someone you love them (as mentioned in a previous post).

"Acts of Service" I will post tomorrow because I meant to do it today but forgot. By forgot I mean I got home from work, popped 2 Zzzquils and slept for 7 glorious hours before heading off to work again.

For "Receiving Gifts" I bought him a documentary about Maynard James Keenan (of Tool/A Perfect Cirlce/Puscifer fame)  and his foray into wine making.

I cheated a bit and used "Quality Time" and "Physical Touch" together for one gift. A couple's massage! Sunday morning we can look forward to a relaxing rub down. This gift is also for me because I did something to my lower back ... probably from lifting and repositioning heavy patients.

Also I realize I'm giving him the gift of physical touch from someone other than his wife but let's be honest, my massages are mediocre at best.

 

 

"But that's only 4 fish. What about Words of Affirmation? You forgot one."

No I didn't.

They're on the back!

 

 

I'm so excited for this weekend.

Strolling around Niagara, sampling wines and ultimately buying way more than we intend to, getting massaged, sitting in the heart shaped tub with a glass of wine, and spending time with my husband.

 

They say you're only newlyweds for the first year.

Maybe technically.

But that feeling's going to take a lot longer than a year to disappear.

 

Happy 1st year of marriage, (insert any number of silly pet names here)