One Month

So to begin, and as promised, here is a photo of the stacks of baby clothes Sophia received at the Vancouver shower. Surprisingly, some of them actually fit at this point. Sophie is still quite small, and much of the stuff out there that is advertised for "0-3 months" would fit a ten-pound baby quite nicely, and Sophia was only 6 pounds 14 ounces when she was born.



Speaking of birth weight, As of this morning Sophia weighs a stunning 9 pounds 4 ounces. This stuns me for a couple reasons. First, because she has now gained around 4 pounds (considering that she lost weight for a while right after she was born), and second, that all of this weight gain has come directly from Tricia. In fact, considering the substances that Sophia is producing on a daily basis, Tricia has probably supplied twice that weight to Sophia by now. It's really amazing to watch Sophia grow. She isn't much taller yet - she's 21-and-a-half inches now, and wasn't much less than that when she was born, but she is growing - filling out well in the cheeks and looking much more substantial.

While we were in Vancouver, Sophia managed a monumental achievement. She pulled my glasses off my face for the first time! We're still pretty sure that most of her movements are basically experimental, what with the total lack of coordination and her main congratulatory achievement a big burp, but we know that she will be pulling glasses off of faces many times before she walks, so as a first this is kind of cool. Also, she managed to transfer the glasses from her left hand to her right hand before she dropped them on the floor. Again, probably random, but it provides more evidence of the fact that our baby is the smartest baby who ever lived.

Today is the 29th of July, and Sophia was born on the 29th of June, so this could be considered her 1-month-old day. I guess this is the point at which we stop counting in weeks (she is 4-and-a half weeks old today) and start counting in months. At what point do we move from months to years, though? Some parents are still counting in months when the baby is two-and-a-half years old: "Oh, little Frankie is 29 months old tomorrow!" "I know little Jasmine seems young for a driver's license, but she'll be 192 months old in a week!"

Counting Sophia's age is a bit funny, in a way. Some days it feels like it's a milestone each day she is alive, as if each day is an event of note that should be celebrated. Which of course it is. But other days it feels like we've been doing this for ever: change, feed, burp, sleep, lather, rinse, repeat.

And it's only been a month!

The Vancouver Shower

One of the reasons for the airplane adventure was so that Sophie might participate in a shower held in the honour of her birth. Now, as a three week old, I am not sure that she fully appreciated all the work that went into the shower, but I know that she enjoyed being passed from arm to arm. The only time she squwaked, er as David would say "blinked", when she wanted to be fed.

Anyway, the shower was fabulous. Sophia was able to meet so many people who are important in my life and in David's life. There was a great mix of family and friends who came to be oogling our little girl. We gathered at about 2:00 pm for gifties and goodies. Jen Eastwood and Tanya Virani helped with the decorations and preparing some of the food. Mom helped with hosting at the house and making some fabulous foods as well. Kudos need to go out to Jacquie Moon who originally was the coordinator of the shower. She organized the invitations, decorations, and goodie boxes. Now, Jacquie wasn't able to be with us, as she was touring Lima, Peru and the Galapogus Islands. She was missed and I thank her for her work.

So, the shower.... there was a huge pile of gifts just waiting to be opened. So many neat and wonderful things to look at. Again, I think that Sophia got the easy job --just lie there in the arms of someone or on a nice fluffy blanket on the ground. The presents were amazing and we got a lot of what we needed. Lots of books, blankets, toys and such things. And CLOTHES... oh the clothes. David will post some pictures of all the gifts and the piles of clothes. Sophia is going to be a fashionable and well dressed little girl for a while. I have to admit that it's a good thing that Sophia looks good in pink, as she has a LOT of it now. The main perpetrator in the clothing department was my Auntie Pat, who had made the trek from Washington state to be at the shower. As her gift, she hand painted a beautiful little trunk, just perfect for storing toys. Now, that would have been gift enough but when I opened the trunk up, I discovered an almost never ending supply of clothes. Auntie Pat had gone crazy, in a good way. The only way to discribe it is that the trunk was much like Mary Poppin's carpet bag... with out the lamp.

After the gifts were opened and the food was eaten, people started making their way home. It was much too hot to have that many people hang around (it was over 30 outside, which means it was some insane temperature in the living room with over 20 people crammed into it!). A couple of folks did stay for cold turkey on buns and some more visiting.

I had a great time, and thank all those who came to meet Sophia. Vancouver was a great time, and we loved seeing everyone!

Airplane

Call us naive, call us gluttons for punishment, call us what you will, we figured that flying with a newborn wouldn't be that bad. After all, all they do is sleep and eat and poop, right? Well that, and the hour or two of intense alertness during the day. That is a bonus and an amazing experience, what with the looking around and the the weird face and arm movements. No apparently voluntary movements yet, although she is starting to make what looks like a smile while she is dreaming (what does a three-week-old dream about, I wonder).

So yes, we decided to fly with her. Our friends Lia and Vijay are getting married on Saturday, in Vancouver, and they asked Tricia to read a passage, so we decided it would be a good opportunity to visit all of the Vancouver folks and introduce them to Sophia (Her uncle Todd has a new nickname for her, by the way: Sofa. Didn't take long...). Plus, knowing we were coming, folks decided it would be a good chance for a shower, bless them. So off we go. We packed everything we owned, and hailed a taxi to the airport. Car seat is a must for traveling anywhere, so it gets attached to the taxi seat and the stroller, bags and sundry items are collected and off we go. The airport people at check-in said we could keep the stroller up to the gate, where they would check it and we would pick it up at the other end of the flight.

So the first thing was security. Not a big deal all things considered - Tricia walked through the detector with Sophia, and she beeped, which meant I had to take Sophie while they did the magnetic wand thing for her, then they went around Sophia with the wand while I held her. She didn't even blink, even though the wand was re-arranging all the ions in her insides (funny how we're nervous about radiation with our kids but not with ourselves...). Then the security guy looked over the stroller very well (since it would not go through the x-ray) and we were given a clean bill of trustworthiness. I had suggested at the start that it would have been easier just to send Sophia through the x-ray, but that didn't go over well (Dad gets stares of bewilderment from all around...)

We pre-boarded, which we had done once before with the dog, and Sophie never blinked. We got settled into our seats, and were lucky that there was no-one beside us. The flight attendants told us all about what to do - hold her as if you were burping her during take-off and landing, put your mask on before hers, etc.) All the flight attendants crowed around her to ogle (she is a pretty cute, pretty little baby after all) and then we were all buckled in and bumbling along the pavement to the runway. The engines revved and the plane moved and loud noises and all sorts of chaos all around, and she never blinked. The pressure change didn't even seem to bother her that much. She fed a bit when we were in the air, but not much. A little suck on Daddy's little finger and she was back to sleep.

So I neglected to mention that this was WestJet, which meant a connection in Edmonton. (There are almost no direct flights from Regina to Vancouver). We were in the air for a little less than an hour, and we started down. Pressure changes got my ears going, but Sophia never blinked. I think Tricia was more startled than Sophie by the bouncy landing. Then off the plane, into the boarding lounge where Daddy took her and changed her (grungy men's room in Edmonton, but it had a change table!)

Then back on another plane for the hop to Vancouver. Again, up we go and she doesn't even blink. A smooth ride, a bit of food, Daddy's finger and all is well. We started the descent an hour or so later, and

(wait for it...)

she blinked.

and grunted.

and started to fuss.

and then let out a wail.

Now if you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that Sophia is not prone to wailing. She'll cry a bit from time to time, but never for very long and never what you would call a wail. This was different. This was a child in distress. Nothing would calm her down (not even Daddy's finger!) She was screaming and snorting and just all sorts of unhappy. Then we realized it - We were the people on the plane with the screaming baby! We were the incompetent parents who couldn't keep their baby quiet! We had become everything we sneered at about parents before we became parents. As has been said before, we were much better parents before we had kids.

The problem, of course, was that she needed a change (and probably some food and some lovin') and we couldn't change her while the plane was on final approach. When we finally landed, the person behind us leaned over the seat and was very nice and said how she had kids and sometimes there's just nothing you can do. Then we looked up and noticed ... The Horde.

The Horde had gathered while we were recovering from the landing and trying to settle poor Sophie until we could get her somewhere where we could change her. Many were well-wishers with kind faces, but you could tell in the back of their minds they were thinking what foolish young parents these be. Then one pipes up and says "Is she hungry?"

Is she hungry?

DAMN! I never thought of that! You mean we need to FEED her? Thanks for the tip there, miss smarty smart! (admittedly, we were a bit strung out by that point, and didn't actually say that to her, but sometimes I wish we had)

So the long and the short of it is that eventually, after a half hour of stress in the baggage collection area trying everything we could think of, Sophia calmed and we got our luggage and returned to Tricia's parents' house. We suspect it was a combination of many things, but mostly the "I've had enough" effect.

We'll be flying home in a week, on (I think) a direct flight. Wish us luck...

Shower photos, thumb photos, dog photos

Tricia very neatly summed up the past week on her last post, so I'm going to add nothing except a few photographs that we like. First, a couple quick photos from Sophie's first baby shower:




Keep this second one in mind, with the frilly pink hat.

In a similar vein, here is Sophie in a great pink number that Adam and Kristine gave us. Clearly she is absolutely taken by said outfit:



Sophie is occasionally sucking her thumb these days (or whatever digit happens to come into contact with her mouth as she is flailing around, what with the ninja hands and no manual dexterity). We thought this one was a particularly good and cute example:



And now, dog photos. Sophia and Haley are getting along famously, as this photo shows:



Did you remember the hat? Haley is less happy with the new clothes:




And so our life as a new family continues...

A shower, a birthday, a new house and a gaggle of grandparents!

Well, Sophie official reached the ripe old age of two weeks today! The public health nurse came by for a home visit, and did all the things she needed to so as to assess Sophia's health. She manipulated her hips, head, legs, back, spine etc. Then came the most anticipated part of the visit: the weigh in. Now, when Sophia was born she weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces (or 3.13 Kg). By the time she left the hospital her weight had dropped to 2.95 kgs. As of this afternoon, our little daughter weights 3.4 Kgs or 7 pounds 8 ounces. So, since coming home she has gained almost a pound. This just shows that our little one is definitely eating good! Just call me "Bessie"!

We had another eventful week. We don't do anything quietly or simply around here. David's parents, Diane and Arthur, arrived and started their week long adoration of their granddaughter. Diane was shingle free (no more itchy, weepy red spots to worry about) so she was able to fully enjoy spending time with Sophia. All was good, as the grandparents all get along just fine and were able to aptly entertain each other while David and I took care of the babe.

Sunday was one of the most eventful days for the female folk of the household. The ladies of St. James United had organized a lovely baby shower for Sophia. Seeing that she has yet to master the eye-hand coordination needed to open the gifts, I had the fun of oohing and awing over all the gifts while my little girl lazed around in the arms of more adoring fans. It was a nice afternoon, with about thirty women in attendance, and both of the grandmothers there to offer support and needed help. After about 45 minutes or more of opening gifts --much pink clothing, plus quilts, blankets, a bank, crochet goodies, diapers and much more -- there was the obligatory sharing of coffee, tea and really, really, really good deserts and conversation. I can't thank the women enough for their generosity and support. Having the shower here in Wolseley was quite a treat and I can tell that everyone is enjoying having Sophia around (even when she is crying!).

Monday was my birthday. I turned 29 and I think I will stick with that age for a little while. I am not sure I am ready for thirty. But this blog is not about my age issues but is about that child o'mine. It is very odd celebrating a birthday when you have a two week old child. Now, my family did a good job of celebrating. There were some gifts, an ice cream cake, and a promised shopping spree in two different places. But somehow the birthday took a back seat in importance to the baby. AND to make things even more complicated (which we like to do around here) we took possession of our new house. So really, to have my birthday take a back seat really isn't surprising. Anyway, I was glad to have had family around to help mark the day and was very happy to hear from my friends from away (either on the phone or via email). It helped to make the day that much more special.

So, yeah, we took possession of the house. While the grandparents and David ran around coordinating the service workers, the work that needed to be done on the house, the numerous Rona trips and the painting, I sat around watching Sophia and offering food to her when deemed necessary. I have to admit that house stress and post pregnancy hormones do not mix well. It does not produce an emotionally stable Tricia. After a few tears, I was able to put on my game face again and get on with getting on. The house is wonderful and I am very much looking forward to living there, especially after making it our own. David did and continues to do a fabulous job of coordinating the service folk, making sure that they are where they need to be at the right time. I thank him from the bottom of my heart, because without his energy and organization, nothing would have gotten done or at least not as much. Right now, decision making is not a key ability for me.

The first flock of grandparents have returned to their home. Diane and Arthur have driven back to the cottage to take care of some very expensive grass (long story --not one meant for this blog). We will see them again in August when we take Sophia to the cottage for the very first time. The Western grandparents (my folks) are packing up their car and driving toward the coast come Saturday. They will be rid of us for just a few days and then we board a plane to Vancouver to do some visiting and to attend a wedding and another baby shower. The grandparents have been invaluable these past two weeks -doing dinners, laundry, cleaning etc. I thank them very much for all that they have done for David, Sophia and myself. We'll miss having them here.

It has been an exhausting week, but a good week. Life with Sophia is a gift and we are truly enjoying her. David is going to post some updated photos and write some more. So keep your eyes on the blog! Blessings and love to you all.

less cute photos

Sophia finally lost that little stump of the umbilical cord she was trailing around. The hospital clamped her cord around an inch from her belly and she wore that clamp while she was in the hospital - a big yellow inch-and-a-half-long potato chip bag clip that the nurses used a big pair of white plastic plier-type things to remove. Kind of traumatic at the time - the nurses descending on our 3-day-old daughter with what looked like a dentist's extraction tool.

The clamp, and the resulting hunk of drying skin and blood, had made it a little hard to dress and change Sophia, since (as we said before) the diapers we had for her were too big. Update: we have purchased some newborn diapers and all is well, just in time for her to lose the cord stub and allow us to put size-1 diapers on her. So she has graduated, in a sense, from her parents giving her plumbers butt with the big diapers too low, to her parents giving her grandfather pants, with her diapers up around her armpits. We can't really win.

It's a graduation in another sense - she's a week old, and we have settled into a nice routine. Tricia's parents are still here and David's parents have arrived, so there's plenty of folks in the house, but we can still retreat to the nursery to feed and have some quiet time. With the loss of her cord stub she doesn't look quite like a hospital child anymore - more like a little version of different parts of us. We are still in disagreement about who she looks like, and who's nose and eyes she has, but I am convinced that she has my Grandfather's chin and neck. Either that, or Grandpa's neck looked like a baby neck. Who can tell...

more cute photos

just some pictures for you...


And in this next one, note particularly the similarity between the poses of Haley (the dog) and Sophie (the Human, just to remind you)

pooped

We had our first "city" day today. Six souls in the car (including the dog) and a relatively uneventful trip in. Dog off to the groomer, then David off to work and errands through the day. First big day with "on-the-go" Sophie (with kung-fu grip), complete with the Starbucks washroom change, the Chapters reading-chair feeding, the back-seat-of-the-car change, the back-seat-of-the-car feeding, the open air change, the open-air feeding, the bottle-feeding of expressed milk, the navigation of the stroller through the shopping mall, and the fine art of balancing the car seat on the grocery cart. We also signed all the papers at the lawyers today, AND took out our new wills, AND Tricia's parents are having more car troubles. Wouldn't like life to be complicated or anything.

So we are all tired, which isn't much different for little Sophie as it turns out. She does complain a bit when hungry, and we've got the pattern down: change-feed-burp-wrap-repeat. Each of these things is a potential cause of an upset Sophia, and it's just a matter of figuring out where in the cycle we left off last. Usually starting at the beginning works well, and the time between cycles varies between a couple hours (3 or 4 during the night if we're lucky) and fifteen minutes (which is tricky when the cycle takes 25).

And yes, the title of this blog is a double meaning.

One more first...

An apology for all you grammar mavens out there. My previous post had several mistakes, but I am not going to fix them! I am going to blame my issues on placenta brain... Sorry my m.i.l!

So, this is really for all you church geeks out there. As you know, David and I have grown up in the United Church and it has been such a formative force for us both. So it only makes sense that Sophie gets the same opportunity. At four days old, she got her first worship experience at St. James! She was such an angel. She never fussed during the service and everyone got the chance to check her out. Another first in the life of Sophie!

And Mom makes three

Hi! David has been absolutely wonderful at taking the time to update you on the events of the last week. It has been absolutely amazing and crazy to grasp all the things that have happened for us. As you read, the birth process didn't quite go the way I wanted it to, but there are things you cannot control. I am slowly recovering from the phyiscal leftovers of birth. I am not 100% but that will slowly come, as long as I remember to take things a little slower than I am used to! :) Sophia and I are getting along really well when it comes to breastfeeding, which is a huge reflief. I was concerned that it would be horrible, just like all the women on those TV baby story shows. It quite humbling to recognize that you are solely responsible for the feeding of this little life. It's really nice bonding time, especially at 1 in the morning.

I am enjoying our little girl. SHe is really quite quiet. I could spend hours watching her little face as she sleeps. I still have moments of wondering how it is that I could be the mother of this little thing. But for the most part I am just enjoying her presence. She is a gift to both of us, and to our families.

So on the whole we are doing very well here. Sophia slept through the night, taking time to wake up and eat. I will keep you posted as to recovering and all the joys that come with a new life. Thank you so much for all your thoughts, prayers and words of congratulations. It means the world to all of us. Talk to you soon!

Home (finally)

The burrito has landed!





We have returned home to Wolseley and all are well. This morning was fairly uneventful, and the afternoon was frustrating, waiting for the pediatrician on call to come from whatever Canada Day barbecue she was at to discharge Sophia. We were ready to go around 10:00 am, when Tricia's ObGyn discharged her, but we ended up waiting till around 3:30 pm for Sophie to be released.

The previous night was a night with a couple more prominent firsts: She began her first obsessive-compulsive behavior pattern, by discovering that she could suck on her own fingers to get that happy feeling. It'll probably turn into some kind of terrible thumb twiddling habit by the time she grows up. They say finger sucking is a gateway behavior, after all.

She also had her first big tantrum blowout yesterday. She fussed and fussed and wouldn't calm down after being fed and changed. It's nothing like the babies who cry all night (in harmony all across the ward), but it is fussier than she has been. The nurses suggested she sleep on Tricia's chest for a while, and that seemed to calm her down. She may just be telling us not to get complacent, and that she will be all the trouble babies are supposed to be once she finds her voice.

Last night was a bit of an ordeal, with fussing and complaining starting at around 10:00 pm. We had a cot in the room for me to sleep in, and we finally had Sophie on the cot with me so Tricia could sleep. That worked well till around 1:30 am when she was ready to eat. Not a bad overnight all things considered. She was up again at 3:30 to feed, then at around 6:00. The nice thing about having a newborn this time of year is that it starts to get light at 4:00 am.

Sophie is very small, with the normal bit of weight loss after birth, meaning that our "#1" diapers are much too big for her. On the way home to Wolseley, we stopped at the drug store and I picked up what I thought were newborn diapers, since the had the word "newborn" on them. When we got home and opened the package, we discovered that they were a bit bigger than our current diapers (of which we bought a jumbo costco pack of like 10,000). So it looks like Sophie will be wearing oversized garments for a while. With any luck, the styles will have changed by the time she is fifteen so that oversized garments are in style for girls again. Come to think of it, I think I will insist that she wear oversized garments regardless of the style. Or maybe I won't let her leave the house. I wonder how protective one can be of one's daughter before it's considered unhealthy...