~One Month Flew By!!!~

WOW!  One month ago little Carter Michael entered our lives…where did the time go?  We have been blessed with the easiest baby!  He pretty much eats and sleeps on a 2-3 hour cycle.  He’s had a few gassy episodes but a little bit of Ovol hasn’t quickly helped.  He has an amazingly strong neck and has been able to lift his head up since he was born, now he can lift his head up and turn it while holding it.  He loves tummy time with Mom and Dad, hates his car seat unless the car is moving and enjoys time in his bouncy seat.  He is mostly in love with Mommy but will sometimes settle for Dad.  He sleeps on his side, just like Mom and rolls from side to side on his own.  He has such a serious little man look to him, and is going to be a much bigger boy than his brother!  He had his check up appt with our family Doctor on Friday and has already gained 2 lbs and grown 2 inches!  He is already into some 3 month clothes too! 

He HATES cold wipes on his bum and will forever love Daddy’s boss Gary and his girlfriend Kelly for getting us a wipes warmer.  Mom is far to cheap for that!  He snorts like a little pig when he’s hungry and lets you know…when Carter is hungry, he is HUNGRY NOW!  He is being exclusively breastfed right now and has no problems with it and is not hard on Mom…unless he wants to nurse non-stop.  Then Mom gets a bit frustrated and needs to have some space!  He has a bit of reflux that I’m still trying to sort out…he can’t be sat up right away after eating, he’ll throw everything up.  The nurse at the hospital said that his stomach flap was probably just a bit immature and closes too fast.  It isn’t affecting him that I can tell but I suspect it may contribute to the gas since he doesn’t always burp after every feed. 

We had an ultrasound on his hip on Monday, he may have hip dysplasia and need to wear a brace.  I googled it and let me tell you, it doesn’t look like fun!  6 weeks of keeping his knee parallel to his hip in a brace that wraps over his shoulders.  It isn’t life threatening however so I’m just rolling with it! 

Big brother Ethan is treating him well, so far he pretty much ignores him.  He is acting out a bit however and I don’t think I’m dealing with it the best.  I have been very exasperated by some of the things he does to act out and haven’t responded well…I recognize it though and am trying to deal with it. We’ve been making sure to spend time separate with him doing fun things so he doesn’t feel abandoned.  Plus adding fun things to his day that we can do since Mom is not working. 

So one month of me being a Mom to two little boys and so far, so good.  I’m just starting to get some routine to my day so that I’m not wearing sweat pants, dirty shirts and have unwashed hair and unbrushed teeth in the car pool lane at school.  Plus I need to have a feeling of getting things done so I have a wonderful new app on my Ipad called Wunderlist and I have all kinds of to do lists in it so I can check things off my list!  I’m feeling a bit bottled up at home but as Carter starts to get a bit of a schedule I have lots of fun things planned for us!  Big brother Ethan has Piano class on Saturdays until May, Pre-school M-Thurs, swimming for March/April on Sundays, Soccer starting April-July on Sat, and a reading program at the library from April-end of June on Friday mornings.  Carter and I are going to go walking at the Multiplex M-Thurs after we drop Ethan off a school, a Mommy and baby Yoga class on Tuesdays and lunch with a friend on Thursdays.  On Fridays’ we’ll head to the library with Ethan for fresh books and Sat/Sun we hang out with Dad and probably go swimming.  I want to keep busy but also keep a slow enough pace that I can enjoy all my time with my guys before the craziness of working full time with them comes back.  For now we’re playing it by ear and having fun…I still can’t believe that I have two little boys…this life is going to be adventure!!! 

View Full Album

Click on the albums to see the full pictures!

View Full Album

~Welcome to the World Carter Michael!~

On January 28th at 10:20pm we welcomed our precious new son Carter Michael into the world. Hearts were crushed, smiles flew around the room, and an enormous sigh of relief was breathed by both Randy and I simultaneously. A.healthy.baby.

How did we get to that moment? Stick around and read more if you want to hear his birth story. (I promise nothing tmi).

For the week prior to Carter's birth I had a few false starts, contractions that would start and stop and get me thinking that today was the day. Poor Randy was sick of me calling him at work and saying I think it's time! When I woke up on Monday morning and went to the washroom I *knew* it was the day. (Told you I would spare the gory details). The contractions started at 8:30am. They were mild and I carried on as normal around the house. At 10am I let Randy know it was definitely time to pack it up and head home from work and I hopped in the shower. He got home, showered and started loading our hospital bags and Ethan's overnight bag in the truck. He went downstairs to get something and let out a war whoop, Ethan had set up a 'washing station' for his trains and had virtually flooded the whole basement.(On our new flooring to boot). So a slight delay while they mopped up the mess and we were off to drop Ethan off at daycare.

We made it to the hospital around 1pm and I was sent to OB Triage where they hooked me up and tracked my contractions, I was having them about every 3-5 minutes. So she checked me and I was only dilated 3-4cm. I was shocked, I had been dilated 3cm for two weeks already, the all morning contractions didn't do much for me obviously. The nurse tells us to get up and start walking around to get it moving along. So I walked, and walked, and walked; for 2 hours! The contractions were getting pretty painful with me having to stop walking with every one and grab the wall rail. We headed back after 2 hours to see where we were at...no change. What?!?! I almost cried. So go home or keep walking...I didn't want to go home, I was already there and obviously it was going to happen that day. I asked about inducing me as I was scheduled to be induced the next morning anyhow. Nope, not happening. So we walked for another 2 hours and had supper before going back again to be checked. The contractions were VERY painful at this point. I actually scared some guy in a hallway when a particularly tough one hit me and my hip snapped out and I almost fell in the hallway. Randy caught me and braced me against the wall but the guy came running thinking I was dying or something...poor guy!
So we head back to triage at 6:30pm and guess what? Now I'm at 4-5...whoopee...so again I ask to be induced and again they decline. I asked for my OBGYN to be called but they wouldn't because there was an on call OB to take me. On a side note, this is my most frustrating part of delivering a baby in Grande Prairie, you don't get your OB for delivery, you get whoever is there and on call. So again she tells us go home or keep walking here. By this time I'm exhausted and Randy is frustrated so he convinces me to go home. I really, really didn't want to...I was having monster painful contractions but I went. I popped a Tylenol when I got home and crashed on the couch; I even snuck in a cat nap!

At 9:30 I got up off the couch to use the washroom and *knew* we needed to get going to the hospital. We arrived and I was rocking some seriously painful contractions that on a scale of 10 were an 8. Into triage we go again and guess what? I was 6cm..what the heck! She said my waters were bulging though so they gowned me up and sent me to delivery.

The delivery nurses asked me what I wanted for pain and I asked for an epidural and refused all narcotics (morphine etc). They make me feel stoned and I didn't want that. So she heads out to call the Dr and person for the epidural and to prep to give me an IV. She comes back a couple minutes later and tells me my worst nightmare...no epidural. The person that gives it was gone for the day and wouldn't make it back in time so the Dr refused to call them back. They offer me phentenol (sp?) and I agree, the pain was unbearable. So she tries to start the IV and misses, fml! So the Dr comes in, breaks my water and proceeds to try to get the IV. He had Randy help him hold my arm and put pressure on the other IV spot. I have almost perfect finger mark bruises on my wrist as a result...





Apparently it's been awhile since the Dr put in an IV because a) it took like 10 mins, b) he spewed my blood all over the delivery room when he screwed up the first try. So by the time he to the stupid IV in I was screaming in pain and begging for drugs and then felt the need to push. So what does the Dr do? He crossed his arms on his chest and said 'well then push, no time for the drugs now'. I died inside at that moment...there was no turning back now.

I won't lie. It was the most excruciatingly painful thing I have ever felt and I hope to NEVER feel that kind of pain ever again. Thankfully I only endured about 30 mins of active labor and he was delivered in 3 pushes in under a minute.

The Dr let Randy announce that it was a boy and he was immediately placed on my bare chest. They no longer do suction at all or take baby away to be weighed etc right away unless you want. I wanted tummy time right away and to be able to breast feed right there. 10 fingers, 10 toes and everything else just right, Carter Michael came into this world at 10:20pm, Jan 28th weighing 7lbs 6oz and 20 inches long. A full head of dark hair; no doubt the cause of my endless heartburn in the pregnancy!

We stayed in the hospital till the 30th before being able to go home. He was checked out by Dr Odaibo who was Ethan's pedeatrician after his surgery. He did find that one of Carter's hips may be out so we are scheduled for an ultrasound at he end of Feb to see. If it is he will need to wear a leg brace for around 6 weeks to correct it and prevent a permanent limp. I'm not worried at all about it, it isn't life threatening so I can handle it!

It's been almost three weeks now since his birth and we're getting to know each other. He likes chest time with both Mom and Dad and has trouble sleeping between 10pm to 3am.  He thinks it's party time!  He is gaining weight like a champ and we're pretty confident he is going to be a very active, rough little boy...not at all like Ethan.  One thing's for sure, there will never be a dull day in this house with 2 little boys running around!  Here are my cute little guys!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

~Pregnancy 37wk 5 days~

Well I’ve made it this far!  I never believed it would happen, neither did the Dr frankly.  We’re both glad for it, the longer the baby waits, the better for the overall development!  I am in a foreign land though, I never went this far with Ethan so I’m experiencing ‘new’ things.  Not my most favorite experiences but new things.  Ie.  The inability to roll or move in bed without excruciating pain in my pelvis;  lack of any energy at all after two minutes of engaging into any activity;  the actual consideration of getting Depends because I’ve almost had 3 accidents this week… But there are more enjoyable things too…I can see when baby makes moves, there is definitely a healthy, active baby coming.  I am enjoying naps in my lazy boy.  I’m not usually a nap kind of person.  My mood has been good, no terrible, horrific hormones raging.

It’s been tough running Ethan to and from school every day, he only goes for 2.5 hrs and its in the middle of the day so you always feel like you are coming or going from school or planning to get there.  I am not enjoying the task at all.  I foresee me enjoying it significantly less when baby is here too.  There is no way around it though, he needs to go to school :) 

I am hopefully that I will bounce back after having baby quite quickly and not suffer through the problems I did with Ethan.  I had massive sciatic back problems and ended up dragging my leg around for almost a month, it was not pretty!  This time I will likely look for a chiropractor or go for a massage if it happens. 

I’m looking forward to experiencing a ‘normal’ baby though.  After all the uncertainties and worry associated with this pregnancy and us having another baby I am finally feeling like everything will be okay.  Both Randy and I are excited to experience bringing a newborn home from the hospital right away.  He’s taking a week off with us and will help with driving Ethan to and from school for awhile till baby and I get our ‘feet’ under us.  I’m uncertain at this point if any of my family are coming up…we’ll see.  We are open to visitors!

I go back to the Dr next week of course.  At that time we’ll talk about next steps if baby doesn’t make their own arrival plan.  I have been having contractions and lots of downward pressure so I don’t think there will be any issues with baby coming on their own but you never know.  As much as I’m ready to meet our little one and be done with being pregnant I’m still being patient.  I can’t wait to find out if it’s a boy or girl though! 

~Pregnancy Week 33~

I can’t believe I’m already at week 33 of this pregnancy.  It felt like it took forever to get over the Week 24 mark and now it’s flying by!  I have one more week of work then my leave begins.  I am beyond ready! 

I have bi-weekly appointments with my Dr now and the latest appointment showed baby happily stowed head down and looking great.  We’ve had so many ultrasounds and tests throughout that I am starting to release some of the worry that something will be wrong with baby.  It’s weighed so heavily on my mind…its like waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I know I will love baby no matter what and we will adjust our life to make anything work but I so just want a healthy baby to bring home like most other people.  Anyhow we will see in a few weeks…

The last few weeks of the pregnancy have been fairly uneventful.  I am pretty uncomfortable right now, my pelvis feels like its splitting into pieces with every step.  I would compare it to feeling like you are getting kicked between the legs with every step.  It doesn’t help that I keep slipping on the ice…I did the splits this week, that was not fun!  It’s hard to get up from a low position now, my stomach muscles are non-existent now.  I’m starting to really show now although I saw my family Dr this week and he couldn’t tell I was pregnant, it was kind of funny and took me back to the first time I met him.  Of course I have the usual aches and pains that come along with pregnancy…my back, my knees…even though I’m already a bigger person the added weight does a number to my body.  I still haven’t gained much, I’m not exactly sure but possibly around 15lbs now.  I’m very happy about it as I really didn’t want to come out of the pregnancy with any added weight, I already have enough to get rid of, LOL! 

Ethan is all about the baby right now, he likes to tell people that there is a baby in Mommy’s tummy and it’s going to ‘pop’ out.  He’s very careful around baby and even came up the other day and planted a kiss on my tummy for the baby.  I’ve let him feel when the baby is kicking but so far I don’t think he gets that part of it.  Also he is very vocal on his choices for names…he does not like the boy name we’ve picked out.  I don’t even know if Randy and I have finalized the boy name yet if it is a boy, I need to talk to him about that one I guess :)  Ethan sways back and forth on his choice for boy or girl, overall he’s pretty excited about it all.  I do think we’re going to have problems with him accepting a change to his home environment though, he’s used to making as much noise as he wants and playing throughout the house.  I’ve started explaining to him that we need to be quiet when baby is sleeping and we’ve watched Calliou shows where he has to be quiet because Rosie is sleeping and have talked about it.

The Dr doesn’t think I’ll make it to full term, we’re hoping to make it into January at least.  My official due date is January 26th so if baby arrives early like Ethan we may have a New Years Eve baby.  Wouldn’t that be crazy!  I was told at work that if I have the first Canadian baby of the year that there are awesome gifts and perks etc that you get…I wouldn’t complain about that!  I just am hoping to clear Christmas so that I can have a separation between the holiday and baby’s birthday.  But time will tell!

Baby’s room is finally coming together.  Just yesterday Randy put the carpet and molding in.  Today I need to touch up paint the walls and around the closet frame.  The door needs to go on then we can set up all the furniture.  It’s all in the garage waiting, I can’t wait to get it unpacked and see how it looks.  Then I need to do some wall art etc and wait to find out if we are bringing home a boy or a girl to finalize the decor.  If it’s a girl there will be a flurry of shopping happening to make it a little girl room!  If it’s a little boy I already have the cutest nursery set.  Needless to say, pictures will come forth!

So follow us on the last leg of this pregnancy as we get ready to add another little one to our family to make it complete.  We’re in the final chapter of this year long journey to have a baby…I can’t wait to hold baby in my arms and get to know this little one bouncing inside of me!

~Some New News~

We are pregnant again!  We didn’t wait in the end…we decided that it wasn’t worth it, we are ready and want baby to join us as soon as possible!  I wasn’t worried about not getting pregnant again, we have a pretty good track record, LOL!  I was not disappointed.  I think I was pregnant within 3 weeks of my miscarriage! 

I had my first prenatal appointment with the specialist last week and she was shocked to see me there so soon but was thrilled for us.  (I REALLY like her, if you need a OB/GYN in GP ask to be referred to Dr. Cano) I go for my first Ultrasound on July 19th and see her the following week.  So far,so good.  I’m nervous as of course and am reading into every little thing but I know that whatever happens it is out of my control.  I had massive exhaustion and nausea for the last two weeks but this week the exhaustion has slipped away.  It makes me worry but I’m going to remain positive. 

I’m guessing my due date will be right around the end of January, beginning of February.  I guess I will need to start thinking of fun things to do for winter birthdays, LOL!  I will probably go off work at Christmas and stay off, I had Ethan a month early so I want to have everything ready in case we have the same surprise!  We had planned to travel home for Christmas this year but I doubt it will happen now…I won’t want to travel for 8 hours when I’m 8 months pregnant! 

I have almost lost my resolve to not learn what we are having…but I’m holding out!  We are praying for a little girl but a little boy will be a great playmate for Ethan so it’s a win-win whichever way it goes. 

Anyhow I’ll keep you posted.  We’re so excited to be on this path again! 

~Working on Some Curb Appeal~

We’ve been in this house for 3 years this summer and it’s hard to believe that I haven’t done more work on the front appearance of the house.  I hate, hate, hate railroad ties in landscaping and the flowerbeds were just flat, non-dimensional rectangular areas of dirt.

So I set out to just plant my flat, non-dimensional rectangular area of dirt last weekend and ended up having a bit of a temper tantrum…I wanted the railroad ties gone and I wanted more out of my flowerbed.  So Randy and I discussed what we could do.  First of all we decided that we need to build new stairs…our old ones are starting to disintegrate. Where the mail lady steps up every day it is completely crumbling off.

Steps VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So that project is upcoming.  We need to borrow a bobcat to pull off the old stairs and get rid of them and then a weekend to build the new stairs.  I’m hoping we can do it towards the end of June.  We are able to plan out the rest of the front better though knowing that we are doing that.

So then I told Randy that the railroad ties had to go or I was going…that spurned a couple of hours of hard physical labor….and 500lbs of railroad ties to the dump later we had none left in our yard and I was a satisfied wife.  I know you are thinking “Why did you pull out those spikes to the sky made from stinky oil covered hunks of wood”  I’m sorry if it upsets you…just not my thing!  I even recall when we first saw the house I told Randy “Those have to go” Here we are 3 years later and I finally get it done!

Railroad Tie Removal VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So then I decided that the flat, non-dimensional rectangular area of dirt did not work for me anymore.  With the railroad ties gone the raised bed portion of the flowerbed was gone…it is pictured in the right side of this picture as it was before we pulled out the tie.  It just grew weeds and got no sun anyhow so it was no good to me.  Plus it was a tie…seriously…who decorates with ties?  Unless you work for CN it is a bit too much!

Old Flowerbed VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I also had to think of how the heck I was going to deal with this:

Dandelion patch VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This is the ghetto flowerbed to the right side of my front door.  It has a couple lilies in it that I got from Randy’s Mom last year that are coming in nice but the star of the show really is the dandelion.  As a matter of fact it stars in quite a bit of my yard…2 huge containers of roundup later I figured I had won the battle…or did I?  It is a week now since I sprayed the roundup…the dandelions are still alive and kicking…WTF?  I seriously have Chernobyl Dandelions…but that project will have to wait…I have $200 of flowers to plant…

So after the ties were gone and the excess dirt moved around I decided that the terrible roman path behind the house needed to come out…I hate the jagged, uneven rock path so much!  It is a total hazard.  Ethan has wiped out on it so many times I couldn’t even count.  So I had my strong, handsome hubby use my weak, broken wheelbarrow and haul up about 600lbs of stone from behind the house to put in front of the house.  The strong, handsome husband made it…the wheelbarrow did not and I got my stone from the back brought up to the front to use for my flowerbed! 

So it took me some time to decide on how I was going to use the rocks to add interest to my flowerbed and I finally decided to make a tiered pile of rocks and plant close to it to have the plants add to the rocks.  I don’t know if I’m done with it yet…I have one more flowerbed to do and I may add a couple more of the stones to the bed…I have lots!  I did get all my plants in (most of them are now perennials) and laid a really nice rubber mulch over top.  I like how it looks a lot better now.  I deliberately put nothing close to the stairs also because when we put in the new ones they will be destroyed.

New Flowerbed VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We are also planning on pulling out the walk and putting down a stone pathway.  It will extend wider at the driveway and move out a bit from the current path in order to be in line with the new stairs.  It won’t be happening very soon…those stones are really expensive!  So right now I just put two planters in the space that the walk will go.  I want to do my back path and I’m reusing the stone pads from the front in the back so I will have to do it at some point this summer because the back path needs to be done before winter. 

I am also putting in another flowerbed, just a small one where the ugly poky railroad ties were.  The ground was raised there and we were going to leave it and build a retaining wall for it but it was going to be expensive and not really add much to the appearance.  So I started to cut back the bank and try to level out the lawn.  Two hours into the project I decided that it would make a cute little flowerbed.  So that is the project for today…more stone from the back (I really have a lot of it!) and another trip to the flower store if needed and I will have a new flowerbed!  It won’t be the full shape as pictured here;  the stone pathway will flare out here,  so it will be a kidney kind of shape. 

Future Flowerbed VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I also attacked the dandelion bed yesterday…grrrr!  I cleared out all the weeds…pulling up a root system that was almost half an inch in diameter of dandelion runners.  That was hard, dirty, crappy work!  I took all the sod I had cut out from the area in the picture above and laid it up against the house at the far end of the bed.  Once the new stairs are in place I will be building a new flowerbed in this area.  For now I rough-guessed where it will be and planted grass in the other half of the bed.  Today I am buying a couple of shrubs to plant just around the corner of this bed.  They will provide cover for our deck and hopefully give us a privacy screen down the road.  Randy is also going to grab me a water barrel today for this corner drain.  It never works right and floods that whole area so I saw some nice ones at Costco and he’s going to but it and install it today.  For now I am leaving it with just the perennial lilies that are there and hoping for nice green grass to sprout up quickly in the rest of the area.

Former Dandelion Patch VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I am continuing to fight the dandelions…roundup didn’t work so I bought a Fiskars weed puller and have been diligently pulling them up.  I used it so much yesterday that it got jammed full of dirt and wouldn’t work anymore so I gave up on it for now…more weed pulling to come I’m sure!  I’m debating on stripping all the sod in the back yard and re-doing the whole thing…the dandelions have completely taken over.  But I told Randy for this year I will pull, pull, pull and re-seed and fertilize and see what happens.  If it’s the same next year it’s gone!  I may even hire it out…that’s hard work!

There is lots of hard physical work being done out there…and lots more to come. We are putting in the two new windows in the front bedrooms and re-siding the house this year as well…we are really amping up the curb appeal of the house! Randy and I don’t do anything half-measure remember…I’ll be so excited to see it done!  All this while the kitchen and bath renos are going on inside the house…more to come on that!

~A Long Few Weeks~

Long time no blog again for me…it’s been a long month.  Since we lost the baby our world has tilted and gone insane.  I think keeping busy is a coping mechanism.  Our kitchen arrived and in a marathon weekend renovation we ripped out and installed all new cabinets (a whole post on the renovation coming up soon).  We worked on it starting Friday night until 12am, 10am – 3am on the Saturday and 10am-4pm on Sunday.  We were bagged.

The next weekend we built and installed the new countertops on the Friday night and on Saturday finished it.  We drove to Moberly Lake that afternoon with friends to pick out our lake lot for the summer.  We liked the campground, it’s not fancy at all but it will do the job!  I’m not sure if our friends are going with us though.  Sunday was Mother’s Day and we went to a brunch at a local hotel with our friends the Smith’s.  After that instead of sitting with my feet up like I thought I would for Mother’s Day I started cleaning and cleaned the house for 5 hours…2 weeks of renovations wreaked havoc on the joint!

Every day of the week we ran doing things after work….now it’s the long weekend.  I had to work Saturday and I spent a couple of hours helping customers but then headed to the back and BBQ’d for like 6 hours for the staff.  They appreciated it so much…they could pop back and grab a burger or a polish sausage, have a bottle of water or munch on some veggies and fruit.  I even bought ice cream treats and cookies.  It was a great morale boost and I was so happy to do it for my staff. 

Today is Sunday and today we tile the kitchen floors and I’m hoping to put in my gardens.  Plus I have to get all the laundry done otherwise we will have to go outside and around the house to get it because we’re tiling the area to get to the basement and won’t be able to walk on it for 24 hours.  Monday is grouting day and then we are going to relax…

Randy is doing his molding job again at the Home Depot.  They are paying him the same rate as he makes for his day job so he couldn’t turn it down.  So that adds a level of craziness to his life.  Plus he is trying to study for the last part of his 3rd year challenge for his apprenticeship.  He heads to Edmonton June 9th to write the tests and do the practicals.  I have gotten behind with my course as well and need to get spending some extra time working on it to catch up.  I still want to get it down by July so I’ve got some serious make up time to do.  I’m still on the first Assignment so I have 2 more to complete before I write my final.  There will be a little busy working going on to get that caught up!

We really want to get all this hard work done by July so we can just enjoy the summer without having to work our tail off…keep posted, pictures of progress are surely to be posted soon!

~Top 10~

What is my top ten?  Well I thought I would do a Top 10 list at random times throughout the year on random topics.  So my Top 10 for March is all about Top 10 of 2012 to date…

10.  Teaching Ethan how to play Go Fish and Tic Tac Toe

9.  Trip to Edmonton to see Melissa

8.  Many fun days spent at The Multiplex

7.  My Mommy break time at The Mirage Holistic Spa

6.  Playing musical chairs with Ethan and Daddy

5.  Taking Ethan to Music Pups class

4.  Paying off ALL our credit card debt

3.  Planning our finishing renovations on the house for this summer

2.  Lazy days at home and a relaxed schedule for time off work

1.  Getting pregnant!!!

~Baby on the Way!~

Well it very early to let the cat out of the bag but we are pregnant.  I might be 3-4 weeks along at this point but I am not great with secrets and figure what harm is there in telling about it! My family Dr is guessing my due date will be around November 19th, we’ll see!

I have my first prenatal appointment on April 9th.  I’ve been referred to a specialist due to Ethan’s premature birth and issues with development in utero.  I have been told to expect lots of testing and pre-natal ultrasounds as well as a echocardiogram in utero.  I’m glad to have been able to plan this pregnancy and to be able to ensure that my body is free from any kind of drugs and that I’ve been taking my prenatal vitamins for a couple of months now.  Now that baby is growing I’m into my vibe of eating good and doing some light exercise to keep healthy and maintain a comfortable weight throughout the pregnancy.

It will be a very different pregnancy then with Ethan.  With Ethan we moved from Calgary to Ft Nelson to Grande Prairie and had some very stressful things happening for us.  Now we are happily settled in Grande Prairie with a house and good jobs and secure life.  I feel so much more secure and comfortable about this pregnancy! 

We have names picked out already but I’m going to look at some again…I’m not sure I’m sold on our girl name so I want to keep looking. Randy is pretty adamant about it being the one that we picked but let’s get real, I’m the one making the baby so I get final say!

We’re not going to find out what we’re having…I love the supreme surprise of it!  God’s secret till that special day!  So I’m doing our nursery very neutral, mostly just going to re-use what we had for Ethan’s room other then buying a rocker-glider for the new baby.  I’ll lose my craft room upstairs to the new baby but I’ll just take over the guest room downstairs and re-set it up!  We hardly have guests anyhow!

We’ll be doing lots of stuff to get ready for a new baby in our house…we’ve got to finish our renos on the house…kitchen, countertops, flooring upstairs and down, new bathroom vanities, windows, siding…it’s going to be a lot of work but I can’t wait!  We plan on starting full swing in April.  At this point I don’t think we are going to sell the house this fall.  The prices are just not where we want them to be and so we’re going to sit on it and see what happens in a couple of years.

I’m already feeling pregnant…the tiredness, hormonal bitchiness, zits like a teenager, back pain…I almost wonder if I’m further along then I think!  I’m sure I’ll have a better idea on the 9th when I see my OBGYN..I’ll keep you posted!

So excited to go down this path again…our last time.  I’ll be posting lots in the next couple of years for sure!

~New Windows~

A few weeks ago Randy and I were sitting talking and got on the subject of windows.  I was telling him some of the prices we had going on at work, he didn’t believe me so we went online to check them out.  Well as these things go an hour later he was in The Home Depot buying windows for our house.  We replaced all the windows on the back of the house;  the kitchen, our master bath and master bedroom.  We called up our friends’ the Smiths and Greg and Leanne came to town on the Sunday and spent the afternoon helping us install the 3 windows and our new patio door.  $700 and a couple of pizzas and beers later we had them all in!  You can’t beat that price!  The inside of the house looks a little shabby right now because we had to make the holes smaller and then drywall it in but we have new windows!!!  That leaves only 3 windows that we need to do.  One is Ethan’s room, the other the spare room upstairs and the other the only one in the basement.  We probably won’t change it out because it’s under the deck and would be a colossal PITA.  The other two we’ll do next fall when we re-do the siding on the house.

I’m looking forward to the walls being mudded, painted and molding installed but I’m happy to have new windows, I hated the old ones in the winter!!!  Anyhow just thought I’d share the latest renovation update!

~My son, the Deliquent...~

So I got my second call to go to the school to get Ethan from the Principals office last week...this last time I went they told me he essentially wasn't welcome to return to the classroom. Did he bully other kids? Yell at the teachers? Act out in the classroom? Use bad words? Nope he crapped his pants. Yup. He pooped. In his pants. So they just don't think he's ready at this time. So he got expelled from the Montessori preschool.

He will still be going to the PUF preschool Mon-Thurs mornings. They don't have a choice though...I'm disappointed but at the same time its probably for the best. I don't know how much he was getting out of it. He was pretty tired out on those days. He's still pretty young for full days. They said we can try again for January but I think I'm going to wait until next year. By then he'll have had a chance to really understand what it is all about and gain all the benefits of the PUF classroom. His speech is already showing improvement from just the last month and a half.

So thats the update for my little deliquent...expelled from school at 3-1/2!!!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

~Ethan’s First Day of Preschool~

Off we go for our first day of school!  Dressed in a cute little outfit with his ultra-cool Thomas back pack stuffed full of essentials for his classroom.  New indoor shoes, Kleenex, a change of clothing and a permission slip to let him go swimming monthly and on walks around the neighbourhood.  I look at these pictures and am so proud to be this little guys Mom!

I pray that he will have success in all that he does, that he works hard and sees the results, that he makes friends easily and avoids bullies, that he likes and respects his teachers because they’ve earned it from him, and that he achieves the dreams he sets for himself, not ones that others put on him (me included).

I took him into his classroom today, which apparently I’m not supposed to.  I’m supposed to drop him off at the door to the school and they will take them in from there.  No one told me that.  Oh well.  Next time.  Anyhow.  Ethan got in, took off his shoes etc. and put them away and went right to playing.  I spoke with a teacher assistant and got the low down on how we were supposed to do it.  When I was sure he could be left there I went over to him and said good-bye and told him to be a good boy.  He wanted a kiss & hug.  I gave him a couple…I started to leave and he says “Mommy”  I said “Yes Ethan”  , “I love you Mommy”  and that is when I lost it.  I said I love you back and bolted.  I barely made the school sidewalk before the boo-hoo-hoos started.  By the time I got to my truck I was into full waterworks!  Driving to work I was worried I would get a distracted driver ticket because I was bawling.  I composed myself, got into work and my assistant saw me and said “How did it go?”  and full on waterworks and boo-hooing ensued.  I think I may have scared her….

When I went to pick him up they were playing in the playground.  He was off on his own, shocker, and did not want to leave.  He said he really liked his teacher and school and he wanted to stay all day.  It took a lot of convincing to get him to leave.  Finally his teacher assistant grabbed him for me because he kept running away from me.  He decided she needed a kiss & hug too, she told him that she couldn’t wait to say good-bye to him again!  It was so cute!

Tomorrow is the big day.  He goes to the one classroom in the morning and then transfers to the the other for the afternoon.  He goes from 8:45 am to 3:15pm.  I have to make him two snacks and a lunch for tomorrow.  I have no idea what to send….Also his dish didn’t come home today from snack, not impressed!

I have such a good feeling about this whole experience for him.  He is going to thrive here!  He even already has a field trip planned too!  He goes swimming on Sept 19th, plus has an early out already next Monday!  I can’t keep up, my head is spinning!

Anyhow let me get to what everyone wants to see:

My little Preschooler with his Thomas Backpack:

Ethans' 1st day Preschool VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

~Bachelorette for the Weekend!~

Well I’m baching it this weekend as Randy and Ethan took off to his Mom’s house for a visit and I had to work.  I’m off on Sunday and plan on spending the day doing projects around the house that just don’t get done when I have a 3 year old hanging around.

I went on a shopping date last night with my friend Leanne after they left.  We hit the mall and got some summer essentials at Zellers and Children’s Place (Don’t get me started on the smoking deals they have going on right now!) and we also went to Dunvegan Greenhouses here in GP.  She wanted to get all her bedding plants and flowers for around her yard and I just wanted to get some planning done for mine.  In the end I bought 4 perennials and a GORGEOUS hanging basket and made some plans for the rest of my yard.  I need to do an overhaul on my flowerbeds as they were not at all successful last year.  I’m buying shade loving plants this year, because that is what I have to work with, and hoping for better results then the dead plants I had two weeks after planting last year.  I have booked my Lawn maintenance company to come over and work up my beds and I know I need to put some good stuff in them to help them along.  I just need to figure out what it needs…

I’m also budgeting to do some stone work up front with paving stones etc.  Based on the prices I’ve seen I won’t be doing it all this year but there is some that I would like to get done.  I’ll take some before and afters to show it off!

Our lawn is taking off with the work we had done to it.  Lawn 2 Lawn came and did a whole maintenance to it and then Randy and I overseeded it and threw down some Peat moss.  It’s starting to take off and I’m hoping the back yard will come back to grass this year…if not then next year I’m hiring Lawn 2 Lawn to come in a re-do it.  The front lawn is fine, it’s just the back that is crap.

Anyhow this post started off about my weekend alone and ended up being a narration of my gardening efforts….it’s what is on my mind lately!  I can’t say it enough…I love summer!

~Eco Audit/Renos Update~

So our Eco Audit came back already!!!  I can hardly believe that the government did something that quickly!  Anyhow I am happy to say that we took our house from an initial energy rating of 59% to an overall rating of 72%.  If we had done all the improvements that they had told us to we could have moved it to 79%.  We did everything except replace windows, doors, insulate the outside of the house and change the hot water tank.  Those things will be done in the next year.  Anyhow our house ranks in the top 10% of homes for efficiency for a house of it’s age!  I can’t believe that!

We have gotten back our furnace rebate cheque from the province and one rebate cheque from the federal government.  So far we’ve gotten back around $2500.  There is still a provincial rebate cheque to be issued and it should be around $1500.  So most of our money we spent doing the improvements is being returned, can’t go wrong with that!!!

Our gas bill has dropped significantly with all the improvements and the house was warm all winter long, no cold spots anywhere!  It became very apparent however that we need to do our windows.  They all were completely frozen over with condensate because they lose so much air.  So the plan is to do the insulation, siding and windows this fall.  We’re saving all the money from the rebates to do it.  I just need to make some decisions about colors for the siding, trim and doors.  I’m leaning towards painting my garage doors, entrance doors and trim black and using a creamy brown colour siding.  But there is a house on our way to daycare that is  cream colour with a burned red color for the doors and trim and I just LOVE it.  So I’ll have to do some mock ups and see what I like for our house style.  Of course no matter what I do we have to re-paint our fence and deck as well!  They are painted a greyish blue right now to match the house.  It’s going to be a lot of work but what a difference it will make!

We also decided that we would bite the bullet and do our own mudding and taping in the basement rather then hiring someone.  It is an awful lot of work but saves us around $1500.  So it is worth it.  We aren’t great at this but not horrible either and practice makes perfect!  So Randy is onto his second coat today in the hall, bathroom, laundry room and bedroom.  We’re breaking it into sections so that we can just move the furniture from room to room without having to haul it upstairs…thank goodness!  Once he is done this section I’ll paint it and then we’ll switch and do the main living area.  Once this is all done we’ll just have the flooring, trim and doors to finish the basement.  We are in no rush to do them because I can’t decide what I want for flooring. Well we will finish the bathroom down here at the same time so I’ll be picking out the tile for the floor and shower stall and Randy will install that while I paint.  I just can’t decide if we will lay carpet or laminate in the basement.  Carpet is so expensive!!! We’ll see, it is a next year plan!

We’re hoping that before all our company comes at the end of April that the painting etc. will all be done.  Pictures will come along as we go!  I can’t wait to show off all the hard work!

~Ethan Update~

So it has been a long four weeks for us here in GP.  Ethan was sick with Pneumonia at the beginning of the month and it just took him completely out.  He got better for a few days then slid downhill again.    On the 11th we had an appointment to catch up his immunizations.  I had delayed all his shots so he would be a little older when he received them.  So this was his 18 month shots.  He didn’t have any problems evident from the shots.  They did an assessment this day though and determined that he would benefit from a referral to Early Intervention for assessment.  The assessment we did determined that he has issues with communication (no shocker there), fine motor skills and problem solving. 

The helicopter Mom I am, I freaked out!  I got on the phone with all his people:  Speech therapist, audiologist, family doctor, daycare; and told them that we needed to get moving on intervention on his development.  I talked with his Speech therapist and we will be going back to see her the first of May.  We’re waiting until May so that he can be assessed as a 3 year old and our therapist is confident he will fail the assessment.  Why would we want him to fail?  Well if he fails then he gets to go into the intensive PUFF program in preschool.  His preschool is paid for and he gets the benefit of hands on help.  Our speech therapist also referred us to an Occupational Therapist to help with his fine motor skills/problem solving skills.  I haven’t heard from them yet. We are on a wait list for his hearing check up.  He hasn’t had a clear hearing test yet, every time we go his ears are blocked and it comes back inconclusive. 

With a lot of thought and contemplation we are considering moving Ethan to a different dayhome/daycare facility.  He doesn’t seem to be developing at an acceptable rate and I can’t help but think that his dayhome is part of the problem.  I went this week and checked out a daycare facility here but was sick to my stomach when I left so I’ve decided against that place.  Now I’m waiting for a call from the licensed dayhome society and hoping she can come up with a place for us.  It is hard to change, Ethan has been there for 2 whole years already and it is all he knows.  Lately he hasn’t been happy going there though so I think it’s time for a change.

So then we ended up this week back in the Doctors’ office because he was coughing and barely breathing and I was sure he had pneumonia again.  After yet another set of Xrays and bloodwork we meandered home with some new drugs.  He is on a liquid steroid and another inhaler.  Both meant to pump up his lungs up and make them stronger. The doctor thinks he might have asthma and has referred us for a consult with the Paediatric Asthma clinic next time it runs here.  Every time he gets sick we end up in the same place, wheezing and coughing.  He never has problems any other time, just when he’s sick.  Neither Randy or I have asthma so we know nothing about it so I have some reading to do…

So today we are better.  The steroids worked like magic and he is breathing fine and not wheezing or coughing at all.  We are working on some activities to help his fine motor skills and have lots of support.  I love the Parent Link centre here (Thanks for introducing me to it Chantel!)  They offer all kinds of support for kids development.  I went to them for help and they gave me another assessment to do with him and then they will go through it with us.  Together we’ll make an action plan.  Ethan and I are going to attend any play group we can there as well.  Most likely we will go on Friday mornings to the Singing with Liz class.  It will help with Ethan’s speech and I’m sure he’ll love it!  I’ve also ordered some toys designed to help with Fine motor skills and problem solving.  We’ll get there, I just want to be sure we’re doing everything that he needs us to do!!!

On the whole Ethan is a happy kid, it’s our job as his parents to remove all the barriers to his success and I’m working on it!  I sure love my little guy and hope that things start becoming easier for him soon!

~Long time No Talk!~

So I’ve been accused of neglecting my blog….I can’t lie, it’s true!  Life has been hectic lately and it’s not likely to change anytime soon!  Work has ramped up and I’m in the midst of my busy hiring season.  I need to hire around 40-50 people in the next month so I’m putting in some long hours to get everything done.  My schedule has looked like this:

5:30am – Get up and workout

6:00am – Make lunches, clean up kitchen from night before

6:30am – Make Breakfast

6:45am – Shower and get ready for work, Ethan and Randy get up and get ready to go.

7:25am – Leave for daycare

8:00am – Get to work

5:30pm – Pick up Ethan from daycare

6:00pm – Make supper, eat, clean up

7:00pm – Playtime with Ethan

7:30pm – Bath and Bed for Ethan

8:00pm – Back to work

11:00pm – Home and go to bed.

As you can see, no time for blogging!  Today is no exception and has an extra layer of crazy.  I have a conference call in 30 mins that I’m taking from home, then another at 8am from home and then dentist at 9am.  So I’ve gotta run and get lunches made!  Hopefully on my day off tomorrow I can write something more interesting!

~Basement Renos Part 3!~

Well we finally got the drywall for the basement.  Thankfully we have connections because we saved around $400 on the drywall.  I also scored some Oops paint the other day…5 Gallons for $45.  It is in a Light grey with a hint of green.  I’m going to see how it looks on one wall and if I don’t like it I will just take it in to work and get it tinted a bit more until I get something I like.  It is in Behr paint so I literally saved around $125 on my paint!  Love my job, I get such great deals…

Anyhow, Randy has been plugging away at the basement getting all the little stuff done until we could afford to get the drywall.  So yesterday he was prepared to just sheet it!

View Full Album

It is hard to see what is what in these pics because it just looks like a wooden box!  The big picture is looking from the far wall of the basement past the stairs from upstairs and down the hall.  The other pictures are of the main room.  Randy has the bulkhead re-built on the roof and created bigger pillars around the support posts, it looks so much better then before!  You can see in the middle smaller picture that the bar is gone!  Yup, I smashed it to bits!  That is where our bookcase is going; we are building in a book case there that will wrap around the corner to create a mini library.

I’m feeling the finish line approaching…we have to sheet the roof, which I’m not looking forward to at all, and then we have to give our friend a call to come mud and sand it for us.  Then I paint!  The carpet will have to wait for probably a year so we won’t be doing the baseboards until then either.  The doors will be done when all the painting is done. 

The goal is to re-do our bathrooms this winter.  We aren’t doing much to them, just a bit of tiling and painting.  We have to decide what we are doing in the basement bathroom…not sure if we are putting in a tub or just a shower yet.

Anyhow, we are getting there!  I will share more pictures when we are done the roof!

~Hospital Scary Time~

So we got hospitalized for the first time a couple of weeks ago…I knew that it would happen sooner rather then later but it didn’t make it any less scary for Ethan, Randy or I…

He choked on a piece of a Nutragrain Bar and it got stuck in his esophagus…I’m sure you can piece together the rest of how that went.  So he couldn’t eat anything and everything came up that we tried to give him.  So after 6 hours of nothing being able to go down I took him to the emergency room to get checked out.  They consulted with our specialists at the Stollery Childrens’ Hospital and decided to hospitalize us for observation.  If it worsened then we would be transported to Edmonton…

So we checked into room 329, right outside the nurses station, and settled in for the weekend.  We found the play room and the movies and the little kitchenette and got comfortable with our little environment.  They put Ethan on an IV and took blood to check him for infections and did Xrays to see if they could see anything stuck.  None of which were easy or fun for Ethan or I.  He was traumatized by the whole experience and it broke my heart to watch him have to go through it…

I stayed at the hospital with Ethan;  Randy came back and forth with the coffee and food for me…

It took until Saturday night until Ethan was able to eat anything and that was a Danino yogurt.  We were so happy!  From there we switched his hospital diet to a puree diet which he ate for two meals, then we switched him to a minced diet which he ate without problem the rest of the time we were there. 

We met with the Paediatrician on Saturday followed by the surgeons from Grande Prairie.  They all thought that he had suffered something being stuck and that it was likely now swollen or bruised and thereby difficult to eat.  The surgeons told me that they could do a scope to see what is going on but I told them that I would rather be sent to Edmonton where they deal with paediatrics if that was the course of action…

Long story short, he made a good recovery and we got discharged on Monday morning after meeting with our family doctor.  They made us an appt at the Stollery for Thursday for a check up and meeting with the specialist.

I had to fly to Saskatoon on Tuesday for work and Randy and Ethan headed to his Moms’ house in Vegreville until the appointment.  My boss (in my DREAM JOB) let me change my flight to stop in Edmonton so that I could be with Ethan during his tests.  Unfortunately my flight didn’t get in until 10:20am and his test was at 8:45am and I missed it…but I did get to go to the appt with the specialist in the afternoon.  

I have to say that it was the best meeting we have had so far with a specialist in regards to Ethan's’ care.    He gave us concrete “what to do in this scenario” actions and how to deal with different situations.  I’m very happy with the information that he gave us and feel better about what we can do when he chokes…that being said, we are going to get in touch with someone in GP who can teach us children's’ first aid.  It is time to educate ourselves…

We are all home now and Ethan is doing okay…we are cautious and keeping his diet pretty simple…I’m hoping that we gradually aren’t scared and feel okay with feeding him normal again…but I’m not rushing it!

So that was our excitement/scary time with Ethan…poor little guy!  Thank goodness the hospital had 1 Max & Ruby VHS tape, it kept us sane when Ethan was tied to an IV and couldn’t run around the playroom! 

~Basement Renos Part 2!~

Well the basement is getting there!  Slowly as we have money we are getting it updated to our tastes.  So the work has included finishing the bedroom and closets in the hall so far and walling off an entrance to the furnace room. 

Then last weekend we decided to get the insulation and poly up on the main area of the basement.  So while I worked Randy took down all the wall boards and got everything ready to go.  I was put in charge of hauling crap out of the basement.  Joy oh bliss!

Once that was done we put in the new insulation and threw some plastic over top.  It’s starting to come together now!  Next step (and hopefully next month) is to drywall the whole basement.  We have someone hired already to do the mudding and taping. 

It’s just time for me to pick out the color now…not sure what color to paint a basement with!  I’m leaning towards something in the brown or  gray family…we’ll see!

Here are the pics of the basement at this stage:  The picture on the left is of where the bar used to be.  I totally tore it out, mirrored backsplash and all!  We decided to not build in another bar but we are going to build shelves in the bar area and around the corner where the plumbing is for a library type area.

View Full Album

It looks rough right now but drywall, fresh paint and some furniture and it will be a great family room for us!  Hopefully next year I can afford the carpet and get rid of the 70s shag type carpet!

I’m making Ethan a playroom in one corner of the basement, Randy’s desk will go on the other corner and the TV area across from the foot of the stairs.  I will probably have to move my scrapbook room downstairs in the next couple of years when baby # 2 joins us but that is a ways off still! 

I’m really excited to get it all done and have a fun family area for us!

~Update~

Well no answer today.  Still getting through the process.  I need to provide a tonne of references for it to back up my experience.  Shoot me and just give me the freaking job already!!!  It is happening but just slowly…Tim told me today that he will let me know by Friday July 9th.  I told him I would like to know sooner…we’ll see.

Otherwise in the Grounds-Rogers household, we have tomorrow off together.  I plan on doing laundry, washing the floor and sleeping on the couch…then I work for four days then I’m on HOLIDAYS!!!  I can’t wait!  I’m finishing audits on Tuesday and Ethan will go hang out with our friend Leanne and her boys for the day because I have to drive to Slave Lake.  Then Leanne and I are going to a Tupperware Bingo party that night.  Wednesday I am heading to my Moms house in Hardisty for a few days.  Anyhow, I’m bagged tired and probably not making sense, LOL!.  Just wanted to drop a line!  I’m going to bed!