10 Things

Jumping with Joy

As Baby # 2's arrival rapidly approaches, I can't help but think back to my wish list. At least 10 things that I had hoped would be accomplished before her arrival. All involving Baby #1. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Potty Training. Shortly after she turned 18 months, we purchased a potty. Initially, she was very intrigued. Within the first week, she had 7 successful trips to the potty. How easy is potty training? we thought to ourselves. Then all of a sudden, she lost interest. Since then, she enjoys sitting on her potty, but refuses to lower her pants. We do have a plan though. We purchased some cloth training underwear, and some Smarties as rewards. She doesn't think too much of her training pants, but ran to her potty today with great speed when she realized she would be rewarded with Smarties. She was only partially successful in filling her potty, but there is certainly hope...

2. Sleep in her own bed. She slept with us for the first 5 or 6 months of her life. We then tried to transition her to her own crib. With partial success. However, when she turned 18 months, she climbed out of her crib, and so we converted her crib to a toddler bed. Now when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she simply makes her way to our bed, jumps up between the two of us, where she spends the remainder of the night. We tried returning her to her bed on a few occasions, but the effort it took to get her back to sleep alone seemed too great compared to just all falling asleep in the same bed. If we are lucky, she joins us at 4AM. When we are unlucky, she joins us at midnight.

3. Sleep through the night. She has slept through the night on a dozen or so occasions. But perhaps because of the ease with which she can get out of her bed and into ours encourages her to not sleep through the night?

4. Fall asleep on her own. When she is exhausted, and the situation is right (e.g. a smooth car ride), she might fall asleep on he own, but for the time being we still rock her to sleep. However, since she has given up her afternoon naps, she falls asleep with great ease in the evening, and very quickly. Just not on her own. But at least we get a few hours to ourselves before we too retire for the night.

5. Stop drinking formula, and start drinking cow's milk. I breastfed her until she was 15 months, and then transitioned her to a soy-based formula as we thought she was allergic to dairy at the time. After allergy testing at 18 months of age, we discovered that dairy was no longer a problem. However we simply stuck with the same formula because we knew she liked it. Over the last 2 months, we have tried on several occasions to replace some of the formula in her bottle with homogenized cow's milk. She did not seem to notice the change. However, her bowel movements became looser, and I feared lactose intolerance. In hindsight it may have been a coincidence, as she simultaneously had a cold virus (which, depending on the strain, can sometimes also lead to looser bowel movements). Currently, we are attempting for the third time to replace part of her formula, and so far so good.

6. Stop drinking from a bottle. We have her down to 4 bottles/24 hours. One at bedtime; one around 6AM when she wakes up. The two other bottles are during the day; one right before nap time, and the other when she wakes up from her nap. However, now that she does not always nap, I have tried placing the milk in a Sippy cup instead. She drinks it, but not nearly as much. Her appetite generally varies quite a bit, but if there is one things that we can count on, it is for her to drink all 4 bottles. I am hoping that one day soon, she will simply refuse to drink from a bottle, just as she refused my breast milk when she turned 16 months.


7. Give up her pacifier. We try using it only for bedtime, and during long car rides, but truth be told, we have not tried very hard to get rid of the soother. With all the other things to accomplish, we thought we would leave this to last. We will probably draw the line though at 2.5years...mostly because anytime I am out and about and see a 3 year old with a pacifier, I cringe.

8. Hold conversations. While her vocabulary has expanded significantly since my post on speech, we are still not holding conversations. She has now added Cookie, Papa, Kaka, Peepee, Happy, Yucky and Up to her short list. But it is difficult to explain to her the importance of using a potty, or staying in her bed when the conversations are unilateral. I truly believe this last point will facilitate many of the other items on my wish list, but it is the one that we will have to be most patient with.

I can no longer think of the other two items...or perhaps there were simply 8, and "10 Things" just sounded like a better title. One thing is certain, the arrival of Baby # 2 will create some significant change. She may well regress on a few items, but it may be the impetus for positive change on other items. For starters, the four of us will simply not fit in the same bed...

Baby's Room

Baby #1 plays with future Baby #2

At long last, the Baby Room is complete. Over two years later than intended. Initially, the baby's room was a shared office space. I wasn't too worried as Baby #1 slept in our room for the first 6 months of her life. We then attempted to move her to the shared office/baby room. Against one entire wall was our custom-made office furniture. Against the opposite wall, her crib and our glider resided. Her dresser was around the corner from the entrance, opposite the window. This worked out as she only spent part of the night in this room. During the day, we closed the door, and used the office space only when all three of us were home. Then Baby #1 learnt to open doors, and climbed atop the office furniture. And one day, when she was about 18 months old, we realized that we would have to get rid of the office furniture.

We have been working diligently (yet slowly) on the kids' room since then. The first step was to get rid of the office furniture. The only trace of which is the framed world map that we kept in her room, and a few books and magazines that remain on the top shelf of her shelving unit. The next step was putting her shelving unit together. We bought two units to take full advantage of our high ceilings. We bolted them together, and then to the wall. This unit allowed us to organize her toys, books, and blankets. We then invested in carpet tiles, and put up a few decorative items. Baby # 1 seems to like the end result. She often points to the birds above the crib, and to her baby photos with a big smile on her face.

Where will Baby # 2 sleep? you might have asked yourself. We have a bedside bassinet which we will keep in our room for the first 4-5 months of her life. We then plan on converting Baby #2's toddler bed back to a crib for Baby #1's use. We are not sure what sleeping arrangement Baby #1 will then have. We were thinking of a fold-out kids-sized sleeper, or perhaps a small floor bed. And then when they are a little older, we were thinking along the lines of a trundle bed similar to this one:

Day Bed with trundle that pops up to the same level (Duetto, by Flou)

Without further ado, here is the new kids's room:

Baby # 1 plays with her toys

Two shelving units help with organization

Baby # 1 at 3 weeks above Luca Glider 

Safari animals walk atop the world map

Transferring toys to her toddler bed

Sonos music system next to 1st year photos

All smiles!

Last Week of Work!

Dressing Up; If only it were warm enough!

The countdown begins! As I write these words, I have only two days of work left until my maternity leave officially begins. Last time around, I worked right up until I was full term (37 weeks gestation). This time around, I am stopping a week earlier. Although I had made myself available until 37 weeks, I was only scheduled until 36 weeks and a few days. And I couldn't be happier. Not that I don't enjoy my work. I am simply finding that I am a lot more tired this time around. And I have no doubt that it has everything to do with Baby # 1. There is a reason why we (lovingly) call her Brat.

From early morning until she finally goes to sleep in the evening she has an endless stream of energy. On the rare occasion that we stay in all day, she runs around the kitchen, into the dining room, past the the island stools, into the main hallway, and then loops around again. Over and over again, begging us to chase her. As though she knows that she needs to expend energy. For about a week now, we have actually stopped forcing her to nap during the day. Firstly, it was a chore just to convince her to sleep. It would take so long to convince her to nap, that often she would only fall asleep around 15h. After a two hour nap, she would then be recharged, and refuse to go to bed until around 22h. We had considered waking her up from her nap after only an hour, but on the few occasions where her naps were curtailed, she was in a very cranky mood the rest of the day. So we thought, why not cut out her nap altogether, and see what happens. We certainly didn't prevent her from napping. We followed the usual pre-nap routine, but if we were unable to convince her to nap by 15h, we decided to let her stay up. She now goes to sleep between 20h and 20:30h, and we finally get a few hours to ourselves in the evening. She is rarely cranky in the evening, and she seems to sleep a little better at night, waking up anytime between 7h and 8:30h.

The side effect of cutting out her naps, however, is that I too no longer have the luxury of napping during the day. And as my third trimester progresses, I feel more and more tired. During my first pregnancy, I had the advantage of resting when I pleased. And I can only imagine that things will only get harder once Baby # 2 comes along. Baby # 2 will no doubt keep me up during the night, and Baby # 1 will prevent me from napping during the day!

A Week of Firsts

Hanging out in her new chair

This was a week of firsts. Not monumental firsts. Not even milestones; but firsts nonetheless. The first first is about snowmen. Although she had never before built one, she recently became engrossed with them. She would point them out in books and on posters. We even made a few out of Play-doh. But this Thursday, she built her very first real snow man. Thanks to over 25cm of snow that had descended upon us. Both the Baby's father and I were working, and when we arrived at my mom's house to pick her up, we found the cutest snowman on in the front yard:

Putting finishing touches on her first snowman 

Her second first made us very proud. We were getting very worried about our capillary-challenged daughter. Not only do most people still mistake her for a boy, but her mullet was only getting worse. Remaining short in the front, it was growing longer by the day in the back. We were seriously considering trimming it, but some very adorable pigtails changed our minds. First time with her hair up in pigtails, curtesy of her aunt and grandmother:

Finally looking like a girl

And finally, the last first happened just Saturday. I returned from work a little before 17h to discover my daughter had learned to do walking flips with her papa:

Flipping with Papa

Rest for the Weary

Hanging out with her Cambridge cousins

As has now become an annual tradition, we headed to Cambridge (Ontario) for five days at the end of December. Our extended family, including the Baby's grandfather, aunt, uncle and two cousins live there. I had been looking forward to the trip for a few months. The last time Baby #1 had seen her cousins, she was 10 months old, just learning to walk, and cautious in her interactions with others.

We decided to fly, as we have for the last three years. A six hour drive with the baby in tow did not seem alluring. Especially a baby who still doesn't enjoy car rides, but who will behave for approximately 30 minutes. Had we timed the drive to coincide with her two-hour nap, that would still leave us with three plus hours of whining, and likely tears. So off we went to the airport. Unfortunately we ran into delays both ways. Apparently due to the weather in Toronto. On the way there, take-off was delayed for an hour because Pearson Airport had only one runway open. On the way back, there was a 35 minute delay in takeoff. First the plane was "too cold and needed to be warmed up", and then due to "extreme cold weather" there were delays in loading the luggage. Interestingly enough, the weather conditions on both days were quite mild compared to our Montreal weather.

Other than the minor flight delays, we had a fantastic time. I was sure the Baby would enjoy the company of her two cousins, ages 8 and 11. But I did not anticipate the degree of enjoyment. From the moment she set eyes on her cousins, to the moment she bid them adieu, she simply could not get enough of them. So much so, that I am certain she forgot completely about her parents. They played together, sang together, laughed and ate together; over and over again every day of our five-day visit. And so rested her weary parents!

Here are a few photos from our mini-break:

At an indoor playground with her cousins

Sliding with her cousin (out of focus, taken with i-phone)

At the airport in Toronto

Enjoying a treat at Tim Horton's

Third Trimester Ulatrasound

Baby # 1 showing off her baby doll

While not routine in North America, nor in all Canadian provinces, third trimester ultrasounds are standard in our province. I had my 32-34 week ultrasound this last Thursday. The general idea behind a third trimester ultrasound is to ensure that the baby is growing normally. Measurements of head and abdominal circumference are taken. The bladder, stomach and kidneys are evaluated. The depth of the amniotic fluid around the fetus is also measured. The position of the placenta is determined, especially if it was found to be low-lying in a previous ultrasound. The baby's position, while easy to determine on this ultrasound is not that important, as the baby tends to change position regularly; and is only important after about 37 weeks (position can be evaluated by simply palpating the uterus from the outside). And finally, any anomalies discovered during the 20 week ultrasound are re-evaluated.

With Baby #1, I remember the third trimester ultrasound quite well. Mostly because I had asked my husband to come along. I thought he would enjoy seeing our future baby via ultrasound. While I think he enjoyed the experience, I remember thinking in hindsight that it would have been more interesting for him to have viewed an earlier ultrasound. Mostly because everything is so big at this stage, and I don't think he got much out of viewing close-ups of the brain, kidneys and bladder. At an earlier ultrasound, however, the entire baby could be viewed on the same image.

With Baby # 2, I went solo. Mostly because someone had to watch Baby # 1. While I wasn't as excited as the first time around, I certainly enjoyed viewing the images. She was quite active, regularly kicking against the ultrasound probe. Enough to actually elicit an "oh my goodness" from the ultrasound technician. All the measurements were normal, and it was a relief to discover that she was growing well. She was hiding her face with her tiny hands for the most part, but I did catch a few glimpses of her sweet face:

Sneak peak at Baby # 2's face

Speech Therapy

Getting ready for bedtime with Papa and Teddy

At her 18 month appointment with the paediatrician, I voiced my concerns vis-a-vis our daughter's lack of speech. Although she was babbling quite a bit, her only consistent word was "Mama". The paediatrician, however, was unconcerned. She did ask that we make her two-year appointment a little early as to avoid bringing two babies at once (given that Baby # 2 is expected around Baby #1's 2nd birthday).

Her 2-year appointment with the paediatrician is approaching in a little over a month, and I found myself worried about Baby # 1's speech (or lack thereof). I had been replaying imaginary conversations in my head. "She still only says "Mama"?  Why didn't you tell me earlier? You will have to meet with the speech therapist as soon as possible!" would say the paediatrician. She would go on to delineate what was normal and average for a 2-year old: Speaks about 50 words but understands even more; links two words together; uses simple adjectives such as "big" and "happy"; speaks clearly enough for parents to understand some of the words. My responses would vary from defensiveness, explaining that the Brat's father also spoke late, but speaks perfectly well now...to fear of a pervasive developmental disorder.

Until last week, that is. At long last, our baby has added to her vocabulary. These are a few of the words that we believe she now speaks:

Baby
Maybe (half-way between Mama and Baby?)
Car
Girl
Truck
Circle or Purple (we are not to sure)
No (sometimes pronounced as Na)

Oddly enough she calls her papa "Ma" (half of Mama?).

But at least there has been progress. This happened rather suddenly about two Sundays ago, and she has been adding to her list almost daily. She still has quite a bit of catching up to do compared to the average 2-year old, but perhaps speech therapy can be avoided after all!