Oh the fun we will have!

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby, Engineering Princess, General, Higher Education

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This is the point where I usually talk about favorite moves of the past year, but I really haven’t seen too many movies, definitely not enough to make a list. The past year has been strange and though I managed to do some fun things, most of the time I was really tired, partially from work and school, partially from being pregnant.

I don’t really know what to expect for the next year and I do not want to make any resolutions. I will spend most of the time taking care of Owen and Trevor. Trevor loves being outside, and I want to encourage him so I will try and get him to be outside as much as possible. However, I will also have Owen with me, so this might prove to be difficult from time to time.

I want to work on getting back into shape. I did pretty well during the pregnancy, but I still have far to go. The challenge with this is that I do not want to overdo it and end up in physio like I did last time. I am hoping to do a lot of biking, which will be challenging because Owen will still be too young to take on the bike. I also want to do some cross country skiing, but how I am going to manage that, I have no clue. I probably won’t.

I need to finish my thesis. I have been making very slow progress over last six months.

What I will probably be able to do is spend time with my boys. I just have to make sure I am rested enough to be able to enjoy myself.

A big sigh

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby

Owen

I am so overwhelmed. I have been planning to write about birth, but was hoping to avoid alluding to anything gross which pretty much rules out anything remotely interesting about giving birth. In any case, the birth went well. It was actually pretty funny which was fitting as it started during a comedic play.

The “active labor” started around 3:30 AM and lasted just under 5 hours. We were being really geeky and kept the eye on the contractions monitor to see how strong the contractions were. As if I didn’t know. I was pretty prepared for it between the Yoga I did during my first pregnancy and the Spinning I have been doing this Fall, I knew that I can physically do anything for two minutes at the time and that attitude helped.

The doctor who did the delivery was the same doctor that delivered Trevor which we were really glad for. This time he had a resident side-kick. He reminded me of my sister’s med school friends, the goofy ones anyway. The delivery doctor was quizzing the resident throughout the delivery along the lines of “what could go wrong at this point?” and “what would you do if it did?” which I could imagine would be somewhat disconcerting to some patients but I found it really interesting and funny.

Owen was very considerate and obliging and he got himself in the perfect position to be pushed out. He cried a little bit, but was very dignified otherwise. What I find really interesting is that his head looked about the same size as the rest of him. He is just about to get back to the weight he was at when he was born, but his body looks about three times bigger than at birth. Not that I have any measurements or anything, but this is how it seemed like.

It was really nice to hug him pretty much as soon as he was born. Trevor was placed on my chest when he was born as well, but I was drugged and could not move too much. I don’t remember if I could move my hands. This time I managed to avoid epidural or any other pain killers so I could hug my new baby as much as I wanted. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad when they gave me the medicine baggy after everything was over.

Now that I am a bit more sensible as a parent, I actually managed to get some sleep, Owen, again, being very obliging. This time around I have had and will have one or other grandparent around until February. This makes so much difference. Being home alone the whole day the week Chris went back to work when Trevor was born was really hard. Then again, I can’t tell the future, we might still be on the honeymoon… Come back next week for the “Honeymoon is over” post.

At home

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby, Engineering Princess2 Comments

Yesterday was my last day of work. I managed to finish up my projects and leave everything as tidy as it could possibly be. I feel like such an Useful Engine.

So today is my first day at home. I made myself a to-do list but have not really accomplished much from it. It is just nice to be at home and enjoy some quiet time. My excuse is that I don’t have much of it left.

I have to decide whether to set up a separate blog for Owen or just hack him into Trevor’s blog. I am leaning more on putting him in Trevor’s blog because I suspect I will be writing about both of them at the same time. I guess I could always cross-post, but then people who follow the blogs through the Reader would get the same post twice or something.

I have been feeling pretty good considering how far along in the pregnancy I am. The lack of stress at work because I managed to close up all of my projects and ability to get enough sleep to get me through the day made everything so much better over the last few weeks. I am still tired and am eating like there is no tomorrow, but I think this goes with the territory.

Bundling up

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby, Engineering Princess, General

We’ve had the first snow last week so it is definitely late fall. I am getting ready for the Season. I just finished the bulk of my Christmas shopping. I still have a little bit of sewing and a lot of knitting to do. I don’t really have to do any of it, but I find that knitting is very relaxing lately. It is much more convenient than reading when Trev is around. I can talk to him and play with him while knitting and when he is not around I am too tired to do anything else.

My pregnancy is going well so far. I am now in my 35th week. Five weeks away from the due date and two weeks away from the point where Trevor was born. I am feeling good, though, like pretty much all through this year, very tired. I still have three weeks of work left and it still looks like I will be able to wrap up my projects. I have a lot of things to get done at home, and unless Owen comes early, I just might be able to get those done as well. I am expecting Owen to be the polar opposite of Trevor, I don’t know why. Perhaps because he is sitting in the textbook position whereas Trevor was breach. Then again, before Trev was born I thought I was going to be the strict parent and Chris the softie, when it is actually the other way around.

Sibling Rivlary

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby2 Comments

I got upset at Trevor this morning because he took apart Owen’s diaper cake. It is not as if Owen cares, will ever care or even notice, but I thought it was really cool of Luisa to make it, and it made me smile every time I glanced into the nursery.

It is not particularly surprising for Trevor to have taken it apart, it was very interesting looking, with little toys and things, and we did not place it in a place where Trevor was not able to reach it. On the other hand, he knew it was not his and that he should not play with it.

I think Trev realises that he should not have done it and he asked me if we can fix it. We will try and fix it tonight. I will also have to have a conversation with him about the trials and tribulations of being a big brother. I feel a bit hypocritical about it since I was much older than he is now when my sister was born and despite the fact that I did not have to share living space or toys with her, I still wasn’t always a model big sister.

It is still hard to come up with a good way of talking to him about it. I am thinking of telling him that having a little brother is going to be difficult, because we will have to spend a lot of time taking care of him and we will be very tired most of the time. Also, eventually he will start to get into Trevor’s toys and might break things without meaning to. However, he will probably love and look up to Trevor very much. So being a big brother will be a big responsibility but it might be lots of fun as well.

What would you tell him if you were in my place?

Film – The Informant!

Posted on by boj Posted in Film, Gardening, General

I’ve had a very lovely weekend. Trevor went to visit his Grandma in Montreal and Chris and I were left to fend for ourselves. We missed him a lot, but we managed. Saturday was my birthday so Chris took me on out traditional birthday fall foliage tour. We started off in Carp, where we went to the farmer’s market and got some fruits and veggies. We also had some tasty hot cider which suited me very well as the weather is turning chilly and I am still a bit hoarse from my cold.

We then took a scenic ride to Carleton Place where we went to one of my favorite cafes, The Good Food Co. and had a light lunch with more tasty hot cider, this time with a twist of orange and cinnamon. We walked around Carleton Place for a bit and then continued on to Quebec via the ferry. Through scenic Gatineau Park we arrived in Wakefiled where we walked around some more, looked at the steam train and then had lovely dinner at Chez Eric.

On Sunday we run errands and closed down the back yard for the winter. We’re going to get our little boy from Montreal tomorrow. I hear he has been having fun as well.