Bad Tummy Time

She sleeps best on her tummy. If I put her down during the day on her back or side, she's up within minutes. On her tummy, she's good for a while. It might be because she seems to have an achy belly a lot, maybe the pressure feels better.

At night, I always put her on her side. On her back, she's always gagging and waking herself up. So, on her side, at 2 weeks old, was the first time she managed to roll herself onto her tummy! My gosh, what is this kid doing to my nerves?! I'm in a constant state of paranoia and always checking for breathing.

Go figure I'd have a child who would go against the "rules" right from the start. Charlotte, don't you know we're not allowed to put babies to sleep on their bellies??!!

Charlotte with her purple mouth (we were being treated for thrush with very purple gentian violet!)

Charlotte's pooky "Made in Canada" cloth diapered tooshy.

Bye for now from the busy mamma,
Myrna

Out of Commission

I've been a little busy having a baby and all.

After feeling "unwell" for a few days, on the evening on August 30th, I decided it was time to go to the hospital, only to have the doctor on call send me home again because I was having "false contractions".

Well, False contractions my ARSE! Hubster decided we were NOT making the hour and a half drive back home and we booked a hotel room. But a couple of hours later we were back at the hospital, and I was getting a shot of nubane for the pain. The nurse still wasn't convinced I was really in labour but said the nubane would get rid of the false labour contractions. Real labour would continue, of course, and did. A couple of hours more and I was 5cm dilated. At this point I was starting to ask for the epidural. A couple of more hours after that and I was 8cm's dilated, BEGGING for the epidural, but told it was really too late. The doctor came in to break my water at 9cm's and before we knew it...

We were welcoming:

Miss Charlotte Joy
Born August 31st @ 7:59 a.m.
Weighing 8lbs 13oz (Exactly the same as big sister Sarah)
Measuring 52 cm long





We are all doing well. Baby isn't sleeping well and I am DEAD tired. Baby also has Thrush which have spread to the "girls", making breastfeeding the epitomy of discomfort but we are getting through. Hopefully we'll have the kinks figured out soon. After all, I do realize how quickly this newborn time flies by and I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible, even through all the crazy emotions and exhaustion.

And for the record, just because I did this birth SANS epidural does not mean I would ever want to do THAT again. If we should decide to have a third baby, I am more on board for the drugs than ever before...Yes sir, thank you very much!

I will apologize in advance for my lack of postings in the near future as our home computer died and I have only the very occasional moments of laptop use. Stay tuned, I'll do my best to keep you updated.

Today...

I'm copying Christa and her "Today..." posts...seems like such a nice way to give you all the lowdown...

Today...I got up super early and had a nice breakfast by myself.
Today...I realized how much bigger I've gotten in just the last week when a dress I've worn all along is now very snug!
Today...I was annoyed at the hubster for not attending church with Sarah and I.
Today...Sarah "read" her new book from start to finish (I guess she's heard it a few times).
Today...I felt, again, that labour might be starting, only for the "pains" to go away.
Today...I had a nice bbq supper with the in-laws.
Today...I got 4 scrapbook pages done after not doing a single page since May!
Today...I want a new SmartPhone but have no idea which one is best (without being too expensive).
Today...I'm tring to decide if I should work this week or call it quits.
Today...I showed Sarah her Newborn pictures, she didn't recognize me in the photos, and when I said, "That's Mommy!" she asked, "What's wrong with your face?!" Ah, the joys of labour!

And with that...a Good Today is now Good Night!

# 25. Send Vicki's VERY late Christmas gift

Vicki was just here in Nfld for a week-long vacation. I was so happy to see her and got to visit with her a little. I didn't have to "send" her Christmas gift, I ashamedly gave it to her in person. Shame! Shame! Shame on me for being such a terrible friend!

Anyways, here's the gift - a print from Jasmine Becket-Griffith of "Kali", who reminded me so much of Vicki, I just couldn't resist! I personally think her sweet face looks very similar to Vicki. I love the contradiction of how she's all innocent and sweet and fairy-like but at the same time is dancing around a fire with skulls around her neck - and Yes, that did indeed remind me of my awesome friend!



If you'd like to check out Jasmine's amazing art, her website is www.strangeling.com

Happy 5th!

Today is the hubster and I's (that doesn't sound like proper English) 5th Wedding Anniversary! Happy Day to us!

We have no plans. Unfortunately, life is very busy. Hubster is off work today until 7pm. I'm working all day and off at 7. Go figure!

We started it all off with a beautiful beach wedding in PEI with a small group of wonderful family and friends. And I've been thinking about what we've done for 5 years since:

- We went camping and forgot our first anniversary until the day was half over.
- We vacationed together alone and realized we need to vacation in a group to maintain our sanity as our views on vacations are quite different!
- We vacationed with a group (Phew! That was better!)
- We bought our first house.
- We had our first baby.
- We bought a business.
- We moved our family back home to Newfoundland.
- We bought another house.
- We await baby #2.

And in between all of that:
- We have laughed and cried;
- We have snuggled on the couch or sat as far apart as possible;
- We have talked or kept silent;
- We have argued and then kissed and made up;
- We have shaken our heads at each other in both joy and annoyance;
- We have judged and understood;
- We have questioned and relied on the sanity of the other;
- We have shared happiness and sorrow;
- We have lost and gained;
- We have withheld and discovered;
- We have coldly folded our arms or warmly opened them to embrace;
- We have been frustrated and relieved;
- We have opened and closed doors;
- We have felt, depending on the day, that 5 years is short and long.

Through it all, I think Dave Matthews sums it up very well:
"The space between the tears we cry
Is the laughter keeps us coming back for more..."

Happy Anniversary Jamie! Here's hoping for many more years of all of the above, with enough of the good stuff to keep the scales tipped in our favour!

#88. Make Wedding Cake: Jason and Holly - Cupcakes

Congrats to Jason and Holly who were married this past weekend, July 10th, here in wonderful west coast Newfoundland.

Holly asked me to make her a cupcake cake and after some research, trial and error, here's what we came up with...didn't they turn out awesome?!




Photo Courtesy of Jason and Holly's wonderful and amazing photographer, Christa Hann...Thanks Christa!

Cupcake cake idea courtesy of Kylie Lambert at Le Cupcake.

Cupcake stand tutorial courtesy of Cake Journal.

For more info on how you can order your very own cupcakes (or other yummy stuff!) contact The Chocolate Moose Bakery and Cafe at 709-453-2262.

Author: Krista D. Ball

We met back in the early 90's, mid-teens, starting to experience glimpses of life outside the confines of a parents wing. I cannot say I remember where we met, under what circumstances, what we said.

What I do remember is the letters. I loved to write, she loved to write. We were instant penpals, scribbling frantically back and forth week after week, talking about boys and school and disagreements with our friends. I was the pristine penpal - excellent penmanship, floral stationary paper with matching envelopes, stamp placed perfectly square in the top right corner.

She, on the other hand, wrote as she thought - much too fast for her hand! She would start out in "proper" form with "Dear Myrna, Today I ...blah blah blah..." and then suddenly you could see her thoughts taking over with no care for aesthetics. There were circles of words, words written off the page, sentences run out of space and continuing down the outside, flipped over to the back of the page, upsidedown. Stationary and envelopes were often recycled before recycling was the "in" thing - it was crumpled brown wrapping paper posted in an envelope someone else had sent her, turned inside-out and taped back together.

I loved receiving those crazy letters - I looked forward to the mystery that was inside, piecing together the details of whatever fantastical highschool journey she had been on that week.

And so, I was not surprised in the least, when we "met" again on facebook after several years, and she was in the middle of working towards her first published novel, "Harvest Moon".

Let me introduce to you my friend, Krista D. Ball, in her debut blog tour interview:

A Writer's Essential Blog Tour Foods

Hello everyone! I’m Krista D. Ball, a science fiction and fantasy (SFF) writer from Edmonton, Alberta. Today begins my blog tour, which I’ve seriously named “Krista Taunts the Internet: The Officially Unofficial Blog Tour.” Between now and August, I’ll be visiting a number of different blogs all over the web and doing guest spots.

Now, blog touring is a lot of work and a girl has to keep up her strength. My emergency blog tour snack kit will include:

· (Canadian) Smarties
That’s right. Smarties are not the same the world over. This shocked me to discover on my first trip to the US. Then, people tried to convince me that our Smarties were like M&Ms. Oh heavens, no! For maximum blog touring energy, Smarties should be mixed with ice cream.

· Walker’s Shortbread
There are very few store bought cookies that are better than homemade. Walker’s Shortbread is at the top of that elite list. Leave it to the Scottish to make the best cookie on the planet. Do not purchase if you are on a diet.

· Poutine
French fries. Gravy. Cheese curds. It’s gooey heaven. One of the best things about cooking a turkey is that you can use the leftover gravy to make homemade poutine the next day. Yum!

· Newfie Screech
As a writer, I believe it is important for me to continue the stereotype that all writers are half-cut most of the time. Being a Newfoundland gal myself, I would be remiss if I didn’t have a 40 ouncer of Screech in the cupboard. In case of emergencies, of course. Not for 10 am drinking.

· The Spud’s Onion Rings
There are only 5000 or so people in the world lucky enough to have visited The Spud. It’s like a chip wagon, only in a building. They make onion rings so good that I have been known to arrive in Deer Lake, NF after a 10 hour flight and asked the cab driver to take me straight to The Spud, even if it’s 2am.

· Mc Lobster
There is something so awesome and terrifying about eating lobster at McDonald’s. Yet, every year, McDonald’s in the Eastern Provinces (and I’ve heard some US states) serves up its famous McLobster. It’s been a decade since I’ve had one, but I demand several to survive a summer tour.

With this group of foods, I’ll make it through this summer tour with flying colours!

A special thanks to Myrna for letting me kick off my tour on her awesome blog.

For more information on Krista or her upcoming novelette, Harvest Moon, check out her website at http://www.kristadball.com/

#55. Write Poem: Pregnant Miss Muffet?

A pregnant miss Myrna
Pinned her clothes on the line.
It started to rain
Before it was time.
She headed back out
The laundry to fetch,
And felt a soft tickle
Right there on her chest.
She pulled out her collar
And when she looked down -
There was miss spider
Walking around!
Well, pregnant miss Myrna
She shrieked and she danced,
She pulled off her shirt
She undid the clasp.
She flicked off poor spider
in 2 seconds flat
No thought to the fact
that her belly was fat!
Miss Myrna, she sighed,
with her hand to her cheek,
Oh dear! She'd forgotten
the neighbours might see!

The end.

Photo Update

Okay, okay, stop nagging already! lol. I know! I am the absolute worse at uploading photos! So here's the latest....

One of Sarah in all her sadness as she prepares for the VCUG at the Janeway. In this photo, she is specifically crying because she didn't want to take off her Dora shirt to put on the gown. As always, bear is in tow.

We had a fox in our backyard. It was the day we arrived back from St. John's and Jamie was busy unpacking the truck. We were suddenly alerted to the presence of Mr. Fox by Sarah, who playing outside, began hollerin' and screamin' such bloody murder that we thought the fox must have attacked her! Turns out she thought we might invite the fox to stay in the house and she didn't want that...I can't imagine why! It's not like I've ever allowed wildlife in our house before.

And here we are at 25 weeks. We meaning ME and Sarah and baby in da belly. I'm measuring about 23 cm's at the doctor but my ultrasound shows as being right on track with my own dates. So far, 14 lbs gain - most of that in the past month! And please excuse my gorgeous bed head hair and mish-mash old t-shirt/Charlie brown pant pj's - Sarah and I had just gotten up.
And here's a super cute pic of Sarah, last Sunday, playing outside. I know I may be slightly biased but isn't she just the cute-EST!
Last but not least, the cupcake wedding cake I made today...I'm quite pleased with it! Isn't it nice?

Thanks to Kylie Lambert at Le Cupcake for the idea...my imagination cannot take the credit.

(Holly, if you see this...this is similar to how your cupcake cake will look as well. Except you'll have lots more cupcakes on the table (I understand we're not adding more layers to the stand because you'll be on a potentially rocky BOAT...yay!) and you have chosen to have cupcakes as the top layer as well instead of the double-layer cake. And, yours will be black & white. It's gonna look great!)

Don't be surprised if my next uploads are not until about 6 weeks after baby arrives in September :)

Craving Cheese

Not literally.

This morning I got up and made my usual breakfast of toast and tea and a glass of milk. I set it all out on the table atop a Dora placemat. I pulled out the chair onto our (fake) hardwood floor..... nothin' but a big screeeeeeech and scrape!

"I need chair socks", is what I thought in my head, "those little ones Nan knit for the bottoms of her chair legs." No more screeching and scraping my floors. "I wonder who could knit 24 of those terribly intricate little things."

(there's even a free pattern online)

I sat down to eat and looked around at my efforts to be somewhat stylish and modern in my home decorating and thought, "Chair socks! My goodness Myrna, what are you thinking?! Could you crave something a little less cheesy next time?". It's seems pregnancy isn't always about the food.

The craving didn't pass. I've just arrived at the office and I'm still thinking of chair socks. I don't want the little felt circle thingies that go stuck (and hidden) on the bottom of the chair legs. I want the newfie hand-knit "what the heck were you thinking?" conversation-piece SOCKS! I want them...I want then now!

(I also sometimes find myself using a....um....plastic floral tablecloth!)

Do you ever crave this kind of cheese?