Month: January 2013

Gwen at nine weeks; so cute & happy!

Not for me, I’m officially off work from my ~real~ job until September >:)

After Gwen was born Taylor took a week off of work, and then he worked from home for six weeks, and then he got a week off at Christmas because he’s been with his company so long, and then he took another week off! And it’s been amazing having him home- during those six weeks while he was up working all night he was also looking after Gwen, so do you know what I was doing? SLEEPING. Sleeping for six, seven, eight and I think once twelve hours a night. Sure, there were some nights when he’d be really busy and I’d have to get up to feed and change and cuddle the baby, but more often than not I would get a full night’s sleep. And then I’d look after Gwen and Taylor would get a full day’s sleep.

Of course that can’t last forever so this week he is back in the office- just three nights a week, Mondays and Fridays he’s still working from home. Monday night (which is his Tuesday shift since he starts work at midnight) was my first night at home with Gwen all alone. And it was so weird! I was worried she’d keep me up and I’d get no sleep but she was a perfect angel and slept from 1:30 until 8:30. Last night was about the same (bed at 12:30, up once at 2, back to sleep until 7:30), and while it’s nice that she’s so easy to deal with I still miss having Taylor here, even when he’s working. It’s just nice to know that he’s around.

I know I said this about one month, but I CAN NOT BELIEVE it has been two months already since Gwen was born! Time really is flying, and it’s freaking me out!

Gwen is such a happy baby. Ever since she was three weeks old we’ve been rewarded with big gummy baby smiles, and as she grows and becomes more interactive and aware these have increased in both frequency and magnitude. She really rarely cries- at our prenatal class and on the maternity ward tour and in the hospital they really stressed how much babies cry, I guess to hammer home the point that it’s normal so new parents don’t freak out about it, but this baby? Not so much. I mean obviously she cries when she’s hungry or uncomfortable or overtired but she’s never inconsolable. Most of the time she’s perfectly content and when she isn’t all it takes is a quick cuddle to cheer her up again.

She’s also a big baby. It’s been almost three weeks since her last doctor visit so I’m not sure how much she weighs now but she is already growing out of her 0-3 month clothes. Today she’s wearing a 3-6 month onesie that basically fits her perfectly! I think she’s going to be tall like her daddy. And she’s so lovely! Her hair is starting to get a little curl to it and I know her eyes could still change colour to be blue like Taylor’s or green like mine but for now she has the prettiest grey eyes. I feel so lucky & blessed to have the most wonderful baby in the world.

These collages are my favourite.

Ceramic leaf made by Sym in grade three, kukui nut necklace from the Fairmont Kea Lani.

Continuing my theme of starting fresh in 2013, I spent the whole of last night cleaning and rearranging my bedroom. I don’t have any before pics but it was cramped and messy and dark. Now it’s open and tidy and dark (basement apartment room, one window, which is the reason these pictures aren’t great), and 1,000% better.

I moved the bed over a little and there was room for the dressers on the south wall- before they were on the (shorter) west wall and stacked up and it was dark and oppressive and I was over it. I actually want to replace these with taller dressers (Taylor has too many clothes to fit them all in ONLY six drawers) in white, and I still need to paint and get curtains but for now this is good.

To stop Taylor (and myself… ) from piling dirty laundry and garbage all over I arranged some knick knacks and things on top of them.

I’ve had this vintage typewriter since 1998. THAT’S RIGHT, I INVENTED WHIMSY.

These are the unread/currently being read books in my room: Sailor Moon 8, The Vampire Diaries & The Secret Circle, Sym’s copy of Under Wildwood, and the copy of Reamde I gave Taylor for Christmas in 2011 which he hasn’t read yet (RUDE). Fun fact: that little skull is full of vodka.

My unikeet & unicorn.

Also yesterday I finally solved the side table problem I was having in Gwen’s room. I couldn’t find anything the right size/height/price/colour, but yesterday I was at Michael’s and they had all their storage items 50% off. I picked up this open cube for $25 and added some castors I had lying around the house and voila!

When Sym was a baby she hated having baths. HATED IT. She would scream and cry inconsolably throughout the entire thing, and after trying different baby bath supports and sinks and what-have-yous her dad and I found the only way to have a breakdown-free bathtime with her was for one of us to get in the tub and hold her the entire time. She actually didn’t get over her hatred/fear of baths until just a couple of years ago, and I was worried it would be the same with Gwen. I needn’t have, because this baby? This baby LOVES the bath! Right from her very first bath in the hospital she’s been totally calm, cool and collected about getting clean. If she upset or fussy or gassy all I have to do is set her down in a tub of warm water and she settles right down and becomes my sweet smiley baby again; in fact, the only problem I have is getting her OUT of the bath: she wants to stay in there all night!

The dog is a different story. She was sick last week and needed about fifty baths and she was NOT THRILLED. She doesn’t even like it when I give Gwen a bath: she runs in and scrabbles at me and stands up on her hind paws to look into the tub and make sure I’m not tormenting the baby, so you can imagine how displeased she was about this.

Our baby bath support is by Angelcare and I highly recommend it. It supports Gwen nicely while still being soft and comfortable, it’s easy to clean and it’s easy to clean her while she’s in (on?) it. It does take up a bit of room while not in use but to me it’s worth it.

Gwen celebrated being eight weeks old by sleeping for seven hours (she would have slept for longer, I went in and woke her up) and waking up with a dry diaper. WHO IS THIS MAGICAL BABY???

After a lot of clean up from the night before (NYE feast = every dish in the house is dirty) I convinced Taylor and Sym to join me, Gwen and the doggies for a walk on the Seawall from English Bay to Sunset Beach. Unfortunately I forgot about the Polar Bear Swim and English Bay was a mob; walking through a huge crowd of icy, wet hyped up people with the stroller and two tiny dogs was very anxiety making! If I’d realized it was gonna be like that I would have done Yaletown to Sunset Beach instead.

Right on time for the new year, a new layout for the blog! I wanted something simpler, for now at least. My goal for this new year is to get back into blogging regularly again and I think having a nice fresh layout will help to inspire me!

Let me know what you think!

I hope you all had a lovely New Year’s Eve. We had a blast- we stuffed our faces with all kinds of food, I made my triumphant return to Dance Central after almost a year (it was too hard to do hop hits while pregnant), we had our traditional viewing of Anchorman and toasted at midnight with pink champagne (Taylor & I), orange juice (Sym, we actually got her sparkling pink lemonade but she drank the entire bottle before midnight!) and sleeping (Gwen).