Month 3

Month 3:

I can finally handle seeing myself in a photograph with Wrennie. When you spend the whole day un-showered and in your comfy pants because your child barely allows you enough time to brush your teeth, it's slightly unmotivating to be in a picture.

By the way, breastfeeding has ended for good. 2 bouts of mastitis and one food-poisoned night later did me in. It wasn't going well anyway.

By 3 months old, Wrennie has almost doubled her weight. The little pumper is now 15 lbs 7oz. The doctor actually told me that sometimes when the baby cries, she may just want a soother. Clearly this doctor did not know that in my infancy, I was in the 95th percentile until I was about 1 year old..in every category. Tub-a-lubs run in the family.

She is now sleeping 6-8 hours in the night. Wow. You know what went through my head the first time that happened?

'Oh my gosh, it's 6:30am...I don't think Kenton got up with her...I hope she is okay....she probably is...I am too tired to even go check...'

She also thinks that she is pretty great when she sits in a Bumbo chair:

What a cutie.

Things Wrennie is into right now:

1. Screaming just for the fun of it.

2. Grabbing her toys and stuffing them in her mouth.

3. Trying to roll over.

4. Talking to us.

5. Starting to laugh...most adorable thing my ears have heard.

6. Walks in her stroller. Her amazing Phil & Ted's stroller. I have never raved about her car seat, her carrier, her swing, or anything technical that she has for that matter. But the stroller is truly rave-worthy. Yes, it is nearly the price of a tiny, crappy used car, but I will only ever have to buy one...even if we have more kids. It has great wheels, doubles as a jogger, small and compact, and can turn on a dime. Okay I am done now.

7. Potentially starting to make strange. Stay tuned.

8. Sitting up and standing. That is the only picture I have. She has definitely gotten better.

I am not even going to bother getting into who she looks like right now. Kenton, myself, my sister, it goes on...everyone sees someone different. I claim the cheeks though.

My schedule is full every week. I never would have thought that would happen so effortlessly...this year is going to go by too fast. I am busy to the point of having to make sure we are just at home for a day or two during the week for our sanity. Time changes do not help either. Setting the clock forward is not worth more daylight in my opinion, Saskatchewan is so smart.

That being said, nap time.

Month 2

Month 2:

Wrennie began to smile. Oh how cute it was! 6 weeks old, and I actually caught it on camera.

We have a couple of showers thrown and lots and lots of presents!

Her and I also start to get out a bit more with friends during the day as it gets more mild outside- for January. In turn, I start to feel more like a human being again and Wrennie starts sleeping 5-6 hours in a row now. I will mention that Kenton is still taking turns in the night getting up and feeding her a bottle. He is amazing.

I plunked her down in this chair for a photo and she found sitting up by herself was funny!

She is such a sweets.

Month 1

Month 1: What...just...happened..

The shock of a new baby hit us good and hard. Speaking for myself, I need about 9 hours a night to survive. I was down to maybe an accumulation of 4-5 if I was lucky. Breastfeeding was hard and making me psychotic. How do people do this??

Good thing Wrennie is cuter than anything I have seen, at least I have that. Kenton and I were exhausted. Despite our new zombie lifestyle, the Royal Bison Craft Fair (www.royalbison.ca) was on 4 days after she was born. Did we go? Of course. Could I barely walk? Yes. Was it worth it? Obviously.

We spent the first 4 weeks staring at her, she was too beautiful to take our eyes off of. Unfortunately I was feeling the effects of postpartum and wasn't sure if I liked all of this, which was evident on the days where I would be crying as Kenton left for work and still crying when he returned. Just a few calls to my mom and sister to come over were made...just a few.

Again, Amanda takes delicious pictures...here is a sample of my favorites:

Like these? You haven't seen anything yet. Smashed Photography, take a look.

A Baby Comes...

My doctor schedules and induction for a Thursday. My mom is a nurse at the hospital in labour and delivery, so I have a good connection.

I get a call Wednesday morning from her at work.

"It's not busy today and I talked to the doctor and she said you can come in and be induced this afternoon."

Wow, even as I write that, I get that nervous- excited feeling all over again.

Kenton and I calmly get my bag, and head to the hospital. It was weird. You picture your water breaking, having contractions and grabbing your belly as you head to the car.

Before inducing me, the doctor broke my water and that certainly got things moving. I laboured for a few hours until I couldn't take it anymore. I think I was more scared than anything, because I knew I hadn't seen nothin yet.

I got my epidural- worst. thing. ever. At that point Kenton thought this would be our only child.

But then it kicked in and things were great. We hung out until they told me to push. I couldn't feel a thing. I lied and said I could feel the tightening of a contraction (which I was supposed to) and pushed when they came. I pushed for 2 hours! Kenton was right there encouraging me, until I told him to stop with the encouragement, I really didn't require it right now. (He's so great). My nurse had asked if my mom was allowed in the room as I pushed. Uh, no.

Note: I am totally sparing the gory details. Let me just say it was amazing and very traumatizing at the same time. I thought about the birth for weeks after...

Then...out she came! All 8lbs 1oz, 21 inches of her! Kenton cut the cord, and she was placed onto me right away, our little sweets! In my opinion, she looked just like me, it was as if I birthed myself. (Sounds symbolic, maybe it is).

You can't really see it here, but I am crying at being completely overwhelmed and overjoyed!

She is incredibly beautiful in all her squishy-faced, gooeyness.

We spent the night in the hospital and went home the next afternoon...we couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Once we were home, the craziness began!

Our sweet sleepy peanut:

The clock ticks...

We knew the whole time we were having a little girl...well okay, from about 5 months on. We also knew that if we were having a girl, we would call her Wren. Ami McKay's novel, The Birth House, is where I found this gem of a name. There is a baby in the story called Wren and they all call her Wrennie. The name was decided. From then on we would be flooded with gifts (mostly clothes) that would have little birds of all kinds on it. I even bought a dress in Nelson with a birdcage on it. And yes, that is our very vintage and very great highchair find- thank you to our friends, Sarah and Charlie for it!

When I looked 'Wren' up in a few new-age baby name books, they said it meant "chief". According to some books, it's a boy's name. Another book said it was the new trendy bird name in place of Robyn.

Our parents reactions were amusing. Words like "different", "interesting", and "pretty" were used. At least we didn't hear "YUCK".

My pregnancy was great. Nothing out of the ordinary happened and I have to say I was pretty lucky. I was only nauseous for a few weeks, and really hot for the whole summer. I don't think I have stayed indoors in such nice weather so much in my life.

Kenton and I stood up for our good friends Nathan (yes, the first one to know I was pregnant) and Daisha in August at their wedding. Kenton sang his song...sheesh...I can't remember which one it was. Well, the picture of him playing is so handsome, I had to include it too.

For Daisha's stagette, I planned a pole-dancing class and party afterwards with her other bridesmaid, Brenda. If you have the chance to do such a thing, you should give it a try, it was hilarious and fun...but what do I know, I was pregnant and taking all the pictures!

Like I said in my last post, we were settled, moved in, happy to be done the hardest part of preparing for our little girl. All I had to do was keep growing...and somehow find the energy to keep moving!

By the end, my belly was huge, and perfectly ripe for delicious picture- taking. Here are my favorites over the months...

Things look good. 17 weeks along, in Nelson, eating lots of great food, walking around, buying cute bird clothes at markets.

Oh about 35 weeks here, huge, and now at home because work is finished for a year...and also bored. So I propped the camera and took a million on self-timer before I found one I was satisfied with. Ta-da!

Amanda took this great one, with the amazing wallpaper behind me in her house. I can't remember how far along I am here. Somewhere at the end as well.

If you think Amanda is pretty good at this photography stuff, you should check her out at www.smashedphotography.ca

The work her and her partner Lizette do will speak for itself.

I am at 37 weeks here, and Julie James comes back to do some maternity photos with me. She also did our wedding photos- check her out at http://www.james-design.net/

Also, very good!

So what do you do all day when you aren't working and you can't go anywhere because your husband is too worried that you will go into labour when you are out and about by yourself?

Sew, knit, and sew some more. Get every possible crafty project done that you wanted to! And I did, I sewed a crib bumper, a matching quilt, a diaper bag, and burp cloths. I knit a papoose sack thing (like a baby sleeping bag) that I never did put her in because the wool was sort of itchy and it only took me 9 months to make but hey. I also knit her 3 sweaters, and some toques, after all, she is going to be a winter baby! I kept busy.

Everything was done. Bag packed. Books read. Hospital registration form in. Checklist done, because I am a first time mother and have time for careful consideration of all such things.. and I am quite anxious...