Meli-Mello

R is for…

REARRANGEMENTS/RENOVATIONS

Well, not really renovations per se, but our apartment needs some serious work if we are going to live in it with a baby for the next couple years. You see things have kind of gotten out of hand here - our apartment, as one friend put it, looks academic. By that she meant that there are books and papers everywhere. And now there are books, papers and baby things everywhere. So my plan is to rearrange the main room and buy a couple bookcases from Ikea with doors on the bottom that can be locked. That way we can hide some things away from Miss Moira plus she hopefully won’t be able to climb the bookcases if there are doors on the bottom. Might as well start baby-proofing now. Once the main room is rearranged I can start thinking about the back room - the room that has served as the Mister & my office for the last 4+ years as well as a craft room. I can’t even go into that backroom these days without having an anxiety attack and so it just gets worse and worse - and the plan is to divide it in half so it is half the Mister’s work space for his thesis and half Moira’s room. I’m still not sure how that is going to work but it will… somehow. The truth is: this is the cheapest apartment in the city and we love the neighbourhood so we won’t be going anywhere for a while. Even if we could afford to live somewhere with a little more space we wouldn’t want to leave the neighbourhood. So that leaves me with the not-very-enviable task of trying to make this space livable for three people. I’m totally not looking forward to it and it means some serious purging on my part - but I’m tired of living in limbo and waiting for the day when I have a place to make nice - this is it and I’m going to have to find a way to be happy with it.

It would also be nice to have a fridge with a freezer that freezes things properly and a toilet that works all the time but I’ll have to work on my landlord for those things.

RAISINS

What can I say? I eat them a lot. I pretty much can’t eat cereal or yogurt without them (I only eat plain yogurt). I used to get excited about finding them in my Halloween stash even though my Mum always bought them for me anyway. I’m just waiting for some study to come out and say they cause cancer if consumed more than 3x a day - but until then I will continue to go through a couple pound bag every few weeks.

And somewhat random…

RAGS TO RICHES

Does anyone remember this show? It was about a playboy business man who adopts 5 orphan girls to improve his image for a business deal blah blah blah - the best part was that is was set in the 60s and they would randomly burst into song! It was on TV for a season and a half in 1987-88, when I was 11 or 12, and I can still remember some of the lyrics to the songs (which were reworked versions of popular 60s songs). This show totally fed into my love of musicals and my odd desire to be an orphan - for which you can blame the movie Annie (I also wanted to be a mermaid though so I obviously wasn’t too entrenched in reality as a child). Anyway, for some reason this TV show has been on my mind lately.

Interesting “I wannabe an orphan” reality check that happened to me as a child. We were traveling through the ‘States (as we call ‘em up here) and we stopped at a gas station to fill up and use the bathrooms and when I came out of the bathroom the car was GONE! I was probably 10 at the time and had seen a number of “abandoned children at gas station” movies recently. So I stood there staring at the pump where the car, and my family, had previously been trying not to cry until I heard “Mel! Get in the car!” My Dad had moved the car around the side of the gas station and was waiting, not too patiently, for me to get my ass out of the bathroom. I realized at that moment I really didn’t really want to be an orphan (as I sucked back the tears and got in the car) I just wanted to live in a musical.

In University we used to say Thursday was Canada’s night to party. At least that was how it seemed when I lived in Montreal when even my Profs didn’t work on Fridays so I never had classes on that day. Little did I know at the time that Tuesdays was Canada’s night to knit! I feel like I missed years of knitting.

Anyway, it seems fitting that Moira, born on a Tuesday, went to her first Knit Night only 5 weeks later! She was more interested in snoozing than knitting but give her time.

Here she is obviously plotting out her first project. Mommy, looking a little tired, has no knitting projects on the go right now. I’ve heard of some women knitting while breastfeeding but I’m just not that talented.

It is amazing how little things can become so overwhelming. I remember being in the hospital and one of the nurses telling me that I couldn’t go home until I pee’d on my own. Apparently they had to keep the catheter in for an extra 24 hours since little things, like walking, were a huge challenge. I remember how upset I was during the many failed attempts - and how accomplished I felt when I finally pee’d on my own. Who would have thought? Of course, these days I am feeling much better and, thankfully, don’t need any assistance going to the bathroom but I’m still in the process of taking baby steps.

I can now be social for more than an hour at a time and no longer need to have someone come and hangout with me during the day. Last week, after a month of my Mum chauffeuring me around, I drove and took Moira out in the car for the first time with no assistance from anyone. I was exhausted by the end of the day - but I did it. We have finally switched over to cloth diapers too - we were using disposables while I recovered since I couldn’t go up and down the stairs to the laundry room and I needed to focus on getting the whole breastfeeding thing working. My night anxiety is gone as well since I’m no longer in full-on panic mode if Moira is napping late in the day.

Miss Moira is five weeks old today and all these little things feel like big accomplishments.

Q is for…

QUILTS

Okay, so I can be a little dense sometimes. I mean, I LOVE quilts (yes, love them so much they deserve all-caps) and yet, it took me a couple weeks to figure out what to write for Q. The Mister and I went through a lot of Q words: Qwerty, Quasimodo, Quixotic… but nothing was just right and most were just too silly. And yet, everyday (or at least everyday before Moira came along) I would surf through the quilting groups on Flickr looking at all the lovely work people are doing.

1. coin quilt - finished, 2. Little quilted pillow, 3. Surprise delivery, 4. front and back, 5. Untitled, 6. pillow prizes3, 7. Embroidered Windows, 8. amy butler doing turning 20, plus some, 9. for a tree quiltCreated with fd’s Flickr Toys.

I’m not much of a quilter myself - although I would like to be. I have been known to take out more quilting books than I can carry from the library and then spend weeks dreamily thumbing through them. I like to buy quilting fabric, hoard it, and then pull it out once in a while and play with the combinations before putting it back into the closet and not doing anything with it.  Also, I hate to iron - which is kind of an essential part of quilting. One of these days I’m going to get my act together and quilt/sew a whole lot more - possibly when I have actual room to do so. But for now I’ll just have to be happy looking at the beautiful work done by others.

P is for…

POTTER

Or, Potter-mania if you will. I’ve written about my love for the Harry Potter books before but I have actually started considering reading them to Moira. You know, just a chapter a night to wind her down before bedtime. Is three weeks old too soon? And will she start comprehending them by the time I get to book 7 therefore ruining the whole series for her. I guess the fact that the Mister felt he had to veto Potter-related names when considering what we were going to name Moira says something. Still, I think if we had twin boys it would be fun to call them Fawkes and Wulfric (not obviously Potter names like Fred and George but still…). I’m still saddened that the series is over and wonder what will come along next to take it’s place in my heart. I can’t remember any other pop-culture phenomenon that has captured my attention to the extent where I would actually go and search out more information (like fan sites) to satisfy my craving. Although, I have to say that it stops at the books and movies and that other than making that one t-shirt for fun I’m not interested in collecting any Potter-related stuff - I’m just really in love with the books.

PIZZA

Yes, you read that right: pizza! Before the Mister and I got together he started having pizza parties - or what he calls “socialist pizza night” since he gets people to bring toppings and he makes the dough and the sauce. Homemade pizza is one of the best foods ever and I am one spoiled individual. He still orders out for pizza occasionally but me, I’ve been ruined. Nothing but homemade for me these days - nothing else is good enough and, unlike our friends, I don’t have to wait for a pizza party!

O is for…

OMAGH

Or, to be specific, the Omagh Hostel. This is where the Mister and I spent an amazing week wwoofing last Autumn with Billy and Marella Fyffe at their hostel outside of Omagh in Northern Ireland.

The hostel

The Mister hanging out with Billy and Marella (and Gonzo)

The pigs (of which I have written about before)

The polytunnel

There was something really fantastic about walking into the tunnel, or the garden, to figure out what we should have for dinner - something totally foreign to city-folk like us.

The walk into town

Main street

The River (we thought it looked like it was filled with Guiness)

The town of Omagh wasn’t terribly exciting itself, or maybe the hostel was just so inviting we didn’t really feel the need to explore elsewhere. Omagh is best known for the terrible bombing but it seems that people are trying hard to get past that. The hostel is in an excellent location if you are traveling around by car or bike (and even if you are arriving by bus Billy or Marella will come and pick you up at the station) and would be the prefect homebase if you wanted to explore Northern Irealnd.

We hope to be able to go back some day and bring Moira with us (fully formed this time!)

This isn’t a real post - because a real post would probably talk about something interesting which I’m too tired to do right now (or was too tired to do last night when I started writing this but never got the chance to finish).

This is a plea for recommendations about movies, audiobooks and podcasts that I can listen to while breastfeeding because that seems to be what I do 90% of the time right now. I just finished listening to The Stone Carvers on a CBC podcast which, while brilliant, was probably a poor choice since it was so sad and I am all hormonal right now and have Thrush and didn’t need to listen to something to make me cry.

I don’t watch a lot of “chick flicks” so I don’t really know what is out there that is worth watching or at least that might not be too insidious. I guess I am looking for something light enough that I don’t mind stopping and starting it a dozen times and not so sad that I am dropping tears on my daughters head and feeding my sadness into her. Other than podcasts I have never listened to an audiobook before and am also looking for something light and fun as long as it doesn’t involve a Shopoholic or any sort.

So, send me your suggestions!

And if you haven’t read The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart you really should. Not that I have read it, but now that I have listened to the podcast version I want to read the entire novel so I can further engulf myself in it’s narrative and learn more about the characters.

N is for…

Nursing and Nipples

I call this photo the “post-boob bliss-out”

My view on breastfeeding this week is: one step forwards, two steps back. Hopefully this means we will get there eventually but it is slow going right now. Not Moira though - this little girl can eat and, unfortunately for my breasts, probably has her Mum’s speedy metabolism which means she wants to eat all the time. The little turbo sucker is gaining an ounce a day and after an 11% drop in her birth weight has now surpassed it two weeks later. I won’t tell you what that is in grams though - the constant monitoring of weight is enough to make one paranoid and as long as she is eating I am going to be happy. Even if that happiness makes my toes curl under and has me wanting to climb the walls every time she touches me. I saw a Lactation Consultant the other day (I’m getting all the help I can get) to help with the latch and help clearing up a yeast infection in my breasts that is causing me more pain. Good times. I call myself the Breastaurant.

Still, I’m not giving up. Besides the obvious health benefits of breastfeeding, formula just seems like a whole lot of work with all the sterilizing and preparing and heating up in the middle of the night. Also - it is expensive and breast milk is free, so until I am literally climbing the walls (not just thinking about it) we will stick it out.

I’m pretty much exhausted so here are some pictures.

 Looking at Daddy

 Big yawn

Ol’Shifty eyes

I like to eat my hands

Even though we are both feeling overwhelmed and sleep deprived we are still in awe of this little person we brought into this world. Seeing as she is only two weeks old she doesn’t do much more than eat, sleep and poop - but her expressions crack us up on a daily basis and we can’t help but wonder what is going on inside that little brain of hers!

A week since Moria Catherine M. came screaming into this world butt first.

I won’t lie. My recovery has been hard and the cesarean has taken a lot of out me. I don’t want to scare anyone who may have to have one in the future but I can’t imagine why anyone would elect to give birth via cesarean - but again, it might just be me and my reaction to drugs. In a way I think the drugs I took afterwards made things worse - too many highs and lows of pain and emotions from the Percocet. We had a scare last Saturday when I went to get my staples removed and my incision started opening up - but everything is looking good now and I hopefully won’t be coming apart at the seams (at least not literally).

The Mister has been amazing. If I wasn’t 100% ridiculously in love with him before this I certainly am now. Between him and my Mum I am being well taken care off which is surely speeding me along the road to recovery. Hopefully I will be walking around the neighbourhood with Moira in one of my fancy new slings in no time.

In other news - the Mister and I are not moving anywhere any time soon. That job opportunity didn’t pan out and I don’t really want to say more than that. And while it is dissapointing job-wise, we won’t mind staying here where we have such good friends. I mean - can I find knitting friends like this in another province? People have been dropping by and bringing us food and generally being wonderful. I’m feeling very loved right now and since I stopped taking the medication a couple days ago I can assure you that I mean it.

And the comments you all have been leaving have really meant a lot to the both of us. Thanks so much! Hopefully I can keep up the blogging while figuring out this whole mommy thing.