Aug 31

Bringing Home Baby (#2): Team Chaos by Kelsey Hansen

Bringing Home Baby (#2) is a series of guest posts focusing on life after baby #2 comes home. If you want to contribute please contact me – I’m finding the stories fascinating plus it gives me a break while we adjust to life with our own baby #2 born August 18th.

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Kelsey & Ryker

Our son Ryker was born December 29, 2008. Squeezed tightly in between the craziness of Christmas and New Years,a happy, exciting, and STRESSFUL time of year.

His arrival came with absolutely NO WARNING! There I was, putting away Christmas gifts while struggling with my braxton hicks contractions… Which apparently were a little less braxton hicks and a little more 9-centimetres-dilated-full-blown-labor. I probably would have noticed this with my first pregnancy, but when it’s your second, it’s no longer just about you anymore. I already had a child that required my undivided attention, so that back stabbing pain I was feeling in regular two minute intervals? That could wait.

Ryker arrived just thirty minutes after getting to the hospital. Two pushes, and out he came, fast and furious, pushing all of the doctor’s instruments to the floor and sending all of the nurses running in a panic. Introducing our little man, six weeks early and already the beginning of total chaos.

Nothing about Ryker’s arrival came as expected. To say that we were unprepared would be an incredible understatement. His nursery was still my office, we didn’t own one newborn diaper, I hadn’t washed any of his new little outfits, or the cover for his new bassinett- which wasn’t even put together. None of this mattered in the least though, because due to his undeveloped lungs, he wouldn’t be coming home. ( Read more )

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Aug 30

The way things are

Ingredients for bliss when you are 2+1/3:

- Polka Dot Pajamas

- Dirt

Moira discovered that you can take the Polar Zookeeper Duplo animal slide apart and turn it into.. shoes!  Those jammies totally kill me too.

Yodeler’s daughter: Fionnuala looks like she should be wearing knickers and a cow bell.

Man, nap time is boring.

Nap time with Daddy.  Heartbeats + warmth = baby bliss.

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Aug 29

Funny things we found around the house #1

Fire supression device, circa 1955 when the house was built… we think.

I suspect that this one was meant to heat up (as it is up near the ceiling, not in arm’s reach), and the metal band would expand, then break, dropping its payload on the floor.

Anyways, it’s probably similar to this one From Wikipedia:

“Another type of carbon-tetrachloride extinguisher was the Fire grenade. This consisted of a glass sphere filled with CTC, that was intended to be hurled at the base of a fire (early ones used salt-water, but CTC was more effective). Carbon tetrachloride was suitable for liquid and electrical fires and the extinguisers were fitted to motor vehicles. Carbon-tetrachloride extinguishers were withdrawn in the 1950s because of the chemical’s toxicity–exposure to high concentrations damages the nervous system and internal organs. Additionally, when used on a fire, the heat can convert CTC to Phosgene gas [7], formerly used as a chemical weapon.”

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Aug 26

Guest Post series – Bringing Home Baby (#2): Bringing Home Bedlam by Bess Grant

Bringing Home Baby (#2) is a series of guest posts focusing on life after baby #2 comes home. If you want to contribute please contact me – I’m finding the stories fascinating plus it gives me a break while we adjust to life with our own baby #2 born August 18th.

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Alba and Desirée


After Desirée was born, I promised myself that I would never, ever do that again. Then my Neanderthal brain took over 2 and a bit years later and assured me that it would be okay if I did.*  Within 48 hours of this primitive reasoning,  baby number two was on its way.  I decided not to think about the actual giving birth part until it was inevitable, at which point I decided I really shouldn’t have done this again.  And, of course, there were points along the way where my doubts about a second little tyrant surfaced.  These points included (but weren’t limited to): ( Read more )

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Aug 22

Rock Band Status for the Family

While Melanie is recovering, here is a brief post from the Mr. regarding the new addition to the family.

Name: Fionnuala Irene (pronounced Fin-oo-la)

Birth Weight: 7 lbs 1 oz (exactly the same as mom and older sister)

Born on: 8-something am on the 18th of August (18/8/10 – a date I can remember! 18-8=10).  Water broke Monday evening, attempted induced labour for 18+ hours, then off to an emergency c-section after everyone threw the towel in.  All in all, a looooooooong haul.  But it is over and Fionnuala/Mommy are healthy.

Breastfeeding: going like a trucker.  Gained 92 grams yesterday after hitting rock bottom weight of just over 10% loss (so the nurses got to freak out for a bit… lol… nurses…)

Things that make me happy:

Bonding

Happy mommy + baby

You must keep a sense of humour when someone is chomping on your body.

The girls getting aquainted.

The Gremlin ready to come home from the hospital.

Things that make me mad:

Complete with tons of sugar-like crap and food colouring.

Sugar, Corn Syrup Solids, Modified Milk Ingredients, Orange Flavour (including FD&C yellow #6)

Apparently this constitutes a “vegetable” serving at the hospital.

Beef, beef, beef, instant crap, frozen crap, food colouring.

I guess that they don’t want the mothers to recover or have nutrients to create breast milk with.  I saw plently of husbands lugging cafeteria food up (they had salads, wraps, sushi, sandwiches, etc.) so if you had someone there to support you and you had money, you could get something better.

I feel especially sorry for the low income or single mothers.  Or institutionalised hospital patients that get that crap every meal, every day.

The Nurses nurtrition/diet study shows that nurses are notoriously bad eaters and have worse dietary intakes than the average person, so I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that they don’t fight to get their patients better food…  or that they don’t understand the importance of healthy diet to recovery?  WTF?

While it is obviously not all the nurses’ fault, the apple doesn’t land far from the tree.

They also expected me to keep a lady who was in labour for 34 hours off of all food except… ice chips.

lol.

They would have a dessicated corpse on their hands if I actually did that.  I jammed food into her maw all evening whenever a nurse left the room.  Everything from sausage to salad – how else was she supposed to survive the ordeal?

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Aug 16

38 weeks – the beginning of the end?

I can’t lie – I’m really bloody tired these days. I didn’t feel like this at the end of my pregnancy with Moira because she never dropped (or turned over for that matter – she was breech and therefore delivered via cesarean). At my doctor’s appointment today she told me to make an appointment for next week but she suspects I will be having the baby before then and my prenatal will turn into a postnatal baby check-up.  Baby has been head down and in the right position for quite a while now. I think she is ready and I certainly feel done right now – and a little ill.

Bath belly at 35 weeks.

My Mum is here right now – she decided to come early too – and that has been an amazing help. I feel so huge I can barely move and I have constant braxton hicks contractions. I’ve been wanting to write a post about Moira for the last week – and about her last moments as an only child – but I just haven’t had the energy.

Here is a bath belly shot from the last pregnancy for comparison. My bathroom is much nicer (and mold free) this time around.

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Edited to add: My water broke while writing this post. No wonder I’m feeling rough today. Perhaps I will see you on the other side?

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Aug 11

Bringing Home Baby (#2) – still looking for guest bloggers

Another plug for guest bloggers for my series: Bringing Home Baby (#2). I have a couple lined up but not nearly as many as I would like.

I’m looking for women to share their stories of bringing home the second baby. The interloper. The one who made you realize that the baby you gave 100% of yourself to is now no longer the baby. I want to hear about how #1 reacted to #2. I also want the good, the bad and the honest. I like honest. Having that first baby is such a mind-blowing, all-consuming experience for so many women that it is hard to imagine what having two children is going to be like.

This is what I am looking for:

  • A post about your life adjusting to two children (as long or short as you want)
  • A photo to go with the post if you feel comfortable with that (either of your family or just the kids – whatever you want really).
  • A breif bio of yourself with a link to your blog.

I want to start collecting these stories now so I can have them ready to post in late August some time.

So if you are interested, or have friends who might be interested send an e-mail to meli.mello AT gmail DOT com. I know I have a number of readers who are in the thick of baby #1 right now but are thinking of having baby #2.

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Aug 11

Books for Kids – June Callwood: A Life of Action

Recently I was asked by Second Story Press if I would do some reviews for them. They aren’t paying me and said I could choose the books that looked interesting to me. Because they have a strong feminist angle – especially books for girls – I jumped at the chance (even though, lets be honest, finding the time has been difficult). The first book I read was June Callwood: A Life of Action. (Ages 9-13, written by Annie Dublin.)

One of the few memories I have of my elementary school library was coming across history books written for kids. For some reason I can still recall reading – and re-reading – about George Washington Carver. Carver, in case you didn’t know, invented peanut butter (among the many uses he came up with for peanuts after encouraging poor farmers to diversify from cotton crops and then needing to find a use for all the peanut crops that were being grown). While he has nothing to do with June Callwood he has everything to do with my love for history books for kids (easy reading and rather to the point – although I suspect if you are looking for gossip and scandal you aren’t going to find it). ( Read more )

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Aug 09

Packrat-itis

I suspect this will be a multiple part series.

Things I have gotten rid of today:

  • 28 cassette tapes (all mixes except The Cure: Standing on a Beach the Singles which I have had since junior high). We don’t own a cassette player – haven’t for years.
  • 41 theatre playbills, programs for choral concerts I participated in (dating back to the 80s) – for most of which I have no memory.
  • Piles of random, painfully dated-looking, blank postcards. Many I had taped to my binder in elementary school including one of a goth-punk girl that says “Hi Dad” that I thought was so edgy at the time. (Anyone collect postcards, they are all blank and are being recycled at the end of the week if no one wants them.)
  • An “I Love My Dalmatian” bumper sticker that I was sure I would put on my car when I was an adult even though the Dalmatian I did love died 18 years ago.
  • A box of letters, too many to count. Mostly they were from penpals I made while at basic training for the Air Cadets. Some of those people turned into penpals for years – lasting much longer than my 1.5 years as an Air Cadet. Others were people I met at summer camp. That box was full of stuff, I didn’t even bother to count the number of letters in there. I miss letter writing but since I haven’t heard from any of those people since before I graduated from high school (maybe even junior high for some of them) I tossed them all.
  • Birthday cards & Christmas cards! Dating back to my pre-teens – why do I still have these? Two were from my orthodontist for gawds sake! Some were full of names I have long forgotten and have little memory of but are signed with the obligatory “friends forever”.

Things I had forgotten/hilarious finds: ( Read more )

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Aug 08

Review: Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding

Hey! It’s World Breastfeeding Week! Since I didn’t know there was one this is just a coincidence but I thought it would be a good idea to get this review finished to honour it.

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I already loved Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth so I admit being predisposed to liking her Guide to Breastfeeding – and I did. In fact, I kind of loved it and would now love to be able to buy a copy for every woman I know who plans on having a baby. It would be wise for every woman to read it – whether she is ever going to have a  baby or not because there is so much knowledge about breastfeeding lost from years of it not being supported. It is no longer instinctual (for the mothers in developed countries at least, it certainly wasn’t for me) and needs to be re-learned.

( Read more )

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