Not Eating Deep Fried Butter Plus Alice is 6 Weeks

We hit the Brome Fair on Sunday and despite my craving for artery-clogging fair food, I managed to get by only eating one hot dog, one fried-onion-smothered cheeseburger and a bag of mini donuts. Even *I* would have trouble rationalizing funnel cakes as an acceptable snack even though I'm BREASTFEEDING and always SO HUNGRY.

My reward? As I type this, I am wearing my REGULAR, PRE-PREGNANCY, NON-MATERNITY JEANS.

Not a single elastic panel in sight. BOOYAH!

Anyway, I know you're not here for me, let's just get to the pictures already:

I believe I was promised a corn dog?

She loved the fair, mainly because when it got dark there were lots and lots of lights for her to be all mesmerized at.

Photos courtesy of my husband and his newfound love of Instagram:

Otherwise, we're all doing well aside from a little thrush that Alice and I are working on getting rid of.

Alice at six weeks is a smiley package of chubby yumminess. She is spending more and more time being awake and goggling at whatever is around her. Lots of oooh and aaahhs.

Her most favourite person is still her big sister:

Although Stéphane and I have both been treated to a grin or two.

Her sleeping patterns are pretty clear at the moment and (attention: I have turned into that annoying mother re: sleeping through the night) this weekend we got three nights of 8+ hours of uninterrupted sleep. HELLO - what? Maybe I dreamed that whole giving birth thing and she is actually adopted.

Ha ha - oh right. I haven't shared the story yet! It's on my list, I promise.

Still not ready for the end of summer, but fall IS a great time of year (she said begrudgingly). Although now that I have jeans to wear, I'm not dreading it so much :)

How are you all doing with back to school/summer's end?

Four Weeks, etc.

Of COURSE Alice smiled for the first time for my Mom.

Of course she did.

It's our first week home with no one else around. My Mom was here for 10 days and it was so easy. Alice spent most of her visit like this:

Oh, yay, it's Grandma! Hi Grandma! I'm not tired, really I - zzzzz......

It was great.

Otherwise, Alice is now just over 4 weeks old. She's sleeping 6 hours at a time overnight (okay now that I've written that, buh-bye sleep) and getting bigger by the day. She sleeps in her co-sleeper beside our bed, she sleeps in the vibrating chair, she sleeps in the Baby Bjorn carrier and she even sometimes naps in her crib.

She started smiling two weeks ago (when my Mom got here - surprise!) and continues to express total delight at all kinds of awesome things - the pattern of the couch, Winnie the Pooh, any kind of light, and anything Liliane does. She's not so much smiling at ME per se although her frowny face softens a little when I coo at her.

Our windows rattle regularly with her mid-feed burps. Truly impressive. We have a bottle of gripewater at the ready for her cranky evenings and it seems to help.

She gazes adoringly at Stéphane when he carries her around in the evening. She likes to have a warm tummy at all times. She doesn't hate having a bath but her favourite part is having her hair washed. She is fascinated by her reflection in the mirror.

Not sure why it's taking so long for me to pen the story of her arrival. Maybe because I don't want it to all be over? Or something? Not enough brain cells right now to analyze so I'll just concentrate on writing something coherent.

Remember my fears about adding a second kid to the mix? So far so good. Liliane has been pretty good about accepting that I can't do things while I'm feeding Alice and we manage to clean up the kitchen after dinner either because Alice has been considerate enough to sleep or we just get it done with her on our shoulder or in the carrier.

Speaking of Liliane, in case there was any doubt, she is still the resident princess:

I'm reading Dr. Dobson's Strong Willed Child right now which has been helpful if for no other reason because I feel pretty grateful that it could be SO MUCH WORSE. Yes, Liliane has some very definite ideas and is about the most stubborn being I've ever encountered, but at least she has lots of moments of sweetness and a spirit of cooperation and obedience that gives us hope. We're going through an adjustment period right now so we've got some things to figure out re: discipline, but it's coming together.

As for me, I signed up for Cardio-Poussette (Cardio-Stroller) class starting Sept 12th so here's hoping that motivation to get some semblance of my pre-baby body back will kick in before then!

Also - as per usual at this time of year, SO NOT READY FOR THE END OF SUMMER. Is it just me?

Babymoon

We're all good over here. You know, hangin' out.

Occasionally bathing.

Trying to do as much of this as possible.

Bonding. Lots of bonding.

Working on the birth story post. Sorry it's taking so long, but here is a spoiler: 9 pound baby, stuck shoulder, NO DRUGS. See what I did there? SUSPENSE. Now don't you want to come back and read all the (loud) and (unheroic, really not) details?

Wordless Wednesday - First Dentist (NO BABY YET)

Bloodied but Unbowed - or Something (Spoiler - STILL PREGNANT)

Let me get the whiny part of this entry out of the way first. This is the current state of my left leg after falling down on the sidewalk on Tuesday afternoon.

Also - check out my swollen feet! Giving new meaning to the phrase "little piggies!"

Yep, scraped knee, hideous bruising and all. The worst part was not being able to actually get UP from the ground while L danced around me "you okay Maman?" That and the ugly crying because HOO BOY IT HURTS. Ironic, right, since the next big thing on my agenda is to give birth? Maybe I can poke my wounds during the really big contractions to distract myself.

Any lingering attachment I had to being all glowy and pregnant pretty much took a nose dive the same time my knee crashed to the pavement. That and a completely disappointing visit to the spa that morning pretty much did me in.

Why yes, the spa! Dear friends of mine gave me a gift certificate for my birthday (which my SIL documented brilliantly here on her blog) to go and float for an hour in a salty bath at Ovarium. Thrilled at the idea of actually being weightless, even for an hour, I practically skipped down to my appointment on Wednesday morning.

Imagine my disappointment to find that a) floating on my back doesn't make it stop hurting and b) guess what! just like massage, floating makes me nauseous! Awesome! I lasted about 20 minutes before hefting myself out into the longest shower EVER. I availed myself of every beauty product they had to really get my gift certificate's worth. Then I ate a sandwich at Subway and felt fine.

I had my weekly OB appointment yesterday and the good news is that getting my membranes stripped this time around was NOT the horrible painfest that it was with Liliane. I also got kind of excited because it kicked off a bunch of contractions that lasted all day AND a total tidying frenzy that saw my washing the floors and finishing all the baby laundry and organizing, organizing, organizing.

Well, that was yesterday. Today I'm nauseous and sleepy and frankly a little grumpy. I'm not even past my due date yet (Sunday) and already I can't WAIT for this to get going. A combination of dying to meet this little girl and really REALLY so tired of being pregnant. Buh-bye heartburn! Buh-bye pelvic pain! Buh-bye hideous snoring that keeps my husband awake! Buh-bye random mood swings! Buh-bye serious problem with dropping things and/or knocking things over and then not being able to bend enough to pick them up! Buh-bye random 3rd trimester nausea!

Liliane is excited as well, although a little unsure about what's all going down. We explained that when it's time for the baby to come, she'll be going to stay with Grandmaman and Grandpapa, then she'll come and see us for a visit at the hospital to meet her sister before she comes home. We have our friend Pierre standing by to come and stay should we have to run off in the middle of the night (just like the movies!) I'm so grateful that we have Stéphane's parents standing by to take over. One less thing to worry about!

Our doula is checking in with me every day and keeping things positive. She lent us a kid's book about childbirth that depicts a Mom with three other kids giving birth at home. Liliane is completely fascinated by it - particularly the page where the new baby is actually being born. The mother is standing up so in the pictures it looks like the baby's head is emerging from her bum. Yeah, this has been a little tricky to clarify. At the moment she believes that babies come out like poop. So.... there's that. We'll have to work on that.

But otherwise our hospital bags are pretty much packed. The baby laundry is done. There are a few things that we could pick up to be REALLY ready, but if not, no big deal. The house is clean, arrangements with friends and family are done, now we're just kind of waiting. No big plans for this weekend, but hanging out together. No stress. The weather is gorgeous. I'm grateful for that.

Speaking of grateful, I asked our friend Ariel (fancy pro photographer) to please take some family/bump pictures. We met up at Jarry Park on July 1st and these are some of the results.

I'm so thrilled to have these photos! Also BB II won't have quite as much ammunition for the whole "you always loved HER better" argument 15 years from now or so. See! Professional photos! Who needs more lame ultrasound images? Pfff.

Ariel also took this photo of Liliane on the dancefloor at Stéphane's niece's wedding last weekend. Oh man, we had so much fun.

The flowergirl with her very own flowers.

It was a really lovely ceremony and reception. You'll have to take my word for it as I didn't bring my big camera so my own photos aren't that great. We had a great time hanging out with family and I'm telling you, L tore UP the dance floor. Truly a sight to see. Did my heart good actually.

On that note I will close this bloated post (see what I did there? It's a THEME) and promise to compose something a little perkier for the next one. Possibly including newborn baby photos?

Hammer Time

I love this picture and figured I could buy some time if I post it with a quick WE ARE ALL OK OVER HERE.

Some of us are lumbering, ungainly bundles of hormones (HINT: not Stéphane) but otherwise happily nesting/watching TV/occasionally freaking out about upcoming birth.

But these two are good.

Heck, I'm good, too.

Especially with our new addition. My baby, the AIR CONDITIONER.

How did I ever live without you, beautiful machine?

That chattering noise you hear in the background may or may not be Stéphane and Liliane's teeth. Hard to tell over the whining about blue lips and frozen toes. PUT ON A SWEATER ALREADY.

Otherwise, I had a brilliant baby shower/leaving work party, we had a ridiculously good time at the Jazz Festival last weekend and I even planted more flowers. Pictures to come.

Happy Canada Day long weekend!

Tiny Bubbles

This week has been RAIN RAIN RAIN, COLD RAIN and WIND and then... THIS!

Our friends Manon and Luana came over yesterday and we hung out in our urban backyard a.k.a., the back alley.

I know, it sounds ghetto. But look! It's really nice back here!

And it comes complete with polite, funloving neighbour kids!

L, foufling the bubbles. (To blow in French is "souffler" but L says "fouffler" which cracks me up every time. I don't even correct her. She may be the only high schooler with a speech impediment but man will she kill at parties!)

Time for corde à danser. Yeah, in English it's jump rope or skipping. In French it's dancing. They must have been starved for good moves when they came up with that one.

Mohammed's turn. He did pretty well. That's Miriam on the left, she came to join us.

It must be said that Luana is a dancing QUEEN. She was leaping and spinning in the air and generally amazing the heck out of us.

Liliane not so much. No photos because I was busy turning the rope for her but she could usually get the first jump.

Looks like we're back to rain and general gloom today but on the up side it's been good for my plants!

Off to see Kung Fu Panda. Not sure but Stéphane may be more excited about this than Liliane. I'll let you know how it goes.

All good on the bébé II front. Lots of movement. Lots of ice cream and a renewed need for raspberries.

Air conditioner coming next Friday! I may have sold Liliane off to the highest bidder in order to pay for it but I figure that will be one less person to have to keep cool.

Kidding!

Happy Sunday!