Yes Braeden is walking :-)

You asked if your grandson is walking...he is..this short clip is just for you :)

Quickie update

Braeden woke up this morning in an extremely good mood and smiled big big smiles all day long today. It was so adorable. What a sweet lil boy he is.
We went to the library this morning where he played with his friend Tristan and Emma and then came home and had a loong nap!
After that he had a quick lunch and we headed to Hampton for his very first doctors appointment since we mvoed to the maritimes! Wow!
Today he weighs 26 pounds and is 31 inches tall. He is doing very well...just one thing that the doc felt wasn't right was the clicking noise that his shoulders make so she is referring him to a pediatritian. We have always wondered about the clicking so we are glad that we are being referred so we can find out for sure what is going on. Mark's shoulders make a cl icking sound too so it could just be nothing cuz Mark is certainly fine!

It was a beautiful day today..very warm plus 10!! Supposed to get snow again in a few days though so we enjoyed it while we could/can.

That's all for now - I am super duper tired and super duper heavy! I will try to post some pics soon.

Ultrasound

Today we went into Saint John for a fetal assessment and an ultrasound. The assessment went well and the baby was moving SO MUCH that the nurses thought it was funny. Me more like uncomfortable! LOL.

The ultrasound confirmed that this child is still very small for his/her age. He/She weighs in at 4 pounds 2 ounces. Braeden at this same time was 5 pounds 12 ounces! I have to go for another ultrasound in 3 weeks as it is necessary to follow the babies growth because babe is so small. If babe continues this way and makes it all the way until 40 weeks he/she would be around 6 pounds. Small baby!

Anyway other than being small things seem to be fine. Babe moves well and looks good and does her breathing etc. appropriately so that's good.

And that's all the news on that. We are tired as we are after ever trip into Saint John because it's such a long ordeal especially when you have to wait for an hour and a half to get into your appoinment and you are trying to entertain an active one year old baby!

I was interviewed

Here are 5 questions that I was asked by my friend Liz. This sort of interview has been going around in the blogs I follow recently so I asked to be interviewed too. Here are the 5 questions she came up with.

1) Braeden seems like such a happy little guy. I really enjoy getting peeks into your life with him. As you are expecting number 2, are there any major things that you are going to change in how you parent this next wee member of your family? If so, what are they?

Well parenting this next one is going to be quite different because I will be doing it alone this time. Mark has been with us 100 percent of the time since the end of June which has been so awesome. It does mean big changes for both Braeden and myself! I am worried about how he will adjust with Daddy working AND a new sibling! We are working on trying to get him to be a bit more independent right now and with this new babe...he/she will be a lil more independent I think just because Mark won't be there and it will be normal parenting circumstances to deal with. House needs cleaning and meals need making and with only one person to do it you can't be with the baby all the time so that will be one major change and all I can think of at this time!

2) Your family recently made a big move across the country. What are the big things that you appreciate about living out East?

The space and beauty! I love that my children are going to have lots of room to roam around and be free. Also, Mark's family are almost all within 3 hours away which means the kids will grow up with lots of love surrounding them. I am very thankful for that although I do feel extremely guilty for taking that away from my family out West, especially my Mom and sister who absolutely adore my son.

3) I know you have Rocco, and I thought I heard mention of another puppy, but maybe it was just a visiting puppy. Also, I don't remember hearing what happened to the owl you used to have. Animals!! What kinds of advice would you give to new parents who already have pets in their families, or to parents who want to introduce a pet in their home?

Well, we have a border collie who is mostly an outside dog, and we have Rocco who used to be very much our 'baby'. I would say that you need to do the introducing slowly and make sure that you still spend time with your pet so they don't feel too jealous (can't be helped completely) as they get used to the new family member. Don't get mad at them, try to include them as much as possible. That worked well with Rocco and now they are friends! In the early days they just didn't pay much attention to eachother after the initial meetings but now they play :)

4) There are so many delightful and trying moments, in the daily life as a Mom, what is the best part of your daily routine?

The best part of my routine...honestly I love it all! True, the temper tantrums and lack of sleep do get to you but they are totally made up for in the mornings as you have quiet snuggling time and during the day when you are playing and discovering new things and in the evenings when you are reading books and again snuggling. So the best part for me is the snuggling. My son is such a sweet lil guy. I love him so much and am so proud of him!

5) I don't know if we have discussed this, or not, but I'm curious... Where do you find that you get your parenting perspective? What "system" (if you can even try to adopt a system as a parent) do you think you, as a parent, follow?

That's a hard one. I don't know what system exactly but I would say that I am strict with love? I try not to enable any bad behaviors like temper tantrums and such and reward the good behaviors. I am hands on in my approach. But no one is more hands on than his Daddy! I have never been so proud of him and felt so much loveas I do when I see him with his son! It's positively beautiful! Hope this kinda sorta answers the question!

Thanks for the questions Liz!

If anyone else who has a blog wishes to be 'interviewed' let me know and i will ask you some questions :) it's a fun way to get to know more about your friends!

34 Weeks Pregnant

Figured I should show you a few pics of the belly again. I actually meant to do that during week 33 but never got around to it cuz you know..it's so hard to take a picture! Sheesh do I procrastinate or what!

So, it's like almost 4am and I can't sleep so I even got the pic uploaded to the computer AND the blog which is also amazing.

The site of my c-section incision has begun to hurt the last few days. Things are getting stretched now. That worries me. I live an hour away from a proper hospital if that thing decides to do the unthinkable and rupture...that is the scary part of this pregnancy as that could happen all the way up until he/she is born. But I am sure all will be fine!

Anyway, other than that, I am doing not too badly. Just getting quite hungry the last few days and nothing seems to satisfy my hunger. I am starving right now in fact and I just finished a bowl of berries! I can see myself gaining a lot of weight over the next few weeks! Hopefully the babe will too...we go in on Tuesday for an ultrasound to see how much babe has grown. Braeden was 5 pounds 12 ounces at 34 weeks so it will be interesting to see the difference!

That's all for now.

Sackville

We stopped in Sackville to see our beautiful niece, Larissa. She goes to the Mount Allison University there and we had a nice little visit. I think she was happy to see her baby cousin...what do you think?!!!!!

Halifax

While we were in Halifax we stopped in to visit with Mark's cousin Todd and his gf Jenny and we met their beautiful daughter, Maddie. Thanks guys for the visit - it was so nice to see you :)

Me n' Brae checking out ships...

This is Merlin...he said Hi and a few other things. The boys...all four were very interested in him :)

Dave, Kristi & Tristan walking along the harbour

On the second day we went down to the harbour and walked through a museum. The harbour was super cold and windy but we still got a few pictures and some exercise too :) The museum was very interesting. The best part was the information on the Titanic.

My handsome husband :)

On the last day in Halifax we went swimming again in the morning and we had planned on going mini golfing but it was kinda expensive so we decided to walk around Costco instead ( I LOVE Costco!) and we found a few items we used to like to purchase when in Calgary but haven't found in NB so we bought that stuff and I had a yummy icecream. Then we headed home once Brae was tired out from all that walking!

First Time Swimming!

I cannot believe that my son is a whole year old before he went swimming for the first time! I love swimming! I hope he will too, but for now he was just apprehensive and when the splashing from the boys in the slide occured he was almost in tears....I hope he will come to love it! We'll try again tomorrow :-) Hopefully those hyper boys won't be in the pool!! As you can see he and his little friend Tristan are wearing PINK swimmers...heehee! Anyway, so that was tonight. Mom and Dad are tired but he is walking around and around the hotel room...it's 833pm a few minutes past his bedtime already! Hopefully he gets sleepy soon!

We left this morning to head to Halifax for a few nights with our friends Dave, Kristi and baby Tristan. We arrived and checked into the hotel and are going to eat in tonight because the boys are not interested in driving anymore! I don't blame them! It took 3 hours to get here.
Anyway, We're about to place our order for Chinese food so I best get at it...just came in here to check on Rocco.

Judy & Neal's Visit

We had a nice visit with Judy and Neal this weekend. They came on Friday afternoon and left on Saturday. Was nice to have them with us! They even let us go back to bed when Brae woke up early early as usual...thanks guys!

Fetal Assessment

Mark and I travelled to Saint John yesterday for what will now be weekly fetal assessments. We left Braeden with our friend Kristi.

This baby is still very small...."tiny" is what the lady called him/her. During a fetal assessment they check for four things:

Two type of fetal movements...flexion/extension
Fluid level
Practice Breathing

Babe scored 8/10 because she did not do the practice breathing during the 30 minute time frame of the ultrasound so I had to be hooked up to a different monitor and sit for an additional 20 minutes to monitor her heart rate. She did do the practice breathing there so we got to go home.

So we go back next week for an assessment and then a doctor's appointment immediately afterwards.

Then the following week we will have another ultrasound done by the specialist. We are anxious to have that done to find out if this babe is at least growing on the same curve. If he/she is still growing on the 10th percentile growth curve then I guess things are okay or even if he/she has increased in the growth rate it's good. They just worry if the growth has slowed down.

Anyway that's all for now. We're having a rather lazy day today.

Update

Braeden had his one year shots last Wednesday. He weighs 25.5 pounds. He did pretty good. Not too much crying considering he'd been poked in each and every limb...my poor lil babe!

He spend the next few days being unbelievably cranky except when we were with other people.

He's been acting up lately actually and has developed this high pitched squealing thing when he is mad which is ear piercing! He has also decided that he does NOT want to feed himself anymore! He was doing so well with finger foods and now just throws it all on the floor! So we're back to feeding everything for now until he decides he wants to try again. He is still taking the sippy cup though but likes to throw that on the floor too but then we just put him on the floor beside it..haha.

Because he was already super cranky we decided that it was time to get rid of the soother. He's gone two days without it now and seems to be o.k. with that...also the last two days we put him to bed for his two daytime naps before he is asleep in our arms...before he had to fall asleep in our arms with a soother because if you put him in his crib awake he would cry and not sleep at all! but now he has for the last 4 naps (2 days) cried for a few minutes but falls asleep...

The thing is this new baby is going to arrive within the next two months and he needs to become a little bit more independent...I kinda wish it didn't have to be like this...he's my baby but it has to be because I will have my hands full with the new one!

*******

On Friday evening Mom Coombs was brought over to our house for an overnight visit. We had fun! Well mostly her and Braeden had fun which was the whole point! It was soooooooo nice to have her here! She stayed only one night though so it seemed far too short!

*****

Had a doc's appt and it went okay other than I am measuring half a week behind schedule. I've only gained 15 pounds so far too. How much more different can this pregnancy be from the previous two!!!!

We head into Saint John tomorrow for a fetal assessment at the hospital which I guess I have to do every week until babe is born. We have an ultrasound in two weeks. I am anxiously awaiting that as I would like to know this babe is still growing at a normal rate (even if it is slow!) I have chosen to attempt a VBAC delivery. So far the docs say it should be safe but of course there is an increased risk of uterine rupture BUT I so don't want to have a c-section again!

*******

The bachelor is on tonight. Just a few more minutes! I best get my husband to bed as he's fallen asleep on the couch! and then get my yogurt and berries and settle down to watch my show.

I will write an update in the next day or two...sorry! We've had a busy and challenging week with Brae, that's why I haven't written!