A Bear, A Bug and Bean: July 2011

Part 2 of the western tour

Well we made it to phase 2 of the western tour. And I'm exhausted lol. All this visiting and showing off Nora is fun but boy does it throw her off. The past two days she has started to comfort nurse a lot. It's hard on me because we get up so often for it but it's also hard because it breaks my heart to see her so sad and upset. I would say more about my trip but my mother always told me, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all lol.

So instead, here are some pictures

Nora with Noodle, her build a bear

Nora at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, in the Rider store

Nora chilling to her iPod in the car

Nora with Grandpa Eldren

Nora at Studio One

Nora's first pedicure experience at Chic :)

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Whirlwind western tour

So later this morning we begin our 3 week whirlwind western tour. It was supposed to have started last night BUT all flights out of Kingston were cancelled due to thunderstorms and the flight out of Toronto was cancelled too. So we came home for the night and now it's 4:30am and I just fed Nora and changed her and my alarm is set to go off in 15 minutes so I'm wide awake in bed. And Nora's still awake too lol. It's gonna be a Long day for me.

Nora and Bella - bff's already.

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Nora's photo shoot

So Nora had her first photoshoot and it was awesome. I am so thankful that Karen managed to fit us in on Friday. And then I even got to go to ikea after!

This is a pic I took while things were getting set up:

This is Karen hard at work:

And these are Nora's baby leg warmers that we bought when we signed up for our 10 week cloth diaper service trial!! So excited, it starts when we get back from our whirlwind western tour :)

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Soooo excited

We're taking Nora to get her newborn pics done this morning and I'm so pumped and excited for this. The photographer is the same one who did our mat pics and they turned out awesome. The only thing I'm sad about is that we couldn't find a super cute hat for her to wear :(

Here is milk drunk Nora:

And here's Nora wide awake:

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Nora's first boyfriend

Nora had her first official playdate today with Pam's little man Desmond. We even took pictures of them side by side. It's amazing how much of a difference two weeks in age makes. Putting them together made me realize that I think Nora has my skin colouring, because her skin is definitely far more fair than Desmond's.

Today was our first full day without any relatives. It was fairly uneventful other than me wanting to take a nap and Paul putting Nora in the room with me, that didn't work so well and I ended up getting super frustrated. But he took her downstairs and I got one hour of pure sleep. It was nice. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

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Long day

Today has been one of those days. I really just want to sit down and have a big cry. Danie left yesterday morning. And Mom and Dad left today. And now the house seems so empty.

My baby bear is slowly becoming little bear. It's amazing how much she's grown already. I still can't believe that she's my baby. And that it was her in my belly for 9 months. I seriously thought she was going to be a he lol. Bear is a good little eater, and I've only had to deal with her projectile vomit once so far *knocks on wood*. I never realized how much I could love someone but she definitely makes me love more than I thought was possible.

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The arrival of Nora Anne Marie

My little precious Baby Bear has finally arrived. And I finally have some spare time to write about her birth :)

Last Tuesday, my Dad arrived in Kingston early in the morning. So he went and met up with Paul and his buddies who were golfing, while I stayed at home and made cookies lol. After they got back from golfing, we decided to go grocery shopping and do some other shopping (Golf Town and Michaels), we had made a meal plan for the following week on Monday night so we were all set for the week. I thought that maybe I had been having contractions during the day - but I wasn't positive they were real contractions. I had been having what I thought were Braxton-Hicks all weekend long.

So we skyped with Danie that evening and Mom and I were sitting on the couch together. She said she had to go to the bathroom and I did too, but she beat me to getting up. Mom came back into the room and I went to stand up, and I felt a gush of fluid. I thought for maybe a second that I had wet myself. But then I realized that, nope, that was definitely my water that was breaking. So we had to get some towels and I had to waddle across the carpet towards the bathroom. I was more worried about getting the floor dirty than anything else lol. I looked up and there was Paul standing at the front door with our bags, all ready to go. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to go to the hospital yet, so we called my friend Pam and she said GO. :) So off we went, my Dad drove us there. We went up to Connell 5 and they put me in a room and checked me out, it was indeed my water that had broken. And then the contractions started. Now I knew that I hate needles, and I wanted to be as drug free as possible and we told the nurse that right from the start and she was excited that I wanted to do things that way. And btw, the nurses at KGH were phenomenal and just so amazing and helpful. Things progressed at a good pace, I dilated approx 1 cm every hour, until I hit 8 and then I stayed there for about 3 hours... so they started me on the oxytocin drip which made things stronger and more painful, but I just kept breathing through it. I did try the nitrous oxide - but it made me feel weird and then it made me sick so I gave up on it lol. Then finally I was ready to push and the room was FULL of people. Because KGH is a teaching hospital, I had Paul and my Mom in the room, my nurse, a nursing student, the Resident, a student Resident, the Attending Doctor, and another nurse. And then Baby Nora was born! It was such an amazing experience, and I have to say, I'm SO happy that I didn't use the drugs, and I really am just very happy with everything. And to all the people out there (not really anyone from blog land lol) who said I couldn't handle being a Mom and that I'd have "issues" SCREW YOU!! I'm doing awesome. :) We've already done several outings with Nora and I even went out yesterday with my sister just the two of us and Paul watched Nora while I was gone. And I'm feeling great (and I think I'm looking great too lol). Here are some pictures of our new little Princess :)