Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Christmas Update!


Family self-portrait.

I never seem to have enough hours in the day! Between Mackenzie and my family being here time on the computer is quite rare for me, so forgive me for taking so long with an up-date!
We had a good Christmas. We all got some great gifts and had a nice day relaxing. Dakota was with us till Christmas morning so it was great to see her. Out of all the gifts she received she was most impressed by the Twilight shirt my Mum bought her.
She enjoyed spending time with her little sister, although she started to worry a little when every time she held Mackenzie she would cry. We all told her not to take that personally as Mackenzie has days when she just wants her Mum and Dad!
Mackenzie looked so cute in her Christmas dress, although I think she might have wondered what the fuss was all about! We kept her in it until everyone got their photos, although I realised once she was out of it that me and her did not get a photo together. In fact I realised today that we haven't had any photos just me and her since she was born! I guess I'm going to have to work on that!
Tomorrow she will be four weeks already, and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. She is doing great and growing by the day. We have been having a little trouble getting her to sleep at night, but last night we had a big break through. We are now working on a bed time routine. We give her a bath (using lavender products) which she really enjoys, then she goes into her pjs, has a drink then goes to sleep. Last night was the first time she slept in her own bed. She did that all night until her 5am feed where I fell asleep before putting her back to bed. I guess I'll only have myself to blame when she's still sleeping in our bed!
My Aunty Coral made her the cutest little teddy bear which my Mum bought over with her. He's a little brown bear dressed up in a purple rabbit suit. I have decided to name him Henry after seeing a picture of my cousin's son Henry sleeping with his bear! (He has the same bear as Mackenzie, but his is in a red rabbit suit) Henry and Mackenzie were born about a week apart, so I thought this would be a cute way of keeping them connected even though they are on the other side of the world from one another! (I hope you don't mind Amanda!!) Mackenzie loves her Henry bear and I've included some pics of her hanging out with him.
As for John and I we are doing fine. John got his leave extended and will be with us until January 12th. We are very excited about that! It's been great having him here, and I'm sure he's loving the opportunity to bond with his little girl. He is so cute with her, and I especially appreciate him taking her in the mornings for their little Daddy - daughter time. This week I finally got out and bought myself some new clothes. Since giving birth I have had one pair of jeans that fit me and a lot of over sized pj pants to wear. I've lost I'm thinking about 30 pounds thanks to the gestational diabetes! I still want to lose some more so yesterday I took advantage of the sales and got myself some new clothes. You can't believe how happy I was to see that I now fit into size 16 jeans!!
New Years will probably be an early one for us. Belynda is heading out with some friends of hers, but the rest of us are staying home. I will possibly be awake feeding at midnight, but if I'm lucky I might actually be fast asleep! Whatever your plans I hope you have a happy, safe and fun new year and that 2009 sees nothing but good things come your way!! I'll be in touch again next year!!


Mackenzie with her Henry Bear!



She loves her Henry!


Asleep in her crib for the first time (she either sleeps in our bed or in a portable crib in our room)



With her musical sea horse that she got from Santa


Dakota and Mackenzie


Mackenzie in her cute Christmas dress!


Mackenzie and her Daddy!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Daddy's Home!


Mackenzie and her Daddy!!

Where does the time go!?! Sorry it's taken me a while to update the blog, but as you can imagine time seems to get away from me these days! John finally got home last Saturday and it's so good to have him home. Mackenzie just loves her Daddy, and already has John wrapped around her little finger! He has this way of calming her down at times that I'm really going to miss once he leaves us again! He has been such a great help too, especially around the 4am time period. After she eats they go and have sometime together, which has allowed me to sleep a little more. I have truly come to appreciate that two and bit hours of sleep!


Mackenzie's first bath!

With Mackenzie's umbilical cord finally falling out she also had her first bath this week. She did a lot better than what I thought she would as the sponge baths I used to give her she did not like at all! This is one of my favourite photos of her!! Isn't she the cutest!!


We have been doing a lot of hanging out at home and getting ready for Christmas. My Mum and Belynda arrived on Wednesday so we've been out doing some shopping and stuff since they have been here. Mackenzie had her two week appointment on Wednesday and now weighs 8 pounds 3 ounces. I can tell that she's getting bigger, maybe soon she'll start fitting into more of her clothes.


Mackenzie in one of her Christmas outfits!



In her bouncer..."Thank you Aunty Jess, it's one of my favourite places to hang out!!"




One week old!
So I can't think of anything else to update you on! We are all doing great and just making the most of the time John has with us! At the moment he is due to head back December 30, but he's going to see about extending for another week so please everyone keep your fingers crossed that he is able to do that! Mackenzie and I wish that he didn't have to go back at all!
In case I don't get back on the computer before Christmas I hope you all have a wonderful day whatever you do!! We will have Dakota over for Christmas Eve and morning so I'll be sure to have plenty of pics to put on here! I can't wait for you all to see Mackenzie in her Christmas dress!!




Sunday, December 7, 2008

Mackenzie's Early Arrival!!


Well this week has definitely been a week of ups and downs!! The high light of course was the surprisingly early arrival of our daughter Mackenzie. She arrived December 3, 10:42pm, weighing in at 7 pounds 9 ounces (they rounded the ounces up) and 19.5 inches long!
I think Tuesday's events may have triggered Mackenzie's early arrival. I got my usual phone call from John checking up on me. Unfortunately he had bad news for me telling me that he wouldn't be back in Bahrain in time to catch his flight. This was the news I had been dreading from the time he told me that he had to go back out to sea. As you can imagine I didn't take the news to good and after getting his flights changed I was a mess for the rest of the day. I had my hospital tour that night so I got myself together and went there, which was probably a good thing because I didn't realise that I'd be needing it the next day!! As for the inducement I hadn't even gotten around to asking if I could change the date, so I guess maybe I had accepted that John wouldn't be here.
So Tuesday night I barely slept. I wasn't in any pain or anything like that I just couldn't sleep. I had to get up early the next morning for an appointment so when I got out of bed I began to leak some liquid (to put it politely). I noticed that it was pinkish and I guess I realised what was happening, so I calmly got my bags packed, got everything into the car, got myself dressed, had breakfast, then drove to the hospital. I went to my appointment and was told to go home and monitor my liquid loss and come back if it became a lot. I wasn't too happy with that and when I got up I felt more liquid, so I told the nurse and she told me just to go to labor and delivery just to be on the safe side. I went there and was put in a room to wait for a doctor. When the doctor came I explained the situation and she said she'd check me out and see what she thought. She tells me to sit up a little and scoot forward and when I did that I lost quite a bit of fluid and she tells me that I'm staying as the baby is coming.
The rest of the day went by rather quietly. My contractions came on, but it took me forever to dilate completely. My friend Brittny arrived in the early evening and we just hung out until around 10:30 when they came in to check me and told me I was ready to go. I had been in an epidural enhanced spell and once they told me that the nerves started to kick in!! I started to feel sick and they let me throw up then I started pushing. I threw up again, then before I knew it Mackenzie was up on my chest! The epidural was the best thing ever because I really didn't feel much at all!
I still can't believe she's here! She's so perfect and we have both settled in at home reasonably well. She's a bit of a night owl which at times is tough, especially when I just want to go to sleep! I'm actually a little amazed how well I've adapted, especially doing it on my own. I have this level of patience and calm that has taken over me and so far I think I'm handling doing it on my own quite well! I'm not going to lie though, I am so looking forward to John coming home to help out! He should be here on Wednesday, but I won't rest easy about that until I see him!! I don't get much time to do anything...at the moment I typing one handed because she'll only sleep if I hold her. I do have some photos that were taken at the hospital that you can all see on a website, but I'll have to give you that when I'm a little more organized!!


Welcome to the world!!






Testing out her lungs...they work great too by the way!



Her first bath


Foot print time


She didn't want to get weighed


Brittny who has helped us out so much...thanks Brittny we truly do appreciate it!


One day old


At home and over the photo taking!!