8 weeks old today!

Just a quick note to let you all know that Mackenzie is eight weeks old today! I can't believe how quickly time has gone by. She's growing so fast!! She's also still sleeping in Mummy's bed...but we won't go there!
I got the results from my blood test today and I don't have diabetes! They have recommended though that I get checked out every now and then to make sure it stays that way. I have joined weight watchers so hopefully I'll continue to lose weight and will not have to worry about it!
Anyway just wanted to make sure I marked this special day!!

Still in my bed!

I guess she's already over the photo thing...sticking her tongue out!


Well I think my last entry was a little premature! Getting Mackenzie to sleep in her own bed is proving much more difficult than I ever imagined. She screams! I mean really screams!! It just breaks my heart and my ear drums then stresses me out, so I have kind of given up. Going to sleep in general however seems to be tough for Mackenzie because the last few nights she had cried and screamed and that's with her going straight into my bed. I guess I'm just creating my own problem here, but I figured in order to keep my sanity I'm going to spoil her a little. I just don't want to get myself all stressed out about it when I'm on my own. Maybe that's a bit of a cop out, but it's my excuse for this week!
We had a pretty good week last week. On Wednesday I had my check up to make sure I'm healing up after the birth. It was a little frustrating after I was kept waiting for an hour to be seen. Luckily Mackenzie stayed asleep the whole time! She woke up as I was just pulling into the house so that was a bonus. On Saturday I had to go do a diabetes blood test to make sure that I don't have diabetes permanently so fingers crossed I get good news back from that!


Mackenzie in her new Marie outfit, getting ready to go meet Sophia!

On Thursday Mackenzie and I went to meet her friend Sophia. My friend Jennifer gave birth to Sophia about four weeks after me so it was great to see them both! Mackenzie and Sophia basically slept most of the time, but I'm sure with time they will become the best of friends! Sophia is so tiny! I had already forgotten how small Mackenzie started out!


Mackenzie smiling!

Mackenzie is starting to smile and talk a lot more these days! She is so cute when she smiles! I have been trying to get it on camera for some time and finally had a bit of a breakthrough this week! I try to get as many shots as I can for John, but some days as soon as she sees the camera she gets upset!
I have started school this week which I'm hoping Mackenzie will allow me time to get things done! I'm doing two classes, and they both seem to have a heavy work load so I'll either be up all night doing it or I'll get a little tougher with Mackenzie and she'll "sleep" in her bed! Today was a little tough. I've done a lot of one handed typing! Fingers crossed I get my work done!
John is doing good and heads out to sea tomorrow. As per usual he can't tell me how long he'll be gone for, but I hope that I get to hear from him through email. He's been a little under the weather these past few days. I imagine all that travel finally caught up with him! He gets to talk to Mackenzie on the phone when she is awake, which she enjoys! We just hope the rest of his deployment flies by so he can come back home!

A Small Victory!

As I have already mentioned I've been trying hard to get Mackenzie to go to sleep on her own in her own bed! It's been really tough! She cries and cries and cries, then screams which as you can imagine is not what you want to hear! Up until today I've given in and picked her up, put her in my bed and let her sleep with me. Today I remained strong and she eventually went to sleep!! She slept for a little over an hour so we are getting somewhere! I have just put her down for tonight too and it was only about thirty minutes of crying before she went to sleep! Fingers crossed we have turned a corner! So here's a pic of my angel sleeping!! The highlight of my week!!

Back to Normal

Mackenzie in her party dress


Me and Mackenzie at the party!


Brittny and Mackenzie

Sasha with Mackenzie

The birthday girl after her cake!

We have survived our first weekend on our own and are somewhat beginning to get into a routine. Yesterday we went to Emily's 2nd birthday party which was a good day out. I used to look after Emily at the centre since she was a baby, so it was a great opportunity to catch up with friends and some of the families. Emily had a great time eating and jumping on the jumping castle! She also liked trying to give Mackenzie lots of kisses.

Earlier in the week we also went to my old job for a visit. Everyone fell in love with Mackenzie and it was good to see everyone. The kids scared me a little because they all wanted to look at her, which meant a whole bunch of kids swarming around her stroller! She stayed asleep through it all though which was a good thing. Once we got home however I found she left me a lovely surprise when she pooped all over her clothes and car seat! It was a lot of fun cleaning that up!

Sleeping is still proving difficult, but I'm determined to get Mackenzie into her own bed. Last night she cried and cried and screamed until she eventually fell asleep in her bed. I thought I was home free until she began to wake every 15 minutes or so screaming. I eventually had too much and placed her in my bed where she fell asleep in a minute and slept for five hours. I know I have to get her into her own bed, but I'm not going to stress myself out about it. Being on my own I figure the last thing I need to do is stress and upset myself. My friend Brittny has given me a book on the subject so I'm going to begin reading that and hopefully be able to put the advice into action!

Next week is my last week before my classes start. I have my doctors appointment on Wednesday and then on Thursday we are going to visit my friend Jennifer and her new baby Sophie which we are looking forward too!

John is doing good and finally back to Bahrain after a unbelievable week! He was meant to fly back on a military flight, but didn't get on the first one, then the next plane was delayed several days due to weather and maintenance problems!! He ended up having to purchase a ticket and made it back Saturday night...he left here Monday morning!

I got to go...Mackenzie has just woken up (from her nap in my bed) and wants to be fed!

Home Alone

Mackenzie and her Daddy!


Me and Mackenzie!



My girl!

I've just dropped Mum and Belynda off at the airport and it's just me and Mackenzie with the house to ourselves. I have to admit I'm a little scared, but I'm sure once we are into our routine we'll be fine. I think Mackenzie is going to be learning the hard way though that she can't be carried around all the time. With all those extra bodies in the house she only had to whimper and someone was there to pick her up!
I want to say thanks for all the advice from my last post! Now that we are by ourselves I'm definitely going to put some of that into action. Lets hope I'm strong enough to allow my little girl to cry a little...she does have an heart breaking cry! She also doesn't really like to be swaddled so I could be in for some tough times. Anyway it's bath time...so I'll write some more on the weekend!

Bad Habits!

Mackenzie sleeping in what has become her bed!!

Well time is just flying and it's hard to believe that Mackenzie is 5 weeks already! Where did the time go? She's so much bigger now and has given us a few social smiles which totally made our day! I am yet to get one on camera though! We do seem to have come across a few problems though (hence my title) which I didn't anticipate happening so soon! Mackenzie fights her sleep! Her eyes will be hanging out of her head and she gets rather upset, but sometimes it takes a long time to get her to sleep. Then our next problem occurs. She will not sleep in her own bed! We will have her asleep finally and no sooner do we put her in the crib she begins to stir, then she's wide awake and eventually crying. We soon give up and place her in her favourite sleeping spot...in the middle of our bed! She then eventually moves over to me where she will sleep right at my side. Last night she was rather restless so she spent half the night hitting me! I'm already doing what I said I wouldn't do by letting her in our bed...any ideas out there on how to get her out?

Next week Mackenzie and I will be back on our own. John leaves on Monday and then Mum and Belynda leave on Wednesday. It is going to be strange to have an empty house again, but it will also be a great opportunity to get into a routine. We have been going out a lot, so it will be nice to have things get back to normal. Who knows, maybe Mackenzie will settle into a better sleeping pattern!?! I can only hope! I am enrolled in two on-line classes which begin on the 26th so it will be nice to have her on somewhat of a routine so I can get some study done.

So this weekend will be a quiet one for us. Everyone needs to start getting organized and packed up. On Sunday the Chargers will be playing and hopefully winning so we are looking forward to the game. It seems that ever since John came home they have won, so hopefully that tradition will continue. We would love to see them make it to the super bowl!!

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!