The big brother and sister

*As usual I wrote this awhile ago and never got around to posting it!!  Most of it's still relavent :)

Finnian and Elle have been pretty great so far with Thea.  Elle is a bit jealous when Conor has Thea (can you say daddy's girl??), and in general they are acting out a bit but more just from the change, having Conor around again all the time etc.

Finn holding Thea for the first time

When they came to the hospital I had the baby in the bassinet and they were both very excited to see her.  Finn had a turn holding her right away and then he saw my yogurt and wanted it.  So Elle had a turn holding her and didn't want us to take her away!

Elle holding Thea for the first time

Finnian doesn't really pay Thea much attention right now - he keeps talking about all the things he'll teach her when she gets bigger (like how to drive his trains on the tracks).  Elle LOVES her though.  Whenever she comes up to her she puts her face right up the Thea's and just stares at her, then points out her nose and eyes and binky.  She thought the little mittens I had on Thea's hands were hilarious! "Socks haha! Hands haha!"

Elle just climbed right up there to see Thea

Conor thought it would be nice to get a proper baby doll for Elle and to give it to her when the baby was born, so when my mom was here she bought a doll for Elle and a little duplo set for Finn for "Thea" to give them at the hospital.  And Finn had a little present (actually from Auntie Amy) that Conor helped him wrap up.

"This is Finn's favorite toy.  It was in mommys tummy" haha

Well the doll ended up not really being Elle's thing, she wanted Finns duplo!  So after some fights the next morning Conor went out with them and got a similar duplo set for Elle so they could share.

Elle staring at her new dollie

My mom had gotten a garbage truck and Conor bought a wheel loader.  When I got home Finn said the wheel loader was his favorite toy and he gladly let Elle play with the garbage truck.  Now he's switched... so it's worked out pretty well. Sometimes Elle plays with the doll - maybe when she gets a bit older.

All the kids loaded in the car!

I love this picture <3 td="">

Slow down

I have to keep telling myself that it's only been 3 weeks since Thea was born and that it's going to take me some time to completely feel like myself again.

In general I'm feeling better than I did at this point after having the other kids, and that's why I have to tell myself to slow down, don't overdue it!

Which is hard to do sometimes, I just wanna get out there with the kids, go for a nice long walk to the park...but I can't.  I am grateful though that I'm feeling pretty good... I'd rather feel good and have to tell myself to slow down than not feel good and struggle to get through the day.

Last week was Conor's first week back to work, but it wasn't a "typical" week since he took Monday off and then Wednesday and Thursday he had afternoon/evening things, so he had those mornings off. This week is Mon-Fri "9-5".

I was so worried about how I was going to do with the kids, but it's really going quite well.  I think they are happy to have some routine back - although with extra TV time which I hope to cut back on, but at this point I need some "help" while I'm nursing Thea.

I think right now the hardest thing is knowing that I can't really go out unless its just to someone's house (not ready to hit the mall alone with the kids yet, and can't do parks yet either - too much walking)...so very likely this week will be the kids and I indoors all day everyday.  Then evening comes and there's things I have to/want to do (upload photos to Facebook, finish birth certificate forms and baby bonus forms) but I'm just tired, and need to go to bed early, and just wanna sit and watch TV!

But of course things could be worse - Thea basically just sleeps all day and night other than to eat!  She has some awake times during the day, but at night she goes right back to sleep after her feeds.

So there you go - I need to just slow down, enjoy my little newborn baby, and remember that things will go back to "normal" (a new normal) before I know it!

*when Elle was a newborn she took many a nap in her carseat...baby sister is following in her footsteps. Twice today she had an hour or more nap in her carseat, leaving my hands free to play with the kids, do laundry or dishes, or just relax.

Encouraged

It's just about 9pm and I survived the evening on my own with the kids!!

I kind of feel like super mom - haha.  I didn't do anything extraordinary or anything, I didn't even have to "make" dinner (leftover lasagna from last night).  But Finn ate most of his food, Elle ate some (she's not as good an eater at dinner time these days), I got the dishes done from lunch and dinner, and got the kids to bed!

I even had a half hour nap!!

I know everyday wont go as smoothly as today (and the other days where Conor was working), but I'm feeling a LOT more confident now!

Oh, I don't know if I blogged about this st all, but when Thea had her two week check up she hadn't gained her birth weight back yet, and generally they do by 2 weeks old.  From the 10 days since discharge to that appointment she had only gained 100g and they want to see an average of 150g a week, so the nurse was a bit concerned and wanted me to try getting her to feed for longer and more often and then weigh in again in a week and see how much she gained.

Well we worked really hard and in 6 days she gained 300g!  She's above her birth weight now and I'm VERY relieved.  Finn and Elle had NO problems gaining weight, and I hear so many people are told to supplement with formula and I really really didn't want to, so I'm glad that the hard work paid off :)

Conor is away again tomorrow evening and I'm hoping it goes as well as tonight. A lady from church is even bringing dinner over, so I don't have to cook again!

Photo Albums

I used to be really good at keeping facebook photo albums up to date with pictures, but I've been slacking.  Then for awhile I couldn't just send people the link to the facebook albums unless they actually had a facebook account, well now I can again... so with the new baby, and that feature working again, I'm going to try my hardest to keep albums up to date for our family and friends back home.

One problem is that I can't share a link with the album that posts all of my mobile picture uploads, so I'll have to make sure I'm ALSO putting them in proper albums.

Oh, and I do write little captions for most of my photos just to give a little background on the picture, it seems you can't see those unless you have a facebook account, so you all might just want to get one :)

So anyways, I'll upload more in the next few days, but for now check out the links on the right side there "April and on - 2013" and "Baby Thea Marie".

Day 2

IAs you know, Friday was my first day on my own with the kids and it went pretty well actually!

Then it was the weekend, and on Monday our friend Clare (Finns Godmother who we haven't seen since Finn turn 1!) was down from Queensland so Conor stayed home and we had a really good time visiting in the morning (minus the kids going a bit crazy!)

I've been having a really really hard time with Finnian lately.  He has started back talking and we've not been handling it well.  After an awful lunch hour yesterday I was so upset and not looking forward to today at all. He had a few more moments before bed but I think one of them really got through to him because he has been so good today - and the few times he was bad he's gone to time out and we got through those time outs without any tears from me!

This mothering thing is hard.  I'll be honest and say I'm not the best disciplinarian - I think partly because I can't decide what approach to take for any given situation so Finn doesn't always know what to expect from me and partly because I lose my cool which very quickly escalates everything.

There's a Facebook group I'm part of which is mostly mommy's from the lower mainland.  Some I know, most I don't.  One of the moms was asking for advice for dealing with her 2.5 year old and a friend of mine on the group said that when her now 5 year old was that age she went through about 2 years questioning herself and not understanding what she was doing wrong - reading that made me feel so much better.

I know in my head I'm not the only one - but it's hard to remember that when you are in the trenches!

So I started off my day reading that and feeling a bit more confident - and if not confident that TODAY would go well, at least confident that SOMEDAY we would get through it!

Well about 3 times today Finn has responded to a situation in a way that we have been asking him to instead of the way that he has been.  Ex. Yesterday he and Elle were playing in the spare room and Elle kept closing the door and that was upsetting him, so he would hit her or push her.  After several times of this and us telling him that if he needs help to come get daddy or I and to never hit Elle we finally just had to close the door and say they couldn't play in there anymore.  Then this morning it happened again, but right away Finn came to me and told me what was happening and asked me to help.  I was nursing Thea so I asked him to ask Daddy and after he did he ran back to me so proud of himself saying "Finn asked Daddy to help, because asking is not hitting, we don't hit we ask" haha.

So we ARE getting through to him, slowly but surely.  Another cute thing that made my morning was when Elle hurt herself somehow while I was doing dishes I called out and asked if she was alright and Finn called back to me "mommy, Finn will look after baby (Elle) while you do the dishes....baby, are you okay?" And then he gave her a kiss and a cuddle!

So we had a great morning all in all - now they are napping and I'm trying to get Thea to sleep so I can hopefully have a little nap before I have to get ready for a friend coming for dinner.

*Thea at 2 weeks - hilarious expression!

Hi ho hi ho, it's off to work he goes

Today is Friday, Thea is 2 weeks old, and Conor has gone back to work :(

He has a Skype appointment this morning and a lunch to attend and then will come home.  I think on Monday he is going to stay home but Tuesday he'll be really back to work. 

It's just after 9 and we've survived the first hour! We'll be going hour by hour today :)

This is really my first time on my own with a newborn, let alone a newborn, toddler AND preschooler!

With the other babies I had my in-laws around PLUS Conor, because he was doing his school work from home.  If I had to use the bathroom I could just plop  the baby in Conors office so he could tend to them for a minute.  If I wanted to go out but needed a quick shower I could plop the baby in daddy's arms again.

There are no other arms this time around (although I'm sure Elle would hold the baby for me! Boy does she love her sister... too bad she isn't older!)

So we'll take it hour by hour, day by day...and the TV will probably be on more often!

Happy Mothers Day!

To my mom and mother-in-law and to all my other family and friends who are mommy's HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

This morning Conor made scones to go with our usual bacon and eggs, we went to mass and I got to show off our new bundle of joy, I requested McDonald's for lunch, and now I'm sitting on the couch as Conor makes a great Mothers Day feast of roast chicken with potatoes and a chocolate cake for dessert.

I'm a lucky mommy :)

This is life

Well we're slowly settling into our life as a family of 5!

Although right now it's basically the Conor show.  He does all the cooking and cleaning, pretty much everything to do with Finnian and Elle, getting me what I need if I'm nursing or settling Thea....pretty much everything!

I'm terrified of what it's going to be like in a week when he goes back to work, but I'm really feeling quite good, so physically I guess I'll be able to handle it, we'll see if my emotions can as well! Haha.

Thea is really a great baby, she rarely cries but is feeding often, still usually every couple hours, which is fine right now with Conor around, but hopefully she starts spacing her feeds out a bit more when I'm on my own.

I've added some random iPhone pics.  The knit cocoon is from my dads sister, Aunt Kathy, in Edmonton, and the last pics are from right now, a family outing to the park for a picnic :)

Thea's Birth story

Thursday night I was feeling pretty good. The previous two nights I had been having a lot of stomach tightenings - they didn't hurt, but the pressure would take my breath away sometimes and I could feel everything shifting south everytime. I had a bit of an upset tummy though... I did wonder if this might be a sign of impending labor but didn't say anything. The Kings Speech was on TV, so Conor and I both stayed up late to watch it, going to bed around 11:30. 

I had to get up a couple times to pee, and then at 2:30am my eyes just popped open, I didn't know why - I was laying on my side facing Conor and my water broke, so I quickly shifted my backside off the bed so I wouldn't soak the mattress! It was a much bigger gush than when my water broke with Finn and Elle. 

They say only 15% of labors will start with the water breaking before labor begins... What are the chances that my water would break with ALL THREE of mine! 

Feeding right away

I woke up Conor so that he could grab a towel and just kinda laid there for a bit. With Finn and Elle labor never really started on its own, I had to be induced. Conor lamented the bad timing because we didn't want to call someone to come over, both go to the hospital, only to be discharged after verifying my water had broken to await labor or be induced again. 

I honestly didn't even want to call the hospital, I wanted to go back to bed and see what happened. We decided I should call anyways, and they told me to come in. So we decided I would go in by myself, and if I did get admitted or something changed, Conor could just take a taxi or the bus. 

Then I FINALLY got out of bed to change my clothes and use the washroom, and while I was in the washroom I had my first minor contraction. I knew then that I wasn't going to go to the hospital alone, so I called the babysitter (my phone says I called her at 2:55) while I got my bags ready to go, meanwhile having a few more contractions here and there, nothing really painful, but different than the ones I had been having the previous nights. 

About an hour after birth - getting weighed and checked

I laid down in bed again waiting for the sitter to come, and when she got there I had to use the washroom one more time. Well I thought I was going to have the baby right there on the toilet! I had a contraction as soon as I sat down, and it wasn't that it was more painful than the others, but I had this terrible urge to push, and I knew there was nothing ELSE that needed to come out, if you know what I mean! I almost yelled for Conor to call the ambulance, but chickened out, and basically ran out to the car quickly saying goodbye to the sitter. 

On the drive I had several more painful contractions that I had to hold Conors hand for, he asked me if he should be speeding and I said yes and no! Nodded yes during contractions, saying no between because I didn't want to get a ticket! 

Then we got to the hospital and I didn't know what to do. This hospital has a women's side (where I needed to go) and a regular hospital side. Out front you can only park for 30 minutes, but underground the women's hospital elevators aren't open at night, so I would have to walk farther. We were going to go park underground but then I had a really bad contraction and just told him to park out front and we'd deal with it later. Unfortunately we should have gone around back to the emergency entrance because the women's hospital entrance was closed, as was the main hospital entrance. I may have said a fee choice words at that point. We had to ring and ask to be let in... All the while having more contractions and wanting to push. (After Thea was born Conor went and moved the car and told me after that neither of the elevators were working!  It was a good thing we didn't park underground!) 

From the entrance to the emergency desk I had to stop and sit twice, and I sent Conor to the desk. Thank goodness this guy behind the desk went and opened the door for us because I walked in but I guess the lady who was actually manning the desk wasn't ready for me to actually come in. 

She looked confused when she saw me because she didn't realize the guy had opened the door for us, and she didn't have anywhere for me to go. But I had to sit again for a contraction and a midwife saw me, came over and saw me sitting there with my knees clamped together trying to breath and said "oh yep, you're ready, we're gonna bring you right to a room". 

They got a wheelchair and walked me to labor and delivery, and I heard them deciding which room and said they'd get it ready. 

I laid down in the bed and I had to push but they started taking my clothes off and getting things ready so I held on again. The next contraction I didn't know what to do, I wanted to push but no one had even looked down there yet!! I just asked and they said do whatever I want so I started pushing and I heard one or more of them saying they could see the head. So I pushed and pushed and then they yelled to stop (ugh, this meant I was tearing!) Conor said "she has lots of hair" so I thought he could just see the top (turned out her whole head was out at that point) 

With the next contraction they said not to push but to just breath, but I couldn't... Thank goodness I could hear Conor breathing in my ear like they were telling me to, so I just copied him - my eyes were closed this whole time because of the pain.

So I panted and panted and felt her come out, opened my eyes and there she was on my chest!! 

3:59am baby Thea Marie was born!

She latched on right away so I think I breastfed her for over and hour while they stitched me up before finally getting her measurement - 8 pounds 8 ounces, 52 cm long. 

In the end, this was the best timing! I have no clue what would have happened had this started during the day. 1. Conor would not have made it. 2. We had two sitters lined up on call, but this one who would be available Friday knows the kids and their routines better as she had done most of the nannying while I was in hospital. 3. It would have taken her longer to get to our house if it was during the day. 4....really, I would not have made it to the hospital. 

Can you imagine if my water broke like that at the zoo on Tuesday?!?!?

What's in a name 3.0

I did a post about how Finn got his name and how Elle got her name, so here's Thea's story.

Oh, and she has a middle name now - Thea Marie *pronounced thee-ah*

First, until my 20 week ultrasound I was sure I was having a boy. Before Conor discovered the name Finnian we had sort of chosen a different boys name, so that's what we were going to name this baby (and I'm not telling in case we can use it in the future!)

Then we found out we were having a girl and I was thrown! I just couldn't think of any names. A few days after finding out it was a girl I got up from having a nap and Conor handed me a piece of paper that had about 8 girls names on it - he had been researching! Haha.

Thea stood out to me right away, but for those of you who don't know, Thea was the name of one of the Sweeney dogs. I didn't want people to think that we were naming her after a dog, or only think about the dog when they heard the name. But Conor's Grannie had a favorite auntie "Thea Sophia" so we knew there would be that association as well.

Anyways, this was still early on so we just didn't think about it too much. Actually I thought about it a lot! Haha, I just couldn't I don't know, envision this baby AND associate a name with her. Which was a change for me from the other two. I had never been told I was having a boy with Finnian, but I was sure and Conor and I were already calling him Finn. Then I found out I was having a girl and we were calling her baby Elle right away, even Finn knew that was her name.

I figured this would just be one of those babies that I would have to see to name. Last week both Conor and I were still iffy on Thea and were leaning towards another name (again, saving the name in case we can use it in the future!) but then a couple days before she was born we both just agreed that we liked Thea more, we told the kids and Finn told me "yeah, cuz that's a nice name for your baby". So there was no turning back!

We didn't have a middle name at all, I didn't feel as much of a rush to pick that. After Thea arrived and we were waiting to be moved to a recovery room and Conor was looking up names and saints on my iPhone. He asked me what I thought of "Marie", and I thought it sounded really nice. The reason he thought of it was because May 3rd is the feast day of Blessed Marie Leonie Paradis. One of the pics below is a little description of her.

Thea is Greek and means "gift of God". I also liked Marie because its a variant if Mary, and every good Catholic has to have a Mary in the family! Hehe

Well, there you have it, our little Thea Marie!

Introducing...

Introducing baby Thea Sweeney, born May 3rd @ 3:59am (10 minutes after getting to the hospital!!) 8 pounds 8 ounces :)

Free glasses? Yes please!

I can't remember exactly how old I was when I first got glasses... maybe grade 9, or 10?  I knew I needed glasses because whenever the teacher used a color pen on the overhead projector I couldn't see it.  So I got glasses.

After that I got one new pair, and then I met Conor.

This is me in my second pair of glasses ever.

Not longer after Conor and I started dating, I started wearing contacts. I LOVE contacts - I wish I had tried them sooner, but I thought I wouldn't like them.  So then I just wore contacts all the time and I never got new glasses.  My prescription didn't change much, so I didn't need to glasses.  I could still use my old ones for driving if I needed to, so why spend the money?

After Elle was born I saw a promotion for "Clearly Contacts" in Canada (they sell contacts and glasses).  If you had never ordered from them before, you could get a free pair of glasses, as well as basic prescription lenses (no scratch coating or anything on them), and all you had to pay was $14 shipping.  Sounded good to me!  I had just seen the optometrist anyways, so I had a current prescription, so I ordered them and true to their word all I had to pay was $14!

After that I didn't really wear them alot - still kept wearing my contacts.  But it was nice to have a new pair of glasses because I really did hate my other ones, and having the proper prescription was nice.

My clearlycontacts.ca FREE glasses!

Fastforward to now - when I went on bedrest I was so glad to have these glasses that I didn't hate! haha.  I felt like it would be a waste of money in the hospital to always be wearing my contacts when no one was going to see me anyways!  So for most of my time on bedrest I didn't even wear contacts.

THEN I saw on facebook a promotion for the clearly contacts Australia for the same thing - free glasses and lenses and all you had to pay for was shipping. I thought I might as well see if I could get another pair because it was technically my first time using THIS site :)

So now I have a backup pair!  They are basically the same frame, and it's the same prescription, and it was only $10 shipping this time! haha

If you ever see that promotion and you haven't purchased from Clearly Contacts before, now you know it's not a scam so go for it!!