Yesterday & Today

Yesterday...

Snowfall.

Full House!

Snowsuit :)

Snowballs!

Today...

Sunshine!

Walk.


Melting.

Smiles :)


Cuteness.


Spring???

Progress Report

~ Potty Training: Keziah is a pro at keeping her princess panties dry. I don't really worry about "pee" accidents with her anymore. She's usually dry for her naps as well. But, we'll have to continue to work on the pooping part. She tends to hold it for a few days and then poop in her pull-up after we put her to bed. I haven't worried about it too much yet, but hopefully she'll get it figured out sooner than later...

Here's Keziah after her meeting with a blue marker:

~ Room Sharing: So far, so good - as long as Micah is sleeping before we put Keziah in there. Micah can sleep through pretty much anything. Micah is usually up at 6 am sharp, but most mornings Keziah has continued to sleep until closer to 7.

Micah re-enacting the Tim Horton's commercial they had running over the holidays:


Making his sister laugh:

~ Kidney Stones: I haven't had any pain since my hospital stay, but I was unusually tired for about a week after. I've also experienced a few intense dizzy spells. My doctor figures my body is still recovering from all it went through and said that this incident came right at a time in pregnancy when many women complain of exhaustion.

Evidence of my pregnant klutziness - macaronis everywhere:

~ Pregnancy: I thought that I wouldn't be as anxious for this little one to be born seeing as it will make my life pretty busy and exhausting with three, but I also don't remember being this uncomfortable so soon in my other pregnancies. I heard someone say once that with their third pregnancy, their body just started to "fall apart". I laughed at the time, but now I'm starting to understand :P Aside from my whole kidney stone incident, I have been extra sore, tired, uncomfortable, irritable and huge! I could blame it on a number of things - like the staircase that I have to climb ump-teen times a day now, or the 2 kids (some days more) that I have to referee all day. I was especially discouraged at this week's appointment to discover how much weight I've gained this past month. I have NEVER been pregnant over the Christmas holidays before, so I'm chalking it up to that :) Not even the throwing-up-and-not-eating-hospital-episode stopped my body from packing on the pounds! And I know it's not just me, because at least 2 people have looked at me and thought I was ready to have this baby any day.

This picture's blurry, but it's probably better that way since I took it early this morning :)
Me at 32 weeks, 2 days:

~ Erik's Work: We have felt thankful for Erik to have steady work these last couple of weeks - and it looks like his next several weeks will be taken care of as well. Despite being in a season of "less", we've felt encouraged in our faith in God's provision. We've even experienced some unexpected blessings. We continue to trust God, that he knows the future even if it's only made clear to us one step at a time.

Hospital Visit

Last Wednesday during naptime I started feeling quite crampy and uncomfortable. My first scary thought was that I was having contractions and could be in pre-term labour. But when I felt my belly, it wasn't tightening at all. I decided to have a hot shower and by the time I got out the pain had localized in my lower back on the left side - the same place where I've had kidney stone pain in the past.

The kids (including an extra that I was babysitting) woke up shortly after and I let them watch TV and have the run of the house while I lay on the couch. Eventually the pain got so bad that I threw up. By this time Erik was on his way home with his sister Kristi who agreed to watch the kids while we went to emerg. From emerg, they sent me straight up to maternity. Despite the pain and nausea I was experiencing, I was excited to get my first look at the new Abbotsford hospital - especially the maternity ward. We weren't disappointed!

They checked me for dilation and hooked me up for a non-stress test. Thankfully, baby looked fine and was still very active. But I had to wait a bit for them to get doctor's orders for pain meds and by that point I was feeling very uncomfortable. They finally gave me a morphine injection and it knocked me out for about 3 hours. They let us go home, but said I could come back if I needed more pain management or if I became dehydrated. At about 2 am I woke up again feeling very uncomfortable and nauseated. I was showing signs of dehydration as well so we decided to head back in. Thankfully, Rosanna was on stand-by to come watch the kids which was helpful!

They admitted me for the night and brought me to my hotel, er... hospital room. Seriously though, it was beautiful. A huge new room with a big window facing towards the mountains and my own bathroom. I felt like I was on vacation :) They told me they had put me on the quiet end of the ward - away from the labouring mothers and crying newborns. And it was quiet - and warm and peaceful. Once I had the morphine I just slept and slept. Mid-morning on Thursday I passed a stone that amazed even the nurses with its size. I also noticed that the kidney pain was gone. It felt so good to know that we had found the culprit of all the pain. They decided to send me home and I've felt fine every since other than being more tired than usual.

Anytime I try to relax on the couch, I get bombarded by both kids who want to snuggle with me. There's barely enough room for me and my belly, let alone all four of us!


In other news, we decided last week to put Keziah's mattress in Micah's room. Micah has been complaining about feeling scared and lonely when we put him to sleep - nothing we haven't heard from him before, but we figured it was as good a time as any to put them in the same room. It has been a bit interesting though and they have had some late nights of "playing" together. So we started putting Micah down first since he is ready to sleep by 7 pm. He usually falls asleep quite quickly and then we can put Keziah down. Keziah jabbers to herself a bit as she settles down for the night, but Micah can sleep through all her talking (and her night crying), so it seems to be a good system. I realized this was my last big thing on my "to-do" list before the baby comes. I've moved Keziah out of her crib, potty-trained her, and moved her into Micah's room - all with 2 whole months to spare! Maybe I should've spread it out a bit more so I wouldn't be twiddling my thumbs for the next 9ish weeks... Oh well, I still have to get out the baby gear and newborn clothes so that should help pass the time :)


All rosy-cheeked after her nap:

Picking up on Micah's bad habits...

Thanks for your votes on Ju-Jube's gender and birthdate! So far the boy votes are definitely out-numbering the girl votes. When I was preggo with Keziah, the girl votes out-numbered the boy votes, so we'll see if the majority is right once again. One more thing that makes me think this is a boy is that I'm starting to swell like I did with Micah. I got a bit swollen with Keziah but with Micah I was unable to wear my wedding rings and regular shoes. I had to wear flip-flops for all of November and December. Yesterday my rings felt extremely tight, so I think I may have to leave them off until baby is born and my water retention returns to normal!

Baby Guesses

Now that I've hit the 30 week mark, I thought it was time to take some guesses from any of you readers about the gender and birthdate of this baby!


I'm curious to know what you all think. Despite the fact that I've had a boy pregnancy and a girl pregnancy, I haven't been able to find much in common with one pregnancy over the other. All three babies have been very active and my early pregnancy symptoms been similar. But here are a few things to note:

~ I notice that I seem to be more irritable with each pregnancy, but my theory is that, with each pregnancy, I have more people (little ones at least) in my life to irritate me :)

~ I'm carrying low, like I did with Keziah - but it could also just be because this is my 3rd.

~ I seem to be carrying most of the weight in my belly (and less all over). My favourite pair of maternity jeans from my pregnancy with Keziah actually seem a little baggy in the legs. Which is interesting since I feel so huge.

Here's a profile picture of little Ju-Jube from 14 weeks if it helps at all...

And here are some things to note in guessing the birthdate:

~ Micah was born 3 days after his due date. His ultrasounds both calculated that he was due a few days later than what we thought, so it could be that he was born on his actual due date!

~ Keziah was born 9 days after her due date and I had to be induced. My ultrasound with her actually calculated that she was due 5 days after we thought, so she may have only been born 4 days late :)

~ My due date with this baby is March 21st. My first ultrasound calculated that baby was due one day later (March 22nd) and the second ultrasound was bang on with my due date.

So, post your guesses on gender and birthdate - and weight if you want (Micah was 7 lbs, 15 oz, Keziah was 8 lbs, 6 oz).

My guess is a baby boy born on March 25th weighing 8+ lbs.

Haircut

Micah has badly needed a haircut for some time now. I don't think we've cut it since the spring! His hair was starting to hang in his eyes and he was starting to look like an unkempt child, so it was time to stop procrastinating and start cutting.

Here he is in a recent picture with his mop of hair:

I was tempted to stop mid-cut and leave him some nice hockey hair...

And after:

He was pretty surprised when he looked at himself in the mirror and exclaimed, "I look like Aidan!" (referring to one of his cousins :)

Also, I had to post another great sleeping picture of Keziah.

And if we didn't think this was funny enough, when Erik went to place her properly on her bed, he discovered a "my little pony" that had been right under her face, leaving semi-permanent pony parts etched on her cheek :)

I also forgot to post a video of Micah from over the holidays. Some friends of ours invited Erik and Micah to join them for an afternoon skate. Micah hasn't been skating since last year and he's never tried single-bladed skates, but he did really well. My friend Crystal took a few pictures and videos and sent them to me. I thought Micah looked like such a cute little future hockey-player!

A New Year

Erik and I had the perfect New Year's eve - a quiet evening, kids sent to bed early, treats from the store and several episodes of 24 (we just recently got into season 1). I barely made it to midnight - heading up to bed at about 11:30. I was just drifting off to sleep when Erik came up and said "Happy New Year's!"

2009 brought with it a fresh blanket of snow - kind of a nice covering for the melting slushy mess we had before. Our Christmas tree was relegated to the patio last week and it looked so festive and frosty out there on New Year's morning...

We took the kids up to Eagle Mountain Park that morning. We had lots of fun snowsliding down the slides - they were super slippery!

It was also the perfect snow for snowman making - it's hard to even see it in all the white of this picture...

Beautiful snow covered trees:

Micah had a bit of a meltdown that afternoon - crying for his whole hour of "quiet time" for some reason. I guess he was just super-tired, because he when he came downstairs he promptly fell asleep on my lap.

As for a potty update, things are going really well. On day 5 Keziah was still having the occasional accident - usually when I forgot to put her on the potty. Fortunately she seems to be able to hold it for quite awhile. She's been dry for her naps the last 4 days. She also kept dry while we had our excursion to the park the other morning. The most exciting moment was Day 3 when she pooped in her little portable potty. Before she poops she often walks around saying "tummy aches" - I don't think she really has a tummy-ache, but I guess that's her way of describing what she's feeling. So, I put on a video and plopped her on the little potty and she succeeded! I was so excited I almost wanted to take a picture of it! (Anyone see that episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8??) Unfortunately on Friday she waited until she was in her diaper at nap-time before she pooped. So, we'll still have to work on this.

From Friday to Saturday I got to escape with the girls from our Life Group for a night out in Vancouver. One of the girls' parents has a condo downtown that we were able to stay in. It was a weekend of chocolate, shopping and no kids! It snowed most of the day on Saturday, but it didn't slow us down :) Erik was Mr. Mom and kept up with Keziah's potty-training quite well! He said she had no accidents while I was away and even started telling him when she needed to go. Things are going so well that we confidently put her in underwear for church this morning (with back-up clothes in my purse of course).

I came home feeling incredibly tired and sore from all the walking we did in Vancouver. I can tell I'm starting to "waddle" since I felt a lot of tightness in my hips this morning. Overall I'm feeling quite huge and uncomfortable already. Sleeping has become a bit of a nuisance - switching from my left side to my right side and back to my left all night long (poor Christina had to share a bed with me the other night!) The good thing is that now that Christmas is over and I'm getting close to 30 weeks it's starting to feel like the countdown is on for this little one!

It's Potty Time (& other Christmas Pics)

Day 1 of potty training has been tiring. But there has been some success.

This morning I read back to my first potty-training day with Micah. I was reminded how easily he potty-trained (initially anyway - we had some major regression a little later). So, I was a bit discouraged when we went through so many pairs of underwear this morning with Keziah. I know that Micah was a little bit older, plus he initiated training when he told me out of the blue that he had to pee and proceeded to do so when I put him on the potty.

Keziah was starting a little bit more "cold turkey". She used to pee and even poop for us on the potty occasionally, but hasn't been as willing lately. And I didn't want to push it for fear of making her hate the potty.

But I built it up for her today and off we went - straight into panties and drinking lots of juice. But all we had for most of the morning was wet soggy pants. I wished Keziah would have just a small bit of success so that I could show her the "potty party" we would throw for her - a sticker and a treat and a potty song and lots of praise. So, mid-morning I decided to make her dolly "pee" on the potty. We don't have a doll who actually "pees" so I had a great idea to place her dolly on the potty while hiding a water-filled ball behind the dolly's back. I squeezed the ball once the doll was positioned and, from Keziah's viewpoint, it truly looked like the doll was peeing. I proceeded to feed the dolly a treat, give her a sticker and lots of praise. Keziah was fascinated and we did this a few more times - letting the dolly drink a bit, taking her pee and rewarding her. It didn't yield immediate results, though - and I was afraid Keziah was way more interested in playing this new game than understanding what the implications were for herself.




Then, during lunch she drank quite a bit of juice, so once she was done eating I said we would go sit on the potty. She was eager to try at that point. Her underwear was already damp when we got there but she managed to save a good portion of her pee for the potty. Yay! We threw a party for her and Keziah was SO proud of herself. We tried one more time before her nap and another success! Things were beginning to look up. I put her in a diaper for her nap and she woke up wet, but I wasn't surprised. She was successful again on the potty in the afternoon, but I was still the intitiator. Finally at 4:30 she said, "Mommy, pee!" We ran to the bathroom and she went again! I was feeling much better about our day.

I can't help but think her little bum is so cute in those panties :)

She had an accident in her high chair at supper and then a poop accident about an hour later. We could tell she needed to go for awhile, but - just like Micah - was afraid to try and kept asking for a diaper. Oh well, we'll celebrate the small victories. I know she'll figure it out in time.

Notice the strategically placed graphic - hee hee :)

I noticed that she can hold her bladder for much longer periods than Micah (he still pees every 10 minutes if he's had a full cup of juice). So, she didn't have as many opportunities to succeed as he did in his first day of training. But, I'm thankful, since it will mean less trips to the potty in the long run :)


On to the week of Christmas... The weather last week was a little crazy. More snow than we've ever seen here at one time. Our Christmas eve church services were cancelled and we decided to spend 2 nights at Erik's parents from Christmas eve to Boxing Day to avoid extra driving.

The grandkids opening their John-Deere themed presents from Great-Grandpa & Grandma Toews (aka Oma & Opa):

Erik took the kids out one afternoon there and got some fun pictures of them in the snow. We still got even more snow after these pictures were taken.



Enjoying some hot chocolate afterwards:

Keziah was pretty pooped when she came in and Auntie Kristi was lucky enough to be holding her when she fell asleep:

Back here at our place, Erik and Micah shovelled all the snow from our patio into one huge pile.

Now it's been raining and the temps are in the positive range so we are left with a soggy mess outside. I guess that was winter!

Anyway, that's all for tonight. Hopefully tomorrow's potty-training will continue to be successful!

From our house to yours...

I had good intentions of sending out Christmas cards this year, but unfortunately it didn't happen. It was a combination of being busy moving, etc. as well as wanting to save a little money this Christmas season. So, here are a few pictures that might've made it on our 2008 photo...

Merry Christmas

from Erik, Jamie, Micah & Keziah!