Butterfield Acres

We got season passes to Butterfield Acres again this year so last week, Sophie, Elise and I met Aunt Ave, Ally and Grace there.  Sophie had a great time and is still talking about how the goats were eating the straps on my backpack.  Having her older and very helpful cousin, Ally, there made it easy for me.  She held Sophie's hand and helped her to see, pet and feed the animals.  It was windy and a bit chilly but the girls were troopers.  Thanks for the great morning Aunt Ave, Ally and Grace!

 

To see our pictures of Butterfield Acres and more, click here.

Elise's Story

 

It has been six weeks since Elise was born and I only now have a minute to tell her story.  Our neighbour, Danika, who is 11 years old, has come over to play with Sophie.  Before Christmas, she would come over for an hour once a week to play; this gave me some time to myself.  Having an hour to catch up on laundry, fix dinner or just enjoy a cup of tea is well worth the five dollars it costs me.  Anyways, even though it has been a while, I will do my best to remember all the details of the day Elise was born. 

The start of her arrival was much like Sophie's; labour started days before my actual delivery.  Saturday morning, the contractions began but they were few and far between.  Later that day, we went to Dennis and Chelsea's for an afternoon of playtime and then dinner.  I sent Ryan and Sophie ahead of me so I could walk around the block several times before heading to their place, hoping to move things along.  When I was tired and out of breath, I joined the rest of the party.  I continued to have contractions during dinner and they were getting closer together and more intense.  Hanging with friends was a good distraction. 

We went home later that evening and called my sister-in-law, Ave, to come over.  We thought it would be better for her to come early in case we had to head to the hospital in the middle of the night.  We also called my doula, Cendrine, and asked her to come over as well.  I continued to have contractions all night long.  My doula and I used different techniques to deal with the pain and try to advance labour.  At about 5 am, Cendrine suggested I lay down.  If we had to go to the hospital, I needed to save my energy.  Once I layed down, the contractions slowed and then just stopped all together.  Cendrine and I slept for a couple hours and when we woke, we decided to go to the hospital to see what was going on.

So we headed for the hospital.  The contractions had started up again but they were less intense and sporadic.  This was not encouraging.  The nurse checked me and found that I was only 3 cm dialated.  She suggested I go home, rest and wait for everything to pick up again.  I went home and slept most of the afternoon since I had been up all night.  By the time I woke up, contractions were even less frequent.  We had dinner and I went to bed as usual that night.  I had sporadic contractions throughout the night but nothing to run to the hospital for. 

Monday morning came and still no baby.  I didn't feel like anything important was happening so I sent Ryan to work.  My doula had no explanation to offer us as to why things had stopped all together.  Cendrine and I headed back to the hospital that morning to see if I was any further along.  I wasn't so they sent me home again.  I was getting frustrated, waiting for things to start again but the nurse thought I would be back before the end of the day.  I went home and went on with my day. 

That afternoon, Cendrine suggested that I go for a long walk and afterwards, take a bath.  I followed her instructions and sure enough, labour started up again.  The contractions were coming fast and frequent.  I did not want to go to the hospital again to be turned away for a third time so I held on for as long as I could but within a couple hours, things were getting quite intense.  So Ryan and I headed to the hospital.  

I was 5 cms dialated and finally admitted.  I went from 5 cms to 10 cms in 3 hours and after twenty minutes of pushing, we had our new baby girl.  I was able to deliver Elise with no drug interventions, something I am very proud of.  Elise was born March 11th at 10:32 pm, weighing 8 lbs 2 ounces, and came out hungry.  She had no problem latching and ate like she had never eaten before.   I got to hold my daughter only long enough for her to feed before they took her away and gave her to Ryan.  

Now comes the drama.  After giving birth, which couldn't have gone any better in my eyes, the placenta wouldn't come out.  There was a team of doctors that was called in and I could feel a sense of panic in the room.  Not a good feeling.  We waited close to an hour but nothing was happening.  Finally, the doctor who delivered Elise decided she needed to intervene.  This was almost more painful than giving birth.  After several tries, the doctor finally located the placenta and removed it.  However, at this point, the bleeding wouldn't stop.  She also thought there might be some of the placenta left in my uterus so they sent me to the OR to get a D and C and to try and stop the bleeding.  

 

 

 

 

After having made it through the delivery with no drug intervention, I now needed to get a spinal block for this procedure.  They performed the d and c, then inserted a balloon in my uterus and inflated it to stop the bleeding.  It would be left there until the next day, when they would partially deflate it to make sure the bleeding had stopped before removing it altogether.  The procedure lasted a couple hours so I didn't get back to Elise and Ryan until close to 2 am.  I spent the night in recovery and the doctor felt I needed my rest so they wouldn't leave Elise with me.  I found that really tough.

The next day, when they saw that the bleeding had stopped, they transfered me to the post natal unit where I would spend another night but could now have my family come visit.  Ryan, Hunter and Sophie came to see Elise and me that evening.

The next day, in the late afternoon, Ryan and Sophie came to pick us up and take us home.  In the end, it was a good thing I stayed two days in the hospital because once I got home, I didn't get to rest anymore.  My toddler had missed me too much and was excited to bring home her new little sister; there would be no napping or relaxing.  I no longer got to pick my meals from a menu and have them delivered to my bed.  I guess there are some perks to being in the hospital.  Things got busy when I got home and they haven't stopped since!

Happy Easter!

Sophie woke up to a trail of Easter eggs that started outside her bedroom door this morning.  She followed it down the stairs, to the front closet, where she found two Easter baskets, one for her and one for Elise.  Sophie's basket was full with a chocolate bunny, a book, some stickers and a stuffed rabbit.  Elise's basket had a nunu, in the form of a bunny,  and a book.  It has been two hours since Sophie found the basket and she has only eaten one chocolate egg so far.  I'm impressed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

To see more pictures of my beautiful girls, click here.

 

 

 

Elise Lily Rose Van Orman

Say hello to the newest member of our family, Elise Lily Rose.  Elise was born March 11th at 10:32 pm.  She weighed in at 8 pounds 2 ounces.  Of course, as Ryan likes to say, I never do things the easy way; Elise's birth had its fair share of drama, although very different from Sophie's.  But you will have to wait until I have more time to tell that story.  Here is our beautiful new daughter:

To see more pictures of Elise, click here.

Happy Birthday Sophie!

Sophie turned two February 18th!  I can't decide if the last two years went by quickly or slowly.  Overall, I think it went by fast; however, I can recall a few days and nights I was sure would never end! 

We had a birthday party for Sophie with all her little friends.  We made chocolate cupcakes with Minnie Mouse ears.  Ryan dazzled me and the rest of our guests with his hidden icing talent.  Tim, Tannis, Gabby and Brynn, Tova, Clark and Millie, Denny, Chealsea and Emily, Lori and Leland, Ryan, Sarrah and Scarlett, Candace, Aaron and Clara, Candice and Caiden, Nat and Rob, and Uncle Julien all came to share Sophie's special day with us.  She had a great time and was spoiled as usual.  Thank you to everyone who came!

At the beginning of February, Sophie went to a tutu birthday party. I borrowed a tutu from Emily, our neighbour, thinking Sophie would hate it and it would be a waste of money to go buy one.  Boy, was I wrong!  We tried it on and she twirled around saying "I am a ballerina!"  She refused to take it off and ended up napping in it before going to the party.  So it was no surprise that her most used birthday gift has been a princess dress-up set, complete with a tutu, tiara, purse, high heeled shoes, necklace, ring, bracelet and earrings.  She dresses up in it daily, pretending to be a princess.  Who knew!

Sophie has been surprising us with all sorts of phrases.  In the last few weeks, we have heard phrases like,  "I'm miserable!" or "It's perfect!"  I rarely know where she has picked up these phrases but they do make us laugh.  The funny thing is is that she usually uses them in the proper context.

To see more pics from the last few months, click here.

Happy Birthday Sophie!  We love you so much!

Christmas 2012

Christmas has come and gone and it was a whirlwind of activity, even if we didn't travel far this year and we were all sick at some point over the holidays.

We kicked off the holidays with a corporate Christmas party on the 22nd.  Since Ryan went contract this year and I am not working, we had no Christmas party to attend so we decided to throw our own.  We had a great afternoon and evening, snacking, visiting and catching up with friends.  Plus it was a good excuse to dress the little ones up in their Christmas best.

The next evening was our traditional anniversary date.  While my parents babysat Sophie, Ryan and I went to see a Christmas Carol and then went out for dinner.  It was great to spend some time together, just the two of us.  It had been a while and with the new baby around the corner, I am sure it will be another while before we get the chance to do it again.

My parents stayed the night of the 23rd and spent Christmas Eve with us as well.  Unfortunately, Sophie was sick over the few days my parents were here.  She wasn't quite herself, but did seem to enjoy opening presents.  We each opened one gift on Christmas Eve.  Sophie got an easel from Mamie and Pepere which has been a big hit.  There is a chalkboard on one side and a white board on the other side.

Most of the presents had been under the tree for weeks but Sophie hadn't realized that they could be opened.  Once we started, she didn't want to stop, and she wanted to help everyone else open their gifts as well.  She wasn't quite as excited by the contents as I had expected, but there was one gift that got a big squeal Christmas morning.  She got a large Olivia doll which now needs to come with us wherever we go; she is almost as special as Nunu.  However, the present that has gotten the most play so far has been the playdough kit.

We took our time opening gifts Christmas morning.  I think we opened a new one every hour.  We let Sophie play with the new toy she discovered and waited before opening the next one.  Hunter came later in the afternoon so then there was another round of opening gifts.  It really was a whole day event. 

My parents left late Christmas morning and we spent the rest of the day relaxing, just the four of us.

 

Boxing Day, we went to Olds.  Warren and Ave hosted Christmas dinner this year.  We opened some gifts when we got there.  Then later had dinner.  It was complete with turkey, potatoes, salad, stuffing, sweet potatoes and gravy.   We were able to make it home in time for Sophie's bedtime, which isn't too hard since she goes to bed so late these days.

Our last event of the holidays was New Year's in Red Deer.  We left in the morning, hoping Sophie would go down for a nap at Mamie and Pepere's house.  Unfortunately, Sophie didn't have the same plan in mind, she decided to skip her nap altogether.  My Uncle Jack and Aunt Kathy were there as well this year.  We had tourtiere and salad for dinner.  Without a nap, Sophie was struggling by 7 pm so we had to head home early and miss out on dessert.  We got Sophie to bed and managed to stay up until 10:30 pm.  Not quite late enough to ring in the New Year.  Oh well!  Maybe next year we will do better.

By the end of the holidays, Sophie really began to appreciate just how great Christmas is.  She was quite upset with us when it was time to take the tree down.  She is still talking about Santa, and the decorations and it has been hard when we visit places where they have left their Christmas memorabilia out, only to remind our little one of what she has to wait a whole year to experience again.  My solution, let's leave the tree up until at least February.  I can't seem to get Ryan to agree on this yet.  Oh well, I have a whole year to do it.

To view all our Christmas photos, click here.

Catch Up

A lot has happened since the summer, and my last entry, so I have some writing to do if I want to catch up.

The first thing worth mentioning is our trip to Arizona.  At the beginning of September, Ryan, Sophie and I took a vacation and went to Mesa again.  Janae, Ryan's sister, got a teaching job and has moved down there so our trip was not only to get away, but to visit with family as well.  While we were there, the average temperature was 40 degrees celcius so unfortunately we didn't get to spend a lot of time outdoors.  We did make sure that we got plenty of pool time in; we would visit the pool first thing in the morning and then again just before dinner which made the weather enjoyable as long as you didn't get out of the water.  When Sophie wasn't napping, we went shopping, visited the aquarium or hung out with Aunt Janae.  Sophie was great on the plane, both there and back.  She is a great little traveller.  To see pictures from our trip, click here.

I also started teaching a Saturday class in September at my old school for beginner students of French.  It is a two hour class but with driving and prep time, I am sometimes gone for up to four hours.  The first couple of times I left were hard, since I haven't really left Sophie for much more than an hour at a time, with just a few exceptions. She would cry as I was leaving, but quickly got over it after I was gone.  Now I tell her I have to work and after saying good bye, she tells me she loves me and to come back.  No more tears!  I think that both her and Ryan have enjoyed this father-daughter time and it has helped them form a closer bond.

Sophie had really blown us away with her language skills over the last few months.  She has learned to string 3 or 4 words together, making short sentences.  This has made it so much easier to communicate.  It has been so much fun, listening to her and understanding more what she is thinking.  It truly is amazing how quickly children pick up on things.  I don't spend nearly enough time speaking to Sophie in French.  We read books and listen to French cds, and she will repeat some of the french words she hears but I don't think she really understands them quite yet.

Our next big event was Thanksgiving.  Equipped with our new dvd player for the car, we finally made the trip to Medicine Hat with Sophie.  She managed to stay fairly entertained in the car which made the trip bearable.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at Nana and Papa's house with Uncle Warren, Aunt Ave, Ally and Grace.  Sophie enjoyed visiting with her cousins, as well as eating her first piece of pumpkin pie.  More Thanksgiving pictures are found here.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year.  Sophie dressed up as a strawberry and after her friend Emily came over in her super cute smurf costume, Sophie was excited to go trick or treating.  We only went to five of our neighbours' houses but that took at least a half hour.  While we were out, Sophie saw plenty of the neighbourhood kids dressed up in their costumes, which she quite enjoyed.  For more Halloween pics, click here.