Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Grandpa Lum

We have this picture of Grandpa Lum as a baby and Sophie looks a whole lot like him. She loves to take his picture around, kiss him, sometimes she bites it too. She calls him Granpalum -one word- and it comes out something like "pampalum."
Grandpa Lum is coming tomorrow to visit us! We haven't seen him in over a year. We're excited!
I wonder if Sophie thinks Grandpa Lum is actually a baby. She will be surprised to find he's grown up now.

He's home!

YEAH!! That putty tat Archie finally came home last night. He must have been reading the blogs and knew I was worried. He came in, said his hellos to us, then headed straight for his food bowl.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Hormones!

Ahhh these crazy hormones of mine! I've only cried twice this morning so far. But then I've also been dancing around the house with the music blasting. I have the house to myself! At least for part of the day. Sophie's at school and Holden's sleeping.
How can you feel so helpless and overwhelmed one minute and then happy and confident 5 minutes later?!? I have to blame it on the hormones!!
Yesterday my mom left to go home and so it was my first real taste of what life is going to be like for me with two children. Sophie was pretty darn frustrating. I know she really just wanted my attention. She was getting into EVERYTHING and doing all kinds of things to make me mad. Everytime I had to change or feed Holden, Sophie was into something she wasn't supposed to, biting me, or pulling something down. I was in tears by the time Dw came home and we sat down for dinner. I know I must sound like a big wuss, but again I'm blaming the crazy raging hormones! I know it's them because while I was crying at dinner I'd look at Dwayne and bust out laughing. Laughing and crying at the same time!!! Has to be the hormones.

Where's Archie?

Archie, our fun loving family cat of 6 or so years has run away. He's an inside cat and has no front claws so we don't let him out. But he's an escape artist and waits at the door for just the right moment to dash out! He had his moment last Friday and escaped out the back door! Later that evening there was a big storm and even hail! I thought for sure he'd come running back home. He always comes home within a few days.
But it's been 5 days now! We've looked for him outside many times and now I'm really starting to worry. I'll start to cry if I think about it too much.
Where are you Archie?? Come home!!

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Holden

Holden is a sweetie. He loves to cuddle and sleep on Mom. He sleeps peacefully a lot during the day, but seems to be more fussy and restless at night. So far at night he's only slept in his bassinet about three times. He just loves to sleep cuddled up on Mom. When I try to lay him down he always starts to fuss, and I just can't fall asleep to that. I'm hoping he'll learn to like his bassinet soon though, I just can't sleep soundly with him in bed with me.

He's definitely a different baby than Sophie. I guess since we only have one baby to base our baby experience on, you kinda expect a lot of things to be the same. But he's different and we're just starting to figure out how he works- what he likes, his favorite way to be held or soothed, what he doesn't like. etc. But sometimes I'm thinking "what the heck do we do now?" He's a lot more gassy than Sophie was and I've figured out he doesn't like garlic too much.

Sophie continues to be a good big sister, of course she definitely has her moments! She is obsessed with Holden and his paci. When he has it in his mouth she likes to tell us "Holden paci," when it falls out she makes sure to tell us "Holden's paci fell out" and when he cries she thinks he needs it "Holden need paci." When she finds his paci on the table she tells likes to smile and then stick in her mouth, that is after she makes sure to get my attention because she knows she's not supposed to have it and she likes to test her limits with Mom!
Sophie imitates a lot of the things we do with Holden with her baby. She rocks her baby, burps them, changes them, and now she lifts up her shirt to nurse them! She tells us she's feeding her baby milk. Since she's seen Mom nursing a lot she also likes to talk about boobies now. She likes to find them down your shirt too! She's discovered Mommy, Daddy, Oma, Grammy and even Sophie have boobies!

Busy

Well it's been awhile since I've been on here.
It's quite busy being a mom of two! Lots of diapers and crying going on. And not enough sleep. Plus we've had grandmas' staying here to help. And visitors over. And then Easter.
Oma (Dw's mom) had been here the last few weeks and just left Thursday morning. Sophie stayed very busy with Oma here and got to go to many fun places! What a blessing to have the extra help here also!
Then Wednesday Grammy (my mom) came. My mom has been very afraid of flying and has only done it twice before. But about a month ago she came to the conclusion that she would have a lot more time to visit if she didn't take 2 days to get here (either driving or taking the train). So she talked herself into the idea of getting on a plane to fly here. She did great!! Wasn't scared at all. She's also going to fly out to help my sister after she has her baby, which should be sometime very soon! I'm sad that she'll be leaving here tomorrow. I love my mom and there's just nothing else like spending time with her!!

We've had great help from the grandmas here so it will be quite a shock when I'm left to do it all by myself! That's coming up very soon...ahhhh!!

Panato

What's a panato?
Well according to Sophie it's either a potato or it can be a tomato.

Easter


Easter
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Happy Easter to Holden

Happy Easter


Happy Easter
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Look what the Easter Bunny brought me!

Eskimo kisses


Eskimo kisses
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Sophie loves her Grammy!

cute kids


cute kids
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Sohie likes to hold her baby brother

Monday, March 21, 2005

Getting out

Yes I finally got out of the house this past weekend. It was glorious! Some well needed family time and fresh air!
The Lum Fam (Mom, Dad, and the two kids) headed out about 11:00. We decided at about 9:30 to get ready so we could go out for the day. It took us well over an hour to get ready and out the door! Over an hour you say? Yes because if one child wasn't crying the other one was. They both wanted to be held, Holden needed to be fed, then his diaper needed changing. Sophie didn't like him getting more attention, so she would start whining. Then Holden pooped all over- time for another diaper and clothes change. He just didn't want to lay down by himself either. Still had to get Sophie dressed and changed. Not to mention Mom and Dad had to get showered and dressed. Mom took a little longer because she had to dry hair, do makeup, and find some freaking clothes that fit her! ARGH!- that's a whole other sad story- trying to find clothes that fit!! Maternity clothes too big and ugly, regular clothes don't fit, results=stretchy yoga pants and Dwayne's t-shirt.

Anyway, we did eventually make it out and decided to go look at some new cars for Mommy. Mom is desperate to get a new car that will be easier to get the kiddos in & out. Right now I drive a Land Rover Discovery, which I loved, till I had kids to tote around! The back door doesn't open wide enough for a person with a child or carseat to get through. And you can only fit the infant carrier in the middle seat, so right now Holden is right next to Sophie (I'm sure you can imagine what kind of things a toddler finds fun to do with her sleeping baby brother next to her) . Sophie is good with him for the most part, but she likes to pull his blanket off, take out his paci, among other things, and sometimes she puts the blankie back on- but it ends up over his face. So.. it would be a whole lot better if they were separated!

We ended up looking and test driving two different mid-size SUV's, the BMW X5 and the Volvo XC90. Both very nice cars. I had a blast test driving the Volvo! The lady was cool and we really put the car to the test. She was telling me what to do: Step on the accelerator and get that baby up to 70...take this corner at 60 mph...slam on the brakes...quick switch lanes at 50 mph...make a sharp u-turn, etc. The car was great in all the situations, I especially like that you can't roll it over!
We decided at the end that the Volvo would be a better choice for us for a number of different reasons.
So now we just gotta figure out how to pay for it and the car is mine! We really wouldn't mind getting a pre-owned one, except the model we need (the one with the V8 engine to tow the boat) just came out so there aren't any pre-owned ones.
Ahh, we'll see what happens.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

One week old


One week old
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Happy birthday to me!

Happy Birthday Holden!

Today Holden's one week old. We've survived the first week!
Thank goodness Dwayne's mom has been here to help. She's been taking Sophie out to play, putting her down for naps, and even cooking dinner for all of us. What will I do when I'm on my own!!??
I've been recovering the last week and trying to sneak in naps when Sophie's sleeping. Dwayne just went back to work today. Both trying to survive on little sleep.
Holden's doing well. His day goes mostly like this: Eat, poop, sleep, poop, eat, spit up, poop, sleep, and so on...
His only problem is staying awake long enough to nurse. We've had to really wake him up by changing him (he doesn't like that) before he eats. Then I have to stimulate him the whole time so he'll stay awake long enough to get in a good meal. This is fine during the day, but I'm so tired in the middle of the night I have to keep myself awake too!
Sophie has been adjusting pretty well. She likes to give Holden kisses and help burp him. She talks about him and pets his head when he's sleeping. She has really only gotten upset a few times when Daddy is holding the baby.
So far it's been bearable. When my help leaves I'm sure I'll have a different tune...

BTW, if you click on the pictures it will take you to another site (Flickr) where there are more pictures to see!

first bath


first bath
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Mommy and Daddy gave me my first sponge bath. I didn't like it too much.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

The Labor Story

So Thursday evening I was having contractions, but didn't think a lot about them since I had been having them every night. I was really uncomfortable though and decided to take a warm bath and the contractions went away. This was all just irritating since I wasn't going into labor.
But then I started having more contractions and Dwayne and I decided to start timing them (this was about 8pm). They were all over the place- 4 minutes apart, 40 seconds long, 3 mins and 45 secs long, 4 1/2 mins and 30 secs- I was just thinking what the heck does this mean??!!
So they kept coming and getting painful, Dwayne said we should call the Dr and I said no, let's just wait and see what happens (I kept waiting for them to go away like last time). Anyway they didn't go away, they got stronger. We called the dr, but after about 10 mins I couldn't wait for her to call back. I said "we gotta go to the hospital now!"
We got there about 10:30, I was 8 cm dilated already. Yikes! I immediately told them I wanted my epidural (my worst fear was that it was too late). At this point the contractions were excrutiating and the anesthesiologist was taking FOREVER to get there!! He finally got there and I got my epi, but about 3 contractions later I started pushing because that baby was coming out! It was absolutely the most painful experience ever!!!! I do not recommend having a baby without an epidural! I know I was screaming all kinds of things, I remember hearing myself yell "Get him out! Pull him out!" And he did come out after a few more pushes. Holden was born at 11:37 and my epi started working about 5 minutes after that.
He was so beautiful and I felt a WHOLE lot better after pushing him out!

It's Saturday now and we are all happy to be home. Baby Holden is doing very well. Daddy is tired. Mom is tired and sore. Sophie is learning about having a baby at home and having to share Mommy and Daddy's attention. (more about that later...)

I'm posting some pictures and then heading to bed for hopefully a few hours of sleep.

HE"S HERE!!!

Holden Michael Lum was born on Thursday, March 10 at 11:37pm.
He weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz and was 21 inches long.
He's soooo cute!! I can't believe how big he is!

Going home


Going home
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
You'd think it was cold out the way my mom bundled me up.

Big Sister


Big Sister
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

Daddy and his kids


Daddy and his kids
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

Mom, Sophie, Holden


Mom, Sophie, Holden
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Sophie likes holding her new brother.

Just born


Just born
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Holden Michael Lum

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Here's the news

First, there's no baby yet. Ugh! We had the usual weekly appt and really nothing exciting to tell. Still dilated, the baby will come soon, blah, blah, blah... I'm just so damn impatient though- I want the baby to come NOW!

Sophie's been having a great time with her Oma here. (Oma is Dutch for Grandma) We went and played outside yesterday and had lunch at Waterloo Icehouse. The restaurant has outside seating and a nice playscape for the kiddos to play on. Just wished I coulda had a nice cold beer! The weather's been absolutely gorgeous here- mid/upper 70s and completely clear skies!

Sophie's new thing with her baby is this: baby has to go wherever she does, but now you also have to bring the baby's hat, her blanket, and her bottle, and her other bottle. Sophie demands all of these come along with her.
Sophie also really likes to get into things she's not supposed to. Her favorite is splashing in the dog's water bowl! She does this at least 3 times a day and often says "no, no, no" or "bad" while she's doing it. I've tried different things to get her to stop, but so far none of my tactics have worked. Sometimes she stands there and specifically waits for one of us to look at her before she starts going to town. What a toot!

Sophie & Oma


Sophie & Oma
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Here I am with my Oma. I love to play with her!

Sunday, March 06, 2005

False Alarm!

Friday Night...
We went out to eat at Macaroni Grill. Yummy! During dinner I start having contractions (the REAL ones) and they keep coming about every 5 minutes. So we're thinking "is this it?" We finished dinner and even ordered desert (a huge piece of delicious strawberry cheesecakefor me). We get home and the contractions are still coming on. We wait another hour and they're still regular at 5 mins, now we're thinking "this IS it!" We decide to call our "on call" people, Cousin Karen and Aaron, to come over so they can watch Sophie when we have to go to the hospital.
A few hours later...contractions still going at 5 mins, but not very painful yet. I thought we should try and get some sleep while we could before the hard labor began. We went to bed and I kept waking up every so often with the back pains from the contractions, then at some point I think they just stopped. I woke up around 5:30am and they were gone! GONE!!! What happened??!!! I was oh so disappointed! I was really ready for this baby to come!
We never experienced any false labor with the last pregnancy, so I thought that when then the contractions came on and were regular for so many hours -that meant we were in labor. Guess not!

Dwayne's mom flew in last night from Canada. We called her Fri, thinking we were having a baby and she got a ticket for the next day. She is happy to be here though and didn't mind that it was only a false alarm. Now we have built in babysitter for Sophie when the REAL day comes! And I sure hope that day is going to be soon!!!

Keep sending those 'labor' thoughts my way!

Friday, March 04, 2005

Friday Update

Here's the update from my OBGYN appt today.
I'm dilated 3 cm now and about 90% effaced. The baby is pushing it's head through to the other side. (Ok she did not say that, but I swear I can feel it!) And I lost another pound. Woo hoo- more brownines & ice cream for me to eat!
Last night I got a little concerned because the baby was going absolutely bonkers inside of me for over an hour! I mean non-stop moving-kick, punch, roll over, poke at the bladder, kick, punch, kick, etc.- anyway it just didn't feel right to me! I thought the baby was out of control and in distress. Of course Dwayne was not home last night and I had only my oh-so-rational pregnant mind to think this over with. I ended up calling the dr's after hours number and the dr who called back didn't seem too worried about it, said this sounded normal for a baby. Normal??!! It definitely wasn't normal for what I've been feeling everyday.
So anyway, today just to be safe my dr hooked me up to the monitor for awhile to check the baby's heartrate and fetal movements. Everything was ok! She said it was better to check and be safe than to have something go wrong. I love my dr! She didn't make me feel stupid at all about the whole thing.
It ended up the whole dr appt took over an hour! Dwayne and Sophie came with me and they were both very good!

Hopefully we won't have to return in a week for my next appt because I'll have had a baby by then!!
Cross your fingers and think "LABOR" thoughts for me!!

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Just a few more things

+ I went to see "Million Dollar Baby" last Friday and it was great!! No surprise there I guess, since it won all those Oscars. I didn't read anything about the movie beforehand and wow! I was surprised. It was a much heavier movie than I had expected.
Go see it!

+Just finished a great book that I'll recommend also. The Da Vinci Code- if you haven't read it yet, you should.

+Sophie finally seems to be feeling better thank goodness! She's sleeping at night again which makes Dwayne and I much happier people!
Of course yesterday after I picked her up from school, her teachers told me how the kids in the M-W class are all sick with a stomach virus. Lots of vomiting and diarrhea- oh boy! that really sounds like something we want to get. Keep your fingers crossed that Sophie didn't pick up any of THOSE germs!

+It's funny how your personality and mannerisms really come out in your child. You hear it come out of their little mouths and then ask yourself "do I really say that that much?" It seems everyday Sophie spurts out something that her mommy says to her and it cracks me up.
Today it was "baby, carry you ALL day!" as she's carrying her baby around. The only thing Sophie left out was the word "can't"... "Mommy can't carry you all day!" I've also heard her tell her baby she's "too heavy." Hmmm.... can you guess is what she hears me say quite frequently?

+More updates to come Friday after my OB appt...

The Waiting Game

Waiting, waiting, waiting... is this baby ever going to come??
He is pushing down SO low now. I just keep waiting for his little head to poke through and look up at me! Needless to say, I am pretty uncomfortable. Lots of pressure down there, I can hardly walk (it is a definite waddle), and getting comfortable to sit or sleep is a big joke.
So... anytime now would be great!!