November-Elena

Elena has been doing so well in preschool I cant believe we ever considered letting he ride out the year at home. She sings songs, plays pretend, relates stories and games, draws pictures, and is having a wonderful time learning all of that important three year old socialization stuff.

She is, of course, still headstrong and opinionated. She will not hesitate to tell you that "you were wrong, I was right" and if she is disciplined for something she thinks isnt her fault, she will fight you to the end "No, I'm not going to say sorry, I'll sit on the stairs forever and ever and ever." She is quick, though, to own up to things she has done "Yup, I did it. Sorry mom. Its OK, it was an accident." And, though its hard to live with in the moment, in hindsight her propensity to be so matter of fact in the midst of a meltdown is nothing short of remarkable. "I'm crying. I will say sorry after I'm done crying." Like, duh, woman.

She has cut out 90% of her naps but somedays, especially ones that are physically draining, we will come home and she will have fallen asleep in the van or, more rarely, like this, in the middle of a meltdown:

November-Jacob news

I cant believe that it is November. We have had an incredibly mild fall and the snow began to drift the day after Halloween. It was excellent! Halloween is done and now we can get down to the business of winter. Jacob is doing so well. He crawls like a maniac, is even-tempered and gobbles all food put in front of him. Just after Halloween, he began eyeing the table food, eschewing mushy baby food and, really, who could blame him? So we have been gradually introducing the food we have for dinner. He is a bit sensitive to meat--tried both a teeny bit of ground beef and a nibble of chicken, both resulting in yucky consequences--but otherwise tolerates all textures and tastes remarkably well. He is fond of feeding himself so if I am trying to spoon feed him, we need to use two spoons, one to dish up the food, give it to him to grab close to his mouth and then retrieve the one he dropped in order to take the aforementioned spoon. It is a bit like a carnival ride! Never a dull moment at mealtimes, that's for sure.

In October Jacob had sprouted two new teeth. I felt one on the bottom one day as we were nursing. Yeah he was drooling but all my kids have perpetual drooling as infants adn with the girls all that drooling never amounted to a hill of beans (or in this case, teeth) for a long long time. Jacob is a rather happy teether, as far as teethers go,I think. He drools but isnt screaming in pain, he is a bit clingy but will also let his sisters entertain him. So I figured we were safe, at least for awhile. But then he had a ridge, and then, as I was letting him chew on my finger, I began to think that the ridge was rather long-ish for one tooth. So I took a look and lo and behold, there were two teeth coming up at the same time! So he has two bottom teeth and close to the end of November, he sprouted one more. This time it is only one, but it is on the top and in a funny place. It isnt the two front teeth, nor the eye teeth but the one next to it. Right now he looks like he has one fang hanging out on the side of his mouth. It's brilliant.

To curb his wandering when I need a shower or a break to do a chore, and also for some peace of mind somedays, I set up his crib in our room. We try every once in awhile to let him sleep in it, but mostly we still co-sleep. Still, it is cute to see him sleeping where I am not afraid he will roll out of bed when I am not around.

Also in October, we had an exciting visit from Auntie Rachel! The girls still talk about it! Jacob was this close to being a ATCO stage superstar but then, alas, it was time to go pick up Julia. Maybe next time!

Both of the girls remain his favourite toys--Julia perhaps more so, since she will play with him for longer periods of time and tries to make him laugh. Elena will come around but her attention will get caught on something else and she wanders away from him, leaving him trailing behind her. 6 months has flown by and I cant believe how far he has come.

Haloween costumes and such

Halloween is one of those holidays that is so much more vividly portrayed in pictures. So, without further ado:

Jacob, in lieu of being a banana, was a cheetah. Yes, a fast moving animal, indeed

As for the girls, an assortment of dress up clothes produced a connundrum that was solved only by attending several different Halloween events.

This year, Elena was a princess, a lamb, and a Pegasus

Julia was a mermaid, a princess and a unicorn.

Weather ultimately dictated that despite not having any snow, both girls wore the warmest costumes out Halloweening. I loved every minute.

Banana

A few months before Halloween, when they first started putting out the costumes, I was told about this costume and even though I know Jacob was growing like a weed, I couldn’t resist. As a result of not having any feet, I had about 10 shots before he was fed up with the whole deal. In my defence, when I bought it, he was neither crawling properly nor pulling up on furniture, how was I to know that by Halloween he’d be trying to walk by himself? Honestly.




The idea of it cracks me up—some people say that I shouldn't call my kids bananas but, hey, yellow on the outside, white on the inside? I’m a realist and I can handle the racial implications. Besides, have you ever seen a cuter banana?

Halloween pumpkin carving, circa 2007 and exciting developments

We had our annual pumpkin carving fest at our place. We were pretty darn proud of our carving afterward. For the first time, both girls helped to carve their own pumpkins.


All the pumpkins can be seen closer up in my facebook Halloween album so I will spare the bandwidth uploading them twice but I did want to note that on the day we carved pumpkins, Jacob must have been feeling unappreciated so he decided that it was a good day to:


WALK with his walker!! Crazy kid.

He was showing off at the end of all the attention, taking one hand off the walker and smiling. He was extremely proud of himself.

Well...

It was nice to have the kids play here but ever since I was able to get Elena into preschool (!!!), I decided that was more of a priority. I have this issue with guilt (you'd think I was raised Catholic or something) and even though I was only doing this lady a favour and only temporarily. I feel bad for making her find new care faster because in this town, childcare, good or bad, is hard to come by. But there is no way around it. I cant bring Elena to school and still be able to have the kids afterschool since Elena will attend preschool 4 days per week (Mon to Thurs) from 1-3pm, which is actually quite perfect because Julia goes to kindergarten Mon-Thurs from 11:45 to 2:35pm and every other Friday from 8:05-11:30am (Yes, as you might imagine, the Friday mornings are a killer on the kids' schedules)

Here is Elena so excited to go to school just like Julia, in her first day of school outfit from Grandma:

But it's Elena and she poured chocolate milk on herself soon after the picture was taken (argh) so this is what she actually wore for her first day:

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in the company of friends and it was lovely. We put out the fine china and crystal goblets, we had melting off the bones turkey and all the trimmings. The girls got all dressed up, pseudo cousin Ethan chilled in his bouncy chair, Jacob crawled around his buddy we played a nerdy card game after dinner and all was as it should be.

Oh, and I got a fancy pants new 8 megapixel camera from Dwayne for my anniversary!

Anniversary

Dwayne and I have been married for 5 years (FIVE!) How did that happen when I wasnt looking?!

We have moved 4.5 times, had two more babies and have both (mostly) found a niche for our respective careers. There have been ups and downs and ups again. We have gone from renters to homeowners, from Edmontonians to Fort McMurrayites. We have so much to be thankful for this year. All of the kids are happy and in good health, our house is somewhat settled, I have accepted a paid commission for 2 scrapbooks for Christmas this year and I have another one in the wings that will look like it will be completed in short order. If I were to look 5 years forward, I would see a lot more changes and more challenges but good ones.

Busy

Whew, time sure has a habit of flying by when there are so many kids in the house. And I mean SO many kids in the house. There was a lady at Julia's school who was desperate for afterschool care that I decided to baby sit her children on a temporary basis until she was able to find permanent afterschool care for them. Which would be fine. But there are 4 of them, so along with my brood, I have 7 (yeah SEVEN!) kids running around in my house every weekday. Some people think that I am crazy for thinking about having one more baby--four kids does seem like a lot, but imagine how much crazier I would be in the four I look after were mine? They are 8, 7, 6 and 6. Yes, at one point the poor woman would have had a two year old, a one year old and newborn twins. So I am content to have mine spaced as they are. The crazy is all relative, I think.

So, you'd think that with 7 kids, its a madhouse all the time? It's actually not soo bad. The kids entertain themselves relatively well. They play with the kids and they arent TOO insane. Well one is kind of but one out of 7 I can handle. They play rough, probably rougher than I'd like but hey, what do you expect?

For now, having them here staves off Elena's desire to go to school. We'll see how long it lasts.

Muttart

Well, I forgot to mention that we went to Edmonton. The fall has been glorious and we decided to take the kids. So we went visiting. Here is the trip to the Muttart in pictures:

Firsts!

This is Julia doing homework for the first time!!!

This is Jacob eating solids (hurray rice cereal) for the first time!!

And this is Elena. It's not a first but she is so cute, I couldnt resist sharing

Welcome to the World, Baby Chellew!

Ethan Douglas Chellew

Born on September 8th at 7:42 pm

21.5 inches long

weighed 9 lbs 3 oz.

Buddies already!

First day of kindergarten!

Julia was super excited to go to kindergarten!

Last days of summer

Summer is coming to a close and the days have been lovely--hot and filled with jumping on trampolines, swinging on the swing set and other summertime indulgences. But around the corner, like a lurking enticement, is the promise of school.

I am feeling a bit in limbo right now, the back to school flyers have hit the mailbox and all the assorted commercial trappings that go along with returning to the grind. Execept that this September I am not. And it feels both a relief and a disappointment. Yes, I miss the hustle of line ups waiting to pay for highliters and scribblers. But I also miss the fresh faces, the blank paper, the sharpened pencils that only occur in the first shine of back to school classes. When I return to school in January, that shine will have long worn off. Thge delight of sharing a class with good friends will have faded and the anticipation of a fresh start will have given way to the tired pessimism of teenage angst.

Julia begins kindergarten this September. I am not quite ready for her to be growing up and yet I know that time will not cease for me. She is excited, her backpack and back to school outfit are already laid out. Elena is anticipating this as well, asking every day if she will also get to go to school. I dont have the heart to tell her that I dont think that it will work ot for her to attend preschool if we dont find one closer than way across town.

Jacob is charming at 3 months--he is able to grab toys that hang nearby and is desperatel;y trying to crawl. He inchworms along and it is painful and awesome all at the same time. He is now able to roll from his belly to his back and so proud of his ability to do so! It's too fast! I wanted a little lump of a baby to cuddle and play with. Instead I get an overachieving kid. Who knew?

Jacob's Birth Story--Dad's point of view

I know, I know. I promised the birth story and now, ta-dah! Just shy of Jacob's 3 month mark, here it is and I didnt even have to type it out! Dwayne was telling his friend what happened and it was a great story so why mess with a good thing? Without further ado, here is Jacob's birth story, via his daddy:

"Jacob Neill Marlowe was born on May 15th, 2007, at 10:34 am. It was kind of spooky because the conditions that Christine came to the hospital were identical to when Elena Nicole was born. The 15th was a Tuesday; on Monday, Christine got her membranes scraped by her Ob/Gyn and was sent home.

The contractions started that night at 6:00 pm... by contractions, at this time, means she started having some kinda regular kind of strong contractions... like strong Braxton-Hicks (so she tells me). We were anxious to go home, as we'd spent by this time 10 days living with my Mother-in-law, a fairly demented woman in her mid-to-late fifties from Malaysia. We were hoping that things would progress, but of course the Ob/Gyn makes no guarantees and I, as always, was cynical, believing none of it. However, the contractions started getting more uncomfortable (I hate to use the word stronger here, as it implies hospital-going strength, which they were not), so we made plans with "Ahma" (Cantonese? for Grandma... or something else (that I cannot type as some wife of mine is reading this email as I type)), left a bag of essential goodies for the kids for the day in case we were not there, and went to bed.

At 0400 Christine woke me up saying it was time to go. Eerie. It was 0400 when she sent me, almost 2 years ago at that point, to fetch the babysitter for Julia when she was having daughter #2. So, we woke up lovely Ahma, gave her the news and drove to the hospital.However, I remembered that when Elena was being born that it had taken quite some time and didn't at all expect this baby to be born before noon; Elena after starting contractions at 0400, didn't emerge until 1620 that afternoon. And I was hungry. So on the way to the hospital (well, kinda... 8 blocks out of the way), I went to the McDonald's 24hr drive through. There was no answer. The lights were on. Christine allowed me to wait about 15secs before she mashed on the horn for a good 10secs. Then, with no response, and thoroughly disgusted, she ordered me onwards, which I happily complied with as much speed as a lightfooted 106 year-old grandma in a Smartcar along a well-travelled truck route. Eventually, we reached the hospital.

When we arrived, Christine was sent to Maternity, where she was placed in the same birthing room that Elena had been born in. Spooky. Then the same nurse that had started the Elena delivery on night shift was again working night shift, and was assigned to Christine. Now this is beginning to feel more like fate. (Highly memorable person... she had a peculiar British accent that I couldn't immediately place - turned out to be Welsh, and SNARKY... ah what a woman! If she had been 15 years younger...).

Christine got seen by her most excellent Ob/Gyn when she was doing her 0600 rounds at the hospital (note, she wasn't on call, apparently, this woman starts her days doing rounds at the hospital if her patients are admitted. Very commendable woman). She broke Christine's water. We were getting excited.STOP went the contractions. They virtually stopped for an hour or so, and Christine was finally allowed to walk ( I say finally because another night shift nurse/intern/person forbade her to walk since she's a VBAC - vaginal birth after Cesaerean. Christine playing coy for awhile, finally had enough of the wench and started giving her the orders, letting her know that she would be walking after the doc said so. So, the doc said so. She walked.

At 8 or so, Contractions started coming strong and fast. By 0835/0840 they were getting hard for Christine to handle alone. Of course, Christine's sister being who she is, decided this was the perfect time to get the car seats out of our car to put into her truck. So, like a dutiful husband, I left Christine alone and went to get the damnable seats. Christine took a shower. I foresaw what happened next, since it wasn't actually the future - it was the carbon copy of the past with Elena - damn near to the minute - when Christine's contractions started getting into that "strong" phase and she had then, like now, taken a shower. And that stalled her birthing for an additional 4/6 hours.

So before I left, Christine, myself, and the nurse talked about options. Christine had requested an epidural and the nurse, soothingly (like Satan was to Eve) replied that it was"coming" (only later did she explain that the mat ward had 4 C-Sections and 8 screaming bundles of joy slated for that morning... poor guy had to run from patient to patient when not in the OR) and offered morphine. Christine hesitated and said to hold off Morphine in case the epidural became available, and decided to take a shower. At that point, I left to meet with Christine's sister.So, believing time wasn't of the essence, since my wife was upstairs stalling her pregnancy, I gave the seats to Christine's sister and went to the cafeteria for breakfast. Some juice, a muffin. I think that was all. I got back into the room at 0910 or so..., and had been gone about 25 minutes. She was in the shower, stalling her labour. Well, this time (learning from last time, always commendable) she kept the water off her belly and only poured on her back. Perhaps stupidly, I believe this made a difference. This time, no stalling.

She told me to fetch a nurse, I did so. She checked her, and she was at 6.5cm. I was like damn, this is different from last time (You'll notice that's the 1st time I said something of this effect in this message - some 5hrs after the start of the "fun"). The nurse again brought up the fact that likely the anesthesiologist was not likely to make it to Christine by the time she was going to be 8cm (I thought this was a good hour off and wanted to wait - but hey, it's not like I was feeling the pain, right?) so she brought up the idea of morphine again. It'd take 20 minutes to kick in she said, and "won't kill the pain, but it will take the edge off". Christine must have hmmm-and-hawed about it for a couple of minutes, because I remember having to go to the desk and telling the nurses there "My wife needs to be shot". Wow! Such stupified faces! You'd think I was Harry Potter with his non-killing, weakling curses. "Uh, what did you say?" "Morphine. My wife would like some shot into her body". "Oooohh". Stupefy!

Christine continued to labour, and the nurse said come get her when Christine says it's time to push. Inside, I was like, like fuck, that'll be 2 hours away yet. Not even 10 minutes after, Christine said "I feel like I need to push!" I was thinking "don't overreact", but went and fetched the nurse anyways. I used the words "My wife says she needs to push". The nurse jumped out of the chair and came "running" (I say running, but it was more like a slow jog... they are forbidden to run after all).

She checked, and Christine was at 9. And I was like holy fuck that was fast!. The nurse had grabbed the resident on the way in, got on the phone to get our Ob/Gyn because the poor resident was some high-school droput 19 year-old straight from the inner-city burb of Brooklyn...Luckily, after only 10ish minutes, out Ob/Gyn had gotten in just as Christine was "setup" (i.e. put her legs in a human stirrup) for pushing. What a sight that must be to walk into a room. Some people choose this for a career.

Guiding Christine through, she got Jacob born in about 7 contractions, lasting maybe 10-15 minutes. I'd like to point out that Christine got the morphine soon after 10; they hadn't kicked in yet. After Jacob was born, her eyes kinda rolled back... and you'd swear that her tongue kinda hung out of one side of her mouth... the doc was like "yeah, she's feeling happy now!" I think it was in reference to the drugs, rather than the arrival. I took it that way anyways.

At any rate, I was quite blown away by the speed of it. And even with the big burst of speed to the finish line ...before I continue, I just remembered a great part. When Jacob was being born... that last push to get his head out, Christine yelped and said she got a sharp pain in her left ribs. Apparently Jacob, tired of waiting for mommy to pull him out, decided to set both feet on her ribs and push himself out. I'd like to point out the fact that it worked. Atta boy... anyways, with that great burst of speed that Doc.Brox did a commendable job of guiding Christine through the contractions as she didn't tear, and didn't get an episiotomy. Quite a feat. No stitches at all. Elena had given mom 3 sticthes, none in a row."

Well its relatively accurate, anyway :) Other posts to come, uh, when I have more time.

I have a BOY!

Jacob Neill Marlowe arrived on

May 15, 2007

10:34 am

8lbs 4 oz.

20 inches long

Birth story to come when I have a few minutes!

Coming and Going?

3D Ultrasound at 34 weeks

So we have been down in Edmonton for 3 days now and while things are slowly taking some semblance of a routine, it is a hard adjustment for both girls and for myself. And, in a lot of ways, for my mother and brother, who are not quite used to having small children underfoot. My mother seems to struggle a bit understanding what I am and am not allowed to do ("Come run down here right now!" is NOT on my list of things I should be doing. Sigh.) and I am feeling rather uneasy about the girls running about the house. It is hard to feel like I can truly feel rested here while I am watching the girls so closely and to relax in someone else's home with other people's things around and not a lot of comforts of home. I am tempted to just go home for a week, as we had originally planned and come back down again for my appointments on the 23rd but that is 10+ hours of driving.

I had an appointment yesterday with my family doctor here and she agreed that I should be resting more and being active less. She also told me that she didn't think it was a good idea for me to drive back home by myself so that throws a bit of a kink in the "go home" plan since we would then have to arrange for someone to drive with me and the kids. So now to decide if the hassle of finding someone to drive with, coupled with how hard it would be on the kids to go back home only to have to come back to Edmonton a few days later.

The baby seems like things are stable and not going anywhere anytime soon so I think it would be OK to travel so much but I don't know if it is really worth going back and forth. I want to be home so much because it would be easier in so many ways but the girls are starting to get used to the idea of being here. Sigh.

I need a private jet or something.

Green Light!

So, at my appointment, the OB here found that I had no changes in dilation or softening from the last appointment (hurray!) and so I had the green light to drive down to Edmonton. I will be there for about 3 weeks, I think. Rather than drive back and forth every week, like we had originally planned, so that Julia could have more normal routine going to school, etc. we dont want to risk chance TOO much by having me on the road with two kids by myself for so long. So, three weeks there, and 2.5 weeks back home and if everything keeps going well and Pumpkin does not spring any surprise moves on us, we should be good to go for May when we will be down until the delivery.

Sounds like a plan, right? Now if only Pumpkin will get on board with the plan, we'd have it all set!

So I will be down in Edmonton on Monday night and will be trying to sort out how life will proceed as normally as possible for that time :)

Welcome to the Super Crazy

About 10 days ago, I had a doctor's appointment. It was supposed to be pretty routine and supposed to help set me up for my upcoming trips to Edmonton for Spring Break where I would begin to see my Edmonton family doctor and OB/GYN on a regular bassis up to anticipated delivery date (May 19-22-ish for those of you keeping track). I mentioned that I had been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions and that sometimes they were getting quite obnoxious and frequent. She asked me how frequently I was getting them and when I told her I was up to about 3X per HOUR and that the baby had dropped rather uncomfortably low in my pelvic girdle, she insisted on doing an internal check to make sure that everything was as it should be. I was sure that she would tell me that having a Pumpkin sitting in your pelvis is perfectly normal at 31 weeks. Alas.

Of course, since my life is rarely simple or straight-forward, she found that things were not as tickety boo as they should have been at 31 weeks. My cervix was softening and I was fingertip dilated. She took me off work, post haste (creating a total upheaval in my school life that I cant even begin to get into without throwing myself into further contractions) and told me that I was to start seeing an OB/GYN up here in the sticks just in case my go-to-Edmonton plan just wouldnt work out. I was placed on "rest" which meant that I was to spend as little time stressing and on my feet as possible. Ha!

I cleaned up my classroom, left my plans for the sub, sorted out my marks and left school to deal with itself. I could tell that not being at work helped with the number of contractions rather tremendously, but that stress happens even when it should feel like you are now on Easy Street. Especially with a 4 and 2 year old running around causing havoc.

I went to the recommended OB/GYN here (lovely lady, thank goodness) who did another internal to check on things. She found me more dilated and my cervix softening further. I was placed on more restricted rest--no more groceries, picking up the girls, vacuuming or other exertive chores. Walking was still Ok, as long as I didnt overdo things. Before I left her office, she gave me a small ultrasound (with a neat setup right in her office!) in which she measured the baby and told me that it was laready at 4.5 lbs and that things looked good even if baby decied to make an early entrance. She sent me from her office to the hospital to get a steroid shot to help strengthen the baby's lungs and a non-stress test to see how the contractions were going. There were some small contractions in the 20 minutes I was there but mostly the baby was unhappy with the damn belt strapped tightly around my belly. I got the boot many times to illustrate Pumpkin's unhappiness.

I have a follow-up appointment on Wednesday and if I am dilating any more, I am not going to get the green light to drive down to Edmonton, and that she would rather that I flew there and stayed until delivery. But! If things remain as they are and I do not dilate anymore or have more cervica changes, I should be OK until...35 weeks, perhaps? Here's hoping Pumpkin bakes just a bit longer.

Elena sings Twinkle twinkle