<reminder to insert the photo that I took of Sierra wishing a happy birthday to Mike, but then promptly left on my phone which doesn’t have a data package so I can’t really upload it right now>
For now, I will just insert a photo of Max and Sierra, approximately 10 hours before Sierra was born.
Happy birthday Uncle Mike!
“Kid, it’s time to come out and play!” – Max
Hi there,
I read a lot about how the Tragically Hip’s final concerts are happening this summer.
Let’s get some facts straight. They are going on tour to promote their latest album. Sure, it might be their final tour because Gord Downie has terminal brain cancer, but it might not be their final tour.
Throw some positivity towards this tour, will ya?
Sincerely,
Me.
One month down, 239 more to go!
Four Saturdays ago, we were rushing to the hospital to be greeted by Sierra. It’s been an interesting ride so far and here is what is on our mind lately in regards to the baby.
Fussiness: Sierra definitely has her ups and downs. It seems that after a feeding in the morning, she is great to be around. She will stare at you, interact with you, play at her play structure…all while being calm and being all baby-like. But when the afternoon/evening hits, it gets a little less fun as she grunts and cries all the time in between feedings. Some night we are lucky and she goes down in between feedings in the middle of the night, but a few nights have resulted in constant grunting and choking sounds which keeps Vero up all night long. The internet is a friend and an enemy in times like these. Everything from reflux to colic have been mentioned. Vero found out about lactose overload which actually seems to line up with pretty well every symptom we are experiencing. She will ask the doctor about it this Wednesday.
Weight gain: One of the symptoms of lactose overload is abnormally large weight gain. Considering the doctor said a baby puts on an average of 20-25 grams a day and Sierra is now clocking in at 42 grams a day…I would say that’s better than average! This resulted in chubby cheeks which are adorable though and we’re not worried about weight gain. Why should we?
Attention span: While it’s not an alarming difference, we can definitely see her attention span changing over the weeks. She will focus on our faces for a bit, or focus on the tv in the room. They say babies are attracted to contrasting colours so we introduce those once in awhile.
General interaction: I would say that the first three weeks didn’t have much interactions from her part. She was just laying there looking around like all babies do. But in the last week I see her grasping and holding onto my finger, and being amused by when I put her hands to her toes to introduce her to the fact that she can touch her toes. I’m really interested in child development so I keep reading whatever I can to see what we can do to promote good development. Are we the best at it? Nah, we’re just trying to survive at this point considering the lack of sleep! But we do what we can when she is not crying.
How’s the sleep?: A constant question at work and something I was worried about leading up to this moment. I have to say that I am definitely faring better than Vero which is understandable as she is there feeding the baby all the time which can be a drain on energy. At four weeks old, I would say her general sleep schedule is as follows: Feed in the early morning (6-7am), stays awake for a few hours until the next feeding. After the next feeding, sometimes she drifts off, sometimes she stays awake again until the next feeding. The afternoon seems to be a time where she will crash into a deep slumber, ESPECIALLY if we take her out on the road. It just knocks her out for four hours. Then the evening (the witching hour!) is upon us and generally she will feed, cry, feed, cry, and if we are lucky, she will just be fussy and not cry but squirm and grunt for those times. Of course, as any parent would do, we wonder how we can fix this and we wonder things like “So if we had her sleep for four hours in the afternoon, is she just really hungry?” or “Is it a lot of gas all of sudden? Let’s get rid of this!”. If we are lucky, she feeds a few more times until around 9-10pm and then sleeps for a good four stretch, wakes up around 1-2am, and then after feeding, wakes up again around 6-7am for the cycle to repeat. So I have to say that if all days were like this, it wouldn’t be too bad to just wake up around 1-2am for one feeding. Some days are like that, some are not. I suppose I’m writing this down for historical reference as to how Sierra was when she was a baby. With my memory, I will forget how it is in about 24 hours time!
How the parents are doing: I would say we are doing pretty good overall. It’s a tough job for Vero to be here with the baby all day when I go to work. She rarely has the energy to do anything until around noon but that is totally understandable. As we have realized…as long as the baby is fed and the mom gets sleep, that’s all that needs to be done in the day.
How the parents are really doing: Hey, we have a healthy baby who seems to be interested in what her Dad shows her on TV, so I think we’re going to be good! We also have a lot of family coming to visit in the month of July which will be great for Sierra and great for us.
It’s interesting how everyone says “They grow up so fast.” I have realized that this line of thinking is because time is something we can’t go back to. Sure, we can go out for a beer with a friend whenever we want, or go hiking, or go fishing. We know that time is well spent with a friend, and we can do it again and have a similar experience. With friends, we don’t think of “Our time together is passing fast.”
But the past month with Sierra is something we will never get back and the only way to have a similar experience is to have another baby. We won’t ever see her try and roll over again. We won’t get to see her dopey smile after she feeds again. We won’t get to be surprised every time she passes gas which is loud enough to wake the neighbours! Even diaper changes will eventually fade away as a thing of the past. We are enjoying all the moments, the good and the bad, that comes along with this adventure.
Onto the next month!
Then
Now
I get the day off as I work over on the Quebec side which I have no complaints about. Two Fridays off in a row due to John the Baptist and Canada forming? Sign me up!
I started off the morning with my brand new blu-ray set of Star Trek The Next Generation! Exciting times are ahead as I have not watched this series in years. Sure, the first season is a dud, but it’s just the appetizer before the main course.
Sierra seems to be enjoying Star Trek as much as I do.
After another feeding from Mom, we let her go back to bed and went for a walk. I was excited to report in that I managed to snap a photo of her up and awake for the first time! Usually she is sleeping.
Vero also managed to create the ultimate concoction for lunch…Kraft Dinner and pulled pork from the Silver Bullet BBQ stand! I had gone to the Ottawa Chicken and Ribfest on Sparks Street and brought some home with me the day before. I have to say that the ‘Pulled Pork Sundae’ was a great treat from Silver Bullet. A layer of beans, a layer of pulled pork and a layer of coleslaw, all in one! Yummers!
While I was downstairs watching some Star Trek, Vero answered the door and lo and behold, a giant parcel arrived! She had no idea what it was and neither did the delivery guy. He was having a good chuckle wondering what her husband had ordered. It turns out that it the father’s day gift that Maureen, John, Vero and I had purchased…a new fishing rod for Dad!
“We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
Unfortunately, I failed to read the details of the item and the rod is a one piece rod! I never even knew those existed! I will have to chat with Cabela’s on how to return this item.Before any of you mention it, Cousin Troy already beat you to the punch…yes I’m wearing socks with my shorts! It’s freezing downstairs in the basement!
My colleagues are great!
Here’s the first photo that I received while sitting at work. She is so attentive in this photo!
I have to say that I knew Father’s Day was approaching but I don’t really feel like much of a father yet. It has only been a few weeks since Sierra has been with us and other than changing diapers and introducing her to geek culture, I can’t say that I have imparted much wisdom into her yet.
She was nice enough to present me with a nice card which had a great Star Wars joke on it, as well as a BBQ flipper that said “I flippin’ love you Dad! Love Sierra” on the handle! I loved it! I have also been looking for a flipper exactly like that one (bottle opener, cutting edge, gripping edge, flip) for awhile now as I lost ‘The Boss’ flipper awhile ago.
We then headed out to St-Albert to get a poutine at the cheese factory. We have a system in place where we feed the kid and then hit the road as the car puts her to sleep and we manage to squeeze anywhere between 2-4 hours out of a trip. That’s enough time to get some errands done. It has worked for us so far and Vero has managed to avoid feeding outside of the house. Not that she is opposed to it, but I’m sure a comfy chair in your living room is better than the backseat of a car.
Unfortunately for us, everyone else in the Eastern Ontario area had the same idea as us and around 1:30pm, the place was still packed! We decided to head back to Embrun but not before checking out a farmer’s market where I picked up some deer pepperettes.
Tasty!
We then headed into Embrun to check out the Half Pint Pub which had recently opened. There was plenty of space for us to eat. I ate the best clubhouse sandwich I had ever had and I will definitely be heading back there.
A tried and true Father’s Day beverage. It was the Beau’s seasonal beer which oddly tasted like their LugTread. Are the keg taps mixed up?
As Sierra was beginning to wake up, we decided to head home but not before a quick drop in to the second new brewery in Embrun…the Etienne Brule brewpub! When we drove by a few hours before there were two people sitting down. When we came back, it was a packed house! We didn’t bother staying for a drink but it’s good to know that there are a few things on the menu to munch on for the next trip. I am extremely impressed with all three beers they offer, but I have to say that their blonde beer with the name Vagabond is a missed opportunity in naming a beer! The Citrale definitely is a favourite of mine as I love the pale ales with a hint of citrus.
Thanks for the Father’s Day outing girls!
I dub thee Shiek Sierra!
Marie-Claude, Jean-Francois and Annabelle (Annabel?) dropped by on Saturday afternoon followed by Vero and Martin. It was really interesting to hang out with Annabelle as she is a glimpse into our future in the house. She was really nice around the baby and had a mischievous streak in her when she wanted to play hide and seek. She wouldn’t even tell you that we were playing the game until we found her behind a chair in the baby’s room!
JF demonstrating proper baby holding techniques to me while I struggle lifting up a one year old. Time to hit those weights!
On my last day of vacation, the family headed over to Embrun to check out one of the two new breweries in town…Tuque de Broue. It is a similar setup to any other brewery you see where you enter, smell the marvelous aromas, and get to test out some samples. The woman at the counter was nice enough to explain a few things to me as I perused their wares. I decided to pick up one of each beer and try them out over the weekend. I have to say that all in all, I wasn’t too impressed with the beer, however I will prefer stronger tasting beers. I can definitely see a lot of people enjoying their beers so I encourage everyone to drop in, support a local business, and try out the beers for yourselves!
People say there are not enough of photos being posted of mom and daughter.
Supper was graciously provided by Nat and Marc Aces who dropped by to see what was new in our lives. They brought over some great chinese food from Dong Seng. Aces was chatting to us about his pilot lessons and how he managed to go solo a few times which was invigorating. Sierra was well behaved around Nat which basically means Nat is a good babysitter/mom.
Nat snapped this photo and proclaimed “This is what you look like when you are frustrated at work!”
It’s pretty hot here in Ottawa these days so it was a fast walk around the block so Sierra could get some breeze!
There’s only so many exciting shots I can get during our walk.
After our walk, we headed down to the basement to cool off and Sierra requested that I put in the new U2 tour concert into the blu-ray player. She thought it was a pretty good video and it’s nice to see the tour that Joelle, Alan, Vero and I went to a year ago in Montreal.
How YOU doin’?
Trish dropped by for lunch at the chip stand as we realized that some of our friends don’t have regular 9-5 hours for work. It was nice to see her before she traipsed off to PEI for the month of July.
Note the Mennonite hat that they decided to put on her.
Gandalf the Grey happened to be hanging out at the chip stand so he agreed to be photographed with Sierra.
An exciting lunch out…Vero’s first poutine after her pregnancy (she had a gall bladder attack the other time she tried one), and Trish’s first whistle dog! Plus Sierra really liked the taste of gravy!
Later in the afternoon, Melanie and Jonathan dropped by to hang out with us. Sierra is pretty excited as they are planning to move to Embrun in a month from now so they will be closer to her.
A busy day for Sierra, but what day shouldn’t be?