Day: June 9, 2016

We made it to the doctor’s office in record time and I’m glad to report that Sierra’s weight looks quite good as she gained 150 grams in the past week!  That’s always reassuring to hear considering Vero is working really hard at keeping the kid fed.

They did confirm a few things for us though.  It is NOT normal for a kid to be on the breast for more than an hour at a time!  So it’s time to shake things up and try and get her only on a breast for 30 minutes or less (for the time being).  Heck, the nurse was saying that for women with a second kid, it can sometimes take only 3 minutes to fill up the baby from the breast!  That’s crazy talk.  This led to an interesting evening where it seemed like Sierra would feed for 20 minutes, then want to feed again shortly after, then feed again shortly after and then conk out for 3 hours.  The same thing happened around midnight which was rough and in the wee hours of the morning.  It’s currently 11:30 and both her and Vero are still sleeping while I’m updating this blog.  At least Vero will hopefully feel like she has a little more freedom if she can cut down the feeding time!

Other than that, the doctor gave her a clean bill of health and we will drop by there next week for another check-in.  I’m glad that they scheduled it for next week as that will be my final week before heading back to work.  I have to say I’m not really looking forward to going back to work at this point, even though my days primarily consist of changing diapers and making sure Vero has everything she needs.  But it’s great to see the baby squirm around and I’m always wondering if she will discover something new that day.

Mom and Dad left this morning to head back up to Kapuskasing.  It was great having them here as they are seasoned veterans in taking care of children.  They have given us the confidence needed to continue on with this adventure!  They are planning to swing back around here in a few weeks time when I head back to work.  I will have tripled the amount of chores to do by the time they get back!  Thanks to the both of you for helping out for the past week.

Sierra conked out on top of Dad.

When Dad was off packing the car, she just conked out on Mom!  Why can’t she sleep like that at night?  🙂

Sierra got a few more visitors this week.  I have to say that it’s hard to be proactive and invite people over so we take no offence if you contact us and suggest that you drop by to see the baby.

Benoit and Cinthia dropped by for a quick visit the other night and brought what can only be described as the greatest hat known to man…a knit Yoda hat!  I am getting Sierra to wear that everywhere, including when she takes a bath!

We also had Chantal and Jona drop by for a visit.  Having Jona run around the house made me realize what I’m in for in a couple of years time!  He’s a great kid to play around with.  Chantal has also claimed the title of ‘baby whisperer’ as she has a knack with kids and the baby seemed to calm right down each time she held her!

The baby whisperer in action.

Jona playing quite nicely with Sierra.

Vero showing Jona her old toys.

A few months back, Vero told me that she would appreciate some cable TV in the house so she could have it on in the background when taking care of the baby.  This was an interesting suggestion considering we haven’t had cable TV in years and resort to Netflix and other methods.

I did some research on antennas and over-the-air signals.  Mike had a setup similar to this a few years back so there must have been something to it.

I bought an $8 directional antenna which is reminiscent of the old rabbit ears that were used years ago.  I played for a day to find a tower and a signal with two channels on it.  It was pretty amazing when I ended up finding two channels in high definition.  IMAGINE THAT.

The only issue is that every time you would breathe in the same room as this antenna, it would move and I would have to readjust.  So I decided to buy an omnidirectional Antenna which would eliminate the need for any direction.

Off to Factory Direct we went.  As you can see, Sierra was excited to enter the Dollar store to look for chalk.

I was eyeing up a giant $100 antenna but the guy at the store said he has never heard complaints about this Kross omnidirectional antenna which comes with an amplifier for $40.  Dad and I decided to give it a try.

We got home, went up into the garage attic, ran a cable down to the TV in the living room and lo and behold, we had 12 glorious high definition channels appearing on the TV.  All for free!  No need to pay for a cable bill!  As Mom put it, it was the easiest job Dad and I ever got into because we usually end up spending triple the amount of time working on a project.  We even ended up running a cable down to the TV downstairs in case visitors want to watch something down there as well.

I can definitely say I am impressed with this little device for $40 and highly recommend it to people who want to cut their cable bill back, but at the same time, want a few channels that they can have on to watch the news.  Off the top of my head, we get CityTV, TVOntario, CBC, CHRC and a bunch of French channels as well.