Author: admin

The past few nights have been pretty good with the baby.  On Saturday night, she was sleeping pretty good around 8PM and I made the mistake of waking her up around 11pm for a feeding and she woke up frequently during the night for more feelings.

We smartened up on Sunday night and when she fell asleep around 8PM, we let her sleep until she woke up, and we went to bed as well!  Whoever came up with the credo “Sleep when your baby sleeps!” Was a smart person.

She is definitely transitioning from the eat-sleep phase and sometimes stays awake after a feeding.  I put her down on this activity mat and I’m not sure if she knew what to do with it.  But she was mesmerized which is what counts.  Mom and Dad are having a good time with her while they are here which is nice to see.  If they hightailed it out of here, I would know how they really felt about her!

Thanks to everyone for the comments that are helping us out and don’t be offended if we don’t get back to you soon in replies.  It’s nothing personal, we’re just taking things day by day!

Mike and Melissa dropped by yesterday since it was a rainy day (I’m glad for it!  The lawn hasn’t seen rain in a month!) and had a Photoshoot for Sierra.  We were super appreciative (and always are!) to have those two people in our lives and they had a great afternoon with Sierra.  Mike, Mélanie and Maxime also showed up for quick visit which was nice and we managed to sneak Max into a few photos with Sierra!  I have to keep my eye on that kid around here in about 15 years!

Deals, watch out!

Saturday, the family headed out for Sierra’s first garage sale out in Vars.  Connie would be proud of us.  While the Great Glebe Garage Sale (GGGS) is a great event to go to, it’s rare to find actual good finds when you are against 10,000 other people!

The Vars garage sale generally has a few good finds but I came out empty this year.  But Mom found a toy car for $5 for Sierra when she is older and she found a ton of puzzles to bring down to Gaspe.  There was also a nice woman named Cindy who loved Sierra so much that she gave us a few items for her, like a pair of shoes!

No garage sale is without it’s share of hot dogs so I treated the family to a good feed of them.  As Mom put it “You always treat us right…either IKEA or garage sale hot dogs!”

Later on in the day, Melissa and Jeff came by for a visit.  Sierra was excited to see some family drop by.

Pro Dad right here.

Benoit writes in:

Are you more excited by the next Star Trek film this Summer or the new upcoming tv show?

Sierra chimes in with her thoughts on the matter:

Well, while in general the films of Star Trek are a hit and miss, the TV show is generally what people think about when they think about Star Trek.  So I am definitely more excited about the new show that is coming out soon enough.  It’s also interesting to hear that it may take place across different eras which I’m not sure how will play out.  Will they have ten episodes in the Original Series and then jump to another ten in Next Generation?  Will they just mix and match the different eras in the same episode?  Who knows what will happen, or if they will travel across different eras or not.  Either way, Star Trek is awesome and it’s back!  I’m excited to check it out with Dad and convince Mom to get into the show.  P.S., did you know Dad ordered the entire Next Generation series on Amazon like a Geekus Prime?  Come on over whenever you want to check out a few episodes!

Sierra out!

                                    Live long and prosper, I will!

Sierra got a taste of the family as Mom and Dad came into town for a visit.  It’s nice having them here and I’m excited to explore this thing they call “Oh, we can take a shift during the night!”

Trish also dropped by in the afternoon with some excellent meatball subs and dessert for supper.  Yummy doesn’t even begin to describe it! Everyone that knows me knows I’m not one for the desserts, but it was pretty tasty!  Could it be lack of sleep which is the power that unlocks my hatred for desserts?  Perhaps!

We alost want to thank Maureen and John and Abigail for sending up TONS of clothes for Sierra.  It much appreciated!

Mike and Joanne also sent up some nice outfits as well as a cool toque for her.  Thanks guys!

Overall, it’s been a good day after a night with lack of sleep.  Sierra is starting to look around a little more which is interesting.  Mom also somehow has a good singing voice when it comes to putting people to sleep!

What the heck?  The kid can roll over on her side already?

Well, there went the plans of sleeping in.

For the most part, the baby has been doing pretty good.  She feeds and then she sleeps.  If she isn’t sleeping, she just hangs out.

Until the other night where she screamed like a banshee after every feeding.  Nothing was working…rocking, singing, breakdancing…it just wasn’t working.

Feedings came and went, kid was still screaming.  I took Sierra from Vero to figure things out because Vero is the key ingredient in this mix at this point.

After a few hours downstairs with my handy earplugs, I finally clued into the power of my pinky finger in her mouth.  Bingo bango, I left that thing in for 30 minutes and she went to sleep.  Great success, nyes.

I did my victory dance three hours later when Vero and I woke up.

It was a tough night and we made it through and that’s what counts.  Also, I guess whatever trick I pulled out of my hat may not work the next night, but a victory is a victory nonetheless!

We were pretty excited to bring Sierra back out into the wild after being cooped up in the house for the past few days.  I’m not sure why,  but I feel good to be cooped up and just get into a routine, but I also know that isn’t the best for us so it’s good when a change in the routine happens.

Case in point, the baby’s first doctor visit!

I swear Sierra loves the Superman pose.  She does this all the time!

Going outside the house is an interesting experience.  We had to sit long and hard and figure out the logistics of doing so.  First off, when I first booked the appointment, I should have chosen the 1:45pm slot and not the 11am slot!  11am is way too early considering we are running on lack of sleep.  So we wisely moved it to 1:45pm.  Our doctor’s office is across town so it takes a good 40 minute drive so it’s not like being back home in Kapuskasing where you can zip over there in five minutes.

Next up on the logistic front was the feeding. Quickly determining that feeding = sleepy baby, we decided to feed her immediately before putting her in the car.  Great success!  That kid was sleeping like a rock for the most part of the adventure.  Even the nurse didn’t get much out of her.

The nurse was fabulous as she clued us into some good information…the baby had gained a little bit of weight since she was born!  That was a sigh of relief because it shows that those late nights have paid off since we got enough food into her to not wither away.  The nurse also let us in on the fact that since the baby seemed to be gaining weight, we could probably just wait until the baby woke up in the night instead of waking her every three hours (like we had been doing).  Vero and I have visions of going to bed tonight and getting a solid eight hours sleep.  Ha!  I told her with our luck, we have conditioned Sierra to wake up after 3 hours and 5 minutes so we won’t get that much ahead.  Here’s to hoping we get a little more sleep.  I think it’s getting to both of us a little.

I didn’t realize this but people love holding newborn babies.  I could see it in my Doctor’s eyes after a few minutes with Sierra and I said “Vero, maybe you want to let the doctor hold her?” And the doctor was ecstatic!  Clearly they don’t get too many newborns coming in like the delivery room at the hospital where they probably get a dozen every day!

All in all, the baby looks pretty great on the health front and we will have a follow up appointment next week.  It’s a pretty amazing feeling when you find out that the baby is doing a-ok.

We also got confirmation that I don’t have to install an air conditioning unit into the nursery which is welcome news.  Not that I was totally against it…if the baby needs it, we’ll do anything.  But the doctor confirmed our suspicions that lots of babies grew up without air conditioning and if our baby seems confortable in a house that is 25 degrees, then that’s great!  But if she’s not, that’s when we should look into options of cooling her down.  But I’m not crazy…I keep the curtains closed around the house and the fans going.  Plus we have the air conditioner unit in the kitchen that I throw on from time to time.

Here I am thinking of a new career.

I’m going to call it a night on the blogging front.  It’s nearly changing and feeding time again and I have to mentally prepare myself for the baby making me spending more money.  Case in point, she waits until I change the diaper to poop immediately into it.  Kid, I’m taking that out of your allowance!

When Mommy is out of the room, Sierra watches Star Trek.

Nanny, Troy and Connie sent some excellent questions for Sierra.  Luckily, she actually stayed awake after a feeding for the first time this morning so I got to take her on a tour of the house and I proceeded to ask her the questions that were sent in.

Question: Does Sierra know how to knit yet?

Her response: “While I haven’t figured out how to knit yet, my Mom was crocheting for nine months so I managed to figure out how to do that.  I am pretty sure Mom was trying to make a scarf for an elephant’s snout because she never really stopped crocheting so I will see if I can continue and maybe make some mittens for the elephant.  Thanks for the question Nanny!  I’m glad that you are having fun in London.  Hopefully it is not too hot while you are down there!”

Question: Would Sierra like to go to a garage with me (Connie)?

Her response: “Absolutely!  I LOVE garage sales!  I felt bad that my parents had to miss the Great Glebe Garage Sale (GGGS) this year as it was on my due date.  The GGGS is an important day in my parents life because that was the location of their first date and they go every year!  But I got a taste of the garage sale when they went to Embrun instead and scored on a nice bocce ball set, a grass seed spreader and some other knick knacks.  Perhaps Aunt Connie would like to take me to my first Great Glebe Garage Sale?  I’ll slot you in for 2017.

P.S.  What good things have you found at garage sales this year?”

Question: Does Sierra like bourbon or scotch?

Her response: “Oh Uncle Troy, you know me too well…I can’t say no to either!  Plus I don’t mind if Dad sneaks in a drink at the same time as me!  Enjoy your time off as I know you are going back to work soon enough!  Take Nanny to Chaucer’s for the sausage platter!”

Sierra loves the questions so keep them coming.   She accepts questions in both official languages of Canada and because she is trilingual (she speaks French, English and Baby) she will respond in the appropriate language! She will try to find some time to answer them in between eating, pooping and sleeping.  She loved seeing the faces of her family members that she will end up meeting soon enough.

Sierra out!

How did Vero sneak a shirt like this one into the mix?

No word of a lie, this is the coke that came with my St-Hubert meal that we brought home last night!

Holy mackerel we were tired this morning!

We got home yesterday afternoon with some St-Hubert in hand and then it was go time.  Time to set up the house to mimic the hospital surroundings.  Set up the changing station with plenty of wipes (I might need to buy stocks in baby wipes), make sure the room temperature is a-ok, and overall set up the house to be functional.

For parents reading this, I’m just chatting about things they have already gone through.  The one thing that I didn’t know was that if we want to feed the kid every three hours, you start the timer for the three hours as soon as the kid STARTS feeding.  What the heck?  How fair is that?!  So when you are looking at this kid mow down for a couple of hours, you’re sitting there thinking “There goes my nap time!”  Sierra has an interesting habit of eating for a good hour, but then five minutes later wants some more.  So we weren’t sure how to curb that appetite (we laughed at the description of Barracuda in one of those baby books) but we think we figured something out.

But this morning was interesting where you start out knowing that you will be waking up around 3am, then you don’t know when you are going to get back to bed, then you realize that you don’t have much time to nap afterwards before the next feeding around 6am.  6am was rough, but sitting here at 11am I am actually feeling decent.  My Fitbit is an interesting tool right now as it tracks my sleep so I can see how I was super non functional around the 2 hour sleep mark, but now that I have six hours in me, I can tell that my energy is good and I can probably make it through the day with a catnap in the afternoon.

I’m sitting here chatting about myself, but I have to say that Vero is doing quite well and I’m pretty sure she has access to some adrenaline because she has way more energy than me!

We are trying our best to respond to emails and chat on FaceTime with people once in awhile.  If we haven’t got to you yet, don’t worry, we’ll get around to it.

Gotta run, some baby is making noises.  I did figure out how to connect the Bluetooth keyboard so these posts are quite a bit longer now.