It's a Party, Mommy-Style!

Hey, come on and join us over at the Ultimate Blog Party!! Join in too, and win a prize! Meet new friends! Get noticed! Let your hair down and have some FUN!

I've got a good party game. 20 Questions!! (Well, we'll make it ten to save space!)

1. Who are you?

I'm Guinevere Meadow. Well, that's not my real name, but it's a lovely pseudonym, wouldn't you agree?? I'll be 25 later this month. I am the wife of Hubby and the mommy of Lancelot. (Also not his real name.)

2. Who is Lancelot?

He is my 3-month old son, the love of my life, and the thorn in my side. Just kidding about the thorn part.

3. Why should I read this blog?

Why not?

4. What do you do in your spare time?

Spare what? I don't know what this is...lol!! In the few moments I find to myself, I enjoy reading, blogging, singing, playing games on our new Nintendo Wii, and watching episodes of Voyager that we've saved on our TiVO.

5. Who is Jesus Christ?

The Saviour of the World. The Son of God. The Lamb of God. The Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End. Wonderful counsellor, Almighty God and Everlasting Father.

6. Do you go to church?

Practically every time the doors are open, and sometimes when they're not. (We have a key. lol!)

7. What do you do there?

Other than attending services, I sing in a band called Renanah which does music for the Saturday night service, we socialize there, we eat there, we have picnics there, we join bible studies there, and we participate in an annual reenactment of Bethlehem.

8. What is your favorite color?

Red

9. What is your quest?

To find the Holy Grail of blogging.

10. What is the air-speed velocity of a laden swallow?

African or European?

For anyone who does not know the reference of the last three questions, I suggest you go rent a copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It's frikkin' hilarious. (And it's great to quote one-liners at parties!! lol!)

Letter To My Son

My dear, sweet, small son,

Tomorrow you will be 3 months old! While on one hand it seems like you've been here forever, it also seems like just yesterday when I saw two pink lines on the pregnancy test.

Already you have doubled your birthweight, can hold objects, laugh and smile, and now you can start to pick your head up during "tummy time." These precious days pass so quickly!

I've taken a hundred photographs to remember the way you look.

I've shot hours of video footage to remember how you move and the way you sound.

But how can I bottle up the way I feel when I hold you close, rocking and singing your favorite lullabies?

How can I capture the fragrance of your skin and hair after your evening baths?

Is there a way to store the melting of my heart when you look up at me and smile?

Can I record the joy of cuddling a warm baby?

One day, you won't want to be held and rocked.

One day, you will be too big for your baby tub and you'll be taking showers.

One day, my kisses will embarrass you, and you won't like being called "Sweetie Pie Punkin' Bug."

I'd better enjoy these moments while I can, because one day you'll be all grown up and won't need your Mommy anymore.

But for now, I get to hold you, rock you, feed you, bathe you, giggle and smile at you, make funny faces at you, and laugh with you.

I can smother you in kisses and make silly baby sounds at you.

I love you, my son. More than you'll ever know.

First Hockey Game!

Last night, we got a taste of how the other half lives. (Crazy Bloggin' Canuck, you're not the only one! lol!)

We got to see a Florida Panther hockey game in box seats. For free.

Hubby works for a very large company. He is on the team that decides which computer software to purchase for the whole company. They have been regular customers of Symantec (formerly Norton.) Anyway, the Symantec guys wanted to express their appreciation to our guys, so they gave Hubby and his team tickets to watch the hockey game in their private box. It included free food, free drinks, and as you can see, visits from the Panther Ice Dancers.

We enjoyed our evening out very much. Lancelot was so good! I was a little nervous that people would scowl at us, bringing a baby into a private box like that, but everyone was so nice and friendly, and Lancelot just won everybody's hearts!!

They grow up so fast!!

*Sniffle, sniffle*

Can someone hand me a tissue, please?

Yesterday I had to pack away Lancelot's newborn baby clothes. Every single item of clothing had some memory attached to it: "This is what he wore on the day he first smiled!" "He wore this little hat the first time we took him to our Bible study." "These are the socks he always kicked off!" "This is the onesie he pooped all over..." etc etc etc.

I'm sure I shed a tear or two.

On the brighter side, this means he can now wear all the cute 3-month size clothes that he received as gifts at the baby shower. The adorable little rompers that have been hanging in the closet, just waiting for Lancelot to wear them! The blue-and-white striped little cap that used to come down over his eyes is now a perfect fit! The cute teddy bear t-shirt and short set I found at a garage sale months before he was born!

I think I'm going to make a point of photographing him in each outfit the first time he wears them, so I'll be able to remember how he looked in all his baby clothes without digging through a plastic tub. All I'll have to do is open the photo album!

It's amazing how little use he got out of the clothes. It made me realize how silly it is to pay big bucks for baby clothes. Some stuff he never even GOT to wear because it was mis-sized! The sleepers that are marked 3-6 months but which are too tight in the arms and legs. Stuff like that.

E-Bay and thrift stores, here I come!

Of Dexterity and Clumsiness

My motor skills have improved since having a baby.

I can do things one-handed. I can hold the baby, get a jug of milk out of the fridge, close the fridge door with my foot, pour a glass of milk, put the milk back in the fridge, and do all of this without dropping the baby.

That's incredible.

I can keep my balance while carrying Lancelot in his carseat, walking down the stairs with a diaper bag on one shoulder, a purse on the other, and keys in my hands.

Amazing!

And yet I trip over my shoes while walking to the bathroom. No baby in my arms, no diaper bag dangling from my shoulder.

I'm a dexterous clutz. I think I'll start a club. All mothers of infants are welcome to join.

Got Milk? (Or, "Ode to My Mammary Glands")

Relactate: (v) 1. The process of re-establishing one's milk supply

2. A desperate attempt at becoming a better mother

Well ladies, after 2 months of not nursing Lancelot, I have decided to try and trick my body into producing milk once again. See, after little Lancelot was born, we had a miserable time of it. Due to biological/physical factors on both our parts, recovering from surgery and a nasty case of post-partum depression, it was just a lot easier to switch to formula and forget the whole shabang.

Now, however, after some time has passed and we have settled into somewhat of a routine, I am confident that I would be able to breastfeed the little guy. I learned that women whose babies are under 4 months old and who had established a milk supply before are generally successful at getting the process started again.

It means lots of pumping. Lots. Pumping isn't so much fun to begin with, but when you're sitting at a machine tugging at your boobs for days on end and you're only managing to squeeze out a few drops, it gets kinda depressing! However, this morning I was able to get more than a few drops-- not much more, but they were of sufficient volume to drip down into the bottle! Woohoo! And that telltale breast tenderness of the early days has returned. Hope has been restored!

I have a specific goal, too. In about a month, we are taking a family Disney trip- me, hubby, Lancelot, my parents and sister, and hubby's sister-- and I so don't want to be lugging my Medela Pump-In-Style through the Magic Kingdom. Ducking into the bathrooms every two hours-- there's an attraction not mentioned in the brochure!! I suppose I could bring my Avent Isis hand pump. Imagine this: standing in line for Splash Mountain, pumping away. I've got my own splashing action going on!

So this week, I am taking a "nursing holiday." I will be staying home as much as possible, attaching the girls to their good friend Medela every two hours, and walking around in a nursing bra, trying to get Lancelot to latch on whenever he can/feels like it.

If I haven't seen progress by the end of the week, I may reevaluate my decision. There's only so much "dry pumping" one can take.

(It will be interesting to see the bizarre google searches that will turn up this blog in their results! lol!)

Is there a method to the madness?

The subject of today's post is...naptime.

My sweet little Lancelot loves to sleep. A lot. At unpredictable times. I am so fortunate that he already sleeps 7 hours at night (hallelujah!!), but daytime napping is an entirely different story. One day, he took 6 30-minute naps. The next day, 3 45-minute naps. Yesterday, a 2 hour nap and a 3 hour nap. Some days he'll sleep 5 or 10 minutes off and on the whole day long!

The only discernable pattern thus far is for his first nap of the day. Generally, he'll wake up around 6:30-7:00am, be up for an hour, and then go down for a nap. Sometimes 20 minutes, yesterday for 2 1/2 more hours! So while I can't count on the length of his nap, I can usually count on him going down for a nap after an hour or so.

For the rest of the day, there's no telling what to expect.

I was wondering, do most babies eventually fall into a predictable napping pattern? If so, when does this take place? If I knew when he was going to nap, it would be so much easier to plan my day!

He's napping now, so I'm off to watch the rest of my Voyager episode off my TiVO, and to finish the pumping session that was so rudely interrupted. :)

Have a lovely day!