Wow...that has got to hurt

"wow...that has got to hurt" - as spoken by my doctor when I went in for a suspected (and now confirmed ear infection)

"Has she really puked 70 times in the last 24 hours?" - as spoken by the Urgent care nurse when we brought Hailey in for the non-stop puking she endured for 3 days straight

"She really is the perfect doll" - as spoken by my mom while everyone was sick and Paige just hung around and smiled...like the perfect doll she is

So, if you're wondering where we are? That's pretty much a summary of the last three weeks. It's been a constant battle of the sicknesses. First with Hailey's stomach virus, then my stomach virus, then Hailey's cold and pink eye, then my cold and my pink eye and my ear infection. The good news is we don't have H1N1, the bad news is we seem to have everything else. But honestly it could be worse. Now I've got to madly get things together for Halloween this coming week. It's sort of been on the back burner these days, and now I'm stressing about the unfinished costumes I decided to make. So I may disappear again until that's done...but I'll come back with pictures of all my cute decorations and the girls in their costumes. I promise!

Cheers!

Alright...time for a little bit of an update. Things have been busy but slow around here. I've officially started up piano lessons for the year and I have 5 students. So that makes things busy. But then we've been spending a lot more time at home, getting the girls back on schedules after the craziness of summer...which makes for a few slow days. I'm also starting to feel human again. It takes me a few months after a baby to really feel like I'm a person again...part of it is that I'm sleeping again (9-10 hours a night...and even one 12 hour stretch - woohoo!!) and part of it is because the pregnancy hormones are GONE!! Yay! Also, Paige really has turned into such a wonderful baby! I took her down to Kalispel for a quilt retreat with some girls from my ward last weekend and she was just a dream! She had two moments that involved just being tired of sleeping in her carseat all day and just wanting to be in a BED! So once I got her swaddled and into her own bed she was fine....in fact, she was perfect!! So really things are going great!

Hailey is such a capable big sister. She doesn't even think twice about her new role. In fact the other day she was sitting watching her show on the tv while I was feeding Paige. When I came down stairs she was so wrapped in her show that she didn't even notive me. So of course I thought I'd mess with her a little. I brought Paige up to her and put Paige in Hailey's arms just to see what she'd do. Hailey immediately put her arms around Paige, held her soother in and went back to her show. I was shocked and amazed...but I guess she's just a natural.

So a few weeks ago we blessed Paige...and in typical 'me' fashion, I didn't get a single picture of the entire day. So a few days later I put Paige back in her gown and snapped a few pictures. What a doll!

And onto really exciting diaper news (no Hailey isn't potty trained...I haven't even started), we have been duct taping her diaper on though! Cute hey? She decided this summer to start taking her diaper off at night and then wetting the bed...which always results in a tired, cold and wet toddler at 3am. So what do good parents do? We duct tape the diaper on...thus ensuring a long and dry night. Anyway I had to take a picture for memories. You can see her little bit of duct tape peeping out of her pj's.

Besides all these exciting things going on in our lives (duct tape is exciting right???), we've just been hanging out with the girls...isn't this one sweet?

And these two definitely love each other:


Oh - here's the best story of the week. Yesterday Hailey and I were sweeping the kitchen floor. I was minding my own business when suddenly Hailey rammed her broom up against mine and said "cheers". Ahhh, how does she know these things?? Seriously, this age is soooo fun!!

This picture is a total dejavu for me. I'm pretty sure I've seen pictures of all my dolls lined up together...my little sister Sarah included. In my mind Sarah was just as much mine as my dolls weres - and it appears Hailey thinks the same way. Great minds really do think alike...which makes me wonder if all Hailey's dolls will all be named Hailey - just like mine were all Meagan. I have a vivid imagination as you can tell:)


And finally, we pulled out the exersaucer today for Paige's first try. Both girls had a blast. Oh Hailey, she's got to be in on ALL the action.

I was just thinking... I never talk about Ben on here. And since I plan this to be somewhat of a journal I should include him once in a whil. He is part of the family you know. So, Ben. What to say? Hailey and him have become quite wonderful little pals. They watch Transformers more often than I should admit. He's been really amazing at accommodating all my girls nights out and has even taken both girls for me a few times so I could get out alone!! Wonderful. Besides that, he's really really busy at work. Busy!! We love him and we miss him! Wouldn't it be wonderful if Dad's never had to work?? But still made money? That would be the life - at least until he starts getting in my way. Anyway, that's it for now!

Hailey @ 26 months

For my records (sorry no pics):

I wish I could be a 2 year old again so I could see the world through their eyes. For example, last week at the zoo, Hailey saw some Ostrich's and swore that they were ballerinas. Really I couldn't convince her otherwise. But I guess if you really think about it they do sort of look like ballerina's. They have long skinny legs, a big tu-tu of a body and then a long slender neck. According to Hailey, that is exactly what a 'rina' looks like. Cute.

Her imagination is adorable and quite unique. For example, yesterday I gave her a candy...a small candy...a very small candy cut into thirds. When she looked at it she said "oh no mom...the baby candy is sad...wah wah wah". Everything, regardless of how small (or whether it gets eaten by her tiny mouth) has emotions and a personality. All things are just little people and friends in her mind.

In fact...all objects are real enough that she needs to share with them (I wish she would apply that concept with her real life friends). We've been working a lot on sharing and taking turns...I think she's almost grasped the concept. For example, yesterday as she was eating her oatmeal for breakfast she said "Hailey turn" and put a bit in her mouth, and then she said "toe's turn" and proceeded to feed oatmeal to her toes. bah ha ha ha!!!

Oh...and I can't forget how fair she is with her toys...or anything (once again as long as it's not a real person). Yesterday before bed she was eating her nightly bowl of cereal and she decided her hand and spoon needed equal time in her bowl. She would say "spoon turn" and feed herself a bite from her spoon, then she'd say "hand turn" and grab a handful of milky cheerios and stuff them in her mouth. I sort of love the running commentary of her day. Really, we know what she's doing and thinking all day long...because she tells us - ALL DAY LONG!!

And finally, I've been trying to get back into shape (in a really weak and lazy way). But we've ( me) been working on the '30 day shred' in this house...and even Hailey joins in. She has to wear a 'suit' (bathing suit) while she works; which is cute on it's own, but you've GOT to see her doing push ups. Hilarious I must say!! I'll post a picture soon...it's soooo cute! I may be biased though, and that's ok.

Oh and I should mention a few things about the other daughter in the home. She's turned into quite the joy to be around. She is still very very particular about things (i.e. where and how she naps), but she is so smiley and really just a doll. She is trying her hardest to roll over, but she's not quite there yet. Hailey was almost 6 months when she rolled over, so we'll have to see what Paige can pull off. Paige is also getting quite big...I didn't notice how big until I held her up beside her 4 day old cousin Jaxson and then it hit me. I no longer have a newborn...she is a big chubby almost 3 month old ball of love. And although I'm sooooo not good at the newborn stage, I do sort of miss how tiny they are and how they just curl up so small and sit on your chest. And how they have no choice but the cuddle with you all day long. I do miss it...just not the sleep thing. Speaking of which...Paige was doing pretty good at night (until this week of course). We had almost 2 weeks of 9 hour stretches...and then we got a bit off schedule during the day and her night sleep went down to 6-7 hours between feeds. Not as good. But almost there. I have high hopes that it will get better again soon. I'm having a hard time remembering how well Hailey slept at this age, but I think she was better. I think I need to break out those baby books again and try to get some more sleep. But really, It's not as bad as it could be right?

Anyway, that's it. I'll have something more interesting to post next time and maybe some pictures too!

Is it wrong?

Do you think it's wrong that I'm planning to wish away the next two months of my life so that this comes sooner?

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

I can hardly wait!!

Oh nooooooo...

Answer: "oh nooooo, what happened?"

Question: What did Hailey say when she pulled up my shirt to have a little lookie at my tummy?

Looks like it's time to start that workout regime I've been putting off for way too long! This kid is too funny!

It's Thursday

It's Thursday, I'm trying to simplify my life, so here are 4 pictures and 4 quick comments.

She's Cute:

And so is she:

These two have lots of fun together:

And this freaked me out:

Through the Monitor

Just had to share:

A few days ago, during one of Paige's many difficult days, she decided to wake up from her nap early (like an hour to early). So in my frustration I let her cry a little...and when I say a little I mean it, it was probably a total of 3 minutes. As soon as we heard the first cry through the monitor Hailey perked up and said "Paige a Sad". and I replied and told her that yes she was sad and mom would fix it in a minute. I went back to my email - anything to distract me from my crying baby. And literally less then a minute later I heard my darling little two year old daughter through the monitor trying to soothe her baby sister:

"Paige...a soo-soo (soother)? Pleez? Night-night. Be happy. It ok. Paige...a Sad?? Shhhhhhhh"

If that is not the sweetest thing ever, I don't know what is. Anyway, I went up and grabbed the baby and Hailey and cuddled them both. I'm so blessed.

Now if only we could get Paige to sleep. Speaking of which. Thank you all so much for your replies to my last post. I just have such a hard time with newborns, part of it is my hormones/emotions and part of it is that I have sensitive little babies. I've taken pretty much all your advice, I've been swaddling Paige again, I took her to her uncle the Chiropractor and I've been giving Pro-biotics! All are great things...none have brought about miracles. But I'm hopeful something will click soon. We're going to get moving on the bottle thing here pretty soon as well so I can get a break just once! And eventually her schedule will start getting easier...because I LOVE a baby on a schedule. But I'll just keep trying and trying and eventually she'll be a perfect baby. Which honestly she sort of is if you don't count the sleep thing, and the crying thing (which is sort of what babies are supposed to day anyways, so that's perfect right?)! I'm counting down to the three month mark - that will be where I go crazy if things aren't better by then! We'll see. Grandma came out for a few days this week to help and we're so grateful for her...thanks mom!!

Anyway, I'll update on our family Holiday we had last week in another post later...I just have to get my hands on some pictures! But a quick summary of the week would be - FUN...and just a bit tiring! Later.

I do not make happy babies

Seriously, there is something wrong with my genes because I'm two for two when it comes to tough kids. The thing is, Hailey was a hundred times easier as a newborn than Paige. I was really hoping for that 'easy as as can be' second child. We're between weeks 6 and 7 right now - when it's supposed to be getting easier according to...everyone, and well, it's NOT!

So Ben and I have discussed it and he's pretty sure it's my genes...I think it's his. His reasoning is that he was the easiest baby in the world plus he's the easiest person to get along with now - so there is no way a screaming baby is his fault. He's also pretty sure that even though my mom says I was her easiest baby - that she's just saying that because she has to. And he also thinks my personality today plays a role in it all - read: I'm obviously not that easy to get along with. I'm pretty sure it's his genes that are causing this problem....my reasoning? Well, I'm not that easy to get along with, so I don't need any reasoning :) Ha ha ha.

Anyway, I'm sort of at the end of my rope with this kid. I thrive on structure and routine (ok...honestly I thrive on sleep - a good 9-10 hours of it, and I'm just not getting it). I'll be so much happier once Paige is on a schedule, but right now she's soooo far from figuring it out! I need her to sleep properly, and to eat properly and to stop screaming all the time. She's just not a happy camper. But she's just soooo sweet, sweet enough that I'll keep her around a bit longer! For example, this moring, after a particularly rough night I held her in my arms, tears still fresh on my cheeks, and said in my exhausted and somewhat defeated kind of voice:

Paige, please do better

And her reply?

The sweetest most adorable smile ever.

It's not her fault, she's obviously just so uncomfortable, and we're really really hoping something works soon. We're not sure what it will be, but she surely can't be like this forever! Right??

Anyway - Paige-alicious, we love you! We're really so happy to have you in our family!! Hailey loves having a sister, Dad loves having another pretty girl to show off, and I just love you!!

Guess who turned 2

Yep....I can't believe it! We have a little two year old running around this house. And a newborn. Sigh....life.

Anyway, we celebrated the day in a very low key fashion - I made Hailey a cake and we had Hailey's BFF Kyla (and her parents) over for cake and then we all went to see Ice Age. It was Hailey's first movie in the theatre ever, and let me just say - she LOVED every second.

Then to really mark the occasion we had another really...very low key gathering of a few friends from the community. We spent the afternoon at the Beach. When I say low key I mean it...I didn't do anything special. So basically it was a more of a play date at the Beach. Which honestly was all I could handle with a 2 week old. And (because I had a 2 week old) I took one and only one picture from the day...and it wasn't even at the Beach. At least it was the spray park beside the Beach. Hailey is in love with water and especially the spray park. No Fear. That girl has no fear whatsoever!

Hailey got a new bike from Ben and I...which is still too big. So she actually rides her bike from last year still...which is also still too big. But that's what Birthday's are for. Plus (and I'm whispering this because if Hailey ever found out she'd be mortified that we cheaped out on her Birthday), anyway, we bought this trike for $5 at a garage sale. Lucky us!

The girls . a little tummy time . a little love . maybe too much love

We have been having some summer fun here too. There is this awesome spray park just a few minutes from our house...so a bunch of us from the community took our kids out for the day. It was fun! Here are all the kiddos (minus the one's who were on a potty break...I guess that's what happens when you're potty trained. Does it sound like I'm trying to justify the fact that I'm not potty training Hailey yet? Well it's true, I'm just not ready)


And Hailey loving on Kyla...Hailey loves Kyla so much, and Kyla so kindly puts up with it.

So last week we went camping down in Montana ... this was our first trip out since Paige was born (our trip to the Kananaskis last month was just a day trip - we were not crazy enough to spend the night with a 5 day old).

I was so nervous . Paige was so good.

Seriously, so good. In fact I'm tempted to sleep in the RV more often, because she hasn't slept as good since! So here is the one and only picture I took of the trip. Hailey just barely learned how to smile for the camera - there will be more learning one day, but for now I think this little 'smile' is adorable!! I LOVE this kid!

And finally, we've had a rough little start to life with Paige. She was unlucky enough to inherit the reflux genes, which means we've had a LOT of screaming and a lot of crying (by me) and not so much sleep. So, whenever I come across a moment like this, I have to take a picture.

Oh and Hailey sleeps too - wherever she feels like it I guess:

And one of the girls in their matching PJ's...this is why it's fun to have two of the same - matching clothes!

So cute!

My sister in law Rebecca just sent me the link to a few of Paige's pictures from her newborn photoshoot.

Check it out:

http://rebeccacooperphotography.blogspot.com/

Paige's pictures are at the top of the page today...but for future reference they are the Newborn pictures posted on July 21st.

I'm sooooo in love with these pictures...and the kid in them:)

Life with two little ones...

Life with two little kiddos is a lot harder and a lot easier then I'd expected. First of all, labour the 2nd time around was 100 times easier!! Seriously.

I went into the hospital around 2:30 am - my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and were pretty painful. I was only 4cm though and the nurses and doctor didn't think it was enough to guarantee a baby that night. So I hung out in triage for a few hours. Around 6:30 am my contractions were unbearable! So I asked for some pain relief...and was given fentanyl, which honestly didn't even touch the pain. It was a waste of drug. The good news though was that I was 6-7 cm...finally some progress! Unfortunately I hung out at 6-7 cms until 7:30am, at which point I begged for an epidural. My nurse wisely took her sweet time calling for the anesthesiologist and when he finally arrive at about 8ish I was in so much stinkin pain - and I was MAD. As he was prepping me I decided 'kindly' let everyone know that I was pushing - so they'd better get the epidural in me right that second because I was not planning on doing this med free. Well, the nurse, in her great wisdom decided to check me - and broke the news that I was still only 6-7 cm's. I don't think I could have been any more mad at the world as I was that second...that is until my water broke while she was checking me. And then the room turned into full on panic mode. The nurse yelled "she's ten, the baby's there, she's pushing, GET THE DOCTOR HERE RIGHT THIS SECOND!!" So I started pushing at 8:15, the doctor ran into the room at 8:20 and Paige was born at 8:22. Seven full minutes of pushing and she was here! No epidural, no tearing, and according to the doc., the easiest delivery of the day!! Yay me! Seriously, anything beats the 3 hours I pushed with Hailey.



So with that, I had a better start to this whole newborn experience. Recovery from labour this time was so much nicer then with Hailey, I was so much more confident this time around and I had more help too. My mom spent the entire first week here just helping out - and it was really really appreciated. I've been 'on my own' this entire last week and it's been a challenge, but it's bearable. The hardest part is timing things - like feeding both kids, or making sure they nap at the same time (so I can nap too). But overall, I'm adjusting pretty well. I'm exhausted, and my house is a disaster, Hailey's worn her Pj's all day long more times then I'd like to admit; but overall things are ok.



Here are some pics from the last few weeks:


My first attempt at a little photoshoot - I was just testing the lighting here, but I love how different the girls look here. They really are sisters!

Cute little Paige - the 'photoshoot' ended up not happening because Paige woke up...but this was still a cute shot

When Paige was 5 days old - our country celebrated it's 142 Birthday (I think). To honour these events, we decided to head out the Kananaskis for the day, have a little camp fire and take the little boat out for a spin. It was beautiful out there, Paige was a doll and Hailey had a blast.

Hailey and her 'munka' (her new word for Grandma)

My idea of a good ketchup ad

Later that night Ben and my dad took Hailey to see the Fireworks in town. Hailey LOVED the "works". Do you like Hailey's shirt? I got this brilliant idea from a friend of a friends...or cousins blog (I can't even remember how I know her anymore - but I do). I would link to the original idea - but I actually haven't told her that I stole the idea, plus she probably doesn't even know that I read her blog. Anyway, I truly am giving credit. But that's Hailey's handprint - cute hey??

Here's another attempt at a photoshoot with the Paigester. That face that she's making? It's pure satisfaction - she just peed and pooped all over.

So...after this final attempt at taking a cute picture of Paige, I decided to leave it to the professionals. We had Ben's sister Rebecca take Paige's newborn pictures on the weekend. All I can say is there is a reason why she charges people to take pictures and I don't. She's actually good!

Here's one of Hailey with Paige's headband...she just couldn't be left out!

Hailey is still so very in love with Paige and asks to hold her constantly! I love it!

We went for a walk to the park the other day - and I carried Paige in this little carrier. Which of course meant that Hailey just HAD to use it the rest of the day to carry her babies around in.

p.s. Hi Tan...you were probably wondering where this carrier went?? Oops, I forgot to give it back to you when I was done using it with Hailey. Anyway, you can totally have it back now if you want!

And finally, as I type, Ben is at the Stampede with Hailey. They have become the best of friends these last few weeks...and I'm so grateful for it.

Here is Hailey - all worked up because she thought dad was going to leave without her.

And her look of relief when we explained that she got to go WITH dad.
And finally a cuddle with a little 'please don't even leave me again' kind of cry.

I hope they're having fun...I know I'm appreciating my little break. I think I'll go have a nap now...I know I need one (that burst of energy I had in week one has definitely worn off)!

Introducing...

Paige Signe McCance - 7lb 15 oz - 18 inches long - June 26 2009 - 8:22AM

I'll share more later, but for now here are some pics. Paige is a complete doll! She came into the world very quickly (i.e. no time for the epidural) and has been sleeping ever since. Hailey's in LOVE - as are the rest of us! We're adjusting really well to the new life - much better then when I had Hailey. It's all wonderful. We're happy.