The Surprises don't end!!

Isabel is pretty excited about becoming a big sister

14 weeks and waving hello to everyone!!

Where has the past year gone??

Ready for Aunt Cassie's Baby Shower

I cannot believe that we are so quickly approaching my little girls 1st Birthday....Seriously where the hell has the last year gone?!?!?
She is crawling all over the place...Can say Mom, Daddy, Hey, and Come (this last one I think is from listening to us talk to the dogs lol) She can walk while holding on to furniture and I'm positive that it won't be long before she takes her first solo steps...She sleeps through the night....Eats like a champ, so far there isn't anything that she won't eat....and has 8 teeth.
She is a little firecracker with an attitude just like her momma, my poor husband
The last 3 weeks have been rough on the kid. I noticed that she had an odd sounding cough and later a bloody nose so we took her in to the hospital, waiting 4hrs and they sent us home and said she was "fine". My mommy instincts were telling me that they were wrong and she was NOT fine. That night we were getting ready for bed and I heard what sounded like a seal, I grabbed her from her crib and said we are going back to the hospital. We went to a different hospital and just as I thought she had Croup. We have had many nights laying awake holding a coughing little girl, sitting outside in the cold air to open up her breathing, sitting in the bathroom with the shower running..slowly she is getting better and I think by her birthday she should be back to her usual self                                                    

LOVES her apples!!!

Early mornings with Mom

 

As for myself...the PPD is getting so much better, it was hard for me to admit that I needed help and medication but its the best thing I could do for myself and my little Cricket. I need to be healthy and take care of myself so I can take care of her and be the best mom I can be!!

Meeting Santa

 

 

 

THE FACE THE MELTS MY HEART

November Update

We have TEETH!! 2 to be exact, they just popped through on the bottom yesterday and she has been in a much better mood today. She can sit on her own now once you prop her up, but she still can't pull herself to a sitting position, but she is trying hard.

 We had a meeting with the infant development nurse and even though she isn't concerned with her not crawling or pulling herself up yet, she is going to continue to meet with us every 2 weeks. This is just to help develop these skills through play.

  We have been going to baby massage classes which she TOTALLY loves!! I mean who wouldn't love laying there and being massaged?!?
Yesterday we went and did all our Christmas shopping and we went a small little store called The British Isles Shoppe. They had this adorable little shit that said "Canadian made with Scottish roots" so OBVIOUSLY I had to get that for my little Scottish princess!! While we were there I noticed they had a section with TONS of soccer stuff, so Isabel bought mommy a Liverpool mug for Christmas (ok, so I bought it for myself ... but whatever ) 

 Today was the Santa Clause Parade in my hometown so we went and I think she had a blast (once she woke up lol)

Girl and her Dog

Sitting on her own

Waiting for the parade to start

She spotted some BIG doggies

With Mommy

Mommy and Daddy

MY PRINCESS!!

Our Last 2 Months

Little sisters wedding - Sept 3rd

  The last 3 months have been extremely hard on me. As some of you know I suffered from depression, anxiety, panic attacks and agoraphobia before I ever became pregnant. The minute I knew we were expecting I stopped all medications because I didn't want to take any risks when we had been trying for 9 years.
   I knew that I would be high risk for Post Partum Depression and that I would need to watch for the signs. The first 3 months everything was wonderful, I was getting out lots and enjoying my baby. Slowly towards the end of her 3 month mark things started changing. I was finding reason not to be left home alone with her, I didn't want my husband to leave me for any reason and if he did I would panic the second he walked out the door. This wasn't out of fear that I was going to do anything to harm my baby, nothing like that at all. It was more, i'm going to have a panic attack and then a heart attack while I am here by myself and no one is going to be here to watch Isabel. I recognized the problem fairly quickly, but I admit I did not go see my Dr right away. I kept telling myself you have gone almost 13 months with no medication, you just need to try harder. This wasn't the case, it didn't matter how hard I tried to just get over my feelings it wasn't working and I finally contacted my dr. I was put back on medication and it hasn't been a great road so far but we are working on it.
  Isabel is now close to 7 months old and boy oh boy does she keep us busy....she isn't crawling yet with honestly is a bit of a relief because we can hardly keep up with her rolling, she is never in the same place you left her.....she has an impish little grin that can turn the worst moment into the best part of my day.
  We had alot going on this summer...we had her dedications, lots of family bbq's, her Great Uncle was home from Australia, we spent MANY days at Nanny Debbie's Trailer sitting by the lake having campfires, she was a busy little baby.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last couple months

Dedication Photo (August - 4months old)

A girl and her Great Grandfather - Love

Mommys little Pumpkin

Happy About Aunt Britts Wedding

My Love

Testing out our new toque before Winter

That Grin!!

Wearing her Wellington Dukes Toque

We have started eating real food

 

 

So all in all things are going pretty good, I'm just going to keep plugging away trying to do my best at this parenting thing (btw its not at all easy!!) We are super excited about Christmas this year and I can't wait to see her ripping into presents and only caring about the boxes...lol

She IS my daughter!!!

She may only be 4 months old...but this little one has some attitude...lol

Let's Celebrate!

Happy Canada Day Everyone

11 weeks old

Isabel Ava Is Here

Isabel Ava

The last few weeks of pregnancy were really rough. I was diagnosed as being anemic, and spent every other day at the hospital hooked up to monitors for Fetal Non Stress Tests to keep an eye on her heartrate. They did a biophysical ultrasound and didn't see her doing any "practice" breathing, which was concerning. I had so much lower back and hip pain that I could barely walk anymore and was in agony every single day. Finally, just 3 days before I hit my 38week mark the Dr said she would
induce me. I had to be at the hospital the next evening to have a balloon inserted into my cervix and filled with water to help speed up dilation, well it worked...the damn thing had fallen out before I even made it back home, meaning I had gone from 0 centimeters to 3 in just a few hours.

I got a phone call at 7am the next morning to be at the hospital for induction at 10am. They started Oxytocin right away as well as my antibiotics, I was having contractions but they were so small that I didn't feel anything at that time. Around 2pm my Dr came in to do an examination at this time she broke my water. Within minutes contractions started getting stronger and closer together and pretty freaking painful..lol it didn't take long for me to say I wanted an epidural. Now the Epidural is a funny thing, it hurts like hell getting it but after its put in and the drugs are working its your best friend!! I went through my entire labour not feeling anything (including my legs). They examined me again and inserted a catheter as well as attaching a couple monitors directly onto my little ones head, so they could monitor her heartrate from inside.

By 10pm I was 8cm dilated and by 11 I was a full 10 and it was time to push!! By this time they had turned the epidural off, so I could feel contractions and know when I needed to push. I pushed for about 1/2 an hour and then had a full on panic attack...I was trying to get off the table, I was crying, and begging for a csection, I thought for sure I was going to die and there was no way that I would be able to get the baby out...but then something happened....I was going to try and take a little breather and just wait out a few contractions to gain some strength back, but when I went to lower my leg I could feel my baby's head...there was no stopping then. I'm not sure where the energy came from but I began pushing again. Little girls heartrate dropped and my Dr said that we need to have this baby NOW. She attached a vacuum to her head and everytime I pushed she was pulling, my mother later informed me that it looked similar to a farmer delivering a calf..lol Thanks mom!. After about 3 of these pushes she told me that I needed to stop. The cord was wrapped twice around little ones neck, so tightly that it needed to be cut right away and couldn't just be slipped over her head.

Welcome to the world baby girl

We finally got baby out and the nurses took her away to do their job.....I couldn't see anything but my mom and Darren could....they said she wasn't moving or crying and they could see the nurses pressing on her belly. After what seemed like hours we finally heard what sounded like a little newborn kitten mewing...it was my baby...the baby I had waited 9 long years for, she was finally here. They brought her right over to me and it was love at first sight...honestly I had no idea it was possible to love someone so deeply. Isabel Ava came into this world April 11th, 2015 at 12:03am weighing 6lbs 14oz and 19inches long

I am proud to say that I didn't yell or scream during birth...I didn't swear at anyone.....I think I made the most noise when it was all over and I was getting my 3 stitches lol

Its been a week now and we are back home and doing fantastic, who needs sleep right??All in all the labour wasn't that bad and I think its all the pains and everything you go through AFTER giving birth that is WAY more painful.

One Week Old