I fell asleep while burping Dylan last night...or rather this morning. I remember being woken up for his feed, feeding him, burping him in the middle of his bottle, and being woken up again by his cries a couple of hours later. He was still on my shoulder. I suppose you could say that the lack of sleep is finally catching up with me.

Dylan is an exceptionally good baby. But then they all are at this age. He just sleeps and eats. The sleeping is great. The eating every 2 hours isnt so great. Especially when he is a grazer/snacker who takes aaaaaages to finish 2 ounces. As Doug says, it is like watching grass grow. So it takes him an hour to ninety minutes to finish his meal and settle down..then an hour later he is up again for his feed. I find breastfeeding too painful (just as it was with Sasha) so while I try my best to at least put him to the boob a couple of times a day, I tend to pump the milk out and feed him with the bottle. This is also less time consuming as he tends to take breaks at the boob and it drives me crazy when he takes thirty to forty minutes per boob, taking into account snoozes. So in between feeds, I pump, play with Sasha, cook, tidy up, etc. Of course some of this overlaps with feeds so I find myself telling Sasha "Mummy will (whatever) after Mummy feeds Dylan OK" at least 5 times a day.I am pretty sure even Sasha is wondering why this little thing is just continuously eating. But all is good.

When you have a new baby, the first thing people want to know is "How was it?". It being the labour. So for the record, I shall just say that the second time round was worse for me. Not traumatic, but pretty much reaffirms my decision to stop procreating. I put this down to the docs expecting it to take less time than my first labour, which was 14 hours. So they didn't provide sufficient medication during the epidural. I am sure if my cervix had cooperated and allowed me to push after 7 hours of labour, all would have been well. But it didn't, and after 8 hours, the medication wore off and by then I was fully dilated and absolutely screaming for the epidural top up. I remember Doug asking me a few times if I was OK...and I remember telling him that I am about to push a freaking bowling ball out my vagina so I was NOT OK. He also kept saying "How exciting...we are about to have a baby" to which I responded I KNOW ALREADY. Then he cracked some jokes...and all I could think through the haze of pain was "I am pretty sure Jerry Seinfeld must have been bitch slapped by his wife during her labour." I remember the anaesthesiologist coming into the room, doing something, and asking if I still felt pain. I grunted yes, to which she said "OK, now we are putting in the real medication." At that point I do recall thinking "What the fuck, if she just gave me a placebo I am going to sue her bloody ass". The drugs finally worked. I was allowed to sleep until noon, then the docs informed me that I had to push as the baby was coming, but if I couldn't do it then I would have to go under the scalpel. At that point I was so drugged up that I could not feel anything down there but I was not about to give up so I just said I could push. And 15 minutes later, a baby popped out. To be perfectly honest, I was so wrapped up in the pain management that I had totally forgotten that the end result was a baby..I remember looking at Dylan on the bed and thinking..."Ah yes, so that's why we are here." And 24 hours later, we were home.

We spent yesterday afternoon getting an emergency passport for Dylan. We are leaving for Amsterdam and Milan in 3 weeks. My main worry was that we would not be able to get a passport because we have not been issued his birth certificate, and we really don't have any form of ID for him. Luckily for us it was less painful than we thought and all that we needed to get from the City Clerk was a travel letter which details his registration of birth, which I did online a week ago. So, with that we are able to get a 6 month passport which will be renewed once he gets his birth certificate. What a relief because the tickets have been bought and our meetings scheduled. We even booked a tour to see the Last Supper in Milan on the day we arrive. Apparently, since the Da Vincci Code, this is an extremely popular site. Great marketing at no cost to the Vatican.

Introducing Dylan Jedi

The view of the city from my hospital room. Dylan was born on a glorious day. So while I was writhing in pain waiting for the damn epidural top-up, the rest of the world must have been at the beach.


Well worth the pain


He sprayed the room within seconds of this picture being taken


With Daddy


With his big sister





Sash just adores her Baby Dylan. Between bouts of regression and attention seeking, there are priceless moments of tenderness. We are very proud of our little troopers..

Dylan Jedi

Dylan Jedi arrived at 12.25pm on 15th August after 12...read it...12 freaking hours of labour. He is 8.85 pounds and 20 inches. We adore him already.

Still preggers

Yup, am still pregnant. D, Sash and the parental unit are spending the afternoon on Centre Island, which is a short ferry ride away from Downtown. I decided to take some quiet time at home because 1) I am not about to have my water break in a kiddie amusement park. Too cliche. And 2) I needed to run some errands like returning an imminently overdue library book. I have also vacuumed one room, defrosted the salmon for tonight's dinner and googled "labor contractions" and "difference between water breaking and peeing" to refresh myself. Hopefully I will be able to induce labor with my googling efforts.

This morning I received a call from L asking me if I had ever administered an injection. I jokingly explained to her that I am not a "real" Dr. I would however happily draft a contract for her. She explained that she needed to get a shot in her tummy to initiate ovulation (she is on IVF treatment) and she didn't have the guts to do it herself. I told her that I have no qualms about acting as injector in view of fact that it is the injectee that takes on brunt of pain, and I was fairly sure I could do it because I watched alot of Greys Anatomy. So I waddled over to hers in my PJ's, washed my hands, read the instructions, and injected whatever hormone into her tummy. Hey, what are neighbours for.

Yup, still fat..

Dagnabbit, I am still pregers!! When will this end?? D keeps telling the bump to "head towards the light" and even Sash is asking me if I am "ouchie". Yes darling, Mummy ouchie and Mummy wants ouchie OUT!! If D ask's me one more time if tonight is the night, I will slap him.

I am still pregnant. Yesterday's check-up confirms that I am 2cm dilated, and that the baby's head is in position. She expects that I should deliver befre my next appointment on Thursday. I sure hope so cause the baby CANNOT grow anymore without my busting my tummy and the only way is OUT!

My parents arrived on Wednesday and Sasha is having an absolute field day with her Tote and Net . They have been jet lagged so we have not done much other than showing them the neighbourhood. We checked out the ROM and had Sushi in Yorkville this afternoon while Sasha was at daycare. As we have only ever visited the ROM with Sash, D and I kept looking around for her, thinking that we had left her behind at one of the exhibits. Tomorrow I think we will be taking in an art gallery just North of Toronto. Depends on how much sleep they get after watching the Olympic coverage.

We have had a rather productive day. This morning we heard from the editor of our book and it is a go ahead as the peer reviews were not altogether scathing. We have a month to finish up the requested amendments and they hope to publish it in January and really start selling it in September 09. We plan to dedicate it to Sasha and Dylan as a way to make up for the time it took away from them. I remember last Christmas was spent practically force feeding Dora DVDs down Sash's throat to give us time to meet the editor's deadline. Boy did we feel guilty..

After the conference call, we headed out to the shops to stock up on halal meats and veggies before my parents arrive on Wednesday. Did you know that Walmart stocks the stuff?? I swear, I am such a convert and so is D. We feel ever so rebellious as we know the neighbours are dead set against big box shops (we live among the eco-warrior set), and ever so good about saving money. Although admittedly, we do stock up on DVDs so technically we are spending more money than during a normal food run. But they also sell my new fave drink (!!) so all is not lost.



My Italian is non-existent, unless you count Ciao Ciao, Penne Arrabiatta, and Allora, but I am pretty sure aranciata means orange sparkling heaven in a can. It is divine! When I was preggers with Sash I was addicted to Coke Light...so addicted that it is rather surprising that Sash came out normal. Lets hope Dylan doesn't come out orange hued...

We also cleaned the basement, moved the desk and train set aside and set up the futon for them. Sasha thinks it is her new play area so my Mum may have to fight her for the bed. We are I suppose as ready as we will ever be for their visit.

R passed me the DVD for The Happiest Baby on the Block last night. Thank you thank you thank you. After Sash reluctantly went to be at 9.15pm (this no nap routine is working) I forced D to get his ass to the basement to watch it. He asked if he could take his laptop along and I told him he either watches the DVD with me or he can bloody well read the book. I am not doing this alone! The DVD was a great and it really helped to see the 5S's being carried out on real babies. D was amazed at how easy it looked, and he can now understand why K, R's husband has been raving about the technique. In this case I think the movie is better than the book.

My parents have sent me their itenerary and I couldnt sleep last night thinking how awful it would be if I went into labour before they arrived. I have another check-up this afternoon so hopefully DrS will reassure me that the baby will be in gestation for at least another week. Fingers and legs crossed...

Upon recommendation from the neighbourhood Mums, I have been reading this book to learn about the 5S's as I am pretty sure that if Dylan is anything like his sister, sleep will be a major issue. We didnt swaddle Sash (the first S) because she didnt take to it, although everyone I know seems to swear by it. I suppose we are trying to rectify every mistake we made with Sash, with our accidental parenting. We didnt need to have Sash in a routine, but this second one will have to take on some semblance of a routine to make all our lives easier. Well, mine especially. But as they say, one can only plan...

Someone who reads this blog asked if I felt I was spoiling Sasha with all the material things that seem to be lavished on her ie toys, ballerina dresses, etc. Honestly, I dont think so. I would much rather spend $50 dollars on a toy car that will entertain her and spur her imagination for 2 hours than on a couple of DVDs that she will watch like a zombie for days on end. She is of course allowed to watch TV, as it would be impossible for me to keep her entertained all day and she does need some down time. I think however that at this age it is extremely important that she be mentally stimulated whenever possible. Also, being a stay at home Mum, it is also important for me to be excited or at least interested in her activities so yes, I may spend a bit more on sparkles infused finger paint than the generic flat paint but that is more for my own benefit. And trust me, when I have to keep her away from the TV, which admittedly is THE easy way out, for most of the day, the price of a toy car or a plastic slide is a small small price to pay. And seriously, at this age, I dont think it is possible to spoil a kid with material things as she is as yet unable to comprehend the value of things. She may have loads of toys, but she is also being taught to share (OK, threatened), to say please and thank you. What more can you do with someone who, for at least this morning, thinks she is a ballerina frog and is hopping everywhere looking for her toy lipstick?

D bought Sasha a snazzy little coupe as she seems to gravitate towards similar makes when we are over at the neighbours. We thought she might like to, you know, just sit in it in the garden, or maybe the driveway. She absolutely and truly loves it!! So much so that for the past 2 mornings and evenings, D has had to push it around the block for her "drives". She sticks her baby in the back and away they go. I think he is about ready to pay someone the exact amount he paid for it (if not double) to take it off our hands. We are kidding of course. We know that her life will drastically change in a couple of weeks so we are making the extra effort to make it as smooth a transition as possible. We realise that we have to start figuring out "special" things that only she, the big sister, will be able to do. So I am looking into signing her up for gym classes in September and D will take her to swimming classes in the Winter. Just Daddy and Sasha. Their special time. The fact that I am not too keen on wearing a bikini so soon after childbirth and the water may be freezing has nothing to do with my delegating this special task to D.

This morning Sasha and I headed to J's driveway which is across the street to wish him bon voyage. J and his parents are going to spend the week at a friend's cottage. J's Mum mentioned that she and L, her next door neighbour and also S's Mum (S being the only other female toddler within the 3 house radius that seems to be the centre of our Universe) have been discussing our situation and what they should do in the event I go into labour late at night. J has a nanny so it has been decided that one of the parents will come over to ours when we call either family for help at night or early morning and the nanny will take care of Sash and J if D needs to be at the hospital with me during the day. I swear, I have the sweetest neighbours. I reassured them that my parents will be arriving on the 6th of August (Yay!!) so I am planning to keep my legs crossed til then. But it is a relief to know that we have a back-up plan in the event that Dylan wants out early. R, another neighbour thinks I will deliver this Wednesday. Yes, I am that big and ungainly...

Did I mention that Sash's Tot and Nek are planning to come to TO for the birth? We are excited and extremely touched that they are willing to fly halfway round the world to be with us. D is trying his best to get as much work out of the way so he can play tour guide while I am trying to figure out if our cable service includes football/soccer matches... Sash, well, she is saving her bananas for Tot, or rather using Tot as an excuse to not eat her bananas.

You know how I've been trying to potty train my little Pissy Galore? Well, there's a new twist. After being brainwashed (by us no less) with this big girl panties concept, she now REFUSES to wear her diapers. Refuses I tell you! She cries out Ouchie Ouchie when I try to put a pair on her, and well, while I can reason with her Its NOT FAIRs, I cannot argue with Ouchie. All the manuals and books I have read point out that this is a good thing, that she is ready to be potty trained...what they dont tell me is What To Do When She Does Not Want To Wear Diapers but Is Still NOT READY TO TELL ME SHE WANTS TO PEE??? Do they tell me what to do when my little adorable hellion refuses to wear diapers at night but still guzzles 2-3 bottles of milk? No. Do they highlight the fact that I will have to ask her if she wants to potty every 15 minutes or I might just miss that minuscule window of opportunity. No. Do they point out that leaving the house for errands will take an extra half hour to make sure that she gets some liquid out of her bladder before spraying all over the city? No. So I have to come up with my own stopgap measures. I dragged D to the shops get more training pants and some Dora pull-up diapers. Hopefully we can trick her into thinking that the pull-ups are just a variation of her big girl panties. We also bought a Teflon coated mattress cover for her mattress. If not hydrating your child is not a criminal offence, I would probably try that out.

I had yet another obgyn check up this afternoon. R my neighbour told me that she usually cancels these weekly check-ups as she finds them a waste of time. I too find them rather tedious because its the same ole same ole..blood pressure, measure tummy, weight, prod prod...and Dr S will finally announce position of the baby before telling me that all is A-OK and that I have to come back next week. Sigh..This time however it was slightly different. She gave me the run down on how to detect labour signs, what to do when water breaks (as second baby, call hospital immediately), and instructions on where to check in. Sort of shocked me into realising that bloody hell, this bowling ball has got to come out. She also gave me a pack of papers which turned out to be pre-registration papers that I am to have on me at ALL TIMES now in case I go into labour. I was asked to sign consent forms for administration of epidural and ceasarean just in case. I had to confirm that baby will be circumcised. I ticked the yes box although D was not there to discuss the issue. Funny thing is he wants it done but I am on the fence...I hesitate slightly because it is a part of the baby and he may just want to hang on to it until it is his decision to make..and I am not too keen on the whole diaper changing a newborn with 90% of a willy (Yes, it is always about me in one way or another)...hmm..parental dilemmas. Ah well, we can always change our minds later.

The provincial health plan only covers ward accomodation so I had to check with D's admin department to double check his employee benefits. Luckily he (me) qualifies for a private room, which is in my book essential for security reasons. I remember the security precautions we had to take when Sasha was born, like wearing bracelets which would set off alarms as you go near any exit/entrance of the ward, and how ID badges had to be shown prominently. I have never been admitted to a Canadian hospital but I figure better for us to put in place our own security measures, like not having baby in same room with strangers.

Along with all the registration documents, I received brochures on safety etc. Usual stuff that didnt implement for Sash, like no co-sleeping, no using bumpers in crib, using baby gates, etc. What did stick out was this warning, published in bright red font, "Baby walkers are banned in Canada. It is a CRIMINAL offence to sell, advertise, or import new or used baby walkers, even for your own use. It is also a CRIMINAL offence to give them away". Wow, they obviously frown upon baby walkers.

In two weeks they will do an internal examination to determine how far along I am. Wow, coming along we are...

I had a craving for blueberry pie this morning. I figured I could turn left outside my door and walk 400m to the bakery for the yummiest blueberry pie ever, at $20 per pie, or turn right and walk 200m to the fruits and veggies shop for some fresh Ontario blueberries and bake my own pie. Mind you, when you factor in the cost of basic ingredients, ready made pie crust (unfortunately my ambition is limited only to the pie filling), fresh Ontario wild blueberries (none of that nasty Californian chemical absorbers), and other overheads such as my time cost, water and gas, it is probably cheaper for me to buy the sucker outright. But no, I decided to make the right turn. Bought the necessaries and looked up a recipe that a chimp, and me, couldn't screw up. It is in the oven baking as I type. I feel so bloody domesticated, it is positively sickeningly sweet, hopefully as sickeningly sweet as the pie.

It has been an awful awful week sleep-wise. My back is killing me (or I could say my already ungrateful foetus is killing my back) and as I cannot sleep properly, I am a zombie the rest of my waking day. I am amazed that millions of preggy women out there can carry a baby AND work at the same time. I have had relatively easy pregnancies and I could, if I wanted to, do bugger all all day. Which to be honest, I do actually. I mean seriously, do I feel even slightly guilty that the most strenuous thing I have done today, other than messing with PlayDoh and painting with Sasha, is walking 200m to get organic blueberries. Well, OK, I feel slightly guilty, but I am just too zonked out to think much about my lack of guilt. I am in awe of the millions who go about their daily lives without complaint. I am humbled. I know I should do more. Or should complain less about what little I do. It cant be good. And I am pretty sure that telling Sasha that if she doesn't take a nap I will find another baby that will is not good either.

This morning we received a check from the Government. It seems we are eligible to receive $100 per month in child benefits for each child so we received an amount covering a year's backpayment (since we moved back to Canada) for Sasha. We are well chuffed because that is probably the same amount we will have to spend on PlayDoh this year.

It has been raining the whole day. Great to not have to water the plants, but it has been a bit of a challenge entertaining ourselves. As I type this, Sash is taking a nap.



Good thing we went for a long walk yesterday. Today is a total wash out.

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Two days before "Mamma Mia!" opened in North American theatres, the soundtrack to the ABBA-inspired musical romance charted higher than any ABBA album.

Doug and I played hooky to watch Mamma Mia, the movie. We loved it! Loved it!! And believe it or not the theatre was nearly packed (for a 1pm matinee this is unusual) and the movie got huge applause at the end. We are now listening to the soundtrack that we bought on the way home, and have just decided to go out for a latte before we pick Sash up at daycare. It is that kind of day. I have never felt the urge to visit Greece...but after watching this movie, I MUST MUST MUST go.

Yesterday evening, while walking Sasha back from her daycare, we asked her what she had for lunch. She said "I had pasta". We asked her if she played on the trampoline. She said "Yes, I go jumping with Rene." We asked her who else she played with. She said "I play with Anya." We asked her what game she played. Sasha replied "We play It's my toy, NO its my toy, no its MY toy".


She is not in daycare today because her daycare mate's Mum is having a baby today. She has scheduled her ceasarean while M, Sasha's mate, is at daycare. She is pretty much in the same boat we are in ie no family around except we are not sure when I will be delivering. Only 5% of women deliver on their due date. So when J asked if we would mind switching days to enable M to be in daycare while his Mum has a baby, we of course agreed straight away. In turn, we are asking if J would mind being on standby at night to come over to our place and watch Sash if we need her to. We will of course pay her whatever she is asking. Our neighbours have very kindly offered to watch Sash, but we feel that it would be less traumatic for her to have J over at ours, and Sash will be able to remain in familiar surroundings. So this morning, I took her to the splash pad to tire her out. She spent 2 hours running around in the freezing water, and the only way I could get her home was to tell her that we needed to get to the shop to get Daddy his mangoes.







I have been told that boys are more active than girls. God help me..

We spent the morning in the garden as we needed to do some serious pruning and weeding. It was getting to be a jungle out there.





While Sasha preoccupied herself with her finger painting, we set about taming the jungle. Mind you, we are by no means talented gardeners, but we try our best. Yesterday, we headed to our local nursery to get a few tubs of lavender, a few tubs of petunias and a couple of tubs of hydrangeas. Not too many new plants as we want to see whether they survive the Winter before buying more. Or rather we want to see whether they survive our black rather than green thumbs. D did all the work while I supervised our mini-Pollack.





She is still as yet unclear about the whole finger painting concept...she has her own unique way of painting her fingers with a brush, then sets about making palm prints..or finger paints..





After she tired of finger painting, she helped her Daddy settle on a new location for her house and sandpit. She really is an outdoor lover...





We are trying to figure out how to get her to sleep earlier ie before 10.30pm, and so today, after our session in the garden, we told her she did not have to take a nap. D is a bit worried about our little experiment as it may affect her daycare naps, but I told him that we HAVE to get her to bed earlier because once the baby comes, we may have to both be upstairs for HOURS what with putting the baby to bed/feeding it and having to deal with Sasha. Imagine, no down time, no DVD and popcorn nights..no babysitters willing to sit!! Sasha is a totally different kid at daycare anyway so J will be able to deal with her. So we kept her occupied..well, I did..D took his nap. And she went to bed at 9pm. We will cutting out her naps a few more times to see how it affects her personality, but I suspect that naps at home may be a thing of the past.

Sasha helped D make waffles this morning.

Preparations

I am taking a short break from work to run a few preparatory errands. So instead of reading through page proofs of our upcoming article in an A tier law and econ journal (and by A tier I mean we were so well chuffed that D and I went out for a celebratory brunch AND another celebratory late lunch when we received the news that our article had been accepted...the whole time repeating "I can't believe it!". Even as I am going through the page proofs I am still thinking that I can't believe it). The errands involved picking up a traditional Moses basket and cherry rocker base which I found for sale online, and getting the basket to our dry cleaners to clean. We have set up the nursery with the obligatory crib (the one Sasha never ever used except to puke in every time we placed her in it), the changing table (I am still telling myself that this potty training WILL WORK..or else I am going to start teaching her to change her own diapers), the rocker and ottoman, various posters we have lying around and 3 metal models of antique cars and a plane (handmade in Cuba and bought at a garage sale for $2 each a few weeks ago). However, as there is still the possibility that I may have to undergo an cesarean (I try to address potential risks as much as I can), and will thus be fairly immobile while the wound heals, I thought we should have the baby with us in our room for at least a few weeks. Sasha co-slept with us for 18 months, and we are definitely not going down that route again because getting her into her own bed was just painful with a capital P. We could have Dylan with us in our bed too, but we want to mitigate the whole jealousy issue from the get go so a bassinet is the only way to go. I thought of getting a new one, but I am not a fan of the ones with all the gizmos (hanging animals and music/vibrating mode)and the idea of spending more than $150 on a piece of equipment that will only be used for a couple of months just reeks, especially in view of the fact that after this all baby paraphernalia will be disposed off at rock bottom prices. So I found one for sale second hand, by a couple who lives Downtown, from a non-smoking, no-pets household. They were selling the set that I was aiming to get, which is the traditional Moses basket with blue linen (not too frilly as frills irritate me), padded bottom, and wooden detachable rocker base. Simple, yet perfect for our needs. I figure that it is also "cute" and non plastic-y enough to be used by Sash for her dolls later. The whole package with a blanket/swaddler thinggy for $50 cash. A good deal I say.

I have also gone through Sash's old clothes to see what can be used for Dylan, bought N sized diapers (they are soooo tiny it is hilarious..I forget how small they are initially), and sorted through Sash's library and placed the more baby friendly books in Dylan's room (so she gets used to seeing them there). I now have to look for the video monitor and figure out which of Sash's 3 mobiles to place in the crib and we should be set.

Every morning, we have to play her toddler music soundtrack, so she can dance her tippy toe dance to Head,shoulders, knees and toes.