Shower/Gold Medal Game!

The ladies at my work threw me a baby shower today for Gemma. Coincidentally, it was during the gold medal hockey game between Canada and US. We won, of course (who had any doubt??), and it was a mish-mash of screaming and cheering for the Canadian hockey team and awwwing and oooh-ing over Gemma. 

It was a potluck and there was so much food! They even had a cake for Gemma with her birth date on it. After we stuffed ourselves, I opened presents while cheering on the team. 

She got spoiled rotten. Adorable clothes, diapers, toys, a Bumbo seat, DVD, rattle, hair clips, food tray for when she starts on solids, and - the icing on the cake - a handmade quilt. One of the ladies made a diaper cake (which looked incredible!) and a gift basket containing all sorts of useful and neat stuff. The car was completely packed. 

Good food, good company, good conversations, and amazing hockey game = a great time. 

Thanks ladies.

biting the boob that feeds

during her early morning feeding yesterday, Gemma bit me so hard that i instantly started to cry. 

i fear for the day she gets her teeth.

good morning, mama

one of my favorite moments of my day is when gemma wakes up and i go to see her. she give me the biggest smile and it just melts my heart.

a new record

Gemma went down to sleep at 8:30 amd woke up at 7 this morning! 

that's 1 hour earlier in bed and 1 hour later to wake up than usual!

three-month nightmare

ahhhh yes. 

Gemma is almost 3 months. Apparently this is another point where babies go through a growth/fussy phase. If that's the case, thank goodness this will pass. I don't know where Gemma went. She's been replaced once again by a cranky baby who wants to cry ALL THE TIME. Today, she even refused the bottle for awhile (which my mom gave her while Jesse and I were at church) and she NEVER refuses food. 

I think she napped for a total of 2 hours today. It's 8:30 right now and I've already put her down for the night, so I hope she can at least catch up on some sleep tonight. 

I miss my baby, but she'll be back soon enough... 

...hopefully...

the explosion

so yesterday, i was sitting on the floor and was playing with Gemma in her bouncy chair. she had a queer look on her face, so i knew she was doing *something*. sure enough, she let out a giant wet, roaring sound from her bum bum. she still had that look on her face, so i knew she wasn't done, so i waited a couple more minutes until she was... finished. 

another wet roaring sound. 

the next thing i know, poop is seeping through her sleeper and running down the bouncy chair. 

emergency situation! 

i pick her up, hold her out in front of me, and literally i can see the yellowish brown soaking through her back, sides, and legs. i rush to the bathroom, strip her naked, and see that this is too big of a job for baby wipes. Gemma is angry because i put her down on the floor while i undress her and she's lying on all that yucky poopy mess. i turn on the shower and as soon as the water is warm, i put her under the water to rinse her off. 

at this point, even though i have poop all over myself as well, i can't stop laughing. gemma is smiling because she feels clean again. 

oh man. the sheer joys of motherhood. i videotaped the mess so i could show Jesse when he got home. 

he couldn't believe it. he was actually speechless.

now i've done it...

i've sent out an email to my childbirth class moms inviting them to a little get-together at my house. 

me. Queen Hermit. 

it's been almost 3 years since we moved here and i think it's time i make some friends. i'm not sure if anyone will show up (it'll be most embarrassing if that happened), but it's worth a try.

i need to put my social face on...

update: people are actually coming! i'm so looking forward to this! .... what is happening to me...

rolling, rolling, rolling...

it's funny how you can be the one spending every minute with your baby 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and be the one to miss a "first".

one of our nightly rituals is to give Gemma a bath. after her bath, i massage her with lotion while Jesse gets ready to dress her.

so the ONE night where i got my mom to do the lotion rub-down because i wanted to get ready to feed her, she rolls over from front to back.

the next morning, while my mom was watching her while jesse and i went to church, she flips over again.

tonight, while i'm doing dishes after supper, she flips over for daddy. i heard him screaming upstairs and i thought something terrible had happened, but she had just rolled over and he was screaming with joy.

i've been putting her on her tummy, watching her like a hawk since i heard she flipped over the first time. but did she flip for me? nope.

then finally, as we were sitting around, watching the Olympics, Gemma rolled over right before my eyes! i was so excited, i picked her up, smothered her with kisses, and told her over and over again how proud i was of her. when i put her down, she rolled over again! and then again a few minutes after when she was back on her belly!

it's incredible. such a simple thing, yet it has such a powerful effect. it seems like yesterday i was in the hospital pushing her out and here she is rolling over... at 2.5 months, at that! i'm so incredibly proud of her.

the origin of her name

people ask us all the time where we got the name Gemma from.

for months, perhaps years, jesse and i discussed names for our future children. once we got pregnant though and really had to actually come up with a name, we soon discovered this was no easy task.

we both agreed on one thing though. nothing uber-popular. we didn't want her to be "something K" in her class.

when we got pregnant and found out it was a girl, we went through so many names. there were a few that we both liked, few that only one of us liked, and many that neither of us would even consider.

so how did we come up with Gemma?

it was the name of one of the patients i was typing about. an old lady. i had NEVER in my life heard this name and loved it instantly. i called jesse right away and told him. he wasn't sure. he had never heard of it either and thought it was "kinda weird".

but a weird thing - months before, jesse had come to me and told me of this name idea he had for our baby's middle name. "Gem". we were still unsure what to do with her middle name at the time, so i put it in the back of my mind.

so when jesse said this was "kinda weird", all i had to say was he could call her "Gem" and he was sold. well, it still took a few weeks to convince him fully, but obviously he came around.

this is how "Gemma" came to be.

according to babynames.com, it means "precious stone" (like gem) and is of Italian origin.

immunization time!

my baby girl is growing up so fast. i can't believe she is nearly 10 weeks old.

today, we went for her 2-month vaccinations. she got three shots, two in her left thigh, one in her right. i was extremely nervous for her because when she had her heel pricked in the first week of her life, she wailed on for nearly an hour.

she weighed in at 12 lb 8 oz (in the 90th percentile). the nurse kept commenting on gemma's gorgeous skin (asking what lotion we use?), her beautiful head shape, and of course her hair. she has reached all her expected milestones and then some. she can track objects, react to sound, turn her head towards the sound, coo, lift her head past the expected 45 degrees, smile and interact, and even put weight on her feet.

the first half hour was dedicated to just talking about gemma's growth, safety issues, and community resources. then we discussed the vaccinations themselves and the possible reactions that may occur.

i had fed her just before we left and so she was quite tired by needle time. she did surprisingly well and only cried for a minute (not even very loudly) and settled down quite nicely. i think it hurt me more just to watch the needles go in than it hurt her...

i'm so proud of my little trooper!

update: so the nurse told us some babies sleep like crazy while others fuss like crazy afterwards. thank heavens, gemma chose the former. i've never seen her so tired. she couldn't even sit and play for 5 minutes. she just fell asleep in her bouncy chair, completely ignoring the fact that i'm taking in my uber high-pitched voice trying to engage her. she had NO play time. she would sleep, wake up to eat, be all drowsy even while she is eating, then straight back to sleep. repeat.

church attempt #2

we tried a new church today - Emmanuel Christian Reformed Church in calgary - a good half hour drive from home. i thought it was a good size, worship was alright, the congregation was very varied in age (which i really like), and it was probably the most friendly church i've ever been to. after the service, most of the people stuck around to chat with one another, drink coffee, etc. people greeted us and talked to us, mainly commenting on how cute gemma is. it's nice to see a church where there isn't a mad dash to leave as quickly as possible afterwards...

so while i liked almost every aspect of this church, i wasn't too crazy about the pastor's sermon, which of course is the most important part. i don't know - maybe it was the fact that gemma was cranky and mom had to take her out again, but i had a really hard time concentrating on listening. i'd like to give this church another try to see if the pastor just had an "off" day, but jesse doesn't seem too crazy about it.

i dunno. maybe it's being stuck in the house with a baby, maybe it's having worked from home for too long, but i think i actually WANT human contact. i know, right? me? wanting to socialize?

oh, so yeah. gemma - didn't last very long. next time, i think we'll leave her at home (for real this time) with mom and jesse and i will go by ourselves.

first trip to E-town

yesterday was gemma's 2-month birthday, as well as our first trip up to edmonton. we were gonna hold off on going to edmonton until march, but our cousins' baby, Ella, was having her 100-day birthday celebration, which we wanted to attend.

she did as well as expected, i suppose. this gal doesn't like her car seat much and so the trip felt longer than it actually is... but once we got to the party, she did really well. it was the first time for most of the family to meet gemma and it was finally nice to meet Ella.

one thing though... i can't believe my 2-month-old breastfed baby is bigger than her 3-month-old formula fed cousin. yipes. and Ella is so calm and mellow - like night and day compared to gemma.

i'm not sure if we're gonna go back any time soon. in fact, we may even cancel our trip up for March. it really depends on whether we want to hold gemma's 100-day party in edmonton or not. i think we're leaning towards just having a small one at home.

RESP

last week, jesse and i made an appointment at the bank to open up an RESP for Gemma. we figured we'd start as early as possible.

if you don't know how an RESP works, here's the lo-down.

you can contribute however much you want. the provincial government will match 20% of your contributions, up to a maximum of $2500 (so the government will give you a max of $500) per year. you can open an RESP as a GIC, mutual fund, or just a good ol' savings account (i'm sure there are probably other ways too). this money will collect interest over time and can be withdrawn to pay for tuition when your child decides to undertake postsecondary education. if they decide not to go at all, ever, then they can take all the principal back, but not the government contributions.

i wonder what the tuition will be like at Harvard in 2028?

8 weeks

Gemma is such a delight. seriously, i am (we are) so incredibly lucky to have such a good baby.

• she has discovered the mobile on her crib and squeals and smiles whenever she watches it spin.
• she can put her head up to 90 degrees on her belly. sometimes she can even push up her chest.
• she eats 6 times in 24 hours. if she eats all 6 times during the day, then she will sleep through the night. if she eats 5 times a day, then she will get up once to eat during the night.
• she nurses for about 20-25 minutes at a time.
• she is starting to enjoy baths more and more.
• when she is fussy, daddy holds her and does lunges. that seems to work.
• she naps about 4 hours a day, though not all at once.
• she has mixed feelings about being in the car - sometimes she likes it, sometimes not.
• she doesn't like being in shopping carts in her car seat. she'd rather daddy carry her around in it (poor daddy!).
• she sleeps best with the bathroom fan on.
• she likes the bouncy chair for a maximum of 10 minutes or so. BUT, she doesn't like the vibrations turned on.
• her 0-3 month sleepers are starting to fit a bit tighter...

i can't believe she will be 2 months old on saturday. i dreamed last night that she was walking. i'm not ready for her to grow up so fast!