strawberries, spiders, and lettuce - oh my!

I was admiring how well my strawberry plants are doing this evening, when I noticed something strange on one of the plants...
a lineup of tiny spiders, seemingly crawling willy-nilly over a web, back and forth, back and forth. I took a closer look and found the source -
a ball 'o spiders! A teeny, teeming ball of itsy bitsy spiders. When I took a tissue to brush them off of the strawberry plant, they scattered in all directions.
We had some salad the other night with lettuce from our garden, yay! It's delicious, and no bugs (or squirrels, Josh) seem to be interested in eating it. We have red leaf lettuce (above), green leaf lettuce, (below) and butter lettuce (below below on the far right). Mmmmm!

And the blossoms are starting to appear on the sugar snap peas, yay!

mr. fish lips

Ah, more pictures of the much-adored baby of the house. Newborns need lots of sucking time, and to save our pinkie fingers, we sometimes give Phillip a pacifier - it's not too often that he really wants to suck for a long time; I've read that breastfed babies need less sucking time than bottle-fed ones. After about 3 months, they no longer need so much sucking time, and away disappears the pacifier forever (you will not see Phillip having a pacifier popped into his mouth at the slightest peep when he's two.) I think this pacifier is hilarious because you can see right into his mouth, and his lips are perfectly round. Tee-hee, what a cutie. Even with his baby acne, which is supposed to clear up on its own.

We introduced the bottle to Phillip a few days ago, and he took it no problem from his dad, which made for one happy mum! It's nice to know that if I can't be home for a feeding or whatever, he'll take it. It seems as though it wouldn't matter what source it came from, if it involves milk, Phillip's happy to take it. The breastpump I bought is a Medela mini-electric, and I like it just fine. I've never tried any other ones, so I don't know if I would like them any better or worse, but this one does the job admirably.

Cloth diapers - we haven't been able to use any of our cloth diapers yet, because Phillip is so small! Doctors kept saying that he would be a big baby, so the diapers I bought are mostly 10-22lb size, and we also have a bunch of prefolds, all of which are the 'regular' size, and there's no way I can figure out to get them wrapped around him until he's a bit bigger. (Turns out that he was sitting so high when I was pregnant that it appeared that he was giant, when he was really just really high up.) So we're using disposables for now, which I am more OK with than I would have thought I would be, probably because I don't have much time to think about it. But he's growing like a weed (his cheeks looked positively fat today) so it won't be long before he's in the cloth ones.

I'm feeling fairly well rested after a nice long nap this afternoon, and I had a haircut this morning which always makes me feel more presentable. Phillip's sleeping away (although I'm hearing some squeaks, so he might need to be changed) and I've got a couple more thank-you notes to write before Adam gets home from work. It's a lovely and peaceful day in the neighbourhood!

3 weeks

Phillip turned 3 weeks old yesterday, and here's what he looked like at various points in the day. We all thought his little golf onesie and socks was very cute, but he seemed less enthused.

weigela and other wonders

It's my favourite time of the year in the garden - there are things in bloom, but there are still many more things to come and so much potential. With every plant or flower that passes its peak, though, I'm a little sad that I have to wait all the way until next year to see them again. First, the crocuses, then daffodils, lily of the valley... but that's the nature of the thing. Our little veggie garden is doing very well - the peas are climbing, the green onions are delicious, the lettuce and carrots are looking good. And the roses are here, yay! I've taken Phillip out to smell them several times this week. Mmmmmm.

toes

Remember the sling I made awhile ago? Phillip likes being toted around in it, which is especially handy when I'm here by myself and would like to have my hands free while hanging out with him. I had him in it for a bit yesterday, and he just had to have his toes out.

bug

An oh-so-cute organic cotton kimono from Phillip's aunt and uncle-to-be! And Adam in his oh-so-hip CBC t-shirt. There's a hat to match the kimono, but it won't fit the little man until he's about 12.

drooping star of bethlehem

This flower appeared where I thought I had only planted daffodils. I bought a couple boxes of bulbs last fall, and this must have been mixed in. Adam found out that it's called a 'drooping star of Bethlehem' and it's beautiful!
This baby bird (I'm assuming it's a baby, because of the funny head fuzz and concerned newborn look) was sitting in the snowball tree this afternoon. The lilac tree is right behind; the blooms are just starting to fade.

hanging out

After eating (which is going very well), Phillip has a lovely and pleasant awake and alert time. This morning after his breakfast, he and I were just hanging out in bed, so I took a couple of pictures. I think his eyes are going to be like his dad's! And he had an excellent night last night (Adam and I were each only up for an hour!) so hopefully that will be the way things are from here on out. I love the concerned look he has in the second picture - 'Please, never take this finger away from me!' with hands clasped on either cheek and his wrinkly old man forehead. What a cutie!

bath

It's a bit fuzzy, but here's Phillip post-bath tonight in the cutest little bathrobe I found at Frenchy's awhile ago.

lilacs

Phillip was born at a great gardening time - he didn't miss the cherry tree, the lilacs were in bloom when we arrived home, the lily of the valley are just passing their peak, and everything else is growing wildly!

dunstan baby language

A woman at prenatal class mentioned Dunstan Baby Language, and I thought it sounded interesting and made sense, but I only looked into some more details this morning. A woman in Australia named Priscilla Dunstan has a photographic memory for sound, and when she had her son, learned to interpret his cries. She was featured on Oprah recently, and a brief summary is here. The sounds a newborn makes are based on reflexes, and since crying is the newborn's way of communicating, it only makes sense that their specific cries have specific meanings. This woman was simply able to put words to the cries. For example, the "hungry" cry sounds like "neh" and is based on the sucking reflex, where the baby has his/her tongue at the roof of the mouth, making the "n" sound. The sounds are as follows:
"neh" - hunger
"eh" - needs to burp (air in chest)
"owh" - sleepy
"heh" discomfort
"eair" gas pain, crampy (lower belly)

So far, so good as far as accuracy - you can, of course, buy her DVD which has lots more information from dunstanbaby.com

the hobo king himself

Here's Phillip the One-eyed Hobo King himself. I'm thankful that he seems to really have two beautiful intact eyes, although I guess I would be a good mom to have if he did have a visual impairment!
A bit more what he usually looks like.
And here's his hair - it's a lot thicker in the back than the front. Mmmm, I love it!

baby brain

Adam brought me this tulip from our garden when I was admitted to the hospital. It made everything even better!
The Glowworm.
Baby G's state right now.

Good grief, my brain is functioning at an astonishingly feeble level. I did manage to sleep for a few hours more than usual last night, and realized that in the most recent post I wrote 'heretofore' when I meant 'hereafter', and thought that was so funny that I would leave it there to remind myself of my state of mind. I know things will only get better, as they have been so far.

The birth story in a very small nutshell:
Last Wednesday, Adam and I went to my regularly scheduled prenatal clinic appointment. My blood pressure was still high, and when I showed the doctor the readings I had taken at home, she frowned and said that she wanted the OB to see me that day. So I went in to an assessment room where they monitored Phillip and my blood pressure and other vitals. The OB came to see me and said that since I was 39 weeks and the baby was ready for the world, they wanted to induce me because my blood pressure wasn't good for either me or baby G. We agreed, I was admitted, Adam scurried home to pick up the stuff we would need, we called our families to let them know, and were hoping to have a baby on Thursday. I was given three 'gels' to induce labour. Well, the labour part (contractions) was definitely experienced (wow, it's amazing and intense and I think I would have died without using breathing techniques) but by Saturday morning (phew, I was tired!) nothing had changed as far as things opening up for a baby to get through, and there was no reason to believe that they would. So on Saturday afternoon, I had a c-section (my first ever surgical procedure - pretty big one!) and Phillip arrived, yay! It's kind of funny, because anyone who knows me knows how much I was looking forward to doing things as naturally as possible, avoiding any drugs, etc. And I ended up having the most 'medical' birth ever. The reason we were in hospital for so long was because I lost a lot of blood and am pretty weak (it won't really be back to normal levels for about a month) and my blood pressure is still high (which should settle down soon). My incision is pretty painful and I can't do any lifting, driving, or rolling over and getting out of bed easily (one of the things I was most looking forward to after pregnancy!) But all in all, I'm fine, Phillip's fine, and we're one happy family! Adam has been beyond amazing through the whole thing, and I really could not possibly put into words how thankful I am for him. He's the most amazing dad (and husband) ever.

I wasn't going to post baby G's name, but changed my mind. He's Phillip the One-Eyed Hobo King (when I get the chance, I'll try to capture some of his funny one-eyed glares). OK, his real name is Phillip Benjamin Graham. Otherwise known as 'Glowworm' (what he looks like when swaddled), or 'squawker'. He's amazing!

welcome, baby G!

I'm sure that many of you have probably concluded that the lack of posts in the past week have been because of some major happenings around here, and you're right - baby G (heretofore referred to as P) arrived on Saturday afternoon at 2:50 with quite the hurrah. We just arrived home from the hospital this afternoon with our fabulous son, and we're sure that you'll agree that he's perfect. He's definitely an 'angel baby' so far!