Yesterday I tried to get a picture of Melie smiling, I ended up with alot of funny faces but not quite a smile. This was the closest.

Here is my massive baby that is over the 97th percentile for weight. What alittle pork chop.  

Melie staring out the window. 

SLEEP!!!!

I had the best night sleep last night!!!! 8hrs all during normal sleeping time with no interruptions!!!! ahhhh I don't think I have slept that well since before Christmas. We did pre-pay for that good night sleep with a rather fussy evening where she didn't want to sleep and some pretty full on screaming pre-bed but she managed to sleep from 10:30 to 7:30 this morning then had her bottle and is now back to sleep again. Well my weekend with Melie went pretty well. Jeff was away from Sat morning till Sunday afternoon at our friend Adam's wedding in Sault St. Marie so Melie and I were on our own for a night. Sat morning Rich, Melie and I went shopping at Old Navy, I was desperate for some new clothes that aren't maternity!!! Then in the afternoon we went down to the distillery jazz fest. Unfortunately just after we got there the wind picked up and it started raining so we didn't last very long. It was still nice to walk around and hear some of the music. Sat night I made a cake for Sunday dinner while Melie napped. We also watched almost all of Season 6 of Sex and the City, hope melie wasn't really taking that in, eep. Sunday Jeff got home and we did chores then went over to John and Denise's for our traditional Sunday dinner with Daryl and Rich. Melie was enjoying the party so fought hard to stay awake almost the whole time we were there, she was quite agreeable and did decided to dose off for about a half hour while we were eating.

Melie in her Aussie Imported PA PJ's from Auntie Julie. Their still abit big but she is getting maximum where out of them. 

Tummy Time. Melie isn't a huge fan and usually is in tears after about 5mins of frustrated headbobbing. Check out that view of the cheeks and the arm rolls!!!

1 month, 5 Weeks and a Long Weekend

I have been bad about writing lately I have missed a bunch of mini-birthdays, Melie hit 1 month on Friday and then got to 5 weeks yesterday. She had her 1 month check up on wed and everything is good, happy and healthy. She is now 11lbs 4oz, she has grown 2cm in length and 3cm in head circumference (eep is that a bad sign that her head is growing fast than the rest of her, we might have to start calling her HEEED). Since Melie has been home from the hospital we had a couple rough nights with not too much sleep when we first arrived home but since the end of her first week she has been getting up only once a night for a feed then back to bed and recently she has been sleeping through the night more and more frequently, last night 9hrs, yipeee. Shortly after we got home from the hospital we also switched from breastfeeding to pumping and bottle feeding breast milk, it seems to be working much better for the both of us. I really like knowing how much she is actually getting and she doesn't fall asleep every 5min while drinking. In the last few weeks she has also become alot more alert when she is wake, she loves looking at things and she bobs her head from side to side taking the whole room in. She is loving her mobile and crib toys these days and can actually hang out in her crib and just talk to her self or her "friends" for more than an hour which is nice for me to get things done around the house. Melie has also started smiling more and more, she smiles the most when she has woken up from her nap and she is getting changed, she seems to love her changing table. She will also show off her dimples for us if we tickle her under her chin or her cheeks. Things have been going quite well with our cats and melie, at first the cats weren't very interested in her but her stuff on the other hand required some quality sniffing time. Dexter is now becoming more interested in Melie, her feet get little sniffs and nibbles (if I am not watching) and well Dexter still does love her blanket and likes to drive me nuts by jumping in her crib whenever I am changing her and her wants attention, VERY FRUSTERATING!!!! I have never known a cats that can push my buttons so well. On the down side Melie's new alert thing has lead to her becoming very overtired at times because she doesn't want to go to sleep she just wants to stare. This usually happens before bedtime and poor Jeff (who is on bedtime duty) has had some hair pulling nights. When Melie is overtired even if she is starving it takes a lot to convince her that she wants to eat and not cry. It is hard to listen to that heartbreaking cry. Melie has also perfected the cat nap in the mornings, she takes the edge off with a 15min nap then is up and ready to play again. Oh we have also become very adept with booger extractor, Melie has had some very impressive boogers lately (some so large I don't know how they fit in her tiny little nose). Last week we woke up to her screeching (not usual, rather scary) turned out that her nose was plugged and it resulted in a melt down. Thank goodness Jeff was able to remove the offending booger within 5mins and which point Melie fell right back to sleep, kinda funny. We also just had May 24 long weekend here. Jeff, Melie and I had a very nice time. Jeff and John finished off our storage room in the basement and I must stay it is looking mighty fine. Friday night we all went over to Andy and Kierstan's for one of the best indian meals I have ever had, AMAZING butter chicken. Sat night Jeff and I went out for out first dinner alone. John and Denise babysat and we went for sushi and then for ice cream, we had a very nice date and Melie was very well behaved for grandmamma. I have been enjoying this fabulous summer weather here by getting out for walks to Bloor West and up the river, I LOVE SUMMER!!!! This weekend Jeff is off to a wedding up north and I am on my own for a night with Melie, wish me luck.

This is Melie's new favorite thing, staring at her mobile and dragonfly. I really don't know how much she sleeps anymore cause I look in on her and she will be wide awake staring when I think she has been alseep all that time. Ah well.  

Melie's bad hair day, poor little Elvis. She is obviously not too happy about it. 

Melie and I having a snuggle. 

Amelia Helen Reitsma - 1 Month 

4 Weeks Old

Melie was 4 weeks old yesterday and will be a month tomorrow, how time flies. She is doing really well, she has started being able to focus on things now and I have found she now likes to be awake a lot more. Now when we take her out for walks she actually stays awake on occasion and looks around. You can see her lifting her head up to take a look at whatever has caught her interest, usually the TV (oh no!!). Since she has been able to see more her nap time has decreased a lot leading to a few mornings and evenings of over tired baby, the girl does have lungs. The only upside to this over tired thing is when she crashes she crashes big and we usually get a very good sleep out of it (last Sat we had 8hrs!!!). Melie has become the queen of the cat nap and usually from about 10am to 2pm she will dose off for a few minutes then be up again ready to stare or yell (more staring that yelling most days thank goodness). Melie has also started smiling more, she has been smiling for a while but before it seemed more like just another one of her facial contortions but now it seems more planned. When she is in a good mood and you tickle under her chin she will usually show off her dimples for you. Very cute. Next week we have her one-month doctors appointment, I am looking forward to finding out how much she weights now. Oh and the exorcist style puking has stopped thank goodness, it lasted for three days, every night just before bed she would puke up her whole bottle, no good. I was getting pretty worried so I made an appointment at the doctor and of course it stopped the night before we went and it hasn’t happened again. This weekend is the long weekend and we are just hanging around home. Jeff, John and Rich have been making great progress on our basement. This weekend I think they plan to put the flooring down in the storage room and the shelving then we can move all our junk in there and they can get to work on the play room, yipeee!!!! They have done such a great job, I am always amazed at their progress. Sat night Jeff and I are going for our first night out and Melie is staying home with Grandmamma and Pauka (John how do you spell that?). Yumm sushi here I come!!!!! Sorry no new pictures to add today, maybe after the weekend.

Melie all ready for a night out, blanket... check, Lambie....check, Wine...check. 

Melie and Dexter hanging out on the blanket. 

Melie "the mouth breather" and Daddy.  

Melie and Uncle Rich 

All dressed up for mother's day in one of auntie Melissa's outfits. "Life's hard being this cute" 

What a gaggle of babies. this is Melie with all her new little friends, John and Jen's girls - Emma (left) and Leah (right) and Coby and Carrie's son - Ronan.  

Not another picture!!! 

Party Party Party.... Sleep Sleep Sleep

Well we had a very nice weekend, the weather here is getting more and more summerish, yipeee so we tried to get out to enjoy it. Saturday morning after feeding and watering the peanut and letting Jeff have abit of a sleep in we headed to Bloor West Village to do some mother’s day shopping and met up with Jeff's parents for a coffee and snacks. Of course Melie slept through almost the whole outing but she did manage to wake up long enough to let Grandpa feed her while we all enjoyed our drinks. Sat evening we headed out to Oakville for a BBQ at Andy and Kierstan's for Andy's birthday. On our way we stopped by John and Jen's and got to meet Ronan, Coby and Carrie's VERY cute little boy. It was baby central with Melie, Ronan and the girls. While we were there Amelia managed to have her first explosive poo that exceeded the capacity of the diaper, way to go honey such a perfect little guest, good thing we brought back up clothes. We were then off to Andy and Kierstan's beautiful new house to enjoy a beer on the patio. Melie made lots of new friends and even managed to open her eyes for awhile. Sunday was my first mother's day and it was very nice, Melie and I hung out while Jeff and John worked on our basement. Sunday night our little family headed over to my parents for dinner with Rich, John and Denise. It was a lovely mother's day. Amelia gave me a wonderful mother's day present of sleeping through the night on Sunday night. Her sleeping has been getting better and better since last week with usually only one feeding in the night but on Sunday night she went to bed at 11:30 and woke up at 6:30am. Last night was almost a repeat with a 11 to 5:30 sleep, Jeff and I are feeling much more rested now. Go Melie Go!!! We did have a scare today, Amelia managed to through up her whole bottle first last night and then again this morning. Luckily after both events she ate some more which she kept down and today her subsequent feeding have been fine. Pretty scary though, the milk coming out her nose is what put me over the edge. I hope everything is okay. I will post some pictures once I get the mother's day pictures from my parents.

Primary Suspects: Dave and Carinta Crime: Attempted baby kidnapping okay everyone if my baby goes missing the APB is going out on these two. Dave and Carinta came for a visit on Wed night and there was much talk of stealing my baby, the worst part was Melie seemed quite content with the idea (I like to think it was Carinta's bribe of the trip to Cuba that sold her :).

Melie, Uncle Rich and Mini (this is my mom's self appointed name, she is rather skittish of anything referring to "grandmother". Melie and Rich got along very well, I think Melie knew to stay on his good side cause that is where her future beer supply would be coming from. 

Home Alone!!!

Well I survived my first few days without Jeff, really it wasn't much of a feat seeing as Denise came over everyday. It was wonderful to have the company and the help. Melie loves her Grandmama and seems much more willing to eat and burp for her than her mommy :) The weather started "fining up" on Thursday so we packed Melie and all her paraphernalia up and head out for lunch. It was very civilized. Melie slept through the whole thing totally oblivious of her admirers. So far we have been very lucky, Amelia only really cried when she was really hungry or then we put hats on her (thank goodness hat season seems to almost be over) but Wednesday night Jeff, Melie and I had to survive our first real melt down. Amelie woke up at about 11:30 doing the hat cry, not good... then she would calm down and was fine then start again for a minute. After a few panicked minutes of thinking our baby was dying we decided it was probably gas pain. Jeff made his first midnight run to the drug store to try to get gripe water, too bad he made it there at 12:05 and they closed 5 mins earlier. By the time Jeff got back from his unsuccessful whirly gig tour of all opened potential suppliers of gripe water, Melie had worked herself out and was fast asleep. Since that night we have had a few more gas episodes, it is so heartbreaking to watch and feel so helpless. We have become much more religious about burping during meals but little Melie just does not seem to like to burp. Last night my brother Richard, arrived home for the summer from university and Melie got to meet her Uncle Rich. I must say I was surprised to see how comfortable Rich seemed holding her, I think it may be because she is the same size as a rugby ball.

Lunch time!!! Today was one of the first summerish days in awhile so Melie was decked out in one of her new summer outfits. 

Melie enjoying her first lunch out. "mommy I would like the mussels start please, followed by some milk"..... 

Melie and I out and about in Bloor West village. Check out my pre-preggo jeans, yippee!! they kinda fit with the help of an elastic band :) 

Little Peanut in her personalized sleeper. There is some talk that due to her size her nickname should actaully be walnut.  

Daddy and Amelia both enjoying their favorite past time. 

The Whole Family Together Again

Here are some more pictures of Amelia with her eyes opened and nap time at 46 Gooch. One of the other momentous events that I forgot to mention was that the whole family was reunited on sunday. When Jeff and I went to the hospital on the 20th my mom and Daryl were nice enough to take our two furry babies, Dexter and Maisy to their house for summer camp. When we returned home life was so chaotic we decided to let them stay a little longer, by all reports there were having a great time playing with Basil, harassing Jasper and Dexter was lovin' the lax table rules, bah!!!. Well this Sunday they came home, so far so good they are cautiously interested in Amelia but only go so far as to sniff her, they are every interested in her bottles and my pumping, tough. For those of you that have asked I am recovering quite well. The delivery was very rough and I had many aches and pains afterwards but most have gone now or at least can be controlled by a tylenol. I found the two most daunting things after a c-section were sitting up in bed and coughing and I am happy to say I can now do both, yipeee!!!! :) Seriously I am feeling better by the day, Jeff and I took Amelia for a half hour walk yesterday and it felt great. I would like to feel back to normal a little faster but ah well I guess it did get me out of diapers for the first week so I can't complain :) With all that hair Amelia has and the slight diaper rash she has been developing we have been trying to give her a bath every night before bed. Her first bath was met with some big tears but now with every night there is less and less. Last night there weren't any and we even got a few smiles. Her hair looks so cute after a bath is goes into small little 1cm dia curls, I hope she keeps these curls. The picture I posted doesn't really do it justice. Today is our last day all at home together, Jeff goes back to work tomorrow. Those two weeks went by SOOOOOO fast, eep. I am so nervous about being on my own, thank goodness Denise is coming over to keep me company for the rest of this week. It will be tough doing all the Amelia care all on my own but really I am more nervous about going stir crazy with no one to talk to so everyone please send me emails!!!!

I'm not happy mommy!!!! 

Melie post bath. 

Amelia actually awake... to bad it is bed time.

Daddy and his two girls: baby and furry baby. Poor Maisy isn't sure she likes losing her prime sleeping location. 

Still Alive and Standing

Well we have been home for just over a week now and we are all still alive. Amelia had her first doctors check up on Friday and she passed with flying colours. She is gaining weight very well and she seems very healthy and happy. Jeff and I are so lucky, Amelia is a wonderful little baby, she sleeps and eats very well (in fact I start to worry she sleeps too much) and really for the most part only cries when she is hungry. So far the biggest reaction we have seen from her and the true test of her lungs is when we put hats on her, there have been a couple melt downs. I have been breastfeeding her since leaving the hospital but it has been rather frustrating for all involved, I don't have enough milk for her and we needed to add lactaid supplements. Amelia being the sleepy baby she is, often fell asleep while feeding and awaking her up is almost impossible so feedings were being extended for over an hour. On Saturday I lost my patience and we have now switched to pumping and bottledfed beastmilk..... we are all much happier. This past week we have also had a few outings to the grandparents, out for a couple walks, Loblaws for some emergency groceries and even out for our friends John and Jen's new house. Amelia managed to sleep through almost all of these visit, I don't think anyone knows what colour her eyes are :)

My favorite picture of little 'Melie so far. What a little chub. As for friday she was back up to her birth weight which we were told usually takes two weeks, she is now heading for 10lbs GO Amelia!!!

This picture is abit delayed but here is of our little family heading home (and one of the few pictures of me from the hospital where I am not stoned :)