gramma's....and grandpa

This past weekend was a special one, Ottavia met her grandma and grandpa, and great grandma who she is named after. The weather was terrible, the snow was a falling, but we made the best of it anyways. Ottavia was a perfect baby for our visitor's, we went for lunch, went to the farmers market, made a nice dinner, drank some good vino, all in all it was a really nice weekend.

Tino and I really miss not having grandparents that live in the same city. I really miss my mom, we talk almost daily but its different then having her here, i wish we could go to the mall, meet for lunch, have pedicure's..i wish Tino and I had a grandma here to give us a little break once in a while, there is nothing like having family around......especially when you have children, i'm hoping one day they deciede to move here and we can all be together again.

Ottavia's schedule is SOO fantastic. She is such a delight to have around, sometimes we forget there is a baby in the house. She only makes a noise if she is hungry or tired..or if you have face time chatting of course. she goes to sleep between 7 or 8 and wakes up between 7 and 8, We are soo blessed. She still gets up to feed around 430 but only being 10 weeks old i'd say thats pretty good, we could have it much worse.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend, tino's parents have better one's that i'll post on Ottavia's monthly newsletter!

too much in one week...

I haven't blogged in a in a few days because i have to much going this week and I'm feeling overwhelmed a bit. Yesterday i went for a 2 hour walk on memorial with my friend Gretchen and her little guy and for the first time i went tino this little cafe...( I forget the name) but i will be going there more often, the mocha was awsome and the food looked even better.

So this week i have something everyday which i don't like. I'm going to quit making plans so far in advance because it becomes to much and then if we have a bad night i'm tired and we wanna hang out and snuggle and people get mad when i cancel but thats just life.

So yesterday i went for a walk, and then i had a book party in the evening, today salsa babies, tomorrow lunch, not to mention i need to get groceries and my inlaws are coming so i need to get ready for them......

Have i mentioned yet again my tooth??? what the hell, i had to cancel my dentist appt because of conflict with plans, and now i can't get into the 9th...its KILLING ME.......if I get an abcess i'm going to snap....

thats all my complaining for the day.....but then i look at this and i get happy!

Needles....

I'm a really positive person that tries to make the best out of a situation....like today, I took some pictures of Ottavia all ready to go and get her needles....




I've been dreading this day since I booked it. Unfortunatly Tino coudln't come along as most daddy's have to bring home the bacon. As I mentally prepared myself and her this morning..the whole ordeal when from bad to worse. When i arrived i was a bit of a "bitch" shall I say..not because I usually am that kind of person, but because i felt stressed and anxious. The lady at the desk was rushing me, Ottavia was screaming hungry ( I'm a planner and she wasn't ready to eat when we left so i had her bottle ready to feed her there) I dumped my entire wallet out..the lid for my bottle fell on the gross floor...whatever...she checked us in..had to get the baby naked in this freezing sketchy clinic.

The nurse called us, we weighed her, and she announced that she had a bit of a flat head on one side, which is no suprise to me, its already been discussed with our dr, its fine, not to worry...but she rubbed me the wrong way.

Now she was fed, but still naked and freezing and the nurse went on and on about breast feeding and why its the best..i finally interupted her in a stearn voice and said I don't need a lecture, i've been to consultants, dr's and surgeons and I"m doing the best I can do you really think i love taking 16 pills a day, pumping, nursing, washing, sterlizing and making bottles and breast milk??...so can we end this conversation???

Then we went through a questionaire and she asked me 7 times if i was depressed..I finally placed my hand on her leg and said....Elizabeth...you have asked me over and over, I have filled out the questionaire throughly, and truthfully, as you can see and as I've told you, i'm not suffering any sort of post pardum depression....(this is all while i'm standing bouncing my screaming baby).....I have told you 7 times that i feel great, I'm happy, everything is wonderfull at the fusco's....I know that they have to go through everything but she went on and on and on....as Ottavia is still crying..she asked if i needed some help about how to handle a colicky baby....so then i had to explain that she is not colicy at all, she's tired and freezing.........anyways.....

Then it was needle time, Ottavia cried so hard she barfed and was hyperventilating..then i walked out of the room with tears in my eyes and had to sit on the floor and console my baby because there were no seats left in the clinic..finished feeding her, got her dressed and we left........

So here we are now with a sleepy little babe....there's lots of snuggling happening around here........until next needle day..BOO

Cabin Fever...

Holy stuck inside for the last 5 days, and let me tell you did if ever feel good to leave today. This calgary winter Sucks. We've been in a cold snap i swear since november, the week Ottavia was born. It has not warmed up since, and usually a chinook blows in and warms things up but we have not had that relief.

I didn't bake, because i didn't want to eat it, i didn't cook anything interesting because I hadn't got groceries in a week, nor have i even put on make up hahah but Today was the day of break out....i went to salsa babies and got groceries...phewww.

Looking forward to our wing dinner tonight with rice and salad..here is the recipe.

spicey garlic Teriaki wings.


About 2 dozen chicken wings, separated at the joint ( i buy the large package at superstore, about 13$)

3/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup Frank's(R) Hot Sauce
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
4-5 dashes dried powdered ginger
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons garlic juice
1/2 cup melted butter

bake your wings on 400 in a tin tray with pepper for 45 mins.
Mix all your ingredients together, drain your wings, add the sauce and bake till carmalized...


tonight i'm serving this with rice and salad!!

Salad

Romaine lettuce washed and chopped
2 celery sticks chopped
some green oninon
tomato
feta chees

salt and pepper
vegtable oil ( i don't use olive its too heavy and you don't need much) and vinegar
little bit of sugar
toss and serve


Happy tuesday!

soother...

I"ve tried and tried and tried to get Ottavia to take a soother. I know some of you are slapping my hands but here are my reasons.

A soother, soothes.....its not a prop, trust me i've done my reading. In all my books it suggests giving a soother for bedtime to help sooth, it reduces the risk of sids and, to give it in the night to rid of mid night feedings...to delay feeding to get on schedule, and to help the baby sooth itself.

I have had no luck...Ottavia's went from sleeping 6 to 7 hour stretches to maybe 4 hours..what the heck, I've tried the playtex, nuk, gumdrop, aventi and dr. browns soothers and she gags or will not suck on any of them. At my salsa baby class all these babies had soothers and i heard one mom talking about how its her life saver...if i could bring my lifesaver everywhere i went it would be my swing or the aquarium.

Tonight i'm going to try two things....swaddling, so she stops stardling herself, and a soother when she wakes up instead of giving her the bottle. I'm also not going to go in the room right away because this morning she started to stir at 6am which is way to early to start our day..i let her fuss....then Tino and i woke up and it was 730 so she obviously went back to sleep. As for swaddling, she she sleeps in a sleep sak right now which is supposed to decrease sids but i'm for sure going to wrap her up tight and see if that helps...

all this aside, the smiles are in full force today....more then i've ever seen, I LOVE it!

Wish us luck!

Ottavia's Monthly New letter: 2 months

Dear Baby Girl,

You are growing WAY TO FAST. As of yesterday you weigh 12 pounds and your 21.5 inches long. WOW, i had to store away all your newborn clothes, some of which you didn't even get to wear :(

This past month was a busy one with being christmas, new years and Daddy being on holidays. We spent a lot of quality time together, and visited with a lot of family. Being away from home is hard and our routine got screwed up, we were happy to come home.

You are such a great baby, somedays I can count on my hand how many times you cried, which is hardly any. You started smiling at me, it takes some work but as the days go by it happens more often. If Talk to you after your nap or go in your room in the morning you usually greet me with a big gum smile, its so rewarding.

Your sleep patterns have been all over the place. Some nights you sleep for up to 7 hours at a time and some only 4 but we are getting into a good night routine where you usually just fall asleep after you eat and we set you in your crib. Your new thing is your aquarium you LOVE it. I turn it on at night time and in the morning for 20 minutes before i pick you up and you are so mesmerized by it. You still nap in your swing or in my arms during the day, but sometimes in your crib. I need to be more stearn about your daily routine but I enjoy having you around me all the time, I miss you when you sleep.

You still LOVE your swing and your bath. Your really starting to talk and coo at me and I talk back. Your making different noises and following me and daddy with your eye's, or follow my hands.

Your getting so strong with your head and legs, you love to lay on a blanket in the morning and kick and talk. You hate tummy time :)

One Hurdle we got over this month was nipple confusion. You had a few days of trouble with trying to differentiate between the breast and the bottle and we had been doing both for almost 2 months. It was hard on all of us but daddy seemed to nip it in the but and I think we are back on track. You still love to nurse, its our bonding time.

We started salsa baby class and you slept the whole time. As much as I look forward to you growing up and walking and talking, i wish Time could stand still for a few months. When i look back 2 months ago I can't believe how you have become this little person, i know what you like and what calms you down or how to hold you if you have gas etc. We are still learning together, just when we think we have it..you blind side us with something new.








We love you Ottavia, and we enjoy spending every waking moment with you xox
Love mommy and daddy.

Salsa babies...

Holy FUN!! So i heard about this class through a friend. She had her baby at breakfast with santa at the foothills and she had these little maraca's and i thought they were so cool and she told me she got them from Salsa baby class. So researched it, and registered. I just went by myself and WOW...when i arrived the hallway was PACKED with babies and carrier's and carseats and moms it was so great, everyone was just like me :)

There were 45 moms and 45 babies under the age of 9 months. Everyone strapped on there babes of all ages, Ottavia being one of the youngest and put there runners on and we started doing salsa, cha cha etc. The instructor was so fun and could really move her hips I definitly broke out into a sweat and my sweet babe slept through the whole thing hahaha. I thought maybe she would be awake and want to know what was going on but nope.

At one point the teacher stopped and said can you hear that?? Not a single baby was crying, they LOVE it!! I strongly reccomend, its a fun good work out, you get out of the house, you meet tons of moms, how great is that. Next week i'll post a picture...

Now to register for swimming...its like winning the lottery trying to get into a class.

Happy cold Wednesday everyone!

Today...

As posted in my new years blog I said i would try a few new reciepes and so far so good. Today was a perfect day to stay in and cook which I really enjoy doing when I have time. Here is a weekly log of what I made.

Monday

Stuffed chicken with spinach, redpeppers and goat cheese with roasted potatoes and asparagus.

I made this up, we bought some stuff at costco and I make a point of cooking with ingredients I have. it is exaclty what it sounds like.

Pound 4 chicken breast's, place 1 Tbsp of goat cheese and a few leafs of spinach in the center. Roll it up and place a chuck of red pepper and purple onion on top, stab it with a tooth pick, brush with olive oil and spring some garlic powder on it and Vioila..healthy and delicious. I baked it in a glass dish for about an hour.

Wednesday night was French onion soup from Costco with spinach salad which i made from the best of bridge cookbook. Its hearty and delicious. I served it with a slice of garlic toast that I made in my new toaster oven from my baby dadddy santa. Here is the salad reciepe i highly reccomend its so good. I ease up on the oil in the dressing.



Today I've made some homeade spicey sausage italian sauce that we will have for dinner tonight with pasta, and wine. I did not follow a reciepe because there isn't one. This summer I had to make sauce with TIno's gramma to learn how to do it, i'm a doer anyways..i learn something when i do it myself, and it smells just like her's so i'm impressed with myself.

3 spicey italain sausages from costco
3 colors of peppers chopped fine
1/2 a purple onion chopped fine
half a carrot shredded
tbsp basil
4 cloves of garlic
2 large cans of peeled whole tomatos
1 small can of diced low salt tomatos
1 small can of low salt plain tomato sauce
salt and peper
1/2 cup parm cheese

squeeze out your sausage and fry it up like hamburger in 2 tbsp of olive oil. Once cooked add all your veggies and salt and pepper.

In a blender puree your tomatos and add to the sauce, dump in your basil and garlic and cook on medium for about 2 hours, it will start to thicken so add your tomato sauce and diced tomatos, cheese andcook for another hour...and Viola...so good.

Instead of sausage you can use pieces of pork with a bone in it.
Even though it looks great it tastes better, but gramma's is even way better, here is a picture!




Now the baby wakes so change her, feed her, play for a while, snuggle, kiss and chomp on her cheeks for an afternoon snack, give her to daddy who finished shoveling and start a new project while she snuggles and watches football :)

i don't eat banana's but Tino does and the second they are not green and start to turn yellow he won't eat them so i let them go a few more days then stick them in the freezer. Today i was going to bake banana cake but didn't have a few things so i did some banana bread.

Its hard to find a great reciepe so if you don't have a good one let me know and i'll email it to you. This banana breat only has 1/3 cup butter and 3/4 cup sugar for the whole thing, plus i add walnuts to it, its delicoius, here is a picture!



Phew....i've been busy, not to mention i've completed about 7 loads of laundry, so to award myself i'll be enjoying a glass of red wine with our beautiful sunday meal on a cold day.......

and look who i had cheering me on all day :) she is tired too!!

Sleep..

Ottavia is ALMOST SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!

With all the nipple drama and won't take the bottle this sleep pattern is making up for everything. I talked to 3 other moms that have babes all within 2 weeks of the same age and they were telling me how they almost slept through the night, if not did... I was so jelous and couldn't figure out why Ottavia wasn't following suit. They were saying it just happened one night.....and that happening.....HAPPENED!!

To back track a bit, Christmas time put us in a rut with her sleeping, it was terrible but when we got home she slept a solid 4 hours for the first time at 4 weeks, I thought that was good. Then she started this habit of called " the 5am monster"...after her 3am feed she would wake up..not really hungry..have a poopsie doopsie sometimes..fuss a bit...and i was not letting this happen so i got a few tips from my mom friends...

the 5 S's from happiest baby on the block
the " cry it out method"
the " feeding right before bed method"
the " soother"
the " don't change the diaper"

Here is what we did, i pushed her last feeding between 10-11 with a soother, instead of trying to put her down at 7 we put her down later between 10 or 11 if she allows us without feeding, we won't starve her. Tried to keep her awake so she was pretty sleepy for the last feed. We fed her, put her down turned on her aquarium and Viola..no crying

So instead of momma sleeping through the night i crept in the room at 3 when i woke up and she was out cold...80 mins later i heard her stir...this was 5 hours so i went in fed her, she slept till 730, talked and watched her aquarium which bought me 20mins to get some things done in the morning and then mornin' started.

Last night same thing but she slept from 10 till 430 and AGAIN i layed awake..what the hell shouldn't i be this sleep deprived mother that falls asleep like crazy?? I guess not. Thats changed from every 3 hours when i used to feed then zonk right out!

We are some happy parents over here!!

Here she is, 7 weeks old today!

Nipple Confusion..HELP!!!!

Since day one i've been nursing and formula feeding...just wait before you all start to point the finger, my milk has never come in, i already take 16 motilium tablets a day just so I can nurse a little bit, I also pump for 20 minutes from both sides and I get 1 once....Why bother you ask?? because i'm determined, Its so easy, and she loves it.

Here is the problem, just this week my baby has had nipple confusion, not with the breast but with the bottle. i usually nurse first from both sides then give her the bottle...TOTALLY time consuming but....i do it. Latley she will not take the bottle, she fights it, cries hard but yet she is hungry. I have all Dr. browns bottles, drying racks and sterilizer, and I don't want to have to change bottles now. She is almost on an eating strike, feeding time has become very stressfull these last few days especially in the night, hence she wakes up because she's hungry, she will only take the breast, I don't ahve the milk supply to fill her, but then she won't take the bottle, so i put her down..again she wakes up in an hour....

HELP..I'm at a loss here.....i know its just a phase but's its a tough one!!

Monthly Newsletter : 1 Month

Dear Ottavia,

Your first 4 weeks was a whirlwind. When I think back to the second I delievered you, we have both grown together so much. Our first week together was stressfull with Dr's appts, Nurse appts, and just getting to know eachother. Your first night at home was very scary for us, you slept in our bed right between us all wrapped up and me and daddy took shifts watching over you, I said i would NEVER let this happen but you stole our hearts so it did.

Baba came on the tuesday after, she was a huge help to us. We gave you your first bath that day in the kitchen sink, you didn't seem to mind it so much, and from there after you have loved your bath.

You love to breastfeed, and I love to nurse. Mornings are my favourite with you, its our bonding time, I get to know every nook and cranny of your ears, your nose your lips and all the tiny details of you. Although nursing has been a challange its something we both love.

You love your swing, and it gives me a couple hours in the morning to get organized. Your nightime routine is a bit tough for all of us. Getting you to sleep and settled takes some time but once you are sleeping in your crib, your good for the night. You get up about every 3 hours which is normal. We finally got a bottle warmer and a fridge so we are set for the night.

We love you so much Baby Ottavia, we can't imagine our life without you.







Love Mommy and Daddy

all in a year's time.......

A lot of people want to kick year 2010 in the ass, it seemed to be a bad one for a lot of people, but I wouldn't say so myself.....It was a busy one though, we did a lot of travelling, to edmonton, Regina, Grande Prairie, Dominican, las vegas just to name a few but as for 2010, i was pregnant for almost the whole time which come's with ups a downs.

I don't believe in new years resolutions, a lot of people make them and stick with them for about 2 months and then they are gone. The gym is always really busy in january and then it starts to dwindle. I usually give something up for lent instead, that way its a shorter time, and easier to finish!!

All in all, I'm looking forward to 2011, being a mother, growing with my daughter and husband, experiencing the year as a family and not working, its going to be a good one.

Here are some things on my list to cross off for the year...

Loose the remaining couple pounds of preggo weight
Scrapbook my pregnancy and start ottavia's book
Cook some new reciepe's
Don't sweat the small stuff, laundry will always be there

Happy new year everyone, today we will spend the day in our jammies and relax!

Deena