Here and there

I will eventually be on a schedule and get back to some regular blogging, but for now at 5:00 am after a rough night of no sleep, I thought I would write a bit of randomness--and bore you all with what's on my mind (okay not everything, but a little)

I am thinking about all of my family and friends in Kelowna right now.  My in-laws both live in West Kelowna and are on evacuation alert.  It has been pretty scary and the fire that affects them is only 20% contained.  Our good friends Ron and Laura (who took us in and have become wonderful friends of ours when we moved back to Kelowna) have been evacuated and we have some other friends that live close to them who have also been evacuated.  It is pretty scary and we are really praying for all these people and that the fire fighters can get these fires contained!

I am cherishing all of the moments I have with my baby and trying to just enjoy every phase as this will probably be the last time we will have an infant.  It is hard when you are exhausted and haven't had any sleep, but when you look down and see this tiny little gift from God smiling up at you, it really melts your heart and you suddenly don't feel so tired!

I am pondering  some scripture I read today about loving your enemies.  It is really a hard thing to do!  

I am going through some serious withdrawal.  I want to travel and go somewhere exotic, but will have to wait for a while!

Genesis at 1 month

This is a tad late, soon it will be time for a two month post, but it is better late than never!

Genesis at one month:

- weighs about 12 lbs. and is __ in length.

- wears size two disposable diapers (size small G diapers)

- wears 3 month clothing and some 3-6 month clothing.

- has slept through the night a couple of times

- is not on a schedule yet.....

- eats, eats, eats and eats!

- loves to suck but will not take a soother----erghh!

- gave us her first smiles!

- loves naked time on her mat.

- hates to be burped and does not burp that much.

- has really loud toots! :o)

- gets lots of "cuggles" and kisses from her big brother.

- took her first holiday to the Okanagan and did awesome!

- had her first days at the beach.

- met her relatives in B.C. who absolutely adored her.

- spends quite a bit of time in the Bjorn.

- is very alert and wants to see all the action.

- takes naps and sleeps quite a bit (this to us is a shock as Zech never slept much as a newborn)!

GrEIGHTful extended version....

I know it has been a while once again since I have kept up with my Grateful list. Our little Prince is at the dayhome today and our Pincess is sleeping, so I am trying to do a bit of catching up and cleaning up around the house.

Lots to be grateful for, lots to be thankful for, so for the extended version here we go:

1. My husband. I do not know how we would have made it these past few weeks if it weren't for him. He is so amazing and so completely and utterly dedicated to his family. I am so, so, so BLESSED.

2. My little boy and his caring, sensitive little heart. It has not been an easy transistion for him, but he really loves his little sister and wants to help out so much. He loves to cuddle with her and feed her and demands that she plays with him. He laughs hysterically when she plays on her mat and kicks her feet and tells us how funny she is. He is still learning the idea of being really gentle. He seems to think that he can pick her up and bop her on the head, or squeeze her real tight. She lets him know though! :o) Oh and his name for his baby sister is "Baby G G". SO that is her nickname--something that we thought about before hand too.

3. My sister-in-law who flew up to help us while I was in the hospital. Not sure how we would have managed if she was not able to help out. Zech and her had a blast together and he wants to go on the airplane to see his Aunty Missy now!

4. Good friends and hand-me-downs. Trish gave us some of Isabelle's hand-me-downs and Mari has been sending us some hand-me-downs from Ruby! Thanks so much, I haven't really had to go out and buy much and this little monkey of ours is already out of the 0-3 month clothing.

5. My sis, brother-in-law and nephew. They have been a big help. They were able to help me when John had to work and I was with the kids by myself. The first week after my c-section was a little rough and I am not supposed to lift Zech, so my the Lee family helped me out and helped me get Zech bathed and into bed. They have also blessed us with meals (from the Big Cook, that I really wanted to do before I had Genesis), lots of clothes and goodies for both Genesis and Zech. Thanks!

6. For Photo Shop. I designed our birth announcements (which will finally be sent out today) before hand on Photoshop. I have to give credit for the design idea to my friend Heather. I loved the birth announcements she sent out for her son Silas, and looked every where to find one that was similar. I didn't like any of them and then it dawned on me to design my own. SO I did, but because I was in my daze like, sleepless state, I didn't compress the layers and adjust the resolution like I should have and now they all printed out blurry and well not the way they actually look in Photoshop. I was really disappointed, but not about to print them again. SO everyone will just have to get blurry, low resolution copies! :o(

7. The Stollery Children's Hospital. Yes we have been there already with Genesis. This past week we were in the doctor's office or hospital every second day it seemed with Zech getting an ear infection, me having a few complications with my c-section incision (having to go a few times to a doctor) and Genesis having diarrhea for days. I must say it is a true blessing to go to the Stollery as we are priority and never have to wait (the waiting room was full) and the doctor's and nurses are so NICE there and compassionate!

8. A formula that works--finally! We are actually making out own formula (oh how the doctor's and nurses are going to love this!!) and as soon as we switched Genesis to the new homemade formula her diarrhea cleared up and was gone the next day. Did you know that the first two ingredients in most formulas are corn syrup and sucrose! I questioned the nurse about this, and she didn't know this and had never ever looked at the ingredients before! How nice that we are pumping our kids full of corn syrup and sucrose from a very early age! This is why we decided to make our own.

9. Zech's dayhome. He loves going and it really has given us a much needed break!

10. A precious little girl who is a descent sleeper. She has given us a couple of nights where she has slept through the night, but that really scared me and I woke up with a start and tried to get her up to feed. Now she usually goes from 10:30 pm until 3:00 am and then feeds and goes back down until between 7:00 am and 8:00 am. Pretty good I think! Still don't have her on a schedule yet, but it will come!

11. A great church and a good message. The message on Sunday was about Death. Yeah I know sounds really uplifting, but it really was a good message and made you think about a few things. The message was built around R, Maximizing and Prioritizing your life. How true that we sometimes get so caught up in the wordly things of life and forget about what is most important. There were so many people that I think really needed to hear this message, including myself. Money, work, living a selfish life has become a priority and we are missing out on some of the greatest parts of life and living how God instructs us to live to ensure eternity.

12. That John is finally done is course tomorrow. He writes his final and then he gets a bit of a breather, before it is full speed ahead in the fall. I know he is stressed and hasn't had the time to study as much as he hoped, so I pray that God will help him get through this tough exam!

13. My first new bike ever! We cashed out our airmiles and I got a new bike. I know I can't ride it for a bit yet, but I am so excited to have a bike. It is really pretty and looks pretty fancy--I will have to figure out how to work the gearing. We love biking and can't wait to take the kids out biking!

14. God. Somedays I think we have both felt so overwhelmed and have wondered how on earth we are ever going to make it through. We have felt so alone, so isolated and so desperate for help, but just don't have it, so thank the Lord that He is always with us and able to get us through some really difficult times and sleepless nights. We now know what it is like to have two kids waking up in the middle of the night crying and needing attention. :o)

2 weeks

Two weeks old already!! I can hardly believe it, although this week has been a real rough week and there are some days where it seems like so much longer than two weeks!!

Overwhelmed, frustrated, exhausted, yes those words seem to describe how we have felt this week, but we will get through and things are looking up already (she is napping)!

We went to the Pediatrician yesterday and this little one is growing like a weed. We took her in to the health clinic when she was four days old (she had a rapid breathing rate which we were a little concerned about--her brother had it too) and she had already gained weight (9 lbs 13 oz.). So we knew her weight would be on the rise and it was. She is now 10 lbs. 7 oz.!! Wow!

This week however has been rough. I am dealing with the same breastfeeding issues that I had with Zech. I don't produce enough of the pro-lactin hormone which means I will never produce enough milk to satisfy her (or Zech when he was little). I don't know why, nor do the doctors. They want to put me on drugs, but I am not comfortable with that, especially after you read the long list of side effects and the fact that they still do not have any conclusive studies that show the effects this drug has on the babies (cause yes they do take it in too). So I am doing all of the hebal methods I did with Zech and topping up with formula.

Formula is a whole different issue. We had her on what appeared to be a good formula, and we bought more, but she refused it. Then she started projectile vomitting and was so conjested and fussy. There were nights where all she wanted to do was breastfeed, but wouldn't get enough to be satisfied and sleep and would cry and cry and cry. It is horrible knowing that as her mother you can not satisfy her! (I was allergic to milk and Zech reacted to the formula quite violently too).

So we have had to do a bit of research and searching for different formula. We were going to put her on goat's milk (that is what we did for Zech), but new tests show that it does not have enough fat to help with proper brain development and it is really hard on their kidneys (Zech tuned out fine, but he was older too when we switched him to goat's milk). So we are trying a new formula now and if it doesn't work we have to go for a really expensive Lactose free one or we are going to the Natural Path doctor. So this week has been full of lots of vomitting, lots of diahreaa and lots of sleepless nights.

Zech is a whole different issue too. His poor little nose is bent right out shape! I feel horrible because I haven't been able to spend a whole bunch of time with him. John has been so great at taking him out and doing special things with him. However, he is testing us like you wouldn't believe. I know it will get better though. He has also been sick and is at the doctor as I sit here writing this.

So a few things at two weeks that we have learned about our little girl Genesis:

- She hates to be burped! Every time we try and burp her she cries and starts pecking away like a little bird on our shoulders. It is pretty funny!

- We call her the "vacuum". She can eat and she sucks the bottle back like you would not believe. We went out and bought new bottles with special nipples to slow the flow down. She was drinking way too quickly and had way too much gas.

- We also call her "squeaky". She doesn't cry much, she just squeaks and makes these funny noises. Zech laughs at her hysterically when she makes her noises!

- She loves to sleep on her side or right next to us or on us.

- She is a pretty content baby when she is fed and clean and there are no "feeding problems".

- She loves when Daddy tickles her--she squirms and squeaks and acts like she is so excited.

A few pictures:

One week old

Is this a sign of more things to come!! :o) I was trying to get a nice picture of these two, but Zech insisted on bothering her.

Introducing...

Just want to introduce you to our little angel Genesis Faith Gooch.

We are so blessed to have this little princess in our lives. She was born on June 5th at 1:45 pm. She weighed a surprising 9 lbs 9 oz. and was 21 3/4 inches long. We were both a little surprised at how big this little one was!!

It ended up being a planned c-section which I was really scared and apprehensive about, but in the end we made the right decision and the doctor confirmed that for many reasons.

Everything so far is going pretty good. While the recovery after a c-section is really rough and emotional, so far it has been much better than my recovery with Zech. It is completely different having a planned c-section versus an emergency one. We are still super tired and of course it seems that I am an emotional train wreck (oh the joys of hormones), but we are coping and trying our best.

My sister-in-law flew up on Thursday night to help us out. It was perfect timing as she was able to take care of Zech while we were in the hospital. Zech had so much fun with his Aunty Missy and we are so thankful that she was able to help us out so much!

I am so blessed that my wonderful husband is home and does so much for our family. I don't know what I would do without him.

I think the hardest part right now is trying to explain to Zech that I can't pick him up and cuddle and play like we used to. He gets a little frustrated and upset. He has been really good with his little sister, but still thinks and insists that she needs to be able to play trains with him!

Digital Scrapping

So lately it seems that the only scrap time I get in is Digital. John and Zech bought me a Creating Keepsakes book for Mother's Day and in it they have a Digital section where they list a whole bunch of sites that you can go to for Digital scrapbooking information and goodies.

I am cheap, so I go for all of the "freebies" and there are lots! So I have been exploring some of these sites lately and I will have to share. I am not through them all and have been marking the ones that I like best so that I can return and share them with you.

Also I love the free tutorials that some offer. I must say that my favourite site for free tutorials is Jessica Sprague's! She has over 50 free tutoials for Photoshop. In fact I was having problems figuring out how to make my own collage and I found a tutorial on her website. I also learned how to change the colour of patterned paper and there are so many other features that I want to learn and can learn because of her awesome tutorials.

So here are a few digital layouts I have completed. The bad part about my downloading frenzy is that I never bothered to save the site that I downloaded the kits from and now I can't properly give credit. I will have to change my downloading methods and now I will have to go back and look for the site that I got these from! :o(

This is the one layout that I have no idea where I downloaded it from. It is a free template that I just plopped the pictures into and added my own journaling! Super easy! I will have to go back and search where I got it from though!

This is a letter template from Erica Hernandez from the two peas in a bucket website. My friend Heather had used them and I liked them, so this is the one purchase that I made (they are only 0.99 for one, or the value pack of 10 for 6.99)! Lots of fun and easy to use.

Last but not least, my WIDE EYES collage. This will be a two page layout, but I just need to figure out how I want to do the second page. I have the title (WIDE EYES) and I know what I want to say, just need to figure out if it will be on paper or digital. These pictures of Zech range from when he was two weeks old up until he was two months. Obviously as you can see, this kid never napped (like newborns are supposed to--so I was told) and he was always looking around and super inquisitive about EVERYTHING (and yes some things never change--he's still the same).

3 Years

It is three years today since Dad passed away. That is quite hard to believe! Some days it seems longer, other days it seems like just yesterday. I miss him, but am so grateful for all of the good memories I do have of him. I wish that our kids would have had a chance to meet him and know their grandpa, but all I can do is show them pictures and tell them all about him.

Zech looks at some of the scrapbook pages that I have done of him and he knows that he is his Grandpa. So now when we look at the pictures he will point to him and say "papa" and then tell me that "he's in heaven"! Smart little monkey--I am often dumbfounded as to the things he remembers me saying.

So here's to my Dad and all of the wonderful memories I have of him. This is one of my all time favourite pictues of him that was taken 4 years ago at our wedding.