Urban Green Farm

her

Ayla. 

She has arrived. Beautiful and perfect into this world. 

Her name, 

Ayla - in Hebrew means mighty oak tree. I wanted to keep the botanical theme going, although not as obvious as Ivy, it still has a plant meaning. But in Turkish, Ayla means to be one with the moon....I know breathe taking. And Ivy and Ayla, how cute does that sound?!

Mei-Li - this has many meanings

1. It is the baby red pandas name at the zoo....we seriously love those pandas. 

2. The reason the panda is named so is because red pandas are found on the Meili mountains in China, I like that the name has a destination meaning. 

3. It is a chinese name, and in chinese Mei-Li means beautiful and ya she is one beautiful baby. 

4. We wanted her middle name to also honour special people, but we had to kinda take a twist on it. Keith's grandpa who has passed away was named Leslie, Keith's middle name is Leslie. We didn't want to use the full name, and we didn't really love Les, but we both love the lee part, so Li is in part from Leslie honouring Keith's grandpa. 

5. My sisters name is Maeghan. We have a very special sisterly bond. She is one of my best friends, she got to witness the miracle of Ayla's birth. I want Ivy and Ayla to be so lucky as to have this kind of relationship, so in honour of my sister and our bond we liked the May sound of her name, the spelling is totally different but the Mei sound is in honour of her. 

Enough meaning there!?! haha 

Birth story is in the works. In the meantime this is us:

Tucked in bed, not leaving this room for much. Lots of me and babe time. Bonding, loving, cherishing each other. These first few days have been surreal, a delicious time of connecting with this new person, with many treasured people visiting and pouring their love into Ayla and me. We are being well looked after. I am so moved by the way my loved ones have poured their attentions into making sure this time is easy, magical and perfect. A enormous shout out to my mom, I don't think this would be possible without her. The amount of work she does for our family is beyond words, I have never felt so loved. 

Be back soon. 

Introducing

Ayla Mei-Li Millis

She was born at home, in bed on Feb 25th at 8:34am. She weighs 7lbs exactly and measures 20 1/2 inchs long.

We are both doing well. We are all snug in bed. 

I am so blessed, she is perfection. 

Pics soon!

early labour fun

It has been DAYS of this crap. 

Tuesday or I guess Wed at 1am the early stuff began. Leaving me sleepless from 1am - 7am when I finally just got up. Then nothing really. Lame little ones all day. More strength to ones during naps. 

Brining us to Wednesday night, well I guess Thursday at 1am, contractions hit HARD and are coming every 10 minutes. From 1am till 7am when I give up trying to sleep and BAM they completely stop. STOP. 

So I go to the mall today to walk myself into labour....nothing. Not even one lame little pinch, nothing. I try to nap at 1:30, from 1:30 till 3:45 I get contractions in random, some ouchy, some not, no even spacing to speak of. 

I am now out of bed. I seem to only have contractions in bed. Isn't that backwards? I have had 2 since being awake which is better then nothing, but really??? come on. 

I am trying not to get discouraged. Obviously something is happening. Tons more "show" as well. These early pangs have a purpose, thinning out that cervix, but I really really really want to meet this kid already. 

Boo. Send labour, REAL labour vibes if you can :)

Due date

is possibly working its magic!?!

Saw the midwives yesterday and they asked if I wanted a little sweep, too which I replied "GOD YES!". She checked things out, cervix was long and far back, softish, soft enough for her to get her fingers in there and do a tiny sweep! This was more then they were able to do with Ivy back in the day and it send me into labour, so I was feeling positive. 

Since 1am I have been having contractions. About 20 mins apart. They are holding to that pattern and I am still only getting one every 20-30 mins. But its something. Also lost a lot of mucous plug (yay over information sharing!). 

Sooo who knows, any time. Ivy was born 48 LONG hours after the first major contraction, so we could be at this for a while. But geez I am excited to meet this little new person. 

pregnant

THIS is feeling kinda familar.

Only I have a midwife appointment and it is this morning and I hope they do an internal check and it works out like last time, or I just might end up pregnant with a teenager....so not into that. 

Due date tomorrow. Working on being zen with February. 

ZEN......ZEN

 

 

no, nothing

2 days till due date. I am kinda giving up on my inkling that this baby is coming early....I really really thought it would be early. 

I am dealing. 

I was not dealing so well this weekend. Huge grumpy lump I was. 

I had a bath last night, all alone (no Ivy!) and just mellowed out. I talked to Sparkle, I really tried to absorb the feelings of Sparkle's kicks and movements. We don't know for sure how many kids we want, but who knows this could be my last pregnancy and I should focus on enjoying what pregnancy is like instead of obsessing about labour. Not an easy thing for me right now, but I am trying. 

We have a bunch of things to get done today, so I am thinking about that instead. 

Thanks for all your well wishes and sending labour vibes my way! 

ya

I know Fridays are this moment days with an awesome pic from the week, but I am all about words these days. 

Yesterday there was a full moon, I was really hoping this lunar magic would get the baby out....I hear there are more births on full moon days, but alas this babe was not meant to be one of them. 

We are tackling list items like crazy over here, so much so we are kinda stretching now to find things to do...like OHHH there is 3 pieces of bread left, better get more! Or there is only half a bottle of cream totally need more, or shampooing the carpet was soo fun lets do it again! 

I did get some needed things done too though. 

1. All things Tissue are stocked up and he got taken to the vet and had a bath! 

2. Baby announcement envelopes stamped and addressed! 

3. Croch-sicles, frozen pads, made! 

4. Important paper work things, like GST for my business, Tissues pet licence and Ivy's Social Insurance Number all filled out and mailed

5. All books pregnancy wise and newborn wise re-read and caught up with! I am the labour newborn expert over here. Funny all the things you forget in just 21 months! 

6. We bought a bed! So we can have real guests over, maybe should have done this BEFORE my mom arrived, but whatev's she has a bed now :) 

There are still some important things to do though, 

1. Our infant bucket seat has a recalled part....it needs some oil or something to tighten the tightening strap, need to get on that.

2. The huge ass annoying double stroller I decided to keep (the cheap used one I bought for toting Joelle and Ivy around) needs the little metal piece so I can just slip on the car seat to it.

3. Sparkle needs a baby book. I want to get the same one I have for Ivy, so I need to hunt it down. 

4. We left the legs to the baby swing in the attic of our old house, which lucky we rent out, so we need to ask the renters if we can go up there and get them.

umm I think that is it. I am sure more and more things will just keep creeping into my mind at 3 in the morning, leaving me sleepless (AHHH this is soo annoying!), but a girl needs something to do with all this painful waiting around! 

Now off to the store because ya, we need something to do.

And a pic for your patience:

grandma lovin!

Ivy-miester

Sooo I totally posted on Tuesday....but typepad not only did not show you the post, but they deleted it! grrr

The post was about Ivy. And things, boring things, I had to get done for her off the to do list. I had her little eyes checked, she did amazing and her eyes are great, so neat how they test kids eyes! With movies and pictures and games, she loved it. 

I also took her to the Dr. There were 2 issues that kept popping up with her and I thought I really should get those looked after before baby comes. So I finally took her in. 

She coughs or chokes almost every time she drinks. She's kinda always done this. The Dr said she is not dehydrated and we would know if it was going into her lungs or something so he is not worried, but we will be keeping an eye on it and talk about it again at her 2 year check up. 

The other issue is her knee. For the past few weeks she will be running around and all of a sudden her left knee will just give out. She will fall and sometimes even grabs her knee in pain and screams OWIE or just plain old cries. After really big falls on it she will limp for a few days afterwards. And lately you can see something is off every time she walks, it just looks unbalanced or something. The Dr. got her to walk and he could see it right away too. So she is being sent to a bone specialist at the children's hospital. 

It's crazy to me that she can be having this issues soooo young, but I am so glad there is a place to go to look at it and possibly get it fixed now so we can avoid knee surgeries later in life!!! We should be getting a call about the appointment date within the next week or so. 

As you can see her she is also teething like a crazy kid. She is getting like 7 teeth all at once. It has been a sad week for her. Stuffed up, running diapers, sore mouth, just sucky. But she has been in really good spirits still. She has grumpy days for sure, but really thinking about the amount of pain she is in she is doing awesome. I think she is mostly over it now, she still has a crazy runny nose, but she doesn't seem to be in as much pain. And she is sleeping through the night again, we were getting up with her sometimes 5 times a night!! She is getting me ready for this babe :) 

It's good she is getting all these teeth out before her sibling comes and I am glad I got another thing off the list and got her checked out!

She is such a sweet heart, I can't wait to see her in big sister action!

39 weeks, random

39 weeks...7 days till due date...been at this for 267 days...really really hoping there are very few days left in this tally. 

More stuff off the to do list, like shaving! Yes it was on the list. The legs have been tackled, other more sensitive areas were also tackled, but really not very successful due to the large belly in the way. The only reason I even bothered is because I am off to the spa today!

Keith, without getting into it all, has had his mind on other very huge, very awesome things. Kinda all consuming things, and rightfully so. Just happens to be bad timing with my all consuming thoughts of baby baby baby. So because I was feeling a little un-noticed he showed me some love in the exact way I receive it best, GIFTS! A pregnancy massage and...

I love little surprises, like if he picked up a weed that reminded him of me I would be sooo touched and feel soooo loved, so this was JUST what this tired, pregnant mama needed. Me and my mom head to the spa this aft and then Keith is taking all us ladies out for dinner! Lucky me :) 

He also spoiled me with some solid baby talk last night. A few months ago we FINALLY came to the ultimate decision of a name, 2 actually since we don't know the sex. Things were all fine and happy until a new name list came out, the list for the top names of 2010. I have a THING...one little thing. The names of my children just really can't be on the top 100 list, it's just my issue. Our girl name made the list. Very low on the list, but still on the list. I tried to be ok with it. I really did. But it was eating at my soul and in the end, the name had to go. Keith was not impressed with me. I have been bugging him with names for weeks now, only to be basically ignored....So last night we did it. We talked and hashed it out and I think we have come to a decision...I think. 

So yay shaved legs and names! 2 items off the list and one more...

new photos hung! Some of our most recent vacations and a few of my pregnancy photo shot.

some colourful ones of Ivy and the fam..obviously some of these will be of new baby once here. 

these are right outside Sparkle's room...

because this one is right outside Ivy's room. 

I love this view from the top of the stairs. 

So yay, legs shaved, name chosen, picture frames hung!

AND.....

just in case you care, all my home birth supplies! 2 baskets full of towels right beside the bed and a cart beside the bath full of birthing, diapering and other crazy needed things. 

SOOOOO legs shaved, name picked, frames hung, birth organized as best as I can! Rockin that list. 

And because you are such good little readers making it through this random huge post, some Ivyness for ya...

also SNOW! ahh so pretty, still lovin the winter. Can't wait to settle down in our warm house nest with a snug little newborn watching the cold outside. 

 

V-day

We are not big valentines day celebrators over here, well at least not the buy crazy presents and fancy dinner kinda celebrating. I am all about celebrating things, and I think love should be one of them, and I even think having a day to specifically celebrate love is a great idea but in these North American parts it has got a wee bit out of hand. 

So we did some crafting this morning to show our love to each other:

Simple but effective. Loads of love here in this house. So much so I wish a new little person would come out and feel all the love....Sparkle, you listening? 

I think there will be some chocolate baking in the works today, some labour inducing tea beverages, some valentines day show watching and maybe all this goodness will get this old uterus into action :) A girl can hope right? 

Happy Valentines Day! Have fun celebrating in what ever way you do :)