1 Week Old Already!

I can't believe Reese is 7 days old today!  The week has flown by, as I know the years will too.  Reese is doing well.  She had her 1st pediatrician visit yesterday.  It went great!  She weighed in at 7 lbs, only 1 oz. below her birth weight, which is awesome!  She hasn't had a B.M. in the last few days, but Dr. Radisic isn't worried.  She's passing gas, so we know everything down there is working!  He told us (which I know from Blake and Em!) that BF babies can go once every ten days and that is still considered healthy!  She has a pretty strong neck for such a little one.  She likes to lift her head up when laying on our chests!  Her fingers seem so long compared to rest of her itsy bitsy self!!  She had her first bath at home this afternoon and now her hair is so fluffy and soft :)  I love all her hair, it is so cute!!  Blake and Emerson "helped" with the bath of course!  They want to do all they can with Reese, so we try to let them help with diaper changes, dressing her, etc.  Em is very good at putting Reese's laundry in the hamper and her diaper in the diaper genie :)  And Blake too of course! 

I'm on Reese time, which is different everyday!  But for the most part, it involves Reese sleeping and eating a little bit during the day and then eating all night long until early morning when she crashes for a few hours!!  We'll have to turn her around one of these days, but I feel she's too little still.  I know they usually start straightening out their days and nights in a few weeks.  She is nursing really good now.  She definitely took more work to get the latch down pat then Blake and Em did.  I was very lucky with the first two, as they just seemed to get it automatically!!  I know it's much more normal to have to work at it, like Reese and I have had to do!  The other thing about Reese, which is different then Blake and Em were, is that she does not like to sleep on her own.  Although, right now she is, so maybe that's changing?!  She's been sleeping on us a lot or beside me.  I love it, but we don't want to be in this position in 6 months!!  All in good time though, she's so little and so new right now, I'm not going to "sleep train" her yet!!!  You can't spoil a newborn baby :)  Oddly enough, I am not feeling all that tired.  I can fall asleep in the blink of an eye if an opportunity arises, but overall I'm not feeling exhausted!  I'm sure it will catch up with me in a few weeks :S  Life with 2 toddlers and a newborn is very, very busy!  And Cal is home right now.  Oh boy!!!  He goes back to work on December 7th.  I shall be a very busy Momma, especially on Preschool days!!

Poor Emerson is under the weather.  She's been hit card with croup and an ear infection.  We took her to the pediatrician yesterday (at the same time as Reese's 1st visit).  She had a dose of a steroid to help with the croup and is on antibiotics for the ear infection.  She's so stuffed up, her cough sounds terrible and she keeps running a fever every time the Tylenol or Advil runs out.  We're really hoping none of this passes on to Blake or Reese.  And hoping she feels better really soon!

Tomorrow morning we have tickets to a Breakfast With Santa at the YMCA.  We're really excited to take the kids!!  Blake's excited too!!  I'm curious to see what Emerson's reaction to Santa Claus will be ...  We'll have brunch with him and there are also crafts and activities for the kids to do :)  Em's not going to her swimming lessons afterwards, hopefully next week she'll be feeling better and able to go.  And of course Blake has hockey Saturday afternoon.  We all getting really excited for Christmas!!  We have a lot of our shopping done.  Next week we're going to decorate the house and the yard!  We bought a new Christmas inflatable for the front lawn!  Hopefully we'll write our Santa letters next week too :)  The Christmas season is such a busy time of year, but so fun when you have little ones!!  We have family pictures on Wednesday next week.  I'm not sure if we'll get the pictures back in time for Christmas, so not sure if I'm going to be sending out a Christmas letter this year or a Happy New Year letter!  I have the letter ready though!

We're very glad the weather has warmed up.  I took Reese out for the 1st time on Wednesday.  I got her weighed at the health unit and we did some shopping at Northgate Mall.  I'm glad we didn't have to take her out of the house during the really cold days.

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Love Tracy

Reese Peyton Anne Cameron

We are home with our new baby girl :)  Reese joined our family on November 19, 2010 at 11:38 p.m.  She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19" long.  She has a full head of dark hair and is absolutely gorgeous :) 

Labour was fast and done without any drugs!!  I had braxton hicks off and on for the past few days and wasn't sure at first if what I was feeling Friday evening was more of those or true contractions, but by 8 pm I knew it was the real deal!!  Fiona came over around 10 pm and my parents came in from Stony to stay with the kids.  Cal, Fiona and I headed to the hospital around 10:30.  The drive there was painful, enduring those contractions sitting down!!!  When I got to the hospital they rushed me in, checked me and I was 6 cm dilated.  Then not too much longer, at 11:38 pm our baby was born!  Cal called my Mom soon after we got to the hospital to tell her the baby would probably be born soon and she rushed over, but was parking her car when Reese was born ... Reese was just too fast ;)  Our doula, Fiona was AMAZING and I would never have another baby with out her.  I had a great experience and continue to rely on Fiona for help!!  She's been here a few times to help me with bf'ing and I'm not sure what I would do without her :)

Reese is a sweet baby girl!  She has such a quiet cry, much like I remember Blake's being!  A lot of people have told us they think she looks like Cal, I can see it too and I also think she looks like Blake and a bit like Em :)  Reese was born in caul ... you can google it, it's quite an interesting read and too much to get into on the blog!!  Just before Reese was born the nurses assured me they were trained to deliver the baby not too worry, but Dr. Ching did get there in time to catch Reese!!!  Dr. Ching and all the nurses were so awesome, once again.  I love the Sturgeon :)  They're all so accommodating and kind!!  We were discharged Saturday afternoon.  Reese has a very tiny little mouth, a short tongue and a recessed chin, which has made nursing a bit more challenging as compared to nursing Blake and Em.  But we're working on it and getting it done!  So far Reese likes to sleep the most during the day, but last night we had a good 4 hour sleep, which was really nice.  This afternoon she slept for 6 hours, so I'm thinking that was her long stretch of the day and we'll be up every few hours tonight!!  That's okay though, we'll let her adjust to her world before I start trying to turn her around!!  Plus, she's so little and cuddly, I just love how she curls into me and cuddles, so I could do that all night :)

Blake and Emerson love their new sister.  Emerson is such a little Mommy!!  At first she was very angry that she couldn't carry Reese around the house, but she seems to understand now that she has to be sitting down to hold her little sister!  Blake is so great with Reese, as he was with Emerson.  He was so excited to come meet her at the hospital and kept saying, "She's so tiny!"  He wants to hold her and know everything about her.  Today when I was trying to feed her he asked, "Is she having trouble getting milk Mom?"  When Blake and Cal came back to the hospital after hockey to pick us up, Blake was so excited to bring Reese home!  He kept wanting his picture taken with her.  So cute how much he cares!!  Em and Reese are very lucky to have Blake as their big brother :) 

I'm feeling great!  Not too sore, just tired.  But that's to be expected ... especially when you don't sleep when baby is sleeping!  I'm so glad Cal is home for a few weeks and so are Blake and Em!  Tomorrow he's taking them to Preschool and Come Play With Me, so hopefully Reese and I will sleep!!  It's nice that Cal gets cuddle time with Reese in the evenings when the other 2 are in bed.  He's such a great Dad, we're all very lucky.

Thank you to everyone for all your phone calls, visits (and visits to come!), emails, FB messages, etc!  We're pretty smitten with our little family and are very happy to share our adorable kidlets with you all :)

Lots of love,

Cal, Tracy, Blake, Emerson and Reese