Our Little Valentine

I can't believe it, but our little girl is already one month old!!! The last month has flown by and I am still in disbelief every day at how fast the days disappear on you. It has been a busy month (given I am just know getting around to finally updating the blog for the first time since she's been born) full of lots of up and downs. We have had our challenges with feeding and weight gain, but things are starting to turn around and I think we are winning that battle now. Ryan and I are finding our groove and gaining confidence every day. We are madly in love with our little girl and couldn't be happier with our new family!!!

Kate's Baby Shower

At just over three weeks old, Kate was thrown a baby shower on Sunday, February 8. Heather and Jenn were kind enough to organize and host the shower at our house. My mom and sister were also kind enough to come out earlier that weekend and make sure the house was presentable for company....housekeeping hasn't been on mommy's priority list lately!!!

Not only did we have some of my closest friends from Calgary come and spend the day with us, but Tracy (aka - Oprah) and Lotte flew in from Saskatoon to attend Kate's shower. It was a very nice surprise and the only downfall was that they had to get on a plane that night and go home before we got our fill of them!

It wouldn't be an event that Jenn was involved in planning if she didn't make me wear some ridiculous outfit and pose for a picture! For those of you that don't know the story, I really wanted to makes sure that my hair was straightened when I went into the hosptial for my delivery. I knew if my hair was curly, after going through hours of labour my hair would be a total mess and I knew I'd have the camera there to capture all of those first moment's of "Walnut's" life. My sister (having had 2 children already) scoffed at this and said I wouldn't care what my hair looked like at that point and that it would get wet and curly if I went into the shower or tub at the hospital anyways. I then took a poll among my friends (both those who have had and haven't had children) to see if I was totally out to lunch. I'd say the results were mixed, but at the end of the day Jenn ended up buying me a shower cap, so that not only could I use the hot shower for pain relief in my labour, but my hair would be saved! I didn't get the shower cap in time as I went into the hospital the night before Jenn was going to bring the shower cap to me (hence why I received it at the baby shower). I never actually ventured into the shower during my labour anyways, but the funniest part of the whole story though, is that the labour and delivery nurse who was helping me clean up in the bathroom after Kate was born, did say to me, "Wow, I can't believe how great your hair looks after you've just given birth."

Birth & Babies

Ryan and I have been taking a Birth & Babies class since last November. It's supposed to be a 10 week class with 4 classes pre-baby and 6 classes post-baby (give or take a few). Given Christmas was in there, we actually spread the classes over 4 months. We had a great instructor (Maija, below with Kate) and some great couples, so we really enjoyed it. It was nice to hear other birth stories and to compare notes on how you "really" feel at week 3 of your new baby's life!!!

Out of 10 couples, we ended up with only 2 little boys and 8 girls!!! Here's a picture from our last class (unfortunately, only 6 couples were able to make it to the class on picture night).

Meet Your New Friends

Ryan and I are so blessed to have such supportive family and friends in our lives. Kate is going to grow up a very lucky little girl, because she has been welcomed with open arms by everyone. She may also grow up to be one "spoiled" little girl, because these warm and caring friends have also been very "generous".....thanks again to everyone for all of the wonderful gifts!

Kate's First Week

The first week of Kate's life was an amazing experience! We were surrounded by loved ones and I couldn't stop staring at this gorgeous little being. I literally, couldn't take my eyes off of her. This was mainly due to the fact that her delivery was quite quick and they don't tend to suction babies like they used to when they are born so Kate had quite a bit of mucous in her lungs. This was a tad bit scary given that she is just figuring out how to breathe let alone gag and cough in those first few days, so there were a few back pounding moments that I'd rather forget! At least the first couple happened in the hospital with nurses and doctors there to show us how it's done, but it was something that makes a first time parent, even more paranoid!!!

Those first few days I was on a total high. Nevermind, that I had given birth and had 4 straight nights of no sleep as I was busy watching her sleep all night long. I remember saying to Ryan on Day 3, that I couldn't believe how much energy I had as I buzzed around the house doing this thing and that, sending e-mails, entertaining visitors and returning phone calls. It wasn't until about Day 6 when I started coming down off of baby euphoria. It's amazing what the body can do, but those nights of staring at her when she was so calm and peaceful (snd slightly jaundice which helps with the sleep) will eventually come to an end and then you're even more tired and sleep-deprived (rookie mistake, I know that now)!

Kate's first bath also happened in that first week at home and we were lucky to have Nana and Auntie Kim on hand to help with that. It was almost a 4 man job as she was quite unhappy and flailing about quite dramatically!

Meet Your New Family

Ryan and I are so lucky to have such supportive family and friends in our lives. Kate is going to grow up a very lucky little girl also, because she has been welcomed with open arms by everyone.

When Kate was 2 days old, we had a first wave of visitors as we got to introduce her to Papa, Auntie Kim, Uncle Matt, and her cousins Kyle and Andrew (as she'd already met Nana in the hospital). It was a really special day and it was neat to watch the boys react to their new little cousin.

When Kate was just a week old, her Grandma and Grandpa Michel flew out from Saskatchewan to spend a few days with us and to meet their new granddaughter. It was a great visit and before they left, Grandma and Grandpa Michel even bought us a webcam so we could stay in contact and they could watch Kate grow bigger on our weekly chats.

What's In A Name?

Ryan and I knew long before we were even pregnant with "Walnut" what our baby names were going to be. We had narrowed down the first names on both the boy and girl sides and then once we were pregnant we picked out our middle names (which was also pretty easy task for us).

We both really liked the name Kate. We thought it was a nice, strong name that went well with Michel. Kate's middle names are Inez Elizabeth and we get asked often where we got these names from. Kate is named after my Grandma Enion, who passed away in 2001. Although Kate will never get to meet her Great Grandma, she will know what a special lady she was named after.

My Grandma Enion was an absolutely amazing woman. She was loving, caring, intelligent, classy and family oriented. She was the only girl in a family with 10 children. Being the only girl with 9 brothers, she played an integral role in keeping that family running. She was a historian, who loved to keep track of our family history. She kept and dated old photos with names and stories and I always joke that Grandma was a "scrapbooker" before they came out with the fancy punches and stickers. People enjoyed spending time with my Grandma and I will never forget her funeral when the entire town of Maryfield was there and spilling out of the church to pay their respects and to say goodbye to her. She had a warmth and a presence that made people love to be around her and she was also a very strong, independent woman. Inez Elizabeth was the kind of woman that I can only hope that our little girl grows up to be just like!

And Then There Were Three!!!

Ryan and I were tickled pink to welcome our little girl, Kate Inez Elizabeth Michel into the world on Thursday, January 15, 2009. This day is now officially the most memorable and amazing day in our lives!

It was a good thing Kate decided to stay an extra week inside mom's tummy, as at a week overdue she still only weighed 6 pounds,14.5 ounces and was 21 inches long. She has a ton of dark hair and already everyone is saying how much she looks like her daddy! At only a few days old, you could already start to see that her eyes were starting to look like a nice, dark brown and I have a feeling that Kate may grow up to be her daddy's "brown eyed girl."

The day was made even more special as my mom (aka - Nana) was able to come down from Red Deer to be here for Kate's birth. The labour and delivery went quite smoothly (well as smoothly as that process ever goes I guess)!!! I had my first contraction at 4:20 am and she was born 6 and half hours later at 10:51 am. I think I even impressed my dear hubby, as I never swore at him or called him any names the entire time....although at one point during a particularly rough contraction he was blowing on my face and I quite sharply asked him "TO QUIT BREATHING ON ME!!!"

We were also very lucky, as once we left the labour and delivery ward, we were able to get our own private room in the post-partum ward which also meant we were able to sneak Pat, our first visitor in (even if we were breaking hospital protocol).