Post 23 - Charlie's First Christmas

I'm realizing just now that the name of our blog is the Cahoons 52, meaning that I had wanted to do a post each week for the 52 weeks in the year, and with the year being over I'm at post 23.... less than half!  How sad.  That just means we were having too much fun this past year that we didn't have time to write it all down (or at least that's what I'll tell myself so I don't feel too bad about it!)

On to Charlie's First Christmas!

I wanted it to be more exciting than it was, but it's hard with a 3 month old - they have no idea what's going on!  Andrew didn't want to take Charlie to go see Santa and get a picture because it's a rip off (and I agree it is ridiculously expensive - but I'm kinda sad we didn't do it!) and he also didn't want Charlie to get any presents which I vetoed because I am a gifts person!  Charlie didn't really get a stocking either... just one of my socks with a bottle in it.... WOW this first Christmas is sounding really lame!!!  We did actually do some fun things, like go to the live nativity out in Spruce Grove and then drive down Candy Cane Lane.  That's one of our only long-standing traditions that absolutely happens every year.  

The most exciting part about Christmas was getting to talk to Mary (a.k.a Sister Burtenshaw) on FaceTime!  It was good to see her/talk to her and find out how she is doing (which is well!)  So to recap Christmas Day - we had a delicious breakfast of Eggo Waffles (because they're so easy and delicious!) bacon and eggs.  Then we got to talk to Mary for about an hour and a half, then we opened presents!  I thought it was going to be all sad because we weren't going to be getting much since we 're moving in a week to Australia, and we couldn't give much because we are very poor, but it was actually really good!  And sometimes funny - like Amy wrapping random things from her room so that there would be more presents under the tree - we're ridiculous like that!

We had the missionaries over for dinner, along with my moms sister JoAnne (because her husband had to work that day and they had done their family Christmas a few days before)  So with 5 extra people our house was busy!  It was good though and the dinner was DELICIOUS!  After the dinner we headed over to Andrews sister Janets house to visit and have birthday cake (for Jesus' birthday!)

It was also Charlies 3 month mark on Christmas day!  He's grown up so much and is getting quite chubby!

He's getting so old!

Boxing day we headed out to Tofield to get pulled around on the pond behind the quad.  It was such a gorgeous day for it and even Charlie had a turn!  After that we headed over to the other dome (Andrews brothers house) to make sushi and other asian dishes - it was delicious!  

Fun in the country

The next few days were a blur - we headed down to Cardston on Sunday Dec. 29 (Andrew and I's fourth wedding anniversary ) to visit Andrews grandmother and see Waterton one last time before we head over to Australia.  It just so happened that my Grandpas twin brother, Uncle Dick, passed away on Christmas Eve and the funeral was the day after we got there, so that was nice we got to attend that while we were down there as well.  It was super windy in Waterton (as usual!) but we did get to drive up Amy and her friend up to the Cameron Lake trailhead for cross country skiing (we couldn't go with Charlie) but I enjoyed the drive up there and also driving around the town.  I was also super excited to get our first family pictures at Cameron Falls!

Cameron Falls, Waterton

 

Love this boy!

Andrew with his Grandmother - she is 94 and has 107 great-grandchildren!

We got home on New Years Eve, just in time to make lots of delicious food (our tradition is everyone picks a treat/snack for the evening - my pick this year was hot spinach and artichoke dip, but my favourite was Andrews pick - smoked salmon, asparagus and cream cheese crepes with hollandaise sauce  - SO GOOD!) and play games!  Charlie even managed to stay up until midnight to ring in the new year and we gave him a tiny taste of sparkling apple juice!  (I think he loved it!)

New years day we went bowling and made a fondue!  We had a cheddar cheese fondue and also a citrus broth fondue with bread, celery, apples, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, prawns, chicken, steak and potatoes - it was delicious!!!  We also made 3 delicious dips to go with the dippers (lemon pepper, green goddess, and dill)  and played a bunch of games - so fun!  The next day was spent getting things done to go to Australia, it seems like there are always a million little things to do for it.  We also had our chocolate fondue because we were too full after the main fondue on New Years Day to do it then and also played some more games (well just QWIRKLE - it's the best game ever)

Yesterday (Jan. 3rd) was spent running errands and returning things from Christmas, followed by Andrew and I finally having the chance to celebrate our 4th anniversary!  We went to Famoso for dinner, then went and walked around Walmart while we waited for our movie to start.  We saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - it was a good movie!  Quite funny/interesting and he went to Iceland which made it awesome!  I have wanted to go to Iceland to the past few years, and starting in March (I think it's March) Icelandair is going to start direct flights from Edmonton to Iceland - PERFECT just in time for me to have moved halfway around the world to Australia!  DARN.  Hopefully they will still have them when we move back in 4-6 years....  After the movie we went and got hot chocolate from Tims and I told Andrew that the best present he could ever get me in the future would be to secretly plan and arrange everything for  a trip for the two of us and have it be a complete surprise - I was thinking of Iceland when I said it... hint hint!

I realize that this is a very boring post, it will be my last post on here though because I'm going to start a new blog for our time in Australia!  Check it out (in a few days): thecahoonsinoz@blogspot.ca

Post 22 - Life with a Baby (Charlie's First Month)

Life with a baby is hard!  For the first month Charlie was a little angel... but this past month he's been a lot more "fussy" (in my opinion) although Andrew has told me that he really isn't compared to the babies he's been around!  He's just changed from what he was like before, and I miss that old him!  He's so cute though, I really can't complain!

For Halloween Charlie was a little lamb with fleece as white as snow!

I really wanted to dress him up for Halloween (for pictures sake) but I didn't want to spend a lot/any money on a costume he was going to wear for a few hours and then never again!  SO I made him a costume - by gluing cotton balls ($2) to a hand-me-down onsie (free) and then (my mom) sewing a little hat from also a hand-me-down onsie (free) with glued cotton balls and ears made out of felt I already had (free)!  So all in all his costume only cost $2 which is great!  And he looked adorable!

He did NOT like his costume!

We also got some pictures taken of Charlie and our new little family.  Andrew's sister-in-law Cristin is a super talented photographer (she also did our wedding pictures) and she so kindly took them for us!  They are awesome!

Wedding tie!

Isn't she great!

Post 21 - Introducing Charles Edward Cahoon!

CHARLES EDWARD CAHOON was born September 25, 2013 at 1:11am, weighing 5 lbs 12 oz coming 5 weeks early!

Monday night (September 23) Andrew and I had the stay at the Fantasyland Hotel in the Roman Theme room.  It was really cool with a round bed and a large round jacuzzi tub with a statue pouring water into it.  At about 2am I woke up with cramps, and they were coming and going inconsistently for the next few hours keeping me awake!  They kinda felt like period cramps.  We were supposed to do some stuff at the mall on Tuesday like go to a movie and stuff, but I was feeling so gross I wanted to go home.  I really DID NOT think I was in labour, because for the last few months or so I had had ramping on and off that was sometimes really severe!!  So the next few hours I just sat on the couch and Andrew timed my "cramps/contractions", and for about a few hours in-between 9am and 11am they were fairly consistent cramps, coming every 4 minutes and lasting for 1 minute.  That is very similar to what the things were saying ment you were in labour!  But then they tapered off and became inconsistant again, coming around every 10 minutes and not being as strong.  So I had a few little naps.  Later on in the day probably around 4 I called the hospital to tell them what was going on, and they said to be safe I should come in and get checked.  I really did not think anything was going on, so I really didn't want to go, but Andrew made me, so we ate some dinner and then drove over to the hospital.  Earlier in the day Andrew had packed a bag for me just in case, but we didn't take it to the hospital, because I didn't think I was in labour!  (Maybe I was just in denial?!?)  

So when we got there around 5:30pm they hooked me up to the monitors and left me for 20 minutes, while listening to the babys heart beat.  The nurse came back and said "well you're in labour!  I really wasn't expecting that!"  and I replied "neither was I!"  So she came back in a few minutes and checked me and I was already 4cm dilated!  (you are 10 cm when you're ready to push the baby out).  So I started crying because I had only finished work the week before, we were supposed to be having our maternity photo shoot the upcoming Sunday and I hadn't had time to get anything done and I was just NOT READY!  That only last for about a minute because I knew there was nothing I could do about it.  So around 6pm they took me to a birthing room and I waited and had contractions for a few hours.  My Mom came and brought my bag and visited for a while, (My Dad had flown to Toronto that morning) and then Shannon and Alex came too and brought us some pillows from home and a slurpee.

Right after the epidural
Right after they got there the Dr put in the epidural and then I had to stay in the bed and things got all nice and fuzzy and I couldn't feel the contractions anymore!  (Towards the end there they were getting really quite painful)  They also gave me some Oxytocin to get things going a little more (I was at 6cm then) and then about an hour later I was at 8cm, and then not too long after I was 10cm and it was time to push!!!  The Dr came in and had to turn the baby a little bit because he was looking off to the side, and he left and the nurse came in and started helping me to push (like telling me when to push etc)  SO it actually didn't take too long to push, but even with the epidural you could still feel all this pressure and it kinda HURT!  Luckily it didn't take too long to push (maybe 10 mins max) and out came a little head and some little shoulders and some little legs and feet and there was a little cry (from the baby) and Andrew says:  "I see testicles!"     IT WAS A BOY!!!  

They had to take him away to the corner where a Dr. and 2 nurses from the NICU were waiting just in case something happened, and they decided that he needed to be taken to the NICU.  So Andrew followed him and I got to see him for a second before they wheeled him away.  SAD - you're supposed to have skin to skin time for about an hour right after they're born to bond with them.  So I was in the room for about an hour by myself and got stitched up (I had a first degree tear) and got all cleaned up, then Andrew came back and we got moved to my recovery room.  We got to go by the NICU to see Charlie for a few seconds and they were trying to get blood from him and they were poking him everywhere and couldn't get any!  But he didn't even cry.

We had really wanted a private room so Andrew could stay, but it was a super busy night and they were all full, so I had to go into a room with another lady and her baby (she was all alone and had no dad for her baby so at least Andrew had the bench to himself!).  I had to wait for them to check me 3 times before I could go back and visit Charlie, so I got to see him at about 5am, then went back to my room to sleep.  Andrew had to go home to sleep - it was depressing not to have him there!  It was not a restful nights sleep because they had to keep checking me and checking the other lady and you could hear other babies from the other rooms.  The next morning after getting checked, Andrew came over and we went over to see baby Charlie!  He was on the CPAP which is oxygen, because his lungs weren't doing it on their own.  I was released the next day, but it was uncertain how long Charlie would be in the NICU.

On the CPAP

Jaundice Boy

At one point they needed to put some lubricant in his lungs, and also there was still fluid in his lungs from birth.  4 days after his birth they took him off the oxygen but he was super jaundiced, so he went under quadruple blue lights at the beginning and then just double and then a single light for the next 48 hours!  I stayed over one night in the hospital with him to work on breastfeeding, but there was just a little cramped bench so I got no sleep!  The nurses then told me I should sleep at home instead otherwise I wouldn't be much use to Charlie!  After getting out from under the light, he was moved to the more stable baby area, where our room actually had a door!  He was there for (I think) 3 days, where we worked on him gaining weight so he could come home!  On October 4th after passing the carseat test they released him after 10 days in the hospital!  It was exciting and scary to be able to bring him home because the nurses (who were AWESOME) had been taking care of him, but now it was going to be my job!

Family Picture!

Ready to go home!

Welcome home!

Charlie is super cute and we love him a TON!  He has brown hair (not a lot, but enough to cover his head - I thought he would have more, but if he had stayed in the womb another 5 weeks like he was supposed to, I'm convinced he would have had more!) and brown-blue eyes - its still debatable what he will end up with!  He makes a ton of funny faces, smiles a lot and makes cute little noises!  

Welcome to the World little Charlie!