April-November 2012 update

Halloween 2012 - Cowboy, Monkey & Ninja

So I keep trying to update the blog on a more regular basis, but life keeps me busy.  I have definitely enjoyed my maternity leave with Dallin and am only half looking forward to going back to work at the end of February.  So much has happened over the past 9 months and it would be quite difficult to recall all the events and it would probably be pretty boring to read about it, so I would recommend just looking through our flickr photo stream to see what we've been up to.

Dallin is now pulling himself up on EVERYTHING.  He is a little bit of a menace to our furniture as he is either pulling things over or trying to gnaw on the edge of things: tables, couches and my personal favourite the garbage can.  I am a little worried about what he will do with the Christmas tree, I'm thinking of leaving the breakable items off the tree this year, just in case.  He is very curious about "solid" food as he is very interested in what we are eating.  He is still trying out pureed food, but eats a wider variety of vegetables and meats than his middle brother.  We have made a few visits to daycare and he loves his big brothers so I hope the transition will be easier on him than it will be on me.

Wyatt is enjoying being the middle child, but I think sometimes he would prefer to be the only child with mom and dad's undivided attention.  He is the most stubborn and is still quite limited in his food preferences, but we have added a few over the months: broccoli, carrots, rice.  The only meat he eats is pork in bbq pork buns from Yangtze restaurant.  Maybe in 2013 he will grow out of this?  Our poor little dude has had an exciting year full of medical fun :D  He had hernia surgery at the end of May and he was admitted to CHEO in September as he had another asthma exacerbation.  This time he spent 5 nights at the hospital (including our anniversary).  We were able to do some allergy testing as a result of this visit and it turns out he is allergic to cats and dust mites.  He is also on medication to help him get through the cold season and hopefully we will be able to avoid another admission to the hospital.  Wyatt is also enjoying his time at home.  He is only attending daycare part-time, but he is truly a home body and loves the "stay-home" days.

Connor is relishing being the oldest brother.  He adores his baby brother and Dallin squeals with excitement whenever he sees Connor.  Connor is no longer the smallest kid at school.  He is now one of the "big" kids in his class.  He seems to really enjoy going to school and learning.  He is quite strong at math and is just starting to read words on his own.  I know some of it is just memorization or trying to guess the words based on the pictures, but he when he feels like it he is quite good at sounding out all of the letters.  Connor also played "soccer" for the first time this summer.  He really enjoyed running around and kicking the ball occasionally.  Connor (and Wyatt) also started skating lessons this year.  Connor was quite shaky at the beginning but by the end of the session he is able to move around on his own.  We can't wait until the local rink freezes over so that we can practice skating there.  Connor is also going to Beavers and enjoying his time there.

Julie is really enjoying her time off (as I mentioned before).  This has been my first full year of maternity leave and I am very grateful that I had this opportunity.  Being home during the day has allowed me to be involved more at school (I am the School Council Chair) which has allowed me to get to know some of the other parents at the school.  Although I was hoping to get a lot more done around the house, being able to spend time with kids when we aren't exhausted after school/daycare/work has been quite the fun experience.  I also joined the Athletic Club which has helped me achieve a bit of balance as they have a great play room for the kids which allows me to focus on my fitness while the kids are being cared for by wonderful staff members.  I completed my first 5km post-baby with a chip time of 28:48 which was under my goal of 30 minutes.  I have also been enjoying the hot yoga room and am starting to regain some of my flexibility.  In addition to working out at the Athletic Club, I am playing indoor soccer with my brother Francis on Sunday afternoons. I forgot how much I loved playing soccer and am quite thankful that Francis asked me to play.

Geofford had to un-retire from ultimate as this was the last year that his division (Masters) would be competing in Sarasota at the UPA Championships.  His team, GLUM, only competed in the Fall Series which freed up our summer.  It was a nice compromise as he was still able to enjoy some summer pursuits (cottages, Cawaja beach) while still playing ultimate at a high level.  He has also been busy outside of ultimate with our house.  He completed the renovations on our bathroom just after Dallin was born.  As I am on maternity leave, he has been able to leave for work earlier which means he also returns home from work earlier which gives us a bit more time together as a family in the evenings.

My goal for 2013 is to post on a semi-regular basis (ideally once a month, but who knows, the next post may be next December....)

And now we are 5...

The past few weeks have been very exciting for the Seaborn family.  We welcomed our third baby boy: Dallin Kwok-Yan Seaborn into the world on Friday, March 9th at 12:47pm at the Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus.  At birth, he weighed 3850g (8lbs 8oz) and measured 53.5cm (21") long.

Our first family picture (taken by the anesthesiologist) 

Despite the repeated trips to the hospital, I actually made it to the scheduled c-section date and was quite happy that I did, as the surgery was more complicated and thus took longer than anticipated (due to my insides looking like chewing gum between saran wrap due to the previous "emergency" c-sections) so I was glad to have had my obstetrician perform the procedure.

Unfortunately (or fortunately - depends on how you look at it), Geofford got quite sick (fever and very sore throat) while Dallin and I were at the hospital, so he wasn't able to spend as much time at the hospital with us, but fortunately I was at the hospital, so the nurses were able to help me out.

My parents were a huge help though and took care of Connor and Wyatt while I was in hospital and Geofford was fighting his sickness.  They brought the boys to the hospital so that they could meet their baby brother.  It's very cute, they call him Baby Dallin (to differentiate from all of the other Dallins that they know...).  I wonder how long he will have to keep that moniker...

Mom and her three boys

On Monday, March 12th, Geofford did manage to get himself out of bed and to the Toyota Dealership to pick up our new "mini-van" which isn't really all that mini.  We are now proud owners of a red Toyota Sienna.  He then came to the hospital to pick Dallin and I up to bring us home.  I had to make a few concessions as Dallin was dangerously close to the 10% maximum weight loss limit (his weight dropped to 7 lbs 11 oz), but I agreed to supplement with formula so that we would be allowed to leave.  At that point, I would have agreed to almost anything to go home :)

Since we have been home, Dallin and I have been quite busy trying to avoid getting sick.  Both Connor and Wyatt got sick once Geofford got better and then once they were better, Geofford got sick again.  I am hoping that the cycle does not repeat again.

Dallin has been a good baby thus far.  He has grown quite a bit in the last two weeks despite his initial loss of weight.  At his appointment earlier this week, he weighed in at 9lbs 15oz and measured 58cm, so there is no longer a concern regarding his weight.  We are now trying to figure out our routine now that I am a little more mobile.  My next big milestone will be to try and drive somewhere that is more than 5 minutes away.

Dallin in my tummy (-19 days) and outside (16 days old)...how did he fit in there?

36 weeks and a false alarm.

So I have reached the 36 week threshold and the past couple of weeks have been very exciting.

We celebrated Wyatt's 3rd birthday the weekend before his birthday and it was a great time as both sets of his grandparents were able to make it as well as some close family friends.  It was a surprisingly smooth brunch (at our house) considering that there were 10 kids in the house.

The next day, Geofford somehow injured his back which was a little stressful for the family as I have been quite restricted in what I am supposed to do around the house.  We were able to balance things but he was completely out of commission for a couple of days dealing with the painful back spasms.  Just as Geofford started feeling better, we had to take Wyatt to the hospital Thursday night (the day after his actual birthday) as he could potentially have a hernia and he had a high fever and started vomiting.  The doctors felt that the fever and vomiting were not related to the hernia, but just as a precaution we had an ultrasound to check out the hernia.  We will be meeting with the pediatric surgeon to discuss the results Tuesday, February 28th, so hopefully everything turns out ok from that.

We also celebrated our niece's first birthday which was very special.  She is not going to the baby in the extended family for long, so it was nice to celebrate her special day.  Family Day was quite uneventful, but we were happy to be able to spend time together as our family of 4.  We were also able to get some cute photos with me and the boys.

Mom with her two boys

Now to the false alarm part - I started feeling contractions last night (Feb 23) at about 10pm.  They weren't super uncomfortable yet, but at the same time the doctor didn't want me to labour so I was trying to avoid going to the hospital for as long as possible.  Finally, I called the triage at the hospital and they recommended that I come in just to get checked out.  After we had made arrangements for my mom to come and take care of the boys, Geofford and I headed to the hospital at around midnight.  The nurse and doctors did determine that I was having contractions but not enough to trigger having the c-section especially since the baby is still technically pre-term.  Also, since I had two previous c-sections this next surgery will be a little more complicated as there will be more scar tissue so it would be better to have the surgery during the day when there are more doctors around in case of any complications (eek!).  We ended up leaving the hospital at around 5:30am with instructions to return if the contractions became more painful or if I started experiencing other symptoms of labour (water breaking, etc.).  So far, I am still having contractions about every 7-10 minutes, but they are not yet painful enough to return to the hospital.  I am hoping that things don't progress tonight as there is currently a snowfall warning in effect and things will be really messy outside....but we shall see, this baby seems to have a mind of his/her own.

From the Environment Canada website

The countdown is on!

My c-section date and time has been set for March 9th at noon.  This means (in my head) that the baby will be born sometime between now and March 9th.  I would like to have faith in my OB and believe that the baby will be born on March 9th, but that is 38 weeks and 1 day.  Historically (with only a sample of 2), I have never made it past 37 weeks 2 days (Connor) and Wyatt was scheduled for 38 weeks, but was born a week and day early (36 weeks 6 days - which apparently is pre-term, which is funny because he weighed 8 lbs 2 oz).  With both boys I had emergency c-sections and I have a feeling that Baby #3 will be no different, but I am still hoping for a March baby.

Although I want the baby the baby to come out (selfishly because I am getting quite uncomfortable), I know that it is still too early as I am only 33 weeks and 4 days, but it is still a vast improvement of 25 weeks 4 days when I was admitted into the hospital.  The next milestone that we have set for the baby is to make it past Valentine's Day and Wyatt's 3rd Birthday (Feb 15th).

As I am setting milestones for the baby, I realize that we have to start getting ready for the baby's arrival.  My labour bag and the baby's bag are ready for the hospital and we have a room with a crib in it, but it is not ready for the baby yet as it has become a dumping ground for things without a home.  My biggest frustration at this point is that I can't really do anything, except make lists for Geofford.  I would like reorganize the baby's room so it is set-up a little differently than it was when Wyatt was living in that room.  My mother in law has kindly sorted through all of our kids clothes, so the baby's dresser is already fully stocked and ready to go, so that is done.  

The other big thing that we have to do is purchase a mini-van.  Geofford had to be convinced that it was the right thing to do because although it is theoretically possible to put three carseats in a Honda Civic, it really isn't all that practical (especially for a woman who will be having a c-section).  We have narrowed down the van selection to the Toyota Sienna.  It has all of the features that we want and the dealership is close by so servicing the vehicle will be convenient.

One of the things that I am able to do is surf the internet.  A friend of mine invited me to join Pinterest in the fall (let me know if you want to join...it's addictive), which is a place to view other people's Pins or find cool things on the internet and Pin it.  It's a virtual bulletin board to post up things that you think are interesting.  Some of the "boards" that I have created are: Recipes, DIY crafts, Home improvement, Places that I want to visit, etc.  Through this site, I have been able to come up some ideas for the kids' rooms, crafts for them to do and recipes that I want to try.  I have also started planning Wyatt's birthday party using the site from recipes for the food, to decorations for the house.  We shall see if I can actually follow through with any of the ideas...

Another thing that I have been looking out for is potential poses for the portraits of the new baby with the kids.  Below is a practice of a baby portrait that I found.  The boys were pretty excited to try, but it will be interesting to see if we can actually pull it off once the baby is born.

Connor and Wyatt practicing a baby portrait pose (with Mirabel - my cabbage patch kid who is "standing in" for the baby.  I found the pose on Pinterest, but you can see the inspiration here on the Shanna Michelle Photography website...the picture on the site are stunning!

As the title of this post indicates, the countdown is on.  The baby will be born in 32 days (or less), so in just over a month we will be a family of five!  That will definitely be a new adventure :)

Chinese New Year...and a little regression.

Happy Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year for all of those Asians that also celebrate the Lunar Year).  It is officially the start of the year of the Dragon.  Although there has been some debate that the start is February 4th, which is technically in the Lunar Calendar the first day of spring, but in all of my google searches, I have not found any reference to the year of the dragon starting February 4th....if someone can provide evidence to the Feb 4th switch, then I will change my opinion.

Geofford had set a milestone for us to have a dragon baby (he is a little biased as he is a dragon himself) and now we have reached that milestone.  The next milestone is to make it past the Superbowl (on Feb 5th for those non-NFL fans out there).  :)

Our Chinese New Year eve dinner was special this year as my cousin Evelyn was here for the weekend (she was on her cross-country interview tour for her medical residency), so she was able to join us for dinner (since she was staying with my parents, it wasn't a big stretch).  She even made a lantern out of a pomelo (even though it technically isn't Chinese Lantern season, but it was still pretty cool).

In my previous post, I stated that we made it to 32 weeks, but I was mistaken.  Last Thursday was only 31 weeks.  I blame the baby brain for the mistake, but 32 weeks will be on Thursday...so we are getting there.  I noticed my error, not from the journal that I have been writing in that clearly states that this week is 31 weeks, but from the screen at my ultrasound this afternoon.  The screen said 31 weeks 4 days, which was confusing to me since I honestly believed that I reached the 32 week milestone last week.  Oh well...31 weeks is still better than 25 weeks and 4 days which is when I was admitted to the hospital.

Back to my ultrasound, the technician was able to take some measurements to try and estimate the size of the baby and also looked at the kidneys.  The kidneys appeared to be of normal size from my non-technician eyes, but I verified with the technician and she confirmed my hypothesis.  She also told me that the baby weighs approximately 4 lbs 10 oz based on the size of the head, torso and femur.

32 Weeks!

We made it to 32 weeks!  It's hard to believe that it was over a month ago that I was admitted to the hospital for a tear in my amniotic sac.  Everything seems to be ok right now, but I am still being very careful as it would be nice to keep Baby #3 in utero for as long as possible.  I still get very tired when I go into work so I am very grateful that work allows me to work from home for most of the week.  :)  At my doctor's appointment this week, my doctor didn't see any reason to move up the c-section date, but due to her own family commitments has not yet set the actual date for the c-section.  So far, the date that we are aiming for is Friday, March 2nd, which would be 37 weeks and 2 days (which is the same gestation as Connor).  Here's hoping Baby #3 cooperates.

In other family news, Wyatt is mostly potty-trained during the day.  He occasionally has accidents, but on the most part stays dry for most of the day (with the exception of nap time when he still wears a diaper).  The next big milestone for him will be to stay dry during his naps and then we will hope he stays dry during the night.  We are pretty excited as he will be mostly out of diapers when the baby is born.  Connor is still loving school.  His teacher now has a twitter account in addition to her blog, so we are able to follow what is going on at school.  Connor even made it onto a picture from the latest blog post!  Geofford found out that he did not make the cut for the Master's Team Canada team which was slightly disappointing.  He says now he can officially retire, but I'm not sure if he can go a summer without competitive ultimate, so we will wait to see how the baby's temperament is before he makes a final decision regarding his retirement.

We also celebrated Christmas with my family this past weekend.  As all of us live in Ottawa, and we see each other on a fairly regular basis, we made the conscious decision to celebrate after everyone comes back to Ottawa so that our spouses can spend Christmas with their families.  This allows us to enjoy the evening without the same stress of having to fit in all of the family visits in a small amount of time and also extends the Christmas season.  This year, we celebrated extra late because Christmas happened at the beginning of the school holidays, and we had already taken down most of the decorations.  The kids still had a fabulous time and really enjoyed playing together.

The five grandchildren...for now.

My parents with their grandchildren.

My family

I am looking forward to the next week as I am off on vacation (as my daycare is closed so my daycare provider can enjoy her honeymoon in the Dominican Republic....I am so jealous) and will be able to spend time with Wyatt.  Hopefully he doesn't get too bored as we will be in the house most of the week.  Fortunately my mother and sister-in-law have some time off so they will be able to take him outside to play.  Also we will be celebrating Chinese New Year on Monday, which was another milestone for baby as we were hoping to have a dragon baby :)

Looking Back on 2011...and forward to 2012

It has been another great year with some ups and some downs.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Wyatt turned 2 in February and started being able to talk to us a lot more.  He also had a brief trip to the hospital at the end of November for what seemed to be an asthma attack, but we are hoping that it is a one-time occurrence and not something that we will have to watch for during cold season.  He is also mostly potty-trained which is awesome as it means we will only have one child in diapers in 2012 :)
• Connor turned 4 in August and started Junior Kindergarten in September at Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.
• Julie and Geofford celebrated their 5 year wedding anniversary on September 16th.
• We welcomed Elena Kwok to the family on February 20th.  She is the third child of Francis (Julie's youngest brother) and Jaclyn.
• Damian (Julie's middle brother) and Michelle got married on October 1st, so we had  many excuses to have parties: Stag and Doe, Bridal Shower, Bachelorette, Bachelor Party, Rehearsal Dinner, and the actual wedding!
• Cassie (Geofford's cousin) and Ian got married on April 8th in London, England, so Geofford and Julie decided to make the trip across the pond.  Julie had a bit more vacation than Geofford (since she didn't accompany him to Prague in 2010 for the WUCC), so she went for a week whereas Geofford was in London for a long weekend (Thursday morning to Sunday).
• We also had the opportunity to celebrate friends' weddings: Cindy and Zach (June 4th), Tony and Whynter (July 30th) and Kevin and Lily (October 8th).
• Julie got called for jury duty in March, so she got to see the justice system first-hand.  She's glad to have experienced it, but hopes that she will not have to do it again.
• Julie's Poh-Poh (maternal grandmother) passed away on April 14th.  She lived a good life (she would have been 100 in September), with 11 children, 25 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren (I hope I'm not missing anyone) at the time of her death.
• Julie was able to attend the Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, MX in November.  It was an amazing experience and she thoroughly enjoyed her first multi-sport games.
• Geofford was the best man in Damian's wedding and a groomsman in Tony's wedding, so he had a few commitments attached to each of those weddings.
• Geofford also played competitive ultimate with the master's team GLUM again this summer.  They came in 2nd at the Canadian Ultimate Championships (which were held in Ottawa) in August.  It was a disappointing finish for the team as they were hoping to win, which meant that the team's leadership would have the opportunity to select the team going to the World Ultimate Championships in 2012 which will be held in Sakai, Japan from July 7-14th.  Geofford has applied to be a part of Team Canada, but hasn't heard back yet.  He is supposed to hear sometime today if he made the short list, so we shall see...
• Baby Seaborn #3 was conceived and has been demanding a lot more attention than his/her older brothers did while in utero...I wonder if that is a sign of things to come in 2012 and beyond...

Here is our year in review in photos:

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As the year comes to a close, it is traditional to make resolutions for the New Year.  We have already started one of our resolutions, and that is to eat healthier and with a better social conscience.  It is something that we have been thinking about for a while and the opportunity dropped into our laps during the holidays.  We received a visit from Nutrafarms asking if we wanted a free meat sample.  We decided to listen to the pitch and found out that the meat is not organic, but it is all from Ontario and it is all free-range, grain/corn fed and antibiotic free.  We decided to give it a try as we were trying to purchase things more local, but meat was something that always alluded us because we didn't have the time to visit different farms/farmers markets, etc. to source out our meat.  We are going to try it out this year and see how it works out.  The cost works out to be about half of our yearly grocery bill, but we figured the value should be worth it.  We received the shipment of meat yesterday and we will see how things work out.  Here is a picture of the meat:

The other big resolution that I want to make is to try and spend more quality time with family and friends.  This may be a difficult one to keep, depending on Baby #3's temperament, but as I will be on maternity leave for the majority of the year, I'm hoping that we can make it happen.

With everything that we have been through the past couple weeks, a few people have commented to me that I have been quite optimistic through everything that we have endured.  I guess my initial reaction was that this is nothing that I can control and if I keep thinking positively then I will be able to get through this rough patch, because that is all that this is, it's a little bump in the road of life.  In the grand scheme of things, my life is pretty good and that is what I focus on.  I was listening to the CBC this morning and I was reminded of the letter that Jack Layton wrote to Canadian's right before he passed away.  The closing paragraph is quite moving and is something that I will strive to achieve:

"My friends, love is better than anger.  

Hope is better than fear.  

Optimism is better than despair.  

So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic.  

And we'll change the world."

Wishing you a wonderful 2012!  

~Julie