Of Mice and Man

Ok, they're not called Mice, they're called Voles - some hybrid of a mouse and mole and the man ins question is non other than Cameron. And, its a good thing we didn't go all out with the summer garden this year as it was definitely a learning year. We never got to reap the benefits of our tomato and pepper plants thanks to the infestation of voles and squirrels behind us and next door to us.

Our next door neighbor seems to love nature so much he wants it in his backyard, which is still only the red clay we started out with. His way of luring all of nature there? Leaving a 5 lb bag of bird seed on the ground and open. We soon had squirrels running all over our backyard, using our bark to bury the sun flower seeds they pillaged from next door. Before we knew it, the squirrels had built a burrow in the field behind us. But then the squirrels stopped coming around, partly due to Cameron's efforts to stop them, but also because of the voles. Apparently the voles, while smaller than the squirrels, are tougher and actually push the squirrels out when a food source is located. Great! By this time we had produce on the plants and had planted pumpkin seeds in hopes of having some pumpkins for Fall.

Cameron went into combat mode, buying all kinds of different traps and poison. The first day he set the traditional mouse traps he was killing one of two of these rodents every 5 to 15 minutes. This did slow down the next few days and weeks, and there were definitely fewer of these things around but we still kept finding evidence of them. That's when Cameron started cementing around the base of our fence and almost over night the problem was no more. The pumpkin plants were growing like rapid fire and recently we started seeing pumpkins growing! Whoo hoo! Until we discovered a rather large pumpkin pulled off the vine and half eaten. After some investigating we discovered the voles had created a burrow in the middle of the main pumpkin plants! Cameron destroyed it best he could, but can't cement that part of the fence until pumpkin season is over, so we're not sure we'll get any good pumpkins this year. Only time will tell.

But to be honest, there's no way we wouldn't be going to a pumpkin patch this year any how - it's London's first Halloween and we can't pass up the photos ops a pumpkin patch would bring.

All that green in the corner are the orange pumpkin plants, taking over.

They're huge!

One of the pumpkins growing - so far untouched by the voles.

My white pumpkin plants - only 2 survived of 8 seeds, thanks to the voles.

We transplanted a few of the orange pumpkin plants to the 4th wine barrel to give the others some more space.

The grape vines looked beautiful this year. No grapes though.

After the tomato plants died, we planted some more permanent grasses and green plants.


Tootles,
Sarah

A Gassy Morning

The other morning London woke up early and in a fussy mood. Usually she wakes around 7:30 AM, drinks a bottle and then sleeps a few more hours. That day she woke up at 7 AM and wouldn't take a bottle. After a diaper change, she was still fussy. We knew something was bothering her, as London usually wakes in a very happy mood - its when we get the most smiles and coos out of her each day. I took her downstairs so Cameron wouldn't have to hear her cries and screams while I worked at figuring out what was wrong and so he could work.

While downstairs I noticed London was having some very strong toots. Gas - that was her problem. Poor little girl had a belly full of it. I was able to get her calmed down and almost back to sleep, thinking the gas had passed, so I headed back upstairs to put her back down in her crib. No such luck. She started screaming again when I put her down. That's when Cameron took a break and began rocking her and patting the gas out. I got the Mylicon drops from the medicine cabinet. Cameron's half brother Marcus's mother Anne had given us some at the baby shower as they had saved her many a time when Marcus was an infant. Within a half hour London was passed out in her daddy's arms holding the monkey she'd been given on her flight to Minnesota. London ended up sleeping until 11 AM that morning and we had a very pleasant day from there.

Tootles,
Sarah

First Flight

Recently London and I traveled to Minnesota so we could introduce her to my grandma. This meant it was her first flight as well as my first time flying with an infant at all and to top it off, I'd be flying without Cameron. I was definitely worried and a bit stressed the days before we left. Turns out, London is a natural. She ate just as we took off and sucked on a pacifier while sleeping as we landed, while also sleeping the whole time in between. The trip to Minnesota was great. Great Grandma Ruthie loved meeting London and listening to her coo. Grandma (my mom) flew in and out the same days I did, so she got a nice week of quality time with her daughter and granddaughter. My poor dad flew back to Arizona the day after we arrived, but he'll be visiting for a week at the end of the month, and needed to get home as he'd been in Minnesota for a week already. I also got to see most of my family and introduce London to them. Only one cousin wasn't around, but that's because he lives in Hawaii and then my cousin Jessie only brought her daughter Olivia for their weekend visit, so I didn't get to see Jack (her husband) or little Jack (her son). In the end, we got some great family shots of my grandma with all her girls around her which was the greatest blessing of all.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

London waiting for her first flight

While away, London turned 2 months!

My Grandma surrounded by all her girls

The girl cousins all grown up

My mom's sisters Laurinda and Raelene drove a couple of hours to see us and meet London while we were there

Another day my grandma's best friend Puddy came for a visit. We got some great pictures of London that day!


Great Grandma Ruthie with London



Tootles,
Sarah

First Shots

Tomorrow London will be 7 weeks old. Today she got her very first shots. My she is growing fast. She is 23 inches long, putting her in the 80th percentile, 10.4 lbs, which is the 45-50th percentile and has a head circumference of 14 1/4th, placing her in the 30-35 percentile. So, while London started out looking like me, she is now taking on many characteristics of her daddy. Her height is in her legs - she still fits in 0-3 mos onsies, but not footed PJs. We've been on the look out for 3-6 mos PJs for about 2 weeks now and should have her covered now.

Things have been pretty crazy lately. Every weekend there seems to be something booked. For the 4th we headed up to Yuba City so London could meet her Great Grandma Betty, Great Aunt Jill and Great Uncle Merlyn. From there we headed to Cameron's sister Carrie's house, where London met even more family. She was a peach that day and even slept through the fireworks display put on by Cameron, Uncle Dave and cousin Robert in the front yard.

The next weekend we headed up to Chico to have dinner with Gene, Bonnie and Emily Moffett. We had a wonderful time catching up and having London meet such wonderful friends of ours. The weekend following brought my first night away from London to celebrate the last days of Emily's bachelorette days, as she's soon to be married. While I missed my sweeties, I also had a blast that night and met some great friends and future family members of Em's. Overall it was a great group of girls and we had a great night out cruising a limo throughout San Francisco. We even toasted Emily after driving over the Golden Gate.

This past weekend took the whole family up to Tahoe for Jeremy and Alyssa's wedding. Grammy Vicki and Poppy Joe were kind enough to go up as well to babysit London for us, which was a huge help and allowed Cameron and I to spend some quality time with friends and each other. Friday and Saturday were definitely taken over by the wedding festivities and we hardly got to see our little girl.

Luckily, things are calming down this weekend and going into August, which means I'll be working on cleaning the house and Cameron will be working in the yard. The next biggest milestone in London's life will be moving to her own bedroom! Cameron's goal this weekend is to get the ceiling fan up in there and my goal is to get it cleaned up (currently clothes that have been given to us or we have bought for future months are in piles throughout it). Once this is complete, she'll start sleeping in there. Cameron and I are looking forward to this, as we are tired of sleeping with a bathroom light on, and Cameron will be less disrupted sleeping when I get up with London. Not that she gets up much anymore. We've started putting her down somewhere between 8:30 and 10 PM every night and she's been sleeping until 4 or 5 am, and then 8-10 AM.

Our little girl is growing fast, that's for sure. Her favorite pastime is lying on her changing mat downstairs and exercising her arms and legs. If I did that every day as long as she does, I'd have the best abs around. One of these days I'll start working out again - mainly its finding the time and not feeling guilty that I'm not doing some household chore instead.

Tootles,
Sarah

A Family of Three

London Yvonne Cenedella finally made her debut into the world in the wee morning hours of Thursday June 10, 2010. This was after a long day of ups and downs during the labor process. Contractions began around 10 AM June 9, 10 minutes apart and lasting up to 20 seconds. They quickly progressed to every 3 to 4 minutes and 40 second durations. We checked into the hospital around 1 PM and at 3:30 PM I received an epidural. I quickly progress from 5 to 8 cm in about 2 hours. We were sure London would be arriving on June 9 and before 9 PM.

That's when we learned that London was sunny side up and needed to turn before I could push. I spent the next several hours laying in weird positions in hopes of turning her. At 11 PM I was 10 CM but London was still in the wrong position and after a boost in the epidural medication I was completely numb and couldn't feel the contractions at all. The medication was quickly turned down. At midnight the nurse said London had turned and it was time to push. Of course, it was at this time that my contractions slowed to 10 minutes apart. After some pitocin, the complete loss of any epidural affects, and 3 hours of pushing, London was still stuck at station +2. That's when my doctor came in and declared I would need to deliver via c-section. Boy was I ready - I'd said I was done 45 minutes earlier and ready of a c-section than but the nurses talked me into trying a few more pushing positions. I was quickly drugged up again and wheeled into the OR.

Thankfully my dad had come into town and was allowed to be in the OR with Cameron and me for the delivery. I wanted him there to check on London and let me know she was A-OK when she came out. According to Cameron and my dad she came out bright-eyed and ready. My dad also thinks she had never actually turned from the sunny side position and that's why she was stuck at station +2. London weighed in at 8 lbs and measured 19 inches. She also scored very well on her apgar scores (initial vital signs score at 1 and 5 minutes after birth) - scoring an 8, than a 9. She also showed no signs of Jaundice.

We spent the next few days in the hospital adjusting to being a family of 3. We finally came home on Monday, June 14. London has been wonderful, albeit a few fussy days, but we're learning to read her cries to know when she's hungry, wet or just in need of some cuddles. She is quite the cuddler. We were very lucky to have my mom stay with us for the last two weeks to help with the adjustments. It was so nice to hand London off to my mom in the morning so we could sneak in a few more hours of sleep. Sadly, she headed home this last Thursday and we had since been adjusting to a little less sleep than before.

London is already growing by leaps and bounds. Her first pediatrician visit was on Monday, June 21. She weighed in at 9 lbs 2 oz and was accurately measured at 21 1/2 inches. She's so healthy that Dr. Grant doesn't need to see her until she's 6 weeks old! It's hard to believe she's already over 2 weeks old, and yet in some ways, it seems like we've had her here for much longer. She came out strong and already has quite a bit of control of her neck. My dad said I gave birth to a 1 week old, not a newborn - which makes sense since she was exactly 1 week late. She had probably even lost a little weight in the womb from being late as in the last two weeks of the pregnancy I lost 3 lbs. My weight loss has already began too. I'd topped out at gaining 40 lbs in the pregnancy and have already lost 26 lbs! Look to the side of the blog, as I'll be creating a Picasa album for all photos London and will update it as we take and load more. And we'll definitely keep you posted on her with blog updates.

Tootles,
Sarah