Leo - 1 Month

I really cannot believe that 1 whole month ago I gave birth to this sweet little person. Leo, it has been such a joy to have you in our lives. You have been such a great baby (letting Mommy and Daddy sleep!).

In this past month, we've discovered many things about you. You sleep best when swaddled and wearing a toque; you seem to like tummy time, you don't much like getting into your car seat, but once you're there you sleep soundly. You keep a tight schedule for feeding and, like Mommy, get very grumpy when you're hungry. You like to do squat exercises with Daddy (you'll be a triathlete in no time!). Sadly (for Mommy mostly), we've discovered you have a bit of an intolerance for dairy so no more cheesy pizza for us for awhile!

You're so very sweet and I look forward to seeing all the fun and exciting things we'll discover in the next month!

Love Mom

3 weeks and a new life

I'm sitting here at my computer writing this waiting for my Dad and his wife to get here. He's known around these parts as Grandpa now; his wife Jane is now Nan. Oh my how things have changed.

Leo is 3 weeks and 3 (or is it 4?) days old. For the most part he has been a dream. Up until a couple days ago, I've been getting some sleep at night (he decided to switch things up a bit last night), and breastfeeding is going really well. Since his birth he's gained more than 15 oz (he's 9lbs 10oz now!)

Of course there are always areas that aren't so great. We started off using cloth diapers but the little guy was peeing through them like no tomorrow. I think his legs are too skinny (you're too schkinny!)... so we bit the bullet and started using disposables. I don't feel SO bad about it because they're semi-environmentally friendly disposables. I'm going to wait until he gets a tad chunkier to see if the cloth works.

The other thing is that Leo is a TAD cranky. Honestly it's not even that bad and for the most part he's totally fine but there comes a time in the day where he's super Mr. Cranky pants. He happened to be pretty cranky at the midwife's office the other day so she suggested that I go off dairy for a few weeks to see if that helps. GO OFF DAIRY? Um I grew up on a dairy farm and although I don't drink a ton of milk, I do live on cheese -- it's my favourite food group -- so I'm sure this will be a challenge. Last night we had pizza on the menu so I made my half without cheese. Not TOO bad but not the best pizza I've ever had. It had better be worth it!! ;)

Leo also has baby acne and although it's normal, it just breaks my heart. It looks so sore on his little face! The midwife seems to think the lack of dairy will help with that too.

Other than those things this little guy is the light of my life. I love staring at his little face, watching all of the new faces he makes and the new movements he does every day. He's such a sweetheart.

photo shoot

We did a little photo shoot with Leo today -- just want to eat those cheeks!

he's here!

Leo Joseph Enzo Fazio was born at 4:07 am on Nov. 22 - 8lbs 6oz! He's so sweet I'll write more when I have more than one hand :).

oh ya...

Still no baby! What a little bugger...

nursery - side table revamp

I'm 40 weeks +2 days and still waiting!

You'll probably get bored of hearing me say that :)

While I wait, I thought I'd show you the before pics of the little side table I picked up for $6 at a garage sale.

It wasn't bad before but we would have had to refinish it regardless. Plus I wanted white in the room so away we went!


Mark sanded it down and then applied a few coats of white paint to match the other furniture in the room. Then I found a cute knob at Anthropologie to punch it up.


Ok, now to find something else to do while I wait! I've already folded the laundry, altered a shirt for Mark, watched The Baby Story, put the dishes away and gone for a walk!

the last prego pic

Here's the last one I'm taking -- I'm 40 weeks tomorrow. I'm not really expecting the little guy to come tomorrow; in fact I'm betting money on Thursday... just a feeling I get (mostly because it was my original due date when I was 6 weeks). We'll see.

I can't wait to get my not so round face back....

DA blocks

Here are the blocks I made yesterday. I love how they turned out. I just used some fabrics I had in my stash and then cut some ribbon to use as little tags the baby can play with. I can see the little guy slobbering all over these :)

soft blocks

My task for the day: Get these suckers sewn up into play blocks for the baby.

39 Weeks!

Don't mind the double chin and the stay puff eyes -- I blame the angle of the photo ;) We took this pic at 39 weeks and 1 day... I can't believe how fast time is flying by. I'm due on Saturday so we'll see if the little bugger comes on time. I have a feeling I'll be waiting a bit longer though if my genes have anything to do with it. My mom told me this weekend that she was 2 weeks late for both of my sisters. I was 1 day early and I'm the oldest so I'm banking on that. Look out Friday!

Happy week y'all!

mat leave - week one

(image source)

It's Friday and I just finished week one of two weeks 'vacation' before the Big Arrival. It hasn't really been what I expected, partially because I feel like Stay Puff and I'm afraid to venture off too far from home for fear I'll end up having the baby in the subway or something. I wanted to get so much done during these two weeks but come my first Monday off, I realized that I had pretty much everything done. I did manage to clean my office, which feels GREAT. It was a disaster and driving me batty. I watched some movies (can you believe I cried today watching The Last Song?? I blame the hormones). And today I bought some chicken and pork to marinate and freeze for some of the 40 meals the woman on our hospital tour said we should have prepared.

Mostly, I've watched A LOT of television: The Baby Story and Nate (even though I'm not really a big fan of his new show -- he's a bit too forced for me); I've caught up on Glee and Parenthood...

I've been a bit bored at times, but that's ok because I know my life is going to change dramatically in about a week and I likely won't even know what boredom is once the little guy comes.

We'll see what next week brings! Not sure I can spend another week on the couch but everyone tells me to take it easy and relax so I'll try... Maybe I'll practice putting diapers on my cat...

paloma's nest

I was surfing the 'net today, found Paloma's Nest and instantly fell in love with everything on the site.


I just love this messenger bird - so simple and elegant for a beautiful Christmas tree.

These little animals are perfect to commemorate your little one's Christmas with the year. So cute!


I can't decide what to get for our little one's first Christmas -- I want to get all of these!

and I'm off!

Sundays are usually bittersweet for me because it's still the weekend: I get to sleep in with my hubby, eat a yummy breakfast, and read the paper with my coffee while listening to oldies. But after Sunday, comes Monday, which means work...until today. Today was my first official Monday that I didn't have to work. I'm on maternity leave! Well technically I have two weeks of vacation until my maternity leave officially starts. THEN the baby is due and the real work kicks in ;).

I thought today would feel a lot different than it did, but when you work at home like I do, it's really just a matter of doing other things besides sitting down to work from 8:30-5. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do for the next 2 weeks. I do have to tidy my office -- it's a disaster; and I also have to finish a few things here and there in the nursery; but really the next 2 weeks will be for relaxing. To be honest, I can't do much -- this bella is gettin' big folks. If I walk around for 30 mins, my groin starts to pull, the baby feels like it's going to fall out and I have to pee. I think I'll be sticking really close to home.

Whatever I do, I'm sure the next two weeks will fly by which is fine by me because I'll be that much closer to meeting our sweet little guy. Can't wait!

The Nursery

We finally finished the nursery!


Even though we're having a boy, I wanted something bright and cheerful so we opted for white furniture and chose straight lines. We got the crib from kijiji and the shelving and dresser are from Ikea. We had the mirror already and fit perfectly in the room.



We found these cute cards at Chapters and I decided to hang them from some clothes pins I had already and some green paper from Michaels. I got the idea from the amazing John and Sherry. Super simple project.


I love the little owls in the Dwell sheet, so I decided to make an owl softie from this Lola pattern. Very fun little project!



I found these photos from Sharon Montrose through one of my favourite Toronto bloggers, Lindsay. They are so cute and fit perfectly with my animal theme.


My old school glider is from my Mom. She had it in a back room of her house so I decided to take it off her hands and fix it up a bit (it used to have brown pleather on one side and brown and orange flowers on the other -- not quite the theme I was going for...) The fabric that I ended up using isn't my most favourite but it will have to do! I plan on making a bright pillow to add a punch of colour to the chair.


I found this side table at a garage sale for $6. Mark painted it white and I added a little knob I found at Anthropologie. The lamp shade is from Ikea and the turtle shell in the photo is another piece from Sharon Montrose.


My favourite Sharon Montrose photo -- a calf to remind me of my childhood growing up on a dairy farm. I got the fan at a garage sale on our street... too bad it's REALLY loud so we'll just use it for show :).



Finally, a colourful mobile I got from Copenhagen Styles. I loved the bright colours and the animals!

I hope you enjoyed the nursery tour! Now I just need one more addition -- the baby! He should be here in just under 2 weeks I hope!

all good

As I've said before on this post, I have a midwife for my delivery, which means in my case, that I'm choosing to have a medical-free delivery. Here's the thing -- I'm not going crazy about it being medical-free. I just had a weird feeling just now that if it so happens that I have to have an epidural or a c-section that I'm totally and 100% ok with it. I have probably always felt this, but I think it's important to realize that not everything may go according to plan. The more open you are to whatever happens I think the better you'll be post-pregnancy for recovery both mentally and physically.

But I'm sure it will be a pain-free delivery and very short right?? ;)

36 weeks

the countdown is on -- 36 weeks (and 2 days!) and 10 days left of work... oh bliss!

Have you seen my list? I'm knocking stuff off left and right -- I should have pics of the nursery soon!

Happy Monday!

what a softie

My little owl -- still needs to be sewn and stuffed for my little guy...

16 vs 33

I decided to do a comparison shot -- 16 vs 33 weeks. At 16 weeks I couldn't believe I was going to get bigger. At 33 weeks, I can't believe I was ever that small. Oy.

Then

Now

vintage and under budget = win-win

When Mark and I first found out we were pregnant we set a budget. Let me rephrase: Mark set a budget (I don't really know how to do that :)) This baby stuff is expensive... well it can be.

We figured we'd need minimum $200 for a high chair. Now there's something you should know about me: I'm not a big fan of plastic. I know, I know -- everything is plastic but if I can avoid it, I will. Who knows how long it takes to break down in a landfill (if ever). I really didn't want a plastic high chair.

Well a few months ago on my way to my first pre-natal bootcamp, I stopped off at a garage sale. They had all your typical baby things, but tucked away in the corner of the yard was a wooden high chair.

"How old is this?" I asked the woman in charge.

"Well I'm not sure, but it's in pretty good condition, don't you think?!"

It was perfect. I loved the fact that it was old and had some history attached to it. And best of all... it was 20 bucks. Not too shabby! I also picked up a side table for 6 bucks that Mark repainted -- more on that later.

Now I have $180 to spend on something else... right? :)

gettin' tight

Since I was about 16 weeks or so, I've been taking bootcamp classes on Saturday mornings. I'm 31 weeks today and still going -- but man, these workout clothes are gettin' tight...

glider fabric - check!

I was back and forth on a glider as you know, but in the end I ended up going with The Mom Glider. It's all the rage. Ok it's the one one my Mom has that we grew up with in our living room. It has straight lines, comes with an ottoman and best of all it's free ;). I don't have it yet, but I took some imaginary measurements today and ordered some this Bebe Tint Gray from Alexander Henry fabric to recover the cushions (I don't think brown and orange flowers with brown pleather go with the nursery colour scheme). I wanted something neutral but not too boring so we'll see if it works!

30 Weeks!

Here's the 30 week shot -- 10 weeks to go -- yowsa!

accessorize this...

We took a trek to Ikea tonight to get a few things for the baby's room. We went originally to check out some storage baskets, but they ended up looking too cheap for me so I took a pass. I'll have to take a trek to HomeSense soon to see what they have.

We did snag some new stuff:

A new ceiling light - something funky for the baby to look at:

A new lamp shade for a lamp I have (I got the green one):

And a fun red clock -- not sure what the baby will need a clock for, but we think it will add a fun punch of colour:

The hubster is putting up the light as we speak. Should be fun putting it together -- all those curves!

Nighty night!

what's in a name?

So we're about 11 weeks away from this little guy coming into the world and we don't have a name solidified yet. Yeah I know... some people have challenges with this right up until and after the baby is born, but I'm hoping to find a name soon! I've been looking at a lot of lists, but this is the coolest one I've found yet. It's a list of names that have my last name. I don't even know how I found it, but I intend to study it closely.

Did you have a difficult time naming your kids?

(photo source)

cute booties

Just bought these from Hand Knit Hugs based out of New Brunswick. I couldn't resist -- they're so freaking cute!

crib capers - part 2

Ok... so the hubby didn't go for the Ikea crib but we found a nice alternative on Kijiji that we're going to look at this weekend. Now that the crib is taken care of, let's move on to fun stuff!

I think I mentioned before that the room is blue/grey, and I want to pull in bright greens to contrast and maybe some hits of blue and red. (And in case you're wondering and I haven't mentioned it, I'm having a boy which is why all the greens and blues -- not that you can't have those colours for a girl!).

I picked up this crib sheet this weekend and just ordered some of this fabric for the crib skirt and potentially some blinds.


On an unrelated crib note, I ordered a pillow for the room from Skinny Laminx after I saw it on Design*Sponge -- I love it and it kind of runs with the animal/nature theme.


I can't wait to get it all set up!

crib capers

I was at my sister-in-law's house on the weekend and she piqued my interest in Ikea cribs. I honestly didn't know what to think about them because when I've seen them in the store they always look grungy. But the one she has is on it's third boy and it's still in pretty good shape. I decided to look into it.

Low and behold ohdeedoh had a post on Ikea's new Somnat Cribs in pink, blue and green and people in the comments section were raving about the quality of Ikea cribs. Although I don't think I'd go for the colourful versions, I'm coming around to the Gulliver. It's white, made of real wood, may be recyclable and to top it off it's $139.00. With this price tag I can afford to get my organic mattress. It's a win-win really. The only downside I can see is that it's not as nice as some of the other cribs I've seen out there. But I'll just fancy it up with some fun sheets and crib skirt.

Here are some examples of what it looks like:

(via Style at Home magazine. They actually compare this to the Oeuf Sparrow I was wishing for a few posts ago, in their high-low article)

(via Design*Sponge)

(via Stupid Clever on Flickr)

There you have it -- I think I can make it work. What do you think? Do you have any experience with Ikea cribs?

nursery progress

A couple weekends ago we got a dresser for the nursery from Ikea. Mark got set right away as per usual putting the thing together.


I was hard at work too.




Here is the final result! It's a bit higher than I would like because ideally I wanted to use this as a change table but we might be able to cut it down a couple of inches in the end.


Now we just have to get the crib, oh and a glider and a million other things :)

Happy Thursday!

new rocker option - wish list

Here is a new rocker option. It's from Urban Outfitters. Do you think it would be comfy for nursing??? I really like it and so does the hubs. He also likes the price tag which is a score.

what do you think?

wish list - crib

(Oeuf Crib - Sparrow via Modern Karibou)

My current dream crib. Again, it has a bigger price tag than the budget allows for, but I might try to save up for this one. I love how simple it is and that it's well made.

darn belly!

This belly is officially getting too big. I just had to go to the washroom -- really bad of course because that's always the case -- and the tie on my shorts got a knot and I couldn't get them undone. The bigger problem is that I couldn't see past my belly to get the knot undone. ACK. If there's a will there's a way. I got them undone and just in the nick of time!

Too much info?