Life After Baby Number Two

Alright, so last time I posted anything was... a little over four months ago? Shortly before our beautiful new baby Topanga was born. Perhaps you can guess that having a second child is quite a bit more difficult than I had originally anticipated; not so much that the second baby is hard to handle, but suddenly the first becomes more work once there's someone else there to share the attention.

Only recently have I finally been able to begin feeling like I can actually start working on my hobbies like writing and blogging once again, hence why I haven't posted anything prior to now. There's certainly quite a bit of work having to change diapers every couple hours after being used to not needing to do so with a 3-year-old. Gotta get up every few hours no matter what time it is to feed the baby and play a bit and put her back to sleep once she's tired again. So busy so much of the time.

But really the new baby isn't all that much work in my opinion. Like... I've done it before. Or even just helped with it. So I know what I'm doing with the second one rather than learning everything for the first time, and thanks to conveniently being let go from my previous job shortly before Topanga was born, I've had so much time to spend with her to get to know her up until this point. I suppose I'm honestly quite grateful for such opportunity, though it has truly been quite a financial strain which couldn't have been handled up to now without Carley being so awesome and figuring out the situation.

The really hard part of this whole ordeal has been transitioning Isabelle into no longer being an only child. I remember my sister saying that the hardest part about having another baby isn't the new baby... it's the first child that's the hardest part. I absolutely get that now; Isabelle is still teaching us new things each and every day for the first time which we can then use to teach Topanga in a better way down the road in the future.

So here we are, four months later from my last post... just when I think things will finally get back to the way life was before, things change again because she figured out how to roll over; now we've had to learn to sleep without being swaddled at night, and wouldn't you know it, she starts getting red-cheeked and fussy which is messing with her sleep schedule. Oh, children are such a frustrating and yet totally rewarding life adventure of new experiences each day. 

Have a wonderful day! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

We're Getting Close To Baby!

At this point I actually can't believe that we're finally getting so close to baby being here. Less than a week to go before we'll have two children in the house! It's been such a long process with sickness, decluttering, and other preparations being done over the past nine months. Finally we're on the home stretch, with less than a week to go before our new baby is born no matter what.

I really think we have everything set up and prepared for the arrival of our new bundle of joy. The crib is set up as well as the bassinet. We have all the bottles out and ready. Mentally I'm a little bit nervous seeing as I haven't had a newborn for quite some time now, but I'm also feeling comfortable with what's on the way because I've dealt with it before. It also helps that I'm getting in some practice for getting up early and being tired thanks to Isabelle currently waking up around 6:00 AM each day. I also have a bit of a surprise blessing in the form of not currently working. As strange as that sounds, I've been given an opportunity to spend so much more time with my daughter and I'll be able to help so much more with the newborn than I would have been able to otherwise.

I'm so excited for everything to come with our family being complete and working towards our career goals of the future. We're going to have such a wonderful time ahead of us and even though I'm sure I'm going to be absolutely exhausted in the coming months, I'm looking forward to it. I wouldn't trade my life for the world.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Sick News!

Hey everyone, I have sick news! Carley isn't sick today! :D

Okay, now I don't want to make this into too big of a deal too soon, but we MAY be over the hump of sickness!!!

You seriously have no idea just how big of a deal this is for us to be at a point like this even for only one day because Carley hasn't had a single day of not being sick since like back in August when she first got pregnant. We tried all sorts of different options including Diclectin / Gravol, sleeping in all day, getting up at the crack of dawn, eating, not eating, and so much more! The result? Nothing worked. Only sick sick sick was found each and every day and it was weighing down upon her beginning to cause depression and anxiety.

The past couple days though... has been a miracle. See, Carley recently took herself into the hospital because she didn't know what else to do. She was feeling so sick and depressed that she felt she needed their help and was admitted into the mental health ward for assistance. The service there was absolutely fantastic, they listened to her and sought out a medication which would be safe for pregnancy which would help out with her depression and anxiety. She wasn't sure about taking any kind of medication but having trouble sleeping during the night drove her to try the suggested medication as it was supposed to help with sleeping at night as well.

This choice led Carley to waking up the following morning in the hospital with less than 8 hours of sleep, but feeling well-rested, mentally better.... and NOT SICK! Crazy, right? Now we won't know FOR SURE if this is a miracle solution until more time passes, but I'm pretty sure if this is still working after a month from now, we're probably in the clear. I know so far she's super happy even to have just a couple days of peace from puking and let me tell you I've seen such an improvement over only two days of happiness that I'm so hopeful for her to continue to feel amazing because I've missed seeing such a big smile on her face.

What have your experiences been like with pregnancy? Good? Bad? Share with me your stories and solutions of pregnancy and parenthood!

~ Kyle Welykholowa

What A Trooper

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My Wife Is An Absolute Trooper!

For anyone who doesn't know, my wife is the most absolute trooper ever!

You may ask... "Why is your wife so awesome? What makes her so tough and amazing?" Well first of all, she's pregnant; that's enough right there that she has to go through that process and make it out the other side! Let me tell you it was pretty bad with the first one on the way how sick my dearly beloved Carley was feeling each and every day... pretty much like morning sickness on crack! This one will be our second child together and oh my goodness, I didn't possibly think it could ever get worse!

It's a special thing when your wife isn't able to get around and do as much as she wants to... not because it's hard to move around when pregnant, but because she's just so sick that she can't get out of bed without puking almost every morning. Medications don't make the sickness go away; they only serve to make her tired and keep her locked in bed like a caged animal instead of spending good time with her family as she would prefer to do. I can't imagine what it would be like to go through that each and every day, but I would gladly share the burden with her if I could even up to the point of taking the full sickness upon myself if for nothing else than to give her a much needed break.

Now of course we can't be sure of the final result, but perhaps the reason for the increased sickness is due to this child being larger than the last? Our first daughter was quite small... I believe 4th percentile if I remember correctly? And... based on the ultrasound results from recently, this one MIGHT.... be around the 94th percentile mark. Of course there's still a few months to go before we find out the end result, so maybe that size will level out to be closer to her older sister, but I do still think that an increased size may be the cause.

So here I am trying to help out by doing dishes, laundry, transport the child to daycare, and make enough money to get by... only hoping that I'm able to do a fraction of what needs to be done to make it all the way. I can't imagine where I'd be without such a tough woman in my life right beside me each and every day.... that I wake up in bed.

Wish us luck with our upcoming second child. I've heard it gets more difficult when more come along and I haven't yet figured out whether I'm excited or scared for what's in store for us.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

UPDATE

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I Survived Camping With Friends =17=

I have great news, I survived camping with friends! Surprisingly, I had a fantastic time out in the "wild" with our friends. I managed to stay off of my phone nearly the entire time except for a short time while boating when I was hanging out and watching the fishing going on; Carley caught her first fish by the way. :D It's a bit of a personal accomplishment for me to be able to spend nearly a whole four days without being all over my phone the entire time, so I have to say I'm quite proud of myself.

Considering how Carley likes to plan things ahead of time and I like to make lists... you'd think we'd be more prepared for things. As it turns out... we didn't bring our pillows for the second camping time. I'm hoping to be much more prepared the next time we go camping. I'm pretty sure we had everything we needed for Isabelle, which is great and all... but we totally forgot to be prepared for ourselves. We forgot to bring our own bug spray!

Unfortunately during the second day we were out there the zipper on our tent split so we weren't able to close our tent. For the most part this wasn't an issue, but eventually it got a little more wet out and the mosquitoes started coming out in large numbers. This wasn't too much of an issue while we had bug spray... though eventually we ran out on the last day and that's when things got really bad. Thankfully we were able to buy a tarp at the store which we were able to bungee to the front of the tent with the help of our fantastic friends.

The great news is that Isabelle had a great time (I think). She played a bunch with Ella and complained a ton that we wouldn't let her go near the fire pit, but she seemed to enjoy being outside a ton; she wouldn't go to bed when she was supposed to. I think the only night she went to bed on time was the last night only because she was so tired from the day before that she couldn't keep herself awake. Canada day in particular she only got about half an hour of sleep before getting up to go see the fireworks at 10:00 pm... which she enjoyed so much with Carley's hands over her ears that she started to fall asleep while watching them.

All in all, camping was great. Super tiring to get up so early and do so many things throughout the day including long hikes with the baby on my chest, but totally worth it. I'm confident we'll be camping again soonish.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Group Camping Trip =16=

Alright, get this... I'm going on a group camping trip; yeah, I know, that's insane. There's something weird that I think you all should know about me... I like being outside and enjoying the peace and quiet of nature.

Now I know what you're all thinking... "What kind of nerd are you to like going outside?" I know something must be wrong with me, but I'm not quite sure what. I mean, how can a person like me who enjoys sitting in a dark hole writing on a blog and making videos enjoy being OUTSIDE? This has unfortunately come up before due to our trips to Lake Diefenbaker where during our most recent trip up there we camped on the beach for a night.

Now not only Carley, but also some great friends of ours are dragging me out for a camping weekend with the children. I'm a little excited to get outside and chill for a few days without having to worry about keeping the house cleaning and feeding everybody food and everything else that comes with trying to get things done around the house. At the same time I'm a little scared to be spending so much time outside and away from the house. I know I can easily keep myself busy and find things to do away from home, but I do worry about people thinking that I'm no fun or weird in the out-of-doors.

The best part about it is that I know Carley will have an awesome time. She's been wanting to go camping pretty much ever since I met her and we just haven't had the chance to go out anywhere on our own due to me usually being busy (and totally not knowing anything about camping whatsoever). There has also been a bit of an issue

I expect Isabelle will also have a great time being outside and with other people; she seems to enjoy getting out of the house and being a social baby so she may just end up being a total gem the whole time we're out there.

Wish me luck everyone! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Content Production Challenge Revision =15=

For anybody who may be following my one-year content production challenge, you may have noticed that I'm about a week behind where I should be in my challenge. My explanation? I didn't consider that I may get a little sick or that it would be so difficult to continue taking care of a growing baby and a healing fiancee after her surgery.

So I have a slight change of plan to account for this: Instead of aiming for one piece of content posted every single day, I'll be working towards having one year's worth of content as of June 5th of 2019. That means by that date, I should have 365 pieces of content posted, but not necessarily posted one per day.

So from here on out I'll continue to try to get things out there on a regular basis, but just note that it isn't the end of the world if I'm either ahead or behind on content.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Tick Tac Toe ===

     Okay, so about a week ago I woke up in the morning and realized with jump that tick season is... already here. Winter lasted so long this year that I didn't really consider how close the ticks could possibly be. As it turns out, when you wake up with a tick crawling up your jaw, you suddenly see that the ticks are already here. So far we've only found one other tick in the house. The other one was found in our bed as well crawling on Carley as she was trying to have a nap. That freaked her out, but thankfully we haven't found any others. I conveniently gave both Autumn and Furgle tick treatments only a short time before these two events, and considering our backyard isn't growing much grass at this time, I'm not expecting too many more ticks any time soon.

     It's times like these that make me think back on past events and remember that only a year ago we were trying to get a tick off of Isabelle's face while she laid there as if she didn't even know there was anything there. Both Carley and I were totally freaked out and stressed, but we did manage to get the tick off without any injuries or blood or anything too crazy. If I remember correctly, we pulled something like 10 or 20 ticks off of Furgle last year... ugh... that was awful. He took it really well (and he did have long fur at that time which didn't help I'm sure). I wasn't able to do a tick treatment on him last year either because it was too late by the time I had thought about it.

     After a while you get used to having so many bugs and things around. I used to get super freaked out over ticks and other bugs, but now for the most part I don't mind having them around. I would absolutely prefer NOT to have to deal with them, but they're not as bad now as they used to be for me. I can hold most bugs in my bare hands now without freaking out ever since I spent a day killing and cleaning up mosquitoes in our old apartment. Now with my trusty tweezers by my side, I don't have any issues with ticks either.

Have a fantastic day everybody. Hopefully you aren't all feeling as creepy and crawly as me! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Happy Birthday! (A Month Ago) ===

     Alright, I know this is late, but happy birthday to my sweet Isabelle! I still find it difficult to believe that she's already been around for over a year; she still seems so itty bitty small.

     Now that I've been spending more time with her and getting to know her better, I find myself beginning to understand more of what she wants in certain situations and how to handle her in different moods. She laughs at some of the weirdest things and she turns on the waterworks at the drop of a hat for reasons I won't even pretend to understand. Soon enough she'll be talking and communicating more in a language that I'll have an easier time understanding... I hope.

     With her so close to walking, it's only a matter of time before she's getting into even more things than she's already getting into. She's cruising around the furniture like no tomorrow and every once in a while she gets brave and lets go of things and just stands there sucking on a toy or her hands. Not a single tooth has popped out of her gums yet, but she's almost walking.

     Time seems to be flying by with this tiny little girl. In no time at all she'll be past all this baby stuff and moving out of the house and I'll be wondering what I've been doing for the past 20 years. Ah well, I'll just have to try to keep up with her and we can all learn and enjoy the experience together.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== The Quiet Amount Of Trouble ===

     Everything was going so well. This weekend I've been looking after Isabelle while Carley has been working and last night I experienced the quiet amount of trouble. The day had gone pretty well with minimal whining and crying from my little girl. I figured it would be a fine time to let her crawl around and take a little bit of time to relax to myself. So she crawled around and played with some toys on her own for a bit until she decided to crawl away into her room on her own.

     How could that sweet little face possibly cause any trouble? I think to myself as I hear some rummaging around coming from her room. I can tell this rummaging is the sound of her playing with her toys in her cardboard toy box. I also periodically hear the sound of her touching a plastic bag as well, but other than that, not much noise. After some time of relaxing on the couch and playing a game I figured I should go and check on her. I come to her room right as she's leaving her room and I notice her hands are quite a bit more white than they normally are. In face, they're pasty white... with some kind of paste on them. I looked up from her to see her toy chest covered in white paste as well on the top and the side... and an open container which is also covered in white inside and out. Not only that, but there was paste on the toy box, on her singing book, on various other toys, in the carpet... you name it. And all the while she was VERY upset that she had to be cleaned off from this. If she had her way, her hands would have stayed that way for the rest of the night.

     This is what she managed to get into; a container of Penaten. She was super quiet and didn't make a noise while doing so. For those of you who don't know what this stuff is, it's used to treat and prevent diaper rash. This stuff is a lot harder to clean off than I would have thought; especially when coming off of various inanimate objects. This just goes to show that a baby suddenly going quiet either means they're keeping themselves entertained with something good... or they're entertained because they're getting into something. I think I've learned my lesson this time.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Bumps And Bruises ===

     I don't often post about my baby, but lately there have been a lot of bumps and bruises around the house. Isabelle has started pulling herself up on things to a stand. For the most part, this is very cute as she stands there and reaches for things and then gets to a point where she's not really sure what she wants to do. Then she has to think about it and figure out how to get down without hurting herself. This is great that she's learning to do things! Unfortunately this also means she has to go through the process of figuring out how to get down properly which has resulted in a few tears from collisions.

     Silly me, I had thought for a moment that we were past the hitting of heads on inanimate objects, but apparently I was TOTALLY wrong about that; it has only gotten worse than before. Thankfully she takes these things quite well most times. She seems like a pretty tough kid, though I suppose we won't know for sure until she gets a bit older and can communicate better. If there's one thing that will always make her laugh even when she's absolutely bawling... it's tossing her in the air; she LOVES being tossed in the air. I'm confident she's going to be a thrill-rider when she gets older.

     In other family news, Carley has managed to find a way to get back to the gym again during my working days even with the cold weather killing the use of her car. She's so excited about going to the gym that's she'll be going again today even though she's woken up sore this morning. I think it's great for her to get out of the house and spend time doing other things. It's kind of nice having some time around the house alone. Well.... obviously the child will be here as well, but seriously, Carley needs to get more fresh air outside the house. I worry about her when she's cooped up for so long. Everybody needs to get outside every once in a while... even this nerd here.

     As for myself... not much interesting going on other than a renewed vigor for making blog posts and doing productive things. I almost wiped out and had some bruises of my own, but thankfully I started wearing my ice cleats after the freezing rain this us this past week. As uncomfortable as they are to wear with them not staying sitting right on my shoe.... they really help with grip on ice so much more than you realize. The only think I don't like about them is taking them off and putting them on again all the time. If you don't take them off, then you basically have no grip when it comes to tile and things like that. I suppose safety is more important than convenience though.

Anyways, that's all for today! Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Rollin' rollin' rollin' ===

     So recently Isabelle has decided that she understands how to roll from her back to her front and from her front to her back. Lately she's been rollin' rollin' rollin' all the time back and forth. It's kind of adorable that she just does it whenever she pleases, but at the same time it can be a little bit dangerous and occasionally mind boggling when she decides she's too lazy to roll back and then cries about it.

     We used to leave her on the couch at times to hang out in comfort rather than being on the floor, but now we can't really leave her anywhere with some height to it because she might roll right off and hurt herself. This isn't too much of a problem, we just have to be careful to remember to put her somewhere safe before leaving her for a moment to do something else. I can't imagine how awful I would feel if she fell off of anything because I forgot to put her down.

     Then there are times when she wants to roll over a bunch but she's too tired to keep going. Sometimes she will roll from her back to her front then she'll get frustrated that she can't make it back over again. She'll start to cry like a banshee in pain so we'll go help her out and flip her over only to have her do it again and again. Sometimes I absolutely don't understand what could possibly be going through her head. Unless she somehow understands that it gets her the attention that she's looking for.

     I actually watched her one morning after putting her on the bed with Carley roll over onto her tummy... then Carley turned her back and she rolled right over again... so Carley turned her back and she kept doing it again and again until Carley adjusted and picked her up. I'm pretty sure it won't be long now until she starts figuring out how to move and then it'll be all sorts of fun having her wander around the house.

Good luck to us. ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Crying, Babies, and Midterms ===

     So we've been handling our baby and wow, those midterms sure showed up fast; I didn't realize the spring semester would go by so quickly. Everything has been rushing by it seems with things to do every day followed by crying, crying, crying, and more crying... which results in sudden losses of consciousness at various times of the day when there is nothing immediately important to be doing. All of this however, is interrupted at equally random times of the day by more crying.

     This past month has been pretty much continuously assignments due at least every second day. As you may be able to imagine: driving 45 minutes to and from work every day, being short on sleep, trying to help with the baby, and then trying to get some school work done at the end of the day... it's a little bit difficult. There are times when things end up being late. There are times when things just don't get done at all. Currently, this includes booking a couple of my midterms... so I'm going to have to figure out how to still write those even though there is no available time to write them left in the system. Ugh...

     I look forward to the times when everybody is sleeping; the baby, the dog, and Carley. At these times I actually get some uninterrupted time to myself... for a bit. Inevitably someone ends up needing something. Carley needs a bit of help or attention or something to get done, the baby wakes up and wants........... I really don't know what, or the dog needs to get outside. I can't believe I'm thinking this, but the dog is probably actually the least needy at this time.

     I'm certainly looking forward to being done with my classes so I won't have to be doing so much all the time anymore. Oh how I can't wait to have proper time to think each day after I get home from work. One day Kyle... one day.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== When Are The Ducks Coming? ===

     I know it's a little bit early to look forward to the ducks coming back, but I think we're looking forward to spending our second spring and summer in Moose jaw. One of our favourite things to do in the nice weather is feed the ducks all of our large supply of bread. The beautiful place in Moose Jaw known as Crescent Park is a lovely place with a man-made waterfall contraption which takes the water from the bottom of the park and pushes it out a waterfall at the top. Along this sort of man-made river quite a bit of wildlife has actually made their homes here including ducks, groundhogs, and even a beaver.

     As much of a homebody I tend to be, I do enjoy getting out for adventures and things sometimes. It'll be a little bit more difficult now with our baby in tow, but I'm sure we'll still manage anyways. I still have plans for us to get out and go on some hikes and things and get some nice fresh outside in our lungs. I know it's quite surprising for a person such as myself (who would generally much prefer to sit in a dark hole and play games rather than go on a road trip) to enjoy going outside on adventures. Who knows, maybe I'll let Carley take me camping one day?

     In the mean time, I think we'll just make more trips to the park and enjoy ourselves in the beautiful weather and throw pieces of bread at the birds. Now that I think about it though, we should make some more trips over to the dog park. Moose Jaw has a dog park split into a small dog side and a large dog side. We've driven by there before, but we haven't yet had a chance to go there on a nice day when there are other people there. I think it would be really good for Furgle to get some doggie socialization time.

     Now that I really think about it, it would be a great idea to get some active time in somehow. I haven't had much time to do anything besides work and be at home with the baby. I just found out that I'll be able to use an active reimbursement thinger from work to get a bicycle, so I'm thinking I'll do that next month if possible and then I'll bike around Moose Jaw whenever possible. I'm also thinking I need to get the DDR things hooked up for something a little more active I can do at home as well. Hmm... something to think about.

Bye everyone! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Happy Easter ===

     Hey everybody, just wanted to say happy Easter to everyone and I hope you all have a great day. We had our Easter celebration last night with a family supper and get together. The food was wonderful; some of it was actually Hungarian rather than all Ukrainian this time and it was actually super good in my opinion. I wish I had room for more, but unfortunately I'm not a bottomless pit as I one was when I was younger.

     It was nice seeing family and everybody wanted to hold the baby (even my brother). I'm actually incredibly surprised at how good my brother is with children. He doesn't have any of his own, but he's always been great with my sister's children and I'm sure he'll be wonderful with ours as well. Now I really have no reason to think that my brother would ever be bad with kids. I guess knowing his personality all my life has sort of made me think that he wouldn't like them or be very good with them, but I've been pleasantly surprised ever since my sister started having children.

     My grandparents, auntie Darlene, and uncle Larry have all now seen our daughter wide awake as of last night. Apparently she's super snuggly and probably gassy. My grandparents also brought easter gifts for our precious little one. She now has two stuffed bunnies to start her collection of stuffed animals and one of them has a nose which smells like chocolate. At this point, I'm sure we love the chocolate-smelling bunny much more than she does, but if the smell lives on for a while to come, she may just love the smell of chocolate when she grows up thanks to her cute little stuffed bunny.

Have a wonderful Easter everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Long Weekend Ahead! ===

(Posting this on April 14th, wrote this on April 12th)

     I can't tell you enough just how excited I am for the coming long weekend. I would like to say I'm going to catch up on sleep, but instead I'll likely be keeping myself busy with all my media, our baby, and preparing for my next round of classes coming up. This semester wasn't so bad, but I'm thinking I'll change a little bit of how I've been studying. I obviously haven't been able to work on my classes quite as well as I would have liked due to having our baby recently, but I also think I haven't been focusing very well on the work I've been trying to learn.

     I've noticed that even though it takes a little bit longer to get through any textbook reading and things of that nature, I retain and understand the work much better when I type it out. I tried writing out my work once upon a time, but that's a little bit TOO slow. Typing on the other hand, does two things for me. It excercises by brain by making my hands work and learn to type better and more consistently with greater accuracy, and it allows me to focus better on the words in front of my face rather than skimming through everything to find anything that pops out at me.

     As fun as it is to save time and cut corners, I think there's a healthy balance to doing some things a little bit slower rather than trying to get everything done as fast as possible. I think learning something slowly than speeding up as you get better at something is a much better way to go until you're able to do a task or activity quickly without having to give it much thought. The first semester, I took things a little slowly and I think I did well; the second semester, I tried to cut a lot of corners an messed a few things up which may mean I'll have to retake a class at a later time. This coming third semester, I'll be going for a middle-ground sort of approach where I will take things slowly as necessary, and hope to pick up speed as things go on.

     So besides thinking so much about school and my finals which are happening tomorrow, I'm looking forward to having the next three days off followed by a calm Sunday of work. Maybe Carley and I will get ourselves some fresh air and perhaps I'll use the time to make more posts or upload more videos. I love having time to work on hobbies and things.

Have a wonderful day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Almost Two Weeks Already.

     It's hard to believe it has already been nearly two weeks since the birth of our daughter. Personally I'm not a fan of all the crying and loud noises, but so far it hasn't been TOO bad. I think Carley and I are starting to get a sort of rhythm going. Surely there will be much more challenges to come, but at the moment, I think we're doing pretty well.

     Both of us have been on and off tired at different times and let me tell you... when you have a baby, there isn't much time to have everything planned out like you may have used to do. I like to plan things out and get things done at certain times, so on, and so forth. Now... I try to get everything I'm hoping to done during the quiet times that I have until the next time I hear that familiar crying sort of whining thing. It's not all cries and awful noises though, she's really not all that bad. I'm absolutely looking forward to days when she's more communicative and talkable and things.

     The best news is that Furgle is amazing with her. He likes to sniff her a lot and get his nose right up in her face, but he doesn't lick her too much or try to bite at her and things. He still likes to hang around with us and normally isn't too much of a pain. Carley takes him out for a walk almost every day because she's trying to get back into shape and healthy before having her jaw surgery and then doing this process all over again. Furgle is definitely still our baby and will continue to be as long as we have him.

     I'm glad it seems like we've figured out something that works for all of us before my finals for this semester and the start of next semester. With work, school, and our daughter, it's certainly a lot of work to handle each and every day, but it's all working towards getting what we need for our family. Soon enough I'll be able to start applying for a better-paying job so we won't have to live so tightly when it comes to spending.

We'll get there for sure, it's only a waiting game now. Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

First day back at work since baby was born.

     So today was my first day back to work since our daughter was born; oh my goodness was I ever a mess this morning. So I'm almost at work and I realize... I have no keys to get into work... great. I send a text to my boss who says I may be able to talk to one of our associates who lives nearby and gives me the address. I run over there and get there just as she pulls into her parking space and tells me she just let someone else into the office as well. She drives me back over to the office and lets me in and the first thing I do is grab the extra set of keys I know are available.

     Alright, so everything is good, right? Wrong. I have a showing this afternoon who calls me and asks if he can have his showing done earlier. I agree to that and make plans to meet him downtown to do the showing... and then end up calling him back to tell him I can't do the showing because I don't have keys for downtown... I forgot them at home. He asked if there was anything else I would be able to show him and I tell him I can show him things around here.

     So now's the fun part: He gets here, I talk to him a bit and figure out what he's looking for, find options, stroll out of the office with him in tow walking out of the building and to another building with the vacant unit to show, get to the door of the unit............. I left my keys in the office. So I had to ask the guy to wait so I could run over to the associate's place and ask her to let me in again. She has to call another associate who's in the area to do a couple showings to swing by and let me back into the office.

     Ugh, what a silly morning this has been. I don't think I've ever been more disorganized since I've started working here. One thing after another this morning. I'm dearly hoping I don't have to do much else this afternoon seeing as I'm not sure at this point if I'll manage to do it correctly or if I'll somehow manage to lock myself out of the office AGAIN with no keys.

     What caused all of this? Well I'm feeling pretty good for sleep. We managed to sleep in pretty good yesterday which I think caught me up at least to where I need to be as long as I have a caffeine or two in the morning. But seriously, all I was thinking about this morning was NOT work. My thoughts this morning consisted of "Please stop crying, I don't like loud, here's a bottle and a clean diaper" and "Awe... Furgle... you probably shouldn't be laying in the baby's bed thinger, but you're VERY cute."

Just wanted to share a fun story with you today. Have a lovely day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

The Baby Is Finally Born!

     What an amazing event to finally watch our baby be born. She's here now and ready to explore the worl--... oh... she's asleep. She was pretty wide awake at first, probably something to do with being thrust into some alien world she's not used to. She's eaten a couple times and this morning she managed to have one of the biggest poops I've ever seen... compared to her body weight.

     So far, Carley is super amazed with her. With all of the experience she has with children, she's terrified of newborns; She wants to do everything so gentile and to be sure she doesn't hurt the baby. Me on the other hand... I have no idea what to do with kids at all. Alright well... that's not totally true, I think between the two of us, we have plenty of experience to deal with toddlers... it's babies we're unsure about; we're plenty prepared for having a toddler. 

     A couple days later and here we are at home. I was terrified to bring her home and not have the support of the nurses at the hospital, but I think we're managing so far. She seems to sleep sometimes and then wake herself up every once in a while and get a little bit fussy. At the moment she's pretty much an angel during the day, then she becomes a monster at night. Last night in particular we had quite a few issues getting her to go to sleep until I found the swaddler and used it on her in place of a regular blanket. I don't know how other people do it, but neither Carley, nor I are capable of doing a great job of swaddling her with a regular blanket. At this point it seems totally insane and I'm absolutely looking forward to getting another one or two to use throughout her years.

     Besides that, we're holding on for now. I'm not looking forward to some upcoming drives to work where I'll be super tired falling asleep, especially considering the fact that I have such a long drive to work. I'm sure I'll pull through with a healthy supply of caffeine to keep me going on those particularly tough days. Between work, school, a baby, and our puppy, I'll have a lot to keep me busy. Oh yeah, and I have hopes that I'll be able to grow a garden, practice my dusty violin, and keep on blogging and streaming as we go along as well. I would love to find more time to stream and / or record YouTube videos because those I particularly find enjoyable, but that may have to wait for a bit depending on how things are going... I mean... I do have the recent addition of a baby in my family to take care of now.

Well, that's all for now, have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa



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I've Got All This Time On My Hands!

     It's just about 9:00 in the evening and I've got nothing but time on my hands; I've only been here since 8:00 in the morning. We were expecting to have Carley induced this morning due to complicatoins, but then between two doctors and one obstetrician, we were told there are no complications. So with that, Carley made the decision to be induced anyways.

     Eight hours later and here we are waiting with Carley beginning to feel some pains, tightenings, and contractions. I don't think either of us are REALLY knowing what to expect here both during the labour and after once we finally get to go home. I know I'm getting pretty excited at the moment, but I'm also trying to figure out how I'm going to get everything done all at once. I'll now have to work 8 to 10 hours a day depending on the drive, keep up with homework, take care of the dog, AND I'll have to help with our dear child. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for this and look forward to our family, but at the same time I'm super scared that I won't have enough time for everything.

     Have you ever wished there was something you didn't have to do any more in your life? I wish I didn't have to sleep ever again. I would gain an additional eight hours a day! Oh, what I would do with all that extra time.... Right now all I can do is wait and wonder, what will happen, and how will we re-balance our lives? Our schedules will have to be re-worked, we'll have to plan out our meals better, and I feel like I'll have to figure out everything over again after I feel like I had just figured it out!

     So here we are back to the moment at hand. Carley's contractions are getting stronger and all I can do it sit here and watch and wait for whatever happens to happen. The good news, is that it seems like she may not have to have a c-section due to a failed induction. But I really wish there was more that I could do at this point. Honestly, I feel like I'm going to be the most awkward parent ever who has no idea how to handle having a child. My mind is reeling with possibilities left and right and I haven't a clue which path to follow through the intertwining branches of the overgrown forest inside of me.

I can't imagine how Carley is feeling at this point.

~ Kyle Welykholowa