Margaret (Baby M) had a weight check yesterday. The midwife was concerned that she wasn’t gaining weight fast enough as she only gained 3 oz in 2 weeks. At weigh in yesterday, she was 7 lbs 7 oz. 2 ozs above her birth weight! Yippee! And she gained 10 oz in one week. Piggers.

I, for the record, am back down to pre-Baby M pregnancy weight. Now just to lose that other 20 from the 50 I gained with Karol.

Karol is doing well, he is using more of his sign language and aside from an occasional tantrum is a good helper and a great eater.

We have been teaching Karol a few signs here and there. Mostly signs that I remember or pick up from my sister in law. Karol has just laughed at us when we have signed words to him though. Milk, ha ha ha. Eat, ha ha ha. You get the picture.

Today I fed him his lunch (peanut butter on a tortilla, apples and grapefruit juice) and sat down to nurse M and eat my own nutritious lunch of beef flavoured Ramen.  K came over to me as I started eating and begged for food. I gave him a bite, then quickly ate about 1/2 the bowl, so I would at least get part of my lunch, the kid is a mooch.

After he was done eating his bite, he signed “more”! While I wasn’t too keen on sharing my lunch, how could I deny him?

I found out earlier this week that our bedroom door doesn’t latch. How did I discover that? I am glad you asked!

Sometimes when Margaret is hungry, I  go up to the office and nurse her while checking email and reading the news. When I do this, of course Karol joins us. I close the bathroom door, my bedroom door and put the gate up at the top of the stairs. Karol is free to roam in the office or his room (where he likes to dump out his clothes or all the Legos.) The other day, I heard a door close and thought he closed his bedroom door but after about a minutes, I didn’t hear any noise and a glance over my shoulder told me the door was still open. Off I went to search for him.

Bathroom door still closed, bedroom door still closed, his room empty of human life. Where oh where could he be? That’s when I heard a noise coming from my room. I opened the door and let me tell you that I am GLAD that I  sought him out when I did. Why? I am glad you asked. I guess we had a thing of petroleum jelly on the changing table and he grabbed it and managed to open it. Fortunately he only had it on his hand and a little on his shirt when I found him.

Today he rediscovered the bedroom door and let himself in, closing the door behind him, of course. Being hip to his plans now, I quickly followed him. He was “folding” laundry. That is, he was emptying the basket of diapers that are waiting to be folded. Nice.

For a while know, Karol has been folding his hands to pray. He just started one day, probably in the middle of December. He folds them when we pray before eating a meal (and looks to us for approval, very cute). And recently, he started doing it during Mass.

Well today, as we were leaving Mass, he did what appears to be the Sign of the Cross. Well, if you didn’t know what to look for you might miss it, but it was there. What a smart kid!

Saturday morning, at Mass, Margaret smiled for the first time. You can say it was gas all you want, but I know she smiled. It was a big as the day is long. She smiled right at her Papa and he was mighty pleased. I was too, even if I did catch the tail end of it. She also lifted her head up for us the other day. This girl is AMAZING! She taught herself to nurse, sleep through the night (5 hours is what counts as the “night” and she does it most nights!) and she lifts her head all at less then 2 weeks old.

Of course there is a Karol update too. He is handing me a Rosary right now, that must mean I should be praying and not blogging. Other things he has started to do as of late: making monster noises, sharing toys with Margaret, singing at Mass and whining. I hope the whining goes away soon. Any tips to help that would be great! As for making monster noises, he does it all the time and it is quite funny. For sharing with Margaret, the other day, I ran up stairs to get my shoes, leaving Margaret in her bouncy seat downstairs and Karol playing with his toys. (I am sure that I am a bad mother for doing that.) When I got back downstairs, Karol was patting baby Margaret’s head and putting some toys next to her. Good kid.

That’s about it for right now, keep an eye out for new pictures and don’t forget to check out the forum!

We have a little baby! Margaret Thérèse was born at 8:05 pm on Wednesday 10 January 2006. She weighed in at 7 pounds 5 ozs and measured 20 inches. (Just a little bitty one). She is quite beautiful.

The birth was amazing. I had irregular, strong contractions all day long but nothing was really happening. The midwife said I was either on the cusp of having the baby or that I might go on like this for a few days. (Ick, even at 15 minutes apart, contractions are not the way I want to spend my days.) We sent Karol out with Miss Kristine Keeney for some dinner and fun at some friends’ house to see if a little distraction would help things along. It did.

At 7:05 pm, I declared I couldn’t/wouldn’t have this baby. (FYI, this is a sign of transition, that the baby is in fact on its way.)
I showered to see if that would help then Joshua filled the birthing pool up. Our midwife, Mary Ann, arrived shortly thereafter. She was bustling around when I went to the room with the pool in it, leaned against the bed and said “I can’t do this.” After a few major contractions, one right after the other, my water broke and we moved me to the pool (not even half filled, but I wanted the warmth and comfort the water helps to provide). I had a few more contractions, debated again not having the baby when my body decided that pushing would be a nice thing to try. I pushed once (I am willing to say I didn’t even push because, while it hurt, there wasn’t much effort) and out came Margaret Thérèse.

She is stunningly beautiful with dark hair and long fingers. She has Joshua’s colouring but the rest of her features are hard to figure out.

As for the name, Margaret Thérèse, we named her after my mother’s mom, Margaret Kress and St. Thérèse Liseaux.
Check out the link to the pictures: http://pictures.catholicmumma.net

Welcome to my blog. The blog of a Catholic Mumma. This blog is part of a whole big website to be called Catholicmumma.net. At Catholicmumma.net you will find a forum to discuss NFP, Home Schooling, Modesty, Social Concerns, Home Birthing (from a Catholic perspective), Pro Life issues and last but not least, issues that come up in every day life trying to live as a Catholic Mumma.
I hope to have the whole website up and running soon. In addition to the forum, there will be pictures of my wonderful children, Karol Jozef (Age:1) and the soon-to-be-known baby, due any day now. But that’s not all! I will also share with you delicious recipes that I find and test out, I will also share with you my daily triumphs and struggles in being a Catholic Mumma. I will also post social commentary about things I hear out and about in the world.

I hope you all come back to visit again, soon. Please email me and let me know if there is anything you would like to see on a webpage dedicated to Catholic mummas.
Beth