Day Out With Thomas

Thomas The Train was here in Calgary and so of course we took Ethan.  When we bought tickets a couple months ago, we were hoping to have decent weather but that wasn't the case.  It snowed all weekend although at least the temperature was right around freezing so it wasn't brutally cold.  Luckily, most of the activities were inside so it was just the walk from building to building that we had to deal with the snow.  Ethan passed up some of the activities (craft, tattoos, and face painting)  because all he wanted to do was play with the train tables.  Ethan says his favorite part of the day was the jerky stop of the train. 

First Month Photo

With Ethan, we took monthly photos in a bushel basket from the farm.  After much thought we finally came up with an idea for this time around.

Easter

Wade gets off Good Friday so Easter weekend was a long weekend.  We tried to enjoy it as much as you can with a one month old. 

Friday morning we went to the farmer's market which was having some special Easter activities.  I was able to convince Ethan he didn't need to get a photo with the Easter bunny since the line was extremely long.  He did decorate an Easter egg though.  The market was very busy including the playground area which Ethan did not like. 

On Saturday, we took a drive up to the mountains.  Sunday, of course, the Easter Bunny stopped by to fill Ethan and Abby's baskets.

Wade had bought a big brisket to smoke for Easter so we invited Andre, Jen and Erik over to help us eat it.  We dyed and hunted Easter eggs and as usual the boys had a good time together.  

Kananaskis - Lower Lake

Easter Weekend we took a short drive up to the mountains.  We went to the Kananaskis area and just drove till the road was closed (it's only open in the summer), turned and drove to the end of the road again.  This ended up being the lower lake.  Wade and Ethan got out and walked around a little while Abby ate and then we drove back home.  It was nice to finally make it to the mountains and we hope to make it more often.

Snow melt

Since I posted this last year, I thought I would again this year.

The snow in our yard official melted April 19th.  This was several weeks ahead of last year in Edmonton.  We had been down to a small patch in the shade for a couple weeks.  We got more snow on Good Friday, April 18th.  On Saturday, it warmed up enough to melt the new snow along with finally melting the last patch of existing snow.  We have gotten a little snow since than but it hasn't been much and it melted the same day or the next day. 

Aggie Days

We tried our first big outing with Abby to attend Aggie Days which was put on by the Calgary Stampede.  Attempting to bring the farm to the city, it had animals, activities, farm equipment and more.  Abby and I only made it for about the first half of the exhibits plus it was very busy so we were usually standing back out of the way instead of trying to push the stroller through the crowd.  Here's a few pictures I took when I could get close enough.

Newborn photos

I wasn't organized enough to get newborn photos taken with Ethan but I thought I would attempt this time.  We had them scheduled for a Saturday morning but since Abby arrived a couple days early, the photographer wanted to move them up a few days.  Wade didn't take off work to go because we thought we would do family photos in a few months when Abby is a little bigger.  My mom was visiting so she was able to go with me to help keep Ethan busy and out of the way.  Abby did really well although she didn't seem to want to cooperate with everything we tried.  Overall, I was happy with the finished product.

Abigail Rose

The wait for our newest addition finally ended on March 23rd.  I started having contractions Saturday evening about 7ish.  We went to the hospital about 2:00 and Abigail Rose was born at 8:08 am.  She measured 21.25 inches and weighed 7 lbs 7 oz.

Abby got to watch her first KU basketball game just a couple hours later but unfortunately it was her last one till next season.

About dinner time, the nurses came in and mentioned that although we could stay until the next day, we could also leave after 12 hours so we headed home that evening.  It's always better to sleep in your own bed plus even though we didn't get much sleep the first night Wade and I were at least able to take turns and get a little sleep which we probably wouldn't have gotten at the hospital.

 

The next day, an Alberta Healthcare nurse made a home visit to check weight, jaundice, the heel prick test (not sure what the offical name is), watch a feeding, etc.  We were told this service is why their hospital stays are shorter than what we have back home.

Here are the answers to a few questions I've been asked:

• We had great nurses while at the hospital.  My only complaint was that I barely got an epidural even though I had asked for it a couple hours before.  I think this was just bad timing not necessarily an example of bad service - they wanted the doctor to examine me before officially admitting me but the doctor was delivering another baby and then a preterm labor came in and was the doctors next priority.
• We didn't have to pay anything for the hospital stay, prenatal doctor visits, postnatal visits, and newborn visits.  If we would have had a boy and wanted a circumcision, we would have had to pay for that because it is not covered by Alberta Healthcare (and I believe all provinces).  Plus this would have been done in the doctors office not at the hospital.  
• We delivered at the new hospital in Calgary so it was very similar to back home except there wasn't a nursery to send the baby to if we wanted to.  We hear that some of the other hospitals you have to pay to upgrade to a private room after delivery and that the dad's aren't allowed to stay past visiting hours (which just seems so wrong to me).  I felt like the hospital didn't have the extra's that we experienced last time at Menorah.  Menorah had a nice food station in the hall with snack food and although the hospital here also had one it was just water, juice, and crackers.  The cafeteria food was also better at Menorah and they let the dad's order a tray which wasn't an option here.  I know most hospitals back home also give you a free water glass so they can monitor how much water you drink - we didn't have that here and I was feeling a bit dehydrated so Wade had to make numerous trips to get me little glasses of water from the hall.
• We have scheduled Abby's first round of immunizations but I don't have a list to compare them with what is given in the US.  The big difference is that we have to go to the Alberta Healthcare office instead of our doctors office.