Devil thy name is colic

Two weeks after moving in to our new digs, we finally have the last box unpacked.  Thank God!  That was the longest two weeks eva!  Little Isla definitely makes herself a priority.  She made sure she came before any unpacking was done.  She also makes sure she wakes up and screams right as we're getting ready to eat dinner.  Barry and I now eat in shifts. Which brings me to another topic:  Colic.  Colic = the Devil.  It appears our Isla has become, over the past four days, a bit of a colicky baby, which yes sucks for us because we have to endure the crying that we unfortunately can do nothing for, but even worse, sucks for her because we know she's just not feeling well and again seems there's nothing mommy and daddy can do to help.

We've tried just about everything:  baby massage techniques, Infacol drops, soothing formula (which why they don't make ALL baby formula soothing is baffling to me...), Dr. Brown's colic bottles, cool boiled water, burping her in every position possible.  We have even started thinking about doing some of the odd suggestions we get from those we talk to on colic cures...including holding her upside down or swinging her from her feet and making the sign of the cross as this is done (which kind of sounds exorcist-y...yes, that's a word).  It also reminds me of this video I saw once before and has since scarred me for life.  It's a disturbing video I will say before you watch it...be warned!  I know you'll watch anyway but I did warn you!



But, when you see this little face, it sort of makes you forget about the colic cries.

Me and Isla.

Isla and her daddy.  She's defo Barry's double.  

We are such liars

Well, I guess I may as well just come clean about this.  Truth is Barry and I knew we were having a girl all along.  Hehe.  See, Barry's mom and dad didn't want to know what the gender of the baby was, so we had no choice but to keep it a secret...well, kind of a secret.  The sex of the baby was kept secret from everyone here in Derry, but everyone in America knew it was a girl.  Sorrrrrry Derry folks!!! We had no choice and couldn't say to one person otherwise the news would have gotten back to Barry's parents and then they wouldn't have been surprised on the sex of the baby.  I hope you understand...we couldn't help it especially since news travels like wildfire in Derry...forgive us?

Taken in Buncrana, Ireland October 2011.

Anyway, I've been dying to post pictures of my baby shower that my friends and family had for me in America when I was home over Christmas and now I can since the whole world now knows we have a precious baby girl.  It was super cute and nursery rhyme themed.  Check out the shiznit cake...cool, huh?

A star is born

Holy Schnikey!  What a friggin' week!  Wellllll, in case you don't already know, baby Isla Grace Concannon arrived last Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 5:52am weighing in at 6lb and 11oz.  She was born after 24 hours of labor at Altnagelvin Area Hospital in Derry, Ireland. 

For everyone that told me that labor would be a piece of cake because I was soooo fit from Zumba, let me just say you were WRONG!!!!  That was the most excruciating pain that I've ever endured!!!  Not to mention, the Nazi nurse midwife I had a row with in the postnatal ward didn't add to the experience. I'll expand on these experiences later, but for now this is just a short post.

Not to worry though, any headache or labor pain I had was well worth it because it brought me a perfect little girl.  Oh, and Barry and I thought it would be a good idea to move house the SAME day we brought our baby home.  Yes, we love stress.  My blood pressure hates me right now.  Say hello to Isla...

And, our new house...

My week of demands

With one week left until the baby is due, I've decided that Barry has had it pretty easy in terms of the husband of a mommy-to-be.  I've been a very easy pregnant lady!  No cravings, no mood swings...yes, seriously!  I feel like I've missed out on being a hormone crazed woman these past months, so I'm going to make up for it this week.  For example, I've decided one of the things I'm going to do is crave and demand Neapolitan ice cream at 3am sometime this week.  I don't know what night exactly, but I DO know that it will be Neapolitan ice cream and that we have none in the house.  So, that means Barry would have to go out at 3am and get it for me.  Yes, I did see a container of Neapolitan ice cream at Asda yesterday and thought about getting it, but then I thought that would take all the fun out of it...if we actually had it in the house.  So, it was not purchased.  I don't know what else I will come up with, but I'm sure it will be interesting.  I wonder how Barry will cope with this week?  Especially since the only place open with Neapolitan ice cream at 3am would be Tesco allllllll the way on the other side of town.  Is that mean?

Also, with one week left until the baby is due, I thought it would be nice to have some cool pictures of me being pregnant.  I tried to talk Barry into having a photo session similar to these ones below, but he didn't go for it (these photos were taken from awkwardfamilyphotos.com).  Dunno why!

That's just gross.

This was someone's Christmas card?

Uh, WTF?

So, instead of doing a photo session similar to these, we decided to take a run up to Fort Grianan yesterday.  In case you don't know, Grianan is an ancient ring fort a couple of miles outside of Derry and it is on a large hill.  So high up you are able to see four counties from it. Yesterday probably wasn't the best day to go since it was FREEZING and rainy and windy...all of this intensified when you're that high on a hill.  Plus, the fog was unbelievable as you'll see in the photos. We were lucky to see four fingers in front of us let alone four counties.  But, we went anyway and took a couple of photos since all I had so far of me being pregnant consisted of me just standing up against a wall as you can see from this blog post.

Our chilly photo shoot:

That white haziness is the fog...for reals. 

Barry is also taking some time today to practice his labor ball techniques.  You'd think I would be the one doing it, but nope.  This ball is supposed to help bring on labor and is also supposed to be used during labor to ease pain.  I'll be lucky to get a turn on it at this rate...he's having way too much fun.

Seven pineapples can make you give birth

Another ultrasound yesterday of baby breech revealed a shocker!  The baby was not breech...so, my cute little nickname of baby breech will have to change.  I'll just be creative and change it to baby non-breech...that's a word, right?  So, good news!

Now, we just have to wait two weeks at least to be able to see baby non-breech.  Although, I'm not sure I'm going to make it that long.  The sleepless nights are getting to me.  As the three other males in the house (Barry and the two cats, of course) snooze away during the night, I'm left awake to struggle to find something to do because it certainly isn't sleeping.  There are only so many things on the Internet you can look at and so many reruns of CSI or Law &Order you can watch before you're ready to put your head through a wall.  Oh, and as of right now, baby non-breech weighs nearly 7lbs!  With two weeks left to go and the typical rule that babies gain a half a pound a week in the last trimester until their born, I'm quite concerned the baby is going to be larger than my body can cope with...ouchie.

So, since I'm not too keen on waiting much longer, I've decided to see if some of these old wives tales about inducing labor on your own work.  Some of these were given to Barry and I at are last prenatal class as well.  Although, I don't know that I'm willing to try all of them. Here are some:

• Eating seven fresh pineapples all at the same time.  I have a feeling that a baby wouldn't be the only thing I was giving birth to if I were to do this if you know what I mean.  Hmm...I wonder if seven pineapple upside down cakes would work instead?
• Castor oil.  Um, no.
• Eating spicy curries.  Well, I hate curry, so that's not going to work.  I'm sure spicy anything would work, but I'm wondering just how much I'm willing to put my mouth and acid reflux through just to kick start the process.
• Sex.  Well, it makes sense.  The same thing that got me in the situation could get me out.  Sort of like coming full circle.
• Washing the front door step.  Well, to be honest the front door could use some cleaning, but we don't have a step.  I supposed I could wash the sidewalk in front of the front door, but perhaps the rain will do it for me instead because I just couldn't be bothered with that.
• Walking.  I'm so uncomfortable walking right now.  Does 9 hours of Zumba a week not replace the walking?
• A hot bath...okay, now that I can handle.

So, anyway, I guess I should stop complaining and get doing some of these things.