It's been just over two weeks now and things are going pretty well. She's almost back up to her birthweight. She had dropped the accepted 10% of her weight in three days and I was pretty worried about it dropping more as my milk supply had yet to kick in. We had to supplement with formula for a few days which was nice for Joe as he was able to feed her that way.
We are off the supplements now, but it's still tough going with the breastfeeding. We're still trying to get the latch right so I'm not in constant pain! I have also developed a touch of mastitis, so the girls are feeling really tender right now. Apparently the trick is cabbage leaves.
In other news, I'm trying to get back in the swing of day to day life now. I have to start getting out on a regular basis. It's going to be tough to get out of the house with her in the winter, so I want to take advantage of the fall weather while it lasts. And her schedule seems to have settled down so I can maybe start doing things other than feed her and sleep now.

And finally, for posterity, here are pictures of her at one day, 9 days and 14 days.

Oh man, I can't believe that Stephanie got a picture of Z on her blog before I did. Bad mommy blogger! (Joe's got a great picture on his blog as well) To make up for it, how about a birth story?

As a prelude, here I am in Triage, trying to kill some time.


Let's see, I had left off when we were waiting for my sister to come pick us up to head back out the the hospital. We got to the hospital at around 9:30am and was immediately shown into a labour room. (funny enough, it was the same one that we went into on our hospital tour back in July.) After the on call doctor did a quick exam that showed I was 3cm dilated and that my water had in fact broken (this really made Joe question the abilities of everyone in triage) they started me on an oxytocin drip.

Around this time, I asked my labour nurse if I could maybe walk around a bit. But she said that because my blood pressure was high, I wasn't allowed to. This was the start of a day long battle with my nurse. Every time I asked her if I could do something, she said no without compromise and without suggesting any alternatives. I was very dissapointed because everyone had told me that I would come to love my nurse and I could see that it wasn't going to happen between the two of us.

Anyway, with the oxytocin, the contractions really started to ramp up. For the first couple of hours I was fine, but by 2pm, my lack of sleep (I had only gotten a couple of hours before my water broke) was catching up with me and I was having trouble keeping a lid on the pain. I was about 5cm dilated at this point and Joe could see that I was starting to lose it. Thankfully he started the ball rolling on getting me an epidural.

Once the epidural was in, it was amazing. My blood pressure dropped back to normal, and even though I kept the dosage low enough that I could still feel every contraction, the pain was magically gone.

Around 5pm, another exam had me at fully dilated, but the baby wasn't descending. She was still pretty high in the pelvis (-2 station if that means anything to you). The doctors had me push for one contraction to see if she would move, and she did a little, but they decided to take it easy for a while and see if the contractions could move her down some more.

By this time, it was close to 7:30pm and almost time for the nursing shift change. Boy was I looking forward to that. Joe thought it was hilarious, I kept asking the nurse if her shift was nearly over. I guess I wasn't being very subtle.

Finally the day nurse left, and like a hurricane, my new nurse blew into the room. Her first words to us after she introduced herself was "We are going to deliver this baby vaginally." Which really makes Joe and I think there were some very advanced conversations between the medical professionals out of our earshot about cutting me open.

It was such a different atmosphere after that. She was much friendlier, and had a really upbeat and positive attitude that really energized all of us. (And it turned out that she was neighbours with one of my brothers!) She came on shift at 7:30 and by 8pm, she had drafted Joe to hold one of my legs and had me pushing through the contractions.

Time really started to lose meaning for me then. All I know is that I'm glad that I kept the dose low on the epidural because I was able to feel when to push. To the extent that I had to keep telling everyone when to get back in place for me to push.

I was scared that the pushing was going to go on for a while because my first nurse had said that it took an average of 2 hours per station to get the kid out. So that meant at least 6 hours according to my last exam. But apparently I'm really good at pushing. An hour and a half after I start pushing in earnest, out she popped.


at 9:37 pm on Sept 2nd 2007, Z was born. 20" long weighing 7lb 4oz.

And our first family portrait:

Just a quick note to say we are all doing well, just very tired. We're starting to come out of the haze though.
Thanks for all the best wishes. We're having an amazing time with her and when I get more than a couple of minutes to myself, I'll post pictures of Zoë and tell you all about it.

By the way, they weren't kidding about the 2nd night were they? It has now been dubbed 'the worst night of my life!'

Game On!

Well, I thought my water broke at around 4:20 this morning so as per my doctor's instructions, we made our way to the hospital to make sure the baby was in the correct position.
When we got there, the tests said that my water hadn't broken, but the ultrasound showed less fluid than the resident liked around the baby. Added that my blood pressure was starting to get high, they decided that they wanted to induce. Unfortunately, there wasn't a free bed at the time, so around 7:00am they sent me home telling me they would call when they could fit me in.
The call came at 8:15am. I am currently waiting for one of my sisters to pick me up to take us back to the hospital to be induced. I am having very mild, irregular contractions right now, but that's it.

The next time I post, I guess it will be with baby!

The warmest babies in Toronto

Ok, let's talk baby showers.
A couple of weeks ago, two of my very good friends, Stefanie and Maria got together to throw me a shower. (here they are preparing before the event)

Because it was the middle of summer and for some reason people like to take vacations then, not everyone could make it, but the turn out was still enough to fill Stefanie's back yard. (who knew I had so many friends?)
Games were played, food was eaten (lots and lots of food) and fun was had.
There were also many presents for the little one.
A few highlights from the gifts include:

A really cool bib with a hand embroidered duck from Jasmine (along with a Beatrix Potter book)


A kimono designed and made by my neice


and of course the baby monitor otherwise known as the 'walkie talkie set' from our friends Todd and Cait.

There was a lot more, including some really cute outfits and lots of necessary blankies, towels and diapers. But I'm a bad blogger and not much of it is recorded for posterity. But it will all be used, I assure you!

Then, last night at Lettuce Knit, the regular Wednesday night stitch and bitch turned into a massive 3 way baby shower for myself, Jen and Mel. Sadly none of us thought to bring our cameras so we will have to depend on the kindness of others - mostly Laura, for pictures of the actual event.
But I did take a picture today of all the beautiful knits that I have recieved for the little one. Stephanie mentioned that these three babies will be the warmest kids in Toronto this winter and I have to say I agree.


That's everything from last night, plus a couple of knitted things that were given to me earlier.
Across the bottom we have the orange placket sweater from Jill, the wrap sweater from Jean Anne, the bonnet and bootie set from Mel, and the gifts from Jen - the stuffed frog, the green booties, one of my fave kids books The Very Hungry Caterpiller and some amazing smelling Lush soap.
Next row up is the sweater from Laura made from her own handspun, and the infamous Tulip sweater from the Stephanie.
Above that are the blocks from Emily (whose daughter I love and would steal away in a second if I wasn't about to have my own), then the unbeliveably cute booties from Erin, across the blanket we have the stuffed ice cream cone (we've decided the flavour is french vanilla) from Aleta and Rachel H's gift of the beautiful stuffed sheep and the book, Is Your Mama a Llama.
But the piece de resistance is the amazing blanket that everyone from SnB contributed to.

Thank you to everyone. I can't believe how lucky I am to have such great friends and I can't wait for my daughter to meet all you wonderful people.

Another week, another doctor's appointment, another position for the baby.

At least this time, it's the correct position! Finally! She is head down with her back towards my front. She actually responded to the stern talking to she got from Joe last night to stop fooling around. This has really relieved a lot of anxiety on out part. We had been a bit terrified that we would go in for our appointment and the doctor would say 'what the hell, let's just get her out of there now' and start prepping me for a c-section right there - this actually happened to someone I know at work. I don't know the details of why she had to have a c-section, but her doctor decided at her weekly appointment that he had to get the baby out that day, but the way she told it, it didn't seem like it was an emergency. I've had a bit of irrational fear of that happening to me and it has spread to Joe.

I do have to admit that I am starting to really want her to be outside rather than inside now. I'm not necessarily sick of being pregnant, but I am getting really impatient. The tiredness and back aches have also increased to make me just not enthusiastic to do much of anything anymore. I am baking though, which I have been told means that labour is imminent.
It's funny, last week, I thought, no way I'm giving birth before my due date, now, I'm not so sure. For the longest time, I've has it in my head that she would be born on the 6th of September, but this last week, I've moved the estimate up to next weekend. I'm officially due the 3rd and I think I'll hit very close to that. Now I'm not sure that my body is telling me that or if it's just a case of wishful thinking!

Sorry about the lack of post last week. We went away for a few days and I've just been keeping myself too busy since we got back.
But the news for the week is that the baby changed position. She is no longer lying posterior but is now lying transverse (ie: sideways). This is worse. If I go into labour and she doesn't change position the likely course would be a C-section.
After 8 months of smooth sailing, now she decides to act up!
We are trying all we can think of to convince her to lie head down. I've been playing music through headphones very low on my pelvis, and Joe has been trying to talk her down as well. She moves around a bit when that is happening, but then it seems like she just goes back to her new favourite position.
This does give us a bit of hope though as she still seems to have a lot of room to move around in, and I don't feel like I'm going to be going into labour any time soon so we have some time to work with.
I've been told that swimming would help as well so I think if it's warm enough tomorrow, I will be off to my sister's place to just hang out in the pool for a while.

Well, I've officially started my mat leave today. It's really strange to think that I won't be going back into work until next September. Since going to work was the only thing giving my weeks structure, I expect to start losing track of what day it is by the end of the weekend.

I am happy about being off (really, who wouldn't be?) because now I can really concentrate on getting ready for the baby. Since at the end of the week I will be 37 weeks gone, I am considered full term!!! That means that technically, she can come ANY TIME NOW!!! and I am in no way ready for her. Joe is, but he doesn't have a house to clean and piles of baby clothes to launder. He put the crib up earlier this week (holy shit, there's a crib in our bedroom!) so his job is done. (this is not to say he doesn't help with cleaning the house, it's just that he doesn't feel quite the same need to say, clean out the fridge, like I do.)

I'm actually a bit intimidated by how much I need/want to do around the house before the baby arrives. I haven't hit the point with the nesting instinct that I have to start moving the furniture around or anything, well, only a little, but every time I look around, I see more places that I should really unclutter, and really is it so unreasonable to rent a carpet steamer for our one bit of carpet in the hallway?
But I will not start today. Today is all about me enjoying a day off. I hit the spa this afternoon for a pedicure that I got for my birthday. It's at the Elmwood, so I will be 'taking the waters' there before hand. Then I meet up with Joe to do a little shopping downtown and then off to meet up with everybody's favourite Drunken Knitters. The nesting instinct can wait until tomorrow.

A couple of things are making me worried today.

After months of being able to feel the ouline of the baby's bum and spine pretty clearly, it seems like sometime last week she decided, enough of that, and has turned. This means her back is now lying against my back and she is facing outward. This does not make me happy. The most immediate problem this creates is that she is now pressing on some nerves which is making my legs a little numb. It's not painful (that comes later) but it is strange and unnerving to not be able to feel front of my thighs when I walk.
The much bigger problem with the baby lying in a posterior position is that if I go into labour with her that way, it is reportedly a much more painful experience. Not to mention that it generally takes longer as well. Apparently there are things you can do to make her turn before labour, but it doesn't guarantee that she'll stay there!

The other thing that is worrying me today is my itchy feet. Apparently this could signal a problem with my liver that could result in a still birth. I did not know this prior to today. (The internet really can be a scary place!) It's been going on for a couple of weeks now, but I didn't think to mention it to the doctor. The numbness seemed so much more serious. That goes to show you that you have to mention every little thing to the doctor! I don't think it's much of a problem since I really only have the itching as a symptom, but I'm glad the doctor's appointments have ramped up to once a week now. I think I can wait until Tuesday's appointment to ask about this.

To end on happier news, my workmates threw me a surprise shower earlier this week! I was actually surprised because I don't finish until next Thursday and I didn't think they would do something that early. I got lots of great stuff including a few things off my registry. I've got to get down to Toys R Us and make sure they get taken off the list.

Oh man, so much to do and only one more month to do it all in!

Last night, Joe and I attended a baby care class given by Sunnybrook/Women's College hospital. This is different from the prenatal classes that we've been going to on Thursdays as this one only deals with the kid for the first three months of its life.
We got to change diapers on a doll and pretend to burp it. We got tips on how to bathe the kid and a really hard sell on carrying your baby (which we were already going to do anyway) which included a demonstration with various kinds of carriers - the baby bjorn, the ergo, the heart to heart sling (which Joe got to demonstrate) and a wraparound carrier (I forget which brand exactly). It was a fun class and all the couples were really into it. Joe and I really have to work on our swaddling skills though.
I have to say that all the pretending last night made me really impatient to be done with the pregnancy part of this whole thing. Joe and I both came out of the class just wanting to be able to hold our own baby.
It doesn't help that in the last couple of weeks I've been feeling more and more uncomfortable every day. It's little things like, as we were walking home last night, I couldn't figure out why my pelvic bone hurt so much. I started to rub the area and I realized it was because her head was resting right on top of the bone, more or less grinding into it as I walked.
And I thought sleeping was bad a couple of months ago! I'm finding it completely impossible to find a comfortable position to sleep in. When I toss and turn at 4 in the morning, I think she thinks it's playtime because suddenly she starts to roll and kick in there which doesn't help the sleeping any either.
It's really only minor irritations, but I am starting to see why women at the end of their pregnancies are suddenly so sick of the whole thing. It's been a great run, but lets get this thing over with already!

In that vein, I just filled out my last time sheet at work before I go on leave! (only 15 more days - 5 of which are weekends - before I'm out of here! Woot!)

Well, on Tuesday, we finally got around to picking up the crib from my cousin. Now all we have to do is assemble the sucker!
Joe has been getting really antsy about it as he wants to be sure we have everything ready. I think he got spooked when he learned that the baby is considered full term and could be expected anytime after the second week in August. I personally think she's going to come after my due date. After all, my family is not really well known for their punctuality.

It's funny thinking that my pregnancy will be over really soon though. Lately there have been a few things that have underscored how little time is left before the baby comes.
The day before yesterday, a friend from work who is on Mat leave stopped by to give me the first presents I've received for her.
Yesterday, I passed a church with a sign out front advertising a rummage sale for Sept 1. That kind of freaked me out. There shouldn't be ads for things happening in September already!
And tonight, we go on the hospital tour with our neonatal class.
It just seems that things are happening way earlier than they should. It's still the middle of July after all!
We've still got tons of time! Right?

3D ultrasound!

The sharp pain seems to have receded so I am just putting it down to a pulled muscle of some sort. She's still moving and I can hear the heartbeat occasionally with our fetal monitor so I wasn't as panicked as I could have been.

Tonight starts a panic of a different kind though. We start our prenatal classes at Women's College tonight. 3 hours every Thursday night for all of July. Joe has already said to me that he really doesn't want to watch any movies that they might want to show him. And God knows I've been in a bit of denial about the whole birth thing myself. I'm not sure I'm ready to confront exactly what to expect during the process. Why oh why have we gotten away from the days when, at the first sign of a contraction, they knocked you out and when you came to, they handed you a baby? Why did I decide to actually bear a child rather than adopt? I can barely stand the leg cramps I've been getting at night.

Just my luck.
As you know, I haven't had any major problems at all this entire pregnancy. But now that my OB-GYN is on holiday for the next couple of weeks I am suddenly experiencing some weird sharp pain about an inch left of my belly button and I would really love his reassurance about it.
It's intermittent but occasionally very painful. Especially when I first get out of bed. It started yesterday morning, and for the most part it went away as the day went on, with only small twinges every now and then. But this morning as I was getting out of bed, it really hit me. I actually had to lie back down for a little bit until the pain subsided.
I can still feel her moving around, so I'm not too worried, but I would like to know what's going on.
Should I go to the hospital for this? Part of me feels that it isn't that serious and that I would be wasting hours just to find out it was perfectly normal, but then I can't stop thinking and worrying about it!

Due to a combination of my being late for the Doctor's appointment on Monday and the baby not being in a optimal position for a 3d picture, we did not manage to get a 3d ultrasound done on Monday. We are going to get another appointment for the ultrasound. We are determined to do this!!
We did get the sizing done though. It seems that even though I am still losing a bit of weight (back down to 159lbs where I started!) she is growing well. The technician said she was of average size and weighed about 3lb 4oz. They also told us how she is positioned - head down with her spine against my left side. I'm not sure if she is still positioned like that. She does like to move around a lot.
It did give me a sense of just how big she is in there. I don't know. I've always thought of her as sort of two dimensional, but for some reason, now I can picture the depth of her. It is a bit disconcerting to realize just how large she is now and how large she will become in the next couple of months.

It has come to my attention in the last couple of weeks that I now occasionally waddle.
I figured it had to happen sooner or later, but I didn't expect it to start so soon!
It seems to be happening when I feel her very low in my pelvis. I guess with her lying in certain positions, it's difficult for my body to work the way it usually does. If I can feel her kicks higher in my abdomen, I have no problems walking (fairly) normally.
One of my sisters actually told me that I shouldn't waddle just because that's how I think pregnant women walk. I had to laugh. Who in their right mind would choose to waddle? It is the most undignified walk this side of the Ministry of Silly Walks that I can think of.

There is one really cool thing that has been happening lately. When Joe talks to her by putting his cheek on my stomach, he says he can totally feel her trying to touch his jaw bone. She's not kicking it, just sort of pawing the area where the vibrations are coming from.
She's reacting to our voices very consistently now. And when I play music for her, she really starts to move. Joe says he's starting to see my stomach bulging out when she moves now too. She's getting big and pretty strong!

On Sunday afternoon, my sister Shirley and I took a little trip down to Toys 'r' Us to finally register for some baby stuff. One of my friends has been bugging me for months about registering, but I always feel very uncomfortable doing things like this. It always feels like such an impolite thing to do.
I did feel it was somewhat necessary in this case though. Since we have already gotten so much stuff from people, this would mean we won't get a lot of repeats of things. And I tried to keep it down to the absolute basics. Although, I admit near the end, I just started scanning whatever my sister pointed out to me. Those barcode scanners are just too much fun.
I did forget to add the Wii that Joe suggested, but I think I can add that online.
We also got some free samples for registering which was nice. Not a ton of stuff, but it's always nice to get free stuff!

The sugar test came back and I technically don't have gestational diabetes. The doctor is still a bit concerned that one of the three blood samples came back elevated though. So I have to see a dietitian again. It's a bit frustrating because I know what the dietitian will say - eat more vegetables and high fibre starches and cut down on white bread and high in sugar foods. I know this. I just maybe don't follow it very strictly all the time.
I really do think my initial high sugar reading was a result of all the leftovers from my birthday party. I was eating sugary desserts every day for three weeks before that first test. Thank god it's mostly all gone now.
I was also surprised yesterday that my weight went down again. Two weeks ago, I came in at 164lbs (up from 158lbs the month before) and now I'm back down to 161lbs. was that also due to my cutting down on the sugary foods?
And to end on an exciting note, in two weeks we will be getting another ultrasound. I've booked it as a 3-D one so hopefully we'll actually be able to see what she looks like!

Just finished gorging myself on Japanese food after my 2 hour blood sugar test. Man was I hungry. The fasting for 12 hours beforehand was tough!
Now we just have to wait for the results.

In other news, I went over to my sister's house the other night and she gave me more clothes. Mostly stuff for older kids that I now have to find a place to store. But she also gave me a lot of things my other sister and I made for my niece. There is a blanket that I knit as well as a couple of sweaters and some overalls, and a dress my sister made. She wants all this stuff back so my niece can have them when she gets older, but it's great that they will get used again soon.

There was one more thing my sister gave me. A very special but unremarkable looking onesie.
It is the one thing we know for sure belonged to my oldest nephew and I assume was passed on to every other grandchild of my parents. This sucker is almost 28 years old. it thrills me beyond words that I have this. This one my sister does not get back. Pretty soon the original wearers of this thing will be having kids. It has to keep moving on.

Just got a call from the doctor's office. I just hate those.

It seems my glucose test came back slightly elevated and I have to go back and do a 2 hour sugar test. This time I have to go on a special diet for two days before doing the test again. I pick up the diet information tomorrow. sigh. I guess I have to cut down on the frozen birthday cake I've been having for the last month!