Christophe's Spring-Scale Weigh-In

Way back on 04-Mar, Christophe had his first home visit, which involved this weigh-in:


I had hoped there was a better picture of it than this, but ... you can't always get what you want.

10 Lbs and Video

Christophe's last midwife appointment went down without a hitch yesterday. He's 10 lbs, 4.65 oz, which means he's been gaining 1.5oz a day on breastmilk alone, great news for us. So there's no further concerns, and we can now pretty much go to feeding on demand, although there's no harm in encouraging him to eat during the day.

Flickr.com is now video-capable, so we'll have to post some video of Christophe sometime soon.

Busy Times

Lost has happened since my last post...

Last Sunday Christophe went for his first "walk". We had been out and about many times but never for the purpose of walking. We bundled up Christophe and took the bug out with the bassinet, we ended up walking all the way up to the Danforth and picking up a few grocery items from a small market there.

On Tuesday this week we had a midwife appointment. Christophe weighed in at 8lb 2oz. He is growing too fast a few of his smaller onesies are already too small and a few pj's are getting there. It was Sara's last day as a student so it was nice to see her one last time. She is going to make a fantastic midwife. Sara said we can start weaning him off the formula so we have been doing one feed with formula one without. Most times (well 50% of the time) that we offer him formula he refuses it. After the visit we went up to my work to show him off to my colleagues and pick up a few items that I had left behind due to his unexpected arrival.

My sister called to let us know she is coming for a short visit. She will be arriving on Sunday and staying for a few days; I am excited to have her over.

On Wednesday we had a very exciting day... we started at the Big Carrot to pick up some food, the traveled to Queen street to go to Baby on the Hip were we picked up some disposable diapers, disposable wipes, flash cards and cloth wipes. The disposable stuff is for when we hit the town we only use cloth at the house. After that we stopped in at The Upper Crust for Supper and popped in to my pre-natal yoga classes to say hi.

In the mix of all of that I still found time to take some photographs of my favorite little guy.

Midwife Homevisit

We had a very eventful day today.

Both Sarah and Christie arrived at our house this morning at 9am for my home visit. The first thing we talked about was Group B Strep because I tested positive for one of the strains that is resistant to just about everything except penicillin and Vancomycin. Since I had some sort of reaction to penicillin as a child that only leaves one option Vancomycin. This being an extremely strong antibiotic that can not be administered at home. We are probably going to treat based on risk factors, there are a few things that can happen that makes it more likely for baby to get sick from Group B and if any of those variables happen we will be off to the Hospital. If I don't get anibiotics baby will have to get antibiotics so we will have to go to the hospital after the birth for baby so he can get a combination of ampicillin and gentamicin about 4 hours after he is born.

After that slight disappointment that at this point I have almost forgotten about; we went to the bedroom so I could lie down and they could mesure baby and check his heart beat. The heart beat was very low so they listen a bit longer and it came right back up; however they wanted me to go to the hospital for a fetal stress test that bay passed with flying colours.

The test monitors baby's heart beat and if there are any uterine contractions. Almost as soon as the monitors were on Christie asked if I had a Braxton Hicks and I said I don't think so. The monitor was registering contractions, that if I stood really still and paid close attention I could notice them. They kept on coming and have been there all afternoon now. Very mild I barely feel them.

Since I had more them one Christie wanted to check to see If I started dilating and by gosh I have today around noon I was 2-3cm dilated and 50%effaced. So this may be early labour, who am I kidding it probably is early labour, however early labour can last for any amount of time even days.

Christie will be coming by again at home in 30 mins or so to take my blood pressure, because in all of this my blood pressure is also high, high enough to make the midwives worry. If it is still high I will need to go back to the hospital and get some blood work done.

Will keep on positing as long as I am able to :-)

Midwife visit - Jan 24

Baby is well his heart beat is between 130 and 140 very normal for this time. He is still head down and Debra (who was replacing our midwives will they are on vacation) says he is growing fine. This visit they took some blood to test my iron levels, she said if there is a problem with the results she will call me.

Other then that yesterday we had our hospital tour (just in case we need to go). As much as the birthing wing is great at Toronto East General, this reinforced why we are doing a home birth and have a midwife.

The first thing that made me say to Geoff 'I am happy I wont have to do that' was the triage room, a large room with lots of beds that you wait in until you are dilated enough; however this is only if you have an OBGYN: midwife patients are triaged at home.

The rooms were all nice for hospital suites but having my own bed afterward, my own kitchen if I am hungry (there is nothing open near the hospital late at night), somewhere for Geoff to sleep that is not a horribly small surface (he is a big guy after all). It was also so warm in there that I though I was going to pass out.

However as much as the delivery bed is very hospital like it would be neat to have a bed that can do all of those crazy adjustments to help push baby out.

Midwife visit - Jan 10

Last Thursday morning we had a routine visit to the Midwives Clinic.  This time, I got to meet Sarah: she is a student midwife graduating at the end of March that will be attending the birth.  She is great.  There is something about students that I always love, and I can never place it.  She said she is excited to meet our Doula (Deanna) at the birth since she has heard from other midwives that Deanna is one of the best at what she does.  I also met Deborah briefly; she is considered our third midwife and will only be at the birth if both our primary and secondary midwives are already at births (so chances are she won't be there) but it's good to meet her just in case.  My next appointment will also be with her, since both Christie and Merhan are on vacation for the month of January.

I have to say one of the things I love about midwifery is that they do their best to make sure that you will know at least one person very well at your birth,  so you don't have a stranger helping and caring for you during the most emotional time of your life.

Despite the fact that mom was sicker then I think she has been for over 10 years;  (The last time I was this ill I think it's when I had Mono) baby was fine.

Mom's story first:

On Sunday I started feeling like I had upset bowels which caused me to go to the bathroom a lot,  I did not think twice about it since I have a lot of food sensitivities and it just felt like I ate something I should not have.  Lisa and I went out to do some errands during the day (Olympia Tile; Canadian Tire and Groceries) as 5pm was approaching I started feeling nauseous and light-headed.  As I am stubborn and wanted to finish my errands, I said "let's just hurry and do the groceries, you can help me and then we will go home."  I also grabbed a small snack because these days I sometimes get nauseous if I let my stomach go empty.  Well, was I ever wrong, we got to the grocery store and I started feeling worse so we left the cart as it was with a few bits in it and returned home promptly where I lied down.  Soon after that it all started.  I will leave it at: I vomited parts of me that I did not know was possible.  Once that stopped, the next morning around 4:30 am I now started re-hydrating myself but staying away from all foods until Tuesday, where we tried toast.  On Wednesday I was feeling up to eating bland foods in small amounts and am still at that point today.  If I eat too fast it irritates my stomach and I get killer heart burn that makes me feel like I am going to get sick. 

One thing I learned is that unborn babies can go 3 days or so without the mothers eating anything as long as you are drinking water; after that as long as you stay hydrated they can go for weeks even if mom is malnourished.  The only person that will suffer is mom.  However I don't recommend anyone to try this as it is always better to have a balanced diet.

Baby Story:

Baby is doing great he is in the cephalic position.  That is the clinical term for head down.  The has been head down since September so I am expecting a squished head baby when he born.  His heart beat is 140, a little lower then his typical 150, but Sarah said that is in the normal healthy range, so no worries.  However, she had a heard time finding the heart beat with the stethoscope since my tummy was louder then baby.  Baby must have had some 'sound show' the past week.

Midwife visit

I am at the midwife clinic patiently waiting for the second half of my glucose test. They need to draw blood 3 times... seems a bit excessive for someone that hates needles. I started by fasting from midnight last night still have not had a bit to eat. When I got to the clinic Mehran (my secondary midwife) gave me by glucose drink. I tastes just like orange crush. Now I need to wait an hour before the next blood work test.

Mehran checked my fundus height, blood pressure and the baby's heart beat all is good. I got the baby's heart beat on a recorder since Geoff could not come with me this morning. Once I figure out how to post an audio file I will add it to the blog. It's amazing how fast Mehran found the heart beat this time. Last visit they had to chase around my belly to find something.

Blood test number 2 completed need to wait another hour, then the last test.

One of the things that happens at every midwife visit that I have not talked about yet is that you need to check your protein levels in your urine. This supposedly helps detect if I have a urinary track infection or a condition called pre-eclampsia. At every appointment i need to pee on a stick. Such excitement.

21 weeks

I think I hit this great easy stretch in the pregnancy. I am sleeping well, eating well, my joints don't hurt as much.... However I am starting to feel fat. According to the scale I am not really that fat I only gained a few pounds from my conception date weight. This is probably due to the fact I exercise and cut down on the amount of junk I eat. However I still feel fat. It's probably because bending down is getting more complicated ( spread your legs then bend need to make room fro baby ) The other day I was vacuuming our vents; what was normally and easy thing to do, turn into this acrobatic feat. (Thanks Lisa for helping) First you sit down because crouching over for that long doesn't happen; then you do the semi splits with the vent in front of you then you can start doing the work. Another thing I have realized is carrying large things get odd you need to make sure it hangs below your belly. Which I find strains my little arms.

On another note I am eating more and more I think I need to be fed at every hour on the hour or I start getting nasty. I am just like a newborn baby don't get fed start crying. No it's not that bad but get what I mean.

Tomorrow I have my next midwife appointment it will be the first one that Geoff misses he is San Fran this week at a tech conference. It will weird not having him there as he has been to every doctors visit with me so far. Last night I called him to say good night to me and the baby. He is going to be such a great dad I held the phone to my belly and he talked to baby.

Oh and I have my car back yippy - it only took 2 weeks.

Midwife Visit II

Yesterday we had a second prenatal visit with Christie. She is really great and makes me quite comfortable. We got to hear baby's heart beat for the for the first time. I have to admit I had a tear trickling down. I can't believe there is life inside of me. She said that at every visit we get to listen to the baby's heart :-).

On another note I don't know what happened last night but I slept the whole night, did not even wake up to go pee. I must have been wiped.

Got to finish breakfast and go off to work.

Oh. for anyone wondering baby's heart beat was 150 - Christie said that was great.

Midwifery

So, we met our primary midwife today; she delivered Sebastian: Christie (sp?). Our alternate midwife was Kim and Jamie's primary. So, all in all, I guess we're in good hands; Sebastian seems to have come out ok. ;)

Also discovered that the Ella Centre for ... well, whatever the rest of the name is ... is closed 'til 2008, sadly.

Picked up a Le Creuset casserole so that I can do no-knead bread and casseroles when 'mommy' is getting 2h-stretches of sleep.