Abscence makes the heart grow fonder

Today is my first official day back to work - albeit a modified day. I won't be back to regular hours of 10-7 till February, but working 12-5 is enough for now. As I was hanging out with Lake this morning I couldn't help but notice the changes in him already. He is starting to be more reactive to noise/sound. It still takes him a little while but he is starting to look for the origin of whomever is talking to him - especially when Tym is around. There is a difference in him when she is talking/yelling/singing/shouting/doing anything. I'm not sure if it's because he is trying to figure out a way to crawl back into the comforts of the womb where he was safe from her, or if he is eagerly waiting to see what she'll do/say next. He is also starting to "talk" more. I forgot how adorable the coo-ing stage is - especially when they surprise themselves by doing it. He is really quite a great baby and already a bit of a drama king (queen?). When I change his diaper he lets me know in no uncertain terms how upset this makes him. Right when I'm almost finished his cry changes to one of "fine - i give up, but I'm still not happy about this!" If he keeps it up, Tym may have a run for her money in the drama department!

Happy Holidays to everyone. Our first Christmas as a family of 4 is winding down. It was awesome... Some pictures have been uploaded, more will follow.

It's amazing that it's been 2 weeks already! His cord finally fell of today as well.

How time flies!

Lake is already 11 days old! It's crazy to us that it's passing so quickly!

On thursday he was 10lbs 14oz. We see Denise tomorrow - I'm betting over 11.6 at this point... he's changing so quickly. His cheeks are back, he's very solid. Not to rolly polly yet, but I am sure that's coming. he definitely does not look like a newborn. Everyone that meets him can't beleive he's just a handful of days old.

We officially put away all 0-3 month clothing - way to small. The sleeper he was in today was a 6 months - and it fit perfectly. Oye! We had to move the straps on his car seat up to the next level already.

he's still a great baby. so far sleeping very well through the night. Twice he's slept 4.5 hours straight - I've woken up before him hoping he's wake up soon to releive the pressure in my breasts! He's got a couple good alert periods during the day where he'll make eye contact and try to mimic your expressions. it's pretty awesome.

Tym is being such a trooper. She loves him to bits!! We've had to put the law down in no touching the baby when he's sleeping... she LOVES kissing and hugging and holding, which leads to waking! She is super stoked for Santa this year. It should be a pretty awesome christmas. She's also turning into such a big girl. It makes me glow but sad all at the same time. It's amazing to watch her become her own person,but I want my little baby girl back!

It's hard to beleive that Christmas is here in 2 days. OYE! how quickly the time passed. I am glad we were well prepared and had most of the shopping done. And the xmas cards as well - they won't get there in time for xmas - but they did get mailed today :)

I am healing pretty well - so much better than last time. I can do stairs carrying him no problem. I took him to his first chiro appt today all by myself. it was weird to drive and have room between me and the steering wheel! I still need to take it easy, to much standing wears me out.. But overall 200% better than last time.

His first chiro appt went lovely. he totally melted into Kelly's hands when she was mobilizing his head bones... so much so he had a huge blowout. Of course he comes up in perfect health... Head's a little flat (probably from a long labour pushing on my pelvis). It will form itself over the next few weeks.

Tomorrow I'll upload some new pictures... for now tho - I'm heading to bed, everyone else is sleeping - so I should be to!

Updates....

So we've been bad at updating... sorry.

Lake turns 1 week old today!! Holy crap! How quickly times flies...

Quick recap on the week.

I went into Labour wednesday night around 8. Went to the hospital at 7am. Checked in by 9:30. 3:30 decided it was c-section time - 7:30 finally get in OR. 8:00PM lake Grey was born. Meag and the midwife whisked him to the nursery and to our room where Christa and Abby were waiting with Tym. Tym fell in love on first sight. (uploaded some pictures) Meag brought him down to recovery once I got there and he nursed for a bit, then we went back to the room.

Friday morning Meag went and got Tym and brought her in for a little while. She was so excited to spend time with him. Then she took her to Beth and Jesse's until Sat morning. Friday night Matt, Sarah and Ivy visited, which was lovely. Sat Jesse brought Tym in for a bit, and Andrea came to visit.

He's been a good sleeper except for 1 night so far. We got home from the hospital on Sat night. It was sooooo nice to sleep in our own bed. I've just started moving from our room - so far this incision feels a lot better than the one with Tym. I can definitely tell I've had surgery however!

Denise came by on Sunday and he weighed in at 10lbs 3oz - babies are allowed to lose 10% of their birth weight before they go back up - losing a pound only put him at 9% - chubby boy! On Tuesday he weighed in at 10lbs 9oz. He put on 6oz in 2 days. Needless to say my milk came in. Which was a total surreal experience considering it didn't really come in with Tym - but trickled in slowly. We've been feeding him every 2 hours or so during the day - to leave longer stretchs at night to sleep, so far it's been working good.

We are interested to know how much weight he's put on today, Claudia should be by. She'll also finish taking out my stitches.

Monday was our first outing - I had a chiro appt, then we picked Tym up from school - she was stoked to show him off!! Yesterday we went shopping for the first time - the Herb and Spice. It was quick, he lasted better then I do. I was wiped when we got home!

Meag has been amazing!! She's done everything around the house. It's been exhausting entertaining the kid while trying to get snuggle time and everyone feed. She should get a glod star! Right now she is braving the mall to finish up the last of our xmas shopping.

I think that's a quick run down of Lake's first week. thank you to all our friends who've been over to help out with food or playing with Tym, it's been invalubale!

A little more crazy than last time

Lake is now 5 days old and tipping the scales at 10.9lbs. He should be back up to birth weight by Thursday at his next "weigh in". Deah's milk has fully come in and the boy is chomping at the bit for it. So nice to see and hear the big gulps and so very different than Tym's first 5 days. She didn't get back up to her birth weight till she was 19 days old. Very scary for new parents to go through. But also the main reason why we are on Lake so much to nurse every 2 hours. He is quite the baby: very alert - will maintain eye contact for a good 20-25 seconds and is quite strong through his neck too - it's not unusul for him to pick his head up and hold it for a good 10 seconds.

2 funny stories to share already:

When he was 14 hours old Tym tried to feed him a raisin because his mouth was open so he was "hungry". My first lesson in don't take your eyes off the kids for a second! Thankfully I fished it out in time.

When I changed his diaper in front of Tym for the first time, I pulled it off and she very excitedly yelled "It's a boy!"

Just a quick note... We are home all safe and sound. How nice it is to be here. A family of 4.

I am healing well - it's different having a c-section with a bouncy 3.5 year old at home - whenever she's close, I'm very aware of her limbs as she's been to close more than once!

Lake is doing lovely - my milk is coming in and he's eating like a fiend. Tym loves him more than life - it's amazing to see.

Meag is being a dream doing everything, since I'm not suppose to move for a few more days. She's doing everything including entertaining the kid while being exhausted. Thank God she's super mom.

Feel free to come on over and play with Tym or help out around the house and get a quick baby snuggle :)

A few pictures have been loaded - more will come once we get the cord for Abby & Christa's camera.

Meet Lake Grey

Lake Grey Le Blanc was born via c-section after 22 hours of labour on Dec.11 at 8pm. He weighed in at 11lbs.2oz (I know!), 20" long and lungs working to full capacity as he let us know he was finally here. Everyone is well and once we're out of the hospital we'll give the rest of the details.

Maybe now - again?

The stretch and sweep combined with acupuncture really did get things moving. We had our labour support team basically on stand-by all day which meant no one had supper plans. So after an impromptu dinner with Christa and Abby and their help with getting Tym bathed (I had to run out and take care of work scheduling issues) we settled in for what proved to be another long night. We called the midwife and our labour team back over around 130am with Deah having contractions every 2-3 minutes lasting close to a minute. Definitely the most intense of her contractions yet. Lots of relieving counter-pressure to her low back to help her breath through them. We even sent a message to those in attendance of the baby shower that everything looked good to go. And then with Deah looking quite exhausted, we settled in to try to rest and everything started slowing down - again! Claudia stayed till about 6:30am but it was clear that labour had stopped for all intents and purposes. It's a tad frustrating and more than a little disappointing to say the least. Thank god Christa and Abby were here this morning as the offer to take Tym to day care was met with glee - from both Tym and us. I'm not sure how co-operative she would have been without them here. So the waiting game continues with Ole taking his time and a snow storm outside. All the makings of a fantastic trip to the hospital in the middle of the night!

Maybe now?

Things were getting a little interesting today. Deah had a hard time staying asleep last night with contractions and (here's the TMI for the day) bloody show. All good signs that early labour was starting. Things continued on early this morning and we sent Tym off to school telling her nothing (why get her excited when we don't know when or how long yet?). However since this morning things have stalled. Contractions are farther in-between though they are lasting longer and are more intense. Claudia (our midiwfe) came over and did another stretch and sweep with Deah being about 50% thinned out and much softer in the cervix then even on Sat. We then headed out to accupuncture. Hopefully with all this things will pick back up later this afternoon. Deah's feeling a little frustrated with the stopping and starting (sorta) of it all, and perhaps we are jumping the gun a bit in our excitement. Either way we'll post more when we know more.

Thursday I had another stretch and sweep - and my cervix was still not very friendly. And OWW - when it's not ready, it's not ready!

So I had acupuncture on Friday - which was awesome. I felt a couple contractions during the session... And proceeded to get crampy all day yesterday. It was good to feel things at least doing some work.

Last night around 2:30 I woke up to my very first contraction. Not to intense - running from my back to belly. It was weird. I had a couple more and took the advice I had heard from a lot of people, if things start in the middle of the night, have a hot bath and get more sleep! So I was back in bed by 4:30 - and have not had a contraction since! It's now 8:45pm!

Claudia came over today and my BP is staying - not rising - around 128/85. As long as it doesn't rise we won't have to consult an OB for it. She did a S&S and it was the first one that I was not in pain for - it was uncomfortable, but I didn't even think she had found it. and it was 40% thinned out... So the cramping yesterday and contractions overnight have been doing some work. Now we want it to work more!!

Claudia did mention that they probably would not let me go 2 weeks over my date due to his size and it being a VBAC. She's on call until Wednesday and really hopes to see my before she's off call... with a baby in arms!

At this point I would really like him to be out. I feel like time is ticking sooo fast but so slow on the other side.

Come on Newton, come meet everyone that wants to see you!

And the count is in....

Everything looked fantastic on the ultrasound. It was really surreal to see so much of him... Most ultrasounds you get, you can't really tell it's a baby - we seen him practice breathing, which was cool. His heart pumping lots, the creases in his fingers! And what a cute little nose!

We also seen his bits again - it's definitely a boy. Meag doesn't have to worry about the dream she had a few weeks ago.

Placenta looked good. Fluid was normal - which we were a bit dissapointed at. I wanted there to be lots of fluid so he wasn't as big... Alas - the tech did say that they usually over measure, and at this stage of the game, the measurement could be off by almost 2 lbs.

10lbs 11oz
So even if we take off almost 2 lbs - he's already over 9lbs. Or over 10lbs... Who knows! He's not a small boy.

I am starting to feel better which is good - hopefully my body will be ready soon and prompt him to come out :)


Tym has been amazing. It was so hard to tell her that she wasn't going to be able to catch him like she's wanted... But she's taken solace in the fact that her favorite playmate Abby - will be here to play with her :)

how quickly plans can change....

Yesterday sucked.

The weekend was Ok - we decorated (not the tree yet) for the holidays and did a few things. I've been fighting a sinus infection since last week - and it finally got to me. By Sunday afternoon I was miserable.

Yesterday morning we had a midwife appt. Claudia tried to do a stretch and sweep, but my cervix was hiding. It was quite uncomfortable. I've since heard it hurts less and the cervix gets ready... Let's hope so! After that lovely experience she does the measure and listening thing. Newton's heartrate was good as always. I was measuring almost 46 weeks.

Gulp.

We then have a discussion on how it's probably best if we forgo a home birth, just to be on the safe side.

In 1 sentence so many hopes dashed.

I know it doesn't mean that I can't have a lovely beautiful med free natural birth. It does mean that there is a highly likelyhood of having more invasive treatments. I am trying to stay positive in it - as I know it is just a precaution. And I want to do everything to know that he's in the best hands and safe... I just really hope he lets me have a natural labour.

With his size and my blood pressure slowly creeping up, I am not sure how love they will let me go past my due date... that's a talk we will probably have with a midwife on Thursday when we go for another stretch and sweep.

This afternoon we are having an ultrasound to check his size and to make sure that the placenta still looks good. Apparently with big babies it can deteriorate quicker.

On top of this - I went to the dr yesterday to get meds to make me feel better. The only good thing that came was there was NO wait and I was home in 25 minutes with drugs. I totally did not want to go on antibiotics so close to birth, but there was no way I would have had the energy to labour otherwise. Plus my body could be waiting until I feel better to work on the whole explusion thing :)

So I'm on meds, we have to pack a hospital bag and we need to work to get this baby out sooner than later.

If anyone you know wants to have a homebirth, I have all the supplies one could need including birthing tub and tubing for sale!