Better than the hospital!

Angela loves me :)
She brought me this beautiful breakfast tray this morning before she left for work. Way better than the hospital!
I love her so much!





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Mellow Yellow

So we were sent back to the hospital by the midwife to have a jaundis test done. It seems Maizey had lost more than 10% of her birth weight and was appearing yellow.
We spent the night. Ang and I on our little cot and Maizey in her incubator under the photo therapy lights. Feeding every 3 hours 15 min per breast, then a quick diaper change and a top up of formula, it really was a good night... We seem to have a better routine going and Maizey seems to be more content. My milk is finally here, so she's getting more with the breast feeding. I'm just waiting to get that pesky first BM out of my way! Ugh... Constipation :(
A few poor quality iPhone pictures for you.


Me at babies r us about 11 hours before giving birth.



Light therapy



Baby butt cracks are sooo cute lol



Mama's first turn to feed her!



Maizey is sleeping now!


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Welcome to the world!

Maizey Anne Preciosa is here! (early and quickly)

I went to bed on Tuesday night after experiencing what I thought were either Braxton hicks contractions or just maybe some gas. I woke up to pee at 12:30am on Wednesday and thought it was strange that I was still having these little weird cramps... Am I stupid? Just maybe.. More likely denial. So, when I woke up at 2am to pee again, and I was still having them, I woke Angela ... She decided that she was going to time them. They were average 3 min apart lasting about a min each ... We decided to page the midwife at about 230. She told me to have a bath and if they intensified... Page her again...
OH BOY! Did they intensify? YES they sure did!
The midwife was on her way to our house, and so was my mom!
At 4:30 am, my water broke as the midwife arrived to the house. At that time, I was 5 cm dialated. Contractions closer together with little relief... 5 am .. 7 cm dialated. We left for the hospital. 20 min drive... 5:25 am pants off, onto the birth table and pushing while having blood work... 5:58am- Maizey is here!!!!! "she's not even ugly! She's actually beautiful!" I LOVE HER

She took the right breast for about an hour off and on, until I was whisked away to the o.r. ... Yep the O.R people!!! Little miss may be a tiny 6lbs 6oz, but she came trucking into this world traveling at speeds beyond vaginal threshold! I was put under a general and had my parts put back together. Stiches? Too many to count.. Trauma to the bathroom bits (yes, both front and backside bits), too graphic to describe, and every bit as painful as you can bear to imagine.


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Time Goes By...

Only 2 days left of work. I wish I had put in for earlier leave, but I will certainly enjoy the last full paycheck. Im really starting to get worried about financials, just because everything is so up in the air.
We had a staff meeting on Wednesday, and all my co-workers threw me a mini baby shower/party. It was very nice. My fireman friend made me the funnest cake.


everyone keeps asking me if i have any feeling as to when the baby will be coming. I really don't. She will be here when she's here is what I keep telling them. My body is showing signs that it is getting ready, but that doesn't mean it will be soon. At the midwife appointment this week, we talked about what happens if I go over due. Ugh.. that's discouraging. LOL. Only 10 days until the "due date" but up to 24 days until the baby is actually here! wow. that's like a whole month. lol.

getting closer

19 Days to the due date! I had my midwife appointment today. Everything is still right on target. All my measurements have been dead on each week. My strep b test came back negative as well so that is good. Heartbeat is good, head is engaged. A week and a couple days left of work. The time is coming.
We had our shower on the weekend. If you know me on facebook, I have shared the album on my wall. I don't have a copy of the pictures on my computer yet, so I can't put any up on here. We got so many great things, and saw so many people I don't to see often enough. It was a great shower. I was surprisingly tired after it was over, even though it was only 2 hours long and I was weighted on hand and foot the whole time.
I'm getting excited for her birth, and to have her here with us. But I am also getting nervous that I am going to miss her being inside there. :)

Counting down

Ok, only 4 weeks left. I'm getting excited!! Ange is getting excited!! Our shower is on Sunday and we are very much looking forward to it. It will be the first time that Angela gets to meet most of my cousins on my dad's side. We really don't get together to much so I am really happy that they have all rsvp'd yes to the shower!
Everyone keeps asking me if I am getting nervous about the delivery. I don't feel nervous at this point. I guess I look at it the same way I look at most things that commonly make people nervous. "the time will come, I'll do my best to get through it, my future is unwritten ... But I'll end up coming out the other side with a new experience, one more page in my story "... Really I don't get how nervousness would help the situation any. But maybe that tune will change! Who knows.
Just over 2 weeks of work left if I last that long. A lot of my joints are getting achy and my lady parts are really rather sore.
I have been doing what I can when at home to make sure things are in order for little one's first days at home.
I am anticipating the paperwork for EI and all of that. It frustrates me that I can't do it until I am finished work. I like to have anything related to money and income set up in advance. I went through a time when I was not great at managing and now I try hard to know well in advance how our financials will be organized.
I have still got to pack my bag for the hospital, but am procrastinating. I suppose I'll do it this weekend. I hope.


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Time for an Update

I've been sick for the last two weeks. First I got a cold that started in my nose/sinuses, then moved down to my chest. It's still lingering, and pantie liners are my best friend. Then I got some form of a flu. I was throwing up, and well... the other end too. But that seems to be going away now. I am taking tomorrow off work again just to be safe.

In the world of baby. Not much else going on. We seem to have got the shower figured out. A friend of ours will host a shower for my family, and the "English" speaking friends. And then after the baby is born, Angela's sister and niece will be hosting a shower for her family and the "Portuguese" speakers.

Time is just whizzing by. 6.5 weeks left. WOW. I can remember when this was something I worried would never happen, and here it is. So exciting!!

Angela's dad was cute at Thanksgiving dinner...
He wanted to make sure that I got the baby use to eating Portuguese food. :)

There is still lots of movement in there. Not so much kicking but more like rolling around. It still makes me smile, and it doesn't even bother me when it wakes me up in the middle of the night. I usually have to pee anyway.

We still need a change table. It is hard to know what to buy ourselves. I mean we will be having a shower in two weeks.

Angela is still working like a mad woman. I hope she can slow down a bit when the little girl is here.

OK.. Now I'm tired and need to lay back down for a while.

I'll try to post more often.. but can't promise.

Eeek!

Woah! 9 weeks left! Where did all that time go? I feel so not prepared! Like we aren't organized enough. I've moved into maternity pants now and they are comfortable! I love them.
We went 3 weeks ago for an ultrasound and she still looks like a girl!
Tomorrow we see the midwives. Pretty routine I'm sure. We are up to visits every two weeks. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is doing my own strep b swabing :(
Things are going really well with angela's family. Seems the accept just fine. I'm still welcome to their home... Just the other day angela's mom made reference to me taking good care of ange when she's sick. I think it helps that no one else in her extended family thinks anything of us being a couple. They are all fine. Even her grandmother!


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28 weeks

I had one last ultra sound today because on the last one they couldn't get a good view of hands, feet, spine and heart... today.. we saw it all. And she is definitely a girl.
We're having a bit of a baby shower dilemma.. we have 60 people + who we would like to invite. But this is rather large for a baby shower is it not?
I guess we could have 3 different showers and do one for Angela's family, one for my family and then one for friends. Oh I just don't know. We have plenty of people who are willing to throw the shower. I just don't know what to do. We will be having the shower before the baby arrives as doing it after would put us too close to Christmas.
Does anyone with experience have any advise?

wiggle wiggle

Here I am... 26 weeks. I guess time has just flown by. I can remember thinking about how far away this would be. Now, here it is. She is wiggling around like crazy in ther most of the time now. Of course, any time I want her to, so that people who want to can feel her, she is absolutely still. LOL. Last week she put on quite the show for Angela and I both ... for a long time. It makes me giggle still to feel her moving around, so Angela always knows when she is kicking, cause I randomly giggle.
I love it. :)

back from camping

We got back from our camping trip last night at around 11pm. EXHAUSTED! it was a great time, but we wish we could have gone for longer. The weather held out for us with only a few sprinkles on Saturday evening, mostly after we were in the tent for the night. Good thing we put that tarp up! lol.. Ang and I had a disagreement about how the tarp should be put up, so I left it to her, and in the end, it turned out ok... worst thing is, we would have been fine without it at all.
There was a bear in the campground again this year.. apparently it was spotted at 1:30am about 150 m from our tent. We didn't hear it or see it though. Because there wasn't much time and the weather was threatening to rain, we had a hard time deciding how to spend our time. We would have gone hiking and all that had we had more time there. Michael and I did go for a swim in the lake. It was so nice.. i loved it.
Most of the time was spent around the fire, just talking and playing stupid games, joking and telling stories. It was very relaxing. Two nights is worth it, but I wouldn't do just one. Not that far away anyway. Maybe one night stop over somewhere, and with the guarantee that it wasn't going to rain, and we would only use just the tent... it's just so much gear with everything, for a one night trip i would feel as though I took everything out and then put it away again...

25 Weeks pregnant today. Little baby is making lots of movements in there. Sometimes i can see my whole belly move but not often. Angela has yet to really feel her moving in there, but we're hoping soon. I am scheduled for another ultrasound on September 9. There wasn't a good view of hands, feet, heart and spine in the last one (I guess not of the sex organs either), so we have been offered one more. My one cousin died a couple months after her birth because of a heart defect, so we have accepted the offer for the third with hopes of seeing the heart better.

I have pretty much used all of my vacation time up for this year... but that's ok, there is only really 3 months until I get my year off for Mat leave. I haven't quite decided yet when to go off. I am dreading all the paperwork that comes along with Mat leave. I have always hated filling out forms etc.

ok.. well.. that's the update for now.

long overdue

i guess i have just been in a slump lately. I've been neglecting so many things. Blogging happens to be one of them. Well today is the last of 5 days off for me. I think I have finally got things going again. I did clean the basement, main floor and then the upstairs. Could it be "nesting" already at only 23 weeks? What ever it is, i am sure Angela appreciates it. Although she is constantly telling me to take it easy. She has been working 60+ hour weeks that last while and I don't expect her to do any house work... the thing is... I have been lazy and not doing it either. I think before yesterday the last time we really cleaned the house was at least a month ago. I mean sure, there has been minimal tidying but no actual cleaning. This week changed. Not only did I clean, but i CLEANED OUT. I actually parted with some precious items that have been in the basement for years in boxes not being used. It is kind of funny the crap we keep but will never need, use, search for, or want. I feel good. Fresh. I am finishing up the last few loads of laundry and then, I will be done. I am actually even cooking a real dinner tonight. Not really a "summer time" meal, but it is one of Angela's favourites. Roast beef, with mashed potato and broccoli. She deserves a nice home cooked meal. Not just pre-made crap that has been re-cooked in the oven.
I have noticed one thing about all this hard work. Every single time I spend time working on something physical, my back gets completely painful and stiff. Not enjoyable, but again, not debilitating either, I have never had a great back, it always "goes out" (whatever that really means) on me. But never this frequently.

An Update on the Angela's parents situation:
We went on the weekend to our nephew Lucas' birthday party at Angela's sister's house. Mom and pop where there. I won't deny that I was a little nervous about seeing them, but it went fine. I was acknowledged and they were even polite to me. It really wasn't any different than before. I honestly think they just need some time.

23 weeks pregnant now. I haven't yet gained any weight. The midwives say that is perfectly alright as I am overweight to begin with. I am going in a week for my 24 week visit. Can't wait to hear her little heart beat again. Although I am feeling better about things now that I feel her consistently moving about in there. She really doesn't like when I have a full bladder!! lol.
Angela is excited to feel her move too, but just can't yet. I anticipate it will be in the next couple weeks that she will begin to be able to feel the little movements.

Angela and I have a weekend camping trip in a couple of weeks. Our friend Michael is coming with us as well. We are going to Algonquin Park, which was always one of my favourite places to go when I was a child. My dad took my brothers and I pretty much every year until I was 12 or 13 and stopped wanting to go. It is hard to get a site reserved in Algonquin because it books up so quickly, But I managed to squeeze in a weekend at Pog Lake, when I looked for a site 4 weeks ago, there were only two available for the weekend we were looking for. We are thinking it might be something we want to do with little baby girl every summer, just as a tradition for her. Our friends Darla and Murray have a family cottage near to the park, and this year we happen to be going the same weekend, so we will probably meet up with them at the park and their kids can swim at the beach etc. (Their cottage is not directly on the water).
Looking forward to everything. Including my 2 day work week this week ;)