Friday, February 24, 2012

36 weeks and a false alarm.

So I have reached the 36 week threshold and the past couple of weeks have been very exciting.

We celebrated Wyatt's 3rd birthday the weekend before his birthday and it was a great time as both sets of his grandparents were able to make it as well as some close family friends.  It was a surprisingly smooth brunch (at our house) considering that there were 10 kids in the house.

The next day, Geofford somehow injured his back which was a little stressful for the family as I have been quite restricted in what I am supposed to do around the house.  We were able to balance things but he was completely out of commission for a couple of days dealing with the painful back spasms.  Just as Geofford started feeling better, we had to take Wyatt to the hospital Thursday night (the day after his actual birthday) as he could potentially have a hernia and he had a high fever and started vomiting.  The doctors felt that the fever and vomiting were not related to the hernia, but just as a precaution we had an ultrasound to check out the hernia.  We will be meeting with the pediatric surgeon to discuss the results Tuesday, February 28th, so hopefully everything turns out ok from that.

We also celebrated our niece's first birthday which was very special.  She is not going to the baby in the extended family for long, so it was nice to celebrate her special day.  Family Day was quite uneventful, but we were happy to be able to spend time together as our family of 4.  We were also able to get some cute photos with me and the boys.

Mom with her two boys
Now to the false alarm part - I started feeling contractions last night (Feb 23) at about 10pm.  They weren't super uncomfortable yet, but at the same time the doctor didn't want me to labour so I was trying to avoid going to the hospital for as long as possible.  Finally, I called the triage at the hospital and they recommended that I come in just to get checked out.  After we had made arrangements for my mom to come and take care of the boys, Geofford and I headed to the hospital at around midnight.  The nurse and doctors did determine that I was having contractions but not enough to trigger having the c-section especially since the baby is still technically pre-term.  Also, since I had two previous c-sections this next surgery will be a little more complicated as there will be more scar tissue so it would be better to have the surgery during the day when there are more doctors around in case of any complications (eek!).  We ended up leaving the hospital at around 5:30am with instructions to return if the contractions became more painful or if I started experiencing other symptoms of labour (water breaking, etc.).  So far, I am still having contractions about every 7-10 minutes, but they are not yet painful enough to return to the hospital.  I am hoping that things don't progress tonight as there is currently a snowfall warning in effect and things will be really messy outside....but we shall see, this baby seems to have a mind of his/her own.

From the Environment Canada website



Monday, February 6, 2012

The countdown is on!

My c-section date and time has been set for March 9th at noon.  This means (in my head) that the baby will be born sometime between now and March 9th.  I would like to have faith in my OB and believe that the baby will be born on March 9th, but that is 38 weeks and 1 day.  Historically (with only a sample of 2), I have never made it past 37 weeks 2 days (Connor) and Wyatt was scheduled for 38 weeks, but was born a week and day early (36 weeks 6 days - which apparently is pre-term, which is funny because he weighed 8 lbs 2 oz).  With both boys I had emergency c-sections and I have a feeling that Baby #3 will be no different, but I am still hoping for a March baby.

Although I want the baby the baby to come out (selfishly because I am getting quite uncomfortable), I know that it is still too early as I am only 33 weeks and 4 days, but it is still a vast improvement of 25 weeks 4 days when I was admitted into the hospital.  The next milestone that we have set for the baby is to make it past Valentine's Day and Wyatt's 3rd Birthday (Feb 15th).

As I am setting milestones for the baby, I realize that we have to start getting ready for the baby's arrival.  My labour bag and the baby's bag are ready for the hospital and we have a room with a crib in it, but it is not ready for the baby yet as it has become a dumping ground for things without a home.  My biggest frustration at this point is that I can't really do anything, except make lists for Geofford.  I would like reorganize the baby's room so it is set-up a little differently than it was when Wyatt was living in that room.  My mother in law has kindly sorted through all of our kids clothes, so the baby's dresser is already fully stocked and ready to go, so that is done.  

The other big thing that we have to do is purchase a mini-van.  Geofford had to be convinced that it was the right thing to do because although it is theoretically possible to put three carseats in a Honda Civic, it really isn't all that practical (especially for a woman who will be having a c-section).  We have narrowed down the van selection to the Toyota Sienna.  It has all of the features that we want and the dealership is close by so servicing the vehicle will be convenient.

One of the things that I am able to do is surf the internet.  A friend of mine invited me to join Pinterest in the fall (let me know if you want to join...it's addictive), which is a place to view other people's Pins or find cool things on the internet and Pin it.  It's a virtual bulletin board to post up things that you think are interesting.  Some of the "boards" that I have created are: Recipes, DIY crafts, Home improvement, Places that I want to visit, etc.  Through this site, I have been able to come up some ideas for the kids' rooms, crafts for them to do and recipes that I want to try.  I have also started planning Wyatt's birthday party using the site from recipes for the food, to decorations for the house.  We shall see if I can actually follow through with any of the ideas...

Another thing that I have been looking out for is potential poses for the portraits of the new baby with the kids.  Below is a practice of a baby portrait that I found.  The boys were pretty excited to try, but it will be interesting to see if we can actually pull it off once the baby is born.
Connor and Wyatt practicing a baby portrait pose (with Mirabel - my cabbage patch kid who is "standing in" for the baby.  I found the pose on Pinterest, but you can see the inspiration here on the Shanna Michelle Photography website...the picture on the site are stunning!
As the title of this post indicates, the countdown is on.  The baby will be born in 32 days (or less), so in just over a month we will be a family of five!  That will definitely be a new adventure :)