She's home (and been home for almost 3 months!)

I's home and perhaps the most telling part of that is the fact that we've been unable to post for so long. Things are wonderful. We surprised C's aunt and uncle when they came over for dinner that evening. We'll never forget her aunt's face when they came to the door - it was a good surprise and we don't get to do that often with them.

The first few weeks were really crazy. After going through it, we now know what the best gift is for a family with a new child --> lots of homemade prepared meals in the fridge/freezer because there is so little time to do anything but change diapers and feed that little mouth. It's so easy to forget to take care of yourselves!

Little I was up frequently throughout the night feeding and we had very little sleep. We kept her in our room so it would be easy to hear her and tend to her throughout the night and that remained the case for about two months. At that point, she began to prefer her own little crib in her room and so we let it be and she's been there quite happily ever since.

We've been on road trips to visit our families, picked apples, visited galleries, gone grocery shopping, gone to the movies, gone to the beach, enjoyed I's first Thanksgiving, had some professional pictures taken, and next week it will be her first Hallowe'en. Time is flying! Little I first turned over on Thanksgiving day. It was fun to watch despite her frustration with the entire situation.

I is now about 10lbs and we believe that her growth has started to level off or slow down once more. We're hoping that it is not the case, but we'll soon find out. She seems to be getting longer and bigger, just not a whole lot heavier.

So much has happened and not all of it has been posted here. It's been quite busy, but we'll try to write more. Speaking of which - it's past our bedtime.. time to sleep!

Our Little Girl Joined us May 30th, 2007

It's been a busy time. As noted in the last post we were told that our little one would be born the next day and it was true. Our daughter was born at 2:26pm on May 30th. C didn't sleep a wink the night before, as one would expect, due to the excitement and nervousness of course.
Everything went well with the delivery of our daughter, whom we'll call "I" here. She was born crying and weighed just almost 2.5 lbs. She was tiny and perfect and didn't need any help breathing! She has spent the last month in the NICU gaining weight and catching the eye of all the nurses in the unit with her subtle charm. Of course C and S are in love with her :)
We learned yesterday that she'll be coming home on the 6th of July. One of S's friends at work bet that she would be born on July 6th (his birthday..no less) so we'll be pleased to let him know that his birthday is still a special day in little I's life. We cannot wait to bring her through the doors of our house and finally enjoy our first weekend as a family. We will be having C's aunt and uncle over for supper on Saturday evening at the house. What a surprise it will be when they arrive and see her with us. We were initially told that she may come home next Monday, and we haven't updated them on that change yet - so we'll see how they like that surprise!

32 weeks 6 days

Bebe is 32 weeks and 6 days gestation today. It's been a bit of a rough go this week too. We learned that bebe is measuring very small - < 3rd percentile in size which is cause for concern. C's placenta seems to be having some troubles feeding bebe and as a result it has what is called Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) which causes it to be smaller in size. Fortunately, it is expected that bebe will catch up in size by 2 years of age. The unfortunate part right now for C is that her blood pressure continues to creep up (one of the signs of preeclampsia) and so she has been admitted to hospital to be monitored - basically until bebe is born.
*** post interrupted by phone call from C at the hospital ***
So, bebe is going to be born sooner than we thought - it sounds like it will be tomorrow - at least the induction will start. The rush of feelings going through both of us over the past week have been a bit crazy: concern, fear, worry, and of course excitement to meet bebe. The doctors have all been so positive saying that bebe has everything it needs at this point to be ok outside of the womb - it just needs to be fed so that it can grow.

Wow... I'm speechless. This could be the last day of my life that I'm not a parent. It's a big deal. I'm so excited.

The Verdict Is In! Bebe's Perfect!

Yesterday we had the 18 week ultrasound scheduled. At this appointment they take measurements of the baby to make sure it is growing normally. While we were waiting in the waiting room, our genetic counsellor, Hannah noticed we were there and came over to see how we were doing. We mentioned we hadn't heard anything about the amniocentisis results yet, and she took a moment to see if she had received anything yet and she had. She returned to tell us that the results were perfect and the baby is genetically normal! We were so relieved, had a few tears in the waiting room. I'm sure people were wondering about the tears, but they were tears of joy, and we said as much.

Bebe didn't cooperate with the ultrasound technician again yesterday. It was facing down and away from the ultrasound probes, so it gave a very good view of the spine for a very long time. Almost 3 hours of ultrasound later they finally gave up. Everything looked normal, from what they could see, but we'll have to return in a couple of weeks to get the final measurements of the heart and for the technician to see the baby's lips.


After a long day at the hospital, we returned home exhausted, but very happy. We're still both so tired today from the incredible rollercoaster we've been on over the past month. Everything is just fine thank goodness.

More later...
xx

Be Mine!

Yesterday was our 10 year anniversary! Yay us! It's crazy to think that we've been together for an entire decade. It is also nice to know that there were three of us celebrating our 10 years together, even though it was a rather quiet celebration. Yesterday we were hit with a snowstorm so we both worked at home. It was very nice to not have to commute.

There is still no news about the results of the amnio, which is a good thing because we're just at two weeks from having had the procedure done. We expect we'll likely hear sometime next week or the following week. We get to see our little one again on Tuesday. It will be the level II ultrasound where they check to make sure all the fingers and toes and other parts are developing normally. S was almost slated to go to Ireland next Tuesday through Thursday, but managed to get out of it, luckily.

Chinese New Year approaches and we're entering the year of the pig. That's S's year and the baby's year. S ordered a pig-shaped cake to celebrate this weekend. C has been feeling the baby's movement much more in recent days. S is still unable to feel it from the outside and eagerly awaits the day when she can. C is enjoying relatively uninterrupted sleep while it lasts. She's feeling much better and has more energy than in the first trimester, but still gets tired in the evenings after work. She hasn't gained much weight - perhaps 7-8 lbs in the first 18 weeks.

We have a lot to do in the second trimester. Getting our home ready for the baby is the main thing. We have to redo the kitchen and get a dishwasher and finish up the basement. C's sister will be living with us when she graduates and it's important for us to get a den ready so that there can be late-night movies and room for our computers. Before we can do all that we have to do a bit of purging. S isn't terribly thrilled with the idea, but it needs to be done.

So much to do... so little time.. time is flying!

Waited: One Week, One to Go!

They say no news is good news, and we're holding on to that thought as we move into the second week of waiting for the results of the amniocentisis. If we hear the results too soon, it's generally not good. So...

S returned home from work one night to find two messages on the answering machine. Right now we don't want messages on the answering machine - and - we don't want to hear from anyone of the medical profession right now. Tentatively, S listens to the messages and gets nervous when hearing, "Hello, message is for .... it's Dr. blahblah.." Doctor who? Thank goodness it was Dr. C - our optometrist!

..no news.. is good news.

C thinks she's felt the baby move a bit more frequently this week. Last night she woke up in the middle of the night witha bit of pain in her tummy and thought she felt the baby on the right. Up until this point she has always said she's felt the little baby flutters on the left. S still hasn't felt the baby through C's tummy but it's still only 17 weeks 2 days today, and considered early yet.

Today we're going to see S's mom, one of the grandmas to be. She was diagnosed with cancer in August and is in the hospital for the weekend. It will be good for her to see C and the little bump.

Holding your breath 5 minutes feels like forever...

This morning C had the amniocentisis. The doctor we had do the procedure was apparently "amnio guru". Because it is a large teaching hospital there was a resident with him that did the bulk of the procedures, but because our baby wasn't "cooperating" he did it himself and we were told everything "went very well".

The procedure itself was a bit painful because our little one was moving around a fair amount and the location where they had to insert the needle was very low in the pelvic area.

The baby looked good and measured 15w6d (which is right on track from the First Trimester Screen u/s). So that is good news. We now wait for 3-4 weeks for our results. Deep down we do think everything is fine, but we will know for sure then.

Another interesting tidbit.. the doctor asked us if we'd been expecting twins because he saw something that he said looked like a sac of sorts. We suggested it might be the fibroid they found on earlier ultrasounds, but he said those usually look denser. It makes us wonder if that's why the hcg levels on the FTS were so high in the first place, but wouldn't the papp-a levels correspond? Of course, we were too frazzled to put that together and ask him while we were there.

Hopefully everything will be fine over the next few days as C recovers and our results will be good. -crossing fingers-