Okay, so I am typically a very sentimental person. I keep track of every birthday/event/memory and never forget it. I'm the kind of person who could be walking in a store, see someone who i went to pre-school with (and never saw them since) and recognize them. To me, every person I meet stays with me. After I had Sophie I was so sad to leave the hospital b/c of the wonderful nurse, Peggy, that we had. So I'm saying all this to just give an intro...I'm a sentimental person.
Yesterday, my baby girl turned 1. I cannot believe it. Although the newborn colicky days seem so far off, I remember holding her in my arms in the hospital just moments after giving birth, like it was just yesterday. Back then, Sophie was a tiny little thing, so alert and observant, not missing much (hmmm...nothing's changed there!) Now, I see this bubbly little thing who waves at everyone, gives them her cheesy smile, and is Miss Explorer.
People always told me to not wish the early days away because before you know, they'll be graduating from college. I think I can understand that now. I don't ever want to go back to the colicky days, but you know what, in the whole scheme of themes, it is such a short moment in time.
Holding Sophie in my arms yesterday as she was sleeping, I just was brought to tears as I looked at her sleeping so peacefully. This precious little jewel who has filled my life with more joy than I ever thought possible, is growing up too fast for me! I am trying to treasure each moment b/c I know how quickly it goes by.
Happy Birthday, baby girl...you'll always be my baby, no matter how big you get.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
My birth story
My baby girl is 1 today, so thought I would re-post my birth story that I wrote a few days after Sophie was born...here it is!
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I had my last day of work on Friday, didn't feel any symptoms or signs that labor was pending. That night, I went to bed at 10:30 and woke up to change positions at midnight. When I did that, I felt this "gush"....I immediately said,"Jeremy! Something is happening!" I ran to the bathroom and there I continued to "gush", so I knew my water had broken. We called the hospital and they said to come in when contractions were every 3-5 minutes for an hour, or by 6 in the morning if contractions hadn't started yet. So Jeremy and I were busy getting last minute stuff together to go. I laid down for an hour, and by 2am, I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes, they felt more like menstrual cramps, not too bad. We left for the hospital at 3:15am, and by the time we got to the hospital, I was feeling the contractions more. At 4:30am, I started walking the hallways and by this point the contractions were really strong, but walking seemed to help a lot. After about an hour of this, it became too unbearable to walk so we went back to the room and tried to find different positions that worked. I tried the birth ball which I had really wanted to use but I felt worse with that. Finally, I found that sitting on the edge of the bed helped. The contractions kept intensifying in pain level, as well as time, I was having 45 second-1 minute contractions every minute and a half so there wasn't time to recover. At 5:30am, I was only dilated to 2 1/2 cm, but 90% effaced. The contractions kept coming and by 9am, when they checked me again, I was 4 cm, so I decided to get the epidural. As soon as I got the epidural, my contractions totally slowed down and were barely there. After about an hour, they decided to give me pitocin to increase my contractions again as they had pretty much stopped. The pitocin totally worked and according to the monitor, I was having contractions every minute (but b/c of the wonderful epidural, I didn't feel them!). However, they had a hard time getting a consistent reading of the baby's heart rate...it kept fluctuating. At one point, I had 3 or 4 other nurses rush in, b/c the heart beat couldn't be found...they immediately stopped the pitocin, gave me oxygen and switched positions and the heart beat was found again. They checked me at around 1pm and I was 6-7 cm dilated. At 3:30pm, the doctor came in (not my dr, but the on-call dr) and checked me and I was at 10cm so ready to push. It was so hard to feel when to push b/c I really couldn't feel anything still b/c of the contractions. However, during my pushing, the baby's heart rate started becoming very erratic and inconsistent. The dr checked me and said that, yes, the baby's head was down, but it was a bit on an angle so everytime I pushed, it would cause distress to the baby. After sometime, my baby's head was in the proper position, but still, every push caused the heart rate to go crazy, slow down, even stop. Once during a push, the heart beat monitor stopped beating and I immediately stopped pushing. The doctor said that we needed to get the baby out and he was ready with the vaccuum. He ended up doing an episiotomy b/c my baby was just not fitting and we needed to get the baby out. I had a 2nd degree episiotomy, and after that, the baby came out quickly and well. I heard my husband say, "IT"S A GIRL" (we did not find out before). My placenta came out a few minutes later. There were definitely some scary moments, but I'm so thankful for the incredible nurses and doctors, and my husband for his awesome support. I just look at little Sophie right now, and I'm amazed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had my last day of work on Friday, didn't feel any symptoms or signs that labor was pending. That night, I went to bed at 10:30 and woke up to change positions at midnight. When I did that, I felt this "gush"....I immediately said,"Jeremy! Something is happening!" I ran to the bathroom and there I continued to "gush", so I knew my water had broken. We called the hospital and they said to come in when contractions were every 3-5 minutes for an hour, or by 6 in the morning if contractions hadn't started yet. So Jeremy and I were busy getting last minute stuff together to go. I laid down for an hour, and by 2am, I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes, they felt more like menstrual cramps, not too bad. We left for the hospital at 3:15am, and by the time we got to the hospital, I was feeling the contractions more. At 4:30am, I started walking the hallways and by this point the contractions were really strong, but walking seemed to help a lot. After about an hour of this, it became too unbearable to walk so we went back to the room and tried to find different positions that worked. I tried the birth ball which I had really wanted to use but I felt worse with that. Finally, I found that sitting on the edge of the bed helped. The contractions kept intensifying in pain level, as well as time, I was having 45 second-1 minute contractions every minute and a half so there wasn't time to recover. At 5:30am, I was only dilated to 2 1/2 cm, but 90% effaced. The contractions kept coming and by 9am, when they checked me again, I was 4 cm, so I decided to get the epidural. As soon as I got the epidural, my contractions totally slowed down and were barely there. After about an hour, they decided to give me pitocin to increase my contractions again as they had pretty much stopped. The pitocin totally worked and according to the monitor, I was having contractions every minute (but b/c of the wonderful epidural, I didn't feel them!). However, they had a hard time getting a consistent reading of the baby's heart rate...it kept fluctuating. At one point, I had 3 or 4 other nurses rush in, b/c the heart beat couldn't be found...they immediately stopped the pitocin, gave me oxygen and switched positions and the heart beat was found again. They checked me at around 1pm and I was 6-7 cm dilated. At 3:30pm, the doctor came in (not my dr, but the on-call dr) and checked me and I was at 10cm so ready to push. It was so hard to feel when to push b/c I really couldn't feel anything still b/c of the contractions. However, during my pushing, the baby's heart rate started becoming very erratic and inconsistent. The dr checked me and said that, yes, the baby's head was down, but it was a bit on an angle so everytime I pushed, it would cause distress to the baby. After sometime, my baby's head was in the proper position, but still, every push caused the heart rate to go crazy, slow down, even stop. Once during a push, the heart beat monitor stopped beating and I immediately stopped pushing. The doctor said that we needed to get the baby out and he was ready with the vaccuum. He ended up doing an episiotomy b/c my baby was just not fitting and we needed to get the baby out. I had a 2nd degree episiotomy, and after that, the baby came out quickly and well. I heard my husband say, "IT"S A GIRL" (we did not find out before). My placenta came out a few minutes later. There were definitely some scary moments, but I'm so thankful for the incredible nurses and doctors, and my husband for his awesome support. I just look at little Sophie right now, and I'm amazed!
Saturday, April 28, 2007
And this is 1 of the reasons why I'm still a Canadian...
| You Failed the US Citizenship Test |
 Oops, you only got 2 out of 10 right! |
Friday, April 27, 2007
Croup
We had a really tough night with Sophie last night, it was really scary. I had noticed in the evening that her voice was a bit raspy, and she coughed once or twice, but that's it. Well at around 11pm last night, we heard this barking sound coming from her room, seriously one of the most scariest sounds I've heard. Sophie was gasping for breath and I felt so helpless just holding her. Called the 24 hr nurse line and they said it sounded like croup, so we did the hot air, cold air treatments a couple times during the night. Let's just say, how scary that it was, there was a moment when Jeremy and I were just laughing. After we had her in a steam room for 20 minutes, we were supposed to bundle her up and take her outside so she'd got cold air. So we bundle her up, put her touque on (that's Canadian for knit ski hat), and walked around our neighborhood. It was at 2am! I just started laughing b/c if anyone would have looked out their windows and saw us, they'd probably think we were these crazy people. And meanwhile, as we are walking, Sophie does her lion "raar", but b/c she's so raspy, it came out all funny. I was amazed at how good of spirits she was in despite all this.
So all 3 of us are going on NO sleep. Sophie is down for a nap right now, I am home (it's my teaching day) after going into work at 6am to get things ready for a sub. Jeremy is at work, barely functioning (I think he got less sleep than I did!) Our happy little family:) We did take Sophie to the dr. and they gave us this steroid medication we have to give to her...the side effects? Extreme, extreme hyperness, and very upset stomach, causing vomitting.....at least it's the weekend, right?
But in this whole situation, when I was watching Sophie gasp for breath, I just realized how fragile life it. Here I was complaining yesterday about Sophie's horrid naps. Well, you know, I'd take a lifetime of horrid naps, if it means having my Sophie healthy and safe here. She is so precious to me, and it's amazing how my heart is so attached to hers...I've always been SUCH an independent person, but now, I would give and do anything for her. Get better little Fee-fee.
So all 3 of us are going on NO sleep. Sophie is down for a nap right now, I am home (it's my teaching day) after going into work at 6am to get things ready for a sub. Jeremy is at work, barely functioning (I think he got less sleep than I did!) Our happy little family:) We did take Sophie to the dr. and they gave us this steroid medication we have to give to her...the side effects? Extreme, extreme hyperness, and very upset stomach, causing vomitting.....at least it's the weekend, right?
But in this whole situation, when I was watching Sophie gasp for breath, I just realized how fragile life it. Here I was complaining yesterday about Sophie's horrid naps. Well, you know, I'd take a lifetime of horrid naps, if it means having my Sophie healthy and safe here. She is so precious to me, and it's amazing how my heart is so attached to hers...I've always been SUCH an independent person, but now, I would give and do anything for her. Get better little Fee-fee.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
I won't nap for Mommy! (but I will for the baby-sitter)
The title says it all...as some of you know, my little squirt, Sophie, has suddenly become very unpredictable in her naps! This is a child who has been SUCH a good napper for months and months now. Well, starting about a week ago, as soon as I'd put her down for a nap, she'd suddenly start crawling around, thumping her legs, talking and laughing, shrieking loudly...this is right after she's been yawning, and calmly snuggling in my arms. This goes on for about, oh, I don't know, it's usually at least 35 minutes!! Well, if you know me at all, you will know that I have control issues....I like to have everything set and in order and you can say I'm somewhat of a perfectionist. Yah, all that basically flew out the window when I had Sophie.
So yesterday I decided that, you know, maybe Sophie wasn't tired enough when I put her down, so I'll keep her up a bit later. So I do that. And wonder of all wonders she goes down SO easily, so squawking or playing or anything. So I leave her room, thinking I should get "Mom of the Year Award" or something for figuring out my daughter...until I hear her talking and laughing at 45 minutes...what????? She did this for both naps yesterday and then was the biggest crab the rest of the night.
Fast forward till this morning, where I'm dropping her off at the baby-sitters. Now, I warn her that Sophie has been napping horribly for me, so beware. Well, I get there today to pick her up, and here's the report:
Sophie had a 2.5 hr nap this morning (went down right away), and had an hour nap this afternoon (which I had to wake her up from when I picked her up)....little stinker....
So yesterday I decided that, you know, maybe Sophie wasn't tired enough when I put her down, so I'll keep her up a bit later. So I do that. And wonder of all wonders she goes down SO easily, so squawking or playing or anything. So I leave her room, thinking I should get "Mom of the Year Award" or something for figuring out my daughter...until I hear her talking and laughing at 45 minutes...what????? She did this for both naps yesterday and then was the biggest crab the rest of the night.
Fast forward till this morning, where I'm dropping her off at the baby-sitters. Now, I warn her that Sophie has been napping horribly for me, so beware. Well, I get there today to pick her up, and here's the report:
Sophie had a 2.5 hr nap this morning (went down right away), and had an hour nap this afternoon (which I had to wake her up from when I picked her up)....little stinker....
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Phobic
Okay, so I got this from my friend, Katt, and I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised. I thought I'd be in the 80-90% range!
| You Are 60% Phobic |
 |
How'>http://www.blogthings.com/howphobicareyouquiz/">How Phobic Are You?
Go Canucks, go!
Okay, so I feel a little silly posting this, as I haven't posted in a week and a half, and then my first post is about hockey, but I just had to share:)
I've been a Vancouver Canucks fan (that's NHL hockey for all you out there) since forever! I have watched as they've been horrible, and then when they went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1994 (and lost). This year has been a pretty decent season, so when they went to game 7 in the 1st playoff series, I was beginning to lose hope.
But they won last night, yay!:)
Just had to share:)
I've been a Vancouver Canucks fan (that's NHL hockey for all you out there) since forever! I have watched as they've been horrible, and then when they went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1994 (and lost). This year has been a pretty decent season, so when they went to game 7 in the 1st playoff series, I was beginning to lose hope.
But they won last night, yay!:)
Just had to share:)
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