Monday, November 12th

As you can tell by the font, we are having a girl! We are thrilled! My daughter (8) was a little disappointed but she is okay with it now because we get to decorate her room. hehehe. We are going with butterflies and dragonflies. :)

I love having a little girl and couldn't be happier to have another! What a wonderful day. :D

Saturday, November 10th

I'm getting super excited for Monday! I'm also worrying now that baby won't co-operate. The life of a worry wart sucks. lol. Actually I have been too busy to worry a LOT! I'm in the midst of report card writing, ministry of Education people are coming to my classroom next week, I'm assessing students and still planning because I am still teaching! No wonder I woke up feeling exhausted this morning even though I fell asleep before 9 o'clock last night.

Anyway, the better news is that baby seems to be getting stronger and stronger. Yesterday I could feel something sharp poking at me right under my rib cage. My friend felt it too. It was neat. Our daughter felt baby more this morning. She is sooo excited for Monday! I can't wait to take her.

It's funny too because all of a sudden I will have to pee in about 5 seconds. There is such a tremendous pressure on my bladder all of a sudden! Baby is sure funny and I'm loving, loving this part of pregnancy! :D Much more than I did with my first. Which is great!

Saturday, November 3rd 2007

I have been feeling really emotional lately. My emotions are ALL over the map. I forgot about this part of pregnancy. Probably conveniently. lol. Yesterday I forgot my purse at work, walked back to get it (1/2 hour extra time of walking) and then about 10 minutes after that, I left my bag with all of my stuff to plan for next week (I'm a teacher) and important resources on the bus. Pregnancy brain reared its ugly head! lol. Ugh! So stressful. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. Thinking this too shall pass!

I am loving feeling our baby move. It's something I look forward to every day. Baby seems to be more active at night but maybe I just notice it more because it's quieter (I teach Gr.1/2!) I have been listening to baby with a baby heart listener. Our daughter (who is 8) can listen too. It's wonderful for her! We go for our next ultrasound a week from Monday. I am soooooo excited! I soooo badly want to know if we are having a boy or a girl. Let's hope our little bundle co-operates!

So baby started moving on Thurs. October 18th. Has NOT stopped moving. I swear. This baby is active! It's weird getting used to the feelings of something moving inside of you. It's been so long. But it's so incredibly amazing at the same time! I've felt a little motion sickness... hahaha. It's comforting to know that baby is moving around in there. Tuesday I go see the midwife and I get my results from blood work, ultrasound, etc. Hopefully things are okay. I can't wait to go!

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

Wow, I can't believe that she is finally here. It's so completely wonderful and amazing! I'm tired but I don't mind at all. I love being able to hold her, talk to her, kiss her and snuggle with her. She is such a great baby! Honestly, she barely cries... just gives a whimper here and there.

Ok. I guess I will start out with my birth story. It's short and fast, just like the labour/delivery. lol. Tuesday during the day I was feeling very crampy and had a sore lower back. (Not that unusual though... but I did mention something to my MIL about it). Tuesday evening I decided to have a bath to see if the achyness would go away. It did..... I went to bed at about midnight and woke up at about 2:30am to go pee. I went back to sleep and kept waking up about every half hour to pee again. It wasn't anything unusual but it was a tad more frequent. At 4:15am I woke up and went pee again. This time there was a bloody discharge (almost like I was getting my period but egg white slimy w/blood smeared in it is the way that I will describe it). I started having strong contractions right away. They hurt a lot right from the beginning. I went onto contractionmaster.com to help me time them. At this point I didn't wake my fiance up... Contraction master said they were coming every 4-5 min. but I wanted a half hour to go by to make sure. My fiance got up for work & had a shower (I was on the couch downstairs) and when he came out of the shower I told him I was in labour so he wasn't going to work that day! We came downstairs @ 5:25am and at this pont my contractions were pretty strong & I couldn't talk for very long or through them. I told him that we needed to call the midwife. She was going to meet us at the hospital. We called a cab (as we don't have a vehicle) and waited. My fiance woke up our 9 yr. old daughter to tell her that we were all going to the hospital (she wanted to be there for the delivery too). She was a bit frightened by my breathing/moaning but not too bad. The cab driver arrived at 5:55am (and it took me almost 10 min. to get my way down the stairs and into it). Fiance even had to put my boots on for me. I had no energy for anything but getting through contractions at that point. My MIL who lives 3 doors down came over (as honey had called her to see if she could get ahold of his work and tell them he couldn't come in because I was having the baby). She also helped to get me to the car. Just before we left I told her I had the urge to push already. We got in the cab and at this point the contractions were about 2 min. apart. I didn't have much time to breathe between them and they were STRONG! I kept praying we would make it to the hospital. I had the urge to push with so much pressure I felt like I was going to poop my pants. I remember crying/whimpering and thinking please hurry. Please just make it there. We got to the hospital at 6:20am. I could barely walk and had to stop literally every 30 feet for another contraction. Thank goodness my fiance is a big guy, he had to hold me up quite a few times. We got up to the floor and I saw my midwife (I was soooooo relieved!) but still scared I wouldn't make it to the room. I was in so much pain and had to push. I stopped just a few feet from the room and had to wait there through the next couple of contractions. Finally I got in the room and my midwife said she was going to check me to see how much I had dilated. I told her I had to push. She looked and said, "Yup you do, I can see her head already." I knew she was coming quickly. I started pushing and it tooks about 10-12 pushes (half hour maximum) and she was born at 6:50am. I was sooooo relieved that I had made it to the hospital (we were soooo lucky that it was just BEFORe rush hour hit). I was also happy that my fiance hadn't gone to work because he likely would have missed her being born. I also don't know how I would have handled all of that. I guess I would have had to have called an ambulance. Anyway, she was born without any problems at all (which my midwife said is great because sometimes with fast deliveries you can have a heck of a tear). I was also at risk of tearing because with my first daughter the dr. had given me an episiotomy. She said he must have done a good job sewing me up because I was intact. I have a few scrapes (which still burn a bit when I pee) but it's nothing compared to having the episiotomy. So that's my birth story. It was fast and furious! lol. As far as pain management was concerned, I wanted a natural birth. I did have a natural one with my first daughter. Although I do realize now that I must have had some freezing down there because of the episiotomy with my first. With this baby, there wasn't time for anything for pain even if I had wanted it! I felt everything very vividly. lol.

She is such an angel though, worth every single minute of pain! Our oldest daughter was scared when I started screaming (when I was delivering her) even though she had the Nintendo DS to play with and earphones on, that my fiance put her in the bathroom and shut the door. As soon as Claire was born I told her to come out, everything was fine. She came out and was amazed. She started to cry and I tried to tell her that I was fine, that I didn't mean to scare her but I was ok. now. She said, "Mom I'm not crying because of that, I'm crying because I'm just so happy." It was definitely a touching moment. :D Afterwards she didn't leave our side. She wanted to hold Claire and daddy had to ask her to have his turn! lol.

When I had her the midwife put her on my belly and she didn't move for the next hour. She didn't even clean her up yet or check her out beyond what she could see with her on me. It was great! I loved having her close right away. I nursed her almost right away without a problem. After that the midwife checked her out, everything was fine. :D She got her needle (vitamin K injection) and didn't even cry. What a trooper! She fell asleep at around 9am. We left the hospital at 9:30am and got home just before 10am. It was sooooo great to leave so soon and to be able to be in the comfort of our own home! :D

So now we are loving having her home... she is so beautiful! :D

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