Sunday, April 27, 2008

So, Here We Are...

Kaya is now officially two weeks old. In some ways, it feels like she has been here forever, so its hard to believe that its only been two weeks. What a good baby though. Slept five hours solid last night and today has been asleep (more or less) waking up every three hours to eat. I love it. All my fears about juggling two babies seem to be, at this point, quite unfounded. We'll see if it lasts....I could still be in for a very, very rude awakening. 

Although, I will say that things have been a bit boring. How can I update this blog when all I have to say is "went to the grocery store, Kaya slept the whole time?" Or "went to the park...people are quite intrigued by our new stroller." Or, my personal favourite "watched a Baby Story marathon on TLC" this afternoon. I don't even LIKE a Baby Story, so how I can expect other people to be interested? 

Anyway, on another note: I've decided that "vacation" is over and its time to get this old, formerly pregnant body, back into some semblance of shape. 

But first...a nap. Oooh...and lunch.




Saturday, April 19, 2008

The Parental Departure....

It's already been a whole week since Kaya's arrival. She is still asserting her status as the Anti-Kieran.  Loves both being in the car and the stroller (while  he screamed in both for about the first 5 months). She sleeps the vast majority of the time and for hours long stretches. Of course, I fully expect this to change, but I'm enjoying it for now.

I will admit I'm NOT enjoying the return to night wakings and night feedings, but I keep reminding myself that its just temporary....ish

My parents have left for home today though. I'm torn between relief and fear. My Dad is completely amazing. He worked non-stop while he was here - putting up new walls, shelves, drywall, he even regrouted our entire bathroom. He and Eric lay a new flagstone path outside and he fixed all the little things in the house that Eric has been meaning to do but hasn't.  As Eric says...he really forces you to bring out your A-game because the man just does not stop. 

And there is my mother. Sooooooo tiring. She is also an amazing help with both the baby and Kieran. She did all the cooking and cleaning for the past three weeks, but the problem is that her help - which I really do appreciate - comes with a high price. Her criticism is just constant and all consuming and exhausting. Oh sure, she'll cook dinner but you have to listen to a virtually endless holier than thou litany of how healthy her and my father eat, how they always eat their leftovers, how they don't waste a single thing, how they eat everything in the freezer, how they buy everything fresh, how they eat small portions, how they shop around for the the cheapest everything and it goes on and on and on. And that's just dinner related. She does it with everything...laundry, diaper changes, household duties, exercising. Nothing we do is ever as good as her. I spent the last three weeks rolling my eyes and biting my tongue and thinking how I never, ever want to be like her  - even if we means that we sometimes throw out our leftovers or buy overpriced groceries or find a package of meat shoved way back at the freezer that winds up in the garbage because its been there for two years. 

Anyway, now we are a family of four on our own for the first time. I think we'll be just fine. 

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

A Baby Story

So, after all my ranting of the time it was taking to actually induce labour....boy did it happen fast!!!

I will spare all the gory (and let's face it, childbirth is gory) details. However, I feel like I need to update from where I last left off....

After the third gel application, there was no sign of labour, so on Sunday morning, suddenly, the hospital calls.... and they want me in, ASAP. We get there, check in, and I feel like a triage regular. The doctor comes in and I hear the nurse give her my update...the doctor quietly confirms my "freak of nature" by saying: "She's not in labour after THREE gels AND she's already had a baby?!" So, apparently, enough is enough. They are putting me on the drip. 

After that, things happen fast. And I mean fast, I get installed in a lovely birthing suite and Eric settles in with his laptop, prepared for a long day like we had with Kieran. We start watching a movie (Eric's brings the selection of No Country for Old Men, American Gangster and Enchanted. The first two seem HIGHLY inappropriate, so we put on Enchanted.) Halfway through, I tell the nurse I need the epidural and from that point on everything is QUITE fuzzy. Except I know this...a few hours later, I had a baby girl.  (See how I skipped the details...?)I will say, FOUR pushes and she was out.  Nobody was more surprised than me. 

Here are the particulars: her name is Kaya Rachel and she weighs 7lbs, 5 oz. (Which leads me to believe that she was NOT overdue at all...no idea why they went with the April 4 due date, instead of the ultrasound based April 10, but whatever). She is absolutely perfect....all fingers, all toes are present and accounted for. She is a very sweet baby, cries only when her diaper is being changed, and has huge dark eyes. So far, a real keeper. 

Anyway, exactly 25 hours after she enters the world...we're already at home. I could have used another night in the hospital, but Kaya certainly didn't need it...so here we are. 

Kieran is thrilled with his little sister. He obviously forgot about her presence overnight because, when I got up this morning and brought her into the living room his eyes went wide like it was Christmas and he yelled: "Baby!" He spends a lot of time kissing her. 

Anyway, she is being a real angel...she's asleep in the seat beside me...continuing to prove she is the polar opposite of her brother, who from the get-go did not like to be ignored while Mommy surfed the net....Sweet. 




Saturday, April 12, 2008

Now I'm Just Mad

I thought for sure I was in labour last night. At about 4 pm, I started contractions and waited as they become stronger, closer and more painful, just like the books all say. Then at about 9 pm just, when I was thinking about calling Labour and Delivery, suddenly the contractions went from 5 minutes apart to 9. Then 7 minutes. Then 3. Then 9. Then stopped. Fuck. 

So, I woke up this morning and, as instructed called Labour and Delivery at 8 am only to be told that they were too busy and call back at noon. At noon, they said call back at 5. Unless of course, they call me in...which seems bloody unlikely.

All I have to say is "how busy IS this goddamn hospital?" Why bother STARTING the induction if they don't actually care to finish it? And furthermore, how USELESS IS this freakin' gel? 

I would be less cranky about this if they hadn't told me about the two stage induction and that I would be having this baby on Friday. Why not just book me for a non-stress test and then let me go another week and then ACTUALLY induce me? It's the mental stress that is the hardest to deal with I think. 

The problem with this "rotating doctor" system, as nice as it is during the pregnancy,  really sucks at the end because there isn't anybody in charge. None of the doctors know me or have even seen me more than twice. And now, 8 days overdue and halfway through an induction, I'm only in the hands of a rotating triage nurse who is basing my baby's birth according to a hospital schedule rather than anything medical.  

If they put me off again at 5....no matter when you live, you're going to hear me snap. 

 

Friday, April 11, 2008

The Miracle of Childbirth

Obviously, there are lots of things I don't understand about hospital procedures and giving birth. Or in my case, NOT giving birth. 

After my regular almost 41 week OB appointment on Tuesday, the doctor told me that they would be doing a two stage induction, starting with the insertion of a gel on Thursday night. The gel is a synthetic hormone that mimics what your own body would produce to make the circumstances favourable for dilation etc. and theoretically, can start labour. After the insertion, you wait overnight and if you don't go into labour from the gel alone, you go back to the hospital the next day for the Oxytocin drip, which really WILL start labour. 

Okey dokey, right?

No.

They called me to hospital yesterday at about 3 pm. This gel application process is supposed to take about a hour.  We got there and got all hooked up to the monitors and waited for the doctor to come do the exam. And waited. And waited. Then the nurse whispers to me that there is MAJOR emergency and the doctor is really tied up and is going to be awhile. After about 3-4 hours of sitting on this really uncomfortable narrow gurney, a resident finally comes in to do the exam, but needs the doctor's approval before she can actually apply the gel. Finally, the doctor arrives, and we have to wait an hour after the gel is inserted to make sure that I don't go into labour (which would be good) or have an overreaction to the gel (which would be bad.)

After I'd been sitting for another hour with zero labour pains to be had, I finally was so uncomfortable that I had to sit up and lean forward. A few minutes later a new nurse who we'd barely seen comes in - looks at me and says "Oh, now you can't go home!" I'm not sure what this mean....I think for a second that the monitor magically shows that I am having contractions or something, but no, I was NOT allowed to sit up. WTF? I'd been there for 5 hours total, had sat patiently for the hour after the gel and knowing I was not in labour and would be going home shortly, leaned forward to ease my agony. Didn't matter,  the cranky, power hungry witch made me stay hooked up for another 15 minutes - just to be sure. 

Fast forward to this morning, the gel application resulted in zero change in my status, they just did it again and sent me home with the same instructions...if you don't go into labour come back tomorrow at 8 am. And even worse, they may do the EXACT same thing AGAIN tomorrow. They can apparently do this up to 4 times. Why did nobody mention this to me until today? There is a chance that they won't start a Oxytocin drip until Monday. Although the doctor and the nurses have said that would be highly unusual and since this is my second baby, they think today's gel application will start the labour. Whatever. I'll believe it when I am doubled over in pain.

According to the nurses the baby looks "fabulous" and is happy as can be right where it is. Clearly, there is no medical reason to induce me further - at least not today. This is good news in a way....while I was there today there was a woman coming over from the OB's office who had "no fetal movement" and hearing things like that always puts things into perspective for me. I am happy that the baby is doing well and there is no distress. I am fine, albeit, bored and uncomfortable. 

And so the waiting continues....


Tuesday, April 8, 2008

High Baby, not Hi Baby.

Had my 41 week (yeesh) doctor's appointment today and, not surprisingly, it looks like unless a miracle occurs I'll be induced on Friday. The doctor said the baby was still really high, and in fact, I quote, as she is doing the exam: "Oh this baby is high. THAT's your problem. High. High.High.High.High." And, apparently, I'm showing zero sign of doing this myself. So, inducement it is. I would rather have done this naturally, and if the doctor had given me any indication that I might be ready in the next few days I may have waited, but since there are no signs, I'm going to go for it.

I start with a gel application on Thursday night, come home and go back the next day for the water break/inducement. I can feel ALREADY that if this baby is so high that I'm in for another long labour. 

But at least there is light at the end of the tunnel...

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Still Waiting

So, I removed the "baby due date ticker" because now that I am officially 3 days past my due date it is counting upwards. I'm sorry, but  after watching that number tick downwards for several months, I cannot bear to see it get bigger again. It's just too depressing. 

Yes, I still wait. Zero sign of any impending labour. I took a full hour's walk yesterday, took Kieran to the park even - which involves lots of chasing and lifting. Nothing. Tried it again today. Nothing (so far). I guzzle raspberry tea like it's going out of style (still delicious!) I try to do as much as possible around the house because I keep thinking that something will trigger labour, but alas. 

But I guess at least we missed the unlucky 04/04 date. Eric softened his worry about it when someone pointed out that since the two 4s add up to 8, which is the LUCKIEST number in Chinese, that our child may have escaped the bad luck anyway . How random is that?  Regardless, the poor kid is going to have ONE 4 in his/her birthday...unless I manage to defy science and give birth in May...which actually seems possible at this point.

And, I might as well wrap up with a mother update...have I mentioned yet that my mother is NOT one to coddle anybody? I believe I may have mentioned this. No one is immune from her "tough love" approach and this more or less also includes Kieran. Don't get me wrong...she is a wonderful grandmother and Kieran adores her... but believe it or not, the woman can actually NAG a toddler. She thinks it's time he got rid of his soother...which I happen to totally agree with. I hate it myself and had fully planned to get him off it AFTER the new baby arrives. I've told her about a million times now that I think doing it just days before his little world is going to change is both cruel and pointless. To her, this matters not. Every time he has it, or asks for it, she has to tell him he's too old, he's not a baby, he doesn't need it , blahblahblah. Right now he just cries when she takes it away, but I swear, if he could roll his eyes at her, he would. (One day he will, I'm sure, it's something we all learned quite young). 

And this morning, Eric was especially happy when he stumbled into the kitchen barely awake and looking for coffee, that she immediately berated him for not taking the garbage out last night like she asked him to. I don't even think she started with a "Good morning". I started to laugh, but then again, I'd already had my coffee. Eric didn't think it was QUITE so funny.  Apparently it doesn't matter who pays the mortgage, we are ALL still her children. 

Oh Baby, please hurry before somebody snaps. 






Thursday, April 3, 2008

One Day to Go - or Not.

Hmmm...so here I am  - officially one day before my due date. I was 4 days early with Kieran, and apparently, you're supposed to be even earlier with your second. So much for that. 

So, I'm waiting around at home. There really are few things as boring as this...it's not really nice enough to go outside yet, I cannot shop for this child because I don't know the gender, my kitchen is re-organized, the house is clean and I think if I have to wait another week, I'll lose my mind. 

Yesterday's doctor appointment was a perfunctory as usual. Pee stick, weight, blood pressure, baby heartbeat, stomach measure  and then "see you next week." The doctor was there for apx one minute...if that. I mean, its not like I really expected much else, but at 40 weeks, there still isn't so much as a "let's take a little look-see." 

On the upside, I found this absolutely phenomenal Raspberry Mint Tea from a specialty tea store which is just delicious. It was $6 dollars for enough to make about 6 cups, but totally worth it. Raspberry tea is one of the supposed "labour inducements." Obviously, it's ineffective as a labour inducer, but nevertheless, I think it's quite the find. 

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Hurry Up Baby

Three days to go...officially. Unofficially, I have a feeling this baby is in no rush. 

And it's not like I've been sitting around all day eating bonbons and waiting for my water to break. I'm much more active at home that I was at work, so I'm hoping that my kitchen reorganization of this morning gets things moving. My mother has been cracking her whip...she's clearly a firm believer that action will provoke labour and to be honest, I'm hoping she's right because I can't take another week of her energy level. She thinks I should get on the treadmill, even. Myself,  I'd prefer to go the castor oil/raspberry tea route and pass on the gym routine for the time being. 

Although it dawned on me yesterday that my due date for this baby, which is April 4, translates numerically to o4/04 which is really bad luck in Chinese. Not that I really care, but now that I've thought about, I'd rather not give birth on Friday. I pointed it out to Eric, who also - and he's the one that always talks about the stupid 4's - but now NEITHER of us really want to have this baby on Friday. When Kieran was born it was June of 2006 and everyone was all in panic about having an 06/06/06 Satan Spawn baby, but we escaped that and Kieran was born on the 9th. On Friday (assuming I'm still gargantuanly pregnant) I'm going to lay low just in case. No chance tempting fate in ANY culture. Right?