G'n'R Out West

Is this child even related to Adelle?  I think I have slept more in the last two nights then I did before I had him.  I am sure it will end…but every day that starts with a good nights sleep is good fortune in my books.

This little dude squawks and complains on occasion, if he has to burp or if he is hungry, but then he stops as soon as you go into action.  The complicated thing about that is you aren’t ever really sure what was wrong and what you did to fix it.  With Adelle you always knew because she wouldn’t give in until you had done everything to her exact specifications. 

This little dude starts to make noise and I run over just to find him settling himself.  Today I was doing all sorts of stuff around the house and he just sat there and relaxed.  It is such a difference.  He is so his father’s child.  Perhaps he will get more high needs as he gets older and more aware, but there is just no comparison. 

Adelle is doing well.  Her normally bottle fed babies have now been switched over to breast milk.  Although, she still feels as though the highest standard of care for Simon is for me to put him in the car seat.  We’ll work on that one.

For two mornings in a row she has come out of her bedroom and asked first about Simon (it used to be my name she called…sigh).  She has found him in our bed both mornings and has been totally fascinated by him.  As of yet she has not inquired as to why he sleeps with us while she sleeps in her room.  She has had 2 really good night sleeps since his birth.  I know we will have some challenging days with her, but I feel like we have just lucked out so much so far.  She has so much energy for him.  Even when I am nursing him she seems happy…especially if there is a little spot still left for her on my lap.

Last night my Aunt, Uncle and cousin Kevin came over for supper.  My Aunt and Uncle live out in Ontario so it was a real treat to be able to introduce them to Simon when he is just so young.  Plus, Kevin is one of Adelle’s most very favorite people, so she was on cloud nine to have his captive attention (his wife and baby were home sick..so they were missing from our little family reunion)

My mum took Adelle out for the morning, so it is just me and the little dude (Greg is working). Life feels very easy today.

So we finally got to meet our new little baby today. Simon Alexander Campbell Forgeron came into our world at 6:20 am on November 26th. He weighed in at 8lbs 4 oz (4 oz smaller and 3 days less over due than his sister).

The story goes a little something like this:

At 2am I wake up feeling like something is happening. By 2:30 am I wake up Greg, knowing something is happening. The contractions are already a few minutes apart, but they are only uncomfortable. Greg decides to call the midwife anyway. By 3:30 Kimberly arrives and I was a little embarrassed we had called her so early. The contractions are only minutes apart, but I am still laughing between them and able to talk through them, so having a midwife around feels like over kill. Kimberly checks out my progress and reports that I am 6cm dilated. She says she is going to call the second midwife (I was shocked, but she assures me this one will come faster than the last so Diane needs to come now).

At about 4 am I hop in the pool and it feels wonderful, I’m pretty sure I will never get out. The labour really started to intesify and my memory is pretty foggy after the pool. All I know is that everybody seemed very happy and Adelle was still sleeping so I was happy too.

At 6 am we hear Adelle. Greg goes and gets her, she is still very tired, as I think my noises woke her. She looks confused and a little concerned. Greg, Kimberly and I all reassure her that the baby is coming, and remind her how loud it is when babies come. Greg asks Adelle if she wants to wake Grandma Sue to tell her our baby is coming. She is excited at the idea and they leave for a few minutes.

By the time they get back I am starting to feel a lot of pressure. Kimberly checks me again and declares that my membranes are still intact but I can push. I push for the first contraction and Diane asks that I listen to Kimberly. Kimberly reminds me to breath and asks for me to push gently (I guess when you have a very short labour, there can be a little too much energy left over for pushing).

In three contractions the head was out. Adelle got really excited….and so did I. Kimberly said ‘oh, look at that, the cord is wrapped around the baby’s neck’. I am relaxed when I hear this because of her tone of voice, but when I process the information I question her calm. She quickly pulls the cord free proving there is no cause for alarm and we continue along as planned. It seemed like forever (probably just a minute) for that last contraction to come. Finally it did, and I delivered the shoulders.  The baby squirms out and Kimberly pulls him up onto my chest. Adelle immediately ran over to check him out. She was just thrilled. Her favorite part was his tiny little hands.

I could hear him breathing the moment he came out of the water, but he never cried. Eventually he let out a little lamb-like noise and then relaxed again.

We were all so excited that he had come and everything was so perfect, that we didn’t even look to find out what flavour of baby we got. After a few minutes of enjoying his existance we check, and Adelle was the first one to see!

I felt absolutely amazing after he was born. Adelle’s birth was quite good, but I almost felt a little ridiculously energetic after this one. Kimberly asked me if I wanted a shower and I couldn’t stand up fast enough! The shower was amazing, but seeing my family in our bedroom after the fact was heaven.

So far Adelle is a wonderful big sister to the easiest baby on earth. He has cried a total of 2 minutes, I think, and he has been alive over 12 hours. I think Adelle wasn’t crying a total of 2 min in her first 12 hours. They are certainly as different as we expected…so far anyway. He isn’t terribly interested in nursing, but I am told this is normal. Adelle was VERY interested, so it is a bit of a change, but it is an easy one to adjust to.

Adelle loves him and has told him that on many occasions. I am convinced that babies bones are so soft in the first few months to protect against the the smothering love from older siblings.  Adelle has been all over Simon since she was able to touch him. She is a great big sister and is constantly providing us with advice and fussing over him.

Proof positive that this labour was easy.

The happy family with our WONDERFUL midwife. While little Simon was getting evaluated he had an unfortunate pee mishap….right up his nose, how sad.

Greg and the kids (Little Simon is under the blankets getting a little skin on skin contact as he was a little cold and needed some warming up!)

We’ve been lucky enough to have already had some visitors today, with more planned for tomorrow…hopefully our first night goes well….

Well, my sister and her kids just left.  Adelle was not impressed and cried to see her cousins on the way home from the airport.  It was pretty sad, since I was missing them just as much.  It is always so hard to say goodbye.  I hate that part.

Even though they had to miss the birth we still had a wonderful time and I don’t think any two cousin ever lived who were more admired than Adelle’s cousins.  They are going to be greatly missed.

My friend Alison was in town for work and stopped by for a nice long walk before heading downtown for work.  It was a nice visit, even if she didn’t get to meet our baby.  Hopefully she’ll get the opportunity to before she leaves.

Today we decided to celebrate the baby’s birthday…just a little early.  I wasn’t present for the cake icing, but I am told that more icing ended up in Adelle’s mouth then in the cake.
 

As for the baby front, still nothing.  Last night I had some fairly intense contractions that kept me up until 4am….and then stopped very uneventfully.  I am frustrated, but I think that I just wanted the baby to come so badly when my sister was here.  Now that she has left I am feeling much more relaxed and am very happy to wait as long as it takes.  We have been doing so many things to get this baby moving, and the baby clearly isn’t ready since I keep having contractions and then they disappear just as quickly as they started.

My Auntie Jeanie (a massage therapist) was over this evening and gave me a 1 1/2 foot massage designed to stimulate labour…it didn’t appear to produce a baby, but frig, did it ever feel good.  I could get pretty used to all the attention I am getting.  Being 9 months pregnant sure does come with a lot of benefits.

Hopefully the baby will come tonight.

Since our new baby is taking SO LONG to join us we  decided to improvise.

Things are still going well.  We are trying our hardest to convince this baby to come out, but so far this baby is clearly uninterested in our opinions on the matter.

unless this baby comes flying out, they aren’t going to make the Friday deadline.  sigh…not even born yet and already not listening to me.  the story of my life.

On the plus side we had a fun day at the science centre, so in some ways the longer the baby waits the more fun stuff we get to do while my sister and her kids are here.  But it would sure be fun if the baby gets to meet all the cousins now instead of waiting months until we get together again.

The other plus is that my sister has all these accupressure techniques to facilitate the onset of labour.  Not certain any are working, but I must say 3 foot rubs a day is nothing to complain about.  Today I had 2 rubs with my sister, my neice AND my nephew all focused on me.  It was pretty nice.  Maybe staying pregnant a little bit longer isn’t the end of the world.

We had a lovely day with family…well except for Greg who had to work.  Poor Greg he always misses out on the pre-baby fun.  We went to the craft show and met up with my Aunt Jean who is also in town. 

I really wanted to go to the craft show, so I had been making many requests of the baby to arrive after the craft show.  I have officially done everything I wanted to do pre-baby.  So baby, I’m ready, feel free to join us anytime!  Oh, and preferably before Monday when my sister leaves.  Is this too much to ask?

Thanks to everybody for all the kind wishes…we will let you all know as soon as our little ones arrives.

maybe.

I went to the midwife today.  I am three cm dialated and 90% effaced.  So maybe sometime.  She thought it would likely happen this weekend, but warned that you can be 3cm dialated for a LONG time, so who knows.

I also had a chiropractor appointment today and the chiropracter did some labour inducing adjustments…we’ll see if anything transpires!

Yesterday I was talking on the phone and Adelle picked up another phone and started pressing numbers  burning my ears).  When I asked her to stop she took off with the phone.  The little bugger has an advantage  ever me (she is getting faster…and I am getting slower).  As it turns out she can actually run faster than me at the moment.  So there I was hopelessly chasing her around the house trying to get her attention, or grab the phone back.  She, realizing her position of power, had a HUGE grin on her face.  After realizing my attempts were in vain, I hung up the phone and made another 3 laps around the house the whole time  loosing ground and getting angry.  It then struck me how ridiculous this scene would look from the outside.  I fell over laughing….Adelle distracted by my reaction joined me and gave me back the phone.

This pregnancy has been so hilarious in some ways.  I have never felt to out of control of my body.  It is comical at times how much I limp when I first get out of bed in the morning or sometimes how hard it is for me to just stand up.  Just this weekend I tried to stand up from kneeling down and almost fell over…luckily my husband was there and shoved me up by the bum.  It wasn’t my finest moment, but it sure was funny.

Our midwife tells me she has a sure fire cure for my condition.  However, from what I understand, it involves having two children instead of one.  As near as I can tell chasing 1 kid around in a falling apart body is still
easier than chasing two!