One year ago...Ella's birth story - long and possibly too much information!?

** I know it's a year late, but I realized I never posted it. So in honor of my baby girl's first birthday, I thought I would relive the experience! **

On Sunday, the 23rd, I went into the hospital to triage because the baby hadn't been moving very much and I had a constant pulling on my lower right abdomen. Baby was absolutely fine, I was contracting every 5-10 minutes, and they chalked the pain up to a pulled ligament and sent us on our way. I was still only 1 cm and 30% effaced, which was no change from my last two weekly appointments. We were glad that we checked and they were all very helpful and reassuring.

I was scheduled for a prenatal appointment and a fetal assessment Monday afternoon. I woke up at 3:00 am on Monday and was having some more intense contractions about 3-5 minutes apart. So I got up and in the shower, and started timing them when I got out. Then I went to wake up Gord at about 5:00 and we were on our way to the hospital around 6. We had sent Ben to Gord's mom's place for an overnighter so we could get some good rest - which was very lucky!

We got back to triage and they hooked me up, asked me a million questions, and checked me. I was 2-3 cms and 90% effaced. So the doctor on call from my OB's group came by and said that we'd be having a baby today! Yay!

At 11:00, I asked for the epidural - I was 4 cms. They broke my water around 12:00 and my contractions slowed down a little. At 4:00 I asked to be checked - still 4 cms. I was having flashbacks of Ben's birth, where I got stuck at 4 cms and had to have a section. It was about then that I started feeling the contractions between my legs. It was like a pressure and a pain at the same time. The doctor came in at 5:30 and checked me - I was 6-7 cms. Okay, some progress! The anaesthesiologist (sp?) came by to give me 4 or 5 doses of more freezing medicine - nothing worked! His last shot was for litocaine, which was the strongest thing they had - and it barely took the edge off! I don't know if it was her position or what, but anyways...

At 8:00 I was still only 6-7 cms. Then I was 8-9 cms at around 10 or 11. They put in a under-the-scalp monitor on Ella so they could measure her heart rate a little better - her baseline heart rate went up a bit during labour, from 135 to 160. Her heart rate was still behaving while I was contracting, but the nurses said that they needed a better gauge of her heart rate, as the external monitors aren't exact. Then they went to put an IUPC up into my uterus to see how strong my contractions were. They weren't really consistent - I'd have two back-to-back and then it would be 5-7 minutes before the next batch. They put it in, and I was 9 cm. It wasn't in right, so they were going to put it back in. At this point, I'm almost in tears, saying that I didn't know how much more of this I could take. I was seriously thinking of consenting to another c-section! Sure enough, the resident checked me before she put the IUPC back in, and I was complete! Yahoo - best possible news!

I started pushing around 2:10 am on the 25th, and she was born less than two hours later! I have two small tears that required some stitches, but I did it! Gord was great - it was a little boring for him while the labour was going on - I was so uncomfortable, he couldn't really help a lot - but when it came to the pushing, he was awesome! So supportive! And he kept saying, "This is so cool! You're doing a great job!" as he watched the whole thing! He got all choked up when she came out, but I kept saying, "I DID IT! I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID IT!"

Ella had pooped in utero, so there was a potential for her to breath in meconium when she started taking her first breaths, so they warned us ahead of time that they would try to suction her all out before we'd hear her cry. At least we were prepared, cause it did take a bit. Her APGARS were 2 and 7. Other than that, they watched her for a while and then constantly told us how beautiful she was!

What else? The nurses delivered her - all docs were busy - so that was kinda neat. My regular nurse was down there, stretching me out as she crowned. Then all of sudden, she's like, "We need more hands here!" Next thing we know, there's 4 more nurses running in, pushing on my stomach to unwedge her shoulder, and she was here!

People have been asking whether I preferred the "normal" birth or the c-section. Definitely the normal vaginal delivery. It was totally worth it. I am very happy and humbled by the whole experience. I am kinda surprised at how sore I am. I mean, I KNOW what comes out of where all that, but my back was sore and my tummy was sore and in between my legs was very tender, but a lot better now, a week later. But not as painful as my c-section was, not even close. How I was feeling two weeks after my section was how I was feeling when we came home this time.

The same doc that delivered Ben is the same doc we had for Ella (although she didn't make it to deliver her! But she was on call and involved in my care!). Ben was born at 3:48 am and Ella was born at 3:55 am, so not too far apart. Gord's stepsister is a nurse in the L&D - she happened to be working both when Ben was born and also when I was in labour with Ella (she was on days though, so missed the actual delivery) and came by the next day to see her. The nurses and doctors were so great and attentive and answered all my questions. Fabulous.

Ella is adorable! She has these super long fingers that we have no idea where they're coming from. She seems tiny, but she's not really! She has a bit of jaundice, which we're trying to combat with lots of feedings, my milk is in, and other than the lack of sleep, we're great!

Ben is very cute with her. He likes to touch her ears and cheeks, and he'll tell us when she's crying ("He's crying Mommy"). Last week, he gave her a kiss, then went cheek to cheek with her and said, "We're family". Awwwww. I'm trying to involve him by getting him to help me out - bring me a blanket, etc. One day, I told him we had to change Ella, and as I took her to her room, he ran to his and grabbed a pair of his pants and one of his shirts (it was a Thomas the Tank Engine shirt - he must love her!) and brought them for her.

Also see the post announcing Ella's arrival!

Hmmmmmmm. What can I report?

Not a whole bunch of anything. Ooooo - the ice cream truck came down our street tonight, so we hustled out there to buy our dessert. Ben chose this; can you guess what/who it is supposed to be?


We think it's creepy. What do you think?


Other than that, there isn't much excitement going on. Just life. We play. Ella naps. I feed and water the kids. I change diapers. We go outside to play or go for a walk. I do dishes and laundry. We watch Poko and Diego and Happy Feet.

Sadly though, these days are numbered. Four more (after tonight). As usual, I can't really think about it too much, as my chest gets all tight and a lump rises in my throat... I can't believe it's been a year already. I go back to work on Monday. Deep breaths, deep, cleansing breaths...

Here are some pictures of what I get to leave behind...





Gosh, I'm a sap!

I bought Ben a pair of Crocs (in lime) on Monday night. He LOVES them. He wanted to wear them to bed that night, but settled for having them on top of the blankets. Then the next morning, he came out to the living room, stopped and said, "Wait, I need my shoes!" He hustled back to his room and came out with them on. That's one nice thing about them - they are so easy for him to put on. Ben wore them all day yesterday. Inside the house. Outside the house. Methinks they are a hit.

Wow, it's been a week...

since I last posted? Yikes! Gord has taken the laptop to work a lot this week, so I haven't had a chance to post a new entry.

Last Friday, we hosted a belated/early birthday party for Fiona, Ruby and Ella. Wow, it was fun! So many presents, so much cake, so many leftover veggies. Here are a lot of pictures to check out:

Heeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee's FIONA!


"What ARE these things?"


A shot of the cake


Waiting patiently...


"What am I supposed to do with this?"


"What if I shove it into my mouth?"


"Maybe if I just stare at it long enough, I'll absorb it by osmosis..."


"Yummy icing!"


"Look Ma! No hands!"


"This is delicious! Do I really get to eat it all?"


"I put the cupcake in here..."


I think that everyone had a really good time, babies included! Ben had 2 cupcakes, so he was a happy camper. I love this picture of him opening a belated birthday present from the K and the G and the R and the F:


The Ottawagonians went home last Saturday, and it was a pretty sad day here. We sure miss those sweet little gals. And their mommy and daddy of course!

We went to Morden to get out of our now empty home, so the Easter Bunny visited Grandma & Grandpa's. More pics...




We're off to Brandon tomorrow to visit Chris, Sheri and Sari. We're going to have a full car, what with our overnight bags, gifts, and hand-me-downs!

Day 6 of the Visit (as requested!)

OK, so I'm lacking a bit in the picture department...everyone else has been taking pictures, and I haven't thought of grabbing my camera. I did take this one this morning:


I love Fiona's "cheese" face! (She's in the back, wearing the blue sweater.)

And I took this one later on when my kids were watching Ella's water video:


We've just been busy visiting and eating and visiting some more. It is so nice to see all the kids playing together. Fiona and Ruby are much more comfortable here now, so they go off exploring with Ben and Ella. They are all so cute, and when they're together, the cuteness grows exponentially!

I think when the visit is almost over, we're all going to pool our pictures and then each family will have a complete photo collection of our time together. I can post more pictures then!

The Visit...Day 3

Ottawagonians arrived safely. Stop.
Babies are cute. Stop.
Last week was nicer than this week. That sucks. Stop.
Salmon Armenians arrived safely as well. Will see them tomorrow. Stop.
Here are some pictures. Stop.

She's sooooooooo cute!

I made a quick trip to Brandon today, and am I glad I did! Sari is such a cutie, as you can see in the following photo montage:

I couldn't wait to get my hands on her!




You mean this guy is my DAD?!


Warning - Dad on diaper duty:


What more can I say? She's adorable and Chris and Sheri are so overjoyed. They make a beautiful little family!

There's a New Kid in Town!

Chris and Sheri had their baby early this morning. The baby weighed 9 pounds 6.8 ounces and was 22.5 inches long. What a whopper! Anyways, mommy and baby and daddy are all great, tired, but great!

What? What's that? I didn't mention what SEX the baby was? Oh, silly me...

































It was a GIRL! Surprised the heck out of me, as I, along with most people, thought boy. Of course, Gord thought it was a girl, so now I'll never hear the end of it.

Her name is Sari Heather Potter.

Ah! I can't wait to see her. We are beyond overjoyed at this little (or not so little!) addition to our family. My brother has his little 'daddy's girl', and Sheri has a little girl to teach all that makeup stuff to!

Admit it...

after seeing the new DQ Flamethrower Burger ad on t.v., you tried to talk like the people in the ad, didn't you?

If you haven't seen it, here's a link.

Movies, first steps and more!

Gord and I went out on a bit of a date tonight - we went to see 'Reign Over Me' (with Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler). It was an amazing movie - very well-acted, painful, sorrowful, uplifting, and a million other things. We both would highly recommend it.

And onto other things...

Have I mentioned that we were being driven crazy by Ella's refusal to walk? She wanted to so so so badly, but refused to try. Well, under MUCH diress, on Friday, I got her to take 4 steps. She wailed the whole time. Whenever she wanted to walk around, I'd make her try it herself. She wailed some more. It really was a test of wills between her and I. I win though! She is taking more and more steps, and is very proud of herself when she does it. No more wailing. BIG sigh of relief. She'll be walking around on her own in no time now! Our baby girl...11 months old today...she's growing up so fast...

Speaking of babies...Chris and Sheri's hasn't arrived yet...we're on pins and needles, as the due date was last Wednesday. But you know first babies - they usually make you wait! Send all positive labor vibes Sheri's way please!

Oh, and Ben really enjoys being naked. He'll run around and yell, "NEKKID! NEKKID! NEKKID!" It's a hoot, alright. We have to make sure the blinds are closed...

6 more sleeps until our visit from K & G & R & F...and 2 more after that until Grandpa & Grandma from B.C. get here! Woo-hoo!

Behold the Art of Ben!

In order to keep Ben out of my hair this afternoon, I suggested to him that we bring his easel into the kitchen so that he could paint some pictures, like at Moms & Twos. He thought that was a great idea! Here is Ben's art, in all its glory:


There are EIGHT pages of essentially the same thing - lines, in every color on the watercolor palette. I actually think they're quite modern and minimalist, maybe like his interpretation of rainbows. He had a great time - he'd paint his lines, and then ask for a new sheet of paper. And he'd paint his lines again, and ask for more paper. I had to re-sneak into Ella's closet to the big roll of paper twice to replenish his stock.

Ella is totally into finger foods and self-feeding. She loves to smush her food around and then plaster it all over her face. Here are more pictures of her self-feeding efforts:



And lastly, here are my two Baby-Einstein-lovin' kids:


Do ya think they're related?

; )

This one's for Garth

Back on March 12th, 2005, I posted a picture of a monkey riding a dog to maintain our high level of readership on the blog (1 - Garth).

Just to show our loyalty, check out this link from Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=20366

p.s. If you go into the archives to look at the pic on March 12, 2005, scroll up to the post directly above it (March 14, 2005) and read the post about Ben's eyesight. Creepy!

Double Tub Bath!

When child #2 looks like this:


And it gets worse as the meal goes on:


It's bath time! Since our sink was full of dirty dishes, we headed to the tub. Of course, if bathing child #2, child #1 MUST be bathed too:


For those who are interested (and you know who you are!), neither child pooped in the tub.

Notice Ben's eye crossing inwards in the tub pic? THAT'S what the glasses are for. Here he is modeling his newer glasses:

Why?

Why write about the Wii? Me writing about it is not going to change the fact that we are not getting one anytime soon, Gord.

Zoo or no zoo - that is the question!

We headed over to Pan Am Pool today for our last aquacise class. Ben, as I may have mentioned before, goes to the nursery at the facility while Ella and I swim. Ben was very sweet as I was getting his jacket on to leave - he looks up at the ladies who car for him there, and says, "Thank you!" (I've been getting him to do this whenever we leave there, but today was the second time that he said it all on his own!) They 'ahhh-ed' and said they were going to miss him. He's such a charmer!

Since it was supposed to be nice today, I had packed a lunch so that we could go to the zoo afterwards, for something different to do. However, it was very foggy and pretty breezy out, and not the +8 degrees they were talking. So we came home. Much to my dismay. I was looking forward to it.

I meant to blog big HUGE birthday wishes from our family to Ruby & Fiona yesterday - they turned ONE whole year old! I hear that they liked the icing on the cupcakes...

Ella woke up last night crying, so I went in to soothe her. Now, usually when I go to leave her room, she'll start wailing again and continue until she's too tired to go on. But last night, she didn't cry when I left her room. What a nice change...

That's all I can think of to write about today...maybe there'll be more later...

#7

Ella has cut tooth #7! Perhaps that's why she was up SCREAMING from 1:09am to 3:00 am. Actually, I had a little break from her screeching from 1:50am to 2:30am, but Ben was up twice during that time. I dread how Ella will be when she's cutting her molars, if her "easy" teeth are this much trouble.

http://www.anbesol.com/teething/chart.asp

According to this chart, she now has her lower right lateral incisor. Go Ella!

She's hiding...

Where's Ella?










Oh, there she is!










Hmmmm, what's been happening? Ella will do the sign for milk now, with some prompting. For "more" of something, she'll clap her hands. Close, but we're still working on it!

Ben is adjusting well to his specs. He keeps them on pretty much all the time, and if he does take them off for some reason, we just have to remind him to put them back. We have noticed that as soon as the glasses come off, his eyes cross. So with them off, his eyes are REALLY trying to correct themselves so he can see as well as he can with the glasses on.

Ben recognized an ampersand on a van today. "Hey, look! It's an ampersand! It means 'and'!" What a smartie-pants. There is an ampersand between the authors' names on the cover of his favorite-book-du-jour, a Curious George collection.

Other random pictures...










Ben with his buddy, Diego, in the background...

Naps and bedtime

So Ella does this very cute thing when I put her in her bed for a nap or for bedtime. She has two blankets that I lay on top of her - first, her pink afghan that Grandma Susan knit for her before she was born, and then on top, my blankie from when I was little. What happens is that I lay her down on her back and put the afghan on her. She'll grab it and pull it up over her head, so that it's laying on her face. And she just lays there like that while I put my old blankie on next. I'll leave the room, and she's still got the blanket over her face. It makes me laugh. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow and post it.

Gord went to play bridge with his 'ladies' tonight. That means I'm on solo parent duty. Ben refused to eat his supper tonight -well, not refused, but just wouldn't. Even after we offered him Jeanne's Cake if he ate the chicken and carrots only. So Gord left. Ben came to me shortly thereafter and asked for cake. I explained to him that he did not eat his supper so he could not have cake. I also told him that we eat supper as a family and that he's not going to be allowed to take hours to eat his supper. So guess what? He bawled. And bawled. He sat in front of me and wailed. I did my best to ignore him. Ben climbed on my knee, put his head on the arm of the couch, and cried some more. He quieted down and next thing I know, he's asleep. At 7:20pm. I guess he got pooped out helping Daddy shovel the driveway after work!

I put Ella down at about 7:50pm 'cause she had nodded off while eating. And she was grumpy grumpy grumpy. So now I get the whole evening to myself!

34 and counting!

Today was (is) Gord's birthday! His mom came over and we had a nice dinner (linguini carbonara with caesar salad and garlic bread) and Jeanne's cake (eat your heart out, former Winnipeggers!). Ben helped Gord open his birthday presents. He got some video games, a digital tire gauge, a CD and a t-shirt. Happy birthday honey! We love you very much!

Ben is adjusting pretty well to his glasses. We had them refitted last night, when we went back to order a second pair. He's barely fussed with them at all today. Hopefully, every day will be easier than the last.

I've got a headache and LOST is on, so that's all I'm writing...

Ben's alter ego...

We picked up Ben's glasses today...they are so cute (check it out for yourself below). However, we're thinking that we should have gotten a pair with nose things (what ARE those called?) because these ones move a lot on his face. And with a rambunctious 3-year-old, we are fixing them a lot. Gord thinks we should get a second pair, one with nose things, and then we'll also have a back up pair if one pair gets trashed. Which they most certainly will.

Here he is!




























P.S. Please note the other post today on good books to read!

My Book Report

Well, for a change of pace from the kids (and before the sure-to-be-cute pics of Ben in his new glasses are posted) I thought I would post about some books that I recently read and enjoyed. If you're looking for something to read, I would have to recommend the following:


Barbary Pirate: The Life and Crimes of John Ward
by Greg Bak

If you want thrilling passion, swashbuckling shenanigans, and exposed bosoms, don't look here!

If you do want a captivating read about a man who may (or may not) have been misunderstood, and a look at Government corruption and hypocrisy, this book is for you.

Please note, I am not biased in any way.

---

Hey Nostradamus!
by Douglas Coupland

I remember trying to read Generation X a while back, and not enjoying it. I was not sure what I would think of this book, but I really enjoyed it.

This book has four short stories, told in a rough chronological order, about four people affected by a high-school massacre - similar to Columbine. I found it an easy and quick read.

---

The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger

This was an EXCELLENT book (in my opinion) which was recommended to me by my school librarian. (Go librarians)!

It is mostly a love story, with the unfortunate twists that the main character takes uncontrolled (and temporary) leaps through time backwards (or forwards) to places that he's already been (or will be). You need to read it to see what I mean.

---

The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear
by Walter Moers

This is a very thick (physically thick) book that I really enjoyed. Really, it seems that the authors vivid (and 'enhanced'?) imagination has been vomited onto pages and published.

This is a fun, light (not physically light) read.

(Sorry for the sad picture of this cover. That is a Bluebear in a boat with 3 mini-pirates.)

So there! Know any good books I should be reading? Let me know...IN THE COMMENTS!

Gordo