Monday, April 25, 2005

Little Red

As the days pass, I'm so happy to see I may have a little redhead after all:



Big news at our house today: Liam's nubbin fell off. Man, was that thing starting to stink. A trip to DQ may be in order tonight to celebrate. (I'm dying to try the Cheesequake Blizzard...)

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Pork chop



When we left the hospital, Liam weighed 6 lbs 13 oz. Five days later, when he was a week old, we went to see Dr. Bailey and he weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz. I almost fell off my chair. Dr. Bailey did not believe me at first when I said I haven't been supplementing with formula. Two days later, the public health nurse did her in-home visit with us, and he clocked in at 7 lbs 15.5 oz. "Typically", they want your baby to gain a minimum of 4 oz per week. This week we logged 18.5 oz. Needless to say, I don't worry about the little pork chop getting enough to eat anymore. Chad is already worried about him having a weight problem later in life...

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Life with Liam

I hope that, by writing this, fate doesn't come around and bite me in the ass. But I can't believe how well Liam fits into our life. Yes, I get up three times a night to feed and change him, and while I feel great today I'm sure that sooner or later the sleep deprivation will catch up with me. But otherwise, he seems so at home here. I feed him in the morning before we get out of bed. If he needs a bath, that comes next. He usually takes a good three-hour nap after that. During the morning I do whatever I have planned around the house. Feed him again at lunch. Then he'll sleep for a couple more hours, and during that time Chad and I have taken him out for walks, to run errands, or do whatever. During the late afternoon/evening he's more of a cluster feeder and will eat every couple of hours, but somehow we fit that in too. His last feeding for the night is usually between 10-11 pm - after that I go to bed and can probably sleep for between 2 and 3 hours before the first early morning feeding.

We made the leap to cloth diapers the other day and so far it's going well - he has not leaked through the cloth yet, although he did with disposables. Maybe it's just a coincidence; I guess time will tell. They're not as trim fitting as the disposables but they also don't stink when they get wet. (They do have the pee smell, but it's not the gross pee-mixed-with-commercial-baby-powder-deodorizer smell that masks NOTHING.) They're still a little big on him as he came home from the hospital under 7 pounds and these are supposed to fit 8-15 pounds.

Some of his clothes are already almost too small, which is weird considering that he's not a big guy. Every time I change his clothes I think how sad I will be when he's too big to fit into something soon. We have a closet full of beautiful things for him to wear and I'm excited to be able to use those too, but he just seems so perfect the way he is today - I don't want him changing too fast. :)

Sunday, April 17, 2005

40 weeks

Yesterday was our due date... so the final picture in the pregnancy series is this:



It's great to see when you're flipping through the album - here's all the belly shots and then exactly at the right time... 40 weeks... here he is.

And here's one I took this morning that I also love:



I like how the little forhead wrinkles make him look like a little old man. After knowing this little guy for only 4 days, it seems like he's been part of the family forever. I'm not long on words these days because I'm having trouble taking my eyes off him for very long.

Friday, April 15, 2005

Introducing



Liam Harrison Cook
April 13, 2005
5:08 a.m.
7 pounds 2 ounces 20.5 inches

Monday, April 11, 2005

Day one

My cat is sitting at my elbow, and his motor is running. Meaning, he's purring like a fiend. Meaning, he thinks he is going to be fed any minute. He'll start howling when he isn't. When we are home in the afternoons, he starts trying to get fed around noon, even though he doesn't offcially get fed til about 5. When we work, we come in the door and feed him straight away - luckily we're not there to witness the whining and crying all afternoon. But when we're home, as I am from now on, we're subject to it all afternoon long. Maybe I should consider myself lucky that he doesn't start in the morning. Anyway, this is a habit I hope to cure him of sometime this year.

So today is my first day as a kept woman - ha! - and I haven't been the most productive. I slept in a little, went running, had a shower, tinkered on the computer, called Anne, she came over and visited for a while, had lunch, went out to run some errands but all that happened was I bought some unnecessaries (sunglasses and a pair of capris that, now that I have them home, I realize will never fit - it is WAY too hard judging my size in the store when I can't try things on - so they're going back - I need to limit my pregnant shopping urges to sunglasses, hats and shoes, I guess.) Right now I'm back on the computer trying to find something to make with chicken cutlets for dinner tonight. I want to have something ready for Chad that's a little fancier than 'chicken with barbecue sauce'. The Epicurious website is letting me down (or maybe it's just that I don't have my pantry stocked with enough different varieties of herbs and mustards??) This housewife thing is harder than I thought. Anyway, must run - he'll be home soon and I have to make it look like I've accomplished something today....

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Tick tick tick



39 weeks today. Nothing happening. Hoping that this is the last pic I have to take... the last few weeks I have been taking them on Sundays (just more convenient somehow)... made sure to get this one in on Saturday just in case I'm otherwise engaged by tomorrow...

For some reason, I still can't see things going past next Saturday. I mean, I KNOW they more than likely will. I just can't see it is all. Ha - me and every other pregnant woman...

This morning on my way home from Bodyflow I stopped by the photo lab to pick up the last month's worth of prints. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for when it comes to photos, and taking my prints to the most expensive place I know of always results in a much better job than taking them elsewhere. It's worth it for these pics, though I still take regular snapshots to Zehr's for less than half the cost. Anyway, a woman I've never seen before was working the counter. I said I had prints to pick up for Cook and without batting an eye she turned to get them and said, "How much longer do you have left?" I was wearing a baggy jacket so I'm assuming she knows from my pictures rather than from noticing me in person. So now I'm all paranoid that I'm being heckled by the photo lab people every time I take my belly shots in. One more reason why I'm hoping not to have too many more to take in. For next week I'm thinking I need one of those tear-away calendar pages showing April 16th... or a kitchen timer... or me looking at my watch... would you just hurry up and get here already???

Friday, April 08, 2005

Well, it was a nice idea, anyway

I saw Dr. Bailey this morning - was quite excited to do so, wondering (yet again) whether there was anything going on. Well, here's her comments from today:

(1) Originally she predicted a 'big' baby (8+ pounds) - that was revised to 7.8-7.12 a couple of months ago - further revised to 7.0-7.8 a few weeks ago - today revised to "a small baby" (which I'm assuming means under 7 pounds??) I've gained 21 pounds to date which I believe is why she's putting me on the small end of the scale.

(2) What's worse, there is absolutely nothing going on in terms of dilating or even thinning. So the same woman who ten days ago was willing to bet the baby would arrive on April 9th or 10th, and that there is no way you will hang onto this baby until the 16th, today told me I would almost certainly go overdue and that she would give me ten days past due, MAYBE 14, before inducing. Quite a turnaround!!

(3) And what's even worse than that, and what is more gory than what I'd really like to discuss here, I asked all my questions about this pudendal block business and got that sorted out. Glad that I know more about it now, but let me put it this way - three needles in the crotch is not something I am looking forward to.

So all in all... not a great trip to the doctor's office.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Let the games begin

Last night I started having contractions.

Just a mild cramp here and there - but sure enough, they were ten minutes apart for a couple of hours. Definitely not enough to really hurt, or long or close together enough to consider it the real thing, but contractions nonetheless.

After the first hour or so I mentioned it to Chad - told him I didn't think anything would come of it, but just FYI, they're here.

A few minutes later I heard some commotion in the other room and went to check it out. Chad was wrestling with the high chair, trying to assemble it. (It hadn't been out of the box up until this point.) I said to him, you do realize that the baby won't be using the highchair until they're six months old... even if I go into labour tonight, we really don't NEED that. He said, yeah, I know... I just want to do it. It's funny... most people think Chad walks around without a hint of emotion... and I think he's one of the most transparent people I know.

Anyway, the contractions ended after a couple of hours, but I woke up a couple of times during the night with a big one. Not big big, but big enough to wake me. Both times I lay there waiting for the next one, preparing to time them if need be, but they never became regular and I went back to sleep.

This morning I have been crampy all morning. Not distinct contractions, but one non-stop cramp. Hopefully this means that something is up. Chad and I drove in to work separately just in case I need to leave. Tomo is back in the office today, complete with the story of his daughter's unanticipated birth in Toronto. Tomorrow will be my last day in the office. It's all coming together in a very surreal way. I hope it's soon.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Causing a fuss

So, what we didn't want to have happen, but which I suppose was inevitable, is happening - people are causing a fuss. I am so grateful that we have good friends and family supporting us. I'm glad that they're happy and excited for us. But, it's a little weird being the centre of attention. And I feel even worse when I think about all the effort they have gone to!

This is my last week of work. My department is taking me out to lunch on Friday, which is really nice of them. And because I worked in Storage for so long prior to coming here, they invited Storage to go as well. And with Storage and CM going, you can't very well not invite CP, since the three areas all report into the same manager - so CP is coming, too. Which means it will be a large group. I feel spoiled.

And then Cheryl asked me to lunch today, because she won't be here Friday - so there I am, being spoiled again.

And then the email invite circulates around the office for cake & coffee on Friday morning, also baby-related. Except that - this was arranged unbeknownst to me - and my usual Wednesday afternoon check-in with Dr. Bailey has been shifted to Friday morning this week, since she is out of town today. So the cake will be there, but I won't. When I found out about it (which I don't even think I was supposed to - it just so happens that I'm still on an old Storage distribution list and saw the email that way), I called the doctor's office to try to change, but they refused. So I had to tell Paula that I won't be here for my own cake. She had already sent all the emails and posted the flyers in the elevators and EVERYTHING. Finally it was decided to move the cake to Friday afternoon (so I hope people have room in their stomachs after coming back from lunch!) It's bad enough to cause so much fuss once, let alone having to rearrange things!

Thank you so much to everyone at work for doing all of this for us. Talk about going out with a bang. Is this some sort of bribery to get me to come back early? :)

Monday, April 04, 2005

Looking on the bright side

OK, so I'm not coming across as the most positive person in the world right now. I should be more grateful for what I've got. So here is a nice thought along that vein:

This is the last 'official' Monday for me for a long, long time!

Joke's on you, Tomo

So my coworker Tomo, the same one who wrapped our boss's office in foil, is a new father again. Daughter #3 was born on Friday, April Fool's Day.

Tomo's wife Gina was officially due the week before I was officially due, and she had the baby three days ago.

This is quite disconcerting to me. After the initial Dr.-Bailey-predicting-an-early-delivery shock, I figured she would probably be wrong (and when we met with Lisa, our doula, that same night, she told me she thought that Dr. Bailey would be wrong also, for Murphy's Law if for no other reason), and so I'm still working with a due date of the 16th in my mind (but have packed the hospital bag a little more, just in case.) Chad is still working with the 14th in his mind, which is the date that will win us the Sears coupon lotto if Junior(ette) is born then. (Wishful thinking more than anything else.)

But, if Gina can be early, then so can anyone, right? And while this is #3 for her, she carried this baby longer than her two previous children - they both came even earlier than a week before her due date.

I am starting to worry that I should carry a sheet of plastic to sit on at all times. Because it could literally be any minute now.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

The view from here

Another weekend down - it's Sunday night and I never did get around to the pile of work I brought home. If I can defer it for five more days it won't be my problem anymore, right? :) Unfortunately it's not delayable - it's a presentation that I have to do on Wednesday. So I may come to regret having frittered away my free time.

This weekend was Jennifer's bridal shower (yesterday) and Chad's birthday (today). We also went to Cory and Megan's for dinner last night. So all in all, time flew. Add that to the usual routine of cleaning/errands/groceries etc. and it's no wonder it's almost Monday.

Did another photo this week - this one is kind of odd, but very different from the others I've done.



Another good thing about delivering early would be that I'd be off the hook with these photos - I am running WAY short on ideas.

Friday, April 01, 2005

CHECK!

Last night I wrote the International Business exam I was kvetching about earlier in the week. I didn't feel especially well-prepared for it, but it turned out to be quite easy. As I was leaving the proctor asked when was I due, and rather than saying next year, next month, that sort of thing, I said, next week.

After finishing the exam, I went to run some errands. This week I switched over from my winter coat (which has accommodated my belly the entire time I've been pregnant, but it's definitely getting tight now) to my spring coat (which I have to leave unbuttoned, and with weather this nice why not!!) So I'm walking around in public and it's obvious to everyone, for the first time really, that I'm pregnant (and not just husky, as Chad liked to tease when I was wearing the winter coat.) And I had an unbelieveable number of people stop me to ask about it - complete strangers - and I gave them all the same answer - next week.

Finishing the exam was crossing one more thing off the list of things that had to happen before the baby comes. I've had the whole pregnancy categorized in my head in terms of holidays and events and trips and such, with the baby coming at the end of it all. Only now... there IS nothing left but the baby. Well, not strictly true. This weekend is Jennifer's shower and Chad's birthday. I'm counting on making it through to Monday before anything happens. But still... it was just that feeling of moving one notch further down the list - exam: CHECK! And the calendar rolled over to the month of April this morning to boot. It's quite hilarious how up and down my moods are right now, swinging from dread to uncontrollable excitement ten times per hour. The next few weeks should prove to be interesting.