[baby update] 22 weeks

(left to right: bonbons from momma, bed rest / watching the boy kick, victory breakfast after being discharged from the hospital, almost done Sadie's blanket)

Taking it week by week is how things are going to go now for this baby. This morning we met with my new doctor (who awesomely enough, shares an office with the surgeon that did my cerclage). She knows whats going on, and said best thing is to take things week by week. So for the first few weeks, I'll probably been in every week or 2 for exams and such. She said its still a high risk pregnancy, and there's still the risk of pre term delivery. So I'm on bed rest for now until things look like they will hold out well. Its all about keeping the weight of the baby off my cervix. Lets also hope this baby stays kinda small to make it further along.

Due to the fact that these babies are both so close together, she recommended a c-section with this one. A little disappointing, but oh well. I'm not looking forward to the surgery or recovery, but I know what to expect, so thats better than before.

Gonna look for preemie onsies (just a few) and a sleeper, cause this little boy will probably be an early birdie.
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Previous baby updates:

[baby update] week 22 + Surgery
[baby update] week 21

while I've been away

I've been in Vancouver this week without my little girl. With all the stress and uncertainty of everything, it was easier to leave her in Chilliwack with the family. Its been so nice to not stress about her and how shes doing. It also helps that I had Tony with me the entire time I was in the hospital. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be alone while he was with Sadie. I was far too stressed for him to leave.

So thankful for my family in Chilliwack, they've been taking good care of my girl. I missed her first Easter with her though, so a little sad, but its ok. They took her to Grandmas house for fesper (fesper, for those non mennonites is light supper, usually buns, meat cheese, cold salads), and although she started out grouchy, she turned right around when Grandma took just Sadie into her room to look at all the her jewelery. They both loved it. I'm glad they had a good time.

Mikaela and her friends also took her to the park to play on the swings. I love that they have a park close by. Sadie loved the swings, but when they tried the slide, she cried. I guess a little Post Traumatic Stress from the slide accident set her off. Either she gets over it, or is going to look forward to years of therapy about when daddy let her go and she bit the slide. hehe.

All the girls had to play with Sadie. I love that Mik took her wearing her cute skirt and mary jane tights. She's adorable in that outfit. They posted these while I was in the hospital, and it was so nice to see new Sadie pictures while I was in there. I was looking at old ones to cheer me up, and these were wonderful to see.

[baby update] week 22 + Surgery

After receiving news about having to be on bed rest, I was bummed. Talked to Tony, and Sadie and I headed to Chilliwack for the week.

I think we were there all of 2 days when another Dr called. She got my case from my dr and wanted me to come in before the weekend to do an ultrasound. We talked a bit too about the chances of doing the stitches. Why it's controversial, risks and all that. Yay, more stress. I didn't sleep well that night. In the morning we took off to St.Pauls for the ultrasound.

Did some crochet work to keep my mind off everything, but after the car ride, I was too nervous and fidgety. I peeled the ugly logo off my moms new water bottle. It was really nice to have Tony bring beth, they kept me distracted with conversations of "weird things hobos do" or "the time a guy walked into Tim hortons naked..." yea, good times.

After holding in pee for what seemed like a million years, I got ultrasounded. I waited in the room on the bed for her results, and was a little shocked to hear "you are going to be admitted". I was to not move from the bed except to get my pants.

My mind raced a mile a minute. How open was my cervix? Was the baby going to be born now? Can't have a baby now, it's too early! They wheeled my ancient stretcher to the hallway where I would wait to be transferred to maternity. Tony came to stay with me while we waited and I cried.

Once in maternity, we waited and waited for news about what my cervix was doing. Apparently all of Vancouver was shooting out babies that day cause I saw my nurse only a couple times, and a doctor once. The doctor came back, but at 11 pm to do an internal exam and ask me the same questions the other doc did in the afternoon. The doc explained that 3 babies were all born in the spam of 20 minutes and age was sorry for not seeing me sooner. She said we'd talk options tomorrow, but not before talking about how babies don't survive if they come before 24 weeks. Ok thanks lady, I'm not stupid, I've been thinking that this whole freaking time!

That day was the most frustrating day we had there. We were not told much and had to wait all day to hear we would talk in the morning.

After a horrendous nights sleep, filled with stressful dreams, ladies screaming, and more babies being popped out, we got to talk to a REAL doctor. I mean, I was talking to real ones, but this guy was awesome! He came in and had explained that he put me on the list for emergency circlage surgery. I was 4th on the list, and could be taken off if I wanted. He said the reason some doctors don't recommend a circlage is because it can be risky depending on the situation, and some doctors are not comfortable doing it. He was not one of those. He was the self professed circlage master. Thank the Lord! He explained that our situation wasn't the best, but not the worst, and he's seen and fixed the worst (in my head, I was ecstatic). I knew that last nights doctor probably looked at all my charts and was like...yea let's pass this off to him tomorrow. So glad she did.

So Tony and I decided its way less risky to just do the surgery. If being on bed rest still didn't help, things could get ugly if I didn't do it.

So I signed consent forms, and had a wonderful iv tech do my iv. (I have terribly hard to find veins, and it also didn't help that I was dehydrated). With Sadie's birth, they stabbed me I swear like 4 times before they called the iv tech. Dong dongs. I got fluids in me and felt less thirsty.

Now it was time to wait. Wait for my turn. They didn't let me eat the day before either, so I was starving.

It was totally a different day. Not full of doom and gloom, but hope (and nervousness).

My turn came at 7:30pm. The nurse had been checking all day for me, she was wonderful! Oh the fear and nerves hit. I knew I'd be put under for this procedure, and I wasn't sure why I was so afraid, I had done it before with my wisdom teeth.

I shook from nerves all the way to the OR down the hall. I prayed the entire time. I spoke with the anesthesiologist about what would happen, he was great. I had 2 of them cause one was a resident. The nurses were great, told me I could keep my eyes closed cause I was scared. OR s are so not like what's on tv. They are bare cement like rooms that are cold and filled with lights and tools, although I didn't look for the tools, I squinted my eyes and then kept them shut.

Being put under is a strange thing. I got oxygen, and had them give me something to calm me down (from my incessant shaking), then I remember them telling my the sleepy med would sting going in my arm (boy did it ever) and then that's it. I woke up hearing them talk about The Kings Speech, and then I coughed on someones arm cause my throat hurt so bad (had a breathing tube). I croaked out a sorry, but it was ok. They said it went really well. Go super doctor!

Tony met me in recovery. When he touched my hand, it felt fuzzy, kinda blurry. Anesthetic is weird trippy stuff. My eyes were so tired at first so I could barely open them. Asked about the baby, and got a kick as a response. Baby was fine, and obviously not as affected from the drugs as i was. I was so relieved.

It was late, and they kept me over night again, but I didn't mind. Tony bought me soup, and once I could eat, I scarfed down the semi cold subway soup like it was the best stuff ever.

I was discharged yesterday morning, and it's been good to be home.

I'm still on bed rest, probably until we hit 24-28 weeks. The surgeon said I could resume normal activity after then probably. I'm going to be monitored throughout the rest of this with many ultrasounds because this is still a high risk pregnancy. They are hopeful that I can keep baby in until 36 weeks and once I hit that mark, they take out the stitch, and bam! Usually baby is born like the next day or within a week.

The stitch won't affect us having more kids, and that's a good thing, cause you know, we would like more. NOT right away though, I'm waiting a few years between this one and the next.

Bed rest will happen at my parents, where the fam can help with Sadie while Tony starts work. He's hoping he can start later by a few weeks, but that's an email we will write to his boss after the holiday.

[baby update] week 21

After a weekend of relaxing and being a slug it was time to see my doctor. After having an appointment with a substitute doctor (mine was on vacation) and 2 ultrasounds, mine was back. She looked at me right away and said "You need to be on bed rest. You cannot pick up your baby, go shopping or walking." Basically the pressure of the baby's head on my cervix while walking, or carrying things would cause my cervix to open,  and preterm labor.  No stitches cause my cervix isn't open, but I didn't want those anyways. I'd like to avoid surgery as long as I can.

I don't think its fully set in yet. I had to break the news to Tony on a short phone call 30 minutes before his last exam.  Don't worry, the news didn't affect his exam, he thinks he did well despite that. I dont think the news has sunk in fully yet, for me or for Tony.

It does mean that I will most likely be living in chilliwack for the next 4 months ish until this baby arrives. Tony and I need to see how that will work though.

Moving is probably postponed until July or August. Its pointless to pay for 2 bedrooms when only Tony is living there. I'd like to move before baby #2 arrives, but now we don't know when that will be really. I think its likely that he wont make it to full term, but you never know.

So being that I'm a sloth for the next 4 months ish, I will be online more, with nothing to do. I'm confident that I can finish Sadie's blanket before her birthday now. Probably finish baby #2's blanket before hes out too. Gotta send someone out to find me yarn. That will be a challenge, but I'm pretty sure I know the colours I want for him.

I miss Tony.

a little bit of vintage + sensitive skin

Got her new dress in the mail, but its a wee bit small on her. Made me a little sad, yellow looks so pretty on her. That's ok though, this dress is off to a better place.  This was the best picture of her in it too, little girl was not cooperative today. Its kind of been like that for days though.

In other news, this girl has some very sensitive skin. She has dry patches of skin that turn pink ish some days. Currently washing her laundry with hypo allergenic laundry soap, but I think her Johnsons baby wash is also irritating her skin. What type of baby soap do you other mammas use for sensitive skin? We're laying off the soap for now. Maybe that will help.

[baby update] week 20 - Perspective

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the whole birth / delivery process. It scares me. I'm not one for hospitals, needles, invasive procedures anything that that involves me at a hospital. So having kids, ya...forces me to try and deal with these thoughts. I deal with them by getting super emotional and usually crying.

As of yesterday, I don't think that whole Birth / Delivery part scares me as much. Things have been put into perspective. Other thoughts swirl around in my head now. I shall explain.

Yesterday I went for my regular doctors appointment. Things were looking good, only gained 1 lb (yay) and I was feeling fine. The concern is now my cervix. My ultrasound results showed a shortened cervix. I don't know why its like that, there are a few explanations, but I didn't ask cause I was a little stunned when I heard things like "preterm labor" "possible bed rest" "referral to another doctor". So things are not happy happy. In fact, I went home and looked up things like shortened cervix, and there are ways to try and prevent pre term labor, one involves stitching it shut or together, another involves bed rest. Anyways, so before the end of my appointment, the doctor made sure that I knew to call them right away if I went into labor in the next few weeks, or had bleeding or pain.

So its possible that the preterm labor can happen any time now. I'm getting another ultrasound done, and going to another doctor in 2 weeks, and then to my doctor in 4 weeks.


So I've cried a lot, and then get mad that I'm crying. Then I try and relax. Been sitting on the couch doing crochet work for Sadie's blanket. Hopefully I can start putting it together in a week.

I've put away the exercise dvds, and am just being a couch potato. Thinking about planning some time away from the house, but nothing crazy. Planning to send pee wee for a sleep over at grandmas. Drinking tons of water and eating more take out crap.

So that's all for now.

Pig Tails

When you have a mouth full of hair brush, you don't really care what your momma is doing to your hair.

First owie

This week was beautiful in terms of weather. It barely rained, and it made for excellent park weather. Sadie and I went to the park with a snack. To her delight, the private school just down let a class of theirs play out at the park. She got to be in the swing next to some of the big kids, and well! That made her day. She screamed at them with excitement, and I'm sure the little 5th grader girl next to her thought this baby is crazy.

She waved at them as they left (waving is her new thing). We tried out the slide, at which point, Tony met up with us. I found that if you let her go by herself, she wouldnt shoot off the edge of the slide. I kept telling Tony, just let her go, she'll be fine! Well the one time Tony lets her go, she decides to turn onto her tummy and rammed her mouth into the side of the slide.

There were tears and a little blood, and it lasted all of a minute. Tony kept telling me "Miranda, we're terrible parents". He felt awful. I tried to explain that its not a big deal if she stops crying and is happy. Her mouth looked fine, she just had bit her lip a bit and had a scratch under her nose. He still feels bad.  Thank goodness those teeth aren't all the way down yet.

So that's her first park owie story. We had a good time playing with kitchen utensils.

And the baby is.....

A little baby boy! The ultrasound went well. Baby seemed cooperative enough today. I teared up a bit when she told us what it was. I kinda figured it would be a boy. I'd been eyeing boy things and clothes and such as soon as we found out. I was thrilled, more for Tony. When he found out, he was super excited, well, as excited as you can be when you are living on 5 hours of sleep.

On the way home, I was so giddy. Thinking of tiny baby things and shopping and stuff.

Sadie was such a good girl. She got to see her little brother on the screen. She just sat there and babbled a bit while the ultrasound tech was showing us the baby's head and heart and "extra bits". She had no idea. She wont have a clue until hes here. That's ok.

There he is!

Oh, and other news, I dont think I mentioned it, but Tony has been applying for jobs. He really was hoping to get one at the last place he was at as a co-op student (BC Genome Science Center), and he went to the interview and everything. The part that was scary was that it took forever for him to get in touch with his references.  We've been praying a lot about this job. He kind of set all his hopes on getting this job, and then got really depressed when he thought ht wouldnt get it. He tends to over analyze things, and got really really bummed.

Today he found out he got the job! So relieved!

This should have been on my checklist of things to get done before baby #2 arrives, but its added on there now.

Tony got a job
Pack crafting stuff (almost done, need more boxes)
Have a weekend away
Move to a 2 bdrm place
Marriage course
Finish Sadie's blanket


So lots of news today. Now I'm getting ready to move. Packing and looking for a place are going to be happening.

found another beauty!

 

Hello pretty dress, you shall look fabulous on my little girl. 

currently eating:

Rice, black beans, broccoli, and peas with soy sauce. Very filling, and very tasty.

I've been thinking a lot lately about things. Food being one of them. Thinking about how I can make healthier food, and food that we will like. I'm going to try meal planning to see how it goes. Firstly, I should clean my fridge. Its way gross. So gross, that I'm going to wear rubber gloves. Ya. Seriously Miranda, how did you let it get that bad?


I don't know if I'll share a before and after picture of my fridge, cause, well, you'd be horrified. Maybe...I'll think about it.

sunny days

Today was all in all a good day. Despite the hives Sadie had from eating scrambled egg yolks, she was pretty happy. She had a baking soda bath, a nap, and then felt much better. The picture above is how I find her during her naps. Always starts out under the covers, and then ends up like this.

I put her in this dress so I could monitor her hives, and so far shes doing good. They are kind of faded still. Those hives didn't stop us from going to the park, where she ate dirt and squealed at the kids. So from now on, we're going to stay away from plain cooked eggs for a while.

I love this dress. I've been dying for the weather to get warmer so she could wear it. She only wears it inside cause its still chilly out. Its been windy the last few days, but sunny. Sunny enough that all the kids come out and play, and she loves our trips to the park. She's content watching birds, and tasting rocks.

I didn't bring the camera to the park, cause afterward, we picked up groceries. We made banana chocolate chip muffins, and I am going to pick up some whole wheat flour to make peach muffins and Sadie muffins. She's been into muffins lately.

"Check out my legs momma"

Man, I love her chubby legs...

Bridal Shower Cupcakes

Mini chocolate cupcakes with purple and white vanilla buttercream icing. Made them the colours of the wedding. I think I want a better piping tip if I were to make minis again. Tony and I got to eat the duds. They were tasty. He gets to watch Sadie tonight while I go. She's grumpy today. Caught her gnawing on her highchair tray. She never does that. She was also biting her fingers. So happy that I dont have to bring her.