A Month in Kitchener

My friend Christa who has a wonderful blog has inspired me to update my blog again. So exactly one month after leaving LA I suppose I should write an update on how it's all going.

We left LA when Béibhinn was 2 and a half weeks old. Now she is seven weeks old and in that short time seems to have grown and changed so much! The Friday before we left LA she weighed in at 8lbs 4oz. Two weeks after we arrived in Kitchener she weighed in at 11lbs! I'm pretty sure she's even heavier now-my arms are about to break!



















We arrived in Kitchener, Ontario on Sunday evening January 15th and went straight to our temporary accommodations. We stayed here for two weeks. I spent the first week indoors, taking care of Béibhinn and resting as much as possible. This was the first time since she was born that I was able to do this, it seemed like every day while we were in Los Angeles there was somewhere to go and something to do, so it was a real treat to be able to stay home. Andrew, however, was ridiculously busy running to and fro, opening bank accounts, exchanging money, signing mortgage papers and signing up for provincial health care, he never seemed to stop. My parents were there to help out and after getting a chance to have a walk through our new home, my dad left to fly back to Ireland on the Thursday.

My mum stayed for another week and a bit. The next week was just as busy. I was desparately trying to find a family doctor for both myself and Béibhinn so that I could get a prescription for my diabetes supplies and Béibhinn could have health care and receive her vaccinations. This proved to be impossible. Getting connected with a family doctor here seems like a mammoth task and it was disheartening to get rejection after rejection. We finally decided that we just needed to go to an urgent care clinic and get a prescription for me and at least get Béibhinn checked out by a Canadian doctor.

































Sunday January 29th we moved once again to a guest house near the University of Waterloo. We would stay here for a few days before we finally closed on our house and moved in. We stayed at the Sugarbush Guesthouse which was a lovely family run bed and breakfast. Mum left on Monday and I had my first day all alone with Béibhinn. Béibhinn is the sweetest baby and is just so much fun to take care of and she is so engaging she keeps me entertained and working hard all day. Never a dull moment with little Béibhinn Fung! Wednesday February 1st we finally closed on the house and moved in. Our amazing real estate agent Julie Martin had the house cleaned for us and brought over a mattress and bedding so that we could spend our first night in our new home before all of our belongings arrived from Los Angeles the next morning.

We had a great moving team arrive early the next morning. I really enjoyed listening to their thick Newfoundland and Nova Scotian accents as they moved our stuff in. It was so nice that night to sleep in our own bed and to finally have Béibhinn back in her bassinet. We felt like we had finally landed!

The past few weeks have been spent getting into a semi normal routine with Béibhinn, Andrew adjusting to new job, setting up the home, getting to know our neighbourhood, getting paperwork together for my permanent residence application and visiting churches. We were so blessed to have our dear friends Martin and Dale visit from Ottawa this weekend. They helped us to set up our kitchen and give it a good clean! Next week my buddy Guinevere is visiting from LA. We'll hopefully get Béibhinn's room organised and painted while she's here. We are so thankful at the moment for the help we're receiving from friends. It's amazing how little gets done with a tiny baby in our midst. It's also amazing how much joy she's brought to our lives so it's all worth it.

So, have we settled into life in Kitchener Waterloo? Practically speaking we have. Andrew has a job, we have a home, Andrew's parents are providing us with a car, we're getting all our paperwork sorted bit by bit. So yes, we're settling in pretty well here in that sense. It is lonely for us here at the moment though, especially for me. I love being home with Béibhinn and taking care of her, she's the best kind of company a girl could ask for, I do miss adult company however and I miss LA. Sometimes I feel a wave of sadness as I think of all our friends in Los Angeles, especially those that I spent time with regularly in the past year when I wasn't working. We also REALLY miss our church and the family it provided for us there. We really hope, I really hope, that we can find a church like that and that make friends like that here in Kitchener. If not we're just going to have to insist that you all move over here to us :D We have room in our house. When we ask you to visit us we really mean it, please come visit us any time you can, this is a beautiful part of the world and the weather ain't so bad!

 

Don't forget to check out:

Béibhinn's first year

Three and a Half Short Years

In less than 12 hours we will be on a plane flying to Toronto with our new baby girl to start a new life in Kitchener Waterloo, Ontario.  I can't believe that after three and a half years of living in Los Angeles, that we're leaving.  Three and a half years may not seem like a long time, but these three and a half years have been a very eventful three and a half years in my life.
After 28 years living in Ireland with my parents I moved to Los Angeles.  Within these three and a half years I moved out of home for the first time to live with a great bunch of girls and started working as an elementary Montessori teacher (a dream job that I never thought I would have because there are so few Montessori primary schools in Ireland).

Becky, Yoonah, Sarah, Tiffany and Debbie (house mates)

Amanda, Debbie, Evelyn, Vivian, Tiffany (house mates)

my classroom at SMMS

Within these three and a half years I also got to live in the same city as the love of my life, get engaged, plan and hold a wonderful wedding.  Our wedding was held in a church that we have come to love with our family and friends who we have also come to know and love and who have played a huge roll in our lives.

At Santa Monica Pier where he popped the question

June 19th 2010

Within these three and a half years I also found possibly the best diabetes pregnancy care in the country at the Gonda Goldschmeid Diabetes Center under the supervision of Dr. Drexler.  The care I received here was so wonderful that I found myself crying as I faced my last appointment here.  Within these three and a half years we discovered that we were pregnant, navigated a diabetic pregnancy and gave birth to the sweetest baby girl in the world.

pregnant!

Beibhinn Elaine Chan

with our much loved Dr. Drexler

A lot has happened in three and a half short years, which is why, in three and a half short years, I call Los Angeles home and which is why, after three and a half short years we leave here with sad hearts and tears in our eyes.  We will miss this big bustling city which has witnessed the birth of our family, but head on to a new, not so big and bustling city, where, God willing, our family will continue to grow and we will find new adventures ahead. We will miss you all.

What matters where on earth we dwell?

On mountain top, or in the dell, 

In cottage, or a mansion fair, 

Where Jesus is, ’tis Heaven there. 

O hallelujah, yes, ’tis Heav’n,

’Tis Heav’n to know my sins forgiv’n,

On land or sea, what matters where?

Where Jesus is, ’tis Heaven there.

Birth and all that Jazz

I am sitting here at my computer holding the most precious earthly treasure ever bestowed on me--our beautiful, sweet, darling, adorable baby girl Béibhinn. Andrew and I are completely in love with this little treasure and we often wonder at God's rich grace in giving us care of this precious little girl. 

Some friends have asked me tell our 'birth story' on this blog. Throughout my pregnancy I liked to avoid reading or hearing other people's 'birth stories' as they often sounded scary and unpredictable and just made me worry a whole lot more. Before I ever found out that I was pregnant I knew that should I ever give birth to a child, I wanted one thing: a natural labour. For me that meant no c-sections, no epidurals. I was going to do this on my own and the hospital and doctors were just a necessary backdrop to the whole scenario. 

I also thought I'd like a boy. The idea of a big brother appealed to me. and Andrew and I always had a name for a boy even before I became pregnant. Throughout the pregnancy I was convinced that my tummy held a little prince!

Well, I have seen the Lord teach me lessons throughout my life. Every time, I'm surprised by how He does it. My 'birth story' was a humbling experience, that ended with joy, not just because of our wonderful daughter but also because of the peace and satisfaction I felt despite all my plans and hopes being turned on their head.

My pregnancy was classified as 'high risk' because of Type 1 Diabetes. But with help from the Lord, some hard work, and a talented medical team, we had a very healthy pregnancy. So healthy that my OB was very happy to let me go to full term and beyond.

A month before my due date I started having a lot of contractions every day and these increased in occurrance and intensity up to 40 weeks. By 40 weeks they were increasingly uncomfortable and taking away my sleep. Still, a week before my due date, my cervix was closed and posterior -- I was in no position to give birth despite all of the contractions. My OB scheduled me for induction on my due date but she seemed to be open to waiting longer if I had made no progress. 

When we arrived in the hospital Monday evening, I was tired from increasingly intense overnight contractions. They examined me and found that I had made no progress that week. They gave us some options. (1) We could go home and come back on Friday to see if there was any change. (2) We could stay and go ahead with the induction (beginning with a small pill to open my cervix and follow on from that with a pitocin drip to bring on contractions). (3) The other option was to use medication that would soften the cervix, give it 24 hours and if I hadn't made any progress or gone into labour then I could go home. 

I was exhausted from contractions so I figured we could give the labour a kick start with a mizoprostal pill. Maybe that would be all we needed to get me into full labour. Usually it will take a couple of these pills administered every four hours to start any contractions or opening of the cervix. However, after giving me one small dose of this, I went into full intense labour within an hour. There was no turning back.

We were in labour for 28 hours. Every 4 hours they would check me and every 4 hours they would declare, "Same exam. No progress." This baby seemed unwilling to leave. My OB visited and could only guess what was going on. She seemed to think that the baby's head was not engaged, possibly because the shape of my pelvis was not favourable. I pushed on, stubbornly determined to not use pain relief. I decided that i would give myself 48 hours of labour before agreeing that nothing was happening and accepting a c-section. This whole time I was praying that things would change and that baby's head would engage. 

The labour pains became so intense and exhausting that by 2am Wednesday morning I knew I couldn't do it anymore. Andrew was collapsing too. I had fought hard for a good few hours, convinced I could do this. The truth was, I needed sleep and I needed the pain to stop. Mentally, I couldn't cope with two sleepless nights in pain and then make a rational decision with regard to c-section. I finally cracked and asked for an epidural. 

As they prepared me for the anesthesia, I broke down in tears, so disappointed that it had come to this. All my hopes for this labour and my ideas about what I could do were gone. I had buckled under the pain.

The epidural was a relief. As the doctors hooked me up to all the medical paraphernalia that accompanies epidurals, I looked around me and thought, "this is about as far from natural labour that I can get". But even in this I felt a peace that the Lord was guiding us and giving us wisdom to make these decisions at the right time. I slept for about 3 hours on the epidural. It was wonderful.

\

At 5:30am I woke up. The nurse had been checking my blood sugar levels all night but now she was looking at the fetal monitor. She asked me to move position in the bed to see if the baby would do better. They were a little concerned that the heart rate dipped with some contractions. I moved position. Then she gave me an oxygen mask (horrible things). The baby didn't improve.

The resident told me gingerly that my OB wanted to do a c-section because of the baby's heart rate dips. After the drama of the night before it was no wonder she approached me like this. She probably expected me to break down again. At this point, however I felt totally calm and totally at peace about the doctor's decision. I just wanted to see my baby healthy on the outside.

Andrew woke to my conversation with the resident. The sight of me in bed with 4 IV drips, a fetal monitor, blood pressure monitor, and the Darth Vader hiss-suck of the oxygen mask hit him pretty hard.

Within an hour they had me prepped and rolled into the operating theatre. My OB was there by about 6:30am and Andrew was in scrubs and ready to come in. The c-section was not fun. You felt extremely vulnerable and you had to have that horrible oxygen mask over your face again. Most of that whole experience was not something I would want to ever recall apart from that precious moment when from behind the blue screen I heard my OB announce "It's a girl!" I couldn't believe it.

A little girl! It was the best surprise I've ever had. I was convinced we were having a boy and even thought that was what I wanted. Before I even saw my little girl I was filled with joy and excitement as if all I had ever wished for came true. 

I entered this pregnancy with designs of my own. After all, I knew what I wanted and just needed God to support my plans for a smooth natural birth. Anything else was distasteful. 

The two of us had adamantly declared for 9 months that we wanted a boy. From atop the operating table, I shed tears of joy over the blessing that Andrew held beside me.

The Lord knows us better than we know ourselves. His grace overrides our pride. He knew that at the end of that ordeal, holding a baby girl would be the best gift He could give us.

So, my dramatic birth story will probably be retold for years. The lessons learned through the birth of precious Béibhinn, however, will last a lifetime.

My Pregnancy Calendar is Mocking Me!

Waiting

So I-Day (induce-day) will be Monday evening if nothing happens between now and then.  I'm so tired right now but I've given up hoping that I'm going into labour every time I have a contraction, because I seem to have those every day.  I'm doing my best to relax but that's a bit difficult when we're planning an international move and attempting to buy our first home at the same time.  Thinking about it exhausts me.
Everything seems to be going well, thank God.  We have a renter for our apartment here in LA and she is going to buy most of our furniture.  We have almost chosen a house and are in the process of making an offer on that.  We have a wonderful Christian real estate agent who has been extremely helpful-not just with finding a house, but with our whole move to Waterloo.  Today I got in contact with a community nurse who will be able to provide postpartum care to me and the baby as soon as we get to Waterloo.  We are in the process of putting together paperwork for my application for permanent residency, hopefully we'll be able to file that soon after we arrive in Canada.
In the meantime we wait for Baby Fung.  I think s/he's a smart one and is choosing to avoid all the drama by staying put :)

Moving Sale

Various household goods for sale. Check out postings on Craigslist:

Baby Swing $15
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/bab/2758126460.html

Multipurpose storage cabinet - $35 
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/fuo/2745407897.html

Wooden shoe rack (pine), 8 compartments - $60
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/fuo/2745348364.html

We also have reams of office paper and a box of unused envelopes plus various other office supplies for sale.

Blah

I am so over this pregnancy.  I know a lot of women get this way toward the end of their pregnancy, but in my case, being over the pregnancy makes me a little less careful about my diabetes.  It's just so hard to keep on top of it at the moment because all I'm thinking about is having this baby.  This morning I finally called my nurse educator and asked for help.  Hoping they'll be able to help a bit with getting some of my numbers tightened up.  Of course my phone also died a couple of days ago-great time to be without a mobile phone!  The past two days have been spent mostly at home however so that land line is enough for that.  The Christmas tree is decorated, cards are ready to be posted, most of my presents have been bought and my hospital bags are packed (just need to get some snacks for Andrew and gatorade for me (I miss lucozade!)
I'm having lots of contractions these days, many of them kind of achy -still hoping for an early arrival! Only 18 days left!

Knitting Frenzy

I have gone through times in my life when I've enjoyed knitting.  Once I used to get a knitting magazine that had me practising new stitches and knitting skills each week.  I think that's where I learned a lot of basic knitting techniques.  However, since moving to LA I haven't really taken out the needles.  Recently however I discovered that one of my good friends from work is a bit of a knitting addict, this got me interested.  However, it wasn't until I discovered I was pregnant and started researching reusable nappies that I really got bit by the knitting bug again.  My knitting friend, Guinevere, introduced me to the coolest website www.ravelry.com where you could find every knitting pattern you would ever want.  Some patterns are free, some cost a small sum of money to download.  Whatever pattern you're interested in, you can also see how other people made this item (different colour wools, little personalisations etc).  Anyway I bought this particularly popular soaker pattern.  A soaker is a nappy cover made of wool, wool is water resistant especially after it is soaked in lanolin and wool soakers work really well as nappy covers.  Then I invested in lots of superwash wool yarn and got knitting! Below is the result.  8 soakers :)

While knitting these soakers I found myself learning a lot about knitting and fixing a lot of bad habits.  I especially improved my finishing techniques.

I then decided to branch out and make one or two more items for little Fung.  I found it hard to find really cute, neutral items, but I was very excited when I found this absolutely gorgeous owl sweater.  I ended up using the exact wool and colour suggested by the pattern because it was so beautiful.  I kind of went crazy with this one and ended up knitting the whole thing in 2 days.  I loved knitting this!  The owls were so cute.  It took a while before I finally bought buttons to give the owls eyes, but I eventually finished this last week and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Finally, I decided it was time to knit a blanket.  I wanted to have a sheep theme in our baby's nursery but I was finding it difficult to get some nice bedding with sheep on it, so I decided to make it myself.  I enjoyed knitting this blanket.  I did begin to hate the sheep towards the end but ultimately I was pleased with the results.  I enjoyed learning new stitches while making this one.

Pregnancy update: We're 36 weeks now.  I've been having lots of lovely "fake" contractions.  Today my Dr. gave Andrew the okay to head to Philadelphia for a couple of days next week however so nothing will be happening for a while, for now :)

Please let me know your favourite knitting projects in the comments section, or some constructive criticism is much appreciated.

Baby's Coming

Woohoo the baby in my pregnancy calendar is hanging upside down-this means the end (or the beginning) is in sight!
Right now my ob is insisting that I'm expecting a huge baby (she likes to remind me of this often), my endocrinologist on the other hand rolls his eyes at this and wonders when the obs are going to realise that not every diabetic mother has huge babies, especially ones with very good blood sugar control.  I choose to listen to my endo and just say nothing now when my ob refers to my MONSTROUS baby.  Right now baby Fung is approximately 5lbs and we'll find out next week how much bigger s/he has become.
I'm busy finishing off soakers that I've been knitting over the past 8 months or so (still have one more to finish) and making lists of all the things I need to do before baby gets here.  I am so grateful for Amazon.com.co.uk and.ca!  I am also very thankful for my friend Guinevere who has helped me so much with so much of the preparation for this baby.
Today I made a list for our hospital bag and started packing it a little bit.  It's weird packing so far in advance but I suppose this is what I'm supposed to do.   I think it'll take about a week to get it all done.
My pelvic bone has been bothering me a little too so I need to slow things down a little bit.
Tomorrow I work one last day at SMMS then I'm done.  I'll miss that place but I really feel ready to be completely finished with work and focus on this little baby's arrival.
We have Thanksgiving next week which is when Andrew and I will get our Christmas tree and decorate it-can't wait! Waiting for a baby to come around Christmas time gives us a whole new understanding of advent.  It makes it very special this year.

34 weeks

Let's Vote!

At this point my bump is pretty huge.  I know I have a couple more months for it do get huger, but for now I think it's big enough to do this.   Andrew and I have not found out the baby's gender but I love guessing.  Now I want to hand it over to you.  Take a look at the bump...does it say anything to you?  Now in the comments vote if you think it might be a boy or a girl!  I'm not telling you what I think.

33 weeks

Moving to Van Nuys and NSTs

This week I am 30 weeks pregnant.  We're on the home straight.  I also started my non-stress tests.  I will have these twice a week until the baby is born.  They consist of me lying on a bed with a fetal heart monitor on my stomach measuring the baby's heartbeat and movement.  They want to see how well the placenta is working.  The baby's heartbeat should rise and fall with its movement.  NSTs can take just 20 minutes, however if the baby isn't moving or if the baby is moving too much the nurses make you wait until the baby is just moving a little bit so that they can get a baseline then they can see if the heart rate goes up with movement.  Our baby is chronically uncooperative.  When getting an echo cardiogram s/he refused to lift its chin off its chest so that the doctors could see its heart clearly.  S/he routinely kicks the doppler device when the ob is checking the baby's heartbeat and when it came to the NST s/he decided to do an Irish jig or some kind of kung fu just when we needed it to be a little calmer which meant I had to lie there for almost an hour before they could get a good read (at which point the nurse called it picture perfect).  I think we'll have our hands full with this one.

This past weekend we moved from south west LA to a little further north.  We're living about 7 minutes from our church and about 20 minutes from Andrew's work now.  We moved into a bigger, 2 bedroom apartment in Van Nuys.  It's much hotter here so we're very glad to have air conditioning!  We're planning on having the second room as our baby's room but also as a guest room whenever guests come (don't worry we'll move the baby out).  So no excuses now for not visiting!  Our movers arrived on Friday morning and started packing at about 9am, they didn't finish until 10:35pm...we have too much stuff, nothing like a move to make you aware of that...

Kitchen

Dining area

Living room

Hallway

Baby/Guest bedroom

Master bedroom

I'm in the process of unpacking and trying to get this place looking like a home.  Then it's down to setting up the baby's room-the fun part :)  We really love our new neighbourhood.  We're right by some great shops and restaurants and they're all so much cheaper than anything you could find in west la.  It's lovely being closer to church too.  Andrew is carpooling with a lady who works in UCLA.  The traffic can be difficult but they're finding ways around it.  We're excited to be finally settled in the home that we hope to bring our baby to.  Only 8 to 10 weeks to go before little Fung makes his/her appearance.  We can't wait!

28 weeks

People are Demanding the Fat Photos

A few people have asked me how big my bump is (code for, how fat are you now :D)

So I suppose I'll just post a bunch of them starting at the very beginning.

8 weeks

14 weeks

19 weeks

20 weeks

23 weeks

25 weeks (today)

Off Again

Well we're off again. Tonight we're flying to Seattle then early tomorrow morning we're getting the clipper ferry to Vancouver Island then a Greyhound bus to Cowichan Bay for a wedding which will take place on Saturday. Just thinking about it makes me want to curl up and sleep...We're looking forward to the scenery and hopefully to cooler weather. I like cool weather these days :D

Yesterday we had an echo cardiogram to check the baby's heart and everything looks good. That was nice to hear. The baby however is like it's father and is very stubborn. He/She had its chin resting on its chest and even though the Dr. had me doing jumping jacks, baby refused to lift it's head. Later on at the obstretritian's he decided to give the doppler device a few kicks while we were checking for its heartbeat. We'll have to have a word with him/her about their behaviour...

Half Way There!

This past week was busy. I started Physical Therapy because my back has been hurting pretty bad recently. Of course, when I went to the PT appointment my back felt just fine so I felt like a fraud :P Now I have some exercises I'm supposed to do once or twice a day and I have two PT appointments every week for the next few weeks. I'm beginning to see a bit too much of UCLA hospital...

In other news I finished a very cute baby cardigan for some friends of ours who are having a baby girl about a month before us. It feels like quite an accomplishment to finally get the cardigan made! I just need to sew up the arms now and get some cute buttons.

On Saturday we went to O'Melverny Park with some friends. We celebrated three birthdays and had a very enjoyable picnic in a lovely shaded area. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

We are 20 weeks pregnant now, officially halfway through, just another 20 more to go. Pregnancies take way too long in my opinion. Everything seems to be going well however and this is probably the easier part of the pregnancy. I have appointments this week with my ob/gyn and with my diabetes nurse. I need to see if it will be okay for me to fly with Andrew to D.C. the end of August.

That's all the news for now I think. A pretty uneventful week, not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Thumbs Up!

Well, we've been home almost a week now. I'm almost back in LA time, still a bit sleepy in the evenings. I still need to get my knitting needles out again. I need some inspiration!

Today we went for our big 19 week scan. It was so fun to see the little baby move and study each detail. I lay in the ultrasound room for a whole hour while the radiologist checked everything!

She started on the head and made her way down to the toes. Counting every little digit and measuring everything there was to be measured including arteries and ventricles in the brain. The pictures were so clear you could see the chambers of the heart. She even got a photo of the baby’s nostrils!

It was unreal. The baby was moving lots and even gave us a thumbs up :D The radiologist identified the baby’s gender but she didn't tell us because we asked her not to. It was very hard not to sneak a peak though :)

The pictures are not as clear as the 11 week scan because the baby was more squished this time and we didn't really see the whole baby like we did when it was smaller, the picture of his arm is pretty impressive though!

Boring blurry shot

Thumbs up from BFung!