Life Goes On

Today Béibhinn is 9 months old and I'm 9 weeks pregnant.  That's right baby #2 is coming this May, God willing.  I'm feeling kinda ugh today so I'm camped out in my bed resting while Béibhinn is rolling around on the bed beside me just playing with whatever she can get her hands on.  She's such a happy little girl as long as somebody is within sight, she'll play away until she gets tired or hungry.  This is such a blessing right now because at this moment in time I think I'm the sickest I've been since discovering the pregnancy.

Overall I've actually been less sick than I was with Beibhinn, able to eat a much more varied diet and more able to do stuff around the house.  The past couple of days haven't been so great though, I'll be glad to see the back of this first trimester!  I'm also still nursing Béibhinn so I really have to keep on top of my carb intake and make sure I'm eating properly.  Tonight will be an easy night because last night we had our "adopted" students over for hot pot and there's left overs! Woohoo!! I always feel so happy when I don't have to worry about dinner.  Poor Andrew however needs to worry about his own lunch and breakfast these days, I'm not feeling like the greatest wife around at the moment!

With Robin and Andy 

Tomorrow Andrew is going on a fly fishing trip with a friend from church; Ryan Clark (he's related to the owners of Clark's shoes by the way :P). His wife Christina's going to come spend the day with me. I'm looking forward to having some adult company-yay!

Nappies and Bums

Oh how I love my cloth nappies.  I was trying to figure it out the other day...why do I love it so much? I think I just get such a kick out of saving money and I just love all the new nappies they have out there to make our lives easier!  Anyway I've decided to write a little bit more about my cloth nappy experiences because I seem to learn more and more as Béibhinn gets older and she hasn't even reached a year yet!

Recently Béibhinn has taken off with eating solids. She LOVES her food!  She eats three meals a day including a half cup of oatmeal/porridge for breakfast.  While I'm very happy for her new found love of solids, I've found that solids poop is a whole other kind of poop!  I was very spoiled with 6 months of pure breastmilk poop, then another couple of months of about 80% breastmilk poop.  In the space of a couple of weeks we started getting full on stinky, lumpy, sticky, solids poop!  Did I ever wish I could toilet train her!
At this point I was still using Flat Fold Nappies and Mother-ease Sandy's Fitted Diapers.  Andrew installed a diaper sprayer to our toilet.  This means that every time Béibhinn has a dirty nappy (which is pretty much every time) we need to take the nappy to the toilet and spray the poop off it.  Pros: her nappy bucket never smells too badly and the poop goes where it's supposed to (down the toilet, not in the dump), it makes me clean my toilet bowl more often because I find myself staring at it a couple of times a day. Cons: it's a little bit horrible (quote: Naomi O'Sullivan) and it's just extra work.
Because of this I decided I was done with Flat Fold Nappies.  I figured I was doing enough work washing, drying, stripping and now spraying nappies, having to fold them before putting them on the child was just too much.  I also knew that she was growing out of them and that in a few months she'd be growing out of the Sandy's fitted nappies. It was time to try out some of these new nappies I've been hearing about!

Recently I joined a group on facebook for cloth nappy users in Ireland.  Yes, I know I don't live in Ireland anymore but can't a home sick girl just pretend?  On this group I kept hearing about all kinds of different nappies.  Pocket nappies and flips being the predominate ones.  Also, on our recent trip to Ireland I found myself using disposables on the plane as we traveled to and from Cork.  It made life much easier to use disposables but the cost and the waste annoyed me.  One Sunday during a conversation with a friend of mine she mentioned the cloth nappies that use inserts (flips, gnappies, gdiapers, charlie bananas).  These nappies are known as "hybrid" nappies and they're really cool because they're slim fit and you can use either a cloth or a disposable insert (no need to buy a bunch of disposable nappies -yay!)
So I found a very cool baby shop in Waterloo,(http://www.extraordinarybabyshoppe.com/) and went to check out their hybrid nappies.  I decided to buy some flip nappies.  5 nappy covers, 12 cloth inserts and a packet of 18 disposable inserts all brand new with added tax $160-not bad!
I started using my flips straight away and I love love love them.  They're soft and comfy for Béibhinn, they've great absorption, and they're one size, so they work from newborn to potty! I highly recommend these nappies.  Now I haven't used them on a constantly peeing newborn but I'm pretty confident that they would work really well and it's really easy to just double them up whenever I need to.

One other yucky side affect of Béibhinn's love for solids is a nasty nappy rash.  Coming home from Ireland she was pooping every hour and we couldn't keep up with her! By the time we got home her little bum was red raw and getting worse.  I went to the pharmacist and he recommended mixing some hydrocortizone cream with a stronger nappy cream.  I used this for about 2 weeks and while sometimes the rash seemed to improve, every now and then it would flair up again to the point of bleeding!  I couldn't seem to kick this rash and poor little Bei Bei was very distressed.  Finally I decided to try what a lot of my crunchy mommy friends have been recommending forever: coconut oil.  I was very skeptical, I thought if the hydrocortizone doesn't work why on earth would coconut oil work?  I was desperate though and willing to try anything.  I bought the coconut oil and started using it less than a week ago.  Béibhinn's rash stopped getting worse and now it is slowly but surely clearing up.  I couldn't believe it!  All I can say is, if your baby has a bad rash you've got to give this a go, it's really fantastic!

6.5 Months In Kitchener

Wow! It's been a while since I've updated my blog.  What can I say? I'm a facebook girl.  It's so easy! Use my phone to take a photo and immediately upload it to facebook with a caption-takes 30 seconds.  So much easier than blogging.  But blogging gives you the opportunity to write a bit more, so write a bit more I will do.

Life has been quite a roller coaster over the past few months. Before I wrote this I decided to reread my post "A Month in Kitchener". I realised after reading this, how much more we've settled into Kitchener, and how the Lord has answered much of our prayers since that time.

We left LA when Béibhinn was two-and-a-half weeks old.  I've stopped counting the weeks...right now she is six-and-a-half months old!  I can't believe how time has flown.  She is now rolling over like a crazy baby whizzing around the room to her heart's content.  She's attempting sitting but seems to be kind of lazy about it. I think rolling is too much fun for her.  We nursed exclusively for six months and on her six-month birthday we introduced her to her first solids.  Andrew and I were ridiculously excited about it, Béibhinn was curious and now seems to be pretty interested in expanding her cuisine.  It's a lot of fun.  Two weeks after we arrived in Kitchener, Béibhinn weighed about 11lbs. At her 6 month check up she weighed 15lbs 14oz.  She's a fatty fat fat.

Eating breakfast

Tiny Béibhinn when we first moved to Kitchener

Béibhinn these days

Béibhinn's belly dance

After writing the “A Month in Kitchener” post, I continued my quest for a family doctor. I was looking far and wide, willing to drive far if that was needed. Andrew’s cousin, Joyce, who’s a doctor herself, was about to refer us to an endocrinologist (for me) and a pediatrician (for Béibhinn) because we couldn’t connect with any of these doctors without a doctor referral and we couldn’t persuade a drop in clinic doctor to give us one. I knew Béibhinn didn’t need a pediatrician, that a family doctor would do, but I was beginning to get desperate. Béibhinn needed her vaccinations and I really needed to get connected with a doctor who could supervise my diabetes management.
A week after moving into our new home, Andrew, Béibhinn and I visited a church in Kitchener. While there, a lady asked us if there was anything they could do to help us in our transition to Kitchener. I immediately mentioned that we were really in need of a family doctor. She said “leave it with me”. Later that week I received an email from her saying that she knew of a doctor taking new patients and would it be okay to pass on my contact details to them. I agreed, not expecting much. A couple of days later I received a phone call from the office of Dr. Alarakiah to set up a meet and greet appointment for us just in time for Béibhinn’s 2 month birthday (when she was due her first round of vaccines). We couldn’t believe it. We met with Dr. Alarakiah and we loved him. Béibhinn has been receiving all the medical care she needs for her first year. Dr. Alarakiah provided my post-natal care (didn’t even realise I needed that) and he also referred me to an endocrinologist. I had been told that I wouldn’t see an endocrinologist for months but I have already met with him and have my first diabetes nurse appointment tomorrow. When people ask me now about whether we have been able to find a family doctor, they are always surprised that we found one so easily. I’m not surprised. God is faithful!

Béibhinn charming Dr. A.

We are really loving our new home.  It’s been recarpeted and a dear friend from our church, Jerry, has been painting it and will continue to do so over the next few months.  It’s feeling more and more like home these days and we are slowly but surely setting up new furniture and unpacking boxes (yes, boxes still need to be unpacked).

We have also found a church home at Harvest Bible Chapel Waterloo Region.  We are so encouraged to have found a church home where the word of God is preached without apology, where we are challenged by the ministry of God's Word, and by accountability in our small groups. We have joined a small group connected with the church and have been blessed by new friendships within this.

So have we settled into life in Kitchener-Waterloo? A friend told me the other day that he and his wife have found that it takes about two years living in a place to truly feel at home. I have found this to be true - it does take time to really put down roots, to get to know people, and build relationships. Andrew and I felt a bit like "displaced persons" during our first few months in Kitchener. I found myself quite lonely for Ireland and Los Angeles until very recently.
Recently some new unpleasant surprises have further rocked our boat. We were already finding it difficult to settle here. As if the waters weren't choppy enough, this added challenge should have capsized us, right? WRONG! I love it when we're WRONG, oh so WRONG.
When things became the MOST difficult, the Lord reached down and met every need-isn't this typical? In the past couple of weeks, our church family has circled around us to encourage us. Sweet new friendships at church, work and in our neighborhood have proved edifying and refreshing. Old friendships have been rekindled. Most importantly, we feel like we're home. This is where the Lord would have us for the foreseeable future and we're excited for what He has in store. If this blog bears witness to anything, it's the fact that God's plans are far wiser than ours. What a blessing it is to trust in a Sovereign God.

Béibhinn's First Year

Cloth Nappies/Diapers

This post has been requested by a friend.  We use cloth nappies (I'm Irish we say "nappies" :) ) on my baby rather than disposable nappies.  My main motivation for this?  Saving money!  I am no expert on cloth nappies, I have many friends who know a whole lot more on it, but over the course of my pregnancy I did extensive research into cloth nappies via the internet and cloth nappy using friends and now I have almost 2 months of cloth nappy using experience under my belt and I feel like I've learned a lot since then.  I will share with you what I know of the pros and cons of using cloth nappies, my own experiences with them along with some of the systems I use to make it work for me.

Cons
I think I'll start with the cons of using cloth nappies, mostly because I think there are so many pros that if I start with them I'll be tired of writing by the time I get to the cons!

• It involves extra laundry
• Slightly more pee and poop may need to be handled
• They can be expensive initially depending on what kind of nappy you use. And there are A LOT to choose from.

Pros

• It gives me such joy to walk though the shops and ignore the highly priced nappy section (and because I also use reusable wipes, I can ignore those too)
• There's something empowering about using cloth nappies (for me I think it's related to saving so much money)
• Using cloth nappies has become so popular recently that there are endless resources available to make the whole process of using them really easy.
• If you have more than one child you can save even more money-cloth nappies can be used over and over and over!
• If your child has any skin sensitivities cloth nappies irritate the skin a lot less than disposables, babies who use them can have less nappy rashes.  Also reusable wipes and water (or your own wipes mix) give you more control over what you're using to clean your baby's little bum.
• If the environment is a concern for you, then cloth nappies are definitely environmentally friendly.
• It saves money even if you have only one child.
• You don't need to shop for disposable nappies (saves a little bit of time-and gives you such joy, as mentioned above)
• You can have a lot of fun with the cute nappy covers and wool soakers.
• It's so much fun! (maybe I feel this way because I'm weird)
• Baby pee and poop ain't that bad.

Types of Cloth Nappies

I use three different types of cloth nappies: prefolds, flat fold and fitted.  There two more more called the "all in one" and pocket diapers.  The "all in one" one tends to be the most expensive.  With my focus primarily on saving money, I gave these ones a skip. I have heard from other mums that these ones are extremely convenient and work really well and even though they're the most expensive, you still save A LOT of money using these.  I may use the pocket diapers in the future when Béibhinn grows out of her present nappy stash.  If you click on each of the nappies it will bring you to a link that describes them. I will write about my experiences with the ones I'm using.

Prefolds
When Béibhinn was newborn I started with prefold diapers.  These were the cheapest nappies that I was aware of at the time.  I bought them at Green Mountain Diapers.  These were recommended to me by a friend for use with a newborn.  Because newborns move less the prefolds work as well as any other nappy.  I found these to be as good as any disposable (I used disposables on and off during the move as laundry facilities were not always available).  The key to the success of the disposables and all of the nappies I've used so far are a good nappy cover.  To keep the prefold fastened, I used snappy fasteners.  Easy peasy, even my brother John was changing nappies after one demonstration.

How to use a prefold:

This one uses an insert and no snappies

This one uses snappies

I like to use snappies with the prefolds because I feel like it secures the nappy a bit better around the baby.  Liners are optional and will be discussed later.

Flat Fold Nappies
I came upon flat fold nappies by chance but I have to say that flat folds have become my favourite kind of nappy to use with Béibhinn, I don't know how well they'll work when she's more active but right now they're very absorbent and not too bulky.  These nappies were bought for me by a friend of ours back in Ireland who had heard that I was planning on using cloth nappies.  She spotted a packet of unopened flat fold nappies in a charity store and bought them for me.  My mum brought them over when she came to visit and Béibhinn was almost a week old.  At this point I was using the prefold nappies.  When I opened the package and saw these square sheets of fabric first thing that came to mind was "terry nappies" and "am I really going to use nappies that I need to fold?!"  It seemed too much.  However, internet and youtube lover that I am, I decided to do some research into folding nappies.  I came across this amazing fold called "the bat fold".

This fold works really well, the centre piece really absorbs all the pee and poop really well and folding the legs inward keeps everything inside.  Again, the liner is optional I think.  And snappies are the greatest invention ever!  What I also love about these flat folds is that they fit for a lot longer than some of the prefold and other kinds of nappies.  While Béibhinn has already grown out of her newborn size prefolds, she is still using the same flatfolds she was wearing at one week, now, at six months.

 

Flat Nappy using the bat fold

Using the snappi fastener

Fitted Cloth Nappy
I chose to buy Mother-ease Sandy's Fitted Diapers.  These were recommended to me by my friend Abby who was my 'go to' girl for all things nappy related.  I bought one size small nappy and the rest were bought as gifts by friends and family.  I started using these when Beibhinn was about 6 weeks.  These are very easy to use as there's no folding or maneuvering of snappy fasteners.  You just snap them on at the sides.  I do recommend nappies with snap fasteners rather than velcro because I think they're more durable.  I have needed to place a trifolded prefold nappy inside these nappies at night because Beibhinn appears to be an epic pee-er.  These nappies work really well and I'm really happy with them.

Covers
All of the above nappies require some kind of waterproof cover. I have used wool soakers and PUL covers as well as some other plastic covers. The wool soakers were perfect when Béibhinn was newborn. The wool soakers were soft for her new little body and it was easy to fold them down to keep things away from her umbilical stump. The best waterproof cover with no exception is a PUL cover. Since Béibhinn was about 6 weeks I have found these to be the most successful for preventing any leaks and I still love these covers. I find the covers with velcro fasteners the best because it's easy to tighten or loosen them to fit various sizes of nappies.

Cloth Wipes

I love using my cloth wipes. Most of my wipes were given as gifts and I bought a few more myself. I am finding though that I really need more wipes than I have especially for those weeks where I fall behind on laundry (and there are many of these weeks!) I hope to buy some flannel in the next few weeks and cut them into wipes-so cheap!

I have a little wipes station set up in Béibhinn's room. I fill a coffee carafe with warm water, soap, lavender oil and tea tree oil. I place a wipe in the bowl then spray it with the water mixture, easy to do with one hand, which is useful when changing a squirmy baby.

Dealing with Poop

Until Béibhinn started on solids at six months, poop was really not an issue. I would just throw the nappy into a dry nappy pail and throw them in the wash, no problems. Now Béibhinn is on solids so it's whole other story. There are a couple of options for dealing with icky poop. One of the favoured methods is the liner. Nappy liners can be bought and placed in the nappy, when the baby poops, the poop is caught in the liner then you just throw the liner in the bin or the toilet (depending on whether or not it's a flushable nappy liner) This can be a very easy way to deal with icky poop except for two small things. Liners cost money and the liners often don't catch all the poop. A lot of liners can be wasted by wet nappies too. A friend of mine passed on a smart tip to me. If you use disposable wipes (and sometimes I do), just throw the wipe into the wash with your nappy and reuse the wipe as a liner later on. I've also actually reused the wipe as a wipe also.

Another way to deal with poop is to attach a specially designed shower head to your toilet, a diaper sprayer. When you change your baby's nappy spray the poop off the nappy into the toilet and then place the nappy into the nappy pail. This can save a lot of stinkiness and the diaper sprayer is pretty easy to install.

I think that's all I have to share at this point with regards to cloth nappies. I'm enjoying the adventure and looking forward to learning more as Béibhinn gets bigger and more active. It's a road I'm glad I took.

Below are a few links to sites that sell diapers and diaper accessories, enjoy.

Béibhinn's Photograph a Day

For the first year of Béibhinn's life, Andrew plans on taking a photograph every day and uploading it to this flickr album.  Andrew updates it every few days after he has edited the shots.  It's fun to look at-I see her every day and I still enjoy this album, but then I'm a bit obsessed :) I'll try to post this link with each blog. Enjoy Béibhinn's first year!

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.