One month old and keeping trucking along...

Micaela is already one month old.  Hard to believe it has gone by so fast and yet harder to believe she hasn't been around longer.  She is doing very well - yesterday she was up to 9lbs 11.5 oz, which could be because she is feeding all the time!  She is still eating every 3 hours at night, sigh, which doesn't help much in the sleep department. She is getting way more alert, and has maybe even smiled intentionally a couple of times in my direction.  She isn't a big fan of the car seat, but is usually fine when we get moving in the car.  Maybe she has a need for speed like her mother! :)

Avery is still enjoying being a big sister, though maybe not enjoying the 2-year old growing pains as much.  Bedtime continues to be totally inconsistent - some nights she is so tired she doesn't even want all her stories, other nights it takes us multiple attempts to get her to calm down.  Everytime we have another bedtime disaster I feel like I am failing at this mother gig, and it makes me even more worried to be alone with both of them for any extended period of time.  It doesn't help that Micaela is most fussy between 6 and 9, and needs a bunch of attention and many feedings.  So I guess we'll find out whether I can handle it tomorrow night when Greg goes curling.  I have approximately one plan of attack and if it all goes south (as it did tonight), the TV may be what I resort to.  Sigh again.  Also a little curious when Greg is going to attempt to be alone with them.  Maybe when I play frisbee in May - we shall see.

We've had a ton of visitors over the last few weeks - my mom was here when Micaela was born and then again a couple of weeks later.  My dad and Cassandra came a few weeks ago, and then Dan and Andrea came from Calgary.  We really appreciate all of the help everyone has given us, as well as all of the food and presents from our friends and family!

We took a quick trip over to the Haggerty's for Micaela's first photo shoot with Amy.  She took some awesome shots, which will be made into a birth annoucement shortly.  Otherwise, the only excitement we have on the horizon is Avery's 2nd birthday.  I can't believe it is here already.  We are going with a family party this year, but plan to put the emphasis on her kid friends next year.  I am going to attempt another cake - I am sure that will be worthy of a post, as this will be going way out of my comfort zone!  Stay tuned...

Micaela's progress so far...and ours too

So how are we doing?  Pretty well, for the most part.  I hate to say it, but John Kean and Kevin may be on to something when they say "babies are easy".  Really, it is toddlers that are "challenging". :)

Avery is reacting very well to being a big sister.  She loves to say hi to the baby (Hi Baby), and often wants to
hold her.  She is also very interested in diaper changes and breastfeeding.  I have seen her nurse her baby doll a few times now.  She is doing very well in potty training (all thanks to Linda, much less thanks to us), but she is already using it as a tool to get out of bed, get out of her booster seat, etc.  She is also giving us such a hard time at bedtime - there is almost no point in trying to get her to stay in her bed until she has decided she is ready to sleep.  Sigh...these things pass, right?

Micaela is doing very well.  Breastfeeding has worked out pretty well this time - almost 2 weeks in and we're getting close to pain-free nursings.  It seems to me she has become a bit of a snacker during the day, but I guess I don't really have much else better to do than feed her whenever she wants.  She is a little more focused at night, thank goodness.  She's gaining weight and her little chicken legs are slowly starting to fill out.  Nights aren't too bad - she usually sleeps for stretches of 2.5-3 hours, nurses for 20-30 mins, and more or less goes right back to sleep.  Next step is to get her out of our bed and into her crib.  I suspect her difficulty in achieving that step is her mother's failure to try.  Maybe next week... :)  One interesting development is that so far she does not like the Miracle Blanket.  She likes to sleep with her hands above her head, which of course is not possible when the Miracle Blanket is used properly, so we have been putting her in a sleep sack instead.  I'm not too worried about not using the Miracle Blanket - maybe we won't have that same awful backsliding in sleeping duration once we stopped using it with Avery - but it just seems strange to me that we might not use it.  It worked so well for Avery (and us), up to a point.

A few wrinkles have occurred over the past week.  1) Avery tripped and fell into the wall last week, resulting in a scary goose-egg on her forehead, to the point that Greg took her into a walk-in clinic.  The doctor was pretty sure she didn't have a concussion, but told us to keep her home from daycare the next day, to limit her activity and no TV.  That was a challenge - but Sandy helped us out as usual, and we managed to get through the day.  A week later, her bruise is finally starting to go away.

2) The other morning, Avery accidentally head-butted Greg in the nose, to the point that he thought his nose was broken, and that he was imminently going to throw up.  He was fine in the end, but he is a lot more careful now when he is getting her dressed!

3) A little more serious - we had a call from the Genetics Dept at CHEO today.  Turns out that Micaela screened postive for the same class of disorders that Avery did on the Newborn Screening tests.  As with Avery, Micaela was only marginally above the cut-off, so we went to CHEO and gave them a urine sample and blood.  We should get the results next week, but we aren't too worried this time around.  CHEO's new theory is that rather than this being a genetic disorder in either of them, that I actually develop higher levels of the chemical they are testing for in the later stages of my pregnancies, and then pass the elevated chemical on to the babies.  I had a urine test and blood test as well today, so they might know more about me next week as well.

Overall, life with 2 kids brings new and interesting challenges.  Mostly the things that are stressing me out have to do with Avery, and I am constantly feeling like I am not spending enough time with her or giving her enough attention.  Hopefully that will pass, and I will get to have some one-on-one time with her soon.  Greg is spending a lot more time with her, and she seems quite happy with that.  She is still going to daycare full-time, and will until the winter is over.  She continues to love it there, and we couldn't be happier about that.  Thank goodness for Linda!

Micaela's birth story

In the name of making sure I have all of these memories written down somewhere (as if I would be keeping baby books!), here is the story of Micaela's birth and relevant details.  Hopefully this will be a help to Auntie Jamie when she makes Micaela a really nice keepsake book for her first birthday, the way she did for Avery... :)
And onto labour - I think my first contractions started at about 10:30 on Sunday morning, Jan 24th, but didn't really get "regular" until about 2 or 3 pm.  Over the course of the day, Greg, Avery and I went to buy Avery a helmet, went grocery shopping, and I did a few loads of laundry.  Thankfully Sandy showed up at about 3pm to look after Avery because I wasn't coping super-well anymore.  I did manage to throw some dinner on the table, but then I basically did my own thing for the next few hours.  At about 10pm, with my contractions still everywhere between 5 and 10 mins apart, I decided to lie down for a while.  This slowed everything down to about 15-20 mins apart and I actually managed to fall asleep a couple of times.  However, I got up to go to the bathroom at about 11 and all of a sudden, the contractions were about 4 mins apart, and seriously painful.  Time to call the midwife!

We headed into the Monfort Hospital and got there at about midnight.  Despite the freezing rain storm, driving wasn't too bad.  We made a little pitstop on the side of Montreal Road approximately 500 feet away from the turn into the hopital, because I thought I was going to throw up.  I gagged on the side of the road for a minute, didn't throw up, which was good because the sidewalk was sheer ice and I don't think it would have ended well.

Once at the hospital, our midwives Joanne and Claudia assessed me, decided I was about 9cm dilated, and told me it wouldn't be too long before the baby was born.  A little sidenote - as part of my "birth plan", I had decided I didn't want an epidural if I could manage not to have one.  Clearly at that point, it was getting to be too late.  I was open to possibly having laughing gas, but the contractions were so close together and strong that I didn't even feel capable of asking for it, and, as I learned, the midwives are very non-interventionist.  They weren't going to offer anything, but would have provided it if I had asked.  Unfortunately, I wasn't really capable of asking at that point.

Anyway, we were put in a birthing room, which was fantastic by the way.  The Monfort birthing centre is quite impressive.  I was told to "listen to my body" and if I felt the need to start pushing I could go ahead. Huh?  They weren't going to tell me when to start pushing?  This is when I realized I was in for a very different experience than with Avery, when the nurses and OBs at the General told me exactly what to do and when.  This time, the midwives offered that I could push standing up or lying in the bed - another huh?  Greg told me that I had to lie down, because if he saw anything bloody he was going to end up passed out on the floor and that the midwives had enough to deal with.  I ended up choosing the bed and started pushing.  I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, but they kept telling me that it was going well and that I should keep it up.  Eventually Micaela's head made an appearance, I gave one last big push and she popped out.  Really quickly.  And she apparently pooped everywhere while doing so! :)  It was 1:27am, she weighed 7lbs and half an ounce, and was 20 inches long.  The midwives put her on my chest for a little bit and then took her to have some mucous suctioned out because she was a little "grunty" as they said.  Turns out being born that quickly can have some drawbacks...she was fine after a little while, we bonded for a bit, did some preliminary nursing, and then took a little nap.  The hospital actually wanted us to go home at 4:30am - they send you home really quick when you have midwives, because they will visit at home within 24 hours - but given that it was pouring rain and was the middle of the night, we managed to stay until about 7:45am.  We were home by 8am.  Isn't that insane?

Anyway, this is the really condensed version - I think I was pushing on the bed for about 10-15 mins and I thought I was going to die it hurt so much.  I was also really scared, but that is where the midwives came in handy because they seemed to sense it and reassured me enough.  I also tore like crazy, again, and later an OB had to come stitch me up because the midwives weren't sure they could do it in the way that was necessary.  All that to say, I am glad I didn't have any drugs, but I am honestly not sure what I would do if I had to do it again.  Thankfully, we don't plan to have any more kids so I probably won't have to make that decision. :)

Overall the midwife experience was a really positive one.  I was followed very closely, had ample time at each appointment to discuss issues and ask questions.  When we had the Down's Syndrome scare with Micaela back in Sept/Oct, Denise (who was actually my primary midwife but wasn't on-call when I went into labour) was a great help and very proactive about making sure we had all the information we needed to manage the situation and any decision-making.  I appreciate that things more or less went according to my birth plan, but I do wish I had been more aware that the midwives were going to be that hands-off during the process.  If I had known, I would have made it clear that I was going to need more direction and guidance.  By the time I figured out what was going on, I wasn't really capable of asking for more help.  Of course it all worked out, but that is the one thing that I would have changed.  The post-partum care has also been great - 3 visits at home, some very specific help with breastfeeding, and follow-up calls in between have been very useful. I would highly recommend using a midwife to anyone, but would just suggest that first-time moms at least discuss the birthing process in great detail beforehand, and be prepared to go home from the hospital very quickly.  It wasn't so bad for us, being that it was our second child, but it would have completely freaked me out the first time around.

Anyway, that is the story of Micaela's birth - next post will be an update on how we are all doing...