Monday, March 29, 2010

I feel blessed

The other night, I was watching Julien sleep, and couldn't help but think back to when he was born.  I imagine because of all the pregnancy hormones, and progressing in the pregnancy that maybe this is the reason for it popping into my mind often now.

And I must say, I truly feel blessed to be this little boys mom. To be able to watch him grow and learn. It is so amazing, and I think of how far we have come as a family. 
Julien was quite ill when he was born, and I thank God everyday that he overcame it.  I was induced early because of high blood pressure leading to pre-eclampsia.  They expected that he would have some breathing issues since he was to be born early, and had prepared us for the fact that he would need to be in the special care nursery for monitoring.

However, when he was born it was worse than they thought. His lungs had not developed fully in the womb, and he was missing the serphactum that helps to keep the lungs inflated.  The way the pediatrician on call explained it to us, was that it's like blowing up a balloon for the first time - it's difficult, but once blown up much easier to get it going again.  So, without the serphactum, each breath Julien took was like the first time blowing up a balloon. He did tell us that often times they will develop it on their own within 24 hours. So, we wait.

Well. about 18 hours later he comes to see me, and tells me that Juliens  condition is worsening. He is having more trouble breathing, and they need to transfer him either to CHEO or to the Civic - as the queensway could not give him the care he needed.  CHEO didn't have a transport team available for him, so Sick Kids in Toronto was going to come with their chopper and transfer him - but, they were unable to take off because of  a lightning storm.
Which meant we needed to wait another 3 hours until CHEO could get their to take him to the civic. 3am, CHEO arrives, and assess him. They were actually quite happy, as he didnt seem to be as  bad as they had expected. We got to hold him and have some family time, and they took some pictures of us as well. I treasure these photos still.

They left the queensway around 6:30 am, and J was to meet them there around 9am (they said that they needed to assess him further etc, so to go home and grab a shower/eat and then go). Well, when they arrived at cheo and were assessing him, his lung collapsed. They managed to get a chest tube into him, and reinflate the lung. It turns out that he had spontaneous pneumothorax - which means collapsed lung. This is apparently almost unheard of in newborns - and the doctors and RT's that I have spoken with in recent years are always fascinated becaua=se they have never heard of it happening in a newborn. Sometimes if they are being bagged the pressure will cause it to collapse, but not spontaneously.

I thank God that the ped had called for the transfer when he did, as had this happened at the queensway, he certainly would have died, as they don't have the tools/instruments to deal with these issues.

Watching him sleep the other night made me realize just how blessed we are to be this little boys family.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

I think I spoke too soon

I posted last week how I was feeling great and thought the morning sickness was starting to subside. Oh, how wrong I wa. I must have jinxed myself by saying it. Friday was horrible - I was nauseous from the time I woke up until I went to bed, and threw up quite a few times also. Yesterday was ok, could have been better but not worth complaining about. Today however,, is a repeat of Friday.

Bleehhh.

Although, hubby has been replacing door trim and baseboards at our house over the past few weeks, and yesterday afternoon when I came home, he had a surprise waiting for me in the kitchen! A new faucet for our kitchen sink.  This one is much higher than our old one, and so it will go over top of pots and pans instead of having to manoevre them underneath and sideways etc. I was quite excited to see it! Yay!

Today also marks 18 weeks gestation. Only 2 more weeks and it's half way there! Can't believe how fast it has gone. I will post a new belly picture later today or tomorrow,.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

lucky me

Julien decided that he wasn't going to nap today. Not completely out of the ordinary, but I knew I would have to keep him really busy, which would be difficult as I had been nauseous since waking up this morning.  however, around 3 mom and I decided to head to bayshore with him. We walked around a bit, bought a gift mom needed to buy, Julien had some frozen yogurt. I had been hoping that wewould be there till around 6 pm, so that he could just fall asleep on the way home and he would hopefully sleep until 430 or 5am.

No such luck. We left at 5. He was out cold by 515. I am happy to report that he did sleep well until 230; then he was wide awake. So, here I am now online, surfing while he watches Dora and cleans up the yogurt that he managed to get all over the table.

Tomorrow may be a very long day. With any luck, he will be back in bed by 5am and I can get a few more hours of sleep.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

17 weeks and counting

As of March 21, I am 17 weeks pregnant. I am finally starting to feel good, and enjoy the pregnancy.  I am still sick most mornings, but it seems to be contained to within the first few hours of waking.

I don't find I am as fatigued as with Julien either - which is good since I have a 32 month old to chase after all day long!  I do find that my sleep is affected in the last few weeks, it takes me quite a while to get back to bed after Juliens late night wake up calls. But I am managing. As I said, I am starting to enjoy the pregnancy.

Little bean has started to get quite active, and while we were sitting at a stop light last night, it was as if bean was dancing to the music in the truck! Too funny.

Our next u/s is coming up, and we are most likely going tofind out the sex - if the baby co-operates of course. Still undecided if we will share it or not.

No barbados for me

Last night was the giveaway bash for the Majic 100 breakfast in Barbados trip. Unfortunately neither Tash or I won, but we did have a really good time.

The dinner was held at Fat Tuesdays in the byward market - what a terriffic place! We had never been there before, and were pleasantly surprised. The atmosphere is great, the food was terriffic (started off with a baby green salad with citrus dressing; then the choice of entree - Chicken, Salmon or Jambalaya, and for dessert a to-die-for cheescake) and the prices seemed reasonable as well. We will definitely be heading back there soon!

Friday, March 19, 2010

rainbow cake!

A few ladies on WB have posted rainbow cakes that they have made. I  have always wanted to do it, but never had the right opportunity.

This morning, Julien happened to see the latest post on it, and wanted to make it. Since I had to get my easter cake made anyways, I thought "why not?"

So, we got everything ready:

and then we seperated the batter and coloured it, here are how the colours turned out

I wasn't too happy with the colours, but since I didn't have many gels, I had to work with the liquids, and they aren't quite as concentrated.

then we poured the colours into the pan

and then we baked - and this is the end result

Now it gets to cool and go in the freezer, and then it will be transformed into a bunny!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

1 step closer

Tash also qualified for the barbados giveaway this week, so we went downtown today to pick up our invites.

While I was down there, I went to the rocky mountain chocolate factory and bought chocolate covered strawberries (delicious) and then since I have been craving cinnamon rolls since the beginning of this pregnancy, I picked some up from Rideau!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

barbados? me? hmmm - maybe!

I randomly entered a radio contest online a few weeks ago. It was a trip for 2 to breakfast in barbados with this radio station. So, you enter, if they call your name then you qualify to win the trip. They are having a dinner at a bar/restaurant downtown on march 24, where they will draw 9 names. Those 9 winners win a trip for 2 to the Hilton Barbados - 1 week accomodation, airfare from Air Canada, breakfast overlooking the beach and a private concert with NKOTB and Barenaked Ladies!

Well, my aunt called me this morning to tell me my name was called. So, I called the station and I won! (well, qualified, but I did win entrance to the dinner/giveaway party!)

So, excited!!! Can't wait for MArch 24th!

15 weeks

Here is a picture of my belly at 15 weeks

some pictures from our winterlude experience

My mom and I took Julien downtown to see the ice sculptures, walk on the canal and have a beavertail a few weeks ago.

Here are some pictures

12 weeks!

I edited this post to add my 12 week belly picture, this was from Valentines Day.

I am officially 12 weeks today. Possibly at the start of trimester 2, depends on where you look. Some say 12 weeks, others say 13.

We had Shawn and Jenn over last night and told them our news. It's so nice to get it out there. We will start telling our families today, and hopefully everyon that NEEDS to know, will know by mid-week!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

chapters for kids

Julien loves to go to chapters. They have a wonderful kids area set up with a craft table (paper, markers); they have a thomas the train table set up, and some push cars to play with.

Wednesday mornings they do a craft, so I thought we would check that out. Wow, was it ever busy. There must have been at least 15 kids there, as well as all the parents milling around. Julien sat for the short story, but was too overwhelmed with the amount of ppl to do the craft.

We headed over to walmart and got a mcflurry from mcdonalds instead!

On the baby front, not much new. Still feeling pretty crappy - and my belly is really starting to grow. Sleeping is starting to suffer - I only get about 2 hour stretches and then my bladder is calling.
Only going to get worse on that front I guess.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Mmmmm - bbq hamburgers

I have been quite turned off of most protein sources with this pregnancy. No red meat, no poultry. So, this weekend I was quite surprised to find myself craving a hamburger.  Then, Aunt Bev called and invited us over for dinner - for BBQ'd hamburgers. They were DELICIOUS.

I had my prenatal appt today, and my BP was great! No worries there! Now she is stumped by why it was up for 10 days.  Mom got to come in and hear the bean's heartbeat (154 bpm) - I loved seeing the look on her face when she heard it!