Pee-k - A - Poo

Yep. The following days afterward was pretty tiring. My bed was a welcome site. I guess the bed I had at the post-delivery ward was probably designed to be uncomfortable to encourage people to leave.

4 days - eat, poop, sleep.
(Yep that's our outdoor patio furniture inside our house. It's the biggest table we have when my family comes over)

I know I've slept. Not a contiguous block of time, but a few hours here and there. You know, whenever I pass out. My back is a little sore, but I'm sure that Tresa is feeling much worse. She's been a trooper. And she's been great.

3 days - quiet time

Our son is now 8 days old. It’s been a long week of late night feedings and changing diapers. Other than that, I’m not sure where the time has gone. It’s been a real eye opener for both of us. We thought that we’d be able to do a bit more than we’d actually been doing.

7 days - Dreaming of a good poop

He’s been a lot of fun and he’s changed our lives, for the better. It’s been really good so far. A real learning experience - a learning experience of how to understand what a cry means, whether it’s a hunger cry or a dirty diaper or I got gas cry or that water is cold or just pick me up and hold me holler.

2 days - BURP

So we went to see the pediatrician on Wednesday. I had made an appointment on Monday from my cell phone at Mr. Pita restaurant. I was ordering some lunch for Tresa and I. Mama and Papa’s gotta eat man. I was put on hold and went ahead and ordered the food. Only a ‘LITTLE’ hot sauce and no rice for Tresa’s falafel plate I said. I didn’t realize that the doctor’s secretary could hear me the whole time. I must have made her hungry, cause she said “no hot sauce for me!”

4 days old - just changed a diaper

So the doctor said he’s doing fine. Hasn’t lost any more weight, but he hadn’t gained any either. But as of today he’s back to his birth weight. 7lbs 13oz. So he’s actually gained the 6 oz he lost initially and added an extra ounce. Every time I step on the scale I keep losing weight. It’s a good thing I packed on those extra pounds. I’m pretty much back down to my racing weight. Although I feel like I’ve got jet lag.

6 days - feeding time is over

We feel pretty wiped out. It’s tough trying to nap whenever the baby naps. When it seems like there are always things to do. Like go grocery shopping or do the laundry, or cook something to eat, cause only one person in our household has a food supply at his fingertips.

5 days - having a good poop

Someone asked me how does it feel. Or was it everyone? It’s a really nice feeling. Sort of makes you feel warm inside. Not unlike the warmth of his urine as he peed on me. Twice now. You know my friend Derrick said I’d get peed on. And I did (and he puked in my face too). The first time right in my face. And the second just a few moments ago (and I did wash my hands before I started typing again) as I was wiping him down and holding his legs. I guess he's just marking his territory, letting other babies know as they cross paths at the park or playground or daycare. He’s lucky the palm of my hands was there to deflect the stream. Otherwise it would’ve gone on his face instead of his belly. At that moment he stopped squirming and had this look of “hey what’s that?” on his face. He blinked a couple of times and then I had Tresa finish putting his diaper on. Papa had to go wash his hands clean.

1 day old


5 days - remembering the good ol'days, back in the tummy

Pink or Blue - Winner

So our winner is my co-worker's wife: Cheshmak.
She was the closest person to guess the time April 21, 2005 @ 3:00PM
Pink or Blue spread sheet
I was second closest at 1:00AM. So that's good. At least no one can say that I had it fixed.

Cheshmak, just so you know Mike owe's me $58.00. And you owe 2.00.
so that means Mike only owes me $30.00.

Everyone else who hasn't paid me yet. Cough it up. I need the moola to buy diapers. This kid is going through them like it grew on trees. One time he did it 3 times in less than 30 minutes.
Basically it was
Feed
Poop
Change diaper
Feed
Burp
Feed
Poop
Change diaper
Feed
Burp
Change diaper
Feed / Poop
Change diaper
Sleep....

Hello World

It was just after midnight (about 12:15 AM) Friday morning, April 22/05. We recieved a call from Women's College that things were quiet in the delivery floor and they were calling to let us know to come in for induction. We sat and thought for a few minutes whether we should go now or at 7:00AM. I figured that in the morning there'd be more hustle and bustle and no matter what, I would NOT be able to sleep anyways so why not go now. We had all our stuff ready. But it just didn't seem like we were ever really ready.
A few hours earlier we had hit the Mandarin on the Queensway for some chinese buffet, after visiting our OB-GYN earlier that day and recommending that we go out to eat and watch a movie. Now were were second guessing that decision. Ho boy.


This was it. We were finally going to see our baby face to face. And our baby would see ours and put a face to the voices rumbling through the belly. So we gave our baby one final rub of good luck on the belly before we headed out to the hospital. It was now 1:30AM.


This was Tresa's bed. They took real good care of Tresa and that's all that mattered. I was just there to be the squeeze ball.


And this was my bed. It's actually not too bad. It folds into a chair. I should've taken a picture of what it looks like folded. But I forgot. There were more important things on my mind. We had been up since 7:30AM Thursday morning. So we were in for a long day.
We got admitted at 2:00AM and settled in delivery room #4. The SARS unit. It has a HVAC unit in there. Pretty ironic, since 2 years ago we did a SARS world tour (Toronto - HK - Singapore - Thailand - Cambodia) and I came back with a bad flu-like symptoms...which was actually - the FLU.
At 3:00AM the resident came in and broke Tresa's water. The water was clear and apparently very warm. Like bath water. I didn't touch it. But I did mop it up as Tresa moved around from the washroom, to the bed and around the halls. She had these absorbant pads. We had to double them up, cause one wasn't enough. Actually two wasn't enough either. We were replacing them fairly frequently. We walked around the halls trying to get the baby to drop. She was apparently at -3, what does that mean? If she's a +2 she's dropped. So -3 is pretty high. I think because the baby is upside down, the scale goes from -3 to +2. But that's my educated guess, I'm no MD or medical staff. BUT I do have two brothers that are doctors!
My stomach was grumbling and probably from stuffing myself at the Mandarin. We didn't think we'd get the call tonight! I wasn't sure if it was nerves, but my stomach was churning. But after visiting a restroom in the hallway (I certainly didn't want to stink up the one in our delivery room) I felt much better.
At 6:30AM they attached an oxytosin I.V. drip to Tresa. It was set pretty low according to the nurse. The night nurse was ending her shift and the nurse that eventually help us through the labour and delivery came in.
I had dozed off for a while and I missed our OB-GYN, who was luckily on call, and had come in to check in on us. She came in again later that morning and said that most likely this afternoon or in the evening the baby would be born.


This is our nurse, Cheryl, and she was amazing. She teaches yoga to pregnant women. I don't know what we would have done without her. She got us through the toughest parts of the labour.
Within an hour or so, the labour contractions were beginning. It was 7:45AM now and I had gone to move the car from the street and into the parking garage, and grab something quick to eat. I came back a little while later and Tresa was have the contractions less than 2 minutes apart.
They checked her just after 9:00AM and she was about 9-3/4 cm dilated now. She was almost ready to GO! The contractions were getting much stronger. I was watching the monitor and realized that one was the baby's heart rate and the other was the strength of the contractions. I was watching the meter and saw it climb, 2, 5, 19, 25, 37, 41 then slowly back down. I kept watching it again and said "Here it comes!". Then again this one was a biggie. It hit 67. WHOA. To which Tresa said. "Don't tell me when it's coming! I know when it's coming!" I felt kinda bad for her, the pain was tough and could see it was hard on her. And no epidural. She had dialated really fast. She really just needed the oxytosin as a jumpstart and then her body just took over.
Just before 10:00AM she was fully dilated and was encouraged to start pushing. I was watching the monitoring unit and checking the heartrate and the contractions. Our OB said not to watch it. But I couldn't help it. It seemed like an eternity and I was wondering how long she'd have to do this. I was encouraging Tresa, getting her quick sips of water in between pushes, telling her that she was doing great, getting her to focus when things got tough. I started counting during her pushes. Then she quickly told me to stop counting. They told me the baby was past the cervix and in the canal. Tresa was having major pains in her lower abdomen. Most likely from the baby's arms hitting her in the wrong spot.


The baby was almost out, the head was just at the opening and I could see it. The baby's hair was really long. They were even pulling it out through the opening. It was right there. She pushed in total for just over an hour. I even got to help pull our baby out. I wasn't really sure what our OB was doing. I was busy holding Tresa's knee against my body and using my head on her other leg to keep them apart in order to help the baby come out. Our doctor snaked her arm around my arm, and I looked at her and said "Hey, what are you DOING?" I was thinking - aren't you supposed to be getting my kid out? She then said "you're going to pull him out." At just before 11:00 AM Kieran was born, I put him on his mama's belly and then I cut the cord.


He was all blue and gooey when he came out and alert. He was already opening his eyes. I was happy to hear his voice when he cried. He had a full head of dark hair! That's when I looked to the monitor and checked the time. It was amazing to witness this whole process. From our trials with fertility to conception to pregnancy to birth. WOW. I was tired. And I know that Tresa was exhausted and sore. But she saw her son and it was all worth it in the end.

Hello World
3.57 kg (7lbs 12oz)
52cm (21 inches)

Ready or Not here I Come!

We're off to the races!
We're on our way to the hospital.

Check check

We are now 2 days past the due date.
We saw the OB-GYN today, checking to see if the baby was okay and if we could possibly get induced and get it to come out into the REAL WORLD. Just as long as it doesn't puke like Neo did in the Matrix.

So we got an ultrasound done and the OB-GYN said that if she doesn't score and 8 out of 8. Then they will contact her and I guess, get the ball rolling, for what I am not 100% sure. So we did the ultrasound to make sure everything was A-OK and everything was. You could see most of the baby's face. It was fat and round. So it looks like ME. I guess it's happy, Tresa scored an 8 out of 8. The baby just doesn't want to come out just yet.

On the upside today, it was a high of 28 deg C in Toronto. Holy Molee, it was like summer. My eyes were hurting from the brightness of the sun.

A taste of the real stuff

We were at the park the today trying to walk around and get the baby to drop and out. High Park is a hilly place. We made our way down to the Grenadier Lake and as we walked down the steps and the path Tresa began to get back spasms and tightness and her breathing became harder. So we kept walking a bit farther along the lake. And as the pain kept getting worse and worse. I asked her - "Do you want to keep going or head back to the car?" She said - "caaarrrr!" I figured we were on our way now, and this was it. I kinda felt like throwing up. I wasn't sure if it was the hot dog and fries and gravy we just had at the Grenadier Cafe in the middle of High Park. Tasted okay.

As we got to the foot of the climb up - it seemed like it was a long way up, like a ski hill, where's the lift? Maybe I can leave her here and go get the car and drive down and get her if she couldn't go any further. As I was helping her walk and massaging her left side, I was getting nervous and not really saying much. As we got to the car and headed home, what happens - there's ALWAYS a slow driver in front of you whenever you're in a rush to get somewhere. Why is that? Must be the GPS. It also detects people in a hurry so you can frustrate them more. Tresa was telling me not to drive fast. But this is a perfect excuse. "Officer my wife is having a baby!" and I'm not lying.

But after we got home the pain went away.
We walked everywhere til about 10:30PM at night. We walked in Yorkdale, Bayview Village and then The Bloor West. Nothing. Nada.
But at least we got an idea of what to expect.

Dose of Reality

We went to the hospital Friday night, mainly because Pat said that maybe we should go and get checked out. So we did.

This was our dry run. We had our bags packed, pillows, car seat, food. So we get to the triage at about 10:30pm. It was really quiet. So quiet that no one on duty was there.

Tresa got up on the bed and was hooked up to the monitor. Two leads were hooked up. One to monitor the contractions and the other to monitor the baby's heartrate. Then within 10 minutes two other women came in. Both in 'active labour', one was dialated 3cm and really beginning to feel the pain. They gave her the option that if they were to break her water it would speed up delivery. They estimated 1cm / hour. So 7 hours of the pain she was feeling right now, and probably worse. Then the other lady was breathing REALLY hard. She was ready to go! It was like she had run a marathon in record time.

Tresa wasn't feeling what these ladies were feeling and it made her nervous and hoped that we were going to get sent home. In the end we were told that everything was A-ok and that we would have to wait until the real labour started. This is when the contractions are so bad that she can't speak, and it's tough to breath. I think I've had something like that when I used to be really REALLY lactose intolerant and I ate some ice cream and my bowels were out of control, and I'd be praying to God for relief. I think that's close?

We were told that we really didn't need to bring a lot to the delivery room. So we repacked our bags better, separated stuff that we really needed for delivery and stuff for post delivery.

We went home, and I slept better that night knowing that we weren't there yet and I can relax a bit.

Ready, get set...

Now for the interesting part, Wednesday afternoon Tresa's mucous plug came out. Wasn't sure what that meant at first, actually I didn't know that that's what happened. Let me start from the beginning. I was working from home today and Tresa had gone out just after lunch to do some errands. She came back saying "Ray we have an appt today!" Which we thought was tomorrow. It was her last exam. I rushed to get ready, because 'Working From Home' for me means the bare minimum in hygiene. I didn't expect to have to go out in public. So as I was showering, Tresa saw blood on her liner. Sorry to get graphic! But this is reality!

We got to the OB-GYN at about 4:30pm. While we were waiting for her in the examining room we noticed a 'tool' in a small tub of soapy water. Tresa said that that thing was probably for her exam. I wished I had my camera! Maybe I can find it on the internet.

I think this was it! I'm not sure, there were a lot of bubbles and I didn't want to get too close in case it had been recently used and feared getting someone else's cooties.

She did her internal exam on Tresa, and guess what, she was already 3cm dialated. She was 1/3 of the way to 10cm. The doctor asked if she wanted to get her going. I wasn't sure what that meant, so I asked. Then she went and I guess ruptured her membrane. Now it was a matter of time. The OB-GYN said that she could see Tresa's belly contracting right then and there. Since Tresa's never known what contractions were like, she didn't know. But I think they were very light. Or she just had a high tolerance for pain. And she said that she was getting all crampy when she was down in the bloor west village.

So now it's a race against the clock to get stuff done before the baby arrives. I needed to get the linen closet prepped. I needed to clean my car. So that's what I was doing at 9:30pm at night in the back of the house. Vacuuming and cleaning the inside of my car as we were talking to my brother Pat, and Chris (in NJ) and letting him know what stage we were at. It seemed only fitting that we let Chris know. Since we did a similar sort of thing when we first got pregnant and we were visiting NY. Teen had called earlier asking what was going on. It was going to be any day now, so that's all we said. Just no details as to the exact stage. Otherwise if we did. WATCH OUT! SPEED DIAL!

It was kind of a rough night. I didn't sleep until after 1:00 AM. Plus I slept lightly, waking up every few hours. We had our bags packed and we put a garbage bag on the bed, just in case the dam burst. Tresa was worried at one point that her water might have broken, but I think it was just sweat from tossing and turning so much. I can still hear the bed springs squeaking now as I'm writing this.

So right now, we have no crib and I debated about going to Oshawa to pick it up today, but she said that I can just go get the bassonette from Lou and Lucy. That would be okay for the baby to sleep in. So I'm going to give Lou a call if he can bring it over or if I can pick it up. I'm just not sure if I should go now or wait till after the baby arrives. I don't want to be stuck in Mississauga traffic. When the time comes.

I've tried timing the contractions, but Tresa can't tell if they are or not. So I time it when she goes "OWUP! AAAAUUUUGGGGH." So the 'OWUP!' is when it starts and the 'AAAUUUUGGGH' is how long it lasts. At first they were less than 10 mins apart, then it went away, a little random. So she's in 'Active Stage' right now. Early labour. We could be here for another 2-3 days. So I may have time to still get stuff done. This waiting game is tiring. Thursday night I was really tired, but still unable to fall asleep until 2:00AM. I know it was after midnight when I finally went to bed.

Bird's Nest

Does anyone know what 'nesting' means or ever heard the term?
Apparently this is what Tresa and I have been doing the last little while. We have been organizing and preparing the house for the baby's arrival. Tresa's been cleaning the house a lot. Scrubbing away all the chocolate finger prints left around the house from the kids.

We've been sifting through old stuff, getting rid of stuff, putting in organizers in closets. The Solutions stuff is really great. It's better than the Rubbermaid product and is relatively easy to put up. Even though we have OLD plaster walls, as long as you find the studs, it's fine. Works like a charm. And you can raise and lower the shelves whenever you want.

As my first project, I built a shelving unit with my cordless combo kit that I bought about a month back. I just have to say that cordless is awesome! The 18v drill/saw/light set works great. I know it's not a Bosche product (Sorry Martin, just way too expensive for me), but it does the job. I've still got some stuff to do for the bathroom linen closet but that's really the last thing.

So any day now.

Hey who's TRUCK is that parked in your spot, Ray!

Surprise, surprise, surprise. It's daylight savings.

Happy Birthday

Phew that was a close one. My sister and sister-in-law had planned a baby shower/birthday surprise for Tresa. I was supposed to get Tresa out of the house by 11:30AM this morning. I was paged in church this morning at about 9:45am. It's okay I had it on silent/vibrating. Just after communion too.



My sister told me that she would be there with Ray and the kids by 11:30AM. But everyone else would be a little late. Figures man. Daylight savings and filipinos just don't work. There's lots of time conflicts. She said that we can just show up and yell surprise when we come in if Tresa doesn't want to go out. I said, I'll get her out. Don't worry. I didn't think it would be the same if it wasn't a total shocker.

So after church we drove to Loblaws to get some coffee beans, figuring that people might want some coffee later. We were running a little low. As we headed home I asked her if she was hungry and if she wanted to have brunch over at High Park's Grenadier cafe. Tresa said "Nah...", I said I wanted to take a picture of the park with the snow. Yes it's April and it's still snowing, not a nice light beautiful snowfall. But big wet chunks of snow and rain to boot. When a flake hit your face it was like a big wet face towel.

Chocolate eggs with edible foil?

So I get home and I shower right away. As I looked at the clock, it's after 11:00AM. I'm trying to get Tresa out of the house and got her to take a shower, before we head out to kill some time before everyone arrives. So it's 11:30AM now and she's still in the shower, I then get phone call from her sister regarding the P&G sale. So more delays.

And I look out my window and I see my sister's pathfinder backing into the driveway. Uh oh...this may ruin the whole surprise. Then the side door begins to open, my sister asks "Is Tresa still here?" I said "YA!" and closed the door on her. Tresa was just getting out of the shower and coming up the stairs! So I handed her the phone so she could talk to her sister.

I will call him Mini-Me.

So I finally got her out of the house and I headed out of the house first and was wondering where the truck was, and I saw them at the end of the street. So Tresa and I got out of the house and headed to Home Depot and Canadian Tire, to get a hammer that I saw on sale in the flyer. Man...what an ordeal.

The day before I had gotten the cake from Loblaws, it was a cream filled cake with strawberries on top. But Tresa said "Let's just get the half cake, what are we going to do with a whole cake?" I said "ah let's get the full one, we'll give it away or something." I even got some bags of chips. I got Sun-chips for Lou. And there was a whole bunch of chocolate eggs for a buck at Wal-mart. I'm surprised that Tresa didn't catch on. Must be the pregnancy.

should I eat the foil too?

So we walked around Home Depot. I wasn't really sure how much to time to kill, but we were in Home Depot for a while looking at patio heaters and solar garden lights. Then we headed to Canadian Tire for the real reason we went out. To buy a hammer. Hey it was 4.99 Reg. 15.99. I needed a heavier hammer. The one we have right now is way too light. Okay. So back to the surprise. Canadian Tire is like one of my favourite stores. Next to Wal-mart and Sport Chek.

So I call Lou to find out where he is. And Lucy answers saying they are just out front. I said we're at Canadian Tire. I'm doing all this walking around the isles looking for stuff. Then she asked "Who's going to let us in?" I said my sister was already inside and that we'd be heading home soon.

Yum, post-it glue tastes good

Then I get a call a few minutes later from my brother asking me if I had any peanut sauce. I asked Tresa if we had any peanut sauce. She wasn't sure. See still no clue. As long as I remained calm and not fidgity. I knew I was not giving anything away.

So anyways we head home. There's a BIG white Suburban in my parking spot in front of our house. Tresa was looking at it and pointing her finger at it and saying "WHO's CAR is that? It's huge!" So I park at the back behind the house. Trying hard not to look in the windows. There's an Old Navy bag in the back. I notice it, but I try not to give it too much attention. Tresa automatically notices it and finds bottles of pop in it. I shrugged my shoulders and I said I didn't know what it was or where it came from.

Man, I think he ate the paper too! Heavy!

I was about to take the keys from Tresa and unlock the door as she reached out to hand them to me but instead I held the storm door open and said for her to unlock the door.

flash!
The door opens....
Flash, flash, flash....SURPRISE!
It was like the paparazzi.

Happy Birthday!
From everyone.

Drop til you Pop

This is a series of photos of Tresa's belly taken over 5 days. Really! I know Tresa is wearing the same clothes, but that's the extent of her maternity clothing. A top from Old Navy and her Nike yoga pants. Otherwise she wears some of my stuff. And actually my stuff is tight. But then again I'm not that big. Most of the time she just wears the above clothing when she goes out. She went to Winners a few times, to Dixie Value Mall, to some pension clinic at the hospital, a retirement party, she cleaned the inside of her car, went to the police station to check if the car seat was okay. Yep...go go go. But all this walking is helping to expel the baby.
Oh and I missed March 31, I forgot to take a photo. Tresa's due on April 17th, and that's in 2 weeks so I've been trying to determine if her body is getting ready to deliver, so that I can get myself prepared. One indicator is the belly beginning to drop. I thought I could tell, but I can't tell 100%. But I think she's beginning to drop. Can you?

All I know is, I think I'll just go to bed always wearing socks, my fleece pants and a sweatshirt, so that I'm ready to go.

We have the car seat in the back seat of Tresa's Corsica LTZ. Gotta put that LTZ there. It's a big upgrade from the regular Corsica. Still no cup holders or leather seats, but there's upgrades. And last summer when I was cleaning and waxing the car, that LTZ emblem came off. It's in the garage. But you can see the outline on the trunk lid.

I still have to put the other car seat in the back of my car. Thanks for letting us borrow them Teen and Stephanie. We're slowing getting ready for this kid. Bit by bit.

We've done the pre-natal classes. We learned to swaddle our baby, how to burp the kid, how to give CPR. We watched videos of mothers delivering. Watched their water break. One was like the toilet bowl had overflowed and the other was like a water-balloon had burst. One was really calm and collected, the other focused on her cat, and took some valium, and the last was going to freak out. Tresa had a hard time with watching these videos. Because reality is slowly creeping in. I keep telling her everything will be alright. And it will...for me. She'll have some tearing. It's normal. I kinda know what that's like. Don't get me started on that. That's a whole other story that I've put behind me.

I did learn a thing or two from the classes. For one thing, I didn't know that the water can break at any time. I thought it had to break, then the process starts. And another thing is the belly dropping. She'll carry high for the last tri-mester then as she gets closer to delivery it will drop. And also the baby will instinctively knock it's head against the cervix to cause it to dilate. We can feel the baby's head knocking at the cervix. She/He is getting ready to see the real world and get some tylenol to relieve that headache.