Date Night!

Last night Gerwyn and I celebrated our first night out since Marley's arrival. As much as we love to be with her, I have been starting to get a little stir crazy being cooped up in the house all day and all night. When our friends Lawrence and Crystal came by to visit, we suggested going OUT for dinner (while taking advantage of my mom being here to watch Marley for a couple of hours) and lucky for us, they were up for it. We just walked up to Queen Street and had dinner at Lil' Baci, a local Italian place. We shared 2 appetizers and 2 pizzas. It was the greatest feeling to be out again. I guess I was more social than I thought prior to baby cause once I was out, I realized how much I missed it! After dinner, we made a quick pitstop at Starbucks and then came home for some pie. It was a great night out and I'm very thankful that we were able to have the opportunity with a 2 week old at home.

More Visitors!

Here are some pics of our latest visitors, my friend Randy from Los Angeles who managed to squeeze in a quick visit before his flight back, Sally, who was practising her baby burping skills and our friends Lawrence and Crystal who not only brought us the most deeleecious pie, but also offered to take us out on our first DATE since baby. See post above. Lastly is a photo of Marley yawning. This proves that she can open her mouth big enough to get a proper "latch" however when it comes to meal times, she always has a habit of giving me the smallest opening so I have to squeeze it in there and suffer the painful consequences. I sense a trouble maker already...

A photo with eyes OPEN! (and one "close enough")

Catching Marley with her eyes open is a rare occurance so I thought I'd post a photo of the milestone. You can see in the second photo that its a skill she's still learning to master...

Marley's First Visitors

During our prenatal classes, the instructor said that one of the biggest early challenges and possible annoyances of having a baby is managing visitors. I have to say, having visitors has actually been something I look forward to and often the highlights of my day. Otherwise, you can get so caught up in being tired, overwhelmed and in pain that you forget there is an outside world waiting for you. Lucky for us, we've had a steady string of family and friends, all of whom have been incredibly understanding in accomodating our schedules and even better, bringing us treats!! Unfortunately I don't have photos of them all (totally forgot to take pics at the hospital,) but here is a quick glimpse of a few. Miss Marley has enjoyed meeting each and every one of you and looks forward to seeing everyone again for some one-on-one babysitting. :)

Also here is a link to a video that my friend Melanie created using photos and videos since Marley's birth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leQyZ7ZDgts&feature=email (thanks Mel!)

Precious Moments...

Its 3am and I'm waiting for little Miss to wake up for her feeding. I figured I would use this time to put down some of my random thoughts seeing as how our first week together is coming to a close. Just things I've noticed about this huge transition and things I don't want to forget:

- Baby's breath really does smell good ALL the time

- I love her "drunk" state after every feeding

- Poo is more stressful when it doesn't happen (for both of us)
- Being pooed on isn't as bad as I thought (even when its explosive diarrhea!)
- I'm a lot more productive than I thought on 2 hours of sleep a night

Our newest addition...

On Tuesday September 14th, 2010 at 10:57 pm, we finally got to meet our little princess, Miss Marley Claire Lee Begonia. Its taken me a few days to catch my breath from the last few days activities but here's the recap:

Monday Sept 13th: I have my doctor's appt at 9 am and he confirms that I've started labour but I'm only 1cm dilated. He says to go home and come back to the hospital later that night for another check up. After spending the day walking and getting ready, we go back to the hospital at 11:oo pm for my "check up" and end up back home at 3 am (that's how long it took just to find out I was at 3 cm dilated) to return the hospital the following morning.

Tuesday Sept 14th: 9am - we arrive at Mt Sinai after some more painful and regular contractions and I'm thinking I'm well into labour. Disappointed to find out I'm still at 3 cm and they want to induce me. They break my water at noon and give me until 3pm to start active labour on my own before introducing Oxytocin (to induce). By 3, I've felt more contractions but apparently they weren't "regular" enough so the drugs are started.

4-5pm - I've reached 6 cm and the contractions are 2 mins apart. I've gone up to this point with no drugs but it was getting extremely intense and I didn't have enough time to rest in between. The pain is excrutiating and I feel nauseous, like I'm going to black out so decide to go for the epidural.  Luckily the anesthetist arrives quickly and I'm able to get my epidural before the lady in the other delivery room who ends missing her opportunity and has to deliver without one!! Once those drugs kicked in, I was in heaven, much more relaxed and able to progress much faster.

6-7 pm - I'm fully dilated to 10 cm and they let me know that I'll be pushing soon. They give me an hour or so for the baby's head to descend further down.

8-9pm - With Gerwyn and the nurse each holding one leg, I start to push. At this point, I can't feel anything so I have a hard time getting it exactly right but Gerwyn is able to see baby's head. Unfortunately the head retracts after each push and the nurse calls in the dr to see if the baby needs to be turned

10pm - Dr. Barkin and the resident come in and take one look at my pushing and the baby and decide I will need the vacuum and forceps, they tell me to stop pushing and they bump up my drugs to prepare for the apparent trauma of both vacuum and forceps

10:57 pm - After 2 more big pushes, an episiotomy, additional tearing (of my uretha) and the vacuum, Marley Claire Lee Begonia is born! Woo hoo! What a relief. I have never been so completely exhausted in my entire life but of course, as soon as they put that slimy, messy baby on my chest, I'm so overwhelmed and every minute has been worth it.

We've spent the last few days getting to know each other, things started off well, she was actually a relatively quiet and well behaved little girl in the hospital but now that we're home and someone is getting spoiled rotten, she's seem to have found her lungs and loves to use them every evening. We are blessed and so happy to have this new addition in our lives, each day is so new and we can't wait to see what happens next.

Still waiting...

Today is officially 5 days overdue. I have to admit, of all days, today I've actually felt the most cramping/tightening/soreness so maybe today/tonight might actually be IT. But if not, I have my weekly checkup at the OB first thing tomorrow and I strongly suspect he'll get me going on the induction process. I was really hoping to avoid being induced (who wants to force her out if she's not ready?) but after giving this kid an extra week, its probably in both of our best interests to bring her into the world sooner than later. She's definitely dropped even lower to the point where I now have a "lump" right above my pelvis where her head is protruding outwards. It looks like I have a fat pelvis in a way, its very strange to look at and even stranger when you think her head is just "sitting" there.

I'll try to post one last picture (minus the fat pelvis, I'm sure the description was enough...) to capture my final days of being pregnant. The stretch marks continue to multiply as we speak and I wonder how my super stretched belly will look "sans bebe". I was so ready for mat leave (and to start taking care of baby,) that I didn't think about what I'd do if I didn't actually deliver right away. I've been going a little stir crazy, trying to read, walk around and take my mind off the waiting, but of course, my entire focus has been on when she's finally going to make her appearance. It was nice to have the extra time to finish the nursery and get ready and I know I'll regret not enjoying my last chance at solitude more but now I just can't wait to meet this baby! Maybe this was just the motivation I needed for the amount of work that lies ahead...

Who has the biggest head?

Here is a photo I took on the weekend of my sister and our niece and nephew. Elijah is 6 months, Charlotte is 2 3/4 years old, and my sister, well, let's just say, she's over "21". Although I didn't actually measure with a measuring tape, from first glance, I might guess that Elijah's head is the biggest. I suppose big heads run in our family, not a good sign while waiting to deliver my first baby...

Baby's Room Done!

Our last long weekend of the summer and what did we decide to do? Finally get a move on on the baby's room. We received our furniture from Babies R Us, and Gerwyn decided to spend the rainy day in to put everything together. We still have some things to do, like add wall decor, a rug, and some shelves, but the basics are done, crib, dresser/change table and bassinet. Of course, everything will probably get rearranged as we figure out the "flow" of what we will need, but it works for now. Now all that's missing is the baby! I just had my official 40 week check up today and doctor didn't have anything new to report. Head is down and in "position", I've gained another pound, now we just wait...

Baking Cookies... again

Last night Sooky came by for an impromptu dinner so we decided to finish off our meal with some impromptu cookies. I always use the same recipe (the one on the back of the Chipits bag) but as she was looking through my cupboards, my sister decided we should throw in all of my leftovers: walnuts, skor bits and an extra quarter bag of more chocolate chips. I was a bit skeptical about how they would turn out (there was barely enough cookie dough to hold the things together) but I have to admit, they turned out pretty darn good. The skor bits made them very gooey and I suppose there can never be too much chocolate.

Anyway, I enjoyed a few with a big glass of milk. I was hoping that baby might make an appearance from the sugar shock, but no such luck. I'm still waiting...