Mommy's babies

Campbell and his clone-sister.

Sleepyhead

Would you consider it a breed trait then?

I don't normally read comics, let alone Marmaduke, but the bottom right hand corner of this cartoon caught my eye.
Marmaduke
"Dog Gone Funny Joliet Ill. From the 2001 Mailbag. Mindy, Andy and Arin Bazzarone told Marmaduke that Gypsy, their German Shorthaired Pointer, goes to the bathroom tub and turns on the cold water faucet when she's thirsty. She hasn't figured out how to turn the faucet off."



That sounds strangely similar to another German Shorthaired Pointer I know.

The whole gang

Hanna meets her family

Hanna's arrival in photos

Here I am while waiting for the nurse to start my IV.

Seconds after birth.

Getting cleaned up a bit.

The cast and crew.

Presenting Hanna Katherine

I was booked for an induction on Wednesday. The hospital called me at 6:45 and asked me to be there for 9:30 to start the indution. HA! We got there and as we were sitting there waiting for the nurse to take us to our room, 3 labouring women walked in and another woman at 36 weeks pregnant was sent over from the ER because she was vomitting blood and screaming in pain. And then it got worse. There was a twin delivery, another woman had gone a day with ruptured membranes, and so on. So at 11:30 they decided that they needed to focus on these people and they sent us home. They said that if we hadn't heard anything, to call at 4 and see if things had quieted down enough. DH and I are pretty understanding people though.

At 4 they were still busy, they said to call at 7:30. At 7:30 they were still busy and said they would call us at 8:30. They did and asked us to come in at 10 pm for an induction!

They were ready to start the induction at 10:30. The resident doctor tried to break my water, but said that she was afraid of hurting the baby because the membranes were pulled so tightly across her head. My OB stepped in and tried to create a pocket, but had no luck. I was extremely uncomfortable at this point and blurted out that "I feel like a hand puppet." The doctor said that she was going to be remembering that comment for a while. She said my membranes were incredibly tough. I was still only 2 cms. So she had the nurse try to start an IV, but my veins kept rolling away. I had blown veins all over my hand. At this point I'm ready to cry because nothing has gone right. They called in another nurse from the IV team to do it.

Because they needed to monitor me for the first 1/2 hour of syntocin, I lay down and went to sleep. Matt and I both slept on and off until about 3:30. The nurse came to check me periodically throughout and turn up the syntocin. At 3:30 am I started feeling my contractions and woke up. They were 1 minute long, every 2 minutes. I breathed through them for 1/2 hour before asking the nurse if I could be checked for dilation. The resident said I was 4 cm and baby's head was still sideways, which was discouraging to me. I was doing my meditative breathing but because I was having back labour I was not able to relax my bottom. So at that point, I made the decision to have the epidural. The anaesthetist arrived at 4:30 and even the epidural didn't go smoothly! It was the most painful epidural of the 4 I've had, and it was not a "walking epidural", and by 5 am, I was totally numb and shivering. DH and I went back to sleep, and at about 5:45 I mentioned to the nurse that I was feeling tremendous pressure in my bottom. The resident checked me and couldn't find my cervix, I was complete, but so numb that I had no urge to push. I waited another 10 minutes to start pushing, but even then I still didn't "feel it". Finally I felt the urge and 2 pushes later, her head was out. My OB had a bit of a problem with her shoulders and was trying to avoid a tear, so I wasn't able to push. Finally Hanna Katherine wiggled her way out at 6:06 am, and the doctor's efforts were in vain and I needed 1 stitch. So Hanna Katherine was born on November 9th, at 6:06 am. She was 21 inches long and she weighed 8 lbs 9 oz, but she's dainty, I don't know where she hides it!

Once we got to the maternity ward, the nurses asked us if we would pose for photos with the staff for a brochure. They figured that we were experienced enough that throwing a photo shoot into our birth experience wouldn't phase us. LOL Anyway, we got this sweet photo from the hospital's promotional photographer.


The kids came to visit and they were all thrilled with their new sister, even Kira. She is enjoying being home with her new sister, her daddy and her mommy. I can't wait for the boys to get home so we can have some family time. This is the first baby born since we got Puck and he was terrified of Hanna. It was kind of funny to watch our 70 lb dog jump back 6 feet in fear when our 8 lb baby unclenched her fist. It took him a few minutes of sniffing her, and now he's accepted her as one of the family.

Family resemblance

Here we are walking down the road for a visit to Valerie and Dan's place.








Kira is racing with her brothers down the hill.






Some of the kids enjoying wild raspberries along the way.





Damon is watching the pointers play. Puck was so happy to find a dog who wanted to play like he does. On the way home he didn't even notice the pheasant that walked right across the road in front of us!

Go fly a kite

Induction

So I saw my OB on Wednesday. First I grabbed a sure-fire labour starter, Locke Street Bagel's famous BLT. The OB did an internal exam and started laughing. It wasn't the fact that I was still only 1cm dilated that was so funny, no it was the fact that my cervix was still so thick and firm that was giving her the giggles. HA HA HA. Apparently the sandwich hadn't helped much, but at least it was yummy.

She booked me for a biophysical profile for Monday morning. If there is a problem with that, I will be induced immediately, otherwise, I will be induced on Wednesday November 8th, which is 10 days after my due date.

So yesterday, Kira and I spent the morning washing the bathroom floor grout with toothbrushes. But still nothing. That's okay says Damon.

The other night, he was getting ready for bed and wanted to just wear his boxers. I said, "well you'll feel pretty goofy when I go into labour in the middle of the night and we are dropping you off at Reiko's house in your boxers."

He said, "When you had Kira, you drove us to Grandma's house and you weren't all crazy in labour or anything." LOL

I said, "That's because I was being induced for Kira, I had an appointment for them to start labour for me, I wasn't in labour."

He said, "Well do that again then, I don't feel like rushing around and having to leave the house in the middle of the night."

Very scary

Kira as Cinderella, decided that she'd rather watch "Max & Ruby" than go trick or treating. "No, stay home!"

Count Campbellula has a "bite" to eat before he goes out with his friends.

Damon is ready to go!

Patrick was a gaucho, looking oh, so south american with his blonde hair and pasty white skin.

Wawa Nightlife

At the end of an evening of bear watching, there's no better destination than Young's. The kids LOVE this place almost as much as the cottage. They save up their allowance for weeks to go on a shopping spree here. They sell great summer sausage, ice cream cones, gob-stoppers as big as tennis balls and pickles from a barrel. They also sell fishing gear, moccasins and way overpriced t-shirts. See you next summer Henrietta.

Finally

Summer photos! Matt finally uploaded our vacation photos to my computer. So my plan is to share them slowly rather than bombard readers with them.

When we are in Wawa, Matt becomes a bit of an explorer. He loves to find old abandoned mines (there are lots of them) and visit decaying monuments. Here is a view of Clergue Island in Michipicoten Harbour:

Ghost Towns in Canada says:
"Hector Clergue also had a summer cottage on a nearby island, now known as Clergue Island, complete with a footbridge on the mainland that was guarded by two chained black bears."

I had an appointment with my obstetrician on Wednesday. She thought she would be disappointing me by telling me that my cervix is long and only 1 cm dilate, baby has dropped, but only to -2 station (Kira was +2 at this point, and cervix was thin and 3 cm). I'm not really surprised as I haven't been having the same symptoms that I had at the end of my pregnancy with Kira that let me know just how low she was and how dilated my cervix was. Anyway, none of it matters until labour actually starts.

As much as I'd like to enjoy a meal without any heartburn, I'm hoping that this baby stays put until November anyhow.

Bursting with pride

Patrick won the city-wide cross country finals today! He won with about a 150 meter lead on the second place finisher and he wasn't even winded. There were over 400 boys his age running in that race! Everybody was amazed that he not only won, but won so easily. Matt got a photo of him shortly after the start of the race. He got off to a great start, pacing the boy to right in the photo, until he got to the 1/2 way mark. Sadly I don't have photos of his finish this time, I wasn't expecting him to come around the corner so quickly and by the time I got my camera turned on, he was long past me! When he finished and got his ribbon, he went back to the finish line to cheer on his fellow runners.

The last time he won a cross country finals, he was up all night the night before with stomach flu, and then begged me to let him try running anyway. Well last night he played in a hockey game and blocked a shot with his knee. When he got home, his knee swelled up and a nasty bruise appeared. He slept with ice on his knee and other than a bruise, he said it felt fine this morning so he ran anyway.

Damon and Campbell had great runs too! Damon wore the wrong shoes, got pushed down and trampled and still finished 127th out of over 500 runners. In Campbell's very first race, he came in 104th against older and bigger kids, in a pack of over 500. When Patrick was in grade 1, he finished 164th!

Bangs!

Here is Kira after her new haircut. I'll have to take a better photo of it, but you can see that she has bangs! She hates having her hair brushed and won't keep clips in it any more. She was looking more like a street urchin than the princess she thinks she is. And I was having fears about what would happen after I give birth and haircare is in Daddy's hands for a few days, so I finally caved in and gave her bangs and I trimmed 3 inches off of the back. I was thrilled that her curls stayed! And we can actually just brush it and leave it without any clips, ponytails or hairspray!!!!!

Return

I'm sorry, we took a bit of a "blog vacation" here. I'm full of excuses. We've been busy with hockey, I've been tired with this pregnancy, we've been sick - take your pick.

No sooner did the kids start school than the germs started coming home. Patrick brought home a nasty virus that hit him pretty hard. It caused his asthma to flare up and it was at least a week before he was at full capacity again. I got it and it took me 3 weeks. I can't explain how horrible it was. Only a pregnant asthmatic lady with a respiratory infection could appreciate the pain of pulling muscles in your uterus while you are coughing up a lung.

In the meantime....

Hockey season began. Patrick's team has already played several regular season games. They are in a tournament this weekend and had their first win last night! This is the team that won ONE game all last year. This year, with the addition of a few players, the team doesn't look outsized anymore and even when they lose a game, they aren't being outplayed the way they were in the past. The coaches are fantastic, and have a knack for turning troubled teams around. We think that all of the kids on the team are going to gain a lot from them this year.


Damon has made amazing progress at his practices. We were a bit concerned when he was chosen for this team. He had size, determination and toughness going for him, but his skating was not as strong as some of the other players who were chosen. With a new pair of skates, some confidence and a few practices, his skating has improved by leaps and bounds (or maybe that should be quick stops and turns).

School has been a bit trying for Damon. His teacher is brand new and a little too focused on results to remember that her students are living breathing children. After speaking to some dyslexia experts, we've decided to try pulling him out of French Immersion. We've also found that the public school system doesn't "get" dyslexia, so we are going to get him help for that privately with people who deal with dyslexia instead of going through the school system where they want to treat it as a learning disability rather than a learning style.

Campbell is dying for his season to begin. "How many days?" Only 7 more! He does well in school, especially math. Kira, Puck and I miss him though.

Kira is growing up very fast. She can't wait for Baby Hanna to get here.


Puck is good. He is growing out of the puppy stage. We are able to trust him loose in the house when we are out and he doesn't chew anything or get into any trouble. Oh, wait, I should correct myself. He does get into trouble for turning on the tap in the upstairs bathroom. He never turns it off, and we had a problem with the faucet leaking from underneath if it was left running. Matt fixed it, and we are really trying to keep him from drinking from the sink. He is so picky though, and doesn't like sitting water, he prefers running water. *sigh* Here he's "playing" with the neighbour's kitten.

Talk at Matt's work has been about possibly moving the company 2 or more hours away from here. They have put an offer in on a building in a small town surrounded by farm land. While we wait for a definitive answer, we've been spending all of our online time looking longingly at farms for sale on MLS.ca. Patrick has been making sure that there is a AAA hockey team, a track club and a rowing club. All looks good there. Damon has been looking at animal shelters for that perfect farm dog/goat/llama. Campbell just dreams about getting an ATV. With lots of encouragement from Damon, Kira has already put in her request for a pony.

And last, but not least, I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going by. Baby Hanna is going to be here in no time. Here's a photo of me a few weeks ago.

And they're off!

It's been a while since I've "blogged". Ooops. Just really busy with summer stuff.


Today was the first day of school and the morning went fairly well. Patrick's teacher was the one we had expected (and hoped for). Damon has a teacher who is new to the school, but one good thing is that some of his friends are in his class this year. And Campbell has a teacher that Patrick had in grade 4. We thought that Damon would have her this year, but they assigned her to grade 1, which I think is a GREAT fit. Campbell should have a good year with her. And we were surprised to see that the new vice principal is a familiar face from the hockey rinks and track & field meets! He is a hockey/track dad.

After they took the kids into the school, all of the moms went happily skipping off to the cafe for tea. Now Kira and I are home and she's enjoying the quiet.

Now I can't wait to see how the boys do today.

Breaking News!

Patrick and Matt are at the CANUSA Games this weekend. The first part of the meet was tonight and Matt called home with Patrick's results. He finished first in the 800m, first in shotput and second in long jump. He has more races tomorrow. Patrick's friend from his hockey team joined the track club this year and trained with Patrick and he came in second behind Patrick in the 800m. I'm sure that Patrick would be happy that his buddy did well too. I didn't get a chance to ask about Patrick's reaction, because Matt's cellphone cut out.

I will post photos from Matt's camera when they get home on Sunday. I'm also trying to muster up the energy to upload our Wawa vacation photos to a blog post.