Bedrest day 3

Well, we made it through another day! This morning at 5am they stopped giving me the drugs to prevent contractions, and I'm happy to report that all has been quiet since then.

I was also moved from the "wait and see" area into the "long term care" area, and was given permission to shower. Ahhhhh heavenly! People no longer make the nose wrinkle face when they get too close! If you'd like the phone number for my new room, let me know.

Baby was monitored a couple of times today and did great, her heartbeat looks really good. I'll also be getting biophysical profiles twice a week to get a more in depth look at exactly what's going on in there. They score it out of 8, and she scored 6 which is considered to be a pass, particularly because the part she did not score perfectly on is not considered to be as important. She passed on the amount of amniotic fluid left, which was very reassuring, despite the fact that we were able to see her bladder empty during the ultrasound, and then witness the resulting gush from me, resulting in a bed change... gross, but kind of fascinating also!

A representative from the NICU also stopped by and explained some more about what will happen when baby 2 decides to make her appearance and what to expect immediately after her birth. She mostly reinforced the message that by 30 weeks the most risky time has past and outcomes are very good, and babies usually just need help eating, breathing, and regulating their temperature at first. It was nice to talk with her, and I feel better knowing exactly what to expect when she's born.

Fiona is still doing fine, Grandpa Bill sent me some pictures this morning of her having fun with megablocks, so I at least have some cute pictures for your entertainment this evening...

Just look at that girl stacking blocks!

The last exciting thing is that I was also given permission to have one wheelchair trip a day, so tomorrow I might be able to meet Fiona in the lobby/McDonalds area downstairs (the only part of the hospital she is allowed to come into) for a quick visit.

Thanks for all the emails and calls and well wishes, we really appreciate them!

Bedrest day 2...

We have nothing new to report on the baby 2 front... she's still hanging out in there. Her heartrate is great, and she seems happy. She's probably just relieved that she doesn't have her big sister squishing her and using her as a snack table any more...

I don't even have to be monitored all the time any more, which makes it easier to get to the bathroom as there is only 1 thing to unplug instead of 3, and less chance of me tripping over my cords getting there.

Ben's parents visited tonight and gave me the Fiona update... she's doing just fine, coping very well without me, which is great. She's having fun building towers of blocks, making herself laugh, demanding things, and playing with bells and toys. It's only been 2 days but I heard about her doing things I've never seen her do before, so that's exciting. It was nice to hear that she's happy and having a good time. I think Grandma and Grandpa are probably going to need a good night's sleep tonight though :-)

And just to prove how clever my little girl is, here's a picture of her trying to eat a rock...

It tasted so good, she'd like to share...

Thanks Fiona.

Baby 2 just can't wait...

Fiona has always been impatient... she does not like to be kept waiting. She'll yell at you if she thinks you're taking too long to get her her the drink she's demanding. Heck, she'll yell at you if she thinks you're taking too long to get water for the dog. She has no patience. In fact, in this picture (taken today at Thanksgiving dinner) she's probably saying 'I'm almost done chewing this bite, you'd better have another one ready for me!".

However, she's far and away more patient than her little sister... unfortunately on the 27th of November at about 3.30, my water broke at 29 weeks and 6 days of baby cooking. I'm writing this from the hospital where they have free wireless internet.

Here's the scoop... I'm on bedrest, and am only allowed to get up to use the bathroom. We're hoping to keep this baby cooking for 4 more weeks. 34 weeks is a milestone in terms of being able to eat and breathe without too much assistance, so fingers crossed for 4 weeks of bedhead.

I've been given medicine (steroids) to help mature baby's lungs. I get another dose tomorrow. No, I do not suddenly have awesome biceps.

I'm being given medicine (Magnesium Sulfate) to stop contractions hopefully until the steroids have a chance to work. After it has, they'll stop the magnesium and we'll see if I go into labour or not. If not, we wait. Quietly.

Babies born at 30 weeks onwards generally do very well. According to the doctor there is no real long term difference between a 30 week baby and a full term baby. Survival rates and long term issues are the same. The only difference is that a 30 week baby will need time in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) to learn how to breathe and eat. Once they learn that, they're good to go. Most babies get to go home around what would have been 38 weeks.

So there you go. Feel free to email me if you'd like more info, or if you'd like to chat about movies or books or the weather or that guy from Twilight. I'll hopefully be sitting right here, bored out of my brains :-)

And just in case you were feeling sorry for me that I missed out on Thanksgiving dinner, Ben brought me some in a box. And it was delicious. So don't worry, see?! :-)

Fiona is 18 months old!

Yesterday Fiona became one and a half years old. She's growing up so fast *wipes tear*. Today was her 18 month doctor visit checkup/torture session. I thought it was a checkup. Fiona thought it was a torture session...

She normally does not mind being naked in public... in fact, in the past, she has fully embraced public nudity... but today she found it extremely unpleasant to be paraded around in only a diaper and then weighed and measured like some kind of farm animal at market. Still, we made her do it anyway... here are the stats!

She now weighs 21lbs, 13oz, which puts her in the 15th percentile for weight, but has grown to a gangly 33 inches tall, which is the 86th percentile for height. Just imagine if she'd actually eat her dinner, she'd look like a sumo wrestler, but as it is, she's more like a bean pole. Her head circumference is holding steady in the 49th percentile, so she's not looking quite as bobble-headed as last time :-)

I also had to fill in a questionnaire about what she does/does not do... along with such achievements as holds spoon by right end, has frequent tantrums, and plays peekaboo...

(Peekaboo!)

I will now present a selection of things that my incredibly talented daughter can do that were not on the questionnaire...

1. Totally toilet trained... see? No problems with this picture...

2. Washes the dishes...

3. Helps with yard work...

4. Drives a car!

Could this girl be any more talented? Well, I don't think so...

Happy 18 month birthday Fiona!

28 Week Update

Before I bore you with the pregnancy details, here's a very serious picture of Fiona after she woke up from her nap yesterday...

She might be wearing her 'don't mess with me' face, but she's still so cute!

Well, we officially have less than 12 weeks to go before #2 arrives. Are we ready? Certainly not mentally!

Tuesday was my 28 week checkup. From now on I see the doctor every 2 weeks until 36 weeks, then it's every week. That's when you know the end is really nigh.

The good news is that I passed the gestational diabetes test. Woohoo! Bring on the chocolate cake! Except, according to the nurse I've also gained about 5lbs too much at this point, so maybe just give me a small slice. When she told me this, out loud I just said 'ok' but in my head I said 'well it's not my fault I'm hungry every 20 minutes, and by now with Fiona I looked like a blimp and had gained about 20lbs too much, so really, let's not focus too much on 5 measly pounds'. Boy, did she get an internal talking to...

Other than that, everything looks good. Baby is measuring just the right size, her heartbeat is great, and other than Fiona-induced exhaustion I feel really good.

Fiona is becoming more and more obsessed with my tummy the larger it gets. She wants to blow raspberries on it and snuggle with it all day long. Last night she kept stopping eating during dinner to ask me to come over and lift up my shirt so she could pat it (I know this sounds impressive, but she communicated her wishes with whining, grunting, and pointing, so we have a long way to go in the language department!). She has no idea that there's a baby in there, but something about it is comforting to her, and she'll lay her head on it when she's sad. It's sweet, in an 'inappropriate in public' kind of way...

Amanda and Michelle: here's your bump picture...

Thanks for all the votes on names! We still have not decided, but it has been fun to hear what you think!

Help us choose a name for baby 2!

So you all know that Fiona's name was a secret before she was born. We thought we'd do the same with baby 2, but it is proving much more difficult to find the perfect name than we thought it would be. So we thought you might like to share your thoughts...

Please note, we might not choose the name that wins the vote, and we might not use any of these names, but we'd still like your input ;-)

Here are your options:

1. Ailsa

Pros: Scottish (like Fiona). Unique, particularly here. Sounds pretty.

Cons: Unique! Quite likely that people will constantly think her name is Elsa.

2. Claire

Pros: Pretty. Familiar (no confusion here). Not currently super popular, so still will likely be the only one in her class.

Cons: Common over the years, so many Claires exist already.

3. Evelyn

Pros: Same as Claire. Also has really cute nickname (Evie)

Cons: A bit old-lady-ish

So what do you think? Vote in the poll on the right! And please feel free to leave us your thoughts, and any other suggestions you'd like to share!

Poll Issues: I've been having trouble with the poll. It has very limited options. If there is more than one person in your house who wants to vote for the same name and it won't let you, try re-opening the blog in a new browser. If that still doesn't work, just make a comment with your vote and we'll count you in! Thanks! :-)

Update...

Well, nothing super notable has happened in the last week and a half or so, so if you don't want to read a synopsis of our fairly mundane comings and goings, you should skip this one...

Still here? Ok, let's see...

Well, I got a new lens for my camera. It used to be 'our' camera, but I recently took a photography class and learned how to use buttons other than 'auto' and have adopted it as 'my' camera. Which meant I had to pay for 'my' lens out of my allowance.

Side note: yes, I get an allowance. So does Ben. It's mostly to prevent him from buying expensive electronics on a whim. It works very well :-)

Anyway, my lens. I LOVE it. It's a 50mm fixed length lens with an aperture that goes all the way down to 1.8. This means I can take crisp close up portraits with very blurry backgrounds. Like this picture of Monty, for example...

I've been having fun playing with it, though pictures of Fiona are a little trickier because she moves very fast.

Last Thursday was Ben's birthday. Fiona got him the new Dave Matthews Band CD. She loves this video on youtube of one of the songs, and likes to lie on my tummy and watch it over and over and over... (it won't let me put it on here, but here's the link if you want to listen). She learned how to hit the spacebar to make it start again when it finishes, so I don't even have to do that for her now! And if you want to hear some more, this one is my favourite.

I got him a coffee bean grinder and some coffee beans to grind in it. Ben recently developed a taste for the fancy coffee, and apparently the freshly ground stuff is even better. It's kind of pricey though, I'm considering making him pay for that with his allowance too ;-)

Fiona hung out with Grandma and Grandpa while we had some dinner at a place where they give you a free meal on your birthday. Yay!

Over the weekend we raked up leaves in the garden. We didn't do much else. We have a lot of leaves. This week Ben's been working and Fiona and I have been doing music classes and playdates with our friends. Today we went to the Zoo with Cathy and Andrew and saw a scuba diver feeding the fish, and a bird show where an Eagle and Owls and a Macaw fly around your head (and you hope they don't drop any presents on you or mistake you for a field mouse). Fiona was intrigued by the man in the fishtank, and loved the bird show.

("Borrowed" from here)

If you've never had a barn owl fly right over your head, you should come and visit, and we'll go!

That's pretty much it. More exciting stories to come another time!

Sweet Kissy-Face

In the last few months Fiona has been getting friendlier and friendlier. We do a lot of activities with other children and she seems to really enjoy visiting family and when people come over. She's also become particularly attached to her monkey toy. Today she has the cold, and she was having trouble getting to sleep, and whenever I'd go into her room she'd be clutching monkey, all damp and sticky from being used to wipe her snotty face. Monkey puts up with a lot...

In addition to these things, she's also definitely grasped the concept of kissing. When we visited Chicago we found it pretty entertaining to ask her and Sophie to kiss, and they were mostly happy to oblige...

Fiona will kiss Ben, particularly at bedtime, and occasionally me. She also thinks it's funny to have us kiss her monkey, and hilarious when Brodie kisses* her...

*Licks her in the mouth.

She rarely spontaneously gives kisses, but today she was playing with Monkey and mini-Monkey and decided they should kiss. It might have been the cutest thing I've ever seen, she was so pleased with herself. At first she was having them kiss face to face, but by the time I got the camera Mini-Monkey was being kissed on the back of the head...

Then Monkey had to give Fiona some kisses too...

Awww so cute!

And just for bonus cuteness... check out these eyelashes. Are they not the most ridiculous things you've ever seen? I thought so...

Sweet, sweet girl!