Kickypants

Cottage escapades

Ahhhhh - we're finally home! I love traveling, and visiting our various families has been wonderful, but there's something to be said for coming home to your own space. I also love coming home to this city. Toronto in the summer is amazing. Hot and smoggy, but amazing.

Owen is also happy to be home - he slept for three hours, woke up and nursed, and then went back to sleep for another 5 hours. Usually his longest sleep is at the beginning of the night, so this is a big change for him. We'll see if it becomes a pattern.

The three of us had a rough day yesterday. Owen has a hard time on long car trips, and he cried for the last hour on the way home from the cottage. I had just fed him, so I knew he wasn't hungry - we just kept driving and I sat in the back with him while he cried. It's such a hard thing to watch your baby cry when there's nothing you can do about it. He sure perked up as soon as I took him out of the car-seat, though!

I think everyone who has a cottage has their own cottage 'things' - traditions & routines. This is what going to the cottage is all about. I think it's really interesting to see what different families do at the cottage.

At my Grandma's cottage, it's  definitely all about the boat and the dock. There are about 50 steep steps to get from the cottage to the dock, so calls of 'I'm going down to the dock' mean you better pack what you need for a few hours because it's a big pain-in-butt to go back and forth. We also do a lot of wake-boarding and tubing, and talk about how my brother drives the boat too fast (Hey Pete - I know, I know, you're a very good boat-driver!).

At our Family cottage in Quebec, it's all about finding the sun. It's on a point, so if you know where to sit, you can be in the sun all day long. We don't usually have a ski boat up there, so canoeing and swimming around the point are also popular. My parents and aunt and uncle are also really into going for walks - every day, it's a walk.

Here's Mr. Kickypants, his brother, Kickypants himself, and little cousin Kickypants. Note the awesome plaid cottage couch. You can't see it, but right beside the couch is a lamp made from a piece of driftwood. There is also a deer head AND moose antlers on the wall.

And then it's Happy Hour - that's the main event at Mr. Kickypants' parent's cottage. It's all about the Manhattans there. Much more fun now that I'm not pregnant and can have a drink or two  with everyone. Another favourite past-time here is remarking/complaining about how low the water line is. For the past 10 years or so the water in Lake Huron has been going down to the point where it's difficult to put boats in the water in front of the cottage (it's in a bay) there's some water monster or something sucking up all the water.

 

On the move

I'm so sorry for the lack of posting in the last few weeks. We've been on the road, back and forth to cottages, and visiting family. I thought I'd be able to post from my mom and dad's place, but their modem bit the dust and Rogers sucks so much that it took them a week and a half to fix it. We are in Toronto tonight, and then off to cottage # 3 (Jeff's parent's cottage) for the long weekend.

The short of it: I can't believe the changes we've seen in Owen in the last few weeks. He's much more content and alert. He holds his head up all the time, and he can roll from his tummy to his back! He just, right now, showed us he can kick his feet up in the air.

I'll post pictures, and give a better update on Wednesday once we're back home and settled in. 

Owen's birth story

Tuesday, June 3rd began with me feeling pretty good. I was feeling a bit crampy, and I was looking forward to my appointment with my midwives (Joyce, and Carolynn, the student) to do a procedure called a 'stretch and sweep' to try to get labour moving. When they checked me at the clinic, I was 2-3 cm dilated. My blood pressure was a little high, and I had some protein in my urine, although nothing out of the ‘normal’ range, it was just high, for me. They decided to come by the apartment on Wednesday morning to recheck my blood pressure. They did the procedure, and I was pretty crampy on the drive home and into the afternoon.

The cramps and pain stopped later in the evening, but I wasn’t too stressed about it. I took a shower and we went to bed around 11:00. I woke up at midnight with painful cramping – it kept me up all night. I didn’t wake Jeff, as I was hoping he would be able to go to work that morning at 7:00. I was up all night, though. I felt alright, because I knew Joyce was coming by at 9:00 to check on me. I called mum in the morning to let her know that I felt like I was in early labour. She was at a birth already, and had another later that day, so I knew I needed to keep her updated about my progress so she could make a good decision about when to hit the road for the drive from Ottawa to Toronto!

Joyce came by (my blood pressure was fine) and checked me again and there was no progress from Tuesday, so I called mum and said that the baby might not come as soon as I thought… Joyce recommended I take a gravol and try to sleep.

As soon as I lay down, I started to get painful cramps coming about every 15 minutes. I was all groggy from the gravol, so I’d fall asleep for 12 minutes, wake up and breathe through a contraction, and then fall asleep again. This went on for about 2 hours and then I gave up on sleeping. I took a long shower, and the pace of the contractions just kept up. I played on the computer for a bit to try and keep my mind off things. I think I called mum to update her… I can’t remember.

Carolyn called around 2:00 pm with some blood test results. I said: ‘I was just thinking of calling you!’ She talked to me through a couple of contractions, and then we decided to wait until Jeff got home at 3:30, and have him fill the birth pool for me to see how things progressed from there (getting into the birth pool can cause labour to slow down, if it’s not well established.) Jeff was quite surprised to arrive home to find me having lots of contractions, cause last he’d heard, at around 10:00 in the morning, things were moving slowly!

Jeff finished filling up the pool, and I got in. We started timing my contractions and they were not slowing down. They were lasting about 45-50 seconds and were 5-6 minutes apart. This was around 4:30. We called mum to update her and she and dad decided it was time to get on the road. The midwives said they’d come by at 6:00 pm to check on me. They weren’t sure that I was in active labour, but wanted to check on me anyways. When they arrived, they found that my contractions were closer together, and that I was 4-5 cm dilated. They realized they were there for the duration!

I laboured in and out of the pool for the next several hours. Mostly in – the pool was so great! I highly recommend one if you get the opportunity. Jeff was running around, doing my bidding, and mostly getting me water, holding me up if I had a contraction while I was up.

Carolynn, the student, was amazing – she had lots of suggestions on handling the pain. I had a pretty good handle on things as the contractions got closer together. My big worry was ‘transition’ as you hear some many things about it being crazy and so hard. It turns out, I hardly noticed it. I had one contraction, just before I got out of the pool, that was really intense and lasted a really long time - that was transition for me, and was probably the hardest part, aside from the actual pushing.

I started to feel an urge to push – kind of strange after hours of one kind of pain (contractions) it took me a few tries to get my head around this new phase. I got out of the tub and went to the bedroom and things moved quickly. The midwives checked me and I was fully dilated! Hooray! At this point mum and dad were pretty close to arriving, but we knew it would be a close call. Joyce called the backup midwife and got all the equipment ready for the birth. Jeff helped me push; I was lying on my side, so he got a workout helping me stay in a good position. I think he has a few injuries from my nails digging in to him! Apparently I pushed for about half an hour. Yeah, that part was hard! But I was making progress the whole time, so it was alright. Mum arrived at 10:36, at the same time as the backup midwife. Owen was born at 10:42.

It was a close call, but she arrived just in time. Owen started crying right away, and he was nice and red and healthy looking right away. The rest of the evening is a blur of happiness for me; I think I talked to my sisters, I know Jeff called his parents to give them the news. Once everything was cleaned up and all the checks on me and Owen were done and the midwives had left, Jeff and Owen and I snuggled in for about 4-5 hours of much needed sleep.

Letters to Owen #1

Dear Owen   

Today you are five and a half weeks old. That's 39 days, if you're interested. According to the Internets, I'm supposed to write these letters to you on some kind of schedule, like every week, or every month, but I just know that wouldn't work out, and I'd forget one month, and then it would stop all together. So I'll write when I feel like it, okay?

Right now, you are snuggled up against my chest, asleep in your wrap.

That's one of the only ways that you will fall asleep. Sometimes you fall asleep with your head on a shoulder, sometimes rocking in your daddy's or my arms. Sometimes after you've eaten, you lay your head on my chest like a pillow and smile a little sleep smile. You also enjoy falling asleep sitting up, being bounced on a knee. Cause that sure puts me to sleep - bouncing up and down with my head lolling to one side - you're a weird kid!

Notice how all or your favourite ways to fall asleep involve someone holding you?

Yeah, I'd noticed that too. I don't mind, most of the time. It's what your daddy and I hoped would happen, that you would develop such a strong attachment to us. But I'll admit, it can be tiring for us. Thank goodness for babywearing (the wrap, the sling, the mei tie, the 30-year-old snuglie that I fell asleep in once-upon-a-time, you love them all).

 

And then today, I decided to try you out in your baby swing again. Now this is a swing we purchased about a month ago, in desperation, hoping you would love it. Right. You hated it, and proceeded to scream every time we put you in it. We packed it away, hoping that you would grow to like it sometime when you were older. You were crying when I put you in it, but I decided to wait it out for a couple of minutes. I stoop beside the swing and talked to you, and miraculously, you quieted down! You started crying again, and I gave you your 'soose', and you quieted down again. And then, you my astonishment, you fell asleep! 

I couldn't believe it. That is the first time in your short life that you have fallen asleep without being in someone's arms. It is a relief to your mommy and daddy! We won't use it to often, because I do love to walk around the house tidying up with your sweet smelling little head nestled against my heart as you snooze happily in the baby carrier. But sometimes, the swing will be good.

You are so adorable. You have these chubby cheeks, and a cute little chin, a perfect little nose (you get that from me) and the most beautiful big eyes. You are very good at holding your head up on your own, and you kick like a champ. Your 'awake alert' times are getting longer and more frequent, and you are so interested in everything around you. This week you started smiling!

You look at me for about three minutes, staring intently, and then you break into a huge grin. It's just the reward I need, what with the waking up 6 times a night and the fussiness.

Yeah, so about that fussiness- it can be a bit much sometimes, especially when daddy is working the evening shift and I'm on my own with you. We are pretty sure you have gas pains and we've been giving you some special drops to help your tummy digest your milk better. I think it's helping. You're getting older and bigger all the time, and the fussiness is getting less and less. Every so often you have an evening when you scream at the top of your lungs for an hour or so. I just tell myself you're hurting, and crying is all you know how to do. I wish I could make you all better when that happens.

Your daddy and I love you so much. It is so much fun to wake up in the morning and see your bright eyes looking up at us. Your daddy is really good at changing your diapers, and he loves to dance around with you and sing. He's also an expert at the knee bouncing trick.

 You love to go for rides in the car and on the subway. We’ve had many adventures. You’re always so quiet when we’re out – you usually sleep in your carrier or your car seat for most of the trip. We’ve been to the toy store, and the grocery store, to the coffee shop and to the mall. We’ve been to the bookstore many times, and this morning we even went out for breakfast. The other day I took you on a trip to my office. Wherever I go, people want to look at you. Everyone is so impressed with how much hair you have, and how cute you are.

I think that’s a good place to end this letter – with your cuteness. It is unparalleled.