Wow, it's been a really long time...

It's been quite some time since I've posted anything, I want to start doing this again because I think it'll be good to keep track o all the stuff that's bees going on... So I'll start with the start of one of the best days ever!

We were watching TV Friday night, and at 2am (on the 23rd) we decided to turn the TV off and try to get some sleep. Kyle fell asleep right away, as he usually does, but I stayed awake. At 2:10 I got my first contraction, they kept coming every 5 minutes. At 3am they were still coming every 5 minutes and they weren't too bad so I didn't want to wake
Kyle up just yet. So to keep my mind off the pain I went and made some juice, cleaned the kitchen and straitened the living room. I went back to bed at 3:30. Tried to get some sleep but couldn't, I ended up standing and swaying back and forth because the contractions were getting worse. At 4am I woke Kyle up to say that I was no longer
comfortable at home and he needed to call his mom to take us to the hospital. Cheri got to our house at 4:10 and we got to the PLC at 4:20. I went to triage, they hooked me up to the monitors, and a doctor came and checked me. She said I was 3 1/2 and 80%, and that we could either go home and wait it out or we could go walk around the hospital for a while, and get some breakfast. We chose to walk, the nurse told us to come back at 7. The cafeteria wasn't open yet so we walked around till 5:30 then went and ate. Walked a little more, then when I was in too much pain to want anymore we went back, and that
just so happened to be at 7:00! So we got checked in to our L&D room. I tried to sleep but couldn't, so I had a shower, Kyle went and got a red bull for himself. I was in the shower for about 30 minutes, it really helped with the pain. Then I went to lie in bed, and tried to sleep. Kyle was able to sleep a bit, but I couldn't. I think it was between 10-11 that I asked for the epidural. After the anesthesia doctor came and worked his magic I was able to sleep for a bit. The doctor broke my water because it didn't on its own. I kept falling asleep, but the nurse would come in the room every 15 minutes and it would wake me up. The nurse that I had shift was over at 3:00pm so I got a new one, they were both very nice. But it was around this time that Brayden's heart rate kept dropping and wasn't coming back up very fast, the nurses had me move around a lot to try and get it back up,
it worked for a while then I would have to move again, finally we got a good spot on my back that I could stay in. I started to feel the need to push, called the nurse in, she checked me, and I had a bit of cervix left so she had me push a little to try and get it out of the way, which I did. They told me I was a pushing superstar. She noticed some brown in the fluid and thought he might have pooped and could have swallowed some of it. And they were worried about his heart rate so they felt they needed to get him out quick so they used a vacuum. And it kept slipping so they ended up using forceps. After just 10 minutes of pushing Brayden was out. He didn’t breath right away, they took him to the table and sucked out his lungs then he started breathing okay. Because he didn't breath right away and the muck he needed to go to the NICU, Kyle went with him. After I was sewn up they wheeled my bed to the NICU and I got to see him for a bit. I went to my room after a bit. Then dad came to the hospital and we went to see Brayden, there were a bunch of nurses around him they said they think he had a seizer. They told me later that they were going to transfer him to the foothills hospital, and I would be transferred too.
Brayden was transferred at about 2 am, and I was transferred around 3 am. They did an ultrasound, it showed that there was some swelling, but no blood on the brain, so that's good. Just swelling of the skin, but that’s expected when they use a vacuum. The EEG showed some activity on the left side and that could have been the cause of the “seizer”, but just in case we have to give him some anti-seizure meds. He had a spinal tap done to check for infections, it came back with nothing wrong. He was taken off the antibiotics after the results came back (on the 26th).
We got to bring Brayden home on January 29th. My mom came and stayed with us for a week. It was really nice having her around, she was a big help.
3 weeks+
Goes to bed between 10-11, wakes up around 2 or 3, back to sleep till 5 or 6, up again around 9. Naps around noon for a hour, then cat naps through the day.
March 1st, 6 week check up, 10lbs, everything looks good.
5-6 weeks, started smiling and laughing.
He went for his 2 month shots, March 23rd, he is 11lbs 12 oz. 22 ¾ inches. They gave him 3 shots, 2 in one leg and 1 in the other, the first one was a surprise, he didn’t really react to it, the 2nd and 3rd were bad, he started screaming. The nurse had a bell to distract him, then he was fine. He slept in the car for a bit (on the way to see the neurologist). He was a little fussy in the evening, we had a bath, I think that helped.
We went to see a neurologist on March 23, Dr. Periur, she said that we can start weining Brayden off the phena (anti-seizure meds) . So for the next week we would give him 1ml in the AM and 1.6 in the PM. Then the next week it would be 1 and 1. Then nothing in the morning and 1 ml in the PM. And then finally nothing. Awesome! We will take Brayden to have another EEG, we are just waiting for the place to call and tell us when our appointment will be. And in either June or July we will go back to see Dr. Periur just for a check up. She also suggested that we take Brayden to a head shape clinic at the children’s hospital, he has been favoring his left side and has a bit of a flat spot. We are trying to get him to sleep on his right side to kinda even it out a little, we'll see how that goes. He will go see our family doctor for his 3 month check up in 2 weeks and we'll see what she says. Who knows, maybe it'll be fixed by then.
9 weeks old, found his fingers, they sure are tasty. Started laughing a lot more and smiles most of the time.
April 15th, 11 weeks, holds his head up really well. He loves it when Kyle throws it in the air and bounces him in the couch or a pillow. It makes him laugh out loud, and it helps soothe him while I get ready to feed him.
He loves bath time, he’s been bathing with me most of the time, we all had a shower together, I think he liked it. It just made him too slippery, so we might not do that again for a while.
11 weeks, rolls from his back to his side.
13 weeks, 3 month check up, 13lbs, 24.5 inches.
April 21 - rolled from his back to his stomach! (on the couch)
May 16th, rolled from his back to his stomach, on his mat, on the floor, May 17, rolled over again in his crib.
He loves his jolly jumper, he really likes to stair at the dog, kicks like crazy while on his mat.
May 10, mixed some pablum in with his formula before he went to bed to see if it would fill him up more so he would sleep longer, it didn’t really help much. But he really likes it.
May 25th, 4 month shots. 14lbs 13oz. 25 inches. Hated getting shots, duh, cried a bit, gave him some Tylenol, slept a little extra. He’s on just formula now, he just always wanted to eat and I didn’t feel like he was getting enough. Its fine, he likes the cheap stuff, 1kg container of the wall-mart brand, parents choice, is $12.97 (May).
June 23rd, 5 Months old! I took him to the health clinic to see how big my little man it. 16lbs 2oz. 25 inches tall. He rolls over all the time now. We cant put him down with out him rolling onto his tummy. He hasn’t quite mastered the rolling back onto his back yet, he does it, just not very often. While on his tummy he holds his head up and will sometimes push his butt in the air. And kick like he’s wanting to crawl away.

Sept 16 - 21 weeks and 2 days...

I really dont have anything that i really want to write about, i'm just super board, so i figured that part of my lunch break could be me typing in my blog.

So yesterday was interesting. I woke up, ate breakfast (cherrios), and went to the bathroom to brush my hair and teeth, when... oh no! breakfast didn't want to stay down. and a lot of the time when i'm not able to keep food down i end up getting a really bad head ache(?). so i decided that i needed to sleep it off. so i slept till about 10:00, and i started to get ready for work again, got in the car and was driving... going down McKnight Blvd. i needed to make a emergency stop on the side of the road to throw up. and then turned around and went back home and spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch. i was feeling better in the evening, and feeling crafty (like i wanted to make something or do something creative) so i started to paint the spare room. so now it doesn't look like a spare room anymore, it looks like a baby room! its so cute. i love the colors. i dropped the roller and ended up getting paint on the carpet, oops. so i'm going to see if my dad has anything that we can put in there. I just got off the phone with him, he says he does, and he'll come over and measure the room just to make sure. so thats good. Here are some pictures from the room...

Its a lot brighter then what the picture is showing. like you can see the corners where the sun is really hitting it, thats the color that it is. i love the chocolate brown bottom 3rd of the wall. so its not too much bright color, and it helps tie in the room to the rest of the house (our room has a chocolate feature wall, and chocolate features all over the other rooms). i need to do some touching up on it, the tape wasn't thick enough to cover the top of the pannel so we goofed a little. but its okay, nothing a little paint wont fix. and we will paint the celing(?), it has a yucky yellow tinge to it. and then we will put up the new baseboards (white not nasty green/brown like it was when we moved in), and then paint the trim around the patio door and the closit door too. then the room will be perfect. we wont set up any of the baby furnature for a while though. the crib is at my moms house and i'm not sure when we will be bringing that home. i dont even know if it would fit in our car. so we might just have to wait and see. thats really all we have right now. a crib, stroller and car seat. we will get more closer to when the baby comes. maybe we'll get some good boxing day furnature deals, if we can wait that long before buying anything. haha.

Any who... I was reading my cousins (Kim) blog and she is expecting! which is very exciting! I'm very happy for her. She had a super cute idea on how she was going to tell everyone. So her first baby, Brianne, is a year and 4 months old (i think) and going to be a big sister. so she went to a place in a mall where they do t-shirt printing and had one made up that says "big sister in training". and so she had Brianne wear it when they went to Utah for our grandma's 80th birthday, and everyone was happy and excited. i thought that was a really cute way of telling people. so i have 2 cousins one one side of my family who are pregnant, and 3 cousins on the other side who are also pregnant too! and my one really good friend is expecting her first as well. and Kim brought up a good point, she said that she never really noticed all the pregnant women around her till she was pregnant, and i realized that i'm the same way. all these ladies walking around with basket balls under there shirts. lol. but its funny how you dont notice that kinda thing till your pregnant, or trying to get pregnant. but anyways. i'm very happy for Kim, and everyone else that i know that is pregnant. Its a wonderful feeling, even the sick yucky parts, to know that you've created life and in what feels like a short amount of time you will have a beautiful little bundle of joy to call you own.

For not really having anything to talk about i sure did type a lot. haha. bye byee for now.

Amanda

20 Weeks and 4 days

Hello all...

I am 20 weeks and 4 days along. Past the half way point. I love that i am starting to show and that i can wear prego cloths and have my belly sticking out and not feel like i'm fat. And i can walk around with my hands on top of my belly and rest them there. Its awesome.

We went to Kyle's cousins (Jeremy) wedding this weekend in BC. it was really nice. a beautiful ceremony and reception. and i got to wear my new prego dress shirt that i bought, and the new skirt that i made! We took a picture of Kyle and I and its really cute.

(not the best picture because of the sun (and Kyle's non-smile), but still good)

I got really car sick on the way home(tuesday) and ended up using a tupperware container at a 'sickness bag'. and then because i wasn't feeling good i didn't want to eat anything and that made baby boy mad at me. so all day Wednesday i was feeling like i was going to be sick. I was talking to a lady at my work who has 2 boys (one is 3 and the other is 1 1/2 (i think)) and told her that i wasn't feeling well, she asked what i had eaten, and i told her tost for breakfast, apple at 10am, and soup for lunch. she said that, that wasn't good enough. and that i should be snacking more. and then when i got home from work, still feeling yucky, i ate dinner and then i felt fine. i dont like that feeling of wanting to throw up, so now instead of bringing just one apple a day to work with me i'm going to bring 2, and eat more at breakfast. maybe have a few spare granola bars in my desk and purse.

So i've started to feel him move(the baby, duh), its mostly in the mornings when i wake up, and then when i'm getting ready for bed. I got a heart dopler thing, just one of those cheepy ones, not like the one that the doctors have, its not very strong, i can only hear my own heart beat through it. but it says that it works best when your 28-30 weeks, so maybe it will work better then. i was reading on babycenter.ca and some people sugested that you do it when your bladder is full. so maybe i'll try that.

I'm starting to get hungry now so i'm going to eat one of my apples! bye byee for now.

It's a BOY

So we went for the ultrasound... They called me in and Kyle and Heather waited out in the waiting room till we were done all the medical stuff, measuring and all that. so a hour later!!! the tech. (a very nice lady) went and got Kyle and Heather. they came in and we all looked at the "TV" thing and saw the baby. Heather was amazed. she kept asking questions and was very interested by it. Some times when i dont have anything to do at work i will google ultrasound picture so i kinda knew what i was talking about. i did think its arm was its leg a few times, and mixes up the feet and hands. but everything else i pretty much got right. we watched and listened to the heart beat for a bit (that was my favorite part).

She asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby and both Kyle and i said yes. so she said she would take a look to see if she could get it on the screen again. and to our luck it had its legs crossed so we couldn't see it. so she said "i'm glad i took a picture of it" then went in and got the pictures, she pointed at the screen and said "this is the..." and i yelled out "penis!" and she said yes. haha. then i started crying, i dont know if Heather was or not. i didn't ask. and i know Kyle wasn't. but thats okay. i'm just a big suck.

so after that was all done and i could finally go pee we went to the parking lot and just chatted for a bit. i called my mom, she was happy. i called my dad, he was super happy. i think he might have been crying a little, it sounded like it. but i wasn't sure. and then i texted and e-mailed the rest of the family from my phone. when we got to Kyle's mom's house i used there phone to call my grandma (they get free long distance). she was quite happy too. she thought it was funny how people can find out what there baby will be. and that back in her day they never had anything like that. i told her i would have been okay with not knowing. but i would have rather known so we can be prepared. so yeah.

i only have to work 3 days this week (3 more hours in this day and then 2 more). we are going to BC for our usual summer trip. Kyle's cousin is getting married so we will be there for that too. it will be fun. well aside from having to drive there in Kyle's parents mini van with 2 dogs, 4 people, 1 of which is pregnant and gets cranky if she (being me) has to be in a car for long amounts of time. and i'm sure that i'll have to share a bench seat with kyles mom when i'm going to want to lay down because i get car sick. but whatever. i tried to fight for us to bring our own car but i lost it. so i dont care. i'm just going to be mean and cranky and they will have to deal with it. and if they have a problem... too bad. cant you tell how much i'm looking forward to this. i really hope to be sleeping the whole drive so i dont snap and yell at someone. we'll see how that goes. any ways...

i think thats it for this past week. bye byee for now.

17 Weeks (and 5 days)

Well.... Nothing really exciting has happened this week. I found out that one of my oldest friends (Jessica, who I've known her since grade 1!) is also pregnant. She is 12 weeks along, so i have a pregnant buddy, lol. but i also found out that my cousin (Jodie) is due 2 days after me! so another pregnant buddy. But she lives in a city 2 hours away from where i am, so we cant get together for regular chats. but we text and e-mail each other all the time. so that works too. we will just have to make sure that we dont plan our baby showers on the same day, as we share family members, and would want to have to make them choose. so yeah. Next week on Friday is the ultra sound. I've very excited!!!!! i cant wait to see it. and see what it is. and get pictures to send to everyone. i know how to add pictures to my blog now (its really not that hard) so i will be able to put them on here.

i was at Kyle's parents house the other day and found the cutest picture of Kyle when he was a baby!

isn't he just the cutest ever! i love this picture so much. i hope that our baby is this cute. once i find one of my baby pictures i'll put it up too. maybe it'll give us a idea of what our baby might look like. lol.

so anyways. i dont have anything else to say. i'm so just excited for next friday. this next week will either drag on or will go by super fast. we'll wait and see.

oh yeah, this is what my baby center update said for this week.....

Hello Amanda!
17 weeks pregnant
You may be gaining weight rapidly at this point, even if you're not eating much. Experts say that the amount of weight you put on during pregnancy is dictated primarily by your genes, so don't necessarily blame yourself if the weight's accumulating faster than you'd like. Your baby's movements are felt as a gentle, fluttering sensation at first, but get stronger and more obvious as time passes. Some babies kick vigorously and often, others are quieter. And many seem most active at night!

Bye byee for now.

Baby Ticker

Week 16 AKA 4 months

Things are still going well. Nothing has really changed. I had been having some weird pains, kind-of like cramps, just not as bad. and i had no idea what it was... Untill i got a e-mail update from 'BabyCenter Canada' that said........
Your baby's about the size of an avocado now but in the next three weeks, he'll go through a tremendous growth spurt — doubling his weight and increasing his length. In the meantime, he'll be playing with his umbilical cord and practising breathing by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid through his lungs. You're going through a bit of a growth spurt yourself. Your uterus has expanded so much that the ligaments in your abdomen are stretching to make room for it. If you feel any twinges of pain now, that's why.
I get these every week, they are very interesting. I think its cute that they will say either he or she when they talk about the baby, it changes every week. I cant wait till i can say he or she. I'm very much looking forward to the ultrasound on the 28th. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow. we will get to hear the heart beat again, i'm going to see if she (my doctor) will let me record it onto my phone. then i could listen to it all day. We bought one of those at home heart dopler things, but its not powerful enough to hear through all the layers (lol). the booklet that came with it said it would work at around 24-30 weeks, i wanted it to work before that. but guess not, i'll try every once and a while and think that i can hear it, but most of the time i think its my own heart beat, or my stomach making noises.

(Getting off the baby subject now)
Heather (my sister) had a 'Pampered Chef' party on the weekend. Pampered chef is a product line of kitchen items created my a woman in Texas that wanted to spend less time in the kitchen and more time with her family. So anyways. Lindsay (my sisters friend who sells Pampered Chef) and Heather put on a little show and everyone watched them prepare some little snacks and drinks. We had Jerk Chicken Nachos, that were so good i ordered the jamican jerk rub/seasoning. she also made jalapeno pizza popers, and me being pregnant gets heart burn really easy so i didn't try those, but by what everyone else said they were good. we also had triple citrus mojitos, no rum and vodka in mine! and those were SO good.
i think there were 10 ladies there in total (including Heather and Lindsay) and everyone bought something (not Lindsay though). So i guess one of the perks of having this party was that depending on how much your party go-ers spend you get free stuff! for example, Lindsay sold just over $700 worth of product, which ment that Heather got $145 worth of free product, and 3 items at 50% off! she got a bunch of free stuff. so this got me thinking. I SHOULD TOTALLY HAVE A PAMPERED CHEF PARTY!!! Heathers party was on Sunday, and on Monday morning i had mine all planned and ready to invite people. so yeah. i'm quite excited for my party, I've invited a lot of family members, a few people from work, and some ladies that live across the street. so far there are 6 people coming (not including me or Lindsay). some people that i work with cant make it, so i brough them copies of the catalog and order forms, one lady has ordered $141 worth of stuff, and the other $152! that will count towards my party total! so yay, free stuff for me! anyways. thats all i could think of to write.

Bye byee for now,

Amanda