Game Changer

I was so sure that I would go until Friday June 15th that when I woke up in the early morning June 13th with sporadic contractions, I was convinced they were Braxton Hicks. I got up at 4 am, had a bath to help with the contractions and then went back to bed after only having two the whole hour I was in there. Shawn didn't really want to go to work but I was convince this was nothing so I sent him on his way and I tried to go back to bed.

Oops.

By 6:30 am I started to suspect that this might be labor.

By 8 am I was pretty sure this was labor, but maybe just the beginning. I was having contractions every 3-8 minutes while trying to pack a hospital bag (did pretty good for not really paying attention due to contractions) so I had my sister-in-law drive me halfway to meet my

9:30 am I was at the hospital still not 100% sure I was in legit full  labor, so I told Shawn not to leave work until I knew. I just knew that I did not want to miss getting an epidural so I wanted to get checked out just in case. My doctor then showed up, checked me, said I was 4 cm dilated and then "POP"! He decided he might as well break my water since he was down there to get the ball rolling.

All righty then... time to call Shawn.

The whole next 5 hrs when by smoothly. I got an epidural right away, and Shawn and I just hung out till I was ready to push. May I just mention how much I loooove epidurals? Just like that the pain is gone and you are able to relax and wait to push. It did end up wearing off a bit but man it was still great.

Feeling great thanks to Mr. Epidural

The problem came when after 2 hrs of pushing, I hadn't felt the baby move at all. Turns out the lil turkey had his head tilted a great way to make it harder to get him out. I kept asking my nurse if he had moved much and she kept saying "a lil bit" with the expression on her face that let you know that he really hadn't moved that much at all. At 2.5 hrs my doctor offered to use forceps but they made me nervous so I opted for oxytocin instead but by 3 hrs I was so beat I was begging for the forceps. Dr Davey showed up 10 minutes later, did some magic with the forceps and after blacking out for a lil bit from the pain we had a beautiful bouncing baby boy with the BIGGEST hands and feet you've ever. The first two things I thought was: "Good he's breathing", "how many fingers and toes does he have, his hands are HUGE!". He was sooooo swollen at first, poor lil guy went through just as much as I did but bless Dr. Davey's heart, Brock did not have a mark on his face two hours later from the forceps.

3.25 hrs and one forcep delivery later, Brock's head still looked mighty fine

Big baby with a big head- 37 cm

Proud new daddy; he admitted later once Brock's swelling came down
that he thought he was funny looking at first!

I look rough, feel rough but man this kid is cute!

Grandma was chomping at the bit to meet him..

Yep, no restful visit for Aunt Chelsey!
She was working when we came to her floor...
She did the checks and initial baby bath.

My step-dad checking out his new grand-son

Grandparents take 2

Heston checking out his new cousin

First (rough) family photo

Dr. Davey: wouldn't trust any other Dr. to take forceps to my baby's head..

Random Bits

So today I am 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant. No baby yet and Shawn is not pleased. I just tell him that the fact that he's late proves that he Is half my kid. It's a lifelong curse, I am always late! Plus i told this poor kid to please, oh please, dont come early that he may just be playing it safe by hanging out in there a few more days. I can wait. Late last night I started having my first Braxton Hicks and they were very mild, just uncomfortable so maybe that's my body finally getting ready for the first time because until now I was so set against him coming until we were in our house. Chandra stopped by this morning with some raspberry leaf tea saying it helps prepare you for labor and can get it kicked off, well, you should have seen Shawn when he came home. It was like a kid on Christmas morning, he brewed me a cup as soon as I would let him and literally stared and harassed me the whole time until I drank it all. I was seriously about to smack him but his excitement is so cute I just not-so-quietly drank my nasty tea. Raspberry leaf tea SOUNDS good but apparently it's all leaf and no raspberry cause man it's nasty and no taste of raspberry at all. But I am really not a tea person so I may be biased. Before Chandra's visit I was quietly enjoying my breakfast on the living room couch when BAM! something was thrown against our big living room window. Startled the begeebers out of my until I saw feathers flying. Yep, a bird komakozied himself straight into our window. The poor lil robin was beyond saving and I felt so bad. When Chandra stopped by she pointed out an old bundle of feathers. Apparently this was not the first time a bird made that mistake. Well bets are being excepted when I will pop. My money is on Friday! Dunno why but it just seems like a good day to me! Whenever he comes we are gonna be so happy to meet him, especially his dad. Xoxo

Officially Moved In

Well, it's official.

The boxes that are gonna be unpacked are unpacked. The rest of them are piled in the corner to be carried downstairs tomorrow.

Today was the first FULL day we spent in Taber. We did have a dinner date but we postponed it till tomorrow so we could enjoy our first full day as legit citizens of Taber only 9 months after we bought the house, 7 months after going to church in Taber and 1 day before my due date. Whew. Chelsey isn't quite sure what to do with all the space in her house and fridge now.

But we are finally in our house. It was a great day today.

Much to Shawn's and Chandra's chagrin, no baby came today but not to lack of trying on Shawn's part. He even took me out for spicy chinese food to try and get the ball rolling. No dice.

But after dinner we just had a good evening walk down at the Taber campsite. It's lovely really. The river curves right by the lil coulees and there's a couple trails to kill some time walking around with.

So we hunted for frogs. Perhaps our newborn baby would want one as a pet

Climbed up the coulees

Then Shawn found a fun hobby for the evening

Throwing rocks at the deer down below to scare them off

He said he couldn't wait to have a couple boys to bring them up here and 

throw rocks with them haha

Previously mentioned deer... Wasn't quite so smart, or wasn't 

too scared of flying rocks

A legit smile on Shawn's face for a picture!

A rarity indeed

Just gotta catch him when he's in the middle of scaring deer

by throwing rocks. 

Shawn finding a piece of Arizona here in southern Alberta.

Wee lil cactus. 

I think I am gonna really like Taber.

At Least I Saved Money?

I figured before the baby comes I should get my hair cut and I thought I might as well save some money since I just get trims so I went to the Lethbridge Hair School.

Bad move.

On the upside: I did save money, my haircut cost only $8

On the downside: When I asked for MAX an inch off with long soft layers I got 4 inches off with choppy layers, bad choppy layers. It looks unbalanced and BAD and that's after the instructor came and tried to fix it too.

It's not a big deal, my hair grows fast and I am sure my hair will be in a ponytail a lot the next month but still it's always sad to see your hair get butchered and you try and intervene and it just gets worse... Eep. 

On the other upside: at least a lot of my dead ends were eliminated during the sacrifice of my hair length. 

Last time I went to the hair school I came out satisfied but not so much yesterday, but what was I really expecting? They are students, can't blame her too much. She's only half through her schooling. Gotta learn somehow.  

Funny thing is, I was mortified until I saw Shawn and he didn't notice a difference haha

Gotta love guys: me freaking out and he sees no change until I pointed it out but if he can't tell then it can't be so bad since he's the guy I'm trying to look good for. Or maybe it's proof that guys can be very unobservant(:

So this is Being Pregnant....

So after 39 weeks of being pretty darn good, I thought I was free and clear....

Then tonight when I got up off the couch I looked down and saw the fattest feet and cankles. 

Those are not my feet. Those cannot be my feet.

Literally, in an hour my feet went from being my feet to being chubby, cankles with pitting edema. What the?

Add that to the feeling that the baby has dropped (so much more pressure) but him simultaneously hanging out in my diaphragm/ribs and I have started to be somewhat uncomfortable. Can't complain too much eh? 39 weeks was a good stretch.

Shawn doesn't feel too bad for me. He's just excited because he thinks this means the baby is coming soon. 

At a garage sale I found this old metal tonka dump truck
Shawn wanted to buy it for the baby, but I suspect
it's partly for him too ;)
He was rubbing my belly saying "come out baby, come out"... Me, I am still slightly hesitant to say I am ready but feeling better about the idea of him coming. 

Number one reason why I'm feeling better:

Our house is 85% unpacked! 

We bought this table for our basement suite in Saskatoon
and it was perfect for the tiny lil space.
We set it up in our new home and man does it look
funny, it's soooo little for the large amount of space we have.
I loooooove how much space we have!

We were quite efficient on Saturday, thanks to my mum and sister. Tuesday we will set up the baby's room and maybe actually make the official move-in-date Wednesday. Cross your fingers, we just might be ready for this baby to come after all! 

xoxo