it was inevitable...gabriel caught a cold right before christmas and right after new year's, jeremy caught his first cold. we figured there wasn't much we could do for him since he was only a couple weeks old, but after hearing his cough worsen and his stuffiness wasn't subsiding, we took him to the brentwood medical clinic to be seen by a doctor. i have to say, i will never go to the clinic again when dr. li is on the rotation. she was the worst doctor i have ever seen. she totally dismissed us when we talked about his symptoms and said she couldn't diagnose J without hearing him cough. and then when he did cough, she totally said "that's normal for babies". bottom line, she told us...he's not sick, and it's normal for babies to be stuffed up. um, ok.
once we left the clinic, chris told me that she was a quack. he had seen her a few years ago, and she misdiagnosed him with a cold (and basically told him to "tough it out") when he actually had pneumonia! once he told me that, we made an appointment to see our family doctor. because J was almost "normal" by this time, my doctor agreed it could have been a cold. i just wanted to get a proper examination done and our worries were laid to rest. it was also an opportunity to have J weighed. at his 1 week check-up, he'd gone down to 6 lbs, 12 oz., so we were glad to see that at 3 weeks, he was back up to his birth weight despite being sick.
J is now fully recovered from his cold, and we are still trying to figure out days/nights with him. we've had a couple days where he's had cat-naps, and then he sleeps great at night, and then he flips to sleeping all day and deciding at bedtime that he wants someone to entertain him. we have also hit his first growth-spurt, and he is feeding every hour...not fun! and at bedtime, i need to supplement with formula...it's the only way to get him to sleep. gabe never had formula so this is new to us...i hope it's just temporary until my milk supply can catch-up, which is ironic because with gabe, i had too much milk. but then again, J is only 4 weeks old, and i can't actually remember when i started to store and freeze my milk last time. the milk bank might be in my future again :P
Friday, January 17, 2014
Friday, January 03, 2014
our christmas gift
after what seemed like a never ending 9 months, we welcomed jeremy kenji into our family on wednesday, december 18 @ 9:41 a.m., weighing 7 pounds, 11 ounces.
because this was a planned c-section, everything felt different than gabriel's birth. we checked into the case room (a.k.a. labour/delivery) at 7 a.m. for our 9 a.m. surgery. the nurse checked all my vitals (and was a bit horrified at the hives on both my legs), chris got his hospital scrubs on, and then came the needles. for a week prior to D day, i was stressing out about the number of needles i would be needing, and most of all the IV hook-up since it hurt really bad last time. my nurse was actually quite good, and pinched me really hard to distract me from the actual pain of the IV insertion. chris said she was good because she was a fellow South African. whatever :-)
then she told me about another injection (heparin) that is given to all surgery patients to prevent blood clots. not only is it another needle, but it was injected into my belly, and would be administered before surgery, after surgery, and once daily while i'm in the hospital. UGH! so, she gave me the first dose, and as she did it my reflexes kicked in and i hit the nurse, inflicting more pain upon myself. it's not the first time i've hit someone with a needle...when i had my steroid injection for my trigger finger, i kicked the doctor as he was prepping the dosage for me :P
just before 9 a.m., we were called to move to the pre-operating room. once there, a stream of people came to check on my vitals and introduce themselves to us and their role during my surgery (and once again, there was mild panic on everyone's faces when they saw my hive-riddled legs...hoping that i wasn't having a reaction to the iv or the heparin). my OB was checking in on me as well, and provided us with updates on our wait time. we were only a few minutes behind schedule when i was wheeled into operating room #10. once there, my anxiety kicked in and i was freaking about the epidural. maybe because it was christmas-time, or because it was still early in the day, but everyone in the room was in a good mood, even the anesthesiologist was singing a happy tune. thankfully i respond well to drugs, and within a minute i was already losing sensation in my legs.
with gabe's birth, i thought the surgery went a lot faster getting him out...perhaps because his heartrate was erratic that they were a bit quicker at getting him out. this time, it felt like eternity before we heard baby's first cry...obviously it wasn't that long since he was born at 9:41 :P immediately after his birth, chris was by his side cutting the umbilical cord and snapping some pictures :) because i was also having a tubal ligation, chris and jeremy went back to the case room for measurements and newborn screening tests and some father/son bonding time. at 10:40 a.m., i was finally wheeled into recovery. another difference from 5 years ago, was that while i was in recovery (once i was able to wiggle my legs, and they were sure i wasn't having any side effects from the epidural), the nurse brought jeremy back to me to start breastfeeding.
shortly after 12 p.m., i was finally taken to the maternity ward, and we were reunited as a family. we had a bit of quiet time as a three-some before my parents brought gabriel after school for a visit. it was a bittersweet day because we missed gabriel's first winter concert at kitchener, and we actually pulled him from the evening performance so he could spend time with us. at least my parents were able to attend and took some photos and videos for us. i had also signed up as a volunteer for their gingerbread building activity, so instead my dad ended up going with gabe. and unfortunately gabe missed the last day of school festivities because of the snowfall since my parents weren't quite willing to drive in the miserable weather. so instead, he had a pajama day at home and my mom made pancakes for lunch :-)
it seems as though dec. 18 was a very busy day for births...we were #6 that day with my OB performing another c-section right after me. i have to say that hearing (some) women in active labour is probably the worst thing i've ever heard in my life. while a c-section is no walk in the park, at least there isn't any screaming, moaning, or crying :-) the only pain is inflicted by me when i hit or kick people with needles! hahahah! on this particular day, the maternity ward was almost at full capacity...we were fortunate to get a private room, one of the last rooms in the wing. on our 2nd night at least we didn't have any neighbours beside us, so we got a bit of peace and quiet (aside from our screaming night-owl baby).
i've been working on this post for over a week, and i've now noticed more differences between my surgery recoveries. my hives got progressively worse after i had the baby...they spread to my arm while i was still in the hospital, and then after i was discharged, they spread to my belly. jeremy is over 2 weeks old now, and the hives have dissipated but my skin is still bearing the scars from the hives and now my skin is drying out and flaking off :P another weird thing is that my skin has changed colour on my belly. originally i thought it was just the iodine that i didn't wash off properly, but after 2 weeks of scrubbing, i could have permanent discolouration...will have my OB look at it when i see her next. i feel like i recovered pretty quickly from surgery, and i often forget that i should be relaxing and taking it easy while my body heals itself. so every once in awhile, my body will react and get angry for overexerting myself. with gabe's recovery, i don't recall taking any painkillers once i got home, but this time around, i'm literally counting down the minutes till my next dosage.
with jeremy's hourly feeding schedule right now, i've neglected gabe a lot and he's been spending a lot of time watching tv and using the ipad. i just don't have the energy time to focus on entertaining a 5 year old. it also doesn't help that he's been sick, my dad is now sick, and my mom has injured her knee and has limited mobility. so, i'm very glad that school resumes on monday, and he'll be out of the house and i can just focus on me and jeremy during the day.
4 more weeks until i have my freedom! and it's not a moment too soon, as my parents will be off on their next travelling adventure.
because this was a planned c-section, everything felt different than gabriel's birth. we checked into the case room (a.k.a. labour/delivery) at 7 a.m. for our 9 a.m. surgery. the nurse checked all my vitals (and was a bit horrified at the hives on both my legs), chris got his hospital scrubs on, and then came the needles. for a week prior to D day, i was stressing out about the number of needles i would be needing, and most of all the IV hook-up since it hurt really bad last time. my nurse was actually quite good, and pinched me really hard to distract me from the actual pain of the IV insertion. chris said she was good because she was a fellow South African. whatever :-)
then she told me about another injection (heparin) that is given to all surgery patients to prevent blood clots. not only is it another needle, but it was injected into my belly, and would be administered before surgery, after surgery, and once daily while i'm in the hospital. UGH! so, she gave me the first dose, and as she did it my reflexes kicked in and i hit the nurse, inflicting more pain upon myself. it's not the first time i've hit someone with a needle...when i had my steroid injection for my trigger finger, i kicked the doctor as he was prepping the dosage for me :P
just before 9 a.m., we were called to move to the pre-operating room. once there, a stream of people came to check on my vitals and introduce themselves to us and their role during my surgery (and once again, there was mild panic on everyone's faces when they saw my hive-riddled legs...hoping that i wasn't having a reaction to the iv or the heparin). my OB was checking in on me as well, and provided us with updates on our wait time. we were only a few minutes behind schedule when i was wheeled into operating room #10. once there, my anxiety kicked in and i was freaking about the epidural. maybe because it was christmas-time, or because it was still early in the day, but everyone in the room was in a good mood, even the anesthesiologist was singing a happy tune. thankfully i respond well to drugs, and within a minute i was already losing sensation in my legs.
with gabe's birth, i thought the surgery went a lot faster getting him out...perhaps because his heartrate was erratic that they were a bit quicker at getting him out. this time, it felt like eternity before we heard baby's first cry...obviously it wasn't that long since he was born at 9:41 :P immediately after his birth, chris was by his side cutting the umbilical cord and snapping some pictures :) because i was also having a tubal ligation, chris and jeremy went back to the case room for measurements and newborn screening tests and some father/son bonding time. at 10:40 a.m., i was finally wheeled into recovery. another difference from 5 years ago, was that while i was in recovery (once i was able to wiggle my legs, and they were sure i wasn't having any side effects from the epidural), the nurse brought jeremy back to me to start breastfeeding.
shortly after 12 p.m., i was finally taken to the maternity ward, and we were reunited as a family. we had a bit of quiet time as a three-some before my parents brought gabriel after school for a visit. it was a bittersweet day because we missed gabriel's first winter concert at kitchener, and we actually pulled him from the evening performance so he could spend time with us. at least my parents were able to attend and took some photos and videos for us. i had also signed up as a volunteer for their gingerbread building activity, so instead my dad ended up going with gabe. and unfortunately gabe missed the last day of school festivities because of the snowfall since my parents weren't quite willing to drive in the miserable weather. so instead, he had a pajama day at home and my mom made pancakes for lunch :-)
it seems as though dec. 18 was a very busy day for births...we were #6 that day with my OB performing another c-section right after me. i have to say that hearing (some) women in active labour is probably the worst thing i've ever heard in my life. while a c-section is no walk in the park, at least there isn't any screaming, moaning, or crying :-) the only pain is inflicted by me when i hit or kick people with needles! hahahah! on this particular day, the maternity ward was almost at full capacity...we were fortunate to get a private room, one of the last rooms in the wing. on our 2nd night at least we didn't have any neighbours beside us, so we got a bit of peace and quiet (aside from our screaming night-owl baby).
i've been working on this post for over a week, and i've now noticed more differences between my surgery recoveries. my hives got progressively worse after i had the baby...they spread to my arm while i was still in the hospital, and then after i was discharged, they spread to my belly. jeremy is over 2 weeks old now, and the hives have dissipated but my skin is still bearing the scars from the hives and now my skin is drying out and flaking off :P another weird thing is that my skin has changed colour on my belly. originally i thought it was just the iodine that i didn't wash off properly, but after 2 weeks of scrubbing, i could have permanent discolouration...will have my OB look at it when i see her next. i feel like i recovered pretty quickly from surgery, and i often forget that i should be relaxing and taking it easy while my body heals itself. so every once in awhile, my body will react and get angry for overexerting myself. with gabe's recovery, i don't recall taking any painkillers once i got home, but this time around, i'm literally counting down the minutes till my next dosage.
with jeremy's hourly feeding schedule right now, i've neglected gabe a lot and he's been spending a lot of time watching tv and using the ipad. i just don't have the energy time to focus on entertaining a 5 year old. it also doesn't help that he's been sick, my dad is now sick, and my mom has injured her knee and has limited mobility. so, i'm very glad that school resumes on monday, and he'll be out of the house and i can just focus on me and jeremy during the day.
4 more weeks until i have my freedom! and it's not a moment too soon, as my parents will be off on their next travelling adventure.
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