the old me is back!

woot-woot! i had a feeling a couple weeks ago at our postnatal check-up, but yesterday confirmed it...i can fit my pre-pregnancy clothes! i was lucky and only gained 22 pounds during pregnancy, so when 8 pounds 10 ounces was gabe, the remaining weight just melted off :-)

even though i didn't enjoy pregnancy, i did enjoy all the maternity clothes i got to wear. so now i'm sad they don't fit me anymore...i keep wearing my green capri pants, but they just keep falling down when i walk :P i've been going through my closet but everything is so "work-related", that i don't even know what to wear for the next 10 months...i guess i'm going shopping!

5 weeks old

gabe's first month - catch up time!

seriously, i don't know where the time goes! actually...i do. diapers, crying, feeding, diapers, burping, throw-up, diapers, crying, feeding...

we sort-of celebrated halloween and dressed him up in his festive onesie. cute hunh?

last weekend was super-busy! we took gabe on his first skytrain ride to downtown for the baby fair. what a great day...we scored some freebies from london drugs, a case of formula (at least we have back-up if we need it), we bought a highchair and a babysling. then in the evening gabe was the centre of attention at his one-month party held at kirin. dinner for 100 ppl...craziness!

we've been suffering from long nights. gabe isn't too keen on me putting him to sleep at night. as soon as he lies down he'll start crying again. we've spent several nights sleeping on the couch together :P BUT...last night i put him down for bed at 12:42 a.m. and he didn't wake up until 8 a.m.! perhaps turning 5 weeks old is a turning point for us! we still need to work on gabe's day/night confusion.

other highlights include the continued success with nursing, bottle-feeding and pacifier-use. gabe has now discovered his hands and will occasionally suck his thumb if i don't feed him right away. and we are now on day 4 of cloth diapering! it makes so much cents (i'm so witty!) to use them at home, and i've bought some really cute monkey doodlez and bumgenius, so it just makes them more enjoyable to use. i was really ambitious and bought the prefolds (similar to what our parents used on us) with the diaper covers. gabe has adapted really well to cloth, and it has actually reduced his diaper rash. however, we still use disposables at night and when we venture out of the house!

we've also had lots of playdates with other babies...grace, brenden, luke, alyssa and sophia!

it's a PADS halloween!

there's nothing better than dogs dressed up for halloween :-) i love that we've been able to get out-and-about with gabe...it's nice to socialize with ppl other than our immediate family members. plus, it's great exposure for our son...he's a future PADS-volunteer-in-training!

(cowgirl, icon!) (hotdog, pixel)

(eeyore...aka maisie) lobster link

firsts!

boy is it hard to find time to blog nowadays! between feedings, poopings, awake-time, and naps, there's just no time for me anymore! i'm so pleased though that we've been getting out-and-about over the past 2 weeks, and we've even had lots of visitors come see us :-)

(yup, definitely has my lips!)

last weekend, we had thanksgiving at my aunt's house, and gabe got to meet my cousin's 2 girls...17-month old bethany thought it was fun to poke gabe in the eyes :P it's great to have lots of ppl around because then chris and i get a break from soothing gabe.

this past weekend, we took gabe to anthony & alice's wedding. it was great that he was welcome to attend...i remember for my own wedding i didn't want any kids/babies around :P fortunately we were sitting at a back-corner table, so we could make discreet exits as required :-) i had hoped to only feed him once at the reception, but he was a bit thrown off schedule so i had to feed him twice. it was our first "public" feeding using the hooter-hider and without "my brest friend", so it was definitely a bit awkward (thank goodness chris was around to assist!), but i think we did ok. gabe and i even had mother-son dance time! in hindsight, the dancing was a bit too much for me...i got overexcited and the next day my belly was aching :P

forget diamonds...

...breast pumps are a girls best friend :-) i have to say, thank god for my breast pump! gabe's a healthy eater, but sometimes i just need a break from his vicious latch. i've thrown out quite a bit of pumped milk out, and gabe's spat up quite a bit from the bottle, but tonight we had success! chris fed our son a 3 oz. bottle without any spillage! this bodes well for me...we're gearing up for nov. 21 when i have the NKOTB concert and won't be able to feed for at least 3 hours.

gabe's first girlfriend, cassie!

my grandma w/her 17th great-grandchild!

meet gabriel!

here he is!




gabriel takashi was born on saturday, october 4, 2008 at 3:04 a.m. to make a long story short, the induction didn't go well last week, so a c-section was the final outcome for baby's arrival.


we've had several rough nights over the past week which has put our patience to the test. there's been a couple times we've wanted to throw the towel in and ask for a baby refund, but when gabe stares back with his beautiful brown eyes that seem to say "what'd i do?", you just melt again and all is well.


what we've done this week:

• home visits with our midwives and doula
• a rushed trip to ER on tuesday to check his bilirubin levels - gabe's entire body turned a concerning shade of yellow, so we had to do some rush bloodwork. not to worry, in less than 48 hours he perked up, the yellow's fading, and he gained 4 ounces!
• visited both grandparents houses - definitely not running on time for anything now...between coordinating feeding and diaper changes, i need to stop looking at the clock. we'll be there when we can :-)
• and now gabe is determined to break my spirit. the past 3 nights have been horrific. from 2 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. i'm on mommy duty while our little boy is confused between day and night. chris gets dad duty from 5:30 to 7:30 a.m. if anyone's up at that time, give us a shout :-) haha!
• gabe had his first bottle feeding this morning. breastfeeding hasn't been very fun, so i have a bottle on standby for chris' dad duty. at least i can sleep for a couple hours :P

all i can say is thank goodness for my parents! they've been fantastic, helping out everyday. since i'm recovering from surgery still, i can't really do much. i think that's the most frustrating part right now...i can't carry gabe for too long because of the extra pressure he puts on me, and i can't bounce him to sleep either. even little things like picking stuff up from the floor are impossible :P i'm hoping things improve over the next couple of weeks!

d-day

yup, that's right....it's delivery day!!! i'm at 41 weeks, and my midwife has agreed to induce me :-) totally not the way i had thought things would turn out, but whose birth plan goes according to plan anyways?

hopefully the induction goes well and baby and i respond well to the treatment. i'm feeling anxious knowing that by the end of this weekend chris and i will be parents to a little baby.

see you on the other side :-)

i love your hair!

today i had a great moment. i was at brentwood mall, just sitting on a bench waiting to meet someone, and this lady sits down next to me and says "i love your hair! who does it?" her lovely comment couldn't have come at a better time! i was having some bad hair moments over the past 2 days...maintaining short hair is a pain in the arse...i had a cut 5 weeks ago, and i feel desperate for another cut already :P

anyways, i told her who my stylist was and gave her the info for the salon. she just kept staring at my hair, as if mesmerized :-) i think she actually might follow through...i'll have to check w/my stylist when i see her next!

definitely an uplifting moment for me...it temporarily took my mind off my stubborn child :-) but alas...as europhoric as the moment was, it didn't release any oxytocin...i'm still pregnant.

40 weeks plus 4 days

i had my first ever acupuncture treatment today. my doula, roxanne, explained her needles were "friendly" and that they weren't anything like medical needles. and true to her word, they weren't as bad as i had anticipated. doesn't mean i wasn't sweating buckets during the treatment session...i just sweated less than normal :P over a 1/2 hr session, she manipulated the needles every 5 minutes to stimulate the energy through my body, and to assist with inducing labour. apparently some ppl respond well to just one treatment, but some ppl need 3-4 sessions. we'll see what happens with me...

we're also ramping up our appointments with the midwife. i really don't want to be preggers past monday...my bh contractions are getting more frequent, and my back is killing me today. they've got a few more tricks up their sleeves that we'll try over the upcoming weekend. we also talked about potential induction :P i was really hoping to avoid drugs...asides from the gbs antibiotics...but if baby hasn't arrived by monday, then we'll have to do whatever it takes to get him out.

my anxiety is also growing...if we let baby continue on to 42 weeks, i'm scared how big he could get! i only gained 1/2 pound this past week, and my stomach hasn't gotten any bigger, so hopefully that's a good sign. mind you, i'm feeling kind of whale-ish, and i've noticed some mild swelling in my hands and feet :P i've been told to relax and not think about pregnancy/labour, and once i do that, perhaps labour will start. ha! easier said than done :-)

graduation day!

so, chris' wish came true. all he wanted was for baby to hold off until after the PADS 2008 graduation ceremony. on sunday, much to everyone's surprise, we attended the ceremony at michael j. fox theatre! it was fantastic to see so many graduating teams and breeding girls. it's still a bit early for some of my puppysitting pups to be graduating. the only graduating dog we puppysat was leon...he's been paired with a professor at ubc :-) on another happy note, we puppysat buster for a weekend or two, and he's moved on to a career as a detection dog!

what a great afternoon to celebrate the dogs, staff, volunteers and clients of PADS!