it's all about the output!

today gabe is 8 weeks old!

@ PADS with service dog-in-training, maisie!

• our little monkey is filling out and getting some meat on his bones. at approx. 11 pounds he's definitely a healthy boy :-)


• it's hard to tell how much to feed him...some days he'll feed for 20 minutes, and some he'll go for 40 minutes. then there's the in-between feeds where he does his projectile vomit. we were out for dinner last weekend and he threw up on himself, me and the floor. nice!


• i've officially been pooped on. after a breakfast feed, he had a lot of gas with 3 poops, and the last one was too much for his diaper and it ended up on My Brest Friend and my clothes. double-nice! another time i was burping him when he pooped and somehow it all ended up his back...virtually nothing was in the diaper...go figure :P ironically both times he was wearing disposable diapers...


• we continue to have much success with our cloth diapers, even using them when we go out. it's not much different than disposable, except that i have to carry them around until i get home. after you've been pooped on it just doesn't matter anymore :-) when we purchase our 6 month diapers, i'm thinking of switching to cloth wipes, rather than the huggies we've been using. i may be able to eliminate garbage altogether!


• i'm thrilled to fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans again! i finally have clothes for everyday wear...i think i was a bit hasty earlier this year and cleaned out my closet, thinking that i'd never fit my clothes again. just another excuse to buy new clothes, especially when someone else is paying the bill ;-)


• gabe is extremely alert during the days. when i put him on the changing table and i talk to him, he gets so excited and flails his arms and legs around. i think he's getting close to cracking his first real smile!


• monkey-man is also getting stronger every day...his neck is less floppy than before, and we can stand him upright and he starts bending his legs up and down.
  
• it's still november, but my parents have gone to town for gabe's first christmas...buying him outfits for every holiday function we have! to be honest, i can't wait to dress him up either :-)

nkotb forever!

what a fun night! it was like i was 13 all over again :-) pris & i went to the new kids on the block concert @ gm place and had a hella good time! my fave kid, jordan, was his usual hot self, and i couldn't help but take a hundred pix of him! i literally took over 100 pix at the concert...it was a bit ridiculous. i even took video clips :-) ah, it was fun to be young again. and then it was back to reality and my breastpump :P

and on the topic of reality...chris got a big dose of it for himself. he was on daddy-duty for the 2nd time (the first time was a few weeks ago when i went out for van`s b-day brunch), but this time he had to do bedtime on his own! when i got home from the concert, chris looked wiped! apparently gabe was having a crying fit last night. i told chris, welcome to my EVERY day :-)

6 week check-up

we had our last visit with the midwives today. i can't believe it's been over 6 weeks since gabe arrived. he's pretty excited, too!

gabe's grown 5 cm longer than his birth height, and he's now a whopping 10 lbs, 10 oz! and the BEST news this week is he's slept through the night for 5 straight nights, ranging from 7 - 9 hours!!!! holy crapper! speaking of crap, even his diaper changes have diminished throughout the day :-)

to celebrate our 6 week mark on saturday, gabe and i ventured out on our own for dinner with some friends. it was the first time i had to carry the carseat and load the car. my recovery from the c-section has gone pretty well, but unfortunately i`m still having problems with my back. hopefully a few more chiro sessions will fix that up!

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 :-)