2 weeks old!

June 28th,

Colben was a little monster last night. Exploding diapers, unwillingness to sleep and a shrill cry for 4.5hours are the charges he stands accused of. He is currently sucking up to the judge and jury by batting his baby blues and general sweetness. We will see what tonight holds for us.

I have made a decision- I am cutting off all my hair. It is getting in the way when I am nursing, pumping or holding Colben (which is basically every minute of the day). Hel-lo mom-cut!

June 30th,
Here is the mom-cut. I couldn't look when she did the big cut but I am happy with the results


A face only a mother (and father) could love:


Baby's first walk in his stroller





EWWWWW Colben has thrush and has passed it to me resulting in him having a disgusting white mouth and me with very sore breasts- Lucky for us we have a midwifes appointment tomorrow.

Wednesday July 1,
Canada Day and 18days old

Today was a busy day! We started out at Toys r us and did a big splurge on a baby swing. It was ridiculous to set up- I have never seen such bad directions but we final got it up tonight.

After Toys R'us it was off to the midwife's. Colben does not have thrush- thank goodness. He is still arounfd 7lbs and the midwife has put me on some medication to help with milk supply as it has been dwindling the last week despite more than sufficiant feeding and pumping.

we picked up my prescription and headed for our last stop in Duncan. We picked up our fancy breast pump. The one we were using sounded like an old deisel truck where as the new one is like a hybrid car. It is awesome! It takes 1/2 the time to pump.

Colben is pretty fussy tonight but I think it is because he slept all day in the car.

Thursday July 2nd,
18 days old

Crisis- The nipple shield got lost last night. It is this awful translucent silicone nipple sheild which has an amazing ability to camoflauge into any surroundings. This is a BIG issue because Colben will not nurse without it except the very odd time and I am now pumping (which doesn't yield as much as nursing)just to feed not reserving any for later tonight which is when Adam feeds him so I can sleep. We are just waiting for the store to open at 11am so that we can get some new ones.

Colben's sweet new ride
Sooooo you're not taking him back?
Yes there is a baby in there. This is how I get the dishes done

1 week old

Sunday June 21st, 9 days old Today is fathers day and and daddy Adam's pseudo present is I let him sleep through the night instead of getting up to help me. I wish I could take him out today to let him know what a good job he is doing but I am being confined to the couch today. Yesterday I found out I had an unexpected "side effect from birth" (moms you can ask me directly-TMI) and I need to stay resting. It is hard because I like to go out everyday but recovery is going backwards not forwards and possibly because I haven't been relaxing. Colben is doing fine. He is alert more and more each day. He is so funny when he tries to focus on our face. What looks he gives us. We have our first mama and daddy trick up our sleave! Colben calms down and sleeps to the sound of our very very very noisy breast pump. This pump is so noisy that when the tv is at full blast you can barely hear it and weve got a Sony. :o) The last 2 nights when he was fussy we put him down with the motor part of the pump running- instant success. We now have him on a tiny feeding tube for the pumped milk which is a lot less messy than the syringe and less intrusive for Colben when we use the finger suck. Speaking of sucking I swear to god after a few rough nights a pacifier looks good, real good. Then in the morning I remind myself that they shouldn't be introduced until after 1 month and at that point he may not need it. I is amazing how quickly we are swayed to go against our "views" when faced with a crabby baby. Spine of a jellyfish.

Monday, June 22nd Day 10






Thursday June 25th,
Day 12
Sorry about the lack of posting but the site has been up and down.
Here is the catch up:

Tuesday I went to the 0-4 month baby class at Mothering Touch. It was pretty informative on what is to come. I felt a little out of place as the momies were either yoga practicing yuppies or yoga practicing hippies. Either way I am pretty sure they all do yoga and I don't bend that way :o)
Tuesday was also my due date which was kinda weird.

Wednesday we had our midwife appointment. Colben is a big boy now! He weighs 7lbs which is only 1/2 a lb lighter than the average newborn. Because he is now putting on about 100g a day I get to sleep!!!! our new schedule is as follows:


12am feed (me weekdays, dad weekend)
2:30am feed & supplement & pump
LET BABY SLEEP for 4-5 hours max (YESSSS!)
6:30-7:30am (max) baby wakes up and feed/pump
9:30am feed/pump
12:00 pm feed/pump
2:30 pm feed/pump
5:00 pm feed/pump/supplement
7:30 pm feed-
8:30pm Mischa go to bed
9:30pm Adam feeds

The public health nurse for Esquimalt also stopped by and we set out a plan for weaning Colben off the nipple shield. We received a care package and the next timed wse see her it will be for Colben`s imunizations.

Today is Adam and my 8 year aniversary. Auntie Diane will watch Colben for a bit while we quickly go out for dinner. Colben slept from 3:30-7am so I am feeling good relatively speaking.

Friday June 26th,
Day 13
Today we went out and got a bit of shopping done. This time I actually paid attention to my body and we went home when it was too much. We weighed Colben today and he is 100g lighter than Wednesday's weight and 300g behind his expected weight for today. I am going to reintroduce some of his top-ups tomorrow if his weight then confirms what we saw today.

Awkward but funny moment today:
In Walmart a lady told her baby "look blah blah blah... that lady has a baby in her tummy"! I promptly got the cart from Adam that had Colben in it (not with out a few swears under my breath) and pushed it past her making sure she saw the baby was now OUT of my tummy. She got the hell out of there pretty fast.....Awkward

Here is a cute picture from today:

Colben Hunter Thorhaug is born

A child is born! 10 days early our son Colben Hunter Thorhaug arrived on Saturday June 13th, 2009 at 5:50pm. He weighed at birth 6lbs 14oz, and was 20" long. Mom and Colben arrived home today from the hospital and are both healthy but a bit tired. Please understand if we don't answer the phone that mom, dad, and babe are resting and spending time together this week before 2 months of visitors start. Next week we will do our best to update the blog with the birth story and call you all back. For now here are some pictures to wet your appetite.
Tuesday June 16th,
day 3



Wednesday June 17th
Day 4
Yesterday I was on a very strict every 2.5 hour feeding schedule (which means a max of 1.5 hrs of sleep at a time) because Colben is losing a little more than the usual. He has a tiny, tiny mouth that won't latch on a mountain until he grows a bit bigger. I spent a long time at home with the Midwife in an attempt to make it work yesterday. (this is why I love my MW) Eventually her recommendation is to temporarily use a nipple shield so that he didn't lose anymore weight. This allowed him to latch and finally sleep like other newborns after feeding. IT. WAS. AWESOME.
Today we will be out for a couple hours. I have an appointment with the Lactation Specialist which will be a BIG help. Nipple shields are helpful but a pain in the ass and not a long term solution. Next stop will be getting a nursing bra that fits. I just measured and I am a conservative E38 so far! (sorry - lots of exclamation marks but really....E38?)
After that I think we might pick up one outfit for Colben if I am still feeling up to it. I didn't allow myself to buy any "new" outfits for Colben during pregnancy because he might of ended up with a pink romper so I am really excited to use the Gift Card Jean got me. More pictures with our daily photo shoot later of course.

June 18th, 2009

Enough already with the pics :o)You grandmothers are ruthless. We are a bit busy with schedule feedings, sleeping in between and running errands and attending appointmenta. all we have are these 6 pics- don't complain.
new shoes
Lily wondering when thesmall cryibg thing is leaving
Colben's first bath


Our Mw Julia weighing Colben
Friday June 19th,
day 6
Adam is the swaddle king. He is in charge of it as it is perfect when he does it


today kinda sucked (no pun) Midwife came and Colben is not gaining back his weight in the expected timeline so we are now feeding, pumping, then feeding any pumped milk by syringe every 2.5 hours. hopefufully this will help. Julia left us her scale so that we can weigh him everyday. The pump I have is not made for full time use and the rentals for the good ones are expensive so I am not thrilled but I cannot wait to see a plump Colben

38 weeks pregnant!

Monday June 8th,
Made it to 5pm!

Tuesday June 9th,
Off to the midwifes today- more later.

Well I am back and not the greatest news but could be worse.

I am Group B Strep positive which means our homebirth will have one extra step requiring me to go to the hospital once labour has started or waters have broken and receive an IV with antibiotics. After I receive my first dose the iv thing remains in my hand, I go home and will receive a dose every 4 hours to prevent passing it on to the baby. My temperature will be monitored to insure I do not develop a fever (very rare) and my waters will not be allowed to have been broken for longer than 18 hours.
This is the exact protocol for the hospital as well. I have been reassured that this is not an uncommon situation as 25% of women are positive and it is not considered an emergency situation- I will just be more closely monitored . Antibiotics is the only preventative as it can be passed to baby even by c-section.

My blood pressure was up today to 80 but I am thinking it was because I was just told I has GBS. Baby is measuring at 35.5 weeks which puts me at the 50 percentile. That means Junebug is dead average. 1/2 of babies are bigger, 1/2 of babies are smaller. This is not official but at 35.5 weeks the baby would typically weigh about 6lbs as per google so maybe this baby won't be so big...or not. Never the less the midwifes will check again next week and might have an ultrasound to check it out just to insure the growth is continuing.

Midwife says baby's head is nice and low. If my cervix is soft next week my midwife may sweep the membrane. This means during the exam the midwife/dr will separate the amniotic sac from the cervix using their fingers. This increases the change of labour within 48hours.

I got lots of exercise today. 2 hours of walking to and from appointment(although slooooow walking) and after a nice 1/2 hr swim to loosen up. I feel like jello now and am going for a nap.

Wednesday June 10th,

Well after careful consideration and a sleepless night I called the midwife this morning and asked her if for my peace of mind we could schedule my ultrasound for this week instead of a wait and see next week. She let me know she is not very concerned but she is going to book this week an ultrasound and a non-stress test (NST) for my benefit. I know myself and I think I would like the additional reassurance that everything is ok for our 1st homebirth. With GBS positive there is not much we can do but follow procedure but if there was anything else wrong that we could know about in advance I would want to know our options.

I will wait for the hospital to call back for scheduling. Midwife said probably on Thurs or Friday. This is good because usually the tech cannot tell you anything so by next appointment on Tuesday (39 weeks) we should have a response.

If you haven't heard the news Grandma Still bought a house yesterday!!!!!! We are so excited to have a new place to move into.......uh I mean visit. LOL
Hopefully at Christmas when Uncle Wade is visiting from Japan we will have a chance to go to Calgary and check out the new diggs.

UPDATE- Ultrasound and NST booked for Friday at lunchtime

Thursday June 11th,

Well today was one of the days I had in my head for Junebug to arrive (sorry S.O.L. not even a hiccup of a contraction) the other is June 25th so we will see. Today was nice- my friend Shandel came for lunch and I put a coat of plaster on the belly casting so that I can sand it to a finer finish in a couple days (fingers crossed). On a stupid note- I forgot to reapply. By that I mean I got sunburnt today -so stupid. I get very focused when working on projects and this one bit me in the ass. I hope it goes away before the birth because warm birthing pool + sunburn sounds awful!

Today is my last prenatal class so I should now officially know everything to do with childbirth (I say this laughing hysterically). I must say the classes were much, much more helpful than I would have imagined but regardless Junebugs birth will happen however it is meant to happen. I can just hope to be armed with a bit of knowledge. I know that Adam thoroughly enjoyed the classes and honestly I think I will miss them too and not just because of snack time cookies.

Friday June 12th,
We are back from the hospital.
Baby is weighing about 6.5 lbs so only a tiny, tiny bit underweight so those who have bets going this baby will likely be in the 7lbs(+) range at birth. YAY- no fat sugar baby! The head is very, very low the tech said. The ultrasound pic of the face is terrifying because it is smooshed to the side in my pelvis. Imagine a big gaping mouth pulled to the side- AHHH! Profile shots from 20weeks were much cuter! Baby is still ROA and is faced directly left. My placenta is actually in the back on my left side which means it has drifted left in the last 20 weeks as my uterus has grown. My amniotic fluid is a bit low but I am going to try to drink an extra lot of liquid even though I feel like I am always drinking as the heat might have affected the levels. This is likely what effected the fundal height measurement showing me behind a couple weeks. The head circumference in 31cm so think about that coming out! Junebugs legs are tucked up to its tummy and arms tucked under chin. At the non-stress test the baby was sleeping but eventually with a change of position we got Junebug to wake up and be as reactive as they would like to see.
Heartbeat was averaging 150bpm and my blood pressure was down 5 points!
In other news as mentioned before last night was our last prenatal class. Mid August we will have a potluck reunion at our house for all of the babies. 10babies in our backyard oy! At least we won`t be responsible for supplying the food- breastmilk smorgasboard.

Adam thinks I have lost weight since leaving the desk job- I think it is from the baby dropping. See for yourself (excuse the messiness I was sanding the plaster)
before

after! (what exactly is the difference Adam?)


Saturday June 13th,

5am.
Junebug is doing some serious practicing. I went to bed nauseous last night around 12:30am. I now think I am having contractions(?) Nausea is gone I think I slept it off. I am being woken up by what can be described as a peroid cramp/back pain. It is coming every 5 or mins (not timing yet) but the actual duration is less than 30 sec. It woke me up a while ago but I forced myself back to sleep. At this point although mild I don't think there is enough time in between to sleep. Heres another one!
....PS Nausea is back! arg

I am letting Adam sleep for now in case it fizzles out. Once it becomes more regular I'll get him up on a Tim Horton's run.

5:50am contactions are 4 1/2 mins apart lasting almost 1 min. I just came back from a walk with Lily to help keep things moving. I left a note for Diane to see me when she is up before work. This could stilll fizzle out so ...wow that contraction caught me off guard... 1min 1sec long and strong....anyways it could fizzle out at any time before active labour

8am owwwww.

37 weeks pregnant!

Monday June 1st,
BAGS ARE PACKED! Wow that took longer than expected to collect stuff for home and hospital birth but it all collected up and hanging out in the pool.

Today means today the baby is considered to term (37 weeks), 21 days till my due date (40 weeks), or 35 days till the baby will definitely be out even if they need to induce (42 weeks).

Tuesday June 2nd,
Happy Birthday Uncle Wade!

Thursday June 4th,
Today was a midwife appointment day. Stuff discussed/done
- Blood Pressure is down
- My FAVORITE midwife Julia who helps out to cover during vacations will be working the entire time of until I am due. YAY!!! I am so excited. If I go into labour starting 5pm on next Monday she will be my primary midwife (during weeks 38-39). After that she is the secondary midwife meaning she will arrive at the end of transition to help with the second stage (pushing).
- I did my strep B swap- (keep your fingers crossed for negative)
- baby is in the 2nd best starting position. Junebug is faced towards my back leaning towards my right side (Right Occiput Anterior - ROA)
Here is a bit of info
http://spinningbabies.com/baby-positions/all-positions/right-occiput-anterior

- Baby is moving into the pelvis and my tummy measurement is shrinking (Im sooooo skinny lol)
- We got our prescription for vitamin K our hospital paperwork to carry and our consent form for a homebirth.
- my protein levels in urine went down to "trace" amounts WOO HOO!
-Appointments from here on will be every week

Today I cleaned like a mad woman as the clutter was making me a little crazy. Tomorrow I will get down to the nitty gritty- closets, floor and my freaking bathroom.

The last 2 days have been sewing days as today I had to say goodbye to the sewing machine that was lent to me :o(
I will miss it dearly- bye Janome, bye.
Stuff that I finished this week are:
-6 diapers
-4 sets of nursing pads
-3 pee-pee teepees (stupid name but keeps baby boys from peeing in your face when changing diapers and more importantly a use for too small scraps of flannel I have lying around that would otherwise end up in the garbage

-5 pairs of baby legs (not what you think: they are legwarmers for babies so you don't need to pull up and down pants or to put on baby when a sunny day cools down.
)
-a birthing cloth (a flannel sheet sewn to a shower curtain so it is soft but waterproof and I can go around the house with out fear of making a mess)
-and lastly a cover for the stroller bassinette.

I must admit the last 2 nights we have dipped into our frozen food reserves (not that we don't have enough) in order to save $. The shepards pie was so so but then again most shepards pie is so/so. Tonight we had macaroni chilli which was yummy. I tried one of my cliff bars- delicicious, and my banana bread that tastes like spiced cake but is great.

It has been super hot in Victoria - 31 degrees so I have been hiding in the basement. When I went out today at 9am it was cooking. I hope it goes down a couple degrees so that I can out for a walk after 8am. Well I am off to class- only 2 more to go.

Friday June 5th,
Another birthday! Happy birthday Nana Simpson (aka mom, aka Mischa's Mom, aka Beth, aka Michaela, aka that's Doctor Simpson to you!) expect a phone call when it is a decent hour.

9:30pm
Well we went to the 5pm showing of the movie "Up" and the entire movie I had some serious practice contractions. It all calmed down so no baby on mom's b-day, plus baby needs to wait- we have a wedding to go to tomorrow.