Seasonal Madness

I laughed out loud when I came downstairs this morning and this is what I saw...

Kate loves her candy cane jammies and wears them frequently.  Sadly the Santa hat hasn't been put away yet so here she is March 11th, decked out like it's Christmas.  And to make the confession complete, her pumpkin bucket is still a favourite toy... we only put the nativity set away last week... and the Christmas decoration buckets are now in the hallway downstairs covered with a blanket because on the lid of the top bucket are a bunch of ornaments that need to be wrapped up and placed in the bucket... sad, very sad!

Kate's Birthday Part Two - The Balloons

Last year Kate's birthday balloon bouquet was AMAZING!  It lasted for months.  We all loved the balloons so much that I got her a balloon bouquet again.  This year it looked amazing, sadly the balloons started to deflate the same week that we got it and even sadder is that I never got around to taking a picture! (Sadder still I didn't take a picture because of our messy house.)  A few of the balloons are still inflated two months later and Kate still plays with them and carries them around which is why they haven't been disposed of yet. 

AND... today is Dad's birthday.  He wanted to be out of the hospital by today.  I've been weepy thinking about him.  He isn't in the ICU he's in rehab, so that's good, but they're still talking like it will be a month or two before he's strong enough to leave.  I love my Dad and I just want him home, we all do.  So my dear Dad, we will celebrate your birthday properly when you are out of the stinkin' hospital!

Alice is Two Weeks Old

Meeting Family and soon to be family

Today we had a lovely visit with Laura and her fiancee Joaquin - YAY for being engaged!  Alice slept for hours in Laura's arms.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with William... next time!

Alice the Model

My sweet friend Ruth Plumb came over today.  Not only did she take beautiful pictures of Alice she tidied and did laundry.  Yay for amazing friends.  Our family has been so blessed in the last week - more on that later!

 For now, here's Alice!!

The first few days

Ken went and picked up Kate and brought her to the hospital.  We cuddled. (Monday)

Some time early Tuesday morning Alice had her first bath.

I had some fun taking pictures of Alice.

After spending the day with us Ken went and picked up Kate to bring her to visit again.  (Tuesday)

This was spontaneous.

Sometime Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

Already to go home - Wednesday, February 23.

Alice Rena McCartney

Don't read this if you don't want all the gory details!!

Around 10 p.m. last night I went to bed with Kate.  She was a little restless and I was exhausted.  Around 10:30 I felt something - it felt like a punch that was trying to escape between my legs.  I was drifiting in and out by this point and it jolted me.  I continued to lie there wondering what the heck that was.  I ignored the voice that said get up and put on a depends, your water is going to break.  And about five minutes later me and the bed were covered in amniotic fluid - bummer.

My first thought was one of frustration, no, not now, I'm tired, I need to sleep.  I reached for the phone, paged Ken and informed him that I was lying in a pool of fluid.  He moved Kate to her bed and I went and stood in the shower, continuing to gush.  I phoned Antoinette and told her that my water had broke.  Antoinette had agreed to take Kate when I went into labour.  Next I phoned the hospital, they asked me a series of questions and then said they'd like me to come in and get checked.  I was hoping that they would tell me to come in once my labour had started, but no dice.

Ken packed a bag for Kate and delivered her to Antoinette's.  I had a shower and then Ken and I packed my hospital bag.  We set off for the hospital - there was a lot of snow.  We got to the hospital about 1 a.m.  I was immediately hooked up to a monitor and put in triage.  Next more questions.  They didn't seem to have any medical info about me - none.  I didn't understand this, oh well!  Once they knew I was hoping for a vbac the conversation changed slightly.  I knew I needed to go into labour on my own, so when my water broke and I didn't have any contractions I thought, great, this is Kate all over again - at least this time the fluid was clear.

They continued to monitor me, and told me they weren't loving what they were seeing.  Great!  Next the ob came to check my cervix.  She assured me she wasn't trying to grab my tonsils and informed me that my cervix was located in Barrie.  (Barrie, Ontario is about a thirty minute drive north of Newmarket which is where I was)  Great!  Next they brought in the monitor to check the position of the baby.  Three weeks before this I had gone for an ultrasound to check size and position.  Size - BIG, position - head down.  So I wasn't concerned.  However, the baby had flipped and was now breech - bye bye vbac, hello c-section number 2!

I wasn't excited about having another c but I'll say this, there was some relief because at least I knew what to expect, I'd been through this before.  I was told that they'd deliver the baby after the two other women that were now in the middle of pushing had delivered.  Ken slept in the chair beside me and I tried to sleep.

I don't remember the time they took me into the operating room.  I walked over, dripping fluid the whole way - so elegant!  Next step, epidural.  I wasn't concerned.  The epidural with Kate was awesome and the guy who did it got the spot in ONE try.  I don't remember it hurting, just mild discomfort.  This time - YUCK!  They guy froze me three different times and went through four needles.  He couldn't find the right spot, he kept digging around sending pains shooting down the left side of me.  YUCK!  Just before the fourth try I said a little prayer asking Heavenly Father to guide his hands, and guide them HE did because that's when he got it right.

Next all the prep, then finally Ken could come in and then we waited.  The ob was very excited about getting to announce the gender - something she doesn't get to do very often any more.  Ken and I were expecting a boy - just because that was the feeling that we had...  So at 5:15 when they pulled the baby out and announced it was a girl we looked at each other and laughed!  We watched them clean up our little girl, she was poked a little, weighed, measured and then wrapped up and handed to Dad.

I was wheeled into recovery and got the shakes - really bad.  After a bit the nurse said that the best cure for the shakes was to hold the baby.  It did calm me down.  And we latched and then we were moved into a private room - yay!  Things were fine until I started barfing.  I barfed on and off for a couple of hours, not good.  Finally that seemed to subside and I could again hold and enjoy my new baby.

Alice Rena McCartney
8lbs 11 oz    20.5 in
Monday, February 21, 2011  5:15 a.m.
Newmarket, ON

Welcome to the world little one!  We're happy you're here.

Last Day of Work

Today was a weird day, and I knew it would be.  My school is big.  There are about 700 students and 60 staff members.  This past year I was teaching music and only music.  I taught 15 different classes, one grade 4, three grade 5, one grade 5/6, three grade 6, three grade 7 and three grade 8 classes.  (And if you added it up you're right that's only 14, there was a grade 2 class that I saw once every few weeks for one period of character literacy)

I was less vocal about my pregnancy this time around.  I waited ages to tell the kids and I guess some classes I didn't necessarily announce things - and of course kids don't always hear what you say anyway so I still had kids in the last week saying - I thought you were pregnant.  There were a number of teachers - that although they knew I was pregnant didn't realize that today was my last day.  One teacher asked me if I was going to teach to March Break, to which I replied I was due in two weeks and wanted a little break!

The most popular question of today from staff was - are you so excited to be done?  Answer - I feel a mixture of emotions.  The most predominant is exhaustion.  I just want to go home and get organized - nest, pack my hospital bag.  And I feel overwhelmed thinking about being Mom to two.  AND I feel slightly sad to say goodbye to the kids - most of them anyway.  I like what I do and I really like the kids I teach and yes I am thrilled to be off for a year, to be home with my favourite kid plus one!

I walked out of the building today having left my room completely organized.  I just need to finish off a couple of notes for my replacement and I can start to enjoy a little break before the real work begins!