Parenting Lessons

We had a follow up appointment at the clinic for me a few days after coming home from the hospital. Abigail obviously came with us. As we were leaving the house, I realized that we hadn't yet put together a diaper bag, so I grabbed some diapers, wipes, blanket, burp cloth, hat, etc. and we headed out.

As the appointment was finishing, she started to fuss so I fed her and the midwife assured us we could have the exam room as long as we needed it. So after she finished eating, she needed to be changed. There was already a chux (waterproof pad) on the exam table so we put her up there to change her. We got her cleaned up and as we lifted out the dirty diaper to put the clean one under her, she chose that as the ideal time to pee again! And since we were holding up her legs to put on the new diaper, it ran down her back and all over her outfit. It was at that point that I realized I did not include a spare change of clothes for her in my hastily-packed diaper bag. As we cleaned her up a second time, laughing at ourselves, we wrapped her in the blanket we brought (and luckily she was wearing a tshirt that escaped dry) and headed out. We had a good laugh with our midwife as we saw her on the way out, saying that this little one is going to teach us to parent one lesson at a time!

Monthly Photos - Newborn

We got some cool stickers off Etsy to put on a onesie each month and take Abigail's picture to see how big she's getting. They even sent one for month 0, so here it is!

Coming home

Just as those contractions in the car on the way to the hospital made me grateful that we only lived 10 minutes away, so too did the ride home from the hospital. Far from quietly pondering our new life with this little one during the ride home and Abigail observing her new world, I rode in the backseat and unsuccessfully tried to get her to suck my finger so that she would stop screaming at the top of her lungs while Claude performed likely his most challenging 10-minute driving experience yet. Of course, she stopped wailing as we drove into our parking lot! Needless to say, she's not a huge fan of her carseat and we haven't tried to go anywhere with her unless necessary!

Coming home!

Editors note: we took her to the doctor 5 days later for a check up and she was content in her carseat - we are convinced Grandma worked some sort of magic!

First Photo Shoot / Ses premieres photos

Many thanks to our good friend and talented artist Ryan Murray for taking some fantastic pictures in the hospital!

Merci beaucoup à notre cher ami photographe Ryan Murray d’avoir pris de très jolies photos d’Abigail dans l’hôpital !

It's a girl! C'est une fille!

Abigail Ada was born on Sunday, April 15, 2012 at 2:24 pm. She weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

We are very grateful to have had a great team for the labor and birth of our daughter. Of course Claude was there but we also appreciated the help of our friend and doula Kelly and of the nurses and nurse midwife at the hospital. There are 15 midwives in the midwife group I saw for my prenatal care (during which time I met 6 or 7 of them), so we didn't know who would be working when I went into labor. We were lucky that we knew the midwife on service and she was actually the one who had first found Abigail's heartbeat! She was a great, calming presence for us.

My labor started with a contraction that made me leap out of bed at 12:45 am on Saturday night/early Sunday morning. I got up, drank a big glass of water and went back to bed to see if they would go away. They didn't, so after a few more, I got up and took a shower. The contractions didn't seem to be going away, so I started timing them around 1:15 and they were about 5-7 min apart and lasting close to a minute. I finally woke Claude up around 3 and we called Kelly around 4. She arrived around 4:30 or 5 and we left for the hospital at 6:15 as the contractions intensified. The 3 contractions I had in the car on the way to the hospital made me very grateful that we only live 10 minutes away! We went to the birth center and our room and the staff was ready for us. I needed to be monitored until they could make sure that the baby's heart rate was good and tolerating labor well. Unfortunately they were having a hard time getting a reading so I needed to lie down in bed, which made the contractions more painful. Finally after what seemed like forever but I think was about 2 hours, they let me come off the monitor. Around 11 am we moved to the room next door that had a big whirlpool tub that I labored in until around 2 pm. I got out and moved to the bed and it was time to push! I only pushed for about 20 minutes and then she was here! We had planned on having Claude announce the gender of the baby since we didn't find out during the pregnancy but they passed her to me and I was the first one to see so I was to one to announce that it was a girl!

I had some complications after the birth and lost quite a bit of blood so we were very grateful to be in the hospital and in good and capable hands. Abigail hung out on Claude's chest while they were attending to me and when they finished, I got to hold her again and breastfeed her for the first time. Abigail's godparents arrived shortly after the birth so they were able to spend some time with her after she had finished eating while the medical team and Claude were with me. All in all, I labored for 14 hours and gave birth as planned without any pain meds, thanks to a great support team and a big dose of willpower! It was definitely the hardest thing I've done but so worth it! And like I told Claude, yes, I'd do it again - just not for a little while!

With our doula and friend, Kelly

Abigail meeting her godparents

Abigail Ada a éténée dimanche le 15 Avril 2012 à 14h24. Elle pesait 3.6 kilos et mesurait 52centimètres.

Nous remercionsle Seigneur d’avoir eu du très bon soutien pour l’accouchement de notre fille.Dans le système des Etats Unis, le père reste avec la mère pendantl’accouchement mais nous avions en plus une amie nommée Kelly, les infermièresde l’hôpital et la sage-femme pour nous aider. Il y a 15 femmes dans le groupede sages-femmes que j’ai visités pendant la grossesse (et j’en ai rencontré 6ou 7), et on ne savait pas qui allait être à l’hôpital le jour de l’accouchement.Nous avons eu la chance que la sage -femme qui était là quand nous sommesarrivés fût celle qui a fait une de nos premières visites et celle qui a nous afait écouter le battement de cœur d’Abigail pour la première fois à 10 semainesde grossesse. Cette sage-femme a représenté en permanence une présence trèscalmante  et rassurante pour noustous !

Vers 00h45 samedisoir, j’ai eu une contraction qui m’a fait sauter du lit. Je me suis levée etj’ai bu un grand verre d’eau et je me suis recouchée pour voir si c’était ledébut des contractions ou si ça allait partir tout seul. Mais les contractions continuaientà venir, je me suis donc levée encore et j’ai pris une douche. Les contractionscontinuaient toujours et donc j’ai commencé à prêter l’attention à leurfréquence vers 01h15 et elles venaient chaque 5 à 7 minutes avec une duréed’une minute. Vers 03h00, j’ai réveillé Claude et nous avons appelé notre amieKelly vers 04h00. Elle est venue à 04h30 ou 05h00 et nous sommes partis pourl’hôpital vers 06h15. Les 3 contractions que j’ai eu dans la voiture en allantà l’hôpital m’ont rappelé pourquoi j’étais contente d’habiter à 10 minutesseulement de l’hôpital !

Quand nous sommesarrivé, ils étaient prêts pour nous (nous avions appelé vers 04h00 pour lesavertir). En arrivant, ils voulaient mettre la machine pour écouter lebattement du cœur du bébé et être sûr qu’elle était en train de bien tolérerles contractions et avait assez d’oxygène. Le problème cependant était que lamachine n’arrivait pas à bien lire la fréquence des battements cardiaques, et doncau lieu de 20 minutes, j’ai du rester connectée pour presque 2h ! J’aicontinué à travailler dur avec le soutien de Claude jusqu’à la fin des 14h dedur labeur quand la sage-femme m’a dit que c’était l’heure de pousser.Seulement 20 minutes plus tard, elle était née ! On avait planifié que çasoit Claude qui annonce le sexe de l’enfant parce qu’on ne savait pas pendantla grossesse, mais c’est moi qui l’ai vue en premier donc c’est moi qui l’aplutôt fait.

J’ai eu quelquesdifficultés après l’accouchement et j’ai perdu un litre de sang, maisremercions le Seigneur d’avoir été avec nous à l’hôpital et de nous avoir misentre des bonnes mains. Claude a tenu Abigail pendant que les médecinss’occupaient de moi et quand ils ont fini, j’ai pu la tenir encore etl’allaiter pour la première fois. Sa marraine et son parrain sont arrivésquelques minutes après sa naissance, ils ont pu passer du temps avec elle aprèsqu’elle a fini de manger pendant que Claude et l’équipe médicale s’occupaientde moi.

Getting ready for baby's arrival/Les préparations

According to photographic evidence (thanks, Mom!) from 1988, I have been preparing for this little one's arrival for a long time, even though we have only known about him or her since August 2011! I will be 39 weeks pregnant tomorrow, so we are busy with final preparations to welcome this little one whenever he or she decides it's time to greet the world!

I hope you'll enjoy this blog (and I'll remember and find time to do it). I mostly wanted a place to post all the adorable photos of our little one, so if you get any stories with the pictures, consider yourselves lucky!

Selon l’évidence photographique (grâce à maman Rae) de 1988, ca fait longtemps que je prépare l’arrivé de notre petit – même s’il est avec nous seulement depuis Juillet 2011 ! Je suis maintenant dans ma 39^ème semaine de grossesse, donc nous sommes en train de faire les préparations finales pour notre petit et on attend avec impatience le jour ou il va décider de venir !