Chance Robertson Demmans

Our little boy arrived by C-section at 1:04 October 31st!

Halloween Party

The pedicure yesterday was definitely different than any other pedicures I've had EVER! It wasn't as relaxing as I thought it was going to be, it was more like a dentists appointment! My feet feel healthy! When the reflexology part came I thought I was going to jump out of my chair. The lady's name was Honna and she learned reflexology in Germany. I believe it! She used her thumbs to FIRMLY press into my legs just above my ankle bone and then slid up my calf about 4". It hurt like CRAZY especially when she did it after first rubbing an exfoliating scub on which felt like sandpaper! The entire time she was either pinching between my thumb and forefinger or encouraging me to do so and saying "Breathe, breathe! Don't hold your breath! Breathe from your belly! Focus!". Whenever she did this (she did it about 5 times for about a minute each time during the course of the pedicure), the baby would kick violently. I got several Braxton Hicks contractions right there in the chair, and a few more while out later that evening, but nothing serious...yet. I'm still hoping that it will kick in tomorrow too. Then Honna informed me that from the colour of the bottoms of my feet she can tell that my liver is stressed (probably from being squished by the baby) and that I'm "toxic" currently & she would recommend a "detoxifying diet" after I'm done breastfeeding. This seems unfair - no booze in 9 months and my liver is toxic??

Lynne watched as I gripped the arm rests of the chair and muttered expletives as Honna did her magic. Lynne says when she goes in for massages with Honna that she streams tears most of the time!

Cam picked me up at Lynne's house after the pedicure was done. We went to a potluck party but left fairly early because I felt wiped out. Got home & had a bath & went to bed. Have to remember to change our clocks because it's daylight savings time. We are supposed to go to the hospital at 8:00 PM to have the first part of the induction done - they will either keep me for 2 hours and send me home or things will get going then and I'll stay at the hospital, so will need to pack up the car again too.

3rd Ultrasound

Ultrasound yesterday was great and got some fantastic photos of our (not so) little baby. The weight estimate came in and the only thing I can say is that Cam and I are now referring to the baby as "The Great Pumpkin". Baby has plenty of amniotic fluid, there's good blood exchange between the baby and I, no meconium floating in the pool and Baby is moving well, so there was no recommendation for immediate induction. I have to wait until Sunday night/Monday morning.

My good friend Lynne has gone and booked an appointment for me to get a pedicure on Saturday afternoon, what a fantastic idea! I am really excited to go, as it's been a good 6 weeks since I've comfortably been able to touch my own feet (i.e. tying shoes, clipping toenails, nail polish, etc. all have been a chore and have given up where not necessary - slip on shoes, I make Cam clip my nails and no nail polish). The lady who is going to do the pedicures is also a reflexologist and was bragging to Lynne last week that she could put me into labour in 15 minutes using some secret accupressure points. So, I'm gonna ask her to push my pressure points! Who knows, maybe it will work, and I'm going to be induced on Sunday night anyways!

If it doesn't work we're going to go to stop by a few Halloween parties on Saturday night. Tomorrow I'll go shopping and look for an orange T-shirt that I can sew some felt triangles to to make a proper Jack'o'lantern out of my belly (Cam's idea). One is a pumkin carving party but I think we'll wait to the last minute to do ours. The other is is an hors'dourve potluck party, so will try the gourmet frozen food place next to my doctor's office - if the reflexology works & I go into labour, we can just save the frozen puff pastries for when we have visitors, and I'll wear the shirt to the hospital. If it doesn't work, Cam can just pop the snacks in the oven while I'm getting my tootsies rubbed.

I have a 9:00 AM appointment with my doctor - so I will check the reflexology out with her (ankles have been a bit swollen, nothing out of control, but definitely puffy), as well as the toe nail polish thing (in our hospital classes they mentioned not to wear FINGER nail polish, but nothing about TOE nail polish).My cold is getting better, just a runny nose now and if it would stop dripping I could stop sanding my nose off my face with kleenex! That sounds like Heaven!

LATER...Doctor's appointment was good, I have gained some weight again, but doctor thinks it is mostly fluid as she can see some swelling in my legs and hands. Also the baby is still growing at a rate of approximately 0.1 lbs per day. The doctor is actually glad that I caught a cold - she said that it will boost my immune system so that it is raging by the time that the baby is born, and my symptoms are well on the way to being cleared up. She's all for trying the reflexology and has no problems if I get my toenails painted (fingernails need to stay au natural so that pulse monitor can be attached if need be). Also she confirmed her schedule - she will be on call at the hospital on Sunday night and all day Monday, so that she will likely be there if the baby is born as a result of induction.

The baby pool is getting bigger! Right now the range in weight is 5.5 lbs (Aunt Louise) to 10 lbs (Nana) - thank goodness no one thinks it's going to be bigger than that! Length ranges from 18" (Auntie Marie & Uncle Brad) to 23" (Granny Anne and Grandpa Gordon). Birthdates are now stretching into November (Auntie Jackie and Aunt Louise). And it's about a 50-50 split over whether the baby will be a boy or a girl.

3rd Ultrasound

Well, here we are, a week overdue and no baby in sight. I can't deny that I'm starting to get frustrated and especially with this cold I am feeling partincularly sorry for myself. Every bump and jostle the baby gives my sore tummy makes me want to groan and I think I am annoying Cameron. I'm certainly annoying myself.

Today I have the ultrasound to see if the baby is OK or not. I will be picking Cam up at a train station near the clinic and then we will go there together. This is the same clinic that I visited June 27 and I better not get the same technician who scanned me last time, he was a big jerk and claimed that all the discomfort I was getting from lying on my back was all in my head! He never even introduced himself to me, he just grunted "get on the bed and lift your shirt". Eventually he got up and left, maybe it was his lunch break or something, he never said goodbye and then another technician came in and was super nice - her name was Jen. She said it was OK to do the rest of the ultrasound while lying on my side, which eased up the dizzy-sick-hot feeling I'd been bearing through for the last hour!

This clinic has doctors who immediately review your results with you, which is a lot nicer than waiting for next week's doctor's appointment to hear the findings. In this case, there won't be another doctor's appointment after Friday anyways. Well, at least not while pregnant!

The good news from the clinic yesterday is that I don't have to drink a bunch of water first this time. So even if I do get the mean technician he won't be able to punch me in a full bladder again. Haha!

The baby guesses are coming in and it's a lot of fun to see! So far the range includes Oct. 26 (the Pawseys) to Oct. 30 (Gramma Jo), there's about an even split between boys and girls, and a range in expected weight from 6.6 lbs (thanks, Kristi!) to 10 whopping pounds (Nana, I hope the baby isn't THAT big!).

The baby is coming when the baby is coming!

Anyone got any ideas when this kid is showing up & what they will look like? Leave a message in the guest book & I will keep track of the guesses & put them into our baby's album. My guess is that it is a baby boy, 22" 8.5 lbs. and will be born on the 29th of October, probably just before midnight.

I have come down with a sore throat! I think that is Murphy's Law! I remember reading somewhere that if you have a cold you have to have antibiotics administered during labour, or something like that. So I am trying to get better before the baby comes! At 4 AM woke up with a burning throat and so got up and made honey and lemon tea, bundled up tight on the couch with Scarlet and bawled my eyes out watching Life Network - the baby/delivery shows always make me cry.

Cam nearly slept in this morning, so I guess it was a good thing that I got up when I did. I gave him a poke at 20 to 7 and asked if he was getting up soon. He was out of the house 15 minutes later.

Last night Cam wanted to know what the odds were of me having the baby by Wednesday (tomorrow) were. I felt like spitting out a number like 13.598%! Over the past few weeks I have come to the conclusion that any inkling I may have when the baby will come is WRONG. The baby is coming when the baby is coming. Period! At least I have 100% certainty that the baby will be born before November 1!

Ticklish baby?

I had a dream that I gave birth to a baby boy...and 5 jumbo shrimp. I don't know what that means - I really don't know.

Dinner last night (the food) was great but it was very noisy! At the risk of sounding "old", all I can say is that I remember when Earl's was a nice place to go, for a mature dinner out. Now it is swamped with teenagers and families letting their kids run amok. We had a large group, 8 people, so we had to sit at a long narrow table, and because of the din it was impossible to hear the conversation at the opposite end of the table! After dinner we paid our bills and then went to a coffee shop for coffee afterwards - somewhere less noisy!

The rest of the group went out for a movie, but Cam and I just went home - it was 10 PM by then and I knew I would just fall asleep in the movie theatre!

Braxton Hicks contractions really start to pick up at night time and so does the baby's activity. Usually in the morning I wake up and the baby is stretching out so I have a bony little foot pressing against my belly button. I just poke at it until the baby pulls his foot back in - maybe this baby is ticklish??

Broken internet

Computer issues! Do not load Internet Explorer 7! Our internet access is screwed! After spending nearly an hour on the phone with the Tech Support group at our internet company, there was no progress. I was frustrated so I went to take a shower, 5 minutes later Cam had fixed the problem. Maybe they only hire special idiots at the internet company.

Cam and I going to Farmers' Market this AM, then out for dinner. Keeping busy!

Trapped in the elevator!

Had another medical appointment today. Traffic was a bit hectic so was 5 minutes behind schedule (I usually like to arrive 10 mins early because they make you pee in a cup every time and also I don't want elevated blood pressure readings due to stressful driving). So arrived 5 minutes prior to my appointment, but got stuck in the elevator! The maintenance crew said they'd be coming "shortly" and my cell phone didn't work in the elevator, so I couldn't let my doctor's office know! So I just tried to relax on the floor of the elevator, and then 10 minutes later the door just opened and so I got out of there and took the stairs (doctor's office is on the 3rd floor). It wasn't a problem at all, but I still felt flustered! My BP was 110/70 (normal), so it mustn't have been THAT stressful! Baby was calm too, heartbeat was only 140 beats per minute.

I got checked for dilation, but unfortunately my cervix had closed up since last week! So the doctor did the cervical stretching again, this time to 1.5 cm. Was advised to keep an eye open for labour signs within the next 24-48 hours. Also I'm booked for an ultrasound on Thursday or Friday just to make sure the baby is OK (enough amniotic fluid, good placenta exchange, etc). If the ultrasound shows that the baby isn't doing so good, then will be induced right away, so I guess we will be taking our hospital bags to the ultrasound clinic in case they say "umm....better go to the hospital now!". If everything looks fine but I'm not going into labour yet, my induction will start on the evening of October 29th with a gel application and then on the 30th an oxytocin IV, which should get the ball rolling within 12 hours or so. So....if I do need to be induced it's looking like we could definitely have a Halloween baby!

Due Date

It's our Due Date! Baby's got 10 days to come out, "or else"!

Had at least 4 contractions over night, may have slept through some of them.

I'm going for coffee with my girlfriends this morning to help pass the day more quickly.

No sleep

It's 5 AM and I feel like I've been up all night! Sleep has just been very light, I guess, and I haven't been snoring because Cam is still in bed.

My guts feel noisy - gurgling and churning and they're up by my lungs by now, so it's quite distracting!

I'm going to try sleeping on the couch, that always worked in the summer when I couldn't sleep.

Scarlet has gone back to bed with Cam. Traitor.

The snow arrived before the baby did!

No...baby....yet...But it's snowing today!

I feel sorry for our neighbours Stefan and Delanie, they are moving. Yesterday was cool but at least dry. Today is freezing cold & heavy wet snow falling. Blah!

Baby bassinette

Visited with Anne Sherman yesterday & she generously gave us some baby things she isn't using anymore, including a beautiful bassinette. Will see if our baby likes sleeping in it. Also she gave me some maternity shirts, which were badly needed as all of the ones I have either have stains or are too small (my belly is always poking out, quite embarassing!).

Yesterday afternoon I went to get a glass of milk and found the stupid iron in the fridge. I know how it got in there and I don't want to talk about it. Haha!

Woke up early this morning and went to Canmore with Cameron to volunteer at APEGGA's annual geo-outreach day there, held at the geological museum. For 3 hours identified little kids' rocks ("it's quartz...this one too....yep...another quartz..."). Also had some adult rockhounds bring in some interesting specimens. So returned home around 3:30 PM and now going to have a cup of tea - our throats are sore from talking all morning!

Doctor's Visit

Just returned from doctor's office. Cervix was not dilated but it was soft, so the doctor stretched it open to 1 cm. I have to go back next week, unless I go into labour within the next 48 hours, which is the usual timeframe that it takes for this cervical stretching procedure to work. Baby's heartbeat was 165 beats per minute, which has been the usual over the last month or so, but this time was on the left side, rather than on the right side, and much lower. The doctor thinks that the baby has definitely started to descend. I didn't gain any weight, again.

Nope, not in labour yet!

Yesterday went to watch Cam practice curling with his team. They were supposed to play a game but the other team cancelled. It felt good to get out of the house.Today was busy doing some small errands, this afternoon will vacuum the house and dust, etc. until it is 4:30 then will walk to the train station to meet Cam.

Belly is achy and hard, especially at the top. Baby gave me a good kick around noon, almost like "yah, I'm still in here, what are you gonna do about it??"

Tomorrow is my doctor's appointment, but not until 11:30 AM.

Is *THIS* labour??

It's 1:00 AM and woke up to a contraction - hurt enough that eating toast had to temporarily be put off. Will sit up a bit to let toast digest/see if there are any more contractions...

Is *this* labour??

At 4:00 AM woke up with another contraction, this time Baby's sharp little foot was trying to poke through my belly, about 4 inches north of my belly button! This has happened before, but wow, my belly was positively cone-shaped! Realized then that I was alone in bed - must have been snoring again & Cameron fled for the basement bedroom! The cat was still with me though, so couldn't have been too bad...right?

Today I will call another pregnant friend and see if she wants to have tea today - she is being induced tonight if there's no sign of her baby, so maybe a little company will help pass the time for her.Also this afternoon we are getting the furnace & duct work cleaned in the house. It is supposed to be pretty noisy so if it bothers me too much I can leave and get some shopping done.

Is this labour??

Just came back from a walk in Fish Creek Park with Cam. Halfway through had a nice healthy contraction that hurt quite a bit. Hmm. Definitely different than a Braxton Hicks contraction, but no more activity to report. Had a great supper using leftover steak to make beef stir-fry. Cam loved the hot chili peppers & sesame seeds I put in the sauce.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends! We're thinking of you all & I promise to eat an extra piece of pumpkin pie for you! :)

Banff Trip

Yesterday's trip to Banff was beautiful! We ended up walking on the paths behind the Banff Springs Hotel. We saw 3 deer (a mama & 2 fawns), as well as about 7-8 elk. I took some nice photos on my Minolta camera, I will have to wait for the film to be developed to share. Digital cameras have really spoiled us!

I've been really busy this week. I exercised 4 out of 5 mornings, went grocery shopping for all the food I'd need to make more than a month's worth of dinners, cooked those dinners (lasagna, spaghetti sauce, pot pies, banana bread, etc!), finished up some of the decorating in the baby's room, washed all the things that we hadn't done yet (baby sheets, etc.), installed a dimmer switch in the baby's room, organized all the work stuff I brought home (textbooks, health insurance files, etc.), went to Wal-Mart and forgot to buy half the things that were on my list (@#$@!~!), went to the library, got my hair cut, sewed a pillowcase for a u-shaped nursing pillow, visited a friend who will be having a baby soon too & delivered a lasagna to her, wow that was a busy week! I didn't vacuum, dust or clean the bathrooms though. Maybe we'll do that today (Cam will do the bathrooms because the belly doesn't allow me to reach the tub or the mirrors any more - very convenient!).

We are going to Thanksgiving dinner at Lynne's house this weekend. We are bringing our customary apple pie. It all started when I was in Holland a few years ago & Lynne invited Cam over for Thanksgiving. He told her he was making an apple pie. What he really did was buy a frozen M&M's apple pie, baked it at home, and then brought it over. Lynne saw right through him, but Matt (her husband) was so impressed that he raved about the pie for days! Now whenever we have a special meal with the Drovers, we always bring a frozen apple pie. Kind of a long-standing joke.

Next week we are having the furnace and duct work cleaned, and I have a doctor's appointment on Friday again when the doctor is going to mechanically start the process of baby being born if it hasn't happened naturally by then. She's just going to move things around a bit. This will give me about a week to dilate & deliver the baby, and in her experience has resulted in fewer chemical inductions, which is something that I realize might have to be done, but if she knows how to try to avoid it, I'm all for giving it a go.

Pregnancy Snoring

My snoring is awful! It's so bad that if I get going, Cameron just leaves. He did an impression for me & I just about died laughing, and then I stopped when I realized he was serious. I bought some nose strips but they come loose by morning - and now they're having a hard time holding on until even 1:00 AM. I wonder if it's because I bought the drug-store brand or even if I bought the name-brand ones they would fall off too. Maybe will give the expensive ones a try - the difference in price was $3.

I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. She is going to check again for any cervical changes. I am half-afraid to hear "you haven't progressed at all" - starting to feel like I'll never get to be a mom, even though I KNOW I will be pretty darn quick. This isn't unlike when I was a girl & my mom armed me with a training bra and a box of maxi-pads. I was waiting to become a woman, I just didn't have a clue when it would start! OK, I've grossed out everyone now, but it's true.

Moving on...After the doctor's appointment, Cam and I may head out to Banff, despite a less-than-stellar weather forecast. The weather is supposed to be similar here in Calgary, so that will help us figure out if it's worth driving all the way out there to go for an easy hike to Johnson Waterfall.

Pregnancy Photos @ 37 weeks

Well after a few days at home alone I'm starting to get in the swing of things. Have been doing a fair bit of cooking so have 6 litres of spaghetti sauce, 5 chicken pot pies, I'm about to embark on a banana-bread endeavour this afternoon along with some laundry, sewing, organizing, etc.

Have been doing regular exercises each morning to encourage baby to "drop": bouncing on exercise ball, squatting, etc. Also some leg muscle work - leaning against walls & so on. All in all it is not very vigorous work but it feels like I'm doing the right thing.

Yesterday had 2 wicked Braxton Hicks contractions - one at 6:30 ish driving home from the zoo AKA Wal-Mart (bought some fabric to sew into nursing pillow covers). Then had another on the couch at about 8:20. No contractions through the night, although I had a vivid dream that I had given birth without being aware of it (i.e. I couldn't remember any part of labour/delivery). But it was a little girl and she was very smart, as she was able to change her own diapers!

On the weekend we took some photos. Today there is a birthday party for a colleague after work, so I'm planning on catching the train and saying hello to everyone. It will feel good to be in touch with "people" again.

On Friday Cam has the day off so we are going to go to Banff after my doctor's appointment. Maybe will do a nice hike and then do a bit of window shopping. Looking forward to it already.