Baby girl made her way slowly into this world, teasing Mommy with contractions all day (a new experience for me) starting at 5:30 Sunday morning.  I waited a half hour to see if they would continue before telling Jason.  He had only been in bed a couple hours and asked if he could continue sleeping.   I replied, “Of course”.  I later got dressed and moved to the couch (all prepared to be heading to the hospital soon). I wrote everything down.   The contractions grouped up, coming at 7-10 minutes apart, then 15, then back to ten.  Well, they did this all morning… and all afternoon…finally changing in intensity around 5pm.  By 6 I was convinced there was something going on, but not mentally ready to head to the hospital (that pain aspect held me back).  By 7, Jason talked me back to reality and we called the Case Room to see if they had room to at least examine me and let me know what was going on.  We walked through the maze of coridors to get to the Emergency Room to check in.  Going up to the Case Room I had a serious contraction in the elevator.  We rode it up and down a floor to give me breathing time.  I sat gowned up on my exam bed at 7:25pm.  A nurse hooked me up to a fetal monitor for 40 minutes.  At this point, I stopped recording in my notebook.  The contractions were closer now, 2-3 minutes apart.  Good choice on heading out of the house when we did.  At 8pm, she checked and said I was 4cm dilated.  I was disappointed.  After all I’d gone through that day, the waiting, the teasing… though it had been painless up to this point.  At 8:25pm I was hoked up to an IV of Antibiotics, because I tested positive for Group B Strep (a gut bacteria that’s harmful to a birthing baby).  Five minutes later we were walking to Birthing Room 1.  The nurse handed me the gas mask.  Remembering how ineficiently I used it last time, I was more deliberate and aware of how and when I sucked on that puppy.   After nearly a half hour of labour contractions, my water broke on its own (while on my side and gripping the bed rail).  I said, “Either I just wet myself, or my water just broke.  That was such a rush!”.  For a moment, the tremors stopped and I felt a peace.  Then all hell broke loose and I said, “Whoa!  Here it comes!”.  They called my Doctor to see where she was, and tell her of my status.  With my last birth, the baby was out minutes after they broke my water.  Thankfully, she was walking through the hospital front doors.  The transition to pushing pains was almost instantaneous.  My Doctor didn’t have time to change, but donned a rubber smock and said to prop me up. “Take away that gas.  We are going to have a baby.” she said.  She informed me that because of the G. B. S.and there was merconium in the cannal, they’d be taking the baby to be suctioned and examined instead of placing it on my stomach right after delivery.  Once comfortable to push (are we ever comfortable?), I gave about 3 pushes, was told to pause a couple times, and she was out.  What I wasn’t aware of during the pauses, was that the cord was flipped over her head.  Not too seriously, but a minor complication.  Our Girl emerged at 9:16pm.  Jason wasn’t able to cut the cord.  My Doctor clamped it off and took tests because of the G. B. S., and didn’t get to see what the baby was they whisked her away so quickly.  We asked the gender, and they said girl.  So sure ’she’ was going to be a ‘he’, I said aloud “Oh, okay”.  I got some stiches, and eventually got to hold our girl.  Since Jason and I hadn’t eaten at home, not sure when we’d go to the hospital, we were famished.  We ate Wendys at 11pm.  I showered.  Soo nice.  I was moved to the Ward at 11:30pm and Jason left.  He coud have stayed in my room on a cot, but decided our Queen size would be better.  I stayed up and nursed.  We both finally got to sleep around 1:30am.  She had mucous, so we were woken up at 2:30 for a vitals check.  They suctioned her and again at 3am.  We both went back to sleep until 6:30am.  And so began our first day together.

In order to keep order, we did the following: a Winter craft (with glue – no accidents to be had), Snack time (I served it to them) with juice, Free Play (Hot Wheels & Train Tracks), they all pitched in cleaning up (Awesome!!), Song & Costco Cake (no messes), Joshua opened gifts while the others ate, and then Pick-up (complete with Goodie Bags).

Joshua was thrilled to have so many kids around him.  He was curteous, inviting, inclusive and very pleased with this second wave of Birthday gifts.  He developed a nice kitty of cash towards a new bike, too.  Gabrielle and Paige were included by the kids and had fun too.

Happy 5th Birthday Little Man, we all love you!

Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing

In the hall.

Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing

At his cubby.

Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing

Group Time.

Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing

Snack Time

Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing

The Learning Tree.

Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing

He did really well for his first day. It was an hour long, with all the fun stuff packed into that hour. I stayed to observe his interactions. He didn’t explore all the areas of the room, but he did include himself with other kids and invited others to play with him (that was encouraging to see). His language skills are good enough that the kids understand him most of the time. He sat well for Group Time activities until the teachers were giving instructions; then he started to fidget and roam. The other kids sat at attention. When it was time to introduce themselves, Joshua said his name was J. Later, in the van, I asked him his name again. He answered ‘Joshua’. I figured out he was referring to the spelling of his name in the classroom, as he was pointing to the letter ‘J’ on his name tag when he said it. Snack went well too. The teachers provided it that day. It got a little dicey when he saw what a couple kids had brought (they didn’t get the memo), and requested that, but the teachers reasoned with him and he got over it. Yeah!
He talks about going again. We’ll see how he did today.