Bif's Birth

It's a boy! Bif is Benjamin! This will be the final blog entry for bifsbirth.blogspot.com.

Benjamin made his hurried entry into the world at 4:35am on Feb 19th. Here is the extended story, in point form.

• Mom spent the evening of Sunday Feb 18th preparing Monday morning's lecture on Mass Wasting, not knowing that early Monday morning, 'gravity' would play a larger role than simply a slope instability concept on powerpoint slides.
• At 1am, Mom was awoken by a pain that was clearly more powerful than the strong Braxton Hicks she'd been feeling the past couple of weeks. This was followed immediately by broken water, waking Dad, waking Grandma Jane, 2 more contractions, and a call to the midwife.
• Midwife came 15 minutes later to check the baby's heartrate, by which point Mom was shaking uncontrollably and having 1 min contractions, 2 mins apart. Dad recorded them and then started the motions to cancel Mom's lecture and Dad's next two days at work.
• At 2:15am, Mom's first exam the entire pregnancy showed she was fully dialated, though the midwife did not tell Mom this at the time! We then rather quickly finished packing the hospital bag and departed for the hospital. As we were leaving the house, Mom felt the urge to push. Dad, never a speeder, was told rather frankly by Mom that we can speed this time.
• Upon arrival at the hospital, Mom was wheeled up to the Maternity ward, past the labour room and straight into the Delivery Room with Dad, Grandma Jane, and the midwife. A short time later, the backup midwife, who was on nurse shift in the Maternity Ward that night, showed up as well to help.
• Bif showed signs of distress at this point (meconium) so a pediatrician was paged to assess Bif at birth. As luck would have it, the ped. on call that night was Mom's closest colleague's wife, meaning Mom and Dad knew everyone in the room by this point.
• Frequent heartbeat monitoring and 2+ hours of pushing later, Bif was born at 4:35am with his right-hand clenched as a fist beside his head (hence some added trauma to Mom, for which an OB was called in later). In an attempt to see for herself what the sex was, Mom held baby up to peek, forgetting that there was a finite-length cord attached still. IT's a BOY!
• Mom and Dad marvelled at what had just happened, then quickly realized we had forgotten to pack our list of names. We had a 4-name shortlist for girls (Ella, Emma, Emily, or Miriam, with a middle name of Lise in each case - see previous post), but only a long list for boys, for which we could only remember two - Cameron and Benjamin. He did not look like the former. We've since reviewed the long list and are glad we chose Benjamin.
• Ben has his Dad's last name. His middle name, Johann, is also shared with his Dad's and highlights his lineage. All first born sons in Dad's family gets a first name of Johann, although it was given to Dad and now Ben as middle names.
• Ben weighed in at 7lbs, 15.7 oz. (i.e., 8 lbs) and measured 20 inches in length.
• His distinguishing features: large feet (as large as his calf), long toes, long (cello) fingers, and a full head of brown hair with blonde highlights. The nurses were all wondering who his hairdresser was.
• Mom, Dad, Grandma Jane and Ben waited for the nurse shift change at 7:30am and were then wheeled to a ward postpartum room - all the private rooms were taken. There was another mother in the room who had just had her third son. She then proceeded to have about 15 visitors.
• We spent the afternoon in this busy room trying to sleep amongst a bit of paperwork, and a first visit from the somewhat useless lactation consultant. Not to mention pecan butter tarts (Mom's sweet reward for her end to 3 months of gestational diabetes).
• Later that afternoon we moved to a private room, where we spent another 12 hours, trying our best to breastfeed. We had a few visitors, made it through a mostly sleepless night (too excited) and were discharged later that morning after a quick familiarization with the infant car seat installation procedure.
• Since then, it's been a learning curve where breastfeeding is concerned but we think we finally get it. Mostly, we're just thrilled to be parents. Read more about it and Ben on.....

The new blog: http://bensbirth.blogspot.com.

In Memoriam

Maga (Lise) Stein

Apr 6, 1922 - Feb 11, 2007

Photo taken Aug 31 during Mom and Bif's last visit with Maga at her residence in Pennsylvania

When Mom was 2 yrs old, her attempt at pronunciation of 'Grandma' was 'Maga.' Here is a photo of Mom and Maga in the midst of the Boreal forest, taken on their cross-Canada train trip adventure in July, 2000:

We look forward to telling Bif all about Great Maga. Long live Strepsils, weitegeshenks (sp?), and bed-hoppers! For a great elaboration on her character, click on the link (at right) to Uncle Derek's blog and read his Feb 12th posting.

Week 38 Appointment

Some of you following the blog have taken the recent lapse in new blog entry as a sign of Bif's birth. Not so just yet. We've successfully surpassed Uncle Chris' birthday on the 9th. The next hurdles are Valentines Day, and Great Aunt Deirdre's birthday on the 15th.

So, yup, still going - or should we say, growing. Bif continues to be a hiccup champion (the record for one-day total is 7). S/he spends most of the day moving and most of the night sleeping; a pattern Mom and Dad hope continues after birth! The only real change in the last week has been Mom feeling as though her hips are no longer associated with her torso, particularly when she tries to get up off her makeshift couch on the office floor (don't ask) or out of bed in the middle of the night. Our Week 38 appointment with the midwife didn't turn up anything new either, except that for the first time in about 8 months, Mom has not gained any weight over a 2-wk period.

We're just about done knocking off stuff on our list of things to do pre-L&D. The hospital bag is mostly packed. Mom attended the BCAA car seat clinic last Wednesday, so one of two car seats is installed, and properly. The baby room is well on its way - curtains still missing. Federal government paperwork is underway, except for the EI application, which apparently has to wait until Mom's last day of work. And the garden is looking good after some sea soil therapy yesterday. I know we tease you Eastern Canada folks about this every year, but our croccus bulbs are in bloom. Since Jan 30th. :-) From here-on-out, they will be an annual reminder of the need to plan a birthday party.

Week 37 Appointment

Mom has started to truly feel Beachy in the last week - feeling heavy and slow. Mobility is increasingly challenging, especially after lying down for awhile. It is difficult to find the energy to just walk around the [sloped] neighbourhood 3 times per day. That humble pie may be warming up after all...

The midwife and student midwife held yesterday's appointment at Mom and Dad's home; the practice-getting-here visit - an event that avoids Mom having to scream out directions to the house while in the middle of a contraction. The usual tests were fine, although there was some protein in the urine. Bif is still "starting to engage." In other words, no change on the drop front in the past 3 weeks. And the GBS test was negative, which is good news.

And so the waiting games begin. Mom plans to get through it by looking forward to little events coming up, e.g., continued visit from Waterloo friend Carmen this weekend, pastries (i.e. cheese+crackers) and milk tomorrow at Cousin-once-removed Tom's, Monday's lecture on tsunamis, even better Wednesday's midterm exam, and Grandma Jane's arrival in 10 days.

Week 36 Appointment

At the latest midwife appointment, Mom met the midwife practicum student who will more than likely be part of Mom's Labour & Delivery team. She, who will remain nameless in case we decide to use that name (Mom and Dad are name shopping...rather late in the process), seemed like someone with a lot of potential. The procedure at this appointment was the same as usual - blood pressure, fundus height, weight, urine glucose and protein tests, and baby position check. Seems Bif has begun to drop. Where this appointment differed, besides the student midwife involvement, was a Group B Strep test. 25% of women test positive for GBS, putting the baby at risk of infection during/after delivery. Simple solution: antibiotics by IV during L&D. We are now into weekly-midwife-appointments territory, so we'll find out the results of this GBS test this week.

Many people (i.e., relatives, students, the midwife) have gently voiced their concern over Mom's choice to still be working. There are a number of reasons Mom is being stubborn about it. Firstly, she teaches a total of 6 hours per week, spread over 4 days - one course that she has already taught, just last summer in fact. No stress. Secondly, staying at home (we don't have a TV) waiting for labour is not Mom's idea of fun, and while there is lots of cleaning that needs to be done at home, cleaning uses just as much energy, if not more, than giving 2 hrs of lecture and 4 hrs of lab over the week. Thirdly, financially it is the best plan. So there! :-) Of course, there is lots of time to eat humble pie (made with Splenda).