Trevor’s blog is all set and ready – http://www.bojnberry.ca/~trevor/blog/

This might be a bad news for my blog – I suspect that most of my posting activity will be over there from now on. I might get around to review a book or film over here now and again though!

I am overwhelmed with all kinds of real and imaginary worries. Trevor is a ferocious little feeder during the day. However, last two nights he for the most part refused to eat. He would have a little bit of milk and then purse his little lips and have no more. If I tried for another half an hour I might have been able to get him to feed a tiny bit more. This would make a feeding session last longer than two hours and leave me exhausted, worried and frustrated. What am I doing wrong? What if Trevor does not get enough food?

Even if I managed to get to sleep, I was so worried about anything happening to Trevor. I kept waking up thinking that I had fallen asleep with him in my arms (which makes no sense since I make a point never to bring him to our bed if I am sleepy and not sitting up). I would move a pillow or touch the back of Chris’ head (which in the moonlight looked to me like Trevor’s face) and only then realise that Trevor is sound asleep in his basinet. The highlight came when I woke up convinced that Trevor was on my chest and that I must have fallen asleep while feeding him. I woke Chris up and told him to burp the baby and got mad at him when he would not do it. It took me a second to realise that I was holding the comforter and not the baby. It was still funny the second time I did the same thing.

Being so out of my wits, I decided to go to the breastfeeding clinic offered at the hospital. It turned out to be a great idea – the nurse assuaged all my worries. In fact, Trevor has regained all the lost weight in very good time. He even has a little double chin now and will soon outgrow his tiniest clothes. A lot of people complain about health care in Canada, but I found the level of service and support at QCH’s Birth Centre to be well beyond my high expectations.

Even though he is only 6 days old, Trevor has matured so much since I first saw him. His movements are much less erratic and his eyelashes are twice the size. He is only about 60 grams lower than his birth weight (he used to be over 200g under) and I hope he will catch it up soon.

There are some tidbits from this week that are so sweet that I am afraid to forget as he grows older. For example even though he misses the nipple more often then not (sometimes by as far as he could possibly move given his small size), his ferocious bite once he gets it right is extra cute. I love the way he smacks his milky lips when he is done feeding and the way he purses his lips and makes them even smaller when he doesn’t want any more food.

Proud mommy with her Berry Pie – thanks to Charissa for knitting the hat!

Daddy pondering which classic piece of literature to read to Trevor first

Burp!

You know your baby is small when nurses refer to him as the little peanut. Trevor had mere 2364 grams and has lost weight in the following days. This is normal, however, because he didn’t weigh much to begin with, we were kept in the hospital for an extra day to make sure he is recovering smoothly.

The Mother and Baby Unit at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital is as much an educational centre as it is a health monitoring location. Nurses were showing us how to take care of the baby and making sure that the change is not overwhelming. As soon as I was off IV Trevor stayed with me the whole time. That does not mean that I could not get nurses to take care of him, but I did this only when I was at my wits’ end or really exhausted.

The second night, which was the first night I had Trevor with me the whole time, both Trevor and the baby of the girl I was sharing the room with decided to feed continuously. After about two hours we were freaking out (this really hurt, babies were not getting any food anyway because we haven’t started producing milk and none was getting any sleep). The nurse came in and said that this is a common occurrence called cluster feeding – we don’t tell you about this in the pre-natal class – ha, ha.

Trevor ended up losing even more weight and we had to top him up with formula for a little bit. He soon got better and my milk came in so he is home safe now. Stay at the hospital made us much better able to take care of Trevor once we go home. We still had a few touchy moments, but we were able to deal with them.

Trevor’s first Family Portrait

I should be resting now, but I really want to get this down before other memories overwhelm me.

WARNING: the following post contains discussion of childbirth and other “female” topics. There is nothing graphic, but if you’re uncomfortable stop reading now.

I started getting contractions on Friday afternoon (Feb 9th). I went and checked my notes from the pre-natal class and concluded that they are preliminary contractions and decided not to worry. Chris had a goodbye LAN party to go to that his work buddies were throwing for him and I didn’t want him to miss it for nothing. We called Maria who previously offered to stay with me when Chris had to go somewhere. Maria, Dan and later Hubert came over and we played Scotland Yard. The game was fun except we started losing and my contractions increased so I ended up not paying much attention. I was really glad I had company. I was really comfortable with everyone around.

I vetoed Chris back home when contractions got to be about 7 minutes apart and they were about 5 minutes apart when we got to the hospital. We entered the hospital at 11:30 PM and Trevor was delivered at 1:32 AM. Everything went really smooth. The doctor saw me right away (he saw me in the morning too when I came in for the Non Stress Test I have been going to for the last week). It was really good to have familiar faces around who were well aware of Trevor’s history.

Chris is ready

Last hurah for DINKyness

By the time I got changed and prepared the OR was ready. The doctor assisting used to work at the clinic in Kanata so I was familiar with him too. We were joking around and I even go to pick the CD/radio station to listen to during the operation. They gave me a spinal block, which started working right away (I was sitting up when they gave it to me and by the time I laid down I could no longer move my legs). Then they brought Chris in and we started. Chris kept me entertained and when the little foot appeared the anaesthetist did a live play-by-play of the birth for me. Chris, who is usually extremely queasy, watched the whole thing. Then the paediatrician took the baby and did some checks on him. Trevor kept his usual attitude towards medial equipment and kicked off the little facemask used to measure his breath.

Watch out the World, here I come!

They actually let me hold Trevor for a moment and I got to give him a kiss. I was quite surprised since in the pre-natal class they said that they would only let the father hold the baby. They took Trevor and Chris to the nursery and I went into the recovery room. Chris watched then give Trevor a bath, which he says was very cute. You’ll just have to ask him about it.

One thing I can say is that I have a newfound appreciation for the nurses. After I’ve seen what they do for living, I don’t think I’ll complain about my job too quickly. Trevor did very well in the APGAR test and my recovery was good as well.

Splish-splash!