Post 22 - Life with a Baby (Charlie's First Month)

Life with a baby is hard!  For the first month Charlie was a little angel... but this past month he's been a lot more "fussy" (in my opinion) although Andrew has told me that he really isn't compared to the babies he's been around!  He's just changed from what he was like before, and I miss that old him!  He's so cute though, I really can't complain!

For Halloween Charlie was a little lamb with fleece as white as snow!

I really wanted to dress him up for Halloween (for pictures sake) but I didn't want to spend a lot/any money on a costume he was going to wear for a few hours and then never again!  SO I made him a costume - by gluing cotton balls ($2) to a hand-me-down onsie (free) and then (my mom) sewing a little hat from also a hand-me-down onsie (free) with glued cotton balls and ears made out of felt I already had (free)!  So all in all his costume only cost $2 which is great!  And he looked adorable!

He did NOT like his costume!

We also got some pictures taken of Charlie and our new little family.  Andrew's sister-in-law Cristin is a super talented photographer (she also did our wedding pictures) and she so kindly took them for us!  They are awesome!

Wedding tie!

Isn't she great!

Post 21 - Introducing Charles Edward Cahoon!

CHARLES EDWARD CAHOON was born September 25, 2013 at 1:11am, weighing 5 lbs 12 oz coming 5 weeks early!

Monday night (September 23) Andrew and I had the stay at the Fantasyland Hotel in the Roman Theme room.  It was really cool with a round bed and a large round jacuzzi tub with a statue pouring water into it.  At about 2am I woke up with cramps, and they were coming and going inconsistently for the next few hours keeping me awake!  They kinda felt like period cramps.  We were supposed to do some stuff at the mall on Tuesday like go to a movie and stuff, but I was feeling so gross I wanted to go home.  I really DID NOT think I was in labour, because for the last few months or so I had had ramping on and off that was sometimes really severe!!  So the next few hours I just sat on the couch and Andrew timed my "cramps/contractions", and for about a few hours in-between 9am and 11am they were fairly consistent cramps, coming every 4 minutes and lasting for 1 minute.  That is very similar to what the things were saying ment you were in labour!  But then they tapered off and became inconsistant again, coming around every 10 minutes and not being as strong.  So I had a few little naps.  Later on in the day probably around 4 I called the hospital to tell them what was going on, and they said to be safe I should come in and get checked.  I really did not think anything was going on, so I really didn't want to go, but Andrew made me, so we ate some dinner and then drove over to the hospital.  Earlier in the day Andrew had packed a bag for me just in case, but we didn't take it to the hospital, because I didn't think I was in labour!  (Maybe I was just in denial?!?)  

So when we got there around 5:30pm they hooked me up to the monitors and left me for 20 minutes, while listening to the babys heart beat.  The nurse came back and said "well you're in labour!  I really wasn't expecting that!"  and I replied "neither was I!"  So she came back in a few minutes and checked me and I was already 4cm dilated!  (you are 10 cm when you're ready to push the baby out).  So I started crying because I had only finished work the week before, we were supposed to be having our maternity photo shoot the upcoming Sunday and I hadn't had time to get anything done and I was just NOT READY!  That only last for about a minute because I knew there was nothing I could do about it.  So around 6pm they took me to a birthing room and I waited and had contractions for a few hours.  My Mom came and brought my bag and visited for a while, (My Dad had flown to Toronto that morning) and then Shannon and Alex came too and brought us some pillows from home and a slurpee.

Right after the epidural
Right after they got there the Dr put in the epidural and then I had to stay in the bed and things got all nice and fuzzy and I couldn't feel the contractions anymore!  (Towards the end there they were getting really quite painful)  They also gave me some Oxytocin to get things going a little more (I was at 6cm then) and then about an hour later I was at 8cm, and then not too long after I was 10cm and it was time to push!!!  The Dr came in and had to turn the baby a little bit because he was looking off to the side, and he left and the nurse came in and started helping me to push (like telling me when to push etc)  SO it actually didn't take too long to push, but even with the epidural you could still feel all this pressure and it kinda HURT!  Luckily it didn't take too long to push (maybe 10 mins max) and out came a little head and some little shoulders and some little legs and feet and there was a little cry (from the baby) and Andrew says:  "I see testicles!"     IT WAS A BOY!!!  

They had to take him away to the corner where a Dr. and 2 nurses from the NICU were waiting just in case something happened, and they decided that he needed to be taken to the NICU.  So Andrew followed him and I got to see him for a second before they wheeled him away.  SAD - you're supposed to have skin to skin time for about an hour right after they're born to bond with them.  So I was in the room for about an hour by myself and got stitched up (I had a first degree tear) and got all cleaned up, then Andrew came back and we got moved to my recovery room.  We got to go by the NICU to see Charlie for a few seconds and they were trying to get blood from him and they were poking him everywhere and couldn't get any!  But he didn't even cry.

We had really wanted a private room so Andrew could stay, but it was a super busy night and they were all full, so I had to go into a room with another lady and her baby (she was all alone and had no dad for her baby so at least Andrew had the bench to himself!).  I had to wait for them to check me 3 times before I could go back and visit Charlie, so I got to see him at about 5am, then went back to my room to sleep.  Andrew had to go home to sleep - it was depressing not to have him there!  It was not a restful nights sleep because they had to keep checking me and checking the other lady and you could hear other babies from the other rooms.  The next morning after getting checked, Andrew came over and we went over to see baby Charlie!  He was on the CPAP which is oxygen, because his lungs weren't doing it on their own.  I was released the next day, but it was uncertain how long Charlie would be in the NICU.

On the CPAP

Jaundice Boy

At one point they needed to put some lubricant in his lungs, and also there was still fluid in his lungs from birth.  4 days after his birth they took him off the oxygen but he was super jaundiced, so he went under quadruple blue lights at the beginning and then just double and then a single light for the next 48 hours!  I stayed over one night in the hospital with him to work on breastfeeding, but there was just a little cramped bench so I got no sleep!  The nurses then told me I should sleep at home instead otherwise I wouldn't be much use to Charlie!  After getting out from under the light, he was moved to the more stable baby area, where our room actually had a door!  He was there for (I think) 3 days, where we worked on him gaining weight so he could come home!  On October 4th after passing the carseat test they released him after 10 days in the hospital!  It was exciting and scary to be able to bring him home because the nurses (who were AWESOME) had been taking care of him, but now it was going to be my job!

Family Picture!

Ready to go home!

Welcome home!

Charlie is super cute and we love him a TON!  He has brown hair (not a lot, but enough to cover his head - I thought he would have more, but if he had stayed in the womb another 5 weeks like he was supposed to, I'm convinced he would have had more!) and brown-blue eyes - its still debatable what he will end up with!  He makes a ton of funny faces, smiles a lot and makes cute little noises!  

Welcome to the World little Charlie!

Post 20 - September Long Weekend Camping

 Ok, so this blog post is all about our September long weekend camping trip that we took with Alex and Shannon.  We had a camping site booked in Banff over the weekend and had a great time, but I'll just let the pictures tell the story.

We stopped at Peter's in Calgary for dinner on our way down to Banff on Friday night.  Those family fries are enough for two families, but the pregnant lady had no trouble finishing them off.

Saturday morning we hiked up Johnston's Canyon.  Here's Julie (7+ months pregnant) and I at the lower falls.  It's such a nice hike, but the long weekend is soooo busy in Banff.  There were thousands and thousands of people there on the trail.  Bit of a gong show, but it was still a good time.  We found that I could really help Julie climb the hills by pushing her right from her lower back.  Saturday evening we went and explored the town a bit.  I had never actually seen the  Banff falls in the summer before...pretty cool.

After church Sunday morning we packed up our picnic and went out to Lake Louis.  Again, it was stupid busy.  There was no where to park, so cars were parked all along both sides of the road all over the place.  It was even a challenge to find a decent spot on the grass for our picnic.  Still though, what a beautiful place for a picnic.  We played games, enjoyed the scenery and the food, and had a great time people watching too.

From Lake Louis we went up to Lake Moraine.  Also very beautiful...and busy.  We hiked across this cool log jam where the lake empties into the creek, then up this rock face to a cool look out.  After that we hiked around the lake.  It was great. The girls walked and talked and Alex and I goofed off a bunch.  Good times!

We got matching bruises on our noses from wrestling in the tent the night before!

We had some great camping food too!  Above is the preparation of our tinfoil dinners and then the final product.  Sooo GOOD!  Below is desert.  Waffle cone stuffed with nutella, bananas, marshmallows, and chocolate chips, then wrapped in tinfoil and cooked above the coals...awsome!

On Monday we drove home, but we took the long way around.  We drove through the parks up to Jasper and then home.  It's such a pretty drive.  We stopped a couple of times to see some cool waterfalls and do a little hikes

Sunwapta Falls - That was a great little hike!

Athabasca Falls (above)

All in all, it was a great long weekend. There is something wonderful about being out in the mountains and spending lots of time in nature.  The company was great, the food was great, and the setting was great too!  We loved it.