3D/4D scan at 28 weeks!

26^th of June 2011 (28 weeks)

Hi Noah!

I’m once again sorry to write this a week late. We had our last exam this week and a paper to write. It took a lot of energy and time to put the work together. In a happy note, now we are done school and I can consecrate myself to you and you only. You have been moving a lot and I can feel you move whenever I lie down. When you don’t move, I get worried but you always move. I figured out your pattern. You sleep from 8am to around 3pm (you still move during these times) and you nap from about 6 pm to 9pm (still move). The rest of the night and the day you move around like CRAZY. I love it! And at night I can sometimes feel you turn around and it feels really weird honestly but yea. So, let’s talk about this week!

We went to Grandpa D’s house on Friday for supper and we spent some time with him and your uncles. It was really fun! Grandpa also gave you a first gift; a little dog that belonged to Daddy when he was…well about your age. We left late but excited because the next day was your 3D/4D ultrasound. 

So the next day at 12’o clock we went to UCbaby in order to get our 3D/4D ultrasound. We finally got a glimpse of what you looked like. You have chubby cheeks, a cute nose and nicely shaped eyes. You’re able to open and to close them. You also like to play with your umbilical cord and put it in your mouth. You also enjoy holding it and pulling on it. You also LOVE to suck on your feet. You’re favourite position is to put a foot in your mouth while holding it with your hand and having one of your hands on your privates. You’re so cute!

Of course, we asked for a gender confirmation and you know what, WE WEREN’T ABLE TO GET ONE AT FIRST!!! You were shy and hid your genitals (Thanks Noah!). The technician was looking at the screen and she says that she can see the labia. Hmm, excuse me? Boys have labias also? No? Didn’t think so. So, we ask for her to be sure, but you wouldn’t move so we moved on to something else. At the end of the ultrasound, you still were hiding your parts so the technician asked mommy to get up and belly dance a bit. After moving around for around 2 minutes, Mommy laid back down and you finally got to move your hand (sorry for disturbing!!) and we could clearly see a scrotum. Now, girls don’t have scrotums so I was happy about that. You’re still our little boy! 

Grandma, Sonia, Titia, Grandma G and J-C (Mommy’s friend) got to also see your ultrasound (it was broadcasted life). To this day they still tell me how cute you are and how badly they want to meet you. Actually, now that we’ve seen you, we REALLY want to meet you. You’re already perfect…we can’t wait to finally have you and hold you. 

Take care Baby Noah! We love you and we’re happy you’re still a boy!

Mommy and Daddy

           You having a smile for the camera

    Your lovely parts (covered by a hand)

         Your favorite activity (sucking on your foot)

Bleeding at 27 weeks

26^th of June 2011 (27 weeks)

Hey Baby Noah!!

I am writing this extremely late. I am currently 29 weeks pregnant but I really wanted to tell you how our 27 week went by. I think I will remember that Monday my whole life.

The week end had been great and everything was going for the best. Sunday night, Mommy went to the bathroom. When she wiped she saw a bit of blood on the toilet paper. Nothing to worry about, it happens when the skin is dry. Daddy came into the bathroom when I was about done and I told him that I was bleeding but that I wasn’t too worried. When I got up to flush, we both noticed there was blood in the water. We weren’t too happy but we weren’t worried either. 

Around 10pm, before going to bed, Mommy went to pee again and she was bleeding. A little more than before. I was sure it wasn’t bloody discharge because I wiped before peeing and everything was fine. It’s when I wiped after peeing that there was blood in the toilet paper. So I had blood in my urine. I looked it up online and everything was leading towards a urinary tract infection which sounded really odd to me because I didn’t have any symptoms at all. Usually, when I get UTI’s I can’t pee, it hurts, my bladder feels constantly full, etc. Nothing this time. 

Daddy and I still managed to sleep but we were worried. At 1 am I woke up and went to the bathroom again. I had more blood. It was more intense and the blood was getting darker (so it went from pale pink to hot red.) At that point, I couldn’t sleep anymore. I was dead worried about you. I didn’t care about me…all I wanted was to know you were okay. Although you were moving and being very active I wanted more. I wanted to KNOW for sure that there was no harm done to you and that you would be fine. So many thoughts went through my head and I ended up falling asleep out of extreme tiredness. At 6 am I was awake. I went to pee and there was more blood. I called my midwife right away. We had just gotten a new phone and it didn’t dial properly my midwife. I wasn’t aware of that. I waited and waited for her to call me back. I called her colleague and the midwife on call. Couldn’t get through any of them because of the new phone but I was worrying and worrying. I finally decided to call from my cell phone. I got through my midwife’s colleague (it was my midwife’s day off). 

She told me to go to the hospital because if it was an infection she wouldn’t be able to give me the appropriate medication (midwives can only prescribe certain medications). She sent my medical record to Lasalle hospital and told me to go in that they were expecting me.

It took Daddy and I a long time to get there. An hour at least. We were worried and tired. As soon as we arrived, the nurse gave me a room and told me to give two urine samples. If there was an infection, she would fine out an hour later with one of the samples. The other one was for a culture. So I gladly peed in her two samples and I found out that I had no more bleeding. Then, I was connected to a monitor for about 40 minutes. You were being very active and your heartbeat was doing great. When the nurse came to check on me she saw that you were doing great and that Mommy had no contractions…Good!

Mommy was also served a hot meal. Now I had never realized how much hospital food sucked but I was so hungry that it was GREAT! I shared the meal with Daddy though- he was also hungry. After that, Mommy was falling asleep. She kind of fell asleep in the hospital bed but it was cold.  The nurse finally came back about two hours later to tell us that the first urine sample came back normal and that the doctor says it happens to have blood in the urine while pregnant, so she wasn’t worried since it stopped. So we were allowed to leave. And we left…

So far, Mommy didn’t have any more bleeding at all. My midwife thinks it’s because I drank too much and my kidneys didn’t have time to filtrate everything. Perhaps that’s what it is. I’m just happy that everything turned out to be good. I had previously realized how much I cared for you but I honestly never knew how much Daddy and I would worry about you. We didn’t even meet you yet and we love you and care about you so much. We spent a night and a day worried and expecting the very best and preparing for the worse. It’s crazy how much your mind wonders. We were never scared of losing you but premature birth did come to mind. You are very precious to us and we love you Baby Noah. You’ll always be our growing Little Bean. 

That’s sadly the memory I keep of your 27^th week…

We love you very much and I can’t wait to meet you (but in a few weeks)! 

Take care of yourself Baby Noah. Daddy and Mommy love you A LOT!!

Circumcision, To do or Not To do

5^th of July 2011 (26 weeks 2 days)

Hello Dear Readers!! 

Today I want to write about a subject that really gets to me. Since before we knew we were having a boy we already had a question going through our minds. Will we decide to circumcise him or not?

If you are not from the United States you might wonder why circumcision is such a big deal. I wondered for a long time. Being part of online forums and reading pregnancy books encourages future parents to think about the issue. Here, our maternity booklet suggests not getting boys circumcised unless it’s for religion reasons but in other parts of the world it’s very recommended by doctors and professionals to get their baby boys circumcised. 

Here are some of the reasons we found that might be in favour or circumcision (excluding religious reasons). 

-          It’s cleaner

-          It reduces the risk of infections

-          It reduces the risk to catch AIDS

-          It looks “normal” since “most” boys in the USA are circumcised

Here are some reasons we found that encourage boys not to get circumcised.

-          It’s not cleaner

-          It doesn’t reduce the risk of infections

-          It doesn’t reduce the risk to catch AIDS

-          Most boys here aren’t circumcised

Sounds promising, doesn’t it? We quickly figured out that there is no argument that confirms or disaffirms that circumcision is better for boys. None of the reasons used to circumcise boys is scientifically proven and there is no evidence that there really are benefits to circumcise. Of course extremists might say otherwise but if you really do your research you’ll come to the conclusion that it’s not very conclusive. That means one thing; it’s up to parents to decide whether or not they will circumcise their boys. 

It’s starting to really get to me that parents don’t respect other parent’s choices concerning this personal subject. It doesn’t make you a bad parent if you decide to circumcise. You are doing what you believe is right for your child. As a parent it’s one of the decisions you need to take. If you decide not to do it, it’s also fine. You also think you are doing the very best for your child. So why don’t people just respect one another and just let parent’s do whatever they believe in.

In our case, we decided not to get Noah circumcised. We think it’s not necessary and that it’s still some kind of medical procedure. We believe that boys were born that way for a reason. We don’t want to make him go through something that will be painful and not useful in the long term.  We just don’t think that Noah will one day regret that we didn’t get him circumcised but he might regret that we did get him circumcised. What if surgery doesn’t go as planned? What if it’s not well done. Sure it’s rare but it still happens. If he wants to do it, he’ll do it later on. As far as I am concerned as long as he’s able to pee he’s good. If sadly we have a problem there, I will have no problem getting him circumcised because I will have a good reason to. 

I might want to also add that for families who think “everyone must look alike down there” it’s totally not our case. I read way too many times that dads are the only ones dealing with this issue. If the dad is circumcised, baby boy is. In our case, that situation turned out to be the opposite. Daddy is Daddy and Baby is baby. I don’t think he will be traumatized by that as a fact, I don’t think it’s in Daddy’s personality to go around and show his genitals (do you remember seeing your parent’s genitals- Never in my case). 

I really had to get that off my heart. I will not circumcise my boy for all the reasons mentioned above. Another couple might decide to circumcise their boy because of the total opposite reasons and you know what- IT’S FINE!! As long as you believe that what you are doing is for your child’s best interest. 

We are all parents/ parents-to-be, let’s not fight over something so personal. To each their own.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to write this out, I hope it changes how some people perceive others…I know that I had to change my opinion a couple of times and that lastly, that’s what I concluded.

Pregnancy myths!

4^th of June 2011 (26 weeks 1 day)

Hello to all the Blog readers!!

Unlike most of my posts, this post will be for the readers instead of for Baby Noah. So the topic today is myths in pregnancy. As you might know by now, we had been trying for a while before getting pregnant. Well not that long (8 months) but for us it sounded like forever. As we were attempting to get a baby in my belly I came across a lot of information from pregnant women. Most of them complained about being pregnant. In my non-pregnant mind I always told myself “Why are they complaining? We’re not even able to get pregnant and they don’t even care- they just complain.” When I was pregnant, I complained.

I was thinking the other day and I came to the conclusion that some “general concepts” about pregnancy are totally false while others are 100% real. Let’s start with the real stuff.

-          It hurts to be pregnant. It’s true! It does. It’s beautiful to carry a baby and at first the baby weights almost nothing but our body undergoes so many changes. One day we wake up with a headache, another day we have a pubic pain, then we have cramps…Is it THAT bad? Well, picture your stomach stretching, your baby making room for him (kicking and pushing on your sciatic nerve), your pubic bone shifting, back pain and a sudden weight gain. All that within 9 months. But no, it’s not THAT bad. All these changes occur with time and nature does things well but it just isn’t like before.

-          Cravings. Cravings are 100% true. They are actually telling you something. A craving of ice signifies that your body is lacking iron. Most of the time, when I crave something it’s because my body needs it. I mainly crave fruits and veggies. Two aliments that I didn’t eat that often. Wonder why pregnant ladies crave pickles? Well they are very rich in salt and being pregnant, your body needs more salt since you are supposed to be drinking more water.

-          Food Aversion. I LOVED chicken. Now, I would prefer a big juicy steak to any kind of poultry. I also didn’t like fruits that much and right now I sincerely could eat 3 cantaloupes and 1 watermelon. I am not sure why this happens. I guess this has to do with hormones of something of the sort.

-          Hormones. Okay well, when you are pregnant you have a hormone boost. Soooo as much as some women are very nice and lovely while pregnant, some can be the total opposite. The thing is that, it’s not our fault. As much as we changed we didn’t decide that. In my case, I am still the sweet old myself but I’M SO BLUNT. You know that annoying child that runs around in grocery stores screaming and over running you over with the shopping cart and yelling at her parents? Usually I would have told myself  “How rude” well I said out loud “Omg! She’s so rude, I would never take her out.” Yes, her dad heard. GOOD.

-          Emotional. I think this goes both way some girls become less emotional and some become more emotional. Once again, hormones are to blame. In my case I am more emotional. I just feel more emotionally fragile. A little friend fight can make me cry and a when my husband does something sweet I also want to cry. I also know for a fact that some women become more suspicious or insecure (not my case-phew). The big thing men need to understand is that everything is changing in our bodies. How would you feel if you gained a lot of weight without eating more or changing your habits? A big extra 15-45 pounds….

Now let’s get to what is according to me pregnancy myths.

-          Eating for two. This is totally false. Being pregnant I did feel the need to eat more often or to have more consistent meals. Your body is working harder and you do need to actually eat more. Hell, I am eating more but you know what, I only gained 1 pound total (and I am 6 months pregnant). Now, I think I am a lucky one because at that point, your baby weight more than a pound. So if you start off with a healthy weight, you should be gaining more than just a pound. At the same time, I made choices in what I ate and sure I could eat more ice cream and more cake (who wouldn’t?) but it’s not good for me and I won’t blame it on pregnancy (but I do blame the 3 cantaloupes on pregnancy). Also, if you gain too much weight (see normal weight gain or ask your doctor) that weight will be hard to take off after your give birth. Please don’t allow yourselves to go through a major weight gain thinking that “you’re just pregnant”. Once you’ll give birth you’ll be pretty bummed to realize that it’s not going. If you gain a good amount of weight during your whole pregnancy it will go off very quickly after birth. That personally encourages me to be careful with what I eat. I don’t want to end up being bigger when I give birth. I want to be able to regain my pre-pregnancy weight fast enough.

-          The glucose test drink. It’s NOT AWFUL. I was scared to have that test because of the liquid. Everyone around me said it was SOOO bad. It’s not ladies! It tastes like flat orange crush. I understand it’s not the most delicious thing ever but it’s not that bad.

-          You just “know it”. Although this is true for many pregnant women, for me it turned out to be completely false. I was sure that my baby boy was a baby girl. I had this huge intuition since I conceived that it was a baby girl. WRONG and all “old wife tales” turned out to also be wrong including the Chinese gender predictor.

-          Don’t exercise. It’s written all over the place that if you didn’t exercise pre-pregnancy then you shouldn’t start now. I say no. You’re pregnant and you need to be healthy. I agree not to do major exercises but walking for sure won’t harm you. Don’t take pregnancy as an excuse to just sit down and do nothing.

Well ladies, that was it for me. Feel free to add myths that you came across. Of course, these myths only take place if you are having a normal pregnancy. Otherwise you need special care and these “myths” might not apply at all to you. Be safe everyone and enjoy being pregnant!!!

6 months pregnant with Noah!!

4^th of June 2011 (26 weeks 1 day)

Hi Baby Noah!!

How’s it going with you? I’m enjoying feeling you move every single day. You kick harder than ever now and I honestly every moment of it. You’re just great. I really feel like there is a baby boy growing inside of me and let me tell you it’s an amazing feeling. I feel somewhat bad that men will never get to know this feeling. Just to know that I am bearing a child feels great. I can see how pregnancy can be difficult but I can’t wait for my stomach to grow bigger and for you to get bigger and stronger. 

I have some fears but in general I can’t wait to meet you and take care of you. I know Daddy will be an amazing dad and that together we’ll be great parents. Throughout the years we might make mistakes but I would really like you to know that parents do mistakes because they think they are doing the best for their children. Of course you might not see it that way of course but in the long run just remember that we love you very much and that no matter what happens between all of us we will always remain a family. I can’t predict the future and I have no idea of what will happen but Daddy and Mommy love each other so much and bringing you into this world makes our love grow. I think we can go through any circumstances of life as long as we love each other. What I am trying to say is that the world could fall apart and Daddy and I would remain together nothing else matters. We are a family and a family cares for one another, loves one another, thinks about one another and we cannot wait to finally see you (our new addition to our little family). Afterwards we’ll see for siblings…I guess that when you start asking for a brother (or sister) we’ll have to give in. 

So, what have we done this week? Well Tuesday we restarted our glucose test. It went much better than the first one we took. The rest of the day was just okay. We had to rest.  Wednesday we had our last doctor appointment. He had already received the results for the glucose test (Wow! 24 hours!!) Well dear, everything came back normal. So we can keep eating the same way as we have- wish is honestly pretty well. Mommy also gained one pound. We finally put on some weight. The doctor didn’t seem concerned that we only took a pound this whole pregnancy. Mommy has just been careful with what she eats. You were doing great! Your heart was beating really fast but not as fast as usual. When you grow you become less active and the difference was close to zero but I could still hear it. Everything else was fine, next time we have an appointment it will be with the midwife and it’s going to be her that will be taking care of us from now on. Then, nothing really special happened during the rest of the week. We did go shopping for more maternity clothes on Friday with Daddy. Mommy got a few more shirts but she can’t seem to find pants or skirts that fit her well. It was hard enough not being pregnant. Bah! I don’t mind. I love my belly!!!

We are having out 3D/4D ultrasound the 17^th!! I can’t wait to see you!!! We have about 14 weeks before we can meet each other and it sounds like forever…

I love you and I love to feel you kick. Daddy also loves feeling you but I guess he would prefer it if you kicked faster when he touches you. Take care baby boy!!!