Our Home Birth Experience

Very early on in our pregnancy, Dan and I were presented the option of having a home birth. After weighing the pros and cons, Dan and I decided to make it an option. We realized that, with our certified midwives and our close proximity to the hospital, home birth was a safe option for us.
I thoroughly enjoyed our home birth experience. It was nice to labour at home and not have to transfer to a hospital, especially since my labour was so fast.

The timeline of our labour:
3pm: I had my first contraction, which I thought was gas from the spicy food we had the night before.
3:30pm: Dan calls home, and I explain to him that I (a) have bad gas, (b) am in labour or (c) am dying. I tell him "contractions" are 5-7 minutes apart.
3:50pm: I call Dan and tell him that he needs to head home, as I am in full blown labour.
4:10pm: Dan makes it home. I tell him, he needs to put the bagels in the oven and start timing my contractions. He figures out that they are 2-3 minutes apart.
4:45pm: I tell Dan that he needs to call the midwife. He tells me that he needs to wait a bit longer before calling, since it hasn't been an hour of contractions yet.
5pm: Dan calls the midwife. They are doing a shift change and will call back in a few minutes
5:15pm: Midwife calls and she decides that she'll finish dinner and cleaning up before coming. She'll be there at 6:30. Dan runs around between contractions trying to get the house in order and ready for labour. (putting plastic sheet on bed etc.)
6:30pm: I tell Dan that I need to push. Dan tells me, "Don't you dare!"
6:40pm: Midwife (Jan) arrives and checks me. She tells me that I am fully dilated and that my water is about to burst. She calls the second midwife (Rachel), who lives in Langley to come quickly. Midwife tells me, "Try not to push."
6:58pm: Water breaks and the involuntary pushing begins. Midwife informs Dan that he may need to help deliver baby if second midwife doesn't arrive.
7:15pm: Second midwife arrives. The pushing begins! Somewhere in the next forty five minutes the midwives realize that the heart rate keeps dropping and they need to get the baby out immediately. The cord is around his neck. They do an episiotomy to get him out fast (without freezing I might add!)
8:02pm: Joel makes his arrival into the world.

It was awesome! The only cleanup we had to do was one load of laundry (which we could have thrown out if we wanted, but we are much to frugal for that). I couldn't have imagined getting into a car (or ambulance, in our case) to make our way to the hospital. It was awesome to have a baby and fall asleep in my own bed just hours later. I would do it again in a second! Okay, not the whole labour thing, but the home birth aspect!

When the best of intentions are foiled

I had the best of intentions. But unfortunately they were not to be. Dan and I have spent the better part of our marriage trying to live simply and live "green." We want to be good stewards of the world God made. But since Joel has been born, I feel as though these ideals are harder to come by. Like I said, I had the best of intentions.
I purposely bought reusable nursing pads hoping to forgo the disposable kind and save the landfill from a few more pieces of junk. But what I didn't anticipate was the overabundance of breast milk that God has "blessed" me with. Because of this overabundance, the reusable pads just can't contain the milk I have (and sometimes, I've doubled up and still ended up with a soaked shirt). I end up being soaked all day long. I don't wish to remain drenched all day, and I want to keep myself from developing an infection so I made the switch to disposables. I am now adding more garbage to the landfill everyday. I had the best of intentions to help the environment, but they have been foiled.
We also had the best of intentions to start cloth diapering Joel after the meconium poos had passed. But here we are, a month into his life and still using disposables. Why? It has something to do with the medications Joel is taking for his infection and the diarrhea that ensues. We just can't handle washing upwards of 20 poopy diapers a day (I don't have enough to go 2 days at that rate!). Plus, we had a couple lovingly donate a few boxes of diapers to us (can't let them go to waste can we?) So, Joel is still in disposables and we are killing the environment one diaper change at a time.
But there is a silver lining to all of this. Since I have been blessed with the overabundance of breast milk, I am now able to donate my milk to BC Woman and Children's Hospital. Yes, this does add more of an environmental strain to the world with the plastic storage bags for breast milk, but I feel as though it is somewhat justified since it is feeding sick babies and children. I can only hope that they dispose of the plastic responsibly.
Sometimes we have the best of intentions that don't always work out the way we wish they did. But somehow God has a way of intervening and renewing our intentions into His own.

Grandpa's comin to town

On Boxing Day, Dad came to visit and see Joel for the first time and it was, as they say, love at first sight. Talking to him the day before he said that the rule for visiting was that Joel would be in his hands unless he needed a change or to be feed and that was pretty much how it turned out.

Joel took to Grandpa like no tomorrow and bonded with him in a very special way. Joel would cozy into him in a way he hasn't for anyone else and as soon as Dad left for the night Joel would be wide awake with eyes wide open even if he was fast asleep the moment before.

Joel even got visits from him in the hospital every day and would cry when Grandpa left.

Survivorman: Hospital Edition

4 days in Pediatrics
1 infected finger on a newborn baby
Surviving off arrowroot crackers, individually packaged cheese slices and 100ml cups of 2% milk

Joel's first hospital visit came 15 days after his birth (which happened at home). He was given IV antibiotics to fight a staph infection that he probably contracted after we cut his fingernails.

The Pediatric nurses loved him! Joel would flirt with the nurses every morning, with a squirt from his rear end and a smirk. We informed him that the ladies don't really enjoy that behavior. But he continued with it anyway. Needless to say, the nurses still loved him. They always commented on how calm he was, even when they stuck him with the IV. Often, he would barely cry as they changed his dressings or he would cry and then give up with a sigh.

His visit was complicated by the fact that he is sensitive to the adhesive in tape that was used to hold his IV in place. We finally figured out how to cover his hand without tape, but his foot was another story. They kept the tape on until we were released on New Years Day. His foot still is a bit red and swollen. But other than that, he is doing well. His finger is a bit red, and he's still on antibiotics till the end of the week. Hopefully the infection will be cleared up soon.

Joel's First Bath

Here's the pictures from Joel's first bath. As is all to obvious neither of us really have any clue as to what to do and so poor Joel was subjected to a very long and cold bath.

Here is Amanda trying her hand at washing him. Observe the overwhelming confidence that she exudes, a true professional at work.

Here's Dan's attempt, notice the extreme concentration... aren't baths supposed to be easy?!?


And finally: the aftermath.

He's Here!!!!!!!

Last night Amanda and I welcomed our little baby boy into this world. Joel Eric McCrimmon was born at 8:02 p.m. and came out wieghing 7lbs 9.5 oz and 21 inches long.

The Ultimate Commuter Bicycle

For all of us that commute by bike, there is a long list of things that make cycling annoying or dangerous. This is the answer to many of those problems.
Enjoy!!

Anticipation

Nearly 10 months ago, during the season of Lent, we were anticipating the news that we were pregnant. On the morning of Easter Sunday, we found out that we were indeed expecting a baby.
Here we are all these months later, during the season of Advent, anticipating the birth of our first born child. (We do hope its born before Christmas though...)
Both of these two seasons have been my favorite times of year. I love the anticipation of things to come, although I'm not nearly as patient for them to occur as I would hope. Its amazing to me, how these two major events (Easter and Christmas) have weeks of anticipation and preparation in their lead up. Its similar to preparing yourself for a baby. You spend time getting the room ready and preparing your body for childbirth.
This year at Church they are talking about time and what you do to prepare yourself for the big event. This Christmas will be a special time for us, as our lives are somewhat parallel to that of Mary and Joseph's. I can just imagine Mary's desire to meet her child and her need for a donkey to carry her around. You can sense Joseph's anticipation, fear and excitement as he looks for a place to safely welcome his son into the world. And you can feel the joy and celebration of shepherds and wise men as they rejoice over the birth, much like our friends and family will rejoice over our baby's safe arrival.
As we anticipate the arrival of our baby, we also anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus. We have much to look forward to this year!

The mobile...of the military persuasion

At last I've been able to put my hobby to good use. Amanda suggested to me months ago, that I create a mobile using some of my scale models that I had kicking around. I finally finished the mobile this week! It contains 3 planes and 2 tanks. Keep in mind folks, that we don't know the gender of our child. So regardless of its gender, it will have this mobile hanging over its head. (Yes, if its a girl she will need to learn to love planes and tanks!)

Our Ode to Christmas

The cookies have been baked,
The appys frozen for a later date,
The nutcrackers have invaded,
The nativity has been recreated,
The tree has been set up,
The pregnant woman is fed up.
And now we wait for the baby Jesus (ahem, we mean our baby) to show up.

Pssst...baby. There's no more room at the Inn. Come out to the stable so we can put you in a manger (and by that we mean dresser drawer!) And hurry! Christmas comes tomorrow! (at least to the Dutch community!)