Baby Bella

Everyone - meet Anabella Dawn Champagne.

The most beautiful girl in the world.

She has jet black hair, plump cheeks and bright red lips. And LOOK at that perfect little nose!!!

Born January 30, 2008, she weighed in at a healthy 6lbs 14oz.

Congratulations to my best friend Dax and her husband Champers,

I love you and am so proud of you!!!

Final Push

All of a sudden I looked down at my belly and all I saw is belly. I am 36 weeks today. Out of nowhere its happened. I'm due in 4 weeks. My bff is on the verge of labouring her first baby girl and I'm right on her tail. (ok not tooooo close because I still have a few things to do and Huzb is hopping on a plane tomorrow for a whirlwind biz trip). I need to prioritize. Here's what still needs to be done. The frustrating part is that barely any of it can be done by me. Right. The Art of delegating. Not my strong suit.

1. Carpets installed in basement.
2. Move furtniture into basement which will transform office into nursery.
3. Paint nursery.
4. Put furniture IN nursery.
5. Purchase car seat.
6. Purchase Stroller.
7. Get hair done.
8. Get mani/pedi.
8b). Get all unwanted hair removed.
9. Wrap up 5 projects over next 8 days of work.
10. Get rest, stay calm, don't hyperextend any joints or ligaments, eat alot but just the healthy stuff and chocolate.
11. Wait.

You see? I have a few things to do still. And honestly USUALLY I'm totally fine with being the last-minute girl. I work really well under pressure and my results are usually great. But this? Are you kidding me? It's the final push. Literally.

more on the pain train...

Ok. So. Monday morning was spent on HOLD trying to reach my obgyn to update on weekend's struggles. Apparently every woman in the GTA is pregnant and with the same clinic because the phone lines were tied up tighter then the American Idol finale hotlines!! Moving on. Finally I got patched through to some back office clerk and told her to have McSmarty call me immediately. 20 minutes later (not bad I gotta tell ya...big points for speediness) my phone rings and McSmarty and I go through the dialogue:

So...what seems to be the problem?
Well...I had to go to emerge on Friday night because I had serious pain in my right ovary. Must have burst or be twisted or something eh? (Me, typically trying to speak doc-lingo and self-diagnose. Again, I blame this trait on my father and apologize to all medical staff in advance. I'm sure they all HATE self-proclaimed doctors like me).
Okay stop right there. Why do you say ovary?
I start to studder....well....er....because that's where my ovary is and I know you said I have a cyst there and the resident doctor said this is what it might be. (I'm totally blushing at this point which is yet another trait of pregnancy for me. I blush and go all red in the face on queue. So embarrassing and so not fun! I can't play a joke or make shit up or embellish a story anymore!!!) Digressing....

McSmarty responds: You DO know that your ovaries are currently located up in your lower ribcage, by your kidneys right?

Stunned. Mortified. Having been called out I suddenly feel like Bridget Jones on a bad day. Really? No, I didn't know that! How could I know that?

He finished his diagnosis and told me he'd see me Friday for our regular appointment and assured me that if it got bad again to come in right away.

So what I thought was an ovary about to rupture and hemorrhage and cause serious harm to Baby, is really a case of a very common symptom of pregnancy called: Round Ligament Pain. Essentially, a thick ligament that is called the 'round ligament' holds the uterus in suspension within the abdomen. As the uterus grows the ligaments pull and tug causing sharp knife-like jabbing pain. Wicked. Typical symptoms are: Pain to lower abdomen usually right hand side, sharp knife jabbing pains followed by dull aching, usually brought on by rolling over in bed, sitting up, coughing/sneezing, exercise. Cure: Get un-pregnant!

Filled with much relief I am now officially forcing myself to slooooooooooooow doooooooooown. No more lifting things. No more running (ha! joking...just making sure you're still with me). No more over-walking and no more sneezing!

And yes...this is all going to be worth it.

7 weeks to go and cherishing every moment.

Can someone please make me a gin and tonic?

Just makin' it through....

So it's been about 3 weeks since my last post. Changes to my body are now completely un-fun. I'll spare you the details of bloating face and swelling ankles. Overall, I have been really lucky with the preggo-progress, having been blessed with good genes everything is going nicely. However, and here's where I just need to complain for a moment, I have over the last day and a half developed some pretty sever pain on my right lower side which at this point, all arrows are pointing in the direction of the affects of ovarian cysts with said growing baby. Conveniently, at 11pm on Friday night, I found myself with the Huzb in the Labour and Delivery Triage Unit at St. Mike's Hospital hooked up to a baby heart rate monitor and running tests to try and identify why I had piercing lower right hand pain. My suspicion was that the previously detected cysts on my right ovary had burst and I was feeling the after affects. Prone to self-diagnosis (thanks Dad) I am one who is very aware of my body and able to communicate relatively effectively to medical staff. *Ahhhhhh! Wrong. "Nothing has ruptured that we can see. Perhaps a twisted ovary, but we can't tell because we don't have access to the right machine here and the people that do are not here right now." Um. Pardon fucking me? Is this not a hospital that runs 24 hours? What if this were an emergency? "Well if it were an emergency we would arrange for it, but it's not." Right. So there was no access to the specialized ultrasound machine that would be able to clearly see the cysts and clarify if indeed this was the source of my pain. After 2 1/2 hours of waiting, discussing, testing and probing (not to mention listening to a woman behind the curtain next to me scream bloody murder in about 5 languages as the nurse hummed to her calmly "Breath...breath....you're just 1 cm dilated, we have lots more to go...." (Grrrreeeeat this is what labour is really all about!) the Doc. assured me the baby was fine, slapped me with a clean bill of health, sent me on my way and told me to call my obgyn on Monday to set up an urgent ultra sound.

This leads me to right now. Sunday morning at 3:26am. Awakened by sharp pain located in lower right hand side of abdomen. Can't sleep. Obsessing. Am I going to deal with this for the next 7 weeks while this baby finishes cooking? God help me!