Ready for an Outing

Here we are getting ready for a quick trip outside. Our neighbor was kind enough to loan us her baby carrier (her 3 kids have just outgrown it), and we used it this morning to take the dogs for a walk. The hat made the trip even more fun!

And here we are engaging in our most typical activity, relaxing! She loves to sleep on our stomachs, with her arms draped over us in an adorable little "hug."

First Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Madeleine's very first thanksgiving, and although her first turkey will have to wait until next year, we were both thankful that she chose to sleep through it this time (this of course meant a warm and uninterupted meal for her weary parents).

We decided to stay home this year and celebrate with just the three of us, since venturing out is still a bit daunting for us... We grilled a turkey breast and made all the fixings; the best part of course was being with each other, something we are thankful for every day (for obvious reasons).

3 Weeks Old

Well actually, she isn't technically 3 weeks old until tomorrow, but since most of you are in the states and won't read this until it's tomorrow here, I figured I could fudge a little.

Madeleine had her first well-baby check-up yesterday, and we were happy to learn that she has already gained 1.75 pounds! She is at exactly the 50th percentile for her age for weight and for length (we unfortunately missed her length because we were changing a diaper when she told us that one). More importantly, this kid has already learned how to relaaaaax (see picture above for more on this :)

Today she sucked her thumb for the first time! Unfortunately, she wouldn't indulge her mother to wait until I dug the camera out, and stopped moments before the flash went off. Instead, here she is as a vision in pink, sleeping in her favorite vibrating chair (thanks again to Uncle Tristan and Aunt Shizuka for the Papasan!)

Bye bye Nanna/Babka!

Madeleine is enjoying time with her Nanna/Babka (there's still some debate about what Grandma Morse will be called! Luckily she has about 10 mos. to a year before little Madeleine starts talking, so there's still plenty of time to decide... although not much time before her cousin Enzo starts to talk!)

She arrived a few days before Madeleine did, and stayed until Monday, when we had to say our goodbyes :(. But she'll be back again at Christmas to see us all again!

First Bath

Here's little Madeleine enjoying her very first episode of scrub-a-dub-dubbin' in the tub.

She should have come with a warning sign that says "slippery when wet" -- it's a little unnerving trying to wash her and support her head and body all at the same time! We have discovered since then that a towel in the bottom of the baby tub really helps to keep her from slipping (and helps Ma and Pa Trainor breathe easier!)

She really enjoys the bath so far; she stares wide-eyed at us and coos pleasantly. I like to think she would be smiling if she knew how.

Here she is just after her bath is finished, making funny faces with Daddy.

Newly Single

And by "newly single," of course I mean that I no longer violate the principle of physics stating that no two bodies can occupy the same space at the same time...

So, without further ado, DA DA DA DA!! Here she is! Our new little addition, Madeleine Macy Trainor. She weighed 7.4 pounds and was almost 21 inches long when she was born at 1:18am on the first day of November. This picture was taken on her second day outside the womb at the hospital.

For those of you that like to have all the details, I will indulge you with the story of her birth... For those of you that have already gotten all you came for, thanks for stopping by and we'll see you again soon :) Editor's note: the following entry is very long and spares no detail, no matter how tedious. Proceed at your own risk...

Here we are the day before we went to the hospital, as you can see, still very pregnant and dying for a decent night's sleep (which we have yet to get--maybe in another year or so). Because of some minor medical complications, our doctor had decided that she wasn't willing to wait for natural labor for any time after my due date. So, an induction was scheduled for Halloween at 8am. Me, Jason and my mom arrived at the hospital and they strapped on a fetal monitor for about 30 minutes, then administered prostoglandin to get the labor started. Then we were free to roam the grounds, needing only to check back every two hours to have a fetal monitoring for one hour. We went to the bistro, walked around, climbed all 11 flights of stairs in the hospital (this is rumoured to help labor along) and sat around reading. Although I was feeling contractions and they were becoming more regular as the day went on, they weren't increasing in intensity and unfortunately weren't productive contractions (on the plus side, they weren't painful at all, just like a tightening in my abdomen very similar to Braxton-Hicks contractions). At about 3pm, they administered a second dose of prostoglandin, and we pretty much repeated our morning. By about 7pm, it became clear that I wasn't going into labor that night. The staff informed us that I was to stay the night, and we would try again the next morning (and this process would be repeated indefinitely until we had a baby...) Jason took my mom home while I dozed (figuring I would need my energy later). [I'll pause here to insert a picture of me getting strapped into our friendly fetal monitor]. Jason rented a couple of movies for us to watch in the room. At about 9pm they strapped me into the fetal monitor for one last time that night, just for 30 minutes (they said). After the 30 minutes was up, they said they had to leave it on for another 30 minutes because of an anomoly in the fetal heartbeat reading. After that 30 minutes, they had me lie on my opposite side, saying that this anomoly would go away if I did that. After another 30 minutes, they told me just 30 more minutes and I could take the monitor off and go to sleep. After that time was up (this was about 11:30pm), the midwife informed us that we would be having a Cesarean section, that our doctor had been called, and the baby would most likely be out within about an hour. Needless to say, we were a bit surprised at this turn of events, and the language barrier prevented us from understanding exactly why a section was necessary at this point, only that there was something wrong with the fetal heartbeat reading (though they did go to great lengths to assure us that our baby was safe at this point). Our OB arrived about 10 minutes later and explained that, because of the aforementioned medical complication, my placenta was insufficient to safely bring our baby through labor. Basically, what was happening is every time my uterus contracted, the baby's heartbeat was dropping. And although it wasn't dropping enough to endanger her, the contractions I was having were extremely mild, and any increase in intensity would have caused her heartrate to drop further. She explained that although this was not an emergency situation, it was urgent and the c-section needed to be done right away before it progressed to an emergency situation. After this everything happened pretty quickly: they brought me a surgical gown to put on, inserted a catheter (my favorite part...), had us sign the release waivers and had me hop into a hospital bed before wheeling me to meet the anesthesiologist. He was a very nice man who explained all the risks of having a spinal block (including permanent paralysis, which I didn't realize was possible... I'm still not convinced that it is). Then they took Jason away to put on surgical scrubs while I was instructed to get into another "bed," this one an elevated blue block with brown extensions sticking out the end (one for each of my legs to go on), and a u-shaped pink pillow for my head. Then they wheeled me into the operating room and had me sit up in a little ball while the anesthesiologist administered a local anesthetic into my back (to numb the pain of the BIG needle that was to come). Then he asked me to sit very still, and it felt like he was poking and prodding at my spine with his fingers. I laid back down and in walked our OB. I told her what a relief it was to see half a familiar face (the other half, of course, obscured by her surgical mask). I was able to watch most of the prep for surgery, which was pretty neat. Over the next few minutes, my entire body from the ribs down went kind of warm, and then almost totally numb. I could still feel anything touch them, but it was a deadened kind of feeling, and I couldn't move anything. Then my arms were strapped down in an outstretched position and a blood pressure cuff was put on the arm that didn't have the IV in it. They raised a curtain in front of my head, and just when I began to fear that they were going to start operating without Jason, he walked in the room. What a relief that was! I could feel them rubbing something all over my abdomen, and after that all I could feel were nondescript tugging and pulling sensations. I just kept my focus on Jason's face and kept reminding myself that in just a few minutes I would be holding my baby girl, which made the discomfort much easier to bear. I heard our doctor say something about a shoulder, and then she exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! She looks just like Jason!" We heard a very short cry a few seconds later, and then they proceeded with the normal procedures that follow a section, and although this part only lasted a few minutes, we were both speechless with anticipation. Then they let Jason go to see her under the warming lamp, and he came back a second later with her all wrapped up in a pink towel and a space blanket. At long last, here was our little girl! We were absolutely overcome. She is absolutely the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen in my life. We were allowed to ooh and ahh over her while the OB finished stitching me up, and then Jason went back to change into street clothes while they wheeled me out and transferred me back to the hospital room.

still awaiting the stork

Okay, this isn't going to be very long, but we know it has been far too long since we have added anything new.

We still don't have a baby, but we are beginning to grow ever more impatient. These pictures are a demonstration of one of my favorite tricks: in the top pic, not pregnant! In the bottom pic, very pregnant!

These were actually taken 1 or 2 weeks ago, so if you can believe it, I'm actually bigger than that now.

We are pretty much finished making out final preparations as we move into the home stretch. Our crib arrived yesterday and is set up, and the nursery is pretty much complete (we will include a picture in our next blog, promise!)

Grandma Morse (wow, that's weird! I'm talking about my mom, for those of you that are as confused as I am...) is coming at the end of October to lend a hand with the new arrival and spend some bonding time with her (and of course with me and Jason).

From the number of people that have asked recently, I realize that we may have forgotten to include the answer to one very important question on this blog: it's a girl!! (unless our doctor is just messing with us, which I really hope isn't the case, otherwise we're going to need a good quantity of blue dye for all of the pink outfits and accessories we've managed to acquire...)