Well, I was expecting a due date like many other first-time mom’s…coming and going without any action from the baby inside me…but I was wrong! During my morning visit to the potty, I heard a weird “plop” sound and had to inspect (as I had secretly been inspecting the toilet fr several days “just to see” if I had maybe lost my mucous plug) and sure enough, there it was on my due date! I wasn’t totally sure if I was just making it “be” the mucous plug so I got Pat and Agatha who was visiting to inspect as well and they both concluded that yes it was what I thought it was!

I didn’t get my hopes up as I know that you can go another several days before any contractions but suddenly at 4:04 pm as I was cutting veggies for supper, I started to feel cramps. I took my sister’s advice and just peeked at the clock just to see the timing whenever I felt the cramps and was astonished when the times coming back were 4:09, 4:15, 4:20! Agatha and I started getting excited and couldn’t wait until Pat got home from driving a friend 1.5hrs away so we could tell him the news! Needless to say, when I finally got a word in to tell him he lost a lot of colour in his faceJ

I continued to time the contractions and made note of how long they seemed. They continued to be only 15-20 seconds apart until around 10:30 pm when they were just about a minute long (which is when you’re supposed to go to the hospital). But of course, being me, I wasn’t feeling unbearable pain and felt kind of silly going to the hospital right away so I went to bed and tried to get some sleep. At around 4 am, I woke up and realized that my contractions were only coming every 20 minutes. I phoned the hospital just to make sure this wasn’t something that I should worry about and they ensured me that my body may start up and slow down as it gets ready for the big event.

The next morning around 8 am I started to feel the close contractions again but they didn’t get closer together until around 2:30 pm when they had been between 2.5 – 4 minutes lasting for about a minute and were consistent over an hour time period. At this time we decided it was time to head to the hospital.

I was admitted being only 2 cm dilated but they noticed that the baby’s heart beat was higher than normal and wanted to keep me hooked up for at least a half hour to monitor him. After a bit, the doctor came in and told us that she wanted to insert a fetal monitor right onto the baby’s head to get a better reading as the heart beat was not getting lower. For this, she had to break my water and although I had Pat holding my hand, it was still a scary moment as I wasn’t quite sure what it meant for the delivery to come. Soon after my water breaking, the doctor examined me and noticed that I was 5 cm dilated so I was sent to a birthing suite until things furthered.

About 3 hrs later, I had only dilated up to 6 cm and the doctor wanted to put me on Oxcytocin (however you spell it..the drip anyway) so I agreed as long as I could have the nitrox (laughing gas) at my side! Things progressed quickly and I was having a lot of back labour which felt like my back breaking in two with every contraction! Thankfully Pat was there every step of the way..and I realized how much I needed him every step of the way to help me through the really rough parts…especially at around 11:30 pm when I was feeling the urge to push but I was only at 8 cm dilated! The hardest thing in the world was to lay there for over an hour trying to keep the baby in when all of my being was screaming “it’s time..push your baby into this world!” Fighting that urge was way worse than any contraction for me as it was fighting my body’s natural instincts!

Finally, at 12:40 am I was fully dilated but had to wait for the doctor to come in from her home! I was wondering if they were seriously trying to kill me here!...lol  Thankfully, there was a doctor resident there who looked like Catherine Heigel from Grey’s Anatomy who was able to deliver Sandler so with a green light for pushing, Sandler was into this world in 6 minutes!:)

After all was said and done, I survived and felt great and am so excited to be the new mama of 7lb 13 oz Sandler Parker Bourassa born at 12:46 am August 9th!:)

Well, everyone’s well overdue for an update – thanks for your patienceJ First things first..I’m still pregnant..the baby hasn’t made an early appearance…yet! Haha So much has gone on over the past month or so..time has flown. Pat and I went down to Nova Scotia to visit our families one last time before being confined to our home here in OntarioJ I was able to finally meet my nephew Karsten and got a good feel of life with a newborn! My longtime friend Sarah and my sister Jenn threw me a baby shower in Yarmouth and then my girlfriend Agatha in Greenwood surprised Pat and I with a Jack and Jill shower! We felt so blessed by everyone’s thoughtfulness and generosity! Thank you so much! We started out with one outfit for the baby and now we’re all set for our little guyJ

As of today, I’m 39 weeks along (which means one week until my expected birthing time) and it’s hard to believe we’re at the end of this journey and about to start the next stage of this exciting time! I seriously forget that I’m pregnant a lot of the time and find it amazing that there’s a baby in my belly! Pat and I took a tour of the hospital and he got so excited when we saw some newborn babies! So far, I’ve gained about 28 lbs and my belly is measuring right on every week. We had one scare where the baby’s heartbeat was irregularly fluctuating between 130 and 170 bmp. We were sent to the hospital to double check and everything turned out to be fine! It’s only nervous wracking once they start asking so many questions that you begin to double-guess yourself! The neat thing was that we were in the first triage room where women were coming when they started labour but not yet 3 cm dilated so we were able to see and hear different people experiencing the first stages of labour and really start to picture ourselves doing the same. So needless to say, this week has been a huge week to try and get most things in order before the baby decides to comeJ

We’re still not totally decided on a name…we’re down to 2 – Parker and Sandler and although we’ve still been reading baby books, we keep coming back to those two names. I think we’ll take most people’s advice and if we can’t decide beforehand, we’ll wait to see him face to face and decide then (AKA wait until the pressure can NOT get any stronger to make the on-the-spot decision! Haha)

Last week was especially stressful as my girlfriend Michelle was admitted to the hospital with GBS (a virus that caused her antibodies to attack her nerves) and my dad was admitted to the hospital after having a heart attack. Michelle was in for a week and went through an exhausting series of tests and medicine and now has about 6 weeks until she’ll get back to full power. My dad was brought to Halifax and after a week of tests, had heart surgery that went very well and is now home resting and healing. So needless to say, it’s been quite an emotional/stressful week for the baby! Michelle is unable to come up for a visit mid August but my parents are still planning on coming up at the end of August (of course depending how dad’s feeling) - we’ll see closer to the time.

Besides that, we’re getting ready for the big day and I’m especially getting my mind in focus for the birth. Unfortunately, I misplaced my camera so I’m unable to put on an updated picture but the baby has dropped down into position and now even all my maternity clothes are tight and my belly pops out the bottom! It’s quite funny but at this point, I’m just happy to find something other than a sheet that’ll fit me! Haha

My next Dr's appt is on the 6th and he's going to check me out to see how things are progressing so I'll keep you posted. And just so you know, if I don't update right away, it doesn't necessarily mean I'm in labour! lol

31 Weeks – Yes it’s true! My nephew Karsten has finally made his way into the world on May 31^st weighing in at 8lbs 8oz. Jenn had a pretty good labour and birthJ Check out the details on her website http://babyparkersblog.blogspot.com/ And of course I’ve been hounding her for details and am looking forward to meeting Karsten and getting a good feel for what early motherhood consists of when I go home to visit end June/start July!

As for things here in Ontario, despite the heat wave which has had us seating it out in the low 40’s with humidity (YOWZAS!), we’ve been trying to stay sane and I’ve been doing a lot of swimming in the river (thank GOODNESS for that as we don’t have AC..yet!) I’m growing right along on schedule with the baby at about 3.5 lbs (around half it’s birth weight!) and still moving up a storm! Now I feel more pointy things sticking out and he seem sto push more on both sides of my belly at the SAME time so I think it’s getting a bit cramped in there! Lol

We had our first OBGYN Dr’s appt (after 8 weeks of waiting!!!!) and it was just like Jenn’s were – 10 min tops! We got to meet the man who would deliver our baby and Pat finally got to hear the baby’s heartbeat!! It was a special moment as I’ve been trying to get him to hear it through a toilet paper tube which I’ve heard can happen anywhere after 31 weeks! Haha We also started prenatal classes which will take us until the end of June and I am proud to say that Pat is way ahead of the male population in that class in that he alone knew what Braxton Hicks contractions were! (ok, well he knew the name at least..but that’s a start, hey ladies? LOL!)

Now that the bell is in full bloom, I’m just realizing that besides my belly update pics, I don’t really HAVE any pics of me pregnant..and especially none with Pat!! So Pat took some pics on the weekend (this being one) and I hope to take some friends up on their offers to take our pic when we go home to NS..heh heh..here we come!:)

Now to just make it through another few weeks of non air conditioned work and home and then vacation and then only a few weeks until baby is here!! Yikes! But especially seeing Karsten into the world, Pat and I are getting more and more excited (or dare I say we are getting excited..period!) J as the fear is waning away and we’re picturing our life with this little creature in it...and yes, the hormones have me crying everytime I see a dad with his little son..even as I was at the Department of Motor Vehicles!!! Lol Geesh!