L's Birth Story

When I see other birth stories, I always regret that I have never written mine down. But as I reflected today on Leila's birth, I realized that it isn't too late! I still remember it quite clearly, and I think I will do Annika's on her birthday in September too. Warning- this is long-winded. I don't *think* it's graphic...but *spoiler alert*...a baby gets born in the end.... haha!

About two weeks before my due date (June 25) with Leila, Mike and I were talking, and decided that June 10 would be our ideal date for our baby to be born. Mike only got three days off of school, and so that date being a Tuesday would be perfect because he could have Wednesday to Friday off and then the weekend before returning for the last couple of weeks before summer holidays. He also had a few things coming up at school that he thought would be really convenient to *have* to miss.:) I was very ready to be done being pregnant, and thought that June 10 would be a great day to have a birthday. So we prayed that our baby would come, and Mike also bent down and talked to my tummy, telling that baby inside that we would sure appreciate it if they would come out.

When Mike got home from school that afternoon, he asked if I had any inklings that anything was happening, and I told him no. And that this was pretty crazy that we were getting our hopes up when we still had two full weeks until the due date (who knows, maybe I would go late, and then this really was a dangerous game we were playing!). I would be exactly 38 weeks on Wednesday, June 11, so it was pretty idealistic and far-fetched for us to think that the baby would come when we wanted it to.

We went to bed that night, and sometime just after midnight I woke up and realized that I might be having contractions. I got up, tried not to wake up Mike, and went down to the kitchen for a bit and it really did seem as though I really and truly was having contractions. For some reason, I had it in my head that our second baby could come really fast. The only basis I had for this was knowing that had been the case when my mom had her second, so I just sort of thought that might be the same for me. So I decided to wake up Mike (it was probably around one or one-thirty). He believed me that I was in labour, so he got up and sat at the table making some sub plans. Because I was so convinced that this labour would go fast, we decided to call his mom to come over to watch Annika because we figured at any moment we would need to go to the hospital. 

When she arrived, I think it was around 3:00 am. The only problem was that although I was having contractions, they weren't regular or particularly strong, so I knew that I wasn't really supposed to be going to the hospital yet. If I did, they would likely just turn me away. I felt terrible that we had woken her and gotten her to come over so prematurely. We decided to go back to bed, and she decided to sleep on our couch for a bit.

I tried to rest, and I still was having contractions, but they still weren't that strong or that frequent. But finally I think I had a few in a row that were close to the five minute mark, and felt a bit stronger so we decided to go to the hospital. Mostly I wanted to convince myself that it had been worth it to wake Mom up and get her to come out, and I also wanted to get out of the house before Annika woke up because I thought it might be confusing for her if she woke up and then we had to rush out shortly after. (So THANK-YOU, Mom for coming out to take care of Annika, and I'm sorry that we woke you up un-necessarily early!)

So it was around 5:30 or 6:00 am and we were driving to the hospital, but I had a really bad feeling that we had left way too early. I remembered the drive to the hospital when I had been in labor with Annika- I had been gripping the door handle for dear life, and had two painful contractions on the short ten-minute drive there. I hadn't known how I would walk from the car to the hospital because I was in a lot of pain. This time, I was still feeling great! I don't think I even had a single contraction on the whole drive, so I was pretty sure they were going to send me home. 

As I suspected, they looked at me with suspicion at the nursing station when I told them that I was exactly 38 weeks and thought I was in labour. They put the strip (what's that thing called again?) on my stomach to measure the contractions, and I could tell that they weren't coming fast and furious the way they had with Annika. But eventually the nurse checked me, and she was as shocked to find that I was actually 5cm dilated! But again, as I suspected, after consulting with the midwife, she thought I should probably go home and come back when I was really in labor. She said that if I had driven all the way from Edmonton they would admit me, but since I lived so close there was no point in staying. If I did, I would just feel pressure to speed things up, and they would also be more likely to intervene when there was no reason to not just let things happen naturally. Even though this was always the worst-case scenario that was discussed in my prenatal classes, I was actually fine with it. I already thought that might be the case, and I wanted to go home and see Annika and take care of a few things, since we weren't REALLY thinking we would have a baby two weeks early!

I'm pretty sure Mike and I high-5ed each other as we headed out the door that we really WERE going to have a baby that day! We both felt pretty hungry, which is weird because I don't think you're typically hungry during labor, so we took a trip through the McDonalds drive-thru and got ourselves some Bacon and Egg McMuffins. We ate them in the parking lot as Mike made some calls to the school and to potential subs. He thought that they didn't really believe him, but that was fine. We had confidence it was going to happen! It was Miriam who subbed for him that afternoon, so it was fun to tell her that I was in labor, and she was really sweet to help him out.

We got back home and Annika was up. Of course we felt silly that we were coming back home, but at least we had some news to report that I was indeed in labour. I played with Annika and it this time it didn't take long for contractions to start picking up. I remember calling Melissa because she had been supposed to babysit Annie for my midwife appointment that was to have been that morning, and I had a contraction right in the middle of my conversation with her. We headed back to the hospital around 9:00 am, and this time the drive was much more like I had remembered it being with Annika. 

They got us settled in a birthing room and I remember not liking it that Mike had to go back to the car to get our stuff because I didn't want to be alone. I think there were a few other births taking place because for the most part we were being left alone and I definitely was in la-la-laborland at that point. I started feeling panicky because it was pretty painful and I was second-guessing whether I could do this!
A different nurse than the one we'd had early that morning finally came and checked and she said that I could probably get into the birthing tub if I liked. And then she left. 
So we were a bit confused, but Mike started running the water, while I rocked back and forth in the chair that I had liked when I had been there with Annika. Eventually the tub was filled, so I got in. But as soon as I did, I was confused. Had she meant that I was ready to start pushing? Because if she hadn't meant that, I didn't want to be in the tub! I tentatively gave a little push and could tell that my water broke. And then it got a bit intense. I could not help but start pushing like crazy, and Mike had to run out and call the nurse/midwife/whoever that maybe they should come quickly. 

So in they came, and that was the first time I had seen the midwife that morning.  She actually didn't even do anything- the nurse monitored the baby's heartbeat and the midwife said some stereotypically midwife-y things like "ride the wave", so I just squeezed my eyes shut and tried to focus on what she was saying. She then told Mike to put his arms in the tub and catch his baby, and after some excruciating moments, a little baby girl with a head of dark hair was placed on my chest! We think it's pretty special that the first hands that greeted her were her dad's. 
(I had thought that the pushing part of my labor had been pretty quick- probably only 15 minutes- but at my first follow-up appointment, the midwife looking at the notes said that it had actually been FIVE minutes! No wonder it seemed crazy!)
It's bad that I remember all of this, but can't remember what exact time it was that Leila was born. I know it's written down somewhere in our stuff in Canada. I think either 11:05 or 11:23 am? Or maybe somewhere in between. In any case, it might not have been the FAST labour I was expecting, but it still had it's moment of being quick! And Mike got to be home on the Wednesday/Thursday/Friday like he wanted, and I got to have my baby at 38 weeks. 
We definitely were incredibly blessed to have things go so smoothly and have a beautiful, healthy girl join our family. We loved our experience at Westview and really have too many things to be thankful for when we remember when Leila Rain joined our family.

Happy 5th Birthday!

Time for one of my favorite kinds of posts- a look back at my favorite pictures of Leila taken over the course of the year. It's so hard to believe that she is turning FIVE! Too old! Stop growing so fast! 

Leila enjoying a cupcake on her fourth birthday. This is right after we picked up Uncle Linc.

With a grandma and an auntie at the Calgary Stampede.

Leila and Grandma Braun- July 2012

A day in Waterton- July, 2012

Even though her local school career was short-lived, she gave it an honest go, and sure looked cute in her uniform! 

I love the morning sunlight in this picture, and her bedhead. She can often be found playing at the window ledge with any number of her little toys.

Posing in a doorway in Shanghai

When you can't decide which hairband to wear, you may as well wear them all!

A few stats:
What Leila wants to be when she grows up: a mommy that's a doctor (Go Leila!)
Favorite color: Pink and purple
Favorite Show: Justin Time
Favorite Bible story: "When bread came down from the sky, and when there was a path through the water, and Pharaoh and his army sinked".
Most looking forward to this summer: being a flower girl and seeing Madeline's cast
Favorite food: ice cream and macaroni
New stamps in her passport (since this won't always be the case, I may as well include it while we can!): Macau, Philippines, and three trips to China

Getting a ride from Auntie Nett in Macau

 A few milestones this past year:
- getting her ears pierced
- she has a pretty good handle on printing uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. Knowing how much printing homework she will get in kindergarten I haven't done much to work with her on it, I mostly just let her do her own thing and it's happened on it's own.
- swimming and skating is slowly coming along

Pretending it's cold for some Christmas-y pictures. 

Leila enjoyed it when a guest musician came to Sparkle and gave a concert. 

Looking cool in Cebu!

Keeping cool in Cebu

At the rice fields in Guilin. And looking mis-matched. We didn't bring enough warm clothes and also didn't account for how quickly we would go through them in the rainy weather!

Leila, I've had such a special year having just you at home with me. I was secretly glad that school didn't work out. We have spent hours together this past year traveling on the bus or MTR to wherever we are going, and I love that you still insist on cuddling on my lap. You make us laugh with your quirky sense of humor and always amaze us with your imagination and creativity. You are a wonderful daughter and a great little sister to Annika. We love you so much, and can't wait to see what your fifth year will bring! Happy Birthday! XOXO

camera obscura

 So, you know how in past posts I've said things like "these pictures aren't very good because we just took our little point-and-shoot instead of hauling our big camera with us", or "we didn't want to bring our valuable camera with us to China so we just took our light little point-and-shoot"? And then the pictures are all blurry and grainy and kangaroos have red eye?
Yeah, even though I love our Nikon dSLR, it really hasn't been working for us in Hong Kong. We just find that it is too heavy and cumbersome to carry with us, and it's one more valuable (but far less valuable than our two most important valuables!) that we have to keep track of. I almost never take it with me when I'm out and about in Hong Kong. Around Christmas, I even ordered myself a fun purse that's actually a camera bag, thinking that I would take it with me more if I had a cushioned space to keep it, but the camera bag is so heavy with it in it that it gives me a sore shoulder, so I've ended up just using my nice camera bag as a purse, and unfortunately I still usually leave my camera home. 
So we own a nice camera, yet have been taking pictures with our OLD little Canon that we bought in Korea in 2005?! That just doesn't make sense when you consider how much camera technology has improved and how inexpensive point-and-shoots are these days. 
We weren't sure if we should replace our point-and-shoot, or just get iPhones already (I think we're just waiting till we move back to Canada to do that) or what we should do, but a reallyreally good salesman who had ONE Lumix GF3 left at an INCREDIBLE price made the decision easy! 
Ha! We've actually been admiring all the cool mirrorless cameras out there for a while. They are so light and small compared to our beast of a camera, and the interchangeable lenses that they keep making to go with them is pretty great.
So, the point of all this, is we bought a new camera. I was actually very reluctant, and Mike and the salesman had to convince me, but I am coming around and admit that it is very cool. It's just hard to learn something new, but one of the neatest things is that you do everything with the touchscreen, including just pressing what you want the camera to focus on. So fun! We don't know if we'll sell our old one, but these are some of the pictures we've taken as we've been trying to figure out how to use it.

 On Saturday after I came home from tutoring and the rain finally stopped, we took a little trip out to Discovery Bay. 

 Having supper in one of our favorite restaurants. mmmm....chicken tikka and kebabs!

 That green space you can see out our window is Tsing Yi Park. Leila and I went for a little walk there this morning. We love going there, but unfortunately Hong Kong has nasty sand flies that love the two of us, but for some reason leave Mike and Annika alone. Anywhere "beach-y" or "park-y" is full of sandflies these days. Boo... 

 We really love this playground, though. It's so green with a lovely canopy of trees overhead. 

Even though I had to be convinced, I think we will really like this camera. It will definitely come in handy since it is so small to take with us. I know dSLR's are all the rage, but I think maybe these small mirrorless cameras are the way to go. But what do I know? Time will tell, I guess...

Mother's Day Tea and Gymnastics!

 I had a really nice Mother's Day on Sunday. But the best part of Mother's Day was actually on Thursday when I went to Annika's school for the Mother's Day tea. The reason it was so great is because Annika was sooooo excited for it. She was trying to keep everything a secret and was counting down the days, so her enthusiasm was very contagious. Each of the five grade 1 classes put on a little performance in the chapel, and her class did a play. Annika was assigned the part of "Girl", which meant that she had lots of lines to memorize. When she first brought the script home, she didn't think she could do it. But Mike worked on it with her all weekend, and by the time she returned to school, she pretty much had her lines AND all the other lines of the play memorized. She found it a bit frustrating that by Thursday, other kids (including "Boy" who is standing to her left) still needed their papers. And ended up using them for the play. Not Annika, though- she executed her part flawlessly.:)

 After the performances, the moms were escorted to their child's classrooms for some cookies and juice. 

Annika and her Grade 1 teacher

 Annika showed me her journal, and it was so fun to flip through it and see what she has worked on this year. I really liked these two entries. I think the beach one might actually be referring to last year, and she would have written it more at the beginning of the year. In the one about Leila, she told me that she drew Leila the way that Leila draws herself. 

 The girls have started taking gymnastics. Our clubhouse (like most clubhouses) offers lots of different classes. Even ones for adults such as cake-decorating and singing. The only thing is that they are typically in Cantonese, so I inquired about gymnastics and was told that it *probably* wouldn't be in English. I pressed the guy further (like is it? Or isn't it?), so he phoned up the instructor and got off the phone and told me "Good news! The instructor says that there are children from other countries in the class, so it is in English and Cantonese". Well, great! Sign us up!

 These are the "children from other countries" that the instructor must have been referring to. Funny how they do stick together! Annika and the older sister of this pair have hit it off and it turns out their school buses arrive at the same time, so they've been able to chat it up after school as we walk home together.

 So far, Leila only lasts for the beginning of the class and then runs to sit on our laps for the rest of it. I'm not sure what her problem is, but I'm hoping she'll participate soon, or I'm going to pull her out of the class. Annika, on the other hand, is having a blast! I think Leila would too if she'd give it a chance. Oh well... 

 She got to be demonstrator for each of the stations, which was pretty exciting. I am pleased that this instructor is very encouraging of all the kids- whether they are successful or not, he gives lots of praise and high 5's. There's always such an emphasis here on "results" and "performance" that extracurriculars aren't always very fun. But so far (for Annika), gymnastics is great fun, and we've already noticed that we recognize more kids in our complex, so that's another perk that we hadn't even considered!

Such balance!