17 Days

There was such a big difference over the last few days we had to take some pictures.

Lawn Mower

When Colleen and Curtis came for a visit they were kind enough to buy us a couple of much needed "baby" gifts. One of them was a bookshelf for Matthew's room, the other was a new lawnmower (which Dad and Mum also chipped in for).

Aaron tried to sneak out to assemble it himself but in no time flat both Dad and Dennis were there to help. The draw of a shiny new tool was undeniable.

As you can see Aaron was pretty much sidelined while the others took over. At one point he was sent to fetch the gas can for Dennis.

Ahh, there it is in all its glory.

Let's see if it will start. Yep, only took one pull.

It works really well, our lawn hasn't looked this good since we moved in. Thank you so much everyone for helping us keep up with the neighbours (with their fancy new houses and all!).

Exactly Two Weeks Old

Daddy took some portraits on his two week birthday.

At this point he had his two week check up and he weighed 5lbs 14.5 oz. That is an 8oz increase in six days.

He's just the cutest, I can't help myself.

Grandma Ida and Grandpa Rick

About a week ago we got a somewhat surprise visit from Grandma and Grandpa which got us out f bed after a bit of a rough night. We knew they were coming just not exactly when so we were a little unprepared but happy to see them.

Enjoying the company and getting a first peek.

Although he was a little uneasy at first, Rick's Grandpa instincts kicked in right away.

Like all Grandmas, Ida fell in love the second he hit her arms. She was mesmerized, but who can blame her?

One week old Midnight (or later) Snack

The night that Matthew was one week old, Aaron came into the bedroom during one of the late night feedings to take a few pictures of his "sweet baby boy".

This is me sitting on the bed (I have yet to actually get under the covers since we came home, just too hard with the inscision pain) feeding Matthew with the feeding tube attached to my pinky finger.

Here I am taking a tiny nap while he eats. I have had a tendency to nod off during the late night feedings. I understand this is a fairly common practice among parents of really little ones.

A close up of the finger feeding. If you look closely you can see his little hand wrapped around my finger.

Licking his lips between syringefulls.

Must be a burp on the way.

A look of satisfaction.

Mega Update Starting with the day of the Surgery

Ok so lets chronicle this thing properly:

We woke up bright and early on the morning of the 31st after a night of very little sleep and a lot of stress in order to be at the hospital by 7am.

This is the final belly photo taken just after getting out of bed at 39 weeks.

Here I am all changed into my hospital gowns and waiting for the nurses to arrive and get all the pre-op stuff started. I was extremely nervous not only about becoming a new Mum but also about having surgery.

The lovely couple. Aaron is in his scrubs that he talked the nurses into getting for him. Before the hospital stay was over he had two pairs! He was really excited to get that baby out and in his arms.

Not sure why I look so drugged out at this point because they didn't give me anything except saline in my IV. Maybe I was just tired.

I am on the table, freaking out, trying not to cry. The anesthetic was great and I only felt some pressure against my pelvis. No pain. Thank God because I was really worried about that. Aaron sat right at my head (trying to stay behind the teeny tiny curtain they put up) and held my hand through the whole procedure. He was great.

The very first pictures of Matthew Aaron Pollock Greenreich as the nurses from the NICU clean him off and do the first checks.

Poor little brand new naked baby on the scale in the OR.

There's little Matthew getting weighed. The scale finally settled on 5lbs 3oz.

All wrapped up Daddy finally brought him to me so I could see him for the first time. The anesthesiologist was nice enough to take this pictures for us.

Another picture of the cutie and his parents in the OR.

Now we are back in the room we started in. The surgery was scheduled for 9am and we were back in the room by 10. I was really out of it and don't remember a lot of this time. I do know the NICU nurse was asking me a lot of questions I had to rely on Aaron to answer.

These were the first real moments I got to spend with Matthew. It was short lived but very needed. We attempted to breast feed but since neither of us was coherent it didn't go well so we opted for finger feeding with formula to get some nourishment into him right away. The nurses were concerned that because his birth weight was low he needed to have supplementation so he didn't lose too much weight before my milk came in.

First hug.

Already in love.

There's my baby.

Snuggling in.

The eyes are almost open.

These are the best eyes in the world to gaze into. This picture was taken once we had moved into the room down the hall that would be our room for the next couple days and he was in from the NICU for a feeding.

"Unexpected" Arrival

Here's the one we have all been waiting for. We were not due until April 5th and had had no contractions or anything so when I went to my regular appointment on Monday, I was expecting to be told to go home and keep waiting. Well my doctor did some palpation and got a feeling that the baby was kind of small for his gestational age so she sent me for an ultrasound. While having the ultrasound, comments were made about size and amniotic fluid but no one would really tell me what was going on.

About two hours later I got a call from my OB who said the results of the ultrasound told us the placenta was "pooping out on us" leading to decreased amniotic fluid and a need to get the baby out. She decided on a C-section because my cervix was not doing anything an induction would have taken about 36 hours just to get my cervix open and she was not willing to leave the baby in there with a dying placenta. So all this news dropped on us at about 2pm on Monday and we went to the hospital at 7am the next morning and out of surgery by 10am.

To say the least it threw us into a bit of a panic but we are three days on the other side of it and we are all coming along just fine. Mum and Dad are here after a marathon 2 day trip from Manitoba so we have some help and we have tons of fabulous people here who have offered their help as well.

This is the two of us in the recovery room. Kathy just happened to be in the area at the right time and stopped by to see how we were doing. I look like I have had several drinks and really was pretty out of it still. Even though they only did a spinal, I was really dizzy and nauseous for almost 10 hours.

Here's the rock star himself, Matthew Aaron Pollock Greenreich (not hyphenated, two middle names). He was about an hour old. He weighed 5lbs 3oz. and was about 18 inches long. He has begun to take to nursing but because he was so small and can't afford to loose any weight we are also supplementing with formula until I can produce enough to keep putting weight on him. He is doing great and we are all adjusting to this whole not sleeping thing (it's amazing how little sleep one can get and still function).