Meet Avery Sandra Van Dop

All I can say is OMG. We were definitely not expecting this! OK, OK, we knew that a baby was coming eventually - maybe around the end of the month. But Avery Sandra Van Dop decided to grace us with her presence three weeks early. She was born on Sunday, April 12th, 2009 at 10:43pm in St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, weighing in at 3205 grams and measuring 50 cm. The funniest moment was when we were admitted into the hospital and met up with our mid-wife for the first time - Brian asked her, "Are we really doing this today?!". Hahaha...and I have a feeling this will be the first of many surprises that this little girl gives us!

The painful details (literally!)?! I was in labour approximately 22 hours before the obstetrician decided that Avery's heart rate was too high and she needed to come out right away. In a way, this was better than the 40 hours I laboured with Josh before I ended up with a C-section. But, for some reason, it seemed MUCH more painful this time around! I was stuck at 4cm dilated for most of the labour (about 19 hours) and then after I surrendered to the epidural, I dilated to 7cm in an hour! The drug doctor is a labouring woman's best friend, I tell ya! That was around the point where it was decided that Avery needed to come out ASAP. As an aside, when the obstetrician did a final exam on the OR table, I was 9 cm dilated. I was almost able to push this baby out!

We're so relieved that the obstetrician made the call when she did because when Avery came out, they said her "tone" wasn't normal. She was floppy and it took them about 8 minutes to get her to a normal tone. I also remember that she was pretty quiet - her little "wah" noises were not the usual newborn wailings. In the 8 minutes that she was on the warming bed, she developed a fever, so the paediatrician decided that she should go to the NICU for observation and possible tests.

Brian stayed with her while the doctors finished working on me before taking me to recovery. When I came out of recovery, they took me to Brian and Avery in the NICU. They said they thought she might have had an infection, but the blood test looked normal and her temperature was coming down, so they decided she didn't need any anti-biotics. By the time they got me into my room and settled in, she was brought to us to stay. We were VERY relieved and VERY exhausted!

I STILL can't stop staring at our beautiful little girl. Partly because I know this is the last time we will go through this and partly because she is JUST SO CUTE! Just like Josh, we are having feeding issues and she has developed jaundice, but we are still taking it one day at a time and doing the best we can.

Josh is taking things quite well right now. I think it was harder for me to adjust to sharing my love for my 2 children! This C-section hit me hardest the first time I saw Josh and he wanted me to lift him up. I realized I won't be able to lift him up for the next 6 to 8 weeks. I'm trying to get down to "his level" but that is also hard 5 days after major surgery.

So, despite all this, Josh is reacting amazing! I think alot of it has to do with our guardian angel - Josh's Nana. Brian's mom has been our saviour through all this! I'm not sure what we would have done without her! We had originally asked her to help us if this baby came early (before my parents arrive on April 21st!), but then Brian's dad got sick (which is a COMPLETELY different story!) and we scrambled to find a back-up plan.

Well, Brian's mom reassured us that she would still be able to help us and she has done MORE than just help us! She has not only taken care of Josh when we needed it, but she is also taking care of us. It's amazing to see her in action and I am SO grateful and SO completely indebted. Thanks so much, Mom. We love you!

Thanks, too, to everyone for the food, gifts, emails, phone calls and visits. It really shows us how much we are loved by our family and friends. We can't wait for all of you to meet Avery! In the meantime, here are some photos of Avery's first few hours and days...

Avery Sandra Van Dop

Avery with Mommy and Daddy

Daddy's little girl

EVERYONE is exhausted (check out the background!)

The Van Dop Family

Nana meets Avery for the first time

Mom gets to hold her 2 kids

Who's the patient - Joshie or Mommy?!

Beautiful baby girl - home at last!

Nikita and Avery meet

Joshie gets a good look at his baby sister

21 days

We got our new couches 21 days ago. It was a momentous occasion to be rid of the 35-year old couches, of which we have a picture of Brian sitting on them when he was 9-years old!

We were glad to be rid of the old couches because they were out-dated, tattered and falling apart, BUT they were the most comfortable couches EVER! So, we had VERY high expectations from our new couches.

Brian enlisted Patrick's help (thanks, Patrick!) to get the couches in the house and on our initial setup, we were discouraged. The couches were MUCH bigger than we thought they would be and the did not fit in the configuration that we envisioned. Someone said to me, "Your husband is a carpenter. You'd think he could have brought a measuring tape when you went couch shopping!" Hahaha...

Anyway, we didn't, and couches in a 200 sq. ft. living room are MUCH bigger than they look in a 20,000 sq. ft. showroom! So, we had to get creative and re-arrange our family room. But in the end, we're pretty happy with the new arrangement and we LOVE the couches. They are definitely living up to the comfort expectation!

Oh yeah, and with respect to the 21 days - it took us exactly 21 days before we caved in and let Nikita join us on the brand, new couches. Ugh. I can't believe it. We said we would NOT let Nikita on the new couches. We're such SUCKERS for our dog!

winter, part deux

I know I haven't been really good with blogging lately. I'm tired, very pregnant and all those other excuses. I have a couple of draft posts that are sitting there waiting for me to complete - one is about how winter hit us in Vancouver this year. Most of the Vancouver bloggers I know did at least one post about the amount of snow we got in Vancouver at Christmastime. It was insane.

What is more insane, is the amount of snow we're getting in Vancouver in March! This is just too memorable for me NOT to post! I think this is the first snowfall in Vancouver that I have witnessed in March since I moved here in 1995. I know that my family in Toronto and parts back east are laughing at my incredulity over snow in March - but March in Vancouver is the time of year where the cherry blossoms start to appear, and on those first few sunny weekends, the motorcyclists start to insure their bikes for the year. It's definitely not the time of year where our weather forecasters predict 5 to 15 cm of snow!

buena vista

Brian is currently building a house in White Rock. He's getting ready to put up the roof trusses on the 4th floor of this 4-storey house. Now, I know I get to sit at a desk all day when I work and Brian has to brave the elements and workplace hazards. But when he sends me a photo from his cell phone of what work looks like, I can't help but think that he has the better job today. Furthermore, these people are going to have a damn nice view when they move into their new home...

blades of glory

We always knew that we'd get Josh on skates pretty early, but we never actually thought it would be this early! I happened to be browsing our local recreation guide and discovered that they had Parent and Tot skating lessions starting at 2.5 years old! Josh isn't quite 2.5 yet, but I figured that he started walking early, so maybe he would start skating early!

So, we figured we'd take Josh out on the ice and if he liked it, great! If not, then the program would reimburse us our money and we would hang up Josh's skates for a year and try again next year.

I debated whether I should get him regular skates or the double-bladed "Bob" skates. In the end, the decision was made for me because I couldn't find any regular skates in Josh's size. If anyone knows where I can find youth size 6 skates, let me know please! So, until his feet get a bit bigger, he'll have to settle for the Bob skates.

Well, we're not quite sure how Josh feels about it quite yet. Both Brian and I went on the ice with him. I wasn't about to hold on to a precariously balanced toddler in my "condition" but I wanted to get pictures and spend the time on the ice with Josh. Needless to say, Brian had to keep Josh on his 2 feet (as well as get his own skating legs back!) and he said that he felt it in his legs after the 25-minute lesson.

At the beginning of the lesson, Josh could barely stand on the Bob skates, much less move his feet. There was ALOT of falling down. By the end, he seemed to get the hang of shuffling his feet. He could shuffle around just holding onto one of Brian's hands! But the falling down had taken it's toll by that point and each time he did fall down, he cried. So, the brief 25 minutes on the ice was DEFINTELY enough!

But he's been talking about "Josh skating" and "hockey ball" lately and today, on tv, there were some little girls learning to play ringette. Josh watched the tv intently and then he enthusiastically said, "Guys skating!". So, I think he's ready for tomorrow's lesson...

12 days...or so

For the past few years, Christmas for me, and then for me and Brian after that, used to involve a decision about where we would spend the holidays - in Toronto? in Albany? in Maple Ridge? in Seattle? The last time I actually put up a tree in my house before last year was when I was still living at home with my parents!

Now that our own family is growing, we find that Christmas is more like the event it used to be when we were kids - this time, of course, we're the ones making it happen! Josh is only 2 years old and I'm sure he won't remember this particular Christmas, but he's having fun along the way and learning some Christmas traditions while he's at it!
Brian got our lights up early this year. We had them on outside before December 1st! We did the tree the first weekend in December. Last year, Josh was too young, so we just did the tree after he went to bed. This year, we put up the tree with Josh. He was interested in the lights and ornaments, but he wasn't much interested in putting them on the tree...


Josh was introduced to advent calendars this year. Auntie Val gave him a chocolate one, which he LOVED. He was good about having only one per day, though. And he was also good at recognizing the picture on the piece of chocolate! Funny how fast kids pick things up when there are sweets involved!

Also, Josh's buddy, Elijah's grandmother gave Josh an ornament advent calendar. There were 24 pockets on the bottom calendar, each containing a miniature ornament wrapped in tissue paper. The top part of the calendar is a Christmas tree, with 24 buttons on it. Each day, we would open an ornament and put it on one of the buttons on the tree. Josh had a blast. He would inspect each ornament, play with it for a bit and then we'd put it on the "tree". The last ornament, of course, was the baby Jesus. We told him that Christmas was the celebration of baby Jesus' birthday and Josh went right into a chorus of "Happy Birthday". Too funny...

And then there was Santa. Last year's Santa photo was a bit of a disaster, but I figured I would try again anyway. After all, Josh DID warm up to the Disney characters after a couple of days on the cruise.

Josh's first encounter with Santa this year was at my company's kids Christmas party. He didn't seem to react to Santa. He had to go up to Santa to get his gift, but we didn't get him to sit on Santa's lap or anything. Josh seemed perfectly fine with all of it!

Next, we visited Santa at Motoring Munchkins. I asked Josh if he wanted to visit Santa and he said yes, so we joined the line! The resulting photo turned out pretty well! Josh would NOT sit in Santa's lap and he wouldn't even sit on my knee closest to Santa, but when I asked him to say cheese, he pulled off the cutest "cheese" smile. This was the result...
A week or so later, we were at Metrotown and I asked Josh again if he wanted to see Santa. Surprise, surprise - he said yes again! I coached him this time to sit on Santa's knee and he seemed pretty ok with it! Unfortunately, the boy in line before Josh wanted absolutely nothing to do with Santa and screamed and cried as his parents forced him on Santa's knee. Josh saw this and said, "Baby sad" all the while clinging to me with a kung-fu death grip. Needless to say, he wouldn't sit on Santa's knee after that, but we got a pretty good shot with him on my knee closest to Santa!
The Christmas season definitely seems more "festive" with a child. It no longer just feels like the time of year that you have buy presents for everyone and then eat a lot of food and spend a lot of time with family. It's actually a bit more fantastical, where you stop and look at lights and decorations, talk to Santa Claus and start your own little family traditions that your children will look forward to and remember for years to come.

the second time around

No two pregnancies are alike. That's what we're told right from the beginning. It's true. Though there are triggers that bring back the memories and emotions from other times, it's never truly quite the same.

I said that I would never forget pregnancy nausea, but I guess I did forget until this time around. NOW, I know I will NEVER forget it. Especially since it seems to have gone away as quickly as it came. Something that didn't happening with Josh. Nausea seemed to linger throughout the first time around and this time, it completely gone, except for the occasional wave.

This time around, I feel SO MUCH BIGGER. Now, I'm told that you start showing sooner the second time around, but this is ridiculous. Someone came up to me a few weeks ago and asked if I was 6 months along. I was 4.5 months! Ugh.

And I'm much more of a hypochondriac this time. Every little thing that seems "out-of-the-ordinary" makes me worry. When my nausea went away JUST LIKE THAT, I panicked that something was wrong with the baby and I paged my mid-wife. When we went for our 18-week ultrasound, I had so many more questions and felt so much more relief when I saw the baby and heard it's heartbeat. Everytime I feel a cramp, I worry. I'm just that much more "in tune" with my body (and baby!).

Being more "in tune" also has it's moments of pure bliss. On November 25th, I felt the baby for the first time. I was just approaching 18 weeks. I didn't feel Josh kick until I was 6 months along! I've since felt the baby poking, jabbing and kicking me countless times. It is one of those rare, indescribable feelings that only a mother can experience. It actually chokes me up to think that this will likely be the last time that I experience this!

Last night, for the first time, Brian was able to feel the baby kick. It was such an amazing thing to be able to share with him at 20.5 weeks. I don't think he felt Josh kick until 7 months. Oh...gotta go...baby's kicking and I have to sit back and enjoy it while it lasts!