Parental leave is grand!

Our daughter Cally is two weeks old today.  Wow.  She is a breastfeeding champ!

Five days old and she can already dunk it

Julia has done so well postpartum, she's the breastfeeding queen!  Julia is almost back into pre-prego clothes, although she still has her so-called 'paunch'!  It's super cute.  Her breasts are hilarious as well.  They became scary gigantic in the first week, but now that Cally has settled into her feeding rhythm, they are not so uncomfy.

We have gotten into a bit of a routine.  Sleep until 9-10.  I piddle around the house doing some chores,  taking care of the animals, and feeding us.  Julia feeds Cally and naps.  Julia has been getting up to feed and soothe our daughter in the nighttime and sometimes does not sleep until 3am.  If I could feed you Cally, I would too!

We usually have some visitors, mainly Julia's parents.   Grandma Lynn loves to walk and hold Cally, for long periods of time.  Grandpa Kerry is still a bit novice with holding and changing but he's a ready learner.  Uncle Rob has come several times with Lisa, and Auntie Kate has come and fed us several times!  My Mom and sister Rebecca are coming on Thursday with our niece Sophie!  Exciting!

Other visitors include: Dillon and Terri, Gail, Frances (who accidently came a week early for the baby shower, oops!), Erin, Tricia and Chad, Jay and Jaime, Brennan and Becky, and of course Ben and Loral and Doug.

We have been able to go a few places with Cally.  Photography session, childbirth class, walks to Tastebuds, Costco, Shoppers, etc.  She does not enjoy the car seat very much, unless the van is moving.  She likes the wrap, but it's hard to get her in the exact right spot so she is happy.  We tried the Baby Bjorn today for a trip to the snowy, slushy, muddy dogpark.  It seemed to work well.

Seeshel's Photography is where we got these done

I have about 4 weeks left for parental leave (it's sexist apparently to call it paternal/maternal leave).  I'm enjoying my time off with my family!  I've applied for some EI compensation for the rest of my leave.  And Julia's parents have helped financially as well, which takes a lot of pressure off.

Everything seems more real now that Cally is here.  Our move to Saba seems a lot closer, and I am feeling apprehension, not only about the move itself, but whether or not I am up for the challenge of Med School.  I know I can do it, but I will need Julia to support me like she does.  I will also need for her to be okay with me being away all day studying while she takes care fo the house.

On that note, I am loving being a father and husband very much.  And I thank everyone who cares about our family.  Please keep reading our posts!

Baby!!

Julia went into labour on Monday morning, October 25.  We were excited but apprehensive that it might just be another false labour, like it was last Thursday.  I came up with the idea to go swimming in the early afternoon to pass the time and possible ease things along....it worked!  We went to Lakewood and swam and played water basketball and interacted with the special people and even went down the waterslide.  Julia had regular (every 5-7 minutes) contractions the entire time.  We got home around 430pm and things kept going from there.
We called our midwife, Jessica, at 6pm and were told to keep an eye on things for two hours and call her if things progressed.  We then decided to watch our favourite movie, 'The Big Lebowski'.  At 845pm Jessica called back and said she was coming over.  She checked and Julia was 6cm dilated and that we were going to have a baby in the early morning!
I got the pool all ready while Jessica got all her stuff ready.  Julia continued to labour very well in the tub.  We actually had to boil water to fill the birthing pool because we had used so much hot water already while she was in the bathtub.  Once the birthing pool was ready, Julia got in and her contraction pains started getting easier.
First-stage labour lasted until 2am.  Julia had been zoned into her contractions and dealt very well with them.  She began to push in the pool but had a tough time focusing her energy properly.  The midwife then had us move Julia onto the toilet where she pushed for about 15 minutes.  After an unsuccessful trial of side pushing in the pool again, Jessica went out to her car and brought in a birthing stool for Julia to try.
Julia began pushing well on the stool and after 30 minutes more, at 410am, our baby was delivered!  We were so overjoyed that it was over a minute before Jessica asked us whether or not we wished to check the gender.  We were so surprised that it was a girl!  We had been certain the entire pregnancy that it would be a boy but what did we know.  I cut the cord after 5-10 minutes of celebrating.  I am so proud of my wife for achieving what we had set out to do, deliver a healthy baby, naturally, at our home.  She was extremely determined and focused throughout the night and I am so thankful she was able to experience what a natural childbirth is like.  She was so high off of the endorphins and oxytocin for the next couple of hours, I had to laugh!
We named our daughter Callypso Catherine Keil, we call her Cally.  She has been nothing but happy and healthy for these first couple of days.  She has began to breastfeed well after a few days of practice.  Julia has been unbelievably patient and determined for Cally and her to team up properly to breastfeed.  It is really beginning to pay off, now that Julia's breastmilk has come in today.

Callypso Catherine Keil

We are taking Cally to our last Bradley Childbirth class tonight to share our story with everyone else, yet to deliver.  We also get to eat a bunch of cake.  Yum.

Waiting for Baby....

Julia has been ready to go into labour for at least a month now, it seems.  Our actual due date is Friday, October 22.  Our midwife is expecting us to deliver anytime, stemming from last week's visit.  I have two more days of work left, the house is ready, it's time to go!

For those of you who don't know, Julia and I had tried to become pregnant for several years.  Through a series of complications and setbacks, we finally were able to begin seeing a fertility specialist.  We lived through a VERY emotional January, where Julia underwent daily hormone injections and bloodwork/ultrasound three times a week.  We got lucky and found out we were pregnant just before our February vacation!

Backyard fun in October

Once we found out that there was only one baby in there, (believe us, there was a great chance of multiples) Julia and I decided to have our pregnancy looked after by a midwife.  We are committed to natural childbirth and are planning to have our baby at home with a waterbirth.

Waiting for our midwife to arrive

We just need for labour to start!  Spicy foods and activity (pg and x-rated) have been our main focus the past week.  It'll come soon, we are certain.  We will let everyone know soon.