5 Klassen's: March 2006

Happy Spring!

Well as one person mentioned, we have a wonderful way to celebrate the start of spring each year now -- Myles birthday! As we are slowly returning to the land of the living, (though I might emphasize the SLOWLY) I thought I might take a chance to post a little update.

A few people have asked about the differences between what we experienced with Naomi and Lilah vs Myles. While there was no trip to China, no shopping, more physical pain, and a SLIGHTLY smaller kid, all the emotions and feelings are the same. We couldn't be more thrilled with all three of our little treasures and enjoying most of the moments. :)

Many people have also asked about how Myles arrived -- so I thought I'd post a little info to fill in the details. I went into labour on the 14th of March around 5pm. We were ever so fortunate to have a friend down the road (Tracey Jibb) who came down around 10:30pm and stayed with the girls for the night, then took them to her home the next morning. Tracey has babysat both of the girls and so they felt right at home and comfortable with her. One less thing for us to worry about.

I laboured through the night at Peterborough Regional Health Center, where I might add that the care was superb (even when I was hollering my head off at 3am for an anesthetist to come, put in an epidural and relieve me of my misery). At around 8am, it was determined that Myles' head was not moving downward even though I was dilating -- so Pitocin was started. Add to that some barfing started (which was nothing new for me since I've been praying to the porcelain gods since June anyhow). Around 9am, we were told that they were concerned Myles was not tolerating the contractions well (his heart-rate was dropping after contractions), so the pitocin was turned off for a while. I was checked again, but Myles had made no progress in his downward movements. Around 10am it was deemed safe to resume the pitocin. All hell broke loose around 10:30am, when Myles' heart rate dropped and was undetectable for about 10 minutes. My OB showed up very quickly and it was determined that since Myles was not heeding his eviction notice, that it was time for more drastic measures -- a C-Section. The first question out of my mouth, "Can you do a tubal ligation at the same time???"! :)

From then on, we were whisked into what I call "mad mode". Introduced to another anesthetist (who was amazingly reassuring), brought into an OR and prepped for surgery. Myles was born at 12:44pm. In the pictures below, you will notice that his head is quite cone-shaped. Turns out he was malpositioned and his head would not fit through the birth canal in the position he was in. Hence the cone-head. Nope, he did not have any suction. Once his apgar score was reasonably stable, they took him off to be weighed and measured -- 10lbs 3oz, 22 inches long. Yup, we breed them big around here. My brother no longer can brag about having the biggest kid (his was 9lbs 8oz), although I would have enjoyed letting him keep that title! We kind of chuckle because our children will probably be reverse order for size with Myles being the largest and Naomi being the smallest. At the rate he's eating, he'll be out of his booster seat before Naomi and Lilah even make it to one!

After a three day stint in the hospital (I guess you could call it the vacation portion of the journey, although the food was not as good as in China) I returned home. Thankful that Joel's parents were able to make the trekk from Hanover to help us out. They stayed until this past Friday. We are now settling into a "routine??", OK well maybe we are just adapting to sleep deprivation, breast feeding and a baby who is as unpredictable as the weather but makes up for it in cuddles and cute.

Naomi and Lilah have adapted well to Myles and dote on him often. Neither has expressed a negative feeling against him, although there have been a few moments of tears and some confusion over the whole breast feeding part. Thankfully only babies who don't have teeth can breastfeed, though I think Naomi would like to pull hers out in favor of trying a little of Myles' food!

We headed to our doc last Wednesday for a check-in. Myles, at 7 days old has regained his birthweight and even added an ounce plus 1/2". He is 10lbs 4oz and 22.5 inches long. He's a very easy going baby, though a bit demanding when it comes to the food department. He sleeps through the madness around here during the day, and has given us up to 2.5 consecutive hours sleep at night. Everything is going well and we are thrilled with our new little man.

Thanks to everyone for all the well-wishes, food, gifts and wonderful favours. We are always saying how fortunate we are to have such good friends and family members! Enjoy the newest photos.

Cheers,
the Klassen Clan (all five of us, JKLMN!)