Counting down before our lives changed

It now feels like ages ago since I was pregnant. Our daughter, Mylla, was born exactly two months ago. I feel like I need to document some of the time leading up to her arrival.

The summer continued to be fantastic all the way from early July all the way into September (and it is still gorgeous). Charlie did the Kneeknacker race in July. The Knee Knacker is a is a challenging 50 km running race along the Baden-Powell Trail from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove. I was volunteering for a first aid station and provided support in form of energy food and harden-up pills. Despite very little training he finished the race with a big smile on his face.

 The view from Cypress mountain as I am driving up to my first aid station at 6am.

Our friend Nick from Auckland came and cheered Charlie along at several spots along the way. This is at Capilano Dam less than half way. 

 

Charlie also passed Lynn Valley and our home grounds. His running style was still somewhat gracious compared to the finish line!

We had friends from NZ and the UK who came here to bike (and to drink nice beer, eat lots of food and talk crap). Charlie showed them the awesome riding that BC has to offer.

Dugall and Zane enjoyed the chocolate desserts after a hot day on the bike

Charlie and Dugall with two Stanton bikes in Pemberton. Not a common sight.

Charlie, Zane, Mark and Dugall in a floatplane in Chilcotin

The last few months of my pregnancy got very busy. We ended up buying a townhouse in Upper Lynn Valley and we were not able to take possession of it until the day I went on maternity leave (week 38 of the pregnancy). To be on the safe side we allowed 6 weeks of overlap between our rental place and the new home so that we didn't have to move at the same time as going into labour. That would have been interesting...

 

Between trying to enjoy the nice weather, finish off work and prepare to have a baby, we also had to get ready for the move. The place we bought is a strata house located right by the forest. We have walking and riding trails literally on our doorstep. That totally sold it to us! We can view straight into the beautiful forest from our house. It will be a great place for a child to grow up and for us to easily be able to escape on little biking and running missions.

One of our last walks. It was certainly getting heavy to walk, especially since my glute muscles had totally given up.

 

During my pregnancy I went for numerous swims in Lynn Creek. This particular day it seemed a bit too cold even for a heavily pregnant woman.

Before we moved in we decided to rip out all the horrible beige coloured carpets, put new hardwood floor in the living room, paint the entire house and install better lighting and double glazed windows throughout the house. Although we used trades people to do it all, it was surprising how much work was still involved from our side. I totally banked on going into labour late and it was very lucky that I did (I was 41 weeks when she finally arrived). I was simply too busy to have a baby! I met people every day for the first week of possession to get quotes so that we could choose providers and get good deals. Once that was agreed we had to project manage all the labour and make sure that the timing of everything worked out.

Although the days were pretty busy I had some time to nap otherwise I would have fallen over from exhaustion. I felt pretty good to the very end. Walking felt more and more uncomfortable but I went swimming on a regular basis and managed to cycle right up to my due date (trust me..not in busy traffic).

Towards my due date I thought that some rigorous exercise like removing wall paper could help the process along, but with no result. I had acupuncture to also spur things along, but nothing happened.  We had a few curries and all the other things that they say work (no further details are required :-).

I was due 27 September but it wasn't until Thursday morning of 3 October that the contractions started properly. I woke up a 2 am and couldn't fall asleep again as they felt quite strong. We timed them and since they were really regular we got all excited and thought we had to go to the hospital. The nurse on the phone just said  -You sound far to comfortable..call back when you can hardly talk!

I waited until the morning and after no sleep that night I felt that the contractions were a lot stronger. When I called the hospital again I got the same answer - You shouldn't be able to talk to me through a contraction. It's too early to come in now. Wait until the afternoon when you have your appointment.
In the afternoon I was pretty uncomfortable and I was 3 cm dilated when I arrived for a check up. They still sent us home since it was still early days.

While I was suffering through my contractions, Charlie was trying to finalise a report for work and he also had to rush off to see the guys laying the carpet in the new house. It was all happening!

Throughout the evening I was getting more and more focused to relax through contractions. I had not had any sleep since 2 am and by the time 2 am (4 October) came around we decided to go to the hospital. Every bump on the road felt so painful and the walk to the Labour and Delivery ward felt like a marathon. I was truly disappointed when I was only 4 cm dilated when the nurse checked me. I got some morphine at 3 am to be able to get some sleep (in hope to spur things along).

It seemed to take forever for the morphine to work at all. Charlie (who didn't get any drugs) passed out in the arm chair next to me and snored like a trooper while I was suffering through my contractions. Although I didn't think I got any rest I must have nodded off between the bouts of suffering. At 7 am I was all of a sudden fully dilated when the nurse checked again. The last task was just to push like there was no tomorrow! Charlie was so amazingly wonderful and supportive throughout the labour. Towards the end he force-fed me high energy food like I was in a long distance race. :-) The labour experience certainly wasn't that bad..or maybe I have already blanked out the bad parts.

At 8.07 am on October 4, our little Mylla was born at Lions Gate hospital. She was BIG (9 pounds - 55 cm long) and had lots of hair. I have seen a picture of Charlie when he was newborn and it was almost scary how identical they looked.

We got ourselves a cute little monkey!

It is an amazing experience to have a little baby. Both Charlie and I are over the moon and we are really enjoying parenthood so far! More stories to follow when I have another spare moment...