Scott Jeffrey Underwood

Scott Jeffrey Underwood

October 20, 2011

10:19 pm

8.0 lbs 

52 cm

Our little guy has been here for weeks now and we couldn't love him anymore.

Here's our story:

I went into labour ten days early, on Wednesday October 19.  That day we had a large pressure system move in with tons of rain.  I learned later, once we were in the hospital that this probably pushed me into labour.  (There were eight other women that came in that night, all because their water broke and almost all were early)  In the evening I started to feel strange and we decided to give it the night and go to the hospital if it was worse in the morning.  At three in the morning though I woke up and jumped out of bed, pure instinct I think and seconds later my water broke.  I quickly woke Mike up by yelling "Mike we have to go to the hospital NOW, my water broke".  I've never seen Mike move so fast, "ok what do you need me to do, just stop moving and relax, I'll get everything!?!?".  There was no looking lovingly at each other saying the baby is coming like in the movies, I'm sorry but when your first child decides to come early and at 3 in the morning you kinda panic.  So we grabbed our somewhat pre packed bags and went to the hospital, leaving Baxter in shock, he was so confused.  We checked into the hospital and I was hooked up for a stress test.  My doctor was on call the night and we saw him in his last few hours of his shift, he looked at my print outs and said "do you feel those contraction?" my response was "No, what?!" Mike and I were shocked I do not have a high tolerance for pain and I didn't start to feel my contractions until later in the afternoon.  We were set up in our room by 5am and called my parents.  When you have a dog, part of planning for a baby coming is finding someone to dog sit for you. So my parents picked Baxter up and he got to have his own little vacation at their house.  Once we were settled in our birthing room I was set up to an IV and given something to help my contractions become stronger.  I really was feeling fine, other than being tired from practically no sleep the night before and freaking out because in hours we would be parents. Very slowly though the contractions started to kick in, eventually Mike started watching the readings and helping we through the big ones.  And then I got to the point where it was too much pain to have to go though for hours and I got an epidural.  Wow was I glad I did that! The pain was almost gone and I got some sleep.  A few hours later though it was time to start pushing.  The nurse went though  everything that we needed to know, what I had to do and what Mike had to do (so glad we didn't go to prenatal classes because the nurse told us everything in five minutes). I will spare you with the details, don't worry Mike and I will never forget them.  After two hours of pushing and some help from the Doctor, Scott was born and cried right away.  They put him on my chest and I was in shock, that just came out of me?!? and it's a real person?!? He was perfect! The nurses took him and did there thing and then they gave him to Mike.  I know that I did the actual work but to see Mike hold him that soon after was defiantly rewarding to him after all he did.  Mike was beyond amazing, he got me though everything, I'm one lucky wife.  After I was all cleaned up Scott and I laid together, it was amazing.  Then we made our way to our postpartum room.  The first night was pretty good, we all got some much needed sleep.  We spent the next day and night there as well and came home on Saturday.
Unfortunately Scott developed jaundice though and we were sent back to the hospital the following Monday and had to spend two days in pediatrics but that's a story for another day, it took me seven weeks to write this post.

Here are some pictures of Scott from day one to today:

Veva

On Thursday September 22, we lost our best friend Veva.  Veva lived a few weeks past her thirteenth birthday; her aging body just got the best of her.  If you ever got to meet Veva you knew that she was something special.  She was a beautiful yellow lab that came from a very strong and talented family and brought so much joy into our family.  Sorry I didn't write this right away but losing her has been a lot harder than I ever thought it would be, yes partly because I am loaded with pregnancy hormones but also because of the huge part of my heart that I had for her. 

Here's a brief story of how she came into our life and how she made it wonderful. 

About fourteen years ago I wanted one thing and one thing only, a dog.  What kid doesn't want a dog??  I begged and begged for my parents to get one and since my brother was around the age of five it was easy to get him on the "Can we get a dog?!?!" bandwagon.  My parents seemed reluctant to the idea, like any parent should, what if I lost interest after a week and then they had to do everything, did I really know how much work it would be?  It seemed like we were begging forever but I know now after getting my own dog with Mike it is a very big decision.  My parents would often dog sit for friends and my brother and I were told that if we wanted a dog we had to prove that we could help with dog sitting duties and did we ever.  The next stipulation was I had to find a breeder and do all the necessary research.  We decided that we wanted to get a Lab, a yellow lab to be specific.  I got dog magazines, looked in the paper and called many places.  Then we a found a breeder near Lindsay that had puppies on the way.  My mom and I went to visit shortly after the puppies were born and confirmed that we did want one once they were ready to leave their mother.  I couldn't believe it, we were getting a dog, and I was so excited.  We got everything we needed, food, collar, leash, crate... awaiting the day that we could bring our puppy home.  Once the puppies were six weeks old we went to pick out our female.  Have you ever heard that puppies chose their owners?  Well when we went to "pick" our pup, we were walking into the breeders yard and this cute little female came running to us, my brother sat down and she jumped all over him.  Yes, Veva choose us.  On the way home in the car we put her in a crate, we wanted to do everything right with this puppy but the breeder lived pretty far from our house and the crying was getting to be much, so we opened the crate and she sat with my bother and I all the way home.  From that point on the four of us had a new best friend, a new member of our family.

Veva went on adventures with us, protected us and was there by our side through many many things.  For everything that Veva gave to us we gave back to her.  She was so lucky to live at my parent's house, there was a large yard for her to run in, a pond and a river to swim in and a forest for her to explore in.  Veva was still a young pup until she was at least the age of eight; she was very active and attentive.  This and the constant attention that she received from my family is why she lived as long as she lived.  Once Veva started to age my mom started to make her food, she would give her different food depending on how she was feeling or acting.  My mom made feeding and medication schedules for everyone to follow depending on who was home.  Thank you mom for everything you did for Veva. Thank you also Dad and Ryan for taking care of Veva, like I said before she was a best friend to all of us. 

Mike and I brought Baxter into Veva's life at a late age; she often wanted to play with him but really didn't have the energy or knew she couldn't keep up with him like she would have been able to years earlier.  They would go outside for walks around the yard together, well actually Veva would walk and Baxter would run circles around her and the yard and re-smell everything she smelt.  Baxter is always ready to play, his favourite thing to do is play with other dogs so he would sometimes try to get Veva going but she would put him in his place.  Veva was the only dog that could control Baxter, one growl, one snap and he knew she was in charge (sometimes she was better than me at disciplining him).  Baxter knew who she was to him, the first time they met was one week after we brought him home and he tried to drink milk from her, she was the "mom" dog.  Whenever we would take Baxter to my parent's house we would say "Baxter do you want to go to Veva's house?" and he would bolt for the door.  He's defiantly going to miss her.

Here are some pictures of our Veva.

The impact that an animal can have on your life is amazing, no one can understand the bond until they have experienced it for themselves. Dogs are incredible beings and everyone should experience them.  My sadness for the loss of my "first" dog is because of how large the bond the two of us had.  Even on her last day she wagged her tail the minute she saw me, I'm very grateful that I was able to say goodbye and rub her belly one last time. Even though I moved away from home she was always excited to see me, get attention from me and show me that she loved me.  She had the same love for Mike, often going right from me to Mike for his affection. 

Veva I will never forget you, thank you for all the happiness you have brought to my life.

The End Is Near

I'm coming into the home stretch now.  I will be 34 weeks on Saturday and really feeling pregnant now.  I'm actually gaining the proper amount of weight now and not having to worry about not gaining enough.  I feel like the boy is running out of room and he is definitely getting stronger, if I sit where he is squished he can push right on my ribs to make my move.  Sleeping is not my friend anymore, I used to be the best sleeper, my husband hates it about me, he was just jealous, I could sleep through a freight train going by (I actually have before) but now I'm waking up all throughout the night.  I may be exhausted during the day but at least I know my baby will be able to wake me up probably just from moving.  I've packed up a bag for myself and the baby to go to the hospital, the baby's bag is the amazing diaper bag my parents got me for my birthday, love it so much.  I'm hoping that we don't have to make the trip with them until I'm actually due but you can never be too prepared.

Here's a picture of what I look like this week, sorry about blocking my face but 7am is way too early for pictures when you don't get enough sleep.

*notice the baby gate, we are used to it already.  now it's a dog/ cat gate, it's going to be a very long time before we don't have one of these around.  now we just need two more.

Baxter has been good lately, as long as he gets a walk in at some point of the day.  Mike is on afternoons this month so I've been taking advantage of being able to relax and do nothing for a good chunk of the night and Baxter, well he thinks he might as well do the same. 

*He started by playing with the ropes but then gave up and decided to try and get a belly rub instead. 

Week 25

Well things have gotten interesting, we may have chosen a name for the boy, which is good because we were worried that we were going to have to call him Ekim (mike backwards and our little joke).  Unfortunately we have decided not to tell anyone until he is born, so who knows the name might change.  The baby's room is empty now and awaiting a crib and dresser ( I had to pick the only set that wasn't instock, so I'm hoping the store gets more).  I registered at Babies R Us  with everything that we are going to need.  I'm so excited about the stroller, I know crazy right? this is what I get excited about these days.  The baby's kicks keep getting stronger, Mike saw one the other day from the other side of the couch, just look at my belly when I'm eating, you are sure to see it move.  So that's the good news, baby is good and everything is starting to come together.
Bad news is I'm not doing the greatest, well I wasn't last week and am recovering.  Two weeks ago I was having back pain, nothing to be concerned about when you are pregnant.  Then the back pain went away and I started to have pain in my tailbone on Friday, again could have been nothing to worry about when you are pregnant.  Except with each day the pain was getting worse and turing into pressure and where the pressure was I could feel a lump that was getting bigger and bigger.  When it got so bad that I was brought to tears just by sitting down Mike said that's it you need to go to the hospital.  So last Monday morning I went to the emergency room just to get a doctors opinion.  The triage nurse laughed at me and told me "that's pregnancy, I couldn't sit the whole second half of my pregnancy" so I felt a little stupid for going to the ER for pregnancy pain but told her the lump was concerning and I just wanted to get it checked out.  So I waited only for about twenty minutes and was in with the doctor, 7 am on Monday morning is a good time (if there is any) to go the ER.  I explained everything to the doctor and he checked my tailbone out, which was the most pain I had had yet.  The doctor walked over to the other side of the room and said "ya, that's not normal", my heart sank.  He explained to me that I had a Pilonidal Infection and that I needed to take antibiotics (baby safe) but there was only a 50/50 chance that the infection would go away.  If not the infection would turn into a Abscess and I would have to come in for Surgery in three to five days.  So in the morning of the second day of taking the Antibiotics, Tuesday, I started to feel better but then the afternoon came and I could hardly move and once again Mike said your going to the hospital again tomorrow.  That night was the worst, I had to have four showers, hot water was the only thing that gave me any relief, I gave in a finally took Tylenol and hardly slept.  We were at the hospital by 10am on Wednesday and I was booked to have the surgery.   The surgery meant I would have to be knocked out for five minutes, Mike and I were hesitant and Mike said flat out to the doctor "if this was your wife would you want her to be knocked out and have this surgery", the doctor reassured us and I said "do it, please get rid of this pressure".  So I was hooked up to an IV and laid on a gurney until they came in to do the surgery at 1pm.  There were at least six doctors/ nurses in the room with me and they say it took me awhile to go to sleep but it felt like ten seconds to me.  When I woke up there was only one nurse there are she said everything went great and I had thanked them all for coming to my house when I came out of it, I knew I would say something stupid.  I was still in a lot of pain and a little drowsy but was hopeful that it would get better.  The worst part at this point was was hips were killing me, I had to keep switching sides to lay on but would have to lift my self up because I couldn't lay on back.  My blood pressure was down so I had to stay until my IV was done, I was allowed to go home at 4.
I have been home ever since and the hospital has set up for a nurse to come to my house once everyday to change packing and dressings (sorry tmi), I might been home from work for another two weeks but hopefully will be back to normal earlier than that.  Having to rest and do nothing for most of the day can get pretty boring but the more I do it the faster I will heal and I am in a much better mood now, the first couple of days after my surgery got me really down.  I think that my pregnancy hormones got the best of me, I hated the way I felt, I'm not a sad person and I felt extremely sad but being able to move around a lot more and to be able to sit even if only for short periods of time makes me feel a lot better.   

Week 23

I think we are ready for this little guy, we may not have our nursery set up yet but we do have a Sophie and a pair of Osh Kosh Bgosh overalls.  What more does a kid need?  I loved my Osh Kosh overalls as a kid, I even had a fancy pink pair. (Thank you Mom) 

Everything is going well with me, I had an interesting doctors appointment last week.  It was my last appointment with my regular doctor, my next appointment I start going to an OB, closer to home.  I went into the doctors office worried about my weight, not because I thought I gained too much but because I felt like I wasn't gaining enough.  I'm having so much trouble wrapping my head around this. Worried about not gaining weight? Women do that?!? From all the research I did, I thought that I should have gained, in four weeks, 4 to 8 lbs but I wasn't even close to that.  The nurse said nothing and when I asked my doctor he said I was fine.  I guess since I did gain something and my belly is growing (a lot) I'm good.  When my doctor was checking my belly he got out his measuring tape and measured the size of my belly, the first thing he said was "hmmmm".  That's exactly what I wanted to hear, wow.  Then he said "you are measuring at 24 weeks" and I was only 22 weeks and "well, he's a big boy".  I wasn't surprised that he thought he was big but my doctor is very soft spoken and polite, so for him to make a comment like that, we are in for a big kid, this guy is probably going to grow to be taller than Mike.  My mom is convinced that he's draining everything I've got, sounds about right. 

Baxter has also grown more and more attached to me, he needs to snuggle me every morning and every night.  I think he's protecting me and the baby.  I really don't mind but the only problem is he thinks that my belly is his personal pillow.  Ummm sorry, but no, Mike has to keep pulling him off of me and he just looks at him like "come on, it's so comfortable". 

"Our" Bed

Well I'm really getting used to this King size bed and guess who else is?

Ya, the dog.  Before you think we are too crazy, we do not let him sleep under the covers.  In the morning I make the bed when I get up, Baxter stays at the bottom of the bed but when I come out of the shower some days this is what my bed looks like. At least he is sleeping on Mike's pillow and not mine.  Oh to be a dog....

I have started walking Baxter in the morning, just around the block.  It's perfect for everyone, he's too tired to pull on his leash too much, I get some exercise before my day of sitting at a desk and he's not going crazy waiting for Mike to get home to let him out. 

This past weekend we went up to Collingwood with some good friends/family and it was just the escape we needed.  Here are some pics from our great weekend.  Forgot to take some while Mike and I were golfing though, hopefully I will remember next time.  Golfing pregnant is awesome, until you go to make a difficult putt and your son starts to kick you, as Mike said "Make this putt Mom!"

*the fancy pants pictures are from the Instagram app on my iPhone, love it!!

Funny Funny

Yesterday I discovered a new (to me) blog through twitter (has technology taken over my life?).  It had me laughing so hard I've already read the post three times.  Amber Dusick made a blog post about what it her nights are like with two kids, it's amazing and hilarious, check it out here.  After looking at her blog some more I found another post about changing diapers here.  So, so funny. 

Also here's what I look like now, at least I look pregnant now.