My wife gave birth to our beautiful baby girl on Saturday 11/27!
I've heard so many times how it's the best thing that's ever happened to people, their whole life and outlook changes, and on and on.
I finally understand what they meant. She's the best thing that's ever happened to my wife and I. My wife had a perfect pregnancy, labor and delivery. My daughter is in perfect health, which is all we could ever ask for.
And of course, she is the most beautiful baby I've ever seen!
Sorry if I offended the guys here by saying my daughter is the most beautiful. Don't argue it, you're not going to win
lol I will post a pic of my Daughter, the true most beautiful baby ever Stu!! lol
Congrats bud. It really is the best thing ever.
Did you watch the delivery? I have the weakest stomach in the world I watched the whole thing and it did not bother me at all. I have a whole new respect for my wife too. haha.
I was there the whole time. I'm pretty good at seeing stuff most people throw up at, as my health care profession de-sensitizes me to it somewhat. This was obviously at another level, but it didn't bother me at all. If I was watching someones else give birth, I'd have a different opinion of it though! Kind of like smelling someone else's doo-doo vs your own
I knew my wife is tough, but I din't think she's that tough. She didn't yell, scream, carry on, etc. She was obviously in pain, but she handled it like a champ. The epidural helped, but by no means did it make her completely numb.
I wouldn't have been nearly as good about it as she was.
Our newest music lover is Kathryn Alexandria Armenouhie B. Armenouhie was my great-grandmother's name. She's the person I've always looked up to most in life. Among many other things, she was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. I learned so many life lessons from her. When Kathryn is old enough to ask about her not so common name, I'll tell her all about my great-grandmother.
Thanks guys. The nights have been interesting. Its unintentionally worked out that I get the earlier shift, and she's got the later shift.
By earlier shift, I mean I'm on duty up until about 3 am or so. After that, I'm pretty much passed out and barely hear Kathryn. Kim usually takes over from 3 am 'till about 8 am, when we've both been up.
It's a labor of love. These are the good old days that we'll be telling her about...
I remember those nights Stu. The first two nights Brianna came home she didn't sleep at all unless we were holding her. My wife and I would take 2 hour shifts sitting up with her. At one point I was so tired I fell asleep on her bedroom floor with her (finally) sleeping on my chest. Needless to say, work was always a drag the next day.
Funny you mention falling asleep on the floor. I fell asleep holding her in the glider in her room last night. I jumped a little while dozzing off and very luckily caught myself before anything bad happened. Scared the crap out of me.
Stu- Is your lovely wife going on Matt Leave for the year? I think its fantastic you get a full year now. Every morning my lunch is made (lol just kidding). I find when I am at work I just cant wait to get home to see Ava. Pretty soon your daughter will find her routine and the nights become much better. That was my experience anyway. Ava seemed to sleep through the night for the first couple months. Now she is up twice a night because she is teething.
My older guy slept through the night from his first night home. The younger guy woke up once @ 1am for the 1st 3 months. He ate, threw up all over me and went back to sleep. I showered and got back in bed.
Nick, The US is behind Canada and the entire rest of the world (minus 3 small 3rd world countries) in terms of maternity leave. Kim gets 6 weeks paid, which are accrued vacation and personal time. She loses benefits (ie health insurance) after 12 weeks. That'll cost $600 per month on top of the lost salary.
Unfortunately we can't afford for her to stay home longer than 12 weeks due to the loss of salary and health insurance. If it wasn't for the health insurance, we could swing another month or two. We have no family in the area as well, so day-care is what it'll have to be at that point. It sucks, but I guess it could be worse.
In regards to sleep patterns, I read somewhere that babies don't develope malanin, which is the sleep regulation hormone, until about 4 months of age.
Stu - congratulations! Like you said, the main thing is that both wife and kid are healthy. No doubt that's a big hurdle to clear. All the best over the next 30 years!
Thanks, Dan. Before we found out we were having a girl, people would ask what we wanted to have. Our response was always the same - a healthy baby. Can't ask for more than that!
Congratulations. There is nothing comparable to the birth of a child and we are less than a month from our first grandchild - a girl. So, where are the pics bro?
Also, I grew up in Glendale, CA., which is now one of the largest Armenian populations outside of Armenia. Great people and if your grandmother survived that she is two things: incredibly tough and incredibly lucky. Best Wishes to you and your wife.
Thanks, Dak. By my father's reaction to our daughter being born, I'd say it's at least just as moving for grandparents as it is for parents. My father is old-school Armenian - shows very little emotion, has his way of doing everything, etc. The only time ever I saw him cry in the past was when my great-grandmother passed away. When he saw Kathryn for the first time, he was full of tears of joy.
I'm sure it'll get you too. Best of luck to you and your family for a healthy girl.
Stu - I had no idea you guys dont get a year. My lovely wife started Matt leave April so goes back to work next April. The Canadian Government provides her with 60 percent of her wage up to 36,000 a year max. 60 percent sounds low but that puts her in a lower tax bracket so she brings home around 80 percent of her wage. I guess HST taxes and high gas prices pay off somehow. *puke* I wanted to take a few months of leave myself but we would have to sell the house, cars, etc so I am stuck working...
How many trips (false alarms) did you take to the hospital? In the weekend Ava was born I took Danielle in around 6 times.lol. We thought we were counting the contractions right but when its your first time I am sure you skip a few seconds here and there.lol
We were pretty conciencious of that, and didn't go until it was time. She started having contractions on and off on Friday, but nothing major or consistent. She got up to go to the bathroom at about 3 am on Saturday and her water broke. For some reason she didn't think she was supposed to go to the hospital then, because she wasn't having strong contractions. I had her call the hospital's labor and delivery dept (good thing we had the number), and they told us to come in. I knew we were supposed to when the water broke, regardless of whatever else is going on. The doctor told Kim she should listen to me more often. I guess there's a first time for everything lol!
In the hospital at 3 am, Kathryn was born at 4:30 pm. Seemed like forever, yet it flew by at the same time.
lol Your lucky Stu. Danielle's water never broke (they broke it). The last time we went it (3-4 minute contractions) she was already 8cm dialated(spelling) and we were almost too late for her to get the epidural. Thankfully we weren't. Man oh man if we were I would had of been the fastest single parent on the planet.lol.
Right on man, fight to stay home. lol. Although parenthood is no walk in the park, Danielle claims it really does feel like your on a long vacation not having to work. *sigh*
My wife had 2 with epidural and the last without. She says the last was easiest to recover from (out of bed and walking within 8 hours)and she suffered no side effects (sore legs/back for weeks to follow).
They had a few complications with the epidural but D was up and walking in a few hours after delivery. No soreness to follow, luckily. They say they keep getting easier. I will leave it up to D to see if thats true.lol. Wow.
Kim was up and walking around pretty quickly. It would have been sooner if her left leg wasn't almost completely numb. I guess the anesthesiologist was the other star of the show. The nurse who did 99% of the delivery definitely made things great. We're sending her a thank you card and a picture.
Nice! Congrats. Now it's time to keep your hands and legs inside the car at all times and hold onto the bar!
I remember the birth of both my kids. It truly is a life changing experience. Now it's time for baby steps, for both you and the little one. With each one comes reward and future challenge.
Sleeping through the night. (For both the child and you and your wife lol) Eating solid foods 1st B-day crawling Walking Talking Getting out of diapers Getting themselves dressed Bathing themselves 1st lost tooth 1st day of school Riding a bike 1st best friend 1st broken bone (Usually comes after learning to ride the bike) 1st boyfriend/girlfriend Learning to drive 1st accident
Ect, ect, ect lol. Your in for a ton of firsts. Glad you and your wife enjoyed another one of yours.
Congrats Stu, that's terrific. New world for you my friend. Hi Fi priorities down, baby priorities up. Those little baby noises sounded better to me than any album I ever owned.
My hifi priorites are almost down. We've been putting on some kid's music for her, especially during the 3 minutes or so of "tummy time."
Gotta get a new DAC, then I'm done for a long time. I've been putting some extra money away for a while, and I figure that'll be my last personal costly purchase for a long time.
Good point Nuck! Lots of poopie clothes for awhile.
I remember when Connor (my first one) was a few months old, I changed him after a blowout, got him all cleaned up and dressed, and we went out for lunch. At the Tim Hortons, this is where I realized I forgot to put a diaper on him when I dressed him. Oooops. Back home we went.
I actually parted ways with the washer and dryer at the old place. I left them at the old place and my former landlord gave me gave me what I paid for them. The current place has a washer and dryer, but it's just not the same.
My old landlord is the kind of guy every renter dreams about. It's too bad their wasn't enough room for our new bundle of joy. Had there been, we'd have never left until we bought our own home.
Still trying to figure out the new one. Nice guy and all, but he's not exactly on top of things.
That ain't gonna happen. He'll tell me he'll be by tomorrow, and I won't see him again.
When we moved in, our mailbox was in 3 pieces on the ground. He left a note in the apartment saying he'd be by the next day to fix it. 3 months later, he finally got around to replacing it. I could have bought a new one and taken care of it in 5 minutes, but it was the principal of it. I felt like leaving my rent check in it so when he'd call and ask where it is, I'd say it's been in my mailbox waiting for you. Cooler heads (aka my wife) prevailed on that one.
Not all wives are better suited to handle every situation. I remember our first condo we rented. My landlord conveniently lived in the condo directly above us and we shared access to a 2 car garage. Took a few months before I realized his kids were helping themselves to food in our pantry, our kids toys and sometimes never shut the garage door, leaving everything exposed to prying eyes during the day.
"Let's talk to him" my wife would say. Talk??!! Heck no. Locks went on the pantry and our son's toys got stored in a locked shed out back from that day on.
Then when we started getting $300+ electric bills I had to do some investigating to see where the juice was going. I mean no 2 bedroom condo should have THAT high of a bill. Turns out our electric water heater was malfunctioning, which he refused to replace. Cheap b@stard. So during the day when we were at work I would shut it off completely to help. Turns out when I cut the breaker off to the heater it also killed power to our electrical outlet in the garage.
Stay with me.
Little did I know that my landlord had been secretly tapping into that outlet to power his 2nd freezer in our shared garage during the day when we weren't home. He would run extension cords into the house as well to power god knows what else on our dime. So the battle begins. I'd turn it off on my way to work and he'd go back out in the garage to turn it back on after I left. All the time my wife kept preaching to not over react. What would YOU do?
Naturally we looked for another place but we signed a 3 year lease that the SOB wasn't going to let us break. Thankfully we found out that he stole and spent our security deposit a month after we moved in. We found out due to the bank statement in which the money is supposed to be sitting in gaining interest got mailed to us by mistake. Our lawyer had a field day with that bit lol.