4 weeks old

Well, the peanut is 4 weeks old already... I can hardly believe it. If I thought pregnancy went fast, time seems to go at lightning speed with a newborn!

I took Matthew to the breastfeeding clinic today to get weighed and measured. Well, I knew he was getting bigger... but I had no idea HOW big! He's a whopping 10 pounds, 8 ounces, and he's grown a whole inch in length to 22 inches!! Wow! I guess all that waking up to feed is really doing something :) :) I'm so proud!

Here are a couple of recent pictures of the little - er... BIG - guy...

Asleep in his swing (he loves the swing), taken June 21:


All clean after his bath:


The shirt says it all :)

Some pictures of Matthew

I just realized we hadn't posted any pictures of the little guy yet!
Matthew, day 2 (still in the hospital and looking a little jaundiced):

Mommy, Daddy, Matthew, and a treat for Mommy - a Tim Horton's Iced Cap:

Ready to go home:

Matthew weighs in...

Just a quick post today about Matthew's weight. When he was born he was 7lbs 9oz, and 24 hours later when we were discharged he had lost 4% of his weight.

Well by day 3 he had lost a whopping 11% of his weight and had mommy, daddy and his doctor a little concerned. Luckily this is the day my milk came in, and Matthew just loves to eat. At his 5-day checkup he had gained back 6%. Yay!

We had his circumsized on Tuesday and they weighed him then... he was already at 7lbs 15oz! Nearly 8 lbs, what a champ! We were so proud of him. He had another doctor's appointment today, at 13 days, and guess what? He is up to 8 lbs 5 oz!! Wow!! Little piggy! LOL The doctor was just thrilled with his weight, as were we.

Matthew James Martin has arrived!!! *UPDATED*

This is a long overdue post to announce the arrival of...

~ Matthew James Martin Gough ~

Here's the story of his arrival! Warning... this is long :)

I went to the doctor for my 39-week check-up on Thursday, May 24. I guess I got the day wrong, and as it happened my Dr wasn't there. Oops! Pregnancy brain! I was seen by another doc in the practice, and mentioned to her that Dr. Ornstein had planned to check me at this appointment. I was checked and was already 1-2 cms dilated. Wow! All of a sudden we realized how close we were, and kicked things into high gear at home.

Later that night I was feeling a bit 'off' and couldn't quite place it. I just felt crampy and out of sorts. Well at 1:00 am (Friday morning), when Sean and I finally went to bed, I got my first contraction. I tried to sleep through them because I figured if this is it, I will need some rest.

I had to get up at 4:00 am because the contractions were getting stronger. I got a light snack and hopped online to time the contractions. They were lasting around 20-30 seconds and coming about every 10-12 minutes. I thought, well, this is really it! We aren't ready house-wise but the baby will come when he is ready :)

I called Mom at 6 am and told her to get on a plane, I was in labour. Sean said, "Just give me the day to get things ready" and he went off to complete all the last-minute tasks that we needed to get done. Well, wouldn't you know it, by 9:00 am the contractions had tapered off and had all but disappeared. I was so bummed! I thought it was all a trick and Mom was already on her way to Toronto, for nothing (I thought).
I should also mention that the weather had turned really hot in the days leading up to this, so we decided to finally turn on our A/C for the first time. Of course, there was a problem with the system... we called to get a repair guy in and they said it would be a day or two. I freaked... I told Sean to tell them that I was 9 months pregnant and in labour, and no air conditioning was unacceptable!! Thank goodness they were able to fix it the next day...!!

By the time Mom arrived (around 2:00 pm) the contractions had started back up, very sporadic and mild but at least there was something happening. I took a picture of my belly, knowing it would probably be the last...
By dinnertime I was getting uncomfortable. Mom and I put together the swing and then Dee came over and we went for a walk... I had to stop 3-4 times along the way (not very far) to breathe through the contractions.

Mom and I assembling the swing, while I was in labour:

Well by 2:00 am the contractions were hitting hard. I had to really breathe through them and was timing them, they were coming every 6-7 minutes and lasting 45 seconds - 1 min. I made Sean sleep during this time because I needed him to be well rested for what was to come. By 4:00 am I was in a lot of pain, and contractions had been coming stronger and closer together - lasting about 1 minute and coming every 5 minutes - for about an hour. It was time to go to the hospital. I woke Sean up and he called L&D, then we woke up mom and off we went.

I was checked into Triage by 4:30 and man, the pain was bad. It kept getting worse, and while I knew this was a good sign, I was just plain uncomfortable and having a hard time breathing through contractions. I was pretty vocal about it too. I think I scared some of the other people in Triage. The place was a nuthouse, it was so busy that it took about 3 hours in Triage before I was able to be admitted. (Unfortunately mom was in the family waiting area this whole time, not knowing what was going on and having to listen to some guy snore. On top of that the room smelled like dirty feet. Poor mom!!) By this time I was pretty much begging for drugs and breaking Sean's hand with each contraction. They checked be just before I got admitted and was already at 6-7 cms! Yay!!! Now who do I have to hurt to get some drugs?!?

I got the epidural shortly after getting to my room (and yakking in a garbage can). All I can say is, yay for drugs. And thank goodness for good timing, the epi guy was only there for another 20 minutes and because they were so busy, I might just have missed my window if it had been any longer.

The rest of the day was spent labouring in bed, resting, and slowly making progress. They checked me around 10:00 am I think, and said I was 7-8 cms. They decided to help things along by breaking my water. That was a strange experience :) Throughout the morning baby was experiencing some heart decelerations with each contraction, which was a bit worrisome. They gave me an oxygen mask and kept coming in the room to have me flip from side to side to get the heart rate up.
This went on for a while and the monitor kept losing the baby's heart rate so the Dr wanted to put on a head probe. When he did this he checked me... and I was at 10 cms! This was around 1:00 pm on Friday. My nurse (Kate, who was awesome) turned down my epidural a bit so I could feel things, and I tried a couple of practice pushes.


I got the hang of pushing but the contractions were spaced pretty far apart. So I got some Oxytocin to ramp them up a bit. I pushed a bunch of times and then when delivery was imminent, Kate called Dr. Woo. Well, nobody could find him, he wasn't answering his pages and nobody on the floor seemed to know where he was. Kate was worried that he scrubbed into the OR and wouldn't be available to deliver the baby - I could see just a little hint of panic in her face when she told me this. Eep! This is when Mom asked her if she'd ever delivered (she hadn't) - and said, "Well let's not make this the first, hmm?" Anyway the Dr arrived, and with a few more pushes, at 3:24 pm, out popped the baby!!! As it happens the baby had the cord wrapped around his neck once and looped over his shoulder... no wonder his heart rate kept going down!

I couldn't believe it - he was really here!! He was 7 lbs 9 oz and 21" long, and a total cutie. After saying "Hello", one of the first things I said about him was "He has such long feet!" I just couldn't keep my eyes off him - the rest of the room and everyone in it seemed to fade away.The whole thing was very surreal. Sean and I were both vaclemt (sp?), and instantly in love.

Over the next 24 hours we stared at the baby a lot, and finally after lots of discussion, chose his name: Matthew James Martin Gough. Matthew because we just love the name, James for Sean's Dad (and Sarah's nephew) and Martin for Sarah's Dad. A big name for a little guy :)

We are still getting used to having him here but to be honest, I don't know what life was like without him. He is a champ, a superstar, and the light of my life.