Visiting!

We had many visitors this weekend - Grandmaman Leblond, Tante Louise, Oncle Jeannot, Uncle Simon and Auntie Jen!

Luc was very well behaved for the whole weekend (and of course is tired and cranky this morning to make up for it!)

Lots of love to all our family & friends

P, G & L














Note that our evil plan seems to be working: Simon & Jen - Is Luc going to have some cousins to play with soon?!?!? Hehehehehehhehehehehe

Pics from the first week

Today Luc celebrated his one week birthday! (Well, o.k. he slept while we ate tiramisu). Our doula, Jo, stopped by to help us celebrate (and to make sure we were surviving the first week!)

The other pics are just a couple from the past few days.

Stroller Derby

We've been trying to take advantage of the nice weather to get out and take a walk each day - even just up the road or to a cafe. Papa loves the high-tech stroller (God we are such yuppies!)

Bathtime!

We gave Luc his first bath at home on Wednesday morning - and he had lost his umbilical cord - big day!

Luc's Friends

We've had a lot of friends drop by to meet Luc - here are some of the pics!

Solen
Cara and Jasmine
Carole
Nicolas, Annabelle, Charlotte
Julie
Alain

PHOTOS!

I am taking advantage of the fact that Gilbert and Luc are having a snuggle in bed to post some of the MANY photos here. Thanks to Nico for helping us sort out the camera last night!

Luc in red sling

Well, in lieu of pictures from the digital camera, here are a few quick ones taken with the iMac of Luc in his red sling...

See - he IS beautiful!!!!

:)

Ménage à trois!

Hi all,

In case you haven't heard - Luc Georges Parks Leblond was born Friday morning (October 19th) at 10:17 a.m. He weighed 8 pounds (Uncle Simon wins the weight competition!) and measured 20 inches (3.6 kilos and 51 cm) - a little larger than normal - OUCH!

Labour isn't called labour for nothing - I don't think I have ever been so exhausted or in so much pain in my life. Despite not taking an epidural (which all my zen-yoga books & things claimed would drastically shorten labour), it took over 17 hours and the last two were intensive pushing! My doula said the first thing I said when I could actually talk (and not moan) anymore was 'I'm never doing that again!!!'

I would do it all again in a heartbeat now that I have Luc who is, of course, the most beautiful, most intelligent, most wonderful baby in the world! Gilbert and I are working on downloading the pictures from the camera - which we will post here as well as e-mail to you.

There are a thousand other things I could write about now, but, unfortunately, I don't know how long Luc's nap with Papa will last and I need to brush my teeth and eat something!!!

Thank you all so much for all the love and support you've shown us during this whole process - we are a really lucky family and Luc can't wait to meet you (o.k. we can't wait to show him off...)

Lots of love to you all,

Pippa, Gilbert and LUC!!!

On Track?!?!?!!!?

I wanted to go to yoga class tonight but small had other ideas... I was having contractions on and off all day, but around 5 o'clock things started to get a little more regular - shorter contractions every 8-10 minutes or so.

At 6.30 we called Jo, our doula, who told us to relax, eat something, jump in the bath and see what happens. Well, it's now 9:30 (Beginning of third period in the Habs / Sens game) and even after the bath we are still holding steady at every 8 minutes or so! Small is kicking up a storm - I think he knows something is up.

We probably have several more hours ahead of us at home before we make a move to the hospital so don't hold your breath! Just thought you should know that - yay, finally! - we are on the road!

Love to you all,

P, G & ?

Starting and Stopping

Well, it ain't like the movies folks... this thing takes longer than you would have thought! Like a car with manual transmission we are going into first gear, then neutral, then second, then neutral, then first, then stalling... Contractions are erratic, sometimes strong & painful, sometimes nothing at all - any votes for Friday or Saturday?

Hang in there - we'll let you know when the car reaches the top of the hill and even neutral is a move forward.

Love to you all,

P, G, & ?

3 a.m. thoughts

So it's almost 3 a.m. and I was woken up at 1:15 with more contractions. I started writing my birth story for Clearlight's website (because the mind spins in the early hours) and thought I'd share some of it here - starting Tuesday morning:

Breakfasting with Gilbert this morning I felt some sharp pains in my abdomen – like when you are getting diarrhea and went off to the bathroom. No diahhrea, but some spotting ...does this mean?!? I went out and told Gilbert as calmly as I could “I think it might happen sooner rather than later!” He was so excited – it was beautiful to see.

We went home and tried to live life as normally as possible – washing dishes, preparing food etc., but really we were too excited. My doula, Jo, came for a visit and when we told her what was happening, she said, “Hmmmmm… sounds like early labour. We’d all better get some sleep!”

When Jo left, Gilbert started running around getting things organized (checklist: car seat, bags backed, cooler of food etc.) and I started e-mailing & blogging for family and friends.

Then I took a bath, had a nap and when I woke – the contractions had stopped. No!!!! I was disappointed and so decided to take a long walk in the sunshine – it was such a beautiful day. When I came home, I was exhausted! Contractions started again about two hours later – during the hockey game. By this time, I was a bit more pragmatic and decided to go to bed early to get some more sleep.

What do these contractions feel like? There isn’t one kind – there are several. There are mild ones that feel like menstrual cramps – there are the Braxton-Hicks where your whole abdomen just tenses up until it is as hard as a rock and there are the needle-sharp pains that take your breath away – and a combination of all or any of these at any time. They also come in waves of several kinds of cramps lasting 10 minutes or more (with breaks in between) then nothing for 45 minutes – an hour- ish.

I woke again at 1:15 a.m. with more contractions (had I had any between 8 and 1? Not sure, I was sleeping – but these ones woke me up), so I decided at 2 a.m. to get up, move around and start writing this (while the memories are fresh) it keeps me sane.

Will our hero(ine) survive the night? Will she keep blogging until the sun comes up? Stay tuned faithful listeners to this station...

Slow Down...

So after an exciting start this morning things have slowed down again - fewer contractions, less painful. Nevermind, this means that we can watch the hockey game and maybe get some sleep tonight!

We'll let you know how things are progressing...

P, G & ?

Ouch!

Just stepped out of the bath and OUCH! Another contraction hits... obviously since I am typing this it is quite bearable and we are just at the beginning of the whole process but it is pretty exciting anyway. Gilbert has been rushing around packing things at the last minute and I am trying to stay calm and just get in some bath time / nap time.

We will let you know how things are going... keep checking in!

Love to you all!

P.

Date & Weight Guessing

So here are the date & weight guesses so far (in chronological order):

Louise Fortier -- October 15th --
Gilbert - October 17th -- 3.7 kilos
Cara - October 17th - 3 kilos
Penny - October 22nd -- 3.8 kilos
Pippa - October 23rd -- 3.5 kilos
Nicolas - October 23rd -- 4.1 kilos (yeah, we'll let him take the same day as me, because, let's face it - I can knit myself a scarf anytime...)
Simon - October 24th -- 3.6 kilos
Dad - October 25th --
Jen - Ocober 25th -- 3.76 kilos
Cristina - October 28th --


You can win if you guess EITHER the date OR the weight correctly...

:)

Knitting & Deadlines

Hi all,

Not much to report this week - knitted another blanket,
next-door-neighbor Julie gave me more hand-me-down baby clothes than I could ever hope for (onesies, pjs, pants, tops, hats etc - seriously, the kid will have more clothes than Gilbert and I put together!) and am still waiting for something to happen in babyland. Statistically speaking there is a 75% chance that I will go to term (October 22nd) or later, so all you impatient grandparents, neighbors, friends hang in there - over a week to go yet!

I thought I'd make this fun by opening up the due date to a little competition: Guess the date & weight. I need a new knitting project so the prize is a hand-knitted scarf in the colour of your choice. (Maybe not such a great prize, but then you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you won as well...)

Gilbert's guess: 17th October 3.7 kilos
My guess: 23rd October 3.5 kilos
ADD YOURS!!!

The rest is open - first come, first serve. Participate by commenting on the blog or sending an e-mail!

Oh yeah, and if labour DOES start, you will get an e-mail (the list is up and ready to go), and I will probably do a quick post here as well.

Thanks again for keeping up with us!

P.

Strollers and stiches

So officially I am now considered "term" i.e. the baby can come whenever he feels like it and won't be premature. (I am finishing up my 38th week). Many of you (future grandparents, you know who you are) are hoping that it is sooner rather than later, but besides the fact that I don't sleep or walk too well these days (words like "beached whale" and "fat cowboy" come to mind...), I am enjoying my time off preparing for "Mr.Small" (as he is known around these parts).

I took up knitting, which is utterly soothing and made a blanket this week (see pic.) and will probably start another next week. It is totally addictive and makes me feel very zen.



Gilbert is getting into the swing of things too - yesterday we made a quick trip across the border, took advantage of the exchange rate (and the fact that things are already 20% cheaper on average in the states, not to mention the low sales tax...) and bought the high-end stroller that we both wanted. Actually, once Gilbert saw the design of it and the resale value he was hooked - we couldn't look at another. We assembled it yesterday and now feel like super-chic parents.


Vermont was quite beautiful and we enjoyed spending the day in the hippie-granola-crunchie land of Ben & Jerry's, Ralph Nader and all things bio-organic-vegan whole grain and enjoyed the day out together (despite the stress of planning our strategy of how to smuggle said stroller across the boarder without having it confiscated...) All in all it was a great day.

I need to get my hair cut, look into a breastfeeding clinic, meet my doula, get a massage... all really important stuff, so if the little guy doesn't come next week I won't be too worried! When the contractions start I will post on this website and those of you who would like will get a phone call. From there on in, we will let you know when / if you can / would like to visit us. (We still don't know what will happen, how we will feel etc. so please understand our need to keep it flexible!)

Thanks to all of you for keeping up with us!

P.