Olivia Rees Nutley

She's here!! She arrived December 20 at 5:53am weighing in at 7lbs 1oz.

Sunday morning we went to the hospital at 10am to get a second dose of induction. Sam was monitored for 2 hours and then they let us go home. She started having contractions and they asked us to come back that night to check up the progress.So we headed home and walked down the hospital hallway towards the elevator. We pressed the down button when Sam said "Oh! Either I just peed my pants or my water broke." We headed back to the maternity ward and told the nurses. We were put back into the room and hooked up to some machines.

Our family arrived in the delivery room and waited throughout the whole process. Even the nurses said that no one stays as long as they all did. After being in labour for 13 hours the doctors said she was ready to push. Then after pushing for an additional 2 hours it was 5am. The movement of the baby wasn't progressing so it was decided that she needed to head to the OR for a C-Section.

We both went down there and the procedure was done. At 5:53am she came out to the doctors singing Happy Birthday. 10 fingers, 10 toes and no weird moles. She's very healthy and so is Mommy.

Recovering in the hospital ward for the next few days was a little frustrating but on Wednesday night we finally arrived home with out little bundle.

The pics are trapped on the camera until we get our main computer back but I'll add them once we can.

Due Date + 4

We've officially been "induced"!

Yesterday, we headed back to the hospital for the second Non-Stress Test as scheduled, to make sure that everything was still fine. Baby was looking great, but my BP was still a little bit on the high side. They took some more blood but then said we could go home and that they would call us if anything looked out of the ordinary so we could come back.

So, a little frustrated and disappointed, we headed home to make lunch. About 20 minutes after we walked in the door my phone started ringing like crazy. 3 of those calls were from Auntie Daryl checking to see what had happened at the hospital but the 4th call was from the hospital telling me that I should definitely come back so that they could "get me delivered"! YAY!

Long story short, we got back to the hospital at 3:30pm and I was examined, given a drug to start the process and then monitored for 2 hours. After the 2 hours, because baby and I were doing fine, we were allowed to go home and get some sleep with instructions to return to the hospital this morning at 10am for another round of the induction drug and to see how things are progressing.

They had warned us that this could be a long process (sometimes 2 days or more) especially since its our first baby and we were essentially starting from scratch. However, we're just happy to have SOMETHING happening so we're taking it all in stride and loving the process.

Right now, we're about to leave for the hospital again and we're feeling pretty good. I've been having some minor pain in my lower abdomen which I'm taking as a good sign! We're not sure if today will be like yesterday again (where we would be sent home after 2 hours) or if depending on the progress we've made, we might end up staying...so as soon as we have a better idea, we'll let everyone know!

Fingers crossed though...Little Miss Nutley could be here sometime today or tomorrow!!

Due Date + 2

Well...here we are! Due Date plus TWO and still no Little Miss Nutley!

I, Mommy, (accompanied by Nana Nutley, because Daddy was at work) went to the Dr. yesterday for my weekly appointment hoping to hear that I had made some more progress towards labour...but unfortunately, it looks like we're still in the same boat as last week. :-(

I won't go into all of the graphic details for everyone but basically the Dr. couldn't quite tell if I had made any more progress. Further to that, my blood pressure was a little high so I got to go upstairs to the Maternity Ward for a Non-Stress Test to make sure that baby and I were doing okay.

After monitoring the baby for 20 minutes (she was excellent!) and taking my BP a few times (first it was high, then higher, then a bit lower, etc.) and reporting back to the Dr. the nurse came back in with a hospital bracelet and I nearly fell off the bed! Were they admitting me? Was I going to be induced today? No...unfortunately they had just decided to take some blood to further ensure that I was okay since they had already determined that Baby Girl was doing just fine.

Long story short (and when I say long, I mean that we were at the hospital for almost 4 hours - most of which was waiting for results!): All of the tests came back fine and I was able to go home around 4:30 yesterday afternoon. However, I was given strict instructions to "take it easy" for 48 hours and come back on Saturday for another Non-Stress Test to make sure that nothing has changed in a bad way.

So...I'm now trying to figure out how to further "take it easy" as my entire week has already consisted of hanging out at home, reading, tidying the house (lightly of course) and watching TV. LOL! Guess I'll just do the same but perhaps I'll lay in bed instead of on the couch? Oh well...better get started! ;-)

We'll see how things go at the hospital tomorrow...and of course update everyone here ASAP.

Due Date +1

Well as I'm sure the more intelligent readers can guess, nothing happened yesterday. No baby yet and we're still waiting. I look at it in the way that my wife is such a good Mommy that she is providing such a wonderful little hotel room that she doesn't want to end her vacation in Uterus City. We can get her a I <3 UC shirt as a memento of her trip.

Due Date

Well today is the day. That being the day that she is medically predicted to be here. I sit here at work trying not to do too much. Trying not to get involved in projects that I will need to drop in an instant. I stare at my phone waiting for my Indiana Jones ringtone to tell me that my wife is calling and it's time.

It's just the waiting game now. We gave the baby a long talk last night after dinner and told her all about the world outside and all of the people that care about her. The word "crazy" was uttered a lot. I'm a very patient person but I can't help being anxious. I feel like a huge weight is going to be let off my shoulders as soon as she gets her safely. I also know that an even bigger one is going to be thrown on my back as soon as that happens though.

Hopefully the next blog will be the announcement. Maybe I'm jinxing myself by saying that. KOW

39 Weeks + 5 Days

Getting closer...here's a belly shot at 39 weeks + 5 days. That would be yesterday (the 12th) just in case anyone is wondering. :-)

Social Networking...what a headache!

Well, we're officially under the one week mark! There are only 5 days left until Little Miss Nutley is due to be here (meaning she could be her ANY day before then as well)! Can you believe it?! We are getting so excited and are just loving the excitement that our friends and family are showing on a daily basis. That being said, its becoming quite difficult to keep the name we have selected for our little one under wraps with the conveniences of Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter! Don't get us wrong...we LOVE the comments and support/concern/excitement that are being sent our way! We would just REALLY like to be the ones to "officially announce" who our little girl is going to be once she's born. Anyway, in order to express our feelings on this subject a little bit better, we have written a letter to those of you who are fortunate enough to be privy to the names we have selected for our daughter. :-)

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope you’re all doing well and getting excited for the holidays! As you’re all probably aware, baby girl is due in less than a week and we know you’re all just as excited as we are! We appreciate all of the love, support and well wishes that you’ve all offered so far and today we just have one small request for the remainder of time until our daughter makes her appearance.

We would really, greatly appreciate it if everyone could please refrain from mentioning the names that we have shared with you on facebook or in any other public setting. We have shared these names with you because we trust you and want you to be a part of our excitement, however we would VERY much like to be the ones to “officially” announce our baby girl to the world and these posts are taking away the impact of that announcement that we are so looking forward to making.

We are sure that these innocent slips are increasing in frequency because a) you’re excited and b) probably seeing everything posted by others; but please understand that as they go up we are frantically rushing to delete them in order to save the little bit of surprise for the family and friends that have yet to find out.

Again, we are so SO thankful that each of you cares about us and our baby girl as much as you do! We cannot thank you enough for all of the gifts and offers of support that you have already given as well. We are SO looking forward to introducing our daughter to you in the near future...we just ask that you kindly remember that the amount of excitement you are feeling is multiplied by about a million for us and we can’t WAIT to share that excitement with everyone once she's officially here.

Thanks so much for your understanding.

Love you all!

Sam & Seán

All of that being said, if you have a question or just can't WAIT to express your excitement about her or her name, please please don't hesitate to send us an email or private message on the above websites. As we mentioned, we LOVE hearing from all of you and by no means want you to stop...we would just like it to remain as private as possible until the glorious day that she makes her debut. In return, we PROMISE to let you all know as soon as we possibly can once she has arrived!

Here's hoping she doesn't make us all wait TOO much longer! ;-)

Car Seat

As part of our reorganizing and cleaning day yesterday, we decided to clean out my car and put in the car seat. One more notch down on the cool young guy scale but one notch up on the good Dad scale. Can't fit a guitar amp in the back seat any more.

Seemed to go in relatively easily. We followed all of the instructions to make sure the base was completely secure and didn't move.

There's a toy attached that has a ringing bell. My whole drive to work this morning it sounded like I had kidnapped an elf and had him tied up in the back seat. Guess it goes well with Christmas.

38 Weeks and Counting...

Nothing much new to report today except that we're under 2 weeks until the little lady's due date and getting more anxious and excited every minute! We had another doctor's appointment yesterday and everything is still going very well, Dr. told us not to get our hopes up about an early arrival though so that was a bit of a bummer. :-)

I also wanted to post a photo of our Christmas Tree since Seán mentioned it in his last post. Can you spot the Christmas pickle?! We're going to be doing a bit more Christmas shopping this weekend, but mostly just hoping to stay around the house and get a few projects finished up before the big day so we're all ready to go once our little princess makes her debut.

We will of course update everyone on any progress that may occur over the next few days and will try to post another Belly pic when Seán gets home tonight (Update: See Below) I swear the belly is smaller today which makes me wonder if she's dropped down into my pelvis? ...Maybe?! Fingers crossed!

Mommy @ 38 Weeks + 2 days

Christmas Pickle

Any day now. We're ready. I know the due date isn't for 2 weeks but we're ready. I mean we want her fully developed and healthy but it's hard to stay patient when we're this close.

We started and almost finished our Christmas shopping on Saturday. Sam and I took the train downtown and spent a few hours walking around the busy streets of Vancouver picking off gifts one by one. We figured it's better to get it done now while we've got the free time.

On Sunday we headed back downtown with some friends to see the Vancouver Christmas Market. It's a German style village set up near Queen Elizabeth Theater with all types of food and beer and Christmas themed entertainment. Sam bought a Christmas Pickle......I have no idea.

NOTE FROM SAM: The German Christmas Pickle is a tradition often practiced on the Western Christmas holiday. In this tradition, a glass pickle ornament is hidden on the Christmas Tree and the first child to find it will receive a gift that will supposedly bring a year of good luck.

Other than our busy weekend, things are going good. We can feel the baby moving almost constantly and all of her checkups are great. Our bags are packed and everything is ready to go. All family members are on full alert and we'll let them know when we hit Code Red.

37 Weeks!

Well we're officially 3 WEEKS from Little Miss Nutley's due date and we couldn't be more excited!

After this week (next Wednesday) she'll be considered "Full Term" and could come any time. We're heading down to the states for American Thanksgiving on Thursday and are looking forward to spending some time with family while we're there, so lets hope that if she decides to come early, she at least waits until we're back in Canada. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and Family in the states! Hope to see you all soon.

Baby Shower Photos

Thanks again to Auntie Daryl and everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to attend the baby shower earlier this month! We can't say thank you enough for the way you've already spoiled our little girl and we just know she's going to love all of her gifts as much as we do. As promised, here are some of the long awaited photos from the wonderful party!

Just a quick update for those who are curious...we're now just about 36.5 weeks and baby is doing well! This means that in just over ONE week Little Miss Nutley will be considered "Full Term" and can come any time after that! If she's anything like her mommy she's excited for the Holidays so, here's hoping she chooses to make her entrance sooner rather than later!

One Month To Go

Today is November 15, 1 month until the due date. Whether she arrives directly on time, earlier than expected or fashionably late is yet to be determined.

Sam being pregnant seems like such a normal thing now. Knowing she cant drink wine, eat seafood or anything with a possibility of raw eggs seems like it's just part of our life. I think it's going to be weird getting back to normal afterwards. It will be a lot of fun seeing her having her first glass of wine or pint of Strongbow again. JP already told her he's bringing wine to the hospital.

The baby shower was last weekend and we received a tremendous amount of gifts from our Southern family (and a few Northerners). I'll let my wife post the pictures.

We want to thank everyone that came and a big thank you to Auntie Daryl for putting everything together.

The Canadian shower is going to be in January held by Auntie Rachel.

Halloween!!

The "Mummy-to-Be"

"Opie" from Sons of Anarchy

Before we left for the Party

At the Delta Lion Pub

We hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Halloween! Can't believe its already November!! The baby shower that Auntie Daryl is throwing is this weekend and Little Miss Nutley should be here in just over a month!

Baby School

It's almost been a week now but we attended our Pre-Natal classes last Saturday. Held at Peace Arch Hospital along with 5 or 6 other first-time parents. We did everything from changing a diaper and dressing a doll to watching a Norwegian Breast Feeding video. No kidding, it actually showed a woman ski down a slope..to her alpine cottage...and breastfeed a baby on the front porch.

We also got to see the maternity ward and delivery room. The ward is almost done renovations and after December 15th we can use the all new rooms for delivery and recovery. We also got to witness our instructor give the baby a bath. My Mom later informed me that when I was a baby, I was the baby that the nurses used to demonstrate a bath. And I peed on the nurse. Ha.

We both felt it was definitely worth it and made us feel a bit more relaxed about the whole thing.

Sam is still doing well although the baby is now big enough to completely compress her bladder within seconds of using the facilities and so she is a constant visitor to the bathroom every where we go.

We've got Halloween this weekend and we're dressing up Saturday night for a party so we'll try and get some pictures up for that.

Maternity Photos

Recently, Auntie Daryl generously offered to take some maternity photos for us. However, if we were going to take advantage of her offer, we had to do so ASAP before the weather got too bad. So, yesterday, after a manicure and hair appointment for the mommy (of course!), we headed down to the states and had some fun at Hovander Park with Auntie Daryl and her camera. Check out a few of the awesome photos below:

Here is a link to the Facebook album where the rest of the photos are posted. Thank you again to Auntie Daryl and Daryl Ann Photography for creating these gorgeous photos that we will treasure forever!

31 Weeks

We've passed the 31 week mark now. Her due date is just less than 2 months away. We couldn't be more excited and anxious and neither could our families.

The shopping continues on and on. Everything we see we need to have. Nana Nutley purchased the sleeper in the picture and we picked up the shoes and towels. Yes another set of shoes! She's never going to have a naked pair of feet.

We also picked up a nice collection of books that are going to decorate her little suite in our south wing.

Auntie Daryl has sent out invitations to the first Baby Shower of little Miss Nutley. For those readers not on facebook, it's going to be held November 6 at 1p

m at Auntie Daryl's house in Ferndale. All are welcome to attend so contact us for details.

Sam's feeling great, other than a cold that she went through last week. She's getting kicked constantly but she loves every minute of it. All is well with Mommy and Baby. KOW.

Here's a picture of Mommy at 31 weeks. (Almost 8 months)

Our "Great" Deal

Sorry about the lack of updates. Work has been crazy lately and so has our social life. We had a lot of different things to do last weekend and barely had a moment to relax.

Our little girl has been very active through everything and moving around a lot. There's moments where we can clearly feel her turning and tell which body part we feel. She also moves a certain way, lands on Sams bladder and then Sam immediately has to pee. That one's always funny.

We found a bassinet a few weeks ago through craiglist and went downtown to pick it up. It was a very good deal and almost in brand new condition. We paid the nice woman and brought it outside to load it in the car. Obviously we didn't think ahead and realize that the back seat of a Mazda isn't huge. No matter which way we turned it this thing wasn't going to fit. We needed an allen key to take it apart so I scoured the car for tools or anything the right size to turn that socket. Of course, no luck.

Our next option was to carry this thing up the street to a mechanic shop. Looking like we stole the thing, my wife and I walked through downtown Vancouver carrying the bassinet. We spoke with the mechanic who looked through all of his tools and guess what? NO ALLEN KEY! OK now I have to go back to the car and drive around looking for a hardware store so we can purchase something to take this apart so it can fit in the car. Off I go finding a store only a few blocks up.

Looking around inside I cant find anything. The store owner says, "Oh we don't have that. You'll have to go up to Dunbar Lumber." OK then, off I go again while my wife sits outside of a mechanic shop next to a bassinet looking like a crazy lady talking to her imaginary baby. I finally make it to Dunbar Lumber and find what I need. (In a tool store though I realize, "Well I may as well buy this good set that includes 45 different sizes and add this to my tool collection." Guess that's another thing I inherited from my Dad.)

Anyway, back in the car, back to the

mechanic, back to my crazy-talking-to-imaginary-baby wife. (She didn't really do that, it's just funny to imagine.) I take the thing apart and in the trunk it goes. Our great deal bassinet was still a great deal despite the hassle and the extra tools but hey, it gave me something to write about and some new tools!

Mommy went Shopping!!

This past weekend I (Mommy) went shopping in the states with Auntie Rachel, Auntie Daryl and Nana Bobbi and we had so much fun! This was the first official shopping trip meant specifically for baby items and from the looks of the pictures...baby girl did very well!

My original goal was to find an inexpensive crib mattress for her bed...which I accomplished, but I also found SO many cute items of clothing that I just couldn't resist!

One of my favourite things that I picked up for baby girl was the polka dotted fleece "snow suit" in the second photo...if you look close enough you'll see that it even has teddy bear ears on the hood! SO cute!

The adorable sandals pictured here were a gift from Nana Bobbi (along with a few of the items in the first picture above). You can't tell from the photo but these shoes are TINY! Daddy doesn't think baby girl needs any more shoes...but don't tell him both of her aunties got her a pair of shoes too! lol!

I think Auntie Daryl and Auntie

Rachel each got baby girl a few other adorable things too but I don't have any pictures of those things yet since we could only bring so much across the border! :-)

Thank you to both Aunties and Nana Bobbi for such a fun trip and for all of the wonderful things you bought for your niece/granddaughter!

Can't wait until we go again!

More Shoes than Carrie Bradshaw...

Our little girl's closet is growing and we haven't even gone shopping yet! As you can see she's already got a decent size wardrobe and most everything she owns is thanks to her wonderful aunties and grandparents so far. Her shoe collection is growing too...as you can see from the photo, she's got more shoes than Carrie Bradshaw already! (I had to check with my wife on this reference as I'm definitely not an avid Sex and the City watcher.)

This next photo is of the beautiful sweater that Nana Nutley made to keep baby girl warm. Although she probably won't be big enough to wear it for a while, we're sure she's going to love it.

Mommy is making her first official "baby related" shopping trip to the states tomorrow and she couldn't be more excited to pick up a few practical items but also some "VERY cute outfits". I'm sure there will be another post early in the week documenting the items that she picks up.

Anyway, thanks so far to everyone who has bought gifts for our little girl. We (baby included) are very lucky to have such caring and generous friends and family!

Daddy won some money!

Our first wedding anniversary was this past weekend so we decided to spend Saturday night at the River Rock casino (where we stayed on our wedding night). We got a nice little package deal that included a room, dinner, breakfast as well as $10 in spending money for the casino.

We unpacked our things, put on some nice clothes and went for dinner. Apparently we were over dressed as the gentleman sitting next to us was wearing his best tye dyed "Cheech and Chong" shirt.

After dinner we went walking around the casino and decided to play our spending money. I put $10 into a slot machine and pulled once. Wow I won $5. Pretty cool. Pulled again and nothing. Pulled a third time and 4 koalas driving taxis appeared on the screen. What the hell is going on? Some computer animated coins dropped from the top of the screen and my credit count rose up.

Doing the quick math in my head I thought "Wow I've got $30 now". Pulled a few more times and didn't win so I cashed out. As the ticket came out of the machine, my much more intelligent wife figured out that I had just won $300. May not sound like much but it's easily the most I've ever won at a casino.

I figured the good luck must have come from my little girl so we immediately went to the gift shop where I bought her a stuffed animal. Then we went to a bar where I bought myself a few glasses of nice whiskey and Sam some sparkling water and we enjoyed the rest of the night. So in the end, The River Rock paid us $50 to stay and eat there. It makes me smile that our little girl can look at that stuffed animal and know her daddy got that for her on his gambling winnings.

Eggplant

We went grocery shopping last night and while walking through the produce section Sam said "The baby is the size on an eggplant this week. Lets see if we can find one." So we looked and looked and finally saw it in the section of weird fruits. It's huge! What a jump in size. No wonder the baby's kicks feel like a hammer. She's a strong one.

Speaking of that, yes the baby is kicking constantly. Sam loves every minute of it and hasn't even come close to complaining once. A few weeks ago I started feeling them when they were little flutters. The other night I felt a bunch of kicks and punches where I could almost feel the shape of the tiny little foot or hand. If I lay down and look at her stomach like a horizon, you can see the little jumps her skin makes around the kicks. Not quite as much as the zombie baby in the Dawn of the Dead remake but thats probably a good thing. No zombie baby for us, KOW.

Her suite at the end of the hall is 99% done now. We put together the crib last week and hung some picture frames on the wall. We don't have any pictures yet to put in them but I'm sure there will be a thousand in the first week. I've started drawing something for now.

The long weekend is here and we're not going anywhere. Sams got a wedding tomorrow and I've got a Whitecaps game on Sunday so we're staying in town and having some fun. Next week is our 1 year anniversary. How things have changes since this time last year.....It makes me very happy.

Room with a View

It's been a busy week in our little girls life. She's been moving around a lot and constantly kicking Sam. I can feel it all the time which is really cool. I've even tried talking to her which still feels weird but I know its a good idea so she's used to my voice too.

We've made a lot of progress with her little room too. She has a lovely little spot in the South wing of our townhouse overlooking a majestic view of...the rest of the townhouses. There's a pigeon outside of her window so hopefully that doesn't bug her too much.

Auntie Rachel stopped by this week with a present. Yes a little jean vest just like her Daddy. We'll have to get her some Fred Penner and Big Bird patches.

Little Miss Nutley!

Well, it's official...she's a GIRL!

Yes we finally found out. Originally we were planning on keeping it a secret but we soon realized how hard that was going to be. We first made the appropriate phone calls to our families and close friends before it was released to the world of Facebook. I'm not sure if Twitter has gotten wind of it yet but she's definitely a popular little girl so I'm sure it wont be long.

We went to a clinic called UC Baby (www.uc-baby.com) where we got a 3D ultrasound. The two images below are from that. We have a disc of a lot more as well as a DVD that we need to look through. It was a great experience getting to watch the whole thing on a flat screen TV. Auntie Rachel and Auntie Daryl came in and got to watch too. Of course we all laughed when the technician said "No penis!".

Honu U'Uku

We're back!!

Had a great time in Maui. Lots of sun, good food and drinks. Spent lots of our time laying around relaxing. Took a day trip to Molokini to go snorkeling, I went surfing one day and we also fit in a luau.

Here's a link to the Facebook Album for anyone to take a look at the pictures.

Sam is doing great. We're up to week 21 now which is past the halfway point. It is now the length of a banana. Apparently the rapid growth stops and the changes in size will be much smaller than they were previously.

It is also Sam's birthday today so we're going out tonight to celebrate.

P.S. Honu U'Uku is the Hawaiian word for "Tiny Turtle" which we added as another nickname on our trip.

Little Baby Skeletor

We had the ultrasound done this morning. Everything is great and the baby is very healthy. I was able to see it kicking like crazy like it was trying to swim. It moved around a lot and was hard to catch. Quite an amazing thing to see.

Unfortunately they wouldn't tell us the gender of the baby which came as a shock. Oh well, we'll find out in a few weeks.

Since an ultrasound doesn't show the skin too well, I've nicknamed the baby skeletor.

We were also able to tell that the baby has really big hands and feet just like me.

We're up to a size of a mango this week which, for me, is a huge jump from last week.

This might be the last entry before our Hawaii trip since we leave on Monday. I may have a chance to update while we're there but it might be hard getting around to a computer when there's so much else to do.

Sweet Potato

Our little Nutley is the size of a sweet potato this week. I don't even know what a sweet potato looks like so I can't picture the size and therefore I have no jokes associated with it.

Thanks to Nana Nutley and Grandad Paddy, we now have a baby stroller and car seat. Above is a picture of me assembling it on a sunny afternoon hence why my eyes are closed and I look like an idiot.

We've finally got the ultrasound tomorrow morning. We're going to find out whether its a boy or girl but no one besides the two of us, Auntie Rachel and Auntie Daryl are going to know. If anyone else finds out, I'm going to break their thumbs. Just kidding...hahaha.

No I'm not.

That's a bargain

Well my wife is now definitely a Nutley. She got the deal of a lifetime due to smart shopping and she's very proud of it.

We were looking for a rocking chair for the baby's room and had found a nice one at Sears in Guildford for $300. She wanted a green or white fabric one with darkwood. They didn't happen to have that exact one in the store so we decided that we would order it online that night.

Well we forgot.

The next day we headed down to the States to visit Sam's family. On their way to the mall, Sam and her Mother spotted a rocking chair outside of a thrift store. They swerved the car to the curb and jumped out. It was the exact chair that we had looked at in Sears. It was even still wrapped in the plastic.

As you can see by the price tag, we got a hell of a deal.