The biopsy went on as planned yesterday but we were told that the results won’t be in until next Friday. I guess all there is to do is wait…and make videos! Today, while we were getting ready to go meet Erik’s parents for fika, Adrienne started to smile at him. I grabbed the camera and captured a couple smiles but also some other fun facial expressions. My personal favourite is the one at the end where she looks bored and ready to move on “anyway!”
You can also see her eye a little better in the video. Some more bruising occurred during the procedure but I think it is from the doctors trying to take a better look at her eye or by holding it open while they worked on it.
I apologize for the sound of my voice. I really need to stay quiet while filming!
For as long as I can remember, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to be one of those mothers who runs into the emergency room every time my baby coughed or got a slight rash. So, when we saw that Adrienne had some puffiness around her eye, we decided not to panic. We kept speculating about what it might be - a blocked tear duct? a fingernail scratch? a bop on the eye with her tiny fist?
When it didn’t go away after a few days we started to wonder if it was an infection. We decided we would wait and talk to the pediatrician at our first appointment that was happening in a few days. We were relieved to hear that she thought the same things that we did, but she decided to send us to the hospital just to make sure.
The first hospital said that they didn’t have an eye specialist, so they sent us to a special eye hospital (I didn’t even know those existed!) in the city. There, we were told that they weren’t equipped to handle such a tiny patient, so we were told to go to the children’s hospital the following day. We finally got in to get a head scan. It showed that there is a mass of something behind her eye that is pushing it forward. It doesn’t sound as scary as it looks. In the x-ray, she looks like Quasimodo! Does this look like Quasimodo to you?!?
The doctors from both the eye hospital (is there a special word for those?) and the children’s hospital will be working together on our case. That makes me feel better, but it also makes for a lot of waiting time. We were finally called back in for today but were bumped at the last minute on account of emergency case that came in while we were being prepped. She even had a local anaesthetic cream already applied to her skin to help them insert the IV. I hate waiting, but it’s good to know that this isn’t a crisis and isn’t seen as something that can’t wait.
We will try again on Friday. In the meantime, we have an appointment with the eye specialist tomorrow morning. I hope he has some good news for us.
From now on, I think I’ll be one of those mothers who runs to the emergency room for every little sneeze, just to be on the safe side. Stay tuned for more of Adrienne’s eye adventures…
I can believe that Adrienne is 8 weeks old, but when I think that she is 2 months old - it just doesn’t sound right! I think it has to do with the fact that I compare her to all the milestones in the baby books/websites with her “corrected” age. If we treat her as if she was really born at the end of June, then she should technically be only 1 month old. Really, she’s 2 months old.
She’s been developing dramatically over the last couple of weeks. She is having more and more awake time, as well as more and more fussy periods. One of the things that she’s done that is completely amazing is how any time that I’ve laid her down for a nap with me (on my pillow), she falls asleep right away or stays there calmly looking around the room. Of course, I’ve only tried that when all else has failed. I never believe that it’s going to work, but it does! I really don’t want to wear that one out since it’s a wonderful way to get her to sleep and I will need it when I’m taking care of her all on my own.
We’ve just started taking Adrienne out to social gatherings and she has done well so far. We have joined some new mommies from Stockholm group for fika, had lunch with the girls and for supper over at Heather and Måns’s. During all of these visits, she’s slept through most of the time - so I hope that keeps happening. When my father was here, she was a wonderful sightseeing tourist . She’s such a natural!
Just look at the fun we can have while she is sleeping
She’s also becoming more interactive with us. Here she is having a conversation with her grandmother. I’m not sure who was doing most of the talking at the time, but they both seem quite involved.
This concludes the baby preparation portion of our blog!
We were very surprised to have our little girl arrive a month earlier than expected. Adrienne Shand was born at 10:46am on May 23rd. My water broke shortly after 11pm on the 22nd when I was brushing my teeth, getting ready for bed. I called my sister to find out if what I was experiencing was just poor bladder control or the real deal. It kept happening about every 2 minutes, so Erik rushed around getting a bag ready and drove me to the hospital. The strange thing was, I wasn’t in pain at all. No pain, no contractions. Come to find out later, that the extreme back pain that I had been experiencing during the week was actually an indication of premature labour. Everyone (including my midwife) just thought it was regular back pain since I’ve had a bad back since junior high. Once there, they told us that they would not release me and the baby would have to be born within 48 hours no matter what. They hooked me up to some monitors and an antibiotic IV, just because there was an increased risk of infection for the baby. No one ever told me why I went into premature labour, just telling me that she was ready to come out.
The staff of Danderyds sjukhus was amazing! Everyone made a point of speaking English to me and were all super supportive. We were suppose to have a doula with us during the birth, but because everything happened so fast, we had to do it without her. I’m actually happy that we didn’t have a doula since it gave Erik and I some down time to process what was happening. I was able to give birth naturally with some help of massage, a birthing ball, changing positions often and some beloved laughing gas. The pain was not at all what I expected. I thought that I was going to need the epidural, morphine, etc. (whatever they were offering, I was open to taking as long as I needed it) but no one mentioned further pain meds and I kept waiting for the next level of pain but the only part of labour that I thought was unbearable was the pressure during the pushing part (which is way too late for additional medication!)
People kept warning me that I could have the baby as early as 2 weeks early, and I took their advice seriously by moving my maternity leave/vacation earlier but I was not at all ready for what happened.
We spent her first 6 days in the hospital since she had some high jaundice levels. She was born at 2575 grams (5 pounds 7 ounces) and was able to reach her birth weight after just 10 days. It’s normal for babies to lose about 10% of their birth weight during the first few days after birth. Now, three and a half weeks later, she has reached 3155 grams (6 pounds 15 ounces).
We are blessed that she is here and are glad that she didn’t need any extra support that preemies usually need before they are released from the hospital. She’s adorable and so much a part of the family already. Her personality is already starting to shine through. I love motherhood so far!
There have been some dramatic changes in the pregnancy over the last few weeks. I can’t believe how tired I’ve become and how uncomfortable it is to sleep. I’ve also learned how much my body can deteriorate when I can only sleep two hours at a time over an extended period.
Just this week I’ve had the beginning of an ear infection, sore throat and half of my scalp has been tingling (which has been strange!). I know it’s all connected together and they are all my “weak areas” but as soon as I started sleeping more normally (only getting up once during the night) most of these ailments started to disappear. The best part of this weekend was the fact that I slept a whole 8 hours with only one pee break.
I was going to try working up until my due date to save as much time for after the baby is born, but have recently changed my mind. For one, it’s not going to help anything if I push myself and, secondly, because I will have to start working next August whether I end work at the beginning, middle or end of June, anyway.
I have some holidays and comp days that I’ll be taking in June and will officially start my maternity leave on July 1st. I’m ready to stop working now but I want to see my students graduate, write their Cambridge exam and help my mentor students finish off their first year.
If I combine all the days that I have to work, I have 14 days left. That’s the next two weeks, then some days here and there in June for graduation and fun days. I have planned it so I’m not lecturing anymore, just holding discussions, watching films and listening to presentations. The students know that I’m getting uncomfortable and have to move around a lot just to make it through a class.
When you’re walking around town with your new baby, everyone knows it’s all about the accessories. This is another one of the decisions I’m trying to make. I know it’s not an earth shattering or necessary one, but when you’re obsessed with bags like my cousin Sarah and I are, it’s a pretty fun one to make.
There are three bags that I have my eye on and they range from expensive to ridiculously expensive. Well, it depends really on where I would buy the bag. In Canada, the prices are ridiculous, whereas they aren’t bad compared to other things in Sweden. It’s hard to picture which one will best match the stroller since I’m working with memory and internet pics. What do you think?
Here is a picture of the stroller we’ve ordered:
and here are the bag alternatives:
One major piece of baby gear that we still have to buy is a car seat. I’ve been searching for the best one for MONTHS. I finally found the one I want in Canada, instead of Sweden. The reason I’ve decided to buy it there is the difference in cost and quality. Once I found the model I wanted, it took me forever to decide on the colour. When I finally found that particular one at a store that I could buy it from (many onlines stores were out of stock or weren’t willing to ship), I found one more obstacle…online shopping security.
Usually, I would be impressed with the attempt at higher security, but not when I am trying to buy something in a hurry. The same thing happened to me when I was buying a gazillion things online for my wedding. Sears wants anyone who buys something online to show the same card used for the purchase when they pick it up. That’s excellent! It just doesn’t help me right now. So, I have to send my Canadian shopping scout (hi mom!) out to find the same exact model and colour in the store or get my father to purchase it online (good luck with that!)
The plan is to have my parents bring it over when they come in June. It better be one amazing car seat after all the hours being put into getting it here. It has the base that stays in the car and will accomodate the baby until she hits 30lbs. Sounds pretty sweet to me. Here it is, the Graco Safeseat in Portica:
I was going to try and not go public with the news until we had another confirmation, but I can’t do it anymore! I have been trying to use the “she/he” but I slip up all the time, and it’s probably 90% accurate anyway, so…..there it is! A rockin’ little girl!
I was having a hard time writing about the baby on here yesterday without using “she”, so this should make things sooo much easier!
This is the latest picture taken of our little one. It took forever to get a good shot the the baby’s face since our “Shelby Luke” started hiding and playing peek a boo with the sonographer.
We will be getting a “bonus” ultrasound since I’m taking medication for my thyroid and it’s procedure to check on the development when this happens. Hopefully, there will be another photo in a couple of weeks’ time.
This is the latest picture taken of our little one. It took forever to get a good shot the the baby’s face since our “Shelby Luke” started hiding and playing peek a boo with the sonographer.