LOOK WHAT WE CAN MAKE!

Introducing Maxim Tomas Detto...



(NOTE #1: This is going to be a very long and detailed post. For those that have no interest in reading on – my friends, not Julie’s – no offence taken.)
So it all happened last week. We were advised by our midwife and by our Obstetrician that waiting for Julie to go into labour was a risk (although small) not worth taking. We agreed and were scheduled to go in for a C-section on Monday at 1:30 pm. Julie began fasting the night before, and let me assure you, that a fasting Julie is a frustrated Julie. She did, however, manage to survive until we were admitted to the hospital at about 11:30 am. We were sent to our room (private with pull out couch for Daddy!) to rest and await the porter that would whisk Julie away for operation prep. We had our midwife, Tanya, and her associate, Theresa, there to assist in any way possible. Little did we know that they would be running around all afternoon attempting to find out why we hadn’t gone into surgery yet. Apparently, our O.B. was preoccupied with a couple of natural births for which the mothers decided that their deliveries were more important than ours. Once he was ready to go, there were complications in the operating rooms, and after an extended wait, we were informed that we were no longer going to deliver our baby on the Monday.
At this point, I wanted the entire hospital staff – doctors, nurses, administrators, cleaners – fired. I was shocked and awed that they had built up our hopes and dreams and then let them come crashing down, if even for one day. Plus, Julie had gone about 20 hours without food. YIKES!


(NOTE #2: I’m finding it a challenge to complete this entry due to the unpredictable nature of the first few days of Max’s life, however, last night, the 29th, my attention was on Julie as I had to whisk her to Emergency at 10:30 pm – she’s OK, but stay tuned for that story in another entry…)

On Tuesday the 24th of April, it actually DID happen. Events as I recall them in my typical blurry fashion:

7:15 am – Arrive at the hospital after spending the night alone at the house. Brought flowers to Julie and changed into my scrubs…I look good…Noah Wylie E.R. good. (Is he even on the show anymore?)

7:35 am – Greet the midwives in the room as Julie is being hauled off for her prep. At this point, Josee had replaced Theresa. All of the midwives that we have dealt with have been extremely supportive. Two thumbs up for midwifery care (pronounced “mid-wiff-ery” for some odd reason – still has me perplexed, that language of mine).

7:50 am – In the recovery room with Julie. Everyone begins speaking French. Uh-oh…let the conspiracy begin. Something dreadful is happening and they don’t want me to know. I stand my ground, try to look stoic and fully aware of what they’re all talking about.

8:00 am – Julie is wheeled away in her wheelchair to be drugged up and taken into the O.R. The midwives leave to get ready. I am placed in a hidden boardroom outlining the plans for hospital expansion. Waiting forever for someone to come and get me – they said they would! Everyone passing the room now knows that despite my scrubs, I am not a doctor, but just some clueless Joe completely removed form the delivery of my child. I’m pretty sure it’s done on purpose.

8:20 am – Finally, a nurse comes and gets me and leads me to the O.R. I am greeted with a, “Oh…there’s the father…just in time…” WHAT??? I look around to see everyone in place and the doctors playing slinky with Julie’s intestines. I am placed firmly on a stool beside Julie’s head. I am reassured by her smile, and by the fact that she can feel something, but is in no pain.

8:26 am – Our O.B. exclaims that it’s a “beautiful baby girl”, which makes my heart jump for a minute until I realize that this is a surgeon’s attempt at humour. Haha. Immediately after, we hear the first bellowing cries of our child, and he sounded, to put it bluntly, pissed off.

8:28 am – After sharing a moment of elation with Julie and taken a mental snapshot of her wonderful expression, I am told that I should go take a look at the baby. I walk over to discover that my brand new boy has been nicked on the left bum cheek with a scalpel. Being assured that it was nothing, I chalked it up to more surgeon humour. Haha. In the next 10-15 minutes, I am allowed to bring Maxim over to Julie so that she can at least spend a few moments with him as they stitch her up. Despite Julie’s insistence that I am “dead inside”, I can feel tears welling up in my eyes. Sadly, they don’t make it all the way, and I am left to concede that based on the evidence, she may be right.

At this point, I lose track of time, yet the most powerful feeling came over me as I carried our son from the O.R. to the other side of the hospital to be inspected by Tanya. Everyone we passed on the way there felt the need to crouch on one knee, bow their heads, and pay their respects. Or they said “Congratulations”. Can’t remember exactly which one. While carrying him around, I witnessed the first time he opened his eyes, and he looked straight at me. Normally, I would feel sorry for Maxim in my usual self depricative way by saying that my mug isn’t the first thing anyone should experience, however, I’m pretty sure he just saw a fleshy blob with a darker top, so…no harm, no foul.

While we waited for the opportunity to go see Julie and attempt our first feeding, I was able to spend some quality time with Max. He didn’t seem to grasp the concept of throw and catch with the baseball I tossed to him, so instead I took off my shirt (easy, ladies) and placed him against my chest for 10 minutes. Luckily, I was able to shower that morning; otherwise the experience could have been remarkably different. We were able to visit with Julie in the Recovery room after about 45 minutes, which is much earlier than usual (thanks, nurses), and the midwives helped Max bond with Julie with an initial breastfeeding attempt. I stood there like an idiot, trying to prevent my testosterone from ruining the moment.

Our two days in the hospital were extremely challenging, with very little sleep and no clue what to do with Max. Thankfully, the nurses were always around to lend a hand. I am an expert at diaper changing already, seeing as Julie has been unable to move around that much, and if you don’t know what meconium is, try not to find out. Whoa!
We did manage to come up with our first nickname for Max – Larva Boy…



When Julie feels up to it, I will let her complete, and, um…correct certain details about the events. Further to the videos here, I have created a slideshow of the events that can be viewed here:

Maxim Slideshow

Thanks again to everyone for their support. Please keep in touch with us, because we won’t have the energy to initiate any interaction with the outside world for a little while. Oh well, life goes on…

Day 2 of Mat Leave

So my maternity leave started yesterday. It's day two and... yes, I'm already getting squirrelly. As most of you know, I'm not very good at the sitting down and relaxing and enjoying some down time. I need things to do to keep me happy and sane. So suggestions are welcome!

Yesterday Marty and I did my belly cast. For those who don't know what I am talking about, it's a cast of my belly and breasts. Some women do it for a keep sake, we are doing it for a piece of artwork. The cast turned out really great (Marty is surprisingly crafty!). I didn't realize how giant my boobs were though! And it did rip a layer of skin off where we didn't put enough Vaseline. After it dries, Tammy is going to paint it. We want to have flowers painted on it and it will hang in our dinning room. Sounds weird? But it's going to be gorgeous! Just you wait.

After that we had an appointment with the midwife. Other that the fact that my puffy ankles have turned into elephant feet (Marty thinks they look like balls of pizza dough with toes), I'm doing fine, and Junior is still pretty content at sitting bum down. His head is getting bigger by the minute! Considering both Marty and I have pin heads, how the heck did we end up with Stewie (Family Guy reference). Tanya estimates that Junior has hit the 8lbs mark. The rate he's going, we are going to end up mega baby! Maybe I should be glad that we aren't going natural! We meet with the OB on Monday to get the whole scheduling thing figured out for the c-section.

So today's plans? It's snowy and gross here at the moment. I'm hoping to maybe walk to the Post Office to send off some thank you cards for the shower. And that's about all I have planned. What the heck am I going to do with the other 14 hours??

Baby Shower 2 (and a surprise 3!)

So baby shower number 2 was last Sunday. Meredith and Olga kicked Marty and I out of the house at about 11 so that they could decorate and get things ready. Marty and I had a lovely lunch out, ordered our Chariot (stroller of champions for those uninitiated) and wondered around Westborrow for a couple of hours. When Marty dropped me off, the house was all nicely decorated, people had already started arriving and the food was plentiful.

There was about 13 or 14 people stuffed into our little living room, but nobody seemed too bothered. Josee and Danielle even made it in from Montreal. Marty took Chili with him to Kevin's so that saved about three body spaces saved! Mere had called Mom a few days prior to get some trivia questions and then when everyone had answered them, she called Mom, put her on the speaker phone and let her answer the questions live. Everyone got a good giggle out of it, and I didn't even know the answer to some of the questions! Mom was very happy to have been able to be involved. Aunty Irene was there too!

We basically all sat around chatted, ate some really good food and then the present opening began. Everyone was so incredibly generous, that I was opening for a good half hour! We got clothes, bedding, bath time stuff, toys, a monitor,... the list goes on. And of course Kevin got a Leaf bag for Junior, which will become his own little travel bag. Marty was pleased. It was a very lovely afternoon.

Then there was Baby Shower 3. A complete surprise. The girls from work (who were all at the Ottawa shower) planned a shower for me at work as well. Thursday afternoon, I wondered down the hall to get something off the colour printer, and there they were decorating. So I spoiled the surprise, but was surprised none the less. At 3:00 I was summoned down the hall and there were about 20-25 of my colleagues, a table full of food and delicious cake, and two tables covered in gifts! I was embarrassed.

It was such a nice surprised and everyone was having a good time. Nothing like a little party the afternoon before a long weekend! The amount of gifts was astonishing. Everyone was so incredibly generous. The girls had put the call in the invitation to "dress Julie's baby." The amount of clothes we got should keep Junior covered (and the cutest on the block!) for at least the first year! I still can't get over how much we got. We also got some great toys, a wonderful teddy bear and I got a great gift certificate to the York Street Spa (thank you Chantal!). So needless to say, I spent all of Friday writing thank you cards, and I still have about a dozen more to do.

Thank you to everyone once again. Both Marty and I are so appreciative of everyone's generosity.