Matthew was awake and happy this morning, so we took an opportunity to snap some more photos for everyone (see picture link)... we were having fun until Matthew decided to pee on the set design.. but that was ok, we just used that as an opportunity for a costume change!

Matthew is doing really well! He is still eating like crazy and putting on weight. He had gained a full pound in the last week so is back on track and now above his birth weight. He has been a little confused about night and day for the past 2 weeks, which they say is due to my daily patterns before he was born. And so, he was keeping me up most of the nights and then sleeping all day. For the last 2 nights though, he has gotten up to feed and then gone right back to sleep which means Mommy has also gotten some sleep in the night!

Matthew and I are getting used to doing things on our own as Daddy has now gone back to work. Yesterday we went for a doctor's appointment all by ourselves! Mommy did well getting the car seat in and out by herself (a bit nerve wracking the first time you do it!). Unfortanately, we also found out yesterday that our stroller does not fit in our trunk :o( @*#!!!!! I know what you're thinking - how could we not have tried this out when we bought the stroller... but you would just assume that it would fit in your trunk... ya, not the case. So, we're not sure what we're going to do, but a new stroller might be in our future. That, or a new car(I'm thinking it'll be the stroller).

Well, my little man is waking up from his morning nap, so I shall go... talk to you soon!
Erin

I am attempting to write this post with one hand as Matthew is sitting with me at the computer desk. I have a feeling I am going to be writing a lot of messages this way :o)

Matthew will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. We had him at the community health clinic today and he gained 7 1/2 oz in the last 4 days! I guess we can stop worrying if he is eating enough. He is still a bit jaundice according to the health nurse, but if it occurs when they are greater than 10 days old, it's not caused by the billiruben and more likely from my breastmilk. She says it isn't harmful now and will just take time to go away.

Matthew is waking up on his own to feed now and so I probably won't have to set the alarm clock for much longer. He is certainly Daddy's boy though... wide awake between 9 and 12 at night... and not ready to get up yet at 9am the next morning :O)

Tomorrow Matthew gets to meet Nan (Darren's mom). The weather is supposed to get above 20 in the next few days (no more snow hopefully!), so we hope to get out for a short walk one of these days.

All for now!

Uncle Mark and Bev Stop By for a Visit

Matthew got to meet Uncle Mark and Bev for the first time today. They were supposed to go camping this weekend but stayed in Calgary instead for obvious reasons :o)
It was snowing this afternoon at our house, but Matthew slept through the whole thing. He says he wants to see summer before he finds out what winter is!

My Day at the Beach (well sort of)

On Saturday Morning, we decided to take Matthew in to the Emergency as he still wasn't waking on his own to feed and was very sleepy all of the time. We had been listening to doctors and nurses tell us all week that his levels weren't of concern and that he'd be ok, but after a night of trying everything from cold face cloths to tickling, we couldn't wake him up easily.

We had to take him to Peter Lougheed as that is where they have the lights for what they call "billy babies". The nurses in Emerg were awesome! They took us in right away, and although we had to sit in a small room from about 9:30 until 4:00, they were always checking on us and even brought us lunch

Matthew was the hit of the ER.. everyone was talking about the "newborn" and wanted to come see him and tell us how cute he was! I felt bad for the nurses that had to do all of the tests on him though (they did a full work up on him just to make sure there wasn't something else that was wrong)... none of them wanted to hurt him and probably didn't have much practise on such a small patient! It also probably didn't help that they had a first time mom that couldn't bear the sight of her little baby getting poked and prodded. I made sure that I removed myself from the room at that time and left Matthew in Daddy's hands.. but Daddy says he was a great patient and didn't hardly cry at all.

At around 4pm, we checked into the Peter Lougheed Centre "Resort" for a one night stay and some fun in the sun. Matthew as admitted and spent 20 hours under the lamps to help clear his jaundice. He had a great time suntanning as you can see in the pictures below! It was his mom and dad who had lots of fun trying to share a single hospital bed for the night between the two of us!

He is all better now, is much more alert and is waking up on his own frequently to feed. I think he probably is making up for the first week and so we'll probably have some sleepless nights ahead. But we don't mind, we're just thank-ful that everything is back on track!

My First Visitors

Matthew had his first visitors on Friday!
First Uncle Brian and Cassandra stopped by. Dr. Brian and Nurse Cassandra gave Matthew an unofficial checkup and an A-ok!





Then, "Uncle" Brad, "Auntie" Heather and "Cousin" Ben stopped in to meet Matthew as well!

Hi from our New Family...

Hi everyone!

I am so sorry it has taken me this long to put a post on our blog, but as you can probably guess, the last few days have been quite busy! Thank-you to everyone who has written and called.... we appreciate all of your kind words so much and I will try to talk to each of you very soon!

Our adventure started on Saturday morning - we were at the hospital at 8 am and supposed to have our section done at 11am... at 5 pm, we were still not sure if they were going to be able to get to us as they were short staffed, but then were able to "fit us in" very quickly... and Matthew was born just before 6pm.

Our stay in the hospital lasted until Monday evening. I could have stayed until Tuesday, but opted to come home because I hate to say it, but the care afterwards just wasn't stellar and I felt a lot more comfortable coming home and being with my family instead.

Matthew is doing great.. he has a bit of jaundice which is what has kept us so busy. We've had visits from the health nurse and taken him to the clinic, but have not had to treat him at this point. He is pretty sleepy but is becoming more alert each day. His eating habits are getting better and we're hoping it will go away very quickly. We've had him on a 3 hour eating schedule as best we can to try and flush out as much of it as we can.

He is so sweet though and we just can't stop staring at him in amazement! I have put some pictures on the web... please look at the link below!

We will be back in touch soon!

Love,
Erin, Darren and Matthew

Hello World

Good Morning Everyone,

Please join Erin, Tia, Token, and myself in welcoming Calgary's newest Edmonton Oilers fan to our family. Matthew Paul Ethan James was born 8 pounds 7 ounces at 5:57PM MST yesterday afternoon. It was a long delay, as Erin patiently waited to become a mother for the first time, but as expected, Matthew arrived just in time for puck drop in last night's thrilling playoff game between the Senators and Sabres.

Erin knew she was taking a risk by letting me do this post, but facts are facts.

Erin was truly amazing yesterday, as she is everyday, in dealing with all that comes with what she had to go through to bring our son into our family.

Matthew and Erin are doing very well this morning. I am off to join them right now, and I will add more info soon.

Have a fantastic day,

Darren

Life's Little Surprises.....

At my ultrasound yesterday, I found out that our baby is breech... yep - what they've been telling me is the head for the past 2 months is actually it's bum. He or she is bum down with its feet up by its head which is why they were fooled into thinking it was the head.

So, good thing we had the ultrasound, or we wouldn't have known until delivery time and then would've had quite an adventure... because of its estimated size, they don't even want to consider trying to turn it at this point either.

So.... we are having our baby by c-section on Saturday! I was pretty disappointed at first when I heard the news as I had only invisioned having our baby the old fashioned way, but I know that having a healthy baby and healthy me is what is most important!

So wish us luck... I'm trying to train Darren on how to post to the blog and add pictures in the event I'm not up for it for a few days! He has promised to send out a message with the news as soon as he can.

Take care and talk to you soon!

Day 2 of Mat Leave....

Hi everyone,

no news yet! I'm still feeling pretty good. My Mom and Dad were here on the weekend to help me get some last details done for the babies room, and a big shopping trip to fill the freezer... and also to keep me company as Darren was back in Saskatoon for his graduation from the U of S.

I have an ultrasound tomorrow to take a guess at the size of the baby... (they seem to think it's on the bigger side), so I'll have more to share tomorrow!

I'll keep you updated as often as I can!

Take care,
Erin

ok, ok, here's the picture everyone's been asking to see!
I probably should have taken it before I was as puffy as the marshmallow man ;o)

No news yet... 3 weeks to our due date!

Erin