Introducing…

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This kid… always full of surprises. I’ll cut to the chase: We had our beautiful baby boy, his name is Max, and everyone is healthy and elated!

Max1

Max2

But of course, my dearest babe had to keep us on our toes right up until delivery. As you all know, I was scheduled to have a C-section with my amazing OB on Wednesday; well, on the Sunday before (Canadian Thanksgiving), I was woken up at 7 a.m. with a crazy-ass painful contraction. It lasted a couple minutes, then passed, and I thought to myself, “Man, I hope that was just a one-off thing, ’cause it would really be a shame to miss out on turkey dinner tonight.” I rolled over in bed, felt the little guy move, which reassured me, and then my water broke. I was all, “Pee? … Lots of pee? …. FUCK FUCK DEFINITELY NOT PEE!!!” Ran to the bathroom, cleaned myself up, woke my husband, called triage, finished packing my bag, and bolted to the hospital in 8 minutes flat.

Once there, it was determined that I was 1 cm dilated and also that there was meconium in the water; this, coupled with the fact that I was now having contractions quite frequently, all led to a C-section happening about three hours later with an OB who looked to be about 19 years old. The C-section really deserves its own separate post — for a routine procedure, it’s an insane experience that I just did not anticipate, from the massive operating room to being strapped, Jesus-style, on a cross-shaped table, to a robust team of at least 10 doctors and nurses and other specialists, to the side effects of shaking uncontrollably, dry-heaving, weeping, and feeling totally unprepared to actually meet my baby, scared shitless that I wouldn’t love him at first sight.

Aaaaaanyway, it all went smoothly otherwise. Spent two nights in the recovery ward with a fantastic team of caregivers that made me get all warm and fuzzy about Canadian healthcare. Breastfeeding has, blessedly, been a cinch right from the get-go, I’m healing pretty quickly, and weirdly I could have been “that annoying woman” who’s able to walk out of the hospital in skinny jeans — my stomach is actually flatter than it was before I got pregnant (the nurse said five minutes after they stitched me up, “You’re bikini ready!”), and I have no idea how or why, but hey — I’ll take it.

As an aside, now that I think back on it, I should have known that our kid would arrive on the 13th, regardless of when we scheduled the C-section for — it’s kind of our lucky number, with hubby’s birthday falling on Sept. 13th, our wedding on Aug. 13th, and Max first making his presence known with two pink lines on a pregnancy test on Feb. 13th. As for it coinciding with Thanksgiving — well, it’s only appropriate. I can’t think of anything to be more thankful for than a healthy baby boy in my arms.

Will update again soon, but for now am trying to use every spare minute to sleep. There are so many of you who are at such critical times in your IVF cycles or pregnancies and I’m desperate to get back to reading/blogging, but for now, I gotta Max out. :)

40 thoughts on “Introducing…”

  3. Always a bit of drama! He is gorgeous and you look beautiful holding him in your arms. Love the connection with the number thirteen and in the year 2013! You’ve unbroken the bad luck curse of that number!

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  5. Congratulations! So glad that one little embryo they put back turned out to be Max! Happy to hear that he latched right and easily. That in itself can be torture if he won’t do it. Get some sleep and I promise I will continue to follow your blog when you are finally able to update again. Oh and my mom was one of those gals that didn’t need maternity clothes when she left the hospital!

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  10. Hooray!!! Congratulations!! So glad it went as smoothly as it could (yuck to the being tied down part) and the pictures are wonderful. You just look so happy and he is…well, amazing. Look at his little cheeks!! Oh boy, I just used a ton of !!s in this comment.

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  16. Welcome Max! As always, you find a way to make something scary and dramatic sound witty and fun. Hope he’s enjoying his hipster woodland nursery! Congrats!

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  19. Max is GORGEOUS! What a sweet, perfect boy. Super jealous that you aren’t dealing with the après baby pooch. It leaves much to be desired, I can assure you.

    So glad everything went swimmingly. Enjoy that adorable kid!

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  20. Dude, your water breaking, is it pee? not pee!, mecronium, early c-section experience was eerily similar to mine! Must be the progesterone :) So glad Max is here safe and sound and can’t wait to read more. As for your skinny jeans… go you!

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  22. HURRAY!!! First things first, congrats on the bikini body!! ;)

    Man, friend. Max is so beautiful. Major major congratulations. Give him a smooch on the forehead for us, will you?

    Can’t wait to hear more! But, for now, sleep.

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  27. Welcome to the world Max! Those of us with upcoming C-sections would love to hear about your experience….

    Skinny jeans already? What are you a celebrity? ;-)

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  36. Wow, I am super late to the birthday party here but congrats! Beautiful mama and beautiful baby Max! (And yes, for the record, we all hate you for your flattened abs – you’ll have to share your secrets. You know, in between like, being a full time mom to a living, breathing infant.).

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  39. YAYAYAYAY! I love this! Congrats, woman. He looks precious and I’m so glad to hear y’all are doing well. I will have an extra helping of Thanksgiving dinner for you when the American holiday happens next month, ha.

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