When I get older, I will be stronger …

The biggest sporting event in the world (the World Cup) occurs once every four years.  This year they have selected a song that is our little daughter’s  theme song.  It’s chorus is: “When I get older, I will be stronger.” (Listen here)  This is the story of our little girl getting stronger.

Monday 9:30 PM

Kara is working late Monday night. Kara has been continuing to work, despite Kent’s gentle suggestions to start her maternity leave. 

Monday 9:35 PM

The contractions start!  She heads home, and starts labouring in bed.  She is excited and happy between contractions (which come every 5 minutes) … she still happily waves to the camera.

Monday 10:30 PM

Kent finishes up the baby room, making it a nice place for the little girl who will soon be coming ….

… by moving everything into the next room where he’s parents are supposed to be sleeping!

Tuesday: Noon

Kara is admitted into the hospital.  A fantastic nurse, Angela, prepares Kara for the next 8, long hours of back labour (she has already been labouring 15 hours).

Tuesday: Midnight

Due to some complications, Kara is forced to use an epidural … which has the nice side benefit of taking away the pain for 4 hours.  She was pretty happy about that arrangement (the anesthesiologist is in the background)

Angela is a kindred spirit and a great nurse!

Wednesday: 4AM

The epidural wears off and its time to start the 2 3/4 hours of pushing!

Kara and Kent are both starting to look a little haggard (I don’t know what my excuse was!) But as you can see - *nothing* – got Kara’s spirits down.  She always smiled and was always polite, even during contractions.

The doctor (foreground) sets Kara up with a mirror so she can see her progress. 

Wednesday: 6:44 AM

Although in extreme pain, Kara asked “Do I need to wait for next contraction?”  She didn’t even wait for the doctors to respond – she pushed hard and out popped our little girl!  The picture below is just moment’s later when they put mom and daughter together for the first time in the open air!

Holy Smokes, do you see that black curly head!  Even the nurses were shocked!

But that’s not all folks, there’s a little bit more.  The placenta needs to come out too!  The doctor and I were excited about this part – that’s true love – when you are proud of your daughter’s placenta!

Here it is, one more shot.  Isn’t it beautiful?  The miracle of childbirth

Ohhhhh … you’re all wanting more pictures of Brooke, not her placenta.  OK, ok.  As you can see, Brooke loves her first weigh-in: 8 lbs 5 ounces

Finally, Brooke goes back to a very proud mom where she can be nice and warm.

Finally, Kara goes back to the cell phone and mult-tasking where she can be nice and productive! 

She’s grittier than an elite solider, more beautiful than a Russian model, and a better mother than  Teressa –  but now its time to crash (this is mom and daughter’s first sleep together.)

And isn’t Brooke beautiful?

 

Everyone wakes up, and for the first time we see Brooke’s gorgeous eyes.  They will soon shut again, as newborns sleep for almost a full 24 hours after the traumatic event of childbirth.  It is just like when I did that PlayStation marathon with Lee and we were super tired the next morning …

After falling asleep, apparently she didn’t want any more pictures taken, because she gave the paparazzi the signal to ‘buzz off’.  Nobody staged this shot – she was just sleeping this way. Honest!  (She get’s that from her mother’s side.)

Trouble was on the horizon though.  Brooke had “Wet Lungs” which meant she couldn’t breathe properly.  In the video below, she isn’t crying or panting, we found out later it was her struggling to breathe. 

Life was a blur as the doctor’s started taking care of Brooke.

They placed her in an incubator where they could give her all the oxygen she needed.

Next she developed jaundice, and so she needed to be under the lamps until that cleared up.  Doesn’t she look like a little diva – a diva with really pudgy cheeks that is :)

Modern technological miracles.  All they did was wrap a little lead around her foot and they could monitor the oxygen saturation in her blood!

Baby wasn’t eating (because she was so tired just trying to breathe, heal and survive in general), so we were …

… injecting food into her mouth.

… bottle feeding her.

 

… breast feeding her.

 

[ Picture has been removed at request of content provider]

 

… and then just cuddling her.

All this resulted in some *very* cute cases of the hiccups.  Turn up your sound and you can hear her below.

Brooke hated baths.  You can hear her scream in the next video!  After the video ended, she actually grabbed a hold of the edge of the bath tub and wouldn’t let go!  We had to peel her little fingers off the edge.  She is STRONG! (or daddy is a softy!)

Even though she hates the bath - you’ve got to admit, she looks pretty darn cute in there!

But she loves daddy!  Yes, that’s a smile all you doubters.  (And yes, she may have been pooing but that was just a coincidence)

Daddy spent some time

… feeding her

 

… cuddling her

… and even changing her (we were both pretty shocked and what was in that diaper!)

Grandma and grandpa made the trip down from Kelowna.  Unfortunately, they could only see Brooke through a window because the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit only let’s parents in.

But they were still allowed in Kara’s room.

And there was a room outside the intensive care unit they could wait in.

They were so helpful in making meals, cleaning the house, and very generous in showering mom and baby with gifts.

So after almost a week in the hospital, Kara was discharged (even though the baby wasn’t).  And so Kara, who through a very gritty delivery started looking like this (very beautiful):

… ate a few fruit and veggies Patty brought.

… dug out a few clothes from her bags

and resumed her inimitable hotness!

We said goodbye to the room where we did all the labouring, epidurals, delivery and recovery:

Room # 19

Kara started sleeping in the waiting room so she could give Brooke food through the night (a *very* awesome, dedicated mother).

But Brooke started getting older, stronger and she got off the oxygen, off the lights, and now, although still in intensive care, is just needing the company of the sheep that Bjorn and Jenny bought for Brooke (a very friendly purple Elephant awaits at home that Sarah set up for her)

We can’t wait until she is strong enough to come home and be with mommy and daddy all the time!