Farewell 2008...we won't miss you...! Year in Review

2008 has finally come to an end....This year hasn't been a particularly good one for Viv & I.  It wasn't all bad, but not all good either.  We went to the Michael Buble concert, which was SO fabulous.  We celebrated my birthday with dinner at Kingyo, which is quite a good restaurant.  In March, our friends Amy and Len welcomed their daughter, Layla Lam into the world.In April, things started to get worse....I fell while, of all things, getting dressed...which caused me to hurt my back quite badly...I thought I had herniated a disc in my back.  I was bed ridden for 4 weeks, which was BRUTAL.  The worst part was, the day that I fell, was the day I found out I was pregnant (about 5 

weeks)...so I couldn't take any strong pain meds.  I spent alot of time crawling around my house...and lying in my bed.  I realized then how much we take physical mobility for 

granted.

At the end of May, Viv's maternal grandmother passed away from gall bladder cancer.  We travelled to Brunei in hopes of seeing her alive before she passed...unfortunately we missed her by a few hours.  This was a particularly sad event for Viv, since Viv lived with his maternal grandparents until in immigrated to Canada in 1989...so he was very close to them.  

The summer was spent taking Isabel to Maplewood Farm, the Zoo, the PNE and to my sister and Marty's summer house in Westport. For Hallowe'en, I knew I had to find a Care Bear costume.  If you know my da

ughter, you'll 

know she LOVES her Care Bears... I was able to find a Care Bear costume for Isabel on Craigs List...I drove to Langley to meet a woman from Chilliwack to pick up this costume...but it was worth it.  We went to the Pumpkin Patch

for the first time this year with her little buddies, Max, Austin and Christian.

In October, we also purchased our first house!  We'd been looking around for 2 years, and finally were able to find a g

ood fit for us.  The house has 3 bedrooms, a big flat yard, and a suite downstairs for my mom to move in with us (eventually).

 

In November, we celebrated Isabel's 3rd birthday with a big party with almost 30 kids at Eileen Dailly Pool.  It was such a fun party with swimming and cookie decorating, but I may think twice before having such 

a huge party again...:)  Later that month, we got some more sad news from Brunei...this tim

e Viv's maternal grandfather passed away.  I was 9 months pregnant, so I was not able to make the trip with Viv.  Viv was able to go to Brunei for a week for the funeral to say goodbye to his grandfather, with whom he was quite close.  

When Viv went to Brunei, I w

orked my last day at St. Paul's lab before my maternity leave.  Just before my last day,

 I got a new position in Laboratory Information Systems, but will not be starting my new job til I go back to work in a year.

At last we are at the end of the year, and even though the pipes in our house froze and our hot water tank broke and flooded our basement...the best thing that could happen, happened...we had our son, Nathan Makoto Tan-Ng on December 19th.  He was 6 days late, but was worth the wait, and the painful labour!

We look forward to what 2009 will bring....I will be working as a full time mommy this year during my mat leave....with 2 kids, it should be interesting...and fun, I think...(I hope!)

If you are reading this, I wish for you a happy and healthy 2009!

We need a bigger car...

After being housebound for the past week and a half due to the awful weather, we decided to venture out to Coquitlam Centre for our first family outing.  We also decided to use our new Joovy Caboose stroller...it's not a double stroller, but a single stroller with a bench/step on the back for the older child to sit/stand on.  We thought that this would be a good choice, since Isabel was already 3 and rarely sat in a stroller on her own, so a double would be unnecessary...and this stroller allowed Isabel to get on and off independently.  The stroller was smooth and Isabel enjoyed riding on the back of it, while Nathan slept in his car seat which was anchored to the front.

However, we quickly realized that there wasn't much room in the trunk of the CR-V for the stroller and the 3 bags of groceries we bought at TNT...especially now that we have 2 car seats in the back seat now.  First thing I thought was..."we need a bigger car"....we didn't even bring the diaper bag or any other child "essentials" with us for our short trip, and after buying just a few groceries, our car could barely hold it all.  We may have to start thinking "mini-van" sooner than I had thought....

Just a side note....in this crappy weather, choose parking that is covered if you can...and practice folding your stroller before going out, so you are not trying to fold it while standing in a parking lot with snow and rain pelting you while you try to get 2 kids into the car....  :)

Do I even have time for this?

I'm not sure if this is going to work, but here it goes....This is my attempt to create a blog of my experiences as a new mother of two.  I have the next year off work, so I should have time to do this??  (am I crazy?).  Well, we'll see how successful I am at this pretty soon.

I became a mommy again on December 19, 2008 when

 I gave birth to my beau

tiful boy, Nathan Makoto Tan-Ng.  He was born 7lbs 8oz...pretty decent size, I thought.  Over a pound heavie

r than my first born, Isabel, who was born 6lbs 7oz.  

As requested, here is my birth story...the labour was MUCH more difficult with my 2nd one....whoever said that labour with 2nd, or subsequent children is LYING!!  I think I was kind of disappointed when I realized it was WAY more painful.  Nathan also came out "face up"...which was even more painful.  If I had known it was going to be that painful, I would've asked for an epidural, but I figured he would pop out as fast as Isabel did, so I didn't opt for the epidural...darn it!

My labour started about 4am on the Dec 19...contractions 10 min apart.  At 8am, I left my house for Burnaby Hospital.  

Now at this point, the contractions are more like 6-8 minutes apart, and is probably a bit early to be heading to the hospital, but there was snow on the ground, and it was rush hour, so I figured, better safe than sorry.  When I got to Burnaby Hospital delivery suite, it was a mad house....the nurses were running around everywhere, and it was a full house.  I managed to get into a delivery room, but the progre

ssion was pretty slow....I was only about 3 cm dilated when I arrived, and the contractions were still only 6-10 min apart...After a couple 

hours of being there, they gave me the gas (nitrous oxide)...I did

n't like it the first time...but the nurse suggested I give it a 2nd try....I still didn't like it...just makes you feel high and dizzy.  I then took a shower for about 45 minutes which helped tremendously....I think I progressed another 2-3 cm during that time in the shower.  Now as time went on, the contractions got more and more intense....they offered my some Fentanyl (spelling?) for pain, which would be administered by IV.  I took it....they gave it to me in small doses, but it did take the edge.  When that ran out, the pain was getting pretty bad....Finally when it came time to push, I thought I might die. I really felt like he was ready to come out, and the Dr said they wanted to wait for him to turn because he was facing the "wrong way"....After alot of pain and scream

ing and over an hour of pushing....He finally came out at 3:34 pm.  Giving birth is not 

glamourous, and when you're in that much pain, I don't know about you, but it's difficult to keep it together without screaming....I don't understand that whole "silent birth" thing that Scientologists believe in...there's no way I could be silent during childbirth!  I think the first thing I said after Nathan came out was "THANK YOU for coming out!"  

Anyways, that's the birth story....we were discharged as soon as Nathan was 24 hours old.  I know it may sound a bit early...but we were wanting to go home anyways.  Nathan was doing fine, and nursing fine.  I was a bit worried about

 breastfeeding again, but after doing it for 20 months with Isabel, it was like riding a bike.  Luckily, I only had 3 stiches, so in that area, the recovery has been so far, so good.

Now that we're home, people have been asking me about "baby blues" or post partum depression...to be honest, I haven't really had time to be depressed.  I guess I was a bit emotional a day or two after the birth...but I think it may have been more due to lack of sleep.  The most difficult part has been trying to get Isabel used to having a sibling.  She's been particularly clingy to me....she loves her brother though, which is nice.  She hasn't shown alot of signs of jealousy towards Nathan, but does cling to me ALOT!  She has been getting a bit better over the past couple days, and it has been easier with Viv being home every day with us.  I'm SO glad Viv has been home....and he'll be off til mid-January, which is awesome! 

This transition is going to take time I think...I have to say though, that as each day passes, it gets better and better. I'm frightened to see what's going to happen when Viv goes back to work....will I have time to make dinner?