Family Christmas

Quick updates

Well, we have been a bit too busy to post much!
Sorry for not keeping up - we have lots of pictures. I even started a post a while ago, but didn't finish it and I think it has disappeared. Here are a couple pics.
Will try to update more thoroughly soon!

Matty hanging out with Daddy


Matty with Me

Matthew Gerald Forest Olajos!

Our sweet darling boy has a name!
"Matty" as a name came to us his second day here. It took us a few more days to decide that Matthew would be his full name.
Gerald, named for "mon oncle" who is a truly special person in both of our lives.
Forest comes from my great grandmothers side of the family - initially Forester before they came across the pond.

Matthew is a lovely baby and we are so blessed to have him!

Birth Story:
We arrived at the hospital Monday morning (Nov 10) for our scheduled cesarean delivery because baby was still breech. Mom, Bob and I met our midwife, Leslie there and were checked into our room. The nurses hooked me up to IV and went over the procedures. This prep time also included unbraiding my blessing braid and giving my labour beads to Bob for his pockets so they could be with me at the birth. Thanks all for your support!

Bob and I right before going to the OR.

At the OR there were a few delays sorting out the cord blood collection and our request to have the baby on my skin in the OR before going to the nursery. My recovery nurse (Allison) helped us talk about all these things and made it possible for us to have baby back in my room where I would recover from OR as soon as possible - something we wanted but didn't think could happen.
Once all of this was sorted out I was wheeled into the OR and given the spinal. I was pretty nervous about this. Luckily it went fine, and as promised, the local freezing hurt more than the spinal!

I was prepped and draped and in came Bob and Leslie. Bob was great at staying with me and explaining things, keeping me focused on our baby and how excited we were. There was one very nervous moment for me as I felt awful and Bob was right on it with the anesthetist - my blood pressure was down and they brought it back up to normal.

It was taking quite a while because Matty was breech and was VERY stuck. Leslie said that it took more than the usual work to get baby out! Bob got to peek twice and saw our little one emerging... "It's a boy!" I think we were both teary at this point. Baby was crying his heart out as they did the initial assessments. All was well! They wrapped him up and laid him on my chest so Bob and I could look at him and talk to him and hold him. What a miracle!

Then Bob and Matty went off to the nursery while I got stitched up. I was very glad that Leslie got to stay with me. I don't really remember being wheeled back up to my room, I just wanted to see my baby! Bob got to do some skin on skin time to warm baby up (much more effective for baby and great for connection with dad!) in the nursery.


It took a little while, which I learned later was because he was having some trouble with his wet lungs and they gave him some time under a heat lamp with pulse oximetry monitoring in the nursery. Babies that aren't squeezed through the birth canal can have some mucous and/or wet lung issues. Nothing major, but it delayed them coming back to my room. Finally, Bob and Matty arrived! I was still frozen (spinal froze from my toes to my collar bones!!) but recovering well.



We stayed in the hospital until Friday. We could have left Wed, but I was having trouble with pain. Go figure! Major abdominal surgery is not fun!
I am still not up and about as much as I would like to be. I guess it is a 6 week recovery for a reason.

Bob and I are having a great time with Matthew bonding as a family.


Anna, Bob and Matthew

Baby boy Olajos

Still no name.
Born Nov. 10, 2008, 2:14 pm
7 lbs. 11 oz.
Mom and baby doing well.

Its Ours!!

We took possession of the house Oct 31. Hard to believe that it is done and ours! It is amazing watching a house go from paper drawings to an actual home!
I brought the first load down from Temagami (thanks for packing the car Carolyn!)to make our move official. We have the basic kitchen set up and some of the baby things in the baby's room.
Bob's mom Jean is coming up Sunday with some things and we will be madly packing the rest of the house. Monday is big move day - thanks to all he folks coming to help out!

Here are some pictures.







We are hoping to be actually moved in and living there by the middle of the week!

New House Pictures

Things are still moving along well and we are still planning on being in the new house Oct 31!

Which is a good thing, since I started to have regular contractions on the full moon! They were Braxton Hicks contractions (not the real thing) but they were regular for a bit and 5 minutes apart! Baby needs to go back to head down though! Flipping to breech at this point was quite the unwelcome surprise!

Here are some interior shots. The flooring is in and the kitchen should be by Monday!







The house is still going to be ready on time - WOW!
Stay tuned for more house updates!

WOW - Its coming up fast!!!

Things are coming along!

Sorry it has been a while! Growing a baby and building a house at the same time is pretty busy!
Bob and I are trying to keep life calm and uneventful (ha ha - you know what we mean though!)

You can't see a lot of what is going on inside the house, but changes are happening! This is a picture from a few weeks ago. The house now has mudded drywall, siding on the sides and back, stucco coming soon for the front, the first coat of paint is on inside and the flooring is in boxes inside. Flooring gets installed next, then the kitchen! The actual stairs are in and the banister posts are clamped into position. We have purchased all the light fixtures for upstairs, which they say they will need in about a week.
I can't wait to see what the floors look like!
Baby is also still growing, I am bigger than this now, and will post more shots soon.

NDP Videos

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Shingles

Shingles on the house:



Shingles on my back:

We're moving to North Bay

In November. In case you didn't know. In case we didn't have enough things on our plate.

The good news is that Critical Illness Insurance paid off our Temagami house. Soon it will be called 'the cottage'. That frees up a few hundred dollars a month to put toward our North Bay mortgage. Maybe even leverage some equity out of it for a down payment.

Here's some photos of what we're building, so far.

Hi Sarah!

We'll, you've drawn me back out of blog-hibernation. Here's a little update for you and for anyone else that is still out there listening.

Anna is doing well. She's 21 weeks pregnant now. Morning sickness is past and she's getting kicked and punched a lot. I've felt Fuzzy kick twice. Yes, we call our baby 'Fuzzy.'

I'm busy with work, and meetings, and an online course. In amongst all that I'm trying to get out for a canoe trip next week. This afternoon, after I get off the computer, I'll head up into the garden and plant some things. The Temagami grocery store was giving away unsold tomato and basil and other plants earlier today.

My sister Lisa was up for a visit. She just left. Was nice seeing her, but too short of a visit.

Of course, Anna and I are moving to North Bay in October. I suppose we haven't mentioned that here. Yes, we're building a house. What made us decide to do that? Price of gas, time commuting, lack of childcare in Temagami, more employment options for Anna.... We're keeping the house in Temagami (to be called 'the cottage'). The new place will be a bungalow, ~1300 sf, walking distance to groceries, work, downtown, park. I'm really looking forward to this, but leaving Temagami will be hard. We love the sense of community here.

I'll put up some photos of Anna (especially her belly!) and the house (aka the hole in the ground) real soon.

I still plan on writing a finale post that will wrap up a lot of my cancer experience (thus far). I'd like to re-read the blog to remind myself of what I went through. Only a few months ago, but chemotherapy seems like ages back.

Oh, and the North Bay Firefighters' Calendar was released yesterday. Again, if you want one and haven't let me know yet, leave a comment here or email me. We might be having a webpage set up where you can order online, but I'll let you know. See here for an article from baytoday.ca. (That's my back in the middle of the poster on the firetruck.)

Your genes are not your destiny

I thought I'd send out this post from Mark's Daily Apple. It's about a study of early prostate cancer patients who, "on personal grounds unrelated to the study," decided to forgo conventional treatment. The study saw them improve their diet, exercise, and practice stress-reduction (yoga, meditation, visualization). After a period of time, their 'disease-fighting' genes showed an increase in activity, while the 'disease' genes showed a decrease.

I think I've mentioned it a few times before in this blog. You can do a lot for yourself just by eating well, moving around, and chilling out! (Not to neglect the rather important role of chemotherapy in my case.)

2850 riders, $14 million dollars for cancer research

Here's the Saturday night update on the Ride.

Jim, the boys and I saw Lisa and Jodie off at 7:30 this morning. Around 12:30, we all met up again at the finish line in Niagara Falls, including Mom and Sheila and Rick (Jodie's mom and step-father). We were well positioned to see Lisa cross the finish line about an hour later, with Jodie only a few minutes behind.

For me, the best part of the weekend was seeing cancer survivors cross the finish line. Survivors were identified by a yellow flag flying behind their bike. Each time one went by I got a little choked up. The other best part was seeing the bike storage area Saturday night, with all the yellow flags poking up amongst a sea of bikes.

By the way, I should mention that I registered for the 2009 Ride to Conquer Cancer. I have to pick a fundraising goal. I'm thinking, maybe $10,000.

Here's a few photos from late Saturday and Sunday.


Lisa at the Saturday finish line.



Sam showing his colours.



Jodie (blue) and Lisa (yellow) at the Sunday start line.



And they're off!


Mom, Lisa and me at the finish line.



Me, Jodie, Jamie and Sam at the finish line.



Riders head the last few yards to the finish line.

On the Ride

Lisa's on the Ride right now (10:40 am). She just called to say she'd left the lunch spot, which she thinks is half way. Yves and I saw her off at 8. There was no sign of Jodie, just a sea of yellow jerseys. Yves and I then headed off for breakfast at a Smitty's in Mississauga. After a quick bite to eat, we went to the first cheering station on Erin Mills Parkway. We were there for no more than 2 minutes when Lisa rode along. Considering she started off literally at the back of the pack, she had made great time, passing a lot of folks. But she said it was just starting to clear out at that point. That was about an hour ago now.

I'll throw down a few pics, then I have to run off to the finish line. At the rate things are going, I may or may not beat Lisa there. We assume that Jodie is somewhere far ahead.