Baby's Homepage

Baby's Homepage

Last Update: 02-06-03

Hello, my name is Matthew and I'm writing on behalf of Baby, a small girl or boy who is currently gestating inside of my wife, Astra. Baby is just about ripe and will bust out any time now. Baby enjoys fruit, green vegetables, artificial grape flavouring, french fries and the sound of Astra's cardiovascular system at work. Baby has no hobbies.

02-06-03 New Ingrid Pages: All fans of young Ingrid should look to Ingrid's Homepage for all future updates.

01-24-03 Photo Album: Until I build some more permanent pages for Ingrid here is a temporary page where I will add recent photographs.

01-22-03 Final Report: Astra's milk has started to come in, and no one is more pleased about this than our wee Ingrid. I will be archiving this page somewhere deeper in the website soon, but before I do here is one final update: to round off the First and Second Trimester Reports linked below, here is my Third Trimester Report.

01-21-03 Epilogue: Many thanks go out to Carron and Christine of Midwifery Care - North Don River Valley of Toronto, Ontario, whose knowledge, caring, support, grace and poise helped make our drug-free water-birth home-delivery such a smooth, successful affair. We would also have Michelle to thank too, if only Ingrid hadn't rocketed out of Astra so fast that Michelle never had a chance to arrive. You guys rock!

01-20-03 Introducing Ingrid: Astra delivered a healthy girl at 14:45 this afternoon, named Ingrid Nora Echo Hemming. Both mother and baby are happy and doing great. Ingrid weighs in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. and is 54 cm tall. The winner of the baby-pool is Chinky. Ingrid has yet to grace us with any real crying. She has a firm latch on the breast, and is feeding well.

01-20-03 Labour Begins: Astra's water broke at 11:35 this morning after several hours of prelimary labour. The midwives and well-wishers are on their way. Everything is proceeding well, if very quickly. Stay tuned for updates as soon as the little bugger peeks out.

01-19-03 Astra Unplugged: Astra has passed her mucus-plug (not pictured, thankfully) -- the little stopper of snot that had been sealing the mouth of her uterus up until just a few hours ago. The mucus was streaked with blood, which is an indication that capillaries in her cervix have begun to break (a process known as effacement). While labour may not begin for another two weeks, the showing of blood does suggest that labour may begin sometime in the next 50 hours. Braxton Hicks contractions have increased in frequency. Standby, babywatchers.

01-13-03 Inflating the Pool: Baby's birthing pool was finally inflated today thanks to the hot air provided by Baby's maternal grandfather, Juris. Lungs and a bicycle pump just don't cut the mustard compared to Juris' powerful leaf-blower, which filled each of the three levels of the pool in less than 30 seconds. Much to my relief the pool does indeed fit inside of the nursery. We have had to delay our Labour Trial Run temporarily because Astra has been suffering from influenza. Since she's healthy again now and the pool is inflated at last we're all clear to go.

Update! Baby has dropped into birthing position. Hooray!

01-07-03 Nursery Preparations: With Astra's glazing and finishing help Matthew completes painting Baby's tree in the nursery. See a wider view of the finished tree here. The painting features a family of red birds being introduced to flight, various scurrying squirrels, a small blue bird with red eyes, some sort of hanging sloth-type thing, and a gaggle of Totoros. Now that the nursery has been cleared of painting debris we can proceed to the Trial Run, in which we plan to inflate the birthing pool and go through the motions of labour.

12-21-02 Pregnant CutiePie: First web-posted view of my expanding wife. Ain't she a cutie-pie? She's most likely holding her hand to her belly because she's just been sharply kicked from within by our bouncing, stretching, swelling infant. At a recent Christmas party Baby discovered punk rock and started dancing as if coked up on jazz. Baby believes in corporeal punishment: Astra gets a thrashing every time she bends over. Things have gone pretty smoothly so far, but Astra is starting to find sleeping a bit difficult and finding her mobility hampered. She is looking forward to getting her body back to herself, in just a few short weeks.

Also, here are some links to articles I've posted about our adventures with Baby so far.

First Trimester Report - 2 July 2002

Second Trimester Report - 18 October 2002

09-10-02 Ultrasound Image: Second ultrasound view of Baby, imaged near the middle of the second trimester. This is a much more difficult image to decipher than the first ultrasound image. Roughly speaking, Baby's head occupies most of the right side of the image, and Baby's shoulder, arm and torso fill the rest. The important thing is that the technologist was able to clearly see that Baby's heart does indeed have the recommended number of chambers.

07-11-02 Ultrasound Image: First ultrasound view of Baby, taken at the end of the first trimester. If you're having trouble deciphering the image, Baby is the one with the Alfred Hitchcock profile at centre-right; Baby's torso and spine extend down and to the left; the blob above the face is one of Baby's little hands; the fainter blob in the upper-left is one of Baby's little feet. The rest is all uterus.