here she is 1.5 days old

diedre june emma salmon

the 3 of us

salmon family feb 27 05

new grandparents feb 26 05 

amanda & diedre resting

amanda & diedre resting feb 26 05

diedre has come home!!!!!

My wonderful daughter is resting at home with mom right now... I am not very computer orientated so keep looking for an update picture on the blog. We are both pretty tired and Amanda is sore, but she and Diedre are both doing well, and I'm the happiest daddy in the world. Amanda is my new hero.
derek

baby salmon has arrived

Diedre (dee-Ay-dra) June Emma Salmon
7lbs 10oz 22in
born 7am on saturday february 26, 2005
"worst pain I have ever been in, but she's sweet and I like her" - amanda

The Birth Story for Diedre

Marty WON the baby due date 50/50

well, marty won the salmon baby due date 50/50.

no, the baby has not been born yet, but according to the rules, he won!

congratulations marty. oh ya, and Happy Birthday!


here is a trip down memory lane for baby salmon:

ultrasound jan 4 05

ultrasound oct 4 04

baby announcement aug 7 04

progress is good, but not enough pain yet

i had good strong contractions, in frequent pattern and my body has progressed well. however, i am back home now b/c its going to take more time to dialate and there's no sense sticking around the hospital. my dr. came by and he thinks we'll be back in the middle of the night. we'll see!

so i need my water to break (that will be definite sign that its really really time) or to be in much more pain, so much that i can't handle it at home anymore. so i'm really looking forward to that :D ha ha

there were three couples from our prenatal class that all delivered today (2 were by scheduled c-section). i had the earliest due date in our class, but 3 ladies beat me! :(
we got to see 2 of the babies, they were sooo sweet and so little. one couple had boy (5lb 9oz) & girl (5lb 14oz) twins (unnamed at this point), another couple had a girl (6lb 5oz) named Sofia and the other couple had a boy named Aiden, but they left during my assessment. How fun for all of them :)

contractions & temporary relocation

well, contractions are happening close enough together that i'm supposed to go into the hospital at 3pm today. so unless we get sent back home, there's a great chance we're going to have a baby!!! (just dont know how long it will take).

i will try to get someone to update you all for me.

for now, writing between contractions is all i can handle, and i dont have that many minutes between them (the contractions cause my thinking to dull and all i can do is rest and wait til they pass).

one day past due

since i've been pregnant, i catch myself calling expiry dates on items like milk, sour cream, etc. "due dates" and sometimes i remember to correct myself.

that was just an aside...anyway, so baby is now past due.

i have been having contractions that are very close to real ones except for the timing. they happened all night and i have also felt very nauseous. the contractions are supposed to take my breath away, so they aren't quite that bad yet. they will keep progressing until they are nasty enough to warrant me going to the hospital. but my belly is getting "chin hard" which my sister-in-law told me to look for, so thats good.

so the plan today: go for a walk, go to white rock for fish & chips at lunch and probably go for another walk, oh, and plenty of rest. i had a really unrestful night and am glad i didn't go into labor during the night because i was so exhausted already.

salmon men and hazelnut

here is derek and his daddio chopping hazelnut wood. they got alot accomplished to contribute to the warming of our wood-heat-only homestead (yes, thats right, no electric or gas heat in this old farm house).

we went up to Fort Langley to walk about the shops and have more gelato (like we did after sunday's walk there, it induced labor for me on monday, so we thought...maybe...).

anyway, we continue to wait as patiently as possible.

i think passing my due date is not as bad as expecting the baby to come before the due date. now there is a much more definite time remaining (9 days max) so its a bit easier to handle. i've been having minor contractions all day but not in any pattern or progressively worse. we'll see what the night brings!

Baby Salmon's Due Date

here i am at 40 weeks pregnant

well baby salmon is due today. i'm pretty doubtful he/she is going to arrive today.

i had a doctor's appointment yesterday and he said he's actually surprised that i haven't gone into labor yet with the baby's head being sooo low. he said i need to be resting more and that although its good for me to be going on these walks like i have, i better make sure to put my feet up when i get back.

derek's parents arrived yesterday and came to hear the baby's heartbeat at the dr.'s. grandma salmon almost cried (she's so sweet).

i asked the doctor how big he thinks the baby is and he said not very big. he said he thinks baby will be less than 8 lbs.

anyway, no real labor news to report. baby will come when he/she is ready--hopefully soon!

You Da Russ, man, you da russ!!!

I think it's very strange that a womans body is very private until she becomes pregnant, and then all of a sudden nothing becomes sacred....
For example, ten months ago it would not be a common thing for a group of our friends sitting around, to discuss my wife's Uterus, and I thought "bloody show" meant going over to Craig's house to watch a 80's horror flick....
I mean can you imagine going up to a woman you hardly knew and asking her; "So how much weight have you gained?", "Can I touch your belly?" , or even worse, " Man do you ever look huge!!!"
I've even had people warn me that Amanda was going to somehow be transformed into a sailor and spew out obscenities in my direction in the course of labour....
strange.......derek

keeping you informed

8am
so yesterday my body took a long break. i didn't have any notable contractions from 8am to 4pm. i had a few last evening and a real good one today. they are not in a rhythm or anything, so it doesnt mean i'm in real labor or anything like that. but it does mean that my body is still working on getting there which is good news.

Derek's parents arrive at noon tomorrow so i'm going to prepare for their arrival. we had to arrange for my brother to pick them up so that if i do go into labor then derek won't be really far away from me.

i have begun having nice long walks for the last 3 days, so i will continue that today and also do some grocery shopping.

i know so many people are excited for me to go into labor, but i am telling myself i have between 2 and 12 days to go so that i don't have such a disappointing experience like i had yesterday. we'll see what happens.

one friend commented that its pretty weird that i'm wishing pain on myself (labor) but hey, can't wait to meet the little one :D

3pm UPDATE:

i had about an hour of really nasty contractions that almost made me cry. those are the ones i need to have more of. i just came back from a vigorous walk so we'll see what happens. i'm not trying to be too optimistic of it happening today/tomorrow but we'll see.

no baby yet

well, the contractions were at 2 minutes apart by 4 am so we went into the hospital to be assessed. i am definitely in early labor but the real labor is a ways off. the nurses think it could be days yet before baby arrives.

so again, i'm going to sleep.

what a gorgeous day

today derek and i slept in. we both had terrible sleep and blame the fish & chips we had last night.

our friends ben & rose called to meet us for brunch so we went up to Denny's for a hearty meal. brent, kristin, joanna & baby david joined us. we had a nice visit.

then i asked if anyone wanted to go for a walk to induce labor! ben suggested we go up to Fort Langley and we ended up going for a nice walk and enjoying some gelato. the sun was so bright and beautiful.

now we just have to see if the labor really does come on :)

we have been recording my contractions all evening and we are going to bed now...they are 7 to 8 minutes apart (the hospital wants them to be 5 minutes apart consistently)...we'll see if they stop overnight or get stronger. but for now, sleep.

Hey, hey,hey

Amanda and I decided to go to a movie at the cheap theatre in Langley, and there wasn't much playing , so we decided to watch Fat Albert. Man was it ever a waste of time, although we did get to choose from any seat in the place as we were the only ones there.... I would not recommend seeing Fat Albert unless you are less than 8 years old, or if you like stupid movies.....

one week to go--or so

here i am at 39 weeks pregnant with Fraser on my shoulder.

i am feeling thoroughly relaxed. i pretty much have one night where i wake up all the time and then one night where i wake up twice. i am really wishing the baby would come soon but am trying to be patient. its not because i'm uncomfortable or sick of being pregnant, i just want to meet our little one and i guess its a bit weird living in this unknown time where baby can come anytime.

i have enjoyed going swimming, some prenatal exercises, and a massage this week. my doctor's appointment was good. my blood pressure is back to normal and my test results were good again. he thinks i am really close...but we'll just have to wait and see.

derek's parents are arriving next wednesday to stay for nearly two weeks. it will be really great to have them around and enjoying the new baby together. hopefully we are all good at sharing hee hee.

my dad and stepmother are also planning on coming over from the island once the baby arrives (and staying with her daughter) so that will be really great too.

i've received a few calls now asking if baby has arrived yet, but not so many that i'd have to change the voicemail message to say that he/she hasn't arrived yet. i also thought it might be confusing for people to hear: "You've reached Derek, Amanda and Mark" which is what it says right now...we'll be getting embroidered blankets with Mark Salmon on them ha ha. (Mark is our house mate who has been "up North" for the last 8 months but still contributes his portion of rent because he has so much stuff here.)

anyway, my brother says that he will teach Heather to update my blog from his cell phone while i'm in labor...we'll see if she actually has time for that or not :D

Happy Valentine's Day

well my derek has done it again...pretty much every year for valentines day he says we shouldn't get each other anything...then at the last minute he either changes his mind and tells me or he just goes out and gets me something anyway :D

so this year, he said he'd think about it and get back to me...but didn't. so i stuck to the "card only" plan (sort of...i bought some candy too called "sweet fish" which i thought was appropriate) and figured, if he is going to buy something, it will probably be for us.

anyway, he gave me the "new life" figurine from Willow Tree...i love that stuff. its so beautiful. we are so excited for our little one to arrive :D

derek keeps asking me all the time if i've had contractions yet...he asks in the middle of the night, when he calls me from work, when he gets home and asks how my day is...i think he wants the baby to come hee hee

Time to Celebrate!

I have had a love-hate relationship with a certain banking institution. i love their hours and their online banking but hate that they gave us a Line of Credit so quickly back in the day.

five years ago, when derek and i were joining one another's banks in preparation to get married. we walked into his bank (my first time there) and within 2 (literally two) minutes they gave us a $10 000 line of credit.

that Line of Credit has been a source of stress but also an experience to mature over the last few years. i'm sure we used it to accomplish some good at times (like buying our car) but mostly silly spending that i don't think we needed to do. so i kind of hated the bank for giving us so much money when we were just starting off on our new life together.

ok, "Time to Celebrate!"
as of today it is completely PAID OFF.

I paid it off using online banking...in someways, it might have been better to go into the bank together and have a marching band and noise makers to celebrate and announce our great achievement. but since i do most of the online banking and making sure we have money for bills in the right areas, on saturday, i saw that we had enough to pay that account off so i just did it. then told derek it was done and we gave each other high fives and had a celebratory dinner and gave high fives to some of our friends...and the transaction is officially posted today.

Feb 14 2005: Line of Credit $0.00
hooray

my mom's the coolest!!!

My mom emailed me to tell me she started a blog! i always thought my mom was the coolest and now this...wow, i can hardly contain myself :) Check it out:
Richard & Jennifer Gagne

little flowers & the walnut tree out back

little flowers have recently sprung up by the walnut tree out back.


the grove of trees along the left are all walnut trees but this large one was a really nice place to hang out for reading or napping in the sun our first summer living here.

then last summer, it became Sparky's tree (he got tied up to it)...so it was a very poopy area. now that we have the property fenced in, i'm really hoping that i can reclaim the tree.

i imagine sitting out there with the baby on a blanket, playing or napping, in the shade of the tree. there is a nice slope to the hill so you don't have to lie completely flat. whenever i think about sitting under the tree with the baby, it reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Where The Heart Is, where Novalee says she wants to live in a house that has patio furniture where she can sit with the baby and drink chocolate milk.

in other good news, my aunt lent us her pickup truck so that i won't be left without a car during the next few weeks of waiting (just in case i need to go to the hospital). so Leah, we can have that coffee after all!

whistler rose & her fiance josh

we had dinner with rose & josh tonight. i've talked to rose during my pregnancy but haven't seen her since the long weekend in may when we went climbing in Smith Rock Oregon. so tonight, we got to meet her fiance josh, they're getting married april 22.


rose tells us she's not "into the climbing" anymore...we're shocked! she is the one who taught us to mantle, a technique that has helped us on many occasions when you just can't quite get your leg up safely. she has such a natural ability in rockclimbing, but she has a bad knee that gave her issues on many occasions. she can get herself in so close to the rock when she climbs, we both learned alot from her...i guess time goes by and people change...and they are no longer "into the climbing" :(

2 weeks til baby salmon's due date

here i am at week 38. i cannot believe the changes my body has gone through for this pregnancy. what a miracle!

now, its time to wait and see when the baby will come. in our prenatal class the facilitator said how people always compare pregnancy to sports but she said, there really is no comparison, because when you train for a sporting event, they don't usually wake you up in the middle of the night and say "GO!"

anyway, i'm anticipating my "go" time...and resting of course ;)

my journey to the world of blog

Yes, that's right folks, this is the first blogging I have ever done. As of up to this point I have been bloggless and without a blog to stand on.. One blog on this blogger page is better than Two in my mind, so here goes get bloggy... blog it up, yo.... bliggity blog, home-blog.
derek

maternity leave has begun

I went into work for 3 hours on Friday to wrap up a few things. It was exciting for me to drive away and think "wow, now i'm a stay-at-home mom!" On wednesday there was a nice goodbye party for me and my friend/boss (who is going to China to adopt next week!).

It will be weird to go from working full time for 8 years to working around the house. I'm a little nervous about the transition because it will be such a big change to be responsible for the home rather than for an outside job. It will also be a challenge to make sure to rest as long as I can while still getting some things done around home.

I actually have kind of a busy week scheduled. I have a few lunch dates and then there's the prenatal class on tuesday night and i'm going to go to La Leche League meeting on wednesday night. so I will really need to be careful in getting the rest I need.

I guess its just a waiting game now...when will the little Salmon decide to be born :)

3 weeks or so to go!

here i am at week 37. i had several unusual results from my doctor's appointment yesterday that indicated that i have not been taking it as easy as i should. he strongly advised that i either stop going to work right away, or markedly decrease my time in the office (thats what the note says). so today, i stayed home and rested.

it was obviously pretty needed, i slept 11 hours (with bathroom breaks) and then did a little work from home, and then had a nap. i am going to go to work on Friday for a few hours to make sure all the loose ends are tied up there and then i'm going to begin my relaxing regime as i prepare for baby's arrival.

derek managed to come home at a good time so we had our last "official" date before baby arrives. we went to the Keg for my favorite steak, the baseball sirloin, yummm. it was a great date. i really enjoyed myself and our time together.
:D

strange doggy

i looked out the window and saw sparky sitting on the picnic table. by the time i got the camera out, he was staring right back at me...how strange