Feeling the itch to write something

Hard to believe it has already been 14 days since little Makayla entered this world and our lives. We are loving every sleepless moment of it! The last two weeks have gone by pretty fast. My mom was able to come out here for the first week (she actually flew out on the Sunday and Makayla was born on Monday morning). Phil's mom and dad arrived yesterday and will be here for another two weeks. It is hard cause there isn't much to do. Makayla pretty much eats and sleeps all day. We can't really play with her and it is still a little awkward to take her out (especially since you never know when she is going to want to eat and I prefer to feed her at home where there is everything that I need!). So, these next two weeks will be interesting.

The whole birth/labour thing feels so sureal and it is hard to believe that it actually happened. They say that when you are going through the whole thing you will never want to have children again, but then as time goes on and your body returns to normal, those few hours of pain and uncomfortableness seem to disappear and you think, "hey, I could do that again!". See, for me the whole thing went by very fast. I feel very lucky and fortunate to have had such a short labour. The week before Makayla was born I was feeling that she was coming soon (at least I was hoping). I had some contractions for the week but nothing to rush to the hospital with. Sunday morning I woke up at around 5:30 am and started having contractions pretty regularly. They were about 5 minutes apart. So I tried to go back to sleep but I just couldn't. So I got up and let Phil sleep. He got up at 8 and started to get ready for church. By the time he left the contractions slowed down to about half an hour apart. So, I thought well, it's not going to happen today. I called my mom and she was able to get on a flight for that afternoon. Phil came home from church and we had lunch and then he went to go do some things with some guys that afternoon and then he went and picked up my mom from the airport. They came home and then went shopping for some groceries. By that time the contractions were still slow, but they were starting to pick up. We made dinner and ate and by that time I was really starting to feel uncomfortable. We watched a little tv and then I went to take a shower. After that I told Phil and my mom that we should probably think about going to the hospital. So we rounded up all our stuff and left for the hospital. Of course on the way there we had to go through Tim Hortons so that the two could have their coffee.

We got to the hospital around 11pm. We checked in and they checked me out and I was at 4cm dialated. They hooked me up to the monitor and we watched the baby's heart beat and we saw the contractions happening. About an hour later they moved me into the labour room. I got hooked up to more machines and the contractions were coming stronger. The nurse checked again and I was then 9 cm. So they called the doctor and started to get things ready. Pretty soon I was able to start pushing and then 40 minutes later little Makayla Avery joined us at 2:55 am. It had been a crazy long day and it wasn't over yet. They got everyone cleaned up and then took us to the recovery area. Phil went with Makayla to the nursery for her bath and whatever else they did there and my mom and I hung out waiting for them to come back. They came back and then Phil and my mom headed home (that was at like 6 am). So baby and I went to bed and the others headed home. Phil came back in the afternoon for a visit and I just hung out sleeping and feeding baby whenever needed. I was finally able to go home the next day at lunch time! We came home on the Tuesday and life just hasn't been the same since.

She does really well sleeping most of the day and most of the night. She feeds well, but has not gained enough weight yet. The health nurse is a little concerned and so we go every week for little check ups to see how she is growing and if she is gaining weight. She usually only wakes up two or three times in the night which means that we are able to sleep for about a two to three hour stretch at a time. Hopefully she will start sleeping longer at night so that I don't feel so tired in the day. I manage to get some naps here and there, but it is a little difficult when family is here and they want to do things and what not.

Anyway, that's about all the time I have for now. I will write more about our precious addition at another time!

More Pics of Baby Yee

If you want to see more pictures we are posting them in Flickr... so click here, to check them out!

Baby Makayla has arrived!

Hello World!

Makayla Avery Yee arrived in this world on June 9th at 2:55 am. She weighed in at 6lbs 9oz and 19 inches. She is beautiful, but we are a little bias. Here are some pitures of her arrival.

Still no Baby Yee

Well, there is still no Baby Yee. We keep waiting and waiting and waiting. We know that God has everything all planned out and all we have to do is have the patience to wait. I believe that is the hardest part. The baby is moving and getting ready to make it's entrance into the world. I will not give the details here of what is happening as I am sure many of you don't care. If you really want to know more details you can email me!! We have a doctors appointment scheduled for next Tuesday which is the actual due date. So, if no more progress has been made by then I don't know what they will do. We (Phil and I) have commitments on Friday and so we figure this little one is hanging out till we have completd our tasks! So, we continue to talk to the baby and coax it out, but as of yet, there is nothing. We will keep you all posted! Stay tuned to meet the new member of our family soon!

Nothing New

The countdown has begun. As you can see we are just about at 37 weeks which means only about 3 more weeks to go. I have been feeling great and I am not feeling the need to nest, although I have spent some time cleaning lately but that's only because I know that Phil won't do it and if I don't do it now, it may never get done. It has been so hot here the last few days that my ankles decided that they wanted to grow to double their size. The doctor said there is nothing that can be done except staying cool and reducing salt intake. So, that's what I have been trying to do. The forecast is calling for rain for the next few days, so hopefully the ankles will go back to normal! Other than that, there really isn't anything to report. I so wish that I could say that I have felt pre labour contractions, but I have felt nothing. The doctor said the baby is head down so that is good and now we just wait. Everything seems to be pretty much ready to go, all we need now is Baby Yee. So, we will keep you posted as to what happens and will definitely post when Baby Yee makes its arrival! So, that's all for now!

As Promised

Here are some recent pictures. Phil said today that I look like I am ready to pop. Well, I am definitely beginning to feel done with this growing belly. It is starting to get in the way and slow me down. Hopefully not too much longer!!!

Week 32


Week 34

I just can't wait...

- to sleep on my stomach again
- to wear my "old" clothes (especially since summer is just around the corner and most of my maternity clothes are fall/winter)
- to be able to see my feet properly
- to walk as fast as Phil without it feeling so uncomfortable
- to sleep through the night without having to make numerous trips to the bathroom (although I will have to get up to take care of the baby)
- to not always feel the need to want to eat, especially at 6 am
- to not need a hand getting in and out of Phil's Grand Prix
- to go to the gym and be able to work hard and sweat
- to not feel so tired every day (but I'm not too sure that will happen any time soon)
- to eat cheesecake and hot dogs again
- to finally meet this thing that is growing inside of me and damaging my ribs and all my internal organs!

Only 6 more weeks to go!!!

32 Weeks and I've completely given up...

So, Friday night we had our last AWANA theme night. At church with the kids we like to have some theme nights (such as crazy hair, hats, etc.). This Friday it was ugly pants night and since I only have a few pair of pants that fit, I took a trip to Good Will to see if there was anything there that had an elastic waist band that I could deem as ugly. Well, I found a pair and after that evening, I felt like I was a whale. I felt totally unattractive and so I had Phil take a picture so I could show you that I am 32 weeks pregnant and I have completely given up!!! Take a look!!



Pretty nasty isn't it? Well, to make myself better I will have to get a better picture taken. I don't think I look that big, I was sticking my belly out to make the picture that much more dramatic!

On a pregnancy side note, they say that you begin to lose your brain and you start to forget things. So I was teaching the kids on Sunday morning and we were wrapping up a series on creation. The last couple of weeks they had learned about the first five days of creation and my talk was about God creating people. I was asking them to tell me the difference and similarities between things. We started with two rocks (what's the same and what's different). Then we compared a rock and a plant (same and different) and then I had them compare the plant to an animal (same and different). Then I asked them to compare the plant to an animal (same) and they replied that they had already told me. So I had to ask one of the helpers if that was true and she nodded her head. So then I asked them for the differences and they said they had already done that too. Boy oh boy... I laughed, they laughed and we moved on! It was pretty funny. But then we got to talking about how God created Adam from the dust of the ground and then Adam was all alone. He was having fun in the Garden, but he had no one to share it with. So God decided to create a partner for Adam, so Adam went to sleep and God took a rib from Adam and created Eve. When he woke up there was a beautiful woman there by his side to keep him company. I told the kids that now Adam had a friend and one little boy with a big grin on his face said, "Yeah now he has a girlfriend". How true that statement is!! Awe... kids are so cute!

So, those are a few things from this past weekend. I am so glad that there are only about (and by about I mean it could be less, but probably more) 7 weeks to go! I can't wait to meet baby Yee!!! This little beast that has been damaging my insides will soon makes its arrival and we will get to see if it is a little girl or boy! Word on the street is there is a pool taking place at church, but I'm not too sure on the details... so get in touch with Phil, I think he knows more, plus his brain functions much better than mine at this point in time!!!

Thanks...

Just wanting to thank all those who sent well wishes and remedies to me while I was ill. I started to feel better on Easter Monday and from there just got better. I slept A LOT that weekend and I think that really helped.

Nothing much new to report. All is going well. The weather is finally starting to get better which is awesome cause my winter coat no longer fits! 10 more weeks until we meet Baby Yee (it could be less but no more than 12 weeks away!), The anticipation is beginning to drive me crazy! There is still a lot to do in the next two months both here at home but also at work.

Well... here's hoping that you have a wonderful week!

Third times a charm... right?

So this is the third time that I have been sick since being pregnant. Not all that fun as I cannot take anything except Tylenol. They (the doctors) say drink lots of fluids and get plenty of rest. Well, when I drink lots of fluids that means that I am up every hour or two which means that I am not getting plenty of rest! Sigh. My head is stuffy, my throat is swollen and I have this terrible cough. I feel bad for Phil as he has to listen to this all night long.

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't Easter weekend and if I wasn't in charge of all our kids programs for this weekend. We have a special program for the kids this morning (being Good Friday) and then again on Easter Sunday. What's just as bad is that the majority of our friends have time off this weekend and want to hang out, but I feel so terrible that probably Phil will have to go on my behalf and I will stay home to "rest". If I wasn't needed to do the kids program then it would be fine, but seeing as how that is my job and all, I guess I need to do it. Here's hoping that I have a voice today and Sunday. I guess the good thing is is that we are using mainly a dvd curriculum, but someone needs to MC it and had I anticipated getting sick I would have found someone else to be the MC, but it is too late in the game!

Maybe what all these sicknesses mean is that the baby will have the best immune system in the world (or one of the worst). This definitely is no fun. Sorry to bore you yet again with the blah details of my life... I guess this blogging thing is good just to vent out all life's frustrations!

Hey... if anyone has some good remedies for getting better or knows about safe drugs for pregnant people, drop me a line as I am game to try anything to feel better and get some sleep!!!

Overwhelming

As the baby due date draws nearer I begin to feel more and more overwhelmed. There is officially less than three months till baby Yee makes it debut. I have been reading books, articles and websites to make sure that I know what to do and when to do it. The only problem is that there is so much information that my brain cannot seem to hold it all in. So, I just pray that God will be there with us, to walk us through every day.

The other thing that makes things a little overwhelming at this point is the fact that there is a lot going on at work right now. Easter is next weekend so there is a bunch of stuff that needs to be done for that. Then we are having a soccer camp again this year and I am busy trying to get that ready to go. We are also helping to coordinate a missions trip to Mexico for some of the young people (we will be partnering with HFL). It is pretty exciting but one more thing to help with. Then I have some training workshops to organize, volunteer recruiting, meetings (ministry and non-ministry related), Summer Camp has asked me to find someone to do the kids program and then there is getting things together for the fall... ah. That's just church stuff. Then we have doctors appointments, lab appointments, finding a pediatrician, going to prenatal, hospital visits and then getting the house ready. YIKES, and we only have three more months.

So, this is why the other night I had a mini breakdown. I was thinking about all that needed to be done and wondering where the time was going to come from. I know that stress is not good and I really don't feel stressed, just overwhelmed. We are taking things one day at a time for sure and if certain things don't get done we know it is not the end of the world. We are just trying to do our best to get everything just right. Sometimes being a a perfectionist is not always a good thing. I really want to make sure that everything is just right at work and at home. If you read this post and think I am losing my mind, it's not true. I just needed to write out what's going on inside my brain before it blows!

Thanks for reading!

100 More Days - give or take

Ok... so my friends who blog and others that I have stumbled upon make a big deal about having 100 more days left in the pregnancy... so I thought I might as well join in the band wagon! As of today there are approximately 100 more days left. I say approximately because you know that anything can happen - the baby could be early or late. So, with this baby on the way our life seems to be getting more and more complicated. We have prenatal classes to attend to, CPR courses that we were encouraged to take before the baby comes, a hospital visit so we know where to go and what to do, plus all the doctors appointments and then just life in general. Oh yeah and we also have to get a room ready for baby. As of right now we just have some items that we are borrowing from one of our friends who had a baby last year. We still need to paint the room, order the furniture and set it up and then get other odd and end thing before our little one arrives! It doesn't seem like a lot but we are also trying to finish our basement and there are a few other things we are trying to do and we hope to share more of that in the near future. Plus we are both working full time and we have things at church to do too... SIGH! And like I said it doesn't seem like a lot but with only three months to go well, there are a lot of things to do! So, if you think of us, pray for our sanity and for our allocation of time.

On another note, there are new pictures uploaded to Jenn's Picture Book. Feel free to check them out. They are a bit old - they are from when we were in Banff for Prayer Retreat at the beginning of November. They were on the old camera and I just uploaded them! I am contemplating posting a picture for your viewing pleasure... mmm.... to post or not to post...

I am off to Vancouver on Thursday and will be joining a conference in Washington. I am going to be going with my folks and it should be a good time. We are going to do some shopping on the side and I am excited to check out stuff in the States... I haven't been to the States in a long time, so long I don't even remember when I was there last - other than passing through an airport! I am also going to have a chance to meet up with some friends and that should be great!

Ok... I decided to post the picture... Here is a picture that we took this weekend, only 14 more weeks to go!

I feel...

like I should post something. I'm really not to sure what needs to be said. We are doing well and surviving the frigidly cold temperatures that Edmonton gets in the winter. This past week the weather was about minus 30 and then you add on the windchill factor and it becomes minus 45... nothing too serious, only the chance of frost bite within a few seconds of being outside. Needless to say, we didn't go to work on Monday as it was cold and had snowed on Sunday and the snow drifts were so deep we couldn't even back out of the driveway. I really wanted to take pictures of it, but was not willing to risk going out in the cold for a few pictures of snow! Tuesday was still cold but life was back to normal and then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday it began to warm up... minus 30 and minimal to no windchill... awe... the warmth! That's basically been the only news around here for the last week or so. Life is still pretty normal, work, eat, sleep, etc. I think the baby is doing well... not too much movement (at least that I can feel) but since there are no concerns from the doctor, I will just keep moving on with life. Next week is Chinese New Year and since we have no family here in Alberta we will do nothing but sit around and feel sad that we cannot eat Phil's grandmas wonderful dishes. So, that's about it. We need to start fixing up the room for the baby like painting the walls, getting furniture and supplies... approximately 18 more weeks to go! That's all the news for now, have a great weekend.

The Beginning of the Baby Album

These are the first pictures of our new little one. Hard to believe that little one is growing inside of me. To answer your burning question, we don't know the gender of the baby. We were wanting to find out so that we could go ahead and begin to purchase some of the necessary gender appropriate items. Unfortunately the baby decided that it did not want to be known at that point in time and so we do not know the gender of the baby. It will be a surprise, although we are taking guesses as to what it might be! The whole process has been an amazing experience so far and we only have 4 and a half months to go until we meet this little bundle of joy!! We can't wait to show you this new addition to our family!!!

Happy New Year

Wow, it is truly hard to believe that another year has come and gone. There was so much that happened in 2007 that there really isn't enough time to write it all down. Working, hanging out with friends, visiting with family, buying a new home, etc. There are many things to look forward to in 2008.

Just to recap the holidays for you, we were pretty busy with church things over the Christmas season. We had an English Ministry Christmas Banquet, Jenn helped to prepare and organize the churches Christmas Eve Service, we spent Christmas Day at a friends house (with all their relatives that we did not know), Boxing Day we hit West Ed with some friends early in the morning (Phil was also up at 3 am to meet some friends at Future Shop where we got my early B-day present from him family - a new lap top!), after shopping we went out with some friends for Dim Sum (Chinese food thing), meet up with Jenn's bro and his fiance for dinner at our place and then New Years Eve we spent with some friends. There were also a few potlucks in the mix with friends. The holidays were good although they passed by fast but nonetheless it was a chance to catch up with friends and enjoy the Christmas break. Both of us were able to take a few days off and get some much needed rest (everyone keeps telling us to take the rest now while we can because in a few short months we will not be getting much rest at all!).

On that note, the pregnancy has been going very well, so well in fact that I don't even feel pregnant. I have a very little beer gut which just feels really awkward. People want to touch the beer gut and I don't really want them too... get your own! But from what I hear, there really is no way around it. Next week we will go for the ultra sound and see our new arrival. It is pretty exciting that it is coming up so quickly and we are really excited and anticipating great things in June! I think that's about all that is really important to note at this time!

Hope everyone had a great New Years and we wish you all the best in 2008!

Cookin' and Cleanin'

Phil told me I had to blog about this so here we go...

Lately I have been so tired (well actually for the past three months). Almost every day I come home and take a half hour nap. Certain foods have made me feel kinda funky and I really have no ideas anymore as to what to make for dinners. So, Phil has been so kind to do a lot of the cooking and by a lot I mean pretty much almost every day! I know that I am the luckiest gal alive and totally appreciate all that he has done. In the last month I can pretty much count on my hands how many meals I have made - it hasn't been a lot. But, I am the one that does the cleaning the laundry and the dishes, so I'd say it's pretty even! So today we decided on some pasta with meat sauce. This afternoon I did three loads of laundry, ran the dishwasher (I still need to unload it and put the dirty dishes away!) and then I washed the dishes from yesterday and today and made dinner! Let it be known that today I made dinner! We may just have to keep a tally to see who makes the most meals in the next couple of months! I'm pretty sure that it will be Phil making all the meals, especially if I continue to nap all the time... boy this baby making thing is harder than it looks!

Have you all heard?

Well, some of you may have heard rumors about something that will be happening to us in the summer... yup... the rumors are true and we are going to be entering into parenthood sometime in June. The due date of our expected arrival is June 10, 2008. Crazy becuase it is only 6 months away. We have a lot to do as we still have some projects in the house to finish. So, come the spring if you are any good at framing or drywalling, we would love for you to come over and help us finish our basement! We are also looking for willing painters to come and paint the basement and/or the baby's room!!! So, if you are in the Edmonton area, let us know! We are very excited and are looking forward to this new addition to our family! YEAH!

At the end of July we will be making a trip out to BC for my brothers wedding, so if you are in the lower mainland, we can try and get together. We will also be making a trip out to Toronto sometime in August or September for the chinese celebration. We are waiting on more details for the Yee family but it is still a long way away. We will definately keep you posted with our travel plans as we would love to see family and friends in BC or ON.

By the way, can you believe that Christmas is only 12 days away. Hopefully you have finished your shopping and are able to take some time to enjoy the reason that we celebrate this wonderful season! Take a few minutes and thank God for the blessings that he has given you... I know that I sure do!!! :)

Merry Christmas!!!