Perfect during the day and then...

I really didn't want to put an unappealing picture of Kai on here but this is what babies are like when all the guests leave and mom and dad want to sleep!!!

Definition of Colic:
Colic is sustained episodes of crying in a baby, for no apparent reason. Sometimes episodes last for several hours at a time. Colic usually begins within the first couple weeks of life, and is usually gone by the time a baby is about five months old.

So, our little Kaiser bun likes to scream for no apparent reason for some undecided hour or two or three throughout the night. Last night we were fortunate that it was from 11pm-12:30am. This could last up til 5 months?!!! NO!!!!! Gary says he likes attention like his mom.

Kai at one week:)

Perfect little feet...look at those baby toes, what could be cuter?











He's so cute! We went a little crazy with the camera last night but we had to catch him with his eyes wide open:)

Life at home

High points of the last 3 days at home: smiles at 4am, Kai peeing on daddy at 3 of the diaper changes so far, going for our first family walk this morning:)
Low points: too many diapers!!!! Apparently it means all is functioning well but still...wow. Kai peeing on mommy at 2 of the diaper changes.

Kai Deken Chapman!

This is our beautiful son Kai....born on August 3rd at 8:07 am. 9lb 11oz, 22 1/2 inches long.



Yay! The day has arrived where I can finally upadate the blog!! I will try to not give too many details as I don't want to deter others from having a baby but I will share a bit! First of all, welcome home to our son; Kai Deken Chapman. Kai means a couple different things like `ocean' and `beautiful' (apparently `egg' in Thai but we didn't know this). We just like the sound of it. Deken is my maiden name and means `one who serves'.

Here's a picture of me after having contractions for about 21 hours at home and finally going to the hospital. Apparently because these contractions were 10 minutes apart, they are not considered `active labour'. We went in on August 2nd at 5pm where they found that I was 3cm dilated. Half an hour later, I was 5 cm dilated and they broke my water which was probably the most entertaining part of the evening. It made me laugh a whole lot because I was so embarrased by the amount of water that kept coming out..who knew it could be that much!

I'll summarize the rest but basically everything went well until 1am when I was 10 cm dilated and ready to push. I was using the gas which made me a little silly but the nurses kept assuring me I was getting an A+ in everything which made me feel good:) Gary did a great job of making me drink water and do the deep breathing.

I pushed for 1 1/2 hours and nothing happened even though I kept thinking someone was gonna say `there's the head!'. So, they gave me an epidural so I could push a few hours later after some `rest'. Ya right, I'm not gonna rest, I want this baby out!

So, at 6 am I pushed for another 1/2 hour where they concluded that our baby's 95th percentile head would not fit through my average size pelvis. I needed to have a C-section.

Had the C-section and here are some pictures of us with the `little' guy! He ended up being 9lb 11oz and 22 1/2 inches long (this is quite long...those legs can kick!!)

Here is Gary cutting the cord (that's already cut...guess it's a picture you have to have). When Gary was in his scrubs, I couldn't distinguish him from the doctors...I was like `Where's my husband?!!' and then when I saw him, I thought he looked pretty good all dressed like that:)

Here's our first family photo! I was shocked to see head full of dark brown hair and I was really excited that he seemed so cute and all the parts were there. Oh ya, I was glad the 30+ hours were over and I could finally meet the little guy that had been taking up so much room inside my belly.

Here he is on day 2 with his eyes open. He's so cute and is adapting really well to the outside world. We are so thankful for him and for all of your prayers and concerns during this time! Thank you and I hope you get to meet him soon!

Beautiful wedding

Here are some shots from Joel and Ali's wedding...check out that beautiful dress!

Girls Dessert Night

Me at 9 months...wow, will I ever do this again?! How much longer will I be like this for?! I think I'm ready...is baby?! Every morning I wake up and I'm suprised I haven't gone into labour throughout the night. I just don't think there is any more room left inside to grow! Have you ever thought about what happens to your internal organs while pregnant? Like, where are my lungs now? Where does my stomach get squished to? I def. know what happens to your bladder, that's for sure!








These are 5 of the girls from our care group at Southridge. I think one of the best things in a church is being part of a small group. We talked about our summers, ultrasounds, and make up (which I realized I really know nothing about)....good times. I enjoyed some ice cream. Oh, it had a caramel sauce:)

Congratulations Joel and Ali

*There will be some nice wedding pictures up here soon. Gary took pictures at the wedding but I thought it was prob. best to let them see the pictures before posting them:)* It was a beautiful wedding...such wonderful flowers, dresses, entertainment. Congratulations Joel and Ali!
They will be getting married today at 4pm. This was from their rehearsal earlier this week. Gary and I had a good time this morning thinking about our wedding just over a year ago and how much fun we had. Thankfully, baby decided to stay in for today at least so we'll make it through the wedding :)

Staying Cool

Okay, so there is no fun and exciting picture for today. What have we been up to this past week? Well, hiding from the heat. What does this mean? Going to the mall and walking laps there, watching movies at Colossus, reading books in the basement, sleeping in the basement (on the most uncomfortable futon EVER which is such a change from our wonderful king size bed), ...All I can say is that I've been up since 5am and although I do appreciate being off from work there's not a whole lot I can do due to the extremely high temperatures and the 35lb bulge on my belly. Am I feeling sorry for myself? A little. What's the plan for today? I think its too hot to go to church...maybe go for a swim? Tomorrow I get a pedicure...my sister Jackie gave me a gift certificate last Christmas for one so now I will finally use it...pretty busy life I have right now:)

Annika

I had to steal this picture off of my sister's blog. This is the new dock up at Green Lake...the site of many future talks while dangling feet in the water... Isn't Annika the happiest cutest baby ever? (well, until ours is born of course!). Talking about that, we are down 3 weeks now...this baby better not be overdue. I admire anyone who's ever gone through this whole pelvic widening, stomach stretching, digestive system disruptor (oh the acid reflux...), hormonal rollercoaster. Although a super amazing, absoutely unbelievable process, I'm ready to meet the little one that keeps me up all night ALREADY...as long as this baby doesn't come on July 28th, we've got a wedding to go to! (Ali Handy and Joel Kooger)

Bowron Lakes

Where do I begin? Oliver Sperling, Mike Jonker, Ada Herman and myself took a 4 day tour of the Bowron lakes. An amazing adventure with amazing views, lots of laughs and swimming in the buff. I will just toss out a few highlights.
Day 1
Lowtar ( I believe his name was Lothar but you know) at the rental place was everything you could want in an outdoorsman and more. Here is a short conversation we had with him:
Oliver said, "where is the washroom?"
Lowtar replied, "Do you mean the shitter or the pisser?, The pisser is outside anywhere and the shitter is in the hall way behind you."
He had a bit of trouble with adam's name thought it was Ada, that Lowtar is a colourful character, if you go up there make sure you ask him his opinion on canoe carts. Love that guy. We set off about 1pm on saturaday and found a sweet camp spot on Isaac Lake (my favorite lake) after about 6 km of portaging and 15 km of paddling. We decided to hold up in a cabin shelter which might have been out greatest mistake of the trip (next to Jonker playing a 4 of clubs in a wizzard game). We tried to fend of the Noseeums the best we could with some bounce sheets ( a little experiment) and Oliver may or may not have been attacked by a rat. (Ada does not buy into Oliver's claim of rat running over his foot).














Day 2
We got up late and paddled about 25 km down Isaac watching osprey, loons, and the common mergancer. We arrived at our next and the nicest camp spot of the trip. No bugs, a sweet water fall that Mike found while bush whacking which is also the home of the American Dipper (a small blackish grey bird that inhabits fast moving creeks), a phenomenal sunset and hours of frolicking in the cold water under the hot sun free of any encumbrances.


Day 3 (27 km paddling and 2 km portaging)
We stirred late in the morning after a restful night and made our way to the danergous "chute"; a violent break neck funnel of water considered to be navigated by expert canoeists only. We nimbly handled the swift river (except the time when ada did not see the large rock in the water but my expert skills rescued the situation without incident.. not so lucky with the tree later on in the day). We all had high hopes of wild life on this leg of the journey after Jonker's wild tales of moose from 9 years ago but we had no luck. We settled in that night after a hard fought battle with the wind on Lanezi Lake in a black fly and mosquito swarm on Sandy lake (more rock then sand). Ada experienced a high and low moment of the trip at this camp site, the low being that his usual 20 minute bowel movements had to be cut short due to the enormous volume of mosquito's laying wait in the outhouse. I think that all mankind should cut a deal with the mosquito's so they leave us in peace during those more vunerable moments (see George from Seinfeld and the episode where he hits the squirrel.. also kramer and the merv griffin set.. Jerry has the girlfriend with the old toy collection, "you bring the box of wine and i will bring the turkey" - great episode).
Back to the trip, Ada's high would be his victory at wizard, a card game which was our entertainment for most evenings. Ada had trouble almost every game and usually had last place reserved but tonight was his night to shine although some could point to some incredibiling poor playing by Jonks as to the true cause of victory for Ada.




Day 4 ( 25 km paddling and 2 km portaging)
We hit the water quickly on day 4 becuase of the load of bugs at camp and made our way to Babcock creek where we dropped our gear and backtracked to Cariboo Falls. Ada's vision for objects had not been sharp all trip but he keenly spotted a creature swimming across the Cariboo river. We set off to investigate and discovered this squrrel swimming to the other bank. We (when i say we, i mean Ada and Myself.. we shared a canoe the entire trip) hastily grabbed our cameras to capture this grand event. Our canoe turned sideways as it drifted and the squirrel T-boned our canoe with a hollow sounding thud (that sound is something i will never forget). Ada and i had a good hearty chuckle and regard this as the greatest wildlife sighting of the trip, you just cannot beat a squirrel swimming into your canoe. We reached the falls after a short hike and enjoyed watching millions of liters of water crash down the 24 meter high falls.
We stopped for lunch at the end of the last portage of the trip and headed out on to the last of the lakes (spectacle and swan). There were a couple of beautiful beaches along the way, we stopped at one to fashion a quick sail which took advantage of the strong wind that was blowing that day, which died upon completion of building.
We paddled to a possible campsites at the end of swan lake and were dissappointed with what we found, so we proceeded down the Bowron river and shared a campsite with a very cool Swiss couple. We set up our tents with some frustration having not seen any large wildlife the entire trip but our luck quickly changed. During dinner a mother and calf walked right beside our campsite and spent 30 minutes grazing in the marsh as we watched and took numerous photos. Two more moose visited the camp that night as well as a few otters, a beaver and some toads. Just a great wildlife night.
But the night was still young, we headed into our tents for our last night on the lakes satisfied with great wildlife. Ada and Mike have been sharing a tent for the trip and developed a code word to get Ada to stop talking in his sleep. I had trouble sleeping and had been up for a few hours when i heard a litany of prophanity coming from Ada's tent. Ada continues to mumble something about saving Mike until Jonks asks Ada what the password is.. Ada pauses and answers the questions and asks why? Mike states,"Because you are saying stupid things." I laugh myself to sleep thinking the show is over but Ada is not really awake and proceeds to grab Jonk's arm then with a mighty kick to the back, knocks Jonks off his sleeping pad. Ada then falls back asleep leaving Mike in a heap in the corner of the tent.

Day 5 ( 10 km paddling)
We awoke early in hopes to catch more moose as we paddled the last stretch of Bowron River and Bowron Lake. We rounded a bend and found 2 more bull moose and 6 bald eagles. We finished our journey mid morning and headed for home with some sore muscles, loads of bites, and incredible memories.



















Trip total - 116. 4 km, 7 moose, 9 bald eagles, 3 osprey, 1 beaver, 2 river otters, 1 swimming squrrel, many toads, loons, mergansers, greebs, american dippers, and 1 yellow headed black bird.