First Checkup.. time flies..by Lukas

Today I had my first checkup at Javeriana Hospital. Here in Colombia I will visit the hospital for my first few checkups. We like the medical staff there because they are all young and while shy to speak they do know English. This makes Mom happy.

The nice pediatrician lady and FOUR young medical students checked me all over! What a lucky boy to have such great attention. I didn't like any of this at all because it meant I had to strip down and boy was it cold in there! After much screaming and many tears for Mom and Dad's benefit they pronounced me "perfect". I knew that all along of course!! The doctor didn't seem to believe Mom when she said I was only getting Mom's milk because I already weigh a whopping 9 lbs and 2 oz!!! I guess I'm gonna be a big Canadian kid, probably tall and strong like my Uncle Ian!

Here I am..25 days old. My eyes are still blue, Mom's fingers are crossed they are going to remain blue! Mom thought I looked cute with a Mohawk hairdo but I'm not convinced..what do you think?????

Cookie Monster Cathie

My Mom is visiting her new grandson (let's face it, I'm old news) for two weeks. She is a great tourist. She has tried all sorts of new foods and is eager to try even more. We don't have a lot of time for touring around, but we have managed to get out for walks, lunch, and to soak in some of the local "culture". She has even managed to fit in a few sketching sessions for her art class"homework". Currently she's sitting on the couch trying to get Lukas to pose for her. He of course is a typical restless baby and is wiggling all around hindering her efforts.



Foodwise my Mom has a sweet tooth although she might deny it. Everything that she has liked the best is of the sweet nature. Obleas were the first thing she tried (two thumbs up), but she has also sampled breads from the bakery, thick caramel straight up from the spoon that Peter's cousin Yeimy brought us from Cali, and Bocadillo, which is a natural "gumdrop" made from guava paste. She also liked "Achiras" which are similar to a tiny breadstick snack, with a slight cheese flavour. Everytime she tries something new she says "oh, i'm taking some of this for Ian.." or whoever she thinks might like it best.



The best tasting incident so far though has been the "doughnut" sampling. I sent the mothers out on their own Tuesday, to change some money, and get some medicine for a slight altitude sickness Mom has. When they got back (after having spent ALL the money they changed on medicine and a cashmere sweater!) all my Mom could talk about was this "doughnut" she saw in the bakery where we buy our breads. Now I was completely puzzled, because they don't really make doughnuts in the bakery that I have seen. I assured her that we would go back and try one next time we passed by. Not good enough..for 24 whole hours she kept talking about her doughnut, how she wanted to try the doughnut, that the doughnut looked soooo good, that she had to have the doughnut!! (how many doughnuts do you guys eat in Canada anyways? it was like a withdrawal episode..)


Finally she wore me down yesterday afternoon and we went to the bakery to buy the freakin doughnut... and ended up buying not only the doughnut but also two of every cookie in the top row of the baker shelves! It is not a doughnut, it's a "churro".. same concept as a doughnut, deep fried, circular and sprinkled with sugar but because this is Colombia it is of course filled with caramel! She really liked it (thank goodness!) so it was well worth the wait and badgering. The cookies were a hit too, and we will go back to buy the second row of the bakers shelf and see how we make out!


Here's a picture of Cookie Monster Cathie with her Churro in hand! Doesn't she have that sugar high smile now? Oh and she had cookies for breakfast this morning too! :O)

Too Cute For Words

My first car trip with my parents and Grandma's. We had lunch at "Mirador de Embalse" in the mountains. My Grandma is visiting me from Canada, she's been a big help to my Mom who has lots of questions!!!!!

My two Grandma's. Grandma on the left and Abuela on the right. This is at the top of the mountain overlooking Bogota.

My Auntie Linda gave me this outfit, I like it because it's not three sizes too big and it comes with this cool hat. My Dad made me wear these mits for quite a few days as I liked to scratch my face. He finally worked up the nerve to clip my little fingernails while I was asleep and now I don't have to wear them anymore!

8 Days on Earth

Okay so I have a good excuse for the long delay in a new post.. here's how the story goes..

I had half jokingly said throughout my pregnancy that one of the days I would like my baby to be born on was July 1st, Canada Day. Imagine my thrill when I woke up at 4 a.m. on Canada Day feeling....different. I suspected maybe I was in labour and by 7 was quite certain that's what it was!! I managed to stay home until 11 a.m. and labour with my husband running around in circles (literally), asking me what to do what to do! I kept telling him to stop running around but it was no use.

Peters Mom had paid for a benefit that entitles us to in home medical care should we require it, so she called the Ambulance/Medic team for us. They came right to my bedroom with a doctor and a paramedic and confirmed that yes, I was indeed in labour, 5 cm along and needed to go to the hospital kinda "right now". I got a cushy ambulance ride, the wrong way down the Ciclovia and right to the hospital door! Cool, too bad I missed it. I could only see the helmeted heads of ppl on bicycles going by the ambulance door.

The hospital is called San Ignacio, it is the third best in Colombia and is a teaching hospital affiliated with Javeriana University here. I was ecstatic to learn that the doctors all spoke english because all of their text books are in english. I managed to get by with Spanglish with everyone and we had no problems communicating.. "IT HURTS LIKE HELL" is pretty universal!!

After getting all checked out and checked in, hooked up to a fetal monitor and eventually and IV, Peter had to vacate and I was on my own. The amount of pain pre-empted any fears I was harbouring and oddly (or not??) I feltvery excited that finally the day was here! Finally I was going to meet the new member of our family.

At 3:00 I finally received an epidural and was able to chat to the Anasthesiologist for a good half hour like a normal person about world stuff and such :O) At 4 it seemed to wear off and things moved along quite quickly after that, with pain increasingly on my mind.

After another epidural and a shot of Oxytocin to get things moving faster as baby was starting to get lazy and by 4:45 I was being rushed down the hall to the delivery room, with three doctors in tow. Delivery here is taken seriously, no extra ppl hanging around in the delivery room, only medical staff consisting of three doctors. Two for me and one for the baby.

Three or four huge pushes and I found myself belly to belly looking into the deep blue eyes of the little person that had been wiggling around in my belly for almost 40 weeks. I am sure it is impossible to ever put into words that moment and have it come through cyberspace, so I won't. All I know is that for mere seconds time stood still, that I won't ever forget it, and that he is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes on. Oh.. and he's all mine!!!

So, world meet our son, Lukas Alexander Suarez, July 1st, 2007 @ 5:04 p.m., 7 lbs, 4 oz