Rich and Jen Burgess

Born Thursday April 24, 2008 at 5:23 AM

9lb, 0oz; 21.5” long

Grey-blue eyes, blonde hair

We’re pregnant! On August 6^th, 2007 that magical pink line appeared on a First Response home pregnancy test. The happy couple had only been trying to get pregnant for one month. Keeping this a secret for a whole day was not easy, as mom-to-be wanted to share the news with dad-to-be in a special way while he was at work the next day. The next morning, Jen and Rich left for work as usual. When Jen got to work, she called a florist in Burlington and had them send Rich a single white rose to his office, adorned with pink and blue ribbons with a note attached that was supposed to read: “Congrats! You’re going to be a daddy!” Instead, it read “Congrats! You’re gong to be a daddy!” Oh well, the message was loud and clear, even with typos. Rich e-mailed Jen at work and wrote: “Thanks for the flower. WOOT!!! Grats to us!! Is this why today is going to be a good day? Now before I get too excited how for sure is this? Is it still to early to be 100% for sure? When did you find out?” This was the start of a great journey together. That same month, the happy parents-to-be started monthly visits with the Burlington and Area Midwives and met their primary midwife Anne Wilson, and their backup midwife Tracy Pearce-Kelly. The due date was set for April 19, 2008. On October 24, 2007 a dating ultrasound was done to ensure that the date set was accurate. It was surprising to find out that it indicated “Baby Burgess” was due to arrive earlier, on April 11, 2008.

As the pregnancy continued into the fall and winter, things went very well. Jen felt great, with barely any morning sickness, a stable blood pressure and no problems to speak of. Rich and Jen decided against integrated prenatal screening and gestational diabetes screening. They trusted that everything would be fine and that this little one would be loved no matter what. Jen could start to feel little movements by November and the baby belly began to appear shortly before Christmas. By January the movements were getting a lot bigger and a lot stronger, and by the end of March, Jen was feeling lots of kicks to the ribs and a little bum that sat very high in her belly. This made for some really intense heartburn, and Tums became her best friend – especially at night when trying to fall asleep.

As the end of March rolled around, the excitement began to build as everyone knew the little bundle of joy would be arriving soon. April 11 came and went, and Jen had been trying everything she could think of to help this little one into the world: exercise, evening primrose oil, Caulophyllum 30CH, Cimicifuga 30CH, raspberry leaf tea, stretch and sweeps from the midwife, sitting on her exercise ball…nothing was working! April 18^th rolled around and Jen had to go for an ultrasound to make sure that baby B was still doing ok in there. Everything was fine. She went again on April 21^st. . At this point, Jen had been getting contractions on and off for days and had progressed her to 3cm, but they were not kicking into true labour. It was a really frustrating experience! On April 22^nd after a midwives visit, she got a call at home saying she needed to come to Joseph Brant Hospital for a non-stress test (NST) to ensure that the baby was ok, as the ultrasound from the day did not show fetal breathing movements. The results of the NST were fine and Jen went home that evening, having really painful contractions in the car on the way home. They were so bad she got on the wrong highway on ramp and started heading toward Niagara Falls on the QEW. Once she got turned around and headed in the right direction to Hamilton, she had already reached Stoney Creek! Once again, the contractions lasted on and off all night, and by 7:30am the next morning they had gone away. Rich’s boss was surprised to see him at work the next morning, as they were sure this was going to be “it”! That afternoon on April 23^rd, Anne came by the house and checked Jen again – still 3-4cm with not much change happening. Before she left, Anne pulled a magic vial of Caulophyllum 200CH out of her kit and offered it to Jen with instructions to take 2 every ½ hour for 2 hours, then 2 Cimicifuga 30CH every ½ hour for 2 hours. Jen started this at 5:20pm and finished it at 9:20pm. By 9:30pm labour had started!

Jen began to feel contractions much more strongly and was using breathing techniques and her birthing ball to get through each one, 2 ½ - 3 minutes apart lasting about 1 minute each. At 10:45pm Jen got in the bathtub to try and relax while Rich paged Anne to tell her that things had started. She was just finishing up at a birth in Oakville and would arrive as soon as she could. Anne arrived around midnight. Jen was still up and walking around, sitting on the birthing ball and able to talk and joke between contractions. Not too long after that, things didn’t seem so funny to Jen anymore! Labour got very intense very quickly! 5cm along. After being checked, Jen laid on her side on the bed with Rich at her head (a wonderful support!) and took it one contraction at a time. When back pain started, Anne would apply lots of pressure to her back, which helped a lot. With lots of coaching to deep breathe, relax her shoulders and focus, Jen made it to 7cm. Anne then helped her into the tub, lying on her side which helped the pain a little. Rich sat at the edge of the tub for a good hour, paddling warm water over Jen’s stomach. At this point, he was really tired and hungry! Once out of the tub, Jen was shaking and contractions were right on top of each other. 9cm! The transition to 10cm was the hardest and most intense. Once it was time to push at 4:40am, it was such a relief! Working with the contractions felt good. Anne helped Jen into different positions to help baby move down as it was still quite high. At the very end, Jen moved back up on to their bed where baby was born at 5:23 AM on April 24^th, right arm folded across his chest! The baby was placed on Jen’s chest right away, and both Rich and Jen were overwhelmed with happiness. They checked – and they had a baby boy! (Jen had a feeling he was a boy during the pregnancy!) Both mom and baby recovered well, nursed and by 8:30AM the house was quiet again and a new family was born: mom dad and baby Anderson Jude whom is loved so very much that words cannot describe!

Man, time flies! We have not been keeping up to date with this website very much, mostly because life has been all about working like crazy these past few months since Christmas. Nothing very exciting to tell I guess!
We had a pretty good winter, some lovely baby showers and a good chance to get baby’s room ready. I officially finished work on March 27th and have been off the past couple of weeks just resting, relaxing and doing some of that “nesting” everyone talks about. The house is pretty clean compliments of my mom and my sister in law Joanne. We have the nursery set up and all of our home birth supplies ready to go. As of today I am technically 3 days “overdue”, but I have issues with the whole way “due dates” work to begin with…let’s not go there

I have been feeling some contractions, but nothing to get excited about. They come and go and don’t really amount to anything worth calling the midwives about. So, as I wait I am trying to keep distracted. This waiting game can be tough! I have been very lucky to have an easy pregnancy though - no morning sickness, no cravings, no health issues. Just the usual aches and pains that have to be expected. I can’t get away with feeling perfect I guess

Our family and friends are super excited. We are getting lots of messages and phone calls wondering how things are going. We hope to use this site more once baby comes to keep everyone in the loop and to post pictures. This will be a great way to keep people connected without sending out masses of e-mail loaded with huge picture files.

Anyway, time to enjoy this April sun and get out for a walk. We’ll see if I can coax this baby out!

It has been an amazing few months since our last post. We have both been keeping busy with work and staying connected with family, friends and church.

The most amazing thing by far was finding out that we are indeed expecting our first baby in April! We are roughly 19 weeks along right now, due April 11th according to ultrasound, April 19th according to dates. Whenever he or she decides to come along they will! We have a start on our nursery - found some amazing used cherry wood nursery furniture from a lady in Binbrook. We have painted the baby’s room light green - so I guess we are committed to not finding out if this little one is a girl or a boy! I have just started to feel some kicking in the last couple of weeks, which has only made the pregnancy experience that much more exciting. I have enjoyed pregnancy so much already. I have been so fortunate not to have been very sick and have no complications to date. We are seriously contemplating a home birth. It seems like an experience we would both really love. We have our next (and possibly final) ultrasound on Wednesday, which we are both really looking forward to.
Just finished Christmas shopping today - early! Well, I still have Rich’s stocking to fill and a couple of small items but for the most part we can now safely avoid the chaos of the shopping mall until January. It has started to snow this afternoon - Rich is hanging Christmas lights. We won’t turn them on until December 1, but its nice to get them up before it gets too cold. We are hosting Christmas dinner for my side of the family this year - really looking forward to it.

Anyway - time to go watch a movie…

We have had such a wonderful summer! Thought I should post what we’ve been up to these past few months.

MAY: May was a busy time. We had a great time at my work’s fund raiser and had the opportunity to meet Eugene Levy, and have our picture taken with him. He is wonderfully hilarious and it was a true pleasure to meet him. Shortly thereafter, Rich and I went camping at Point Farms in Goderich with a group from church. It was a cold and rainy weekend, but nonetheless we had a good time and met some really great people!

JUNE: June was a bit more quiet. We have both been working hard throughout the summer and most of June was anticipating some much needed time off in July!! Rich’s Aussie Rules Football team was well into their season by June and were playing games most weekends It has been a fun sport for Rich to play and for me to watch (as long as we don’t end up in emerg I am happy!).

JULY: The beginning of July was great. We took a week off and headed up to Carly and Trevor’s cottage at Whitefish Falls
(near Manitoulin Island). Canada Day weekend was spent boating (until the boat broke), fishing, relaxing, napping, eating, swimming and sitting by a campfire. The Monday after the weekend Rich and I drove to South Baymouth and took the ferry to Tobermory, where we stayed at a cute little Inn. The next day we headed home, on the way stopping for a few hour hike in the Bruce Peninsula National Park, Cyprus Lake Hiking Trails. We saw some amazing scenery and were able to appreciate the beauty of nature. One of my favorite parts by far was climbing into a cave and seeing the Grotto. Very cool indeed. During the last part of our vacation we painted our front and back doors a new colour, re-paned the glass in our balcony door and painted it, and held a barbecue for a few friends in the city. We had some unexpected guests come from Montreal who we hadn’t seen since university. It was really amazing to see them again. Later in the month we went to visit Rich’s parents on the farm, celebrated Rich’s dad’s birthday (a little early) and ended up bringing home another kitten to add to our humble abode. We named this little orange puff ball “Sigma”, appropriately named to go with his uncle Delta.

AUGUST: This month has also been quite busy but very fun. We have enjoyed the company of friends and family at a few barbecues (we have to take the opportunity while we can!). We have also been enjoying the cooler weather that has come our way - open windows, comfortable sleeping, less AC to pay for - what more could we ask for! Last night we went to see Cirque de Soleil (Kooza) with 4 of our friends from MAC. What an amazing show - would recommend it to anyone! Today we were at a family reunion/picnic for Richard’s mom’s side of the family, so it was great to catch up with people and again enjoy some wonderful food! Tomorrow, I am looking forward to a day off to sleep, and get some much needed cleaning done around the house and my car! I am also very excited about the possibility of belly dancing classes with Rhea. Me? Belly dancing? Really? We’ll see how it goes…

So what’s up for the fall? We are looking forward to another cottage weekend and a week off in October. Fall is my favorite season by far. Cooler weather, big sweaters, colourful leaves, the hearty feelings that surround Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie, and of course knowing that Christmas and winter are right around the corner! I know all of you summer lovers think I’m nuts, but I’m ok with that. I think you’re all nuts for loving stinkin’ hot weather and humidity, and sunburns.

The roof is finally done! We still want them to come back and look at a few things before we dish out the dough, but overall it looks pretty good.

I had the day off today, so I went to visit my Oma. We spent some time chatting about this and that, showed her some pictures and made her lunch. She is a pretty amazing lady, and still at home at 93 years young.

Traffic coming back from Mississauga wasn’t that great, so I stopped off at Mapleview Mall in Burlington to look for an outfit for my work function on May 13th. Found a mandarin style shirt that would go with just about any black pants, capris or skirts so I settled on that. It was a bit over my budget, but my frugal budget was getting me no further than frustrated! I think I will be able to use it again, which is key.

Looking forward to a housewarming party tomorrow evening and a day off again on Monday. Time to go finish laundry and make dinner…

I came across something today that is absolutely meaningful to me and my compassion for seniors.

Make sure you have your sound on…I love this song!

http://www.parentswish.com/site01/big.html

So, the exam is finished. *Big sigh of relief*

It was interesting. I think that is the best word to describe how I spent those 4 hours at my 1.5 square foot desk in the most awkward plastic chair imaginable. Many have asked “how did it go?”. To be honest, I really don’t know. Now I get to wait a mere 2 months to get my results…pass or fail. We’ll wait and see. The best part of the day was when the invigilator picked my exam up at my desk and told me that my scantron bubbles were coloured in the neatest out of everyone in the room. At least if I don’t pass I have one small success to celebrate!
So now what?

I have several books on the shelf without creases in the spines yet - but I am not sure I am looking to do a lot of reading right now. Knitting has been one of my hobbies over the last few years, but its not peaking my interest right now. I definitely need to do some exercise. I really want to shed some pounds - both for aesthetic reasons, and I don’t want to be a walking heart attack. I wish I could find my brother’s motivation - Mr. Boston Marathon. It feels awful being self conscious everywhere you go. I love clothing and fashion, but I dislike shopping and even more I dislike summer apparel. As I have told many people before, I don’t do shorts. What makes it doubly frustrating is when your dear husband (I love you hunny!) is lean and athletic with only 3x weekly workouts during the summer and does nothing during the winter. The chicken we had for dinner last night had more fat on it.

There are many things about me I can thank God for. It’s funny though, that the things about myself that I dislike always seem to far outweigh those that I do like. Does everyone experience that, or is that just a female thing, or even just a Jen thing? Today I went to the mall on a quest for an outfit for an upcoming function at work in May - a semi formal cabaret kind of evening. I found the perfect outfit - it was beautiful and made me look great, yet it remains on the store hanger with it’s pretty price tag of $300 plus applicable taxes. Better luck next time. I should learn how to sew. Instead I bought a purse.
Anyway, perhaps I should hit the exercise bike…

P.S. I passed! I am now Jennifer Burgess RN, BScN, GNC(C)! (August 2007)

When we bought our new home last summer, we knew it needed a new roof. When we noticed shingles flaking off into our backyard this fall, we thought it would be best to get this done sooner, rather than later.

After doing a little research, we realized that apparently we have environmentally friendly “organic” shingles on our roof. Hence, the reason they are now falling like snowflakes into our yard. We are always looking for ways to be more environmentally friendly, but we are also in favour of fewer headaches and less long term cost. So, we have decided to go fiberglass, which should last 30 years, so they say.

Secondly, we decided that doing it ourselves was not in the cards. As much as we both love Mike Holmes and would love to try something new, neither of us are willing to get up on our 2 story house with the risk of breaking our necks. So we committed to hiring the pro’s.

The tentative total is in…

Barring unforeseen expenses we will soon be the proud owners of a brand new roof for a mere $7, 620.00

Yikes! A little steep, no? (Ha ha, terrible, I know)
The company guarantees their workmanship for 15 years and covers a whole lot of detail in what they will be addressing in terms of our roof (e.g. added vents, water and ice shield, eaves guards etc). Friends of ours, Darren and Adrienne, used them a few years ago and were happy with the service.

All in all, it seemed like a reasonable price given the complexity of the roof. I also like to think that for many things, the old “you get what you pay for” principle applies. Let’s hope we’re right on this one! We’ll keep you posted.

Ok, ok so its been 7 months since I last posted. It’s not that I’ve had nothing to post about - just been preoccupied. So, here it goes…
Although I have always been one of those folks who insists that learning never ends, I really did believe that I had experienced enough formal learning for a while. WRONG! Back in September I realized that I need something else to add to my proverbial plate. This is when I decided that I would write by Gerontological Nursing Certification Exam GNC (C) this coming April 14, 2007. (Perhaps this is why I have found renewed interest in blogging. I should be studying!). Many people are compelled to ask why I would become certified if it doesn’t lead to immediate promotion, pay raise, or the like. Their second question is usually, “Why in gerontology?”. Not all, but many people struggle with the idea obtaining education that doesn’t “get you anywhere”, per se. So why am I becoming certified, and in an area of nursing that is probably one of the least popular or “sexy” as I like to call it?

Certification is my way of doing several things. The process has really helped me to identify what I know, or do well in my field of nursing. It has also helped me to identify what I want to know more about. As I study, I learn things that I can easily and relate to my clinical practice in a very real way. Not only will this certification showing my commitment to caring for seniors, but it will also give me a way to stay connected with the field and show that I stay current with the latest research, evidence and practice in caring for older adults. Gerontology is so incredibly important as our Canadian population gets older and requires specialized nursing care. Those of you who have known me longer than say, 7 years, will know that I started out wanting to be a midwife/L&D nurse and will probably look back and giggle.

I have really found my calling and my passion in caring for seniors. Some nurses love the pace of the E.R., others like working with children, or the acuity of ICU. Me? I love the enormous complexity, the challenges, the long-term professional relationships and the meaning that comes with working with seniors. I love that I can help enable them continue to live incredibly meaningful lives despite the complex challenges they are sometimes faced with. I work with all very amazing people, and in this way I am truly blessed. In this way I feel that I have found my calling and that God really wants me to do this, at this point in my life, because I have the passion and vision for something truly wonderful. This may change someday, one never knows. I hope I will always hold the same amount of passion for my work that I do now, and remain just as hopelessly idealistic

Perhaps I should study now…