I am now a Daddy

From Birth

Yesterday was the most amazing day of my life, I became a father. At 8:50 am Louisa and I became parents to a baby girl. Weighing 6 lbs 15 oz, Bethany Priscilla Pang Vautour came into this world and stole our hearts. You always hear how amazing it is to witness the birth of your child, but there is no preparing for the emotion of it actually happening.

Everything went just fine. baby is healthy and both her and mom are doing fine. I on the other hand am in a lot of pain. I slept at the hospital last night so I could be there to help Louisa with the baby. I slept on a cot and when I first woke up this morning I was fine. But after breakfast I was helping Louisa with breast feeding and somehow I pulled a muscle in my lower back.

I was on so much pain. I couldn't sit up straight or stand up straight. When the nurse came into the room she looked at me and said "Are you ok?". "No" I said" "what is wrong?" "I can't move". They took me down to the Emergency Room. Turns out I pulled a muscle and have to take Advil and some prescription anti-inflammatory pills for a week. The worst part is the doctor told me not to lift anything. That includes taking the baby home in her car seat and the bags. And then to literally add insult to injury she said "People will think you are just a jerk making your wife carry everything"

I was very upset that I got hurt and this limits what I can do to help Louisa for the next week or so. We don't have any family in Ottawa which makes it a bit of a tougher pill to swallow. Luckily Louisa's mom is visiting for a while to help out. I will be adding the hospital bracelet that they game me in the Emergency Room to Bethany's baby book. I am sure this will make for a humorous story 10 years from now.

I came home to shower and upload some pictures from the hospital. I will be heading back to the hospital soon. Not sure if I will be sleeping there or coming back here tonight. Will figure that out later. I want to be there as much as I can but not if I am just in the way.

Lawnmowers and shelving units

This sure has been an interesting week. First of all let me say that I am feeling great. I was limping on Monday and Tuesday but by Thursday I was playing Volleyball at the company picnic. Everyone was real concerned because I had an operation on my heart only a week earlier. But I felt fine and everything was good. I also placed first in the apple bobbing competition. hey, you got to be good at something right. Reminds me when I was in grade 3 and I won a pie eating competition at the local community center.

Louisa finally broke me down and we purchased an electric lawn mower this week. Last year when we moved in I insisted on getting an old fashioned push reel mower. It is a lot of work and takes forever but I was happy with it. Last weekend I was unable to cut the grass because of my operation. I was going to pay the neighbor's kid to cut it for me. Louisa decided she wanted to prove to me that she could do it, even though I didn't want her to. She practically killed herself but she got it done. She vowed that we would get an electric lawn mower. After much convincing we finally did by one at Canadian Tire.

We also went to Zellers and bought a 6 cube console for the kitchen. Louisa built it with my guidance. I interpreted the instructions and she did most of the assembly. So Louisa learned the joy of assembling furniture. We even had to disassemble it half way through because we put a couple pieces in upside down. All part of the experience. It was a lot of fun. We hadn't taken the time to do something like that together for some time.

Louisa and I spend so much time together we sometimes forget to take time to do simple things together. We commute together, we work together, we take break together, we eat lunch together... we are together almost 24/7. When we come home from work typically I spend the evening in the basement and she stays on the main floor. Sometimes I think we spend so much time together that we tend to take each other for granted. As a newly married couple I think it is important that we don't let that happen.

Last nights furniture assembly was a nice reminder that we need to take time to enjoy each others company. So tonight we are going to Carnivàle Lune Bleue. It is a 1930's style carnival that is in town complete with sideshows, a big-top main event, and authentic 1930's midway. I can't wait.

Louisa and I have been going through a lot of hard times since our wedding. There has been so much illness with us, friends, co-workers and loves ones. We are constantly worried about someones health and well-being. Our surgeries may be behind us but there are many people close to us who are not out of the woods yet. We pray for them daily.

Safe and Sound

I am happy to report that my surgery yesterday was a success! The doctors were able to isolate and eliminate the extra pathway in my hearts' electrical system. For those unfamiliar with my condition allow me to explain.

The first time I knew there was something wrong I was in high school. My heart started to beat funny. Of course by the time I was able to go to the hospital it was back to normal and they had no idea what had happened. This would reoccur every so often. It wasn't until I was living in Nunavut that I finally had it diagnosed. The instances of my 'attacks' became more and more frequent and severe. I went to see a cardiologist in Winnipeg. It found out I had paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (Try to say that ten times fast) or PSVT for short.

The doctors in Winnipeg performed an ablation but were unsuccessful in correcting my problem. An Ablation is a process where they burn your heart in an attempt to create scar tissue to prevent the electrical signals of the heart to from going the wrong way. Although they did not succeed in curing me, I did experience an improvement. My 'episodes' were less frequent and less severe.

But over time they came back and it became a problem again. A team of doctors here in Ottawa agreed to give it another attempt. This time they feel confident that they fixed it. They tell me I should not have any more problems. You don't know how happy this makes me and my family. I have been living with this for 12 years and finally I am cured. I feel like a new man.