Will today be the day?

The question at the forefront of our minds :-)

So far today I've

- spent the morning lounging around in bed in my pyjamas until around 10am, dozing between bouts of Baby Girl gymnastics and contractions (which are getting stronger but still not occurring at regular intervals)

- went to the mall and bought a new pair of comfortable slip-on shoes that I can walk in but that won't turn the soles of my feet black! (Note to self: Do not buy any more shoes that I intend to wear barefoot that have black insoles, regardless of the material). The shoe sales lady asked me when I was due and when I said "Today" the look on her face was priceless. I swear she thought I was going to drop Baby Girl right then and there in the middle of her shoe department.

- went looking for area rugs for the TV room and Baby Girl's room

- came home and had lunch (leftover spicey thai food ;-)) after getting back into my pyjamas and sleeping some more.

- cleaned out the fridge (you don't want to know what I found. Ugh).

- folded clean towels

- started a load of laundry

- packed a box of dishes. Oh - did I mention that we're potentially moving on August 12th/13th? Yeah. Our house will be done next week! Wednesday is final inspection, Thursday is Architect/Builder photo day (so they can take pictures before we move in), Friday we'll move the stuff we've been storing in the basement up to the appropriate rooms and Saturday we'll move the rest of the house. By "we" I mean of course Tim and whoever volunteers to help us move. Because I'll be hangin' with our new Baby Girl, since she'll either have come by then on her own or we'll have been induced on the 10th. Oops... there - another teaser for the delivery date betters. Of course, if I am induced on the 10th we'll probably NOT be actually moving on the 12th and 13th but a few days later than that ;-)

Of course, all of that activity was interrupted every 10 minutes by the need to go to the bathroom. Which was likely induced by the copious amounts of water I'm constantly drinking.

No Baby Girl yet though.

But the day's not over! ;-)

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Tomorrow...

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day"
- William Shakspeare, MacBeth

"There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow."
-Orison Swett Marden

"The sun'll come out
Tomorrow.
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
a day
away!"
- Annie

Have you ever written a word so much that when you look at it, it looks foreign and you almost don't recognize it?

Tomorrow is Baby Girl's estimated due date. However, only 5% of babies are born on their due dates. What % are born after their due dates appears to not be quite as well known - I tried finding the stat on the internet but nothing reliable popped up. I have read that first babies are more likely to be born after their due date than before though.

Ah well. Anyway - TODAY is my last day at work, AND we have our weekly dr's appointment (the one we were hoping we wouldn't actually need ;-)). Work ends precisely at 2pm. Then we go to the doctor. I hope she tells us she sees progress!

In the meantime, to keep myself amused at night and to ease my mind that Baby Girl is fine if I've woken but don't feel her moving (because she's still quite active most of the time), I've learned that a sure fire way to rouse her from a deep slumber is for me to eat a popsicle. So I've just had two. Orange and Grape. (Sugar free of course). Sorry Baby Girl. You can go back to sleep now :-)

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Attention everyone: Heather has left the office building

At precisely 2:16pm today I left work for the last time until December. I did manage to get all the essential stuff wrapped up before I left; didn't get lots of other stuff wrapped up but they'll manage without me.

What a strange feeling - to think of 4 whole months of not going into the office.

Of course, there's little time for slacking off, as Tim and I are about to get a NEW boss... we're not sure when she's gonna arrive and we don't really know much about her yet, other than she's really small and demanding and I'm sure she'll have me and Tim both dancing to her beat within seconds of starting on the job.

Speaking of whom, we had our weekly doctor's appt. today. Actually, we saw a midwife since our regular doctor is... ahem... on vacation. I guess everyone's gotta take a vacation sometime, and if it wasn't this week it'd be next week when one of her other patients is due. Still :-)

Anyway, everything is measuring fine - size of uterus, Baby Girl's heart rate, my blood pressure. I've gained a pound since last week. I think it's all in my feet though. They're horribly swollen.

So here are some more teasers for those due date watchers out there:

I'm now
- 2cm dilated
- 90% effaced

And Baby Girl is sitting way low. Apparently she's low enough to be at a "station" but which one the midwife neglected to say so unfortunately we don't have that little stat to pass along.

No - I'm not going to interpret any of that data for you - you can research it yourself if you're really interested :-)

So tonight we're celebrating my last day at work by going to eat spicey thai food. Rumour has it spicey food can help to bring on labour. We'll see. Our midwife said it sounded like a good plan ;-)

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Baby Girl's ABC's

I wanted to share this with our family and friends that are far away, so thought I'd post it here.

At our Baby Shower, Debra put together an ABC book for Baby Girl and had everyone there pick a few letters and write something fun yet meaningful to Tim, myself and Baby Girl that started with that letter. We just received the finished product, beautifully presented, and it had Tim and I giggling from A to Z when we read it. Thank you so much everyone - this will bring us and Baby Girl much enjoyment as we read them together, and we will always treasure it!

Baby Girl's ABCs
As written by her Mom and Dad's Friends and Family 2005

A is for...
...Amazingly cute, which we know you will be!

The End

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More due date teasers

I read recently in one of my pregnancy books that the most accurate way of determining a due date is a first trimester ultrasound exam which has an accuracy of plus or minus four days.

Our due date of August 3rd was determined by an early first trimester ultrasound. We actually had a couple of first trimester ultrasounds, and the due date remained the same, and hasn't changed since.

Today is T minus 4 days exactly.

Therefore... we're in the range :-)

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Another wonderful day at the office

3 1/2 more days of work left. That's what I keep telling myself.

Today's adventure occurred as I was walking along the path between the parking lot and the building where my first meeting of the day was scheduled. As I was walking along the concrete I turned my ankle, and because of my dramatically different center of gravity, ended up completely falling down.

I managed to avoid landing on our baby which was the only thought in my head as I started to feel myself go down: "Must NOT fall on baby. Must protect baby". Motherly instinct is a wonderful thing. Instead I managed somehow to twist myself mid-fall to land on all fours - hands and knees. Pregnant and cat-like. That's me. I scraped up my right knee nicely, and have a slight scratch on my right palm from the concrete.

I managed to pick myself back up off the ground after a bit of contortion (it really isn't easy to get from all 4s to a standing position when you are 39 weeks pregnant) and dust myself off.

Baby Girl is fine - she's been doing her usual dancing off and on throughout the day since the incident.

I will point out that when this occurred I was walking with one person while two others were approaching my direction. All of them stood and watched me fall, and then continued to stand and watch me struggle to get back up on my feet unassisted.

If I saw someone fall, regardless of whether they were pregnant or not, I'd offer to help. I'm not sure why no one did. Fear of embarassing me? I did that on my own when I fell. Fear that that any aid offered would be construed as unwanted, unsolicited or somehow offensive or inappropriate? Possibly. Or simply a lack of caring? That too is a possibility. The person walking with me did at least ask if I was ok after I was back on my feet.

At any rate, I'm ready to be done work for a bit. I'm not feeling particularly joyous about my current working environment these days.

3 1/2 days.

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Beached Whale

I was walking down the hall today and a coworker, someone with whom I feel I have a solid working relationship and whom I respect at a professional level said to me, completely unsolicited

"I'm sorry to say, but you look like a beached whale".

I took a second or so to compose myself and think about my response and decided simply to go with "You really should have kept that thought to yourself".

He laughed what I interpreted as a bit of a nervous laugh - the kind of laugh you laugh when you realize that yup in fact you said something really dumb and would have been better off keeping your mouth closed - and proceeded to try and explain it away with "it's just that you have a very distinct walk when you're coming down the hall".

I chose not to say anything in response, and proceeded to walk down the hall, just as I had been, and go and get my lunch.

I then came back to my office with my lunch, closed my door and blinds, and cried. I'm only human.

After I had a chance to clear my system of my emotional response to this little encounter and eat my lunch (which was quite difficult to make myself do after hearing something like that), I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to do about it.

The company I work for, at the executive level, talks internally and externally about our commitment to diversity and inclusion and anti-harassment. All employees are required to attend diversity and anti-harassment training. The values that our executive leadership team have identified for the company support a diverse and inclusive work environment free of harrassment. As a manager at this company responsible for managing employees and providing leadership, I am held to a high standard for my own conduct, and expected to enforce diversity and anti-harassment policy.

And so I was faced with the following choices

1) Do nothing. Realize this person didn't really mean to be hurtful or disrespectful - he just didn't think before he spoke.

2) File a complaint with his manager or HR. Having to deal with the repercussions of that will certainly make him think before he speaks again in the future

3) Go talk to the person and let the person know that the comment was hurtful, disrespectful, and inappropriate even if that was not the intent and go from there.

#1 I didn't really see as an option. Not for me. I don't want or expect my employees to feel that they should just have to accept such comments because it wasn't intended to be hurtful or malicious so why should I think it's ok for someone to say something like that to me?

#2 seemed a bit too dramatic given that I did know the person well enough to know that no ill will was intended - it was just stupidity and a case of not thinking before speaking. If it wasn't the first time then I might feel different and take more formal action. But it was, and so I opted for #3.

After taking the time to think through what I wanted to say, I went down to his office, knocked on his door and asked for a minute of his time. I then closed the door and told him that although I was sure he didn't intend for it to be, the comment he made earlier in the hallway was hurtful, disrespectful and inappropriate. I didn't appreciate it and I felt that it was important that he understood how it made me feel. He apologized and said he realized it was inappropriate and had been meaning to come down to my office to apologize for the remark. I thanked him for his apology and left his office.

One of the earliest moral / value lessons that I recall really comprehending and internalizing, and that I remember to this day, came from the Walt Disney movie "Bambi". I saw it in the movie theater when I was really little. It's the part of the movie when Bambi's just learning to walk and talk and is all clumsy and making mistakes and calling things by their wrong names, and some of the little furry forest friends are kind of making fun of him. Until Thumper pipes up and says "My momma always told me that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all".

It's not that hard.

1 week

1 week left till Baby Girl's due date. 7 days. 6 until my last day of work ;-)

Babycenter.com update: "Baby Girl is ready to great the world! She continues to build a layer of fat to help control her body temperature after birth but it's likely she already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls). Her organs are fully developed and in place and the outer layers of skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath."

"... only about 5% of babies are born on their scheduled due date. And Baby Girl can't make you wait indefinitely for her arrival... If you don't go into labour on your own, most practitioners will induce labour when you're between one and two weeks overdue".

Hmm... also according to BabyCenter.com we can apparently get a congrats from the White House by sending Baby Girl's name, address and birth date to the White House Greetings Office (address provided). Um... no. No thanks. That's one souviner we don't need ;-)

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Ok Baby Girl... we're ready when you are!

Tomorrow marks the end of week 39 and then we head into our final week. :-) But I'll post about that tomorrow.

Today we had our weekly dr appt and everyone's healthy.

As a routine measure, our Dr. is going to be scheduling an induction date just in case Baby Girl goes too far past her due date. That doesn't mean that there's no chance of her being born before or on her due date or that she's thinking one way or the other. Apparently this is something they do at this point in the pregnancy just in case, because the slots fill up quickly. And if we don't need it, great :-)

Those of you who predicted she'd arrive after her due date are just dying to know when the induction date is, aren't you. I'm not sayin'. Yet ;-) If we end up getting there, I'll let y'all know!

As for readiness - we're pretty much there. New things accomplished on our to-do lists this week:

- I've finished writing my last employee performance review at work, finalized goals & objectives, and sent out notice about my last day. I have one more project to transition, and a couple of last minute details to sort out but should have that done by Wednesday.

- We're finished all our childbirth classes.

- we've scheduled our car seat installation and inspection with our local police department for tomorrow morning!

- We've finished writing our birth plan and reviewed it with our caregiver!

- We've picked up the last remaining essentials for Baby Girl

- Baby Girl's and my bags are packed and in the trunk of the car, ready to go. Tim still needs to pack his, but I do have a toothbrush and deodorant packed for him.

- The house is clean! Well, it's definitely livable, clean and organized in the places that matter most :-) The Kitty room, now that it is pretty much empty, has been turned into a random storage room of sorts in addition to housing the litter boxes but Baby Girl won't be spending any time in there so I'm not concerned about it. The office is still completely cluttered but she's not going to be hanging out in there either (except perhaps strapped to me or Tim in her Baby Bjorn for an occasional blog entry here and there in the first few days home if we feel like it but I suspect she won't notice the clutter if that's the case ;-)

Still some stuff to do on the list to keep us occupied until she gets here but the main stuff is done. We're ready for her :-)

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An end of one sort at least is in sight

I decided that if Baby Girl hasn't started making her appearance by August 2nd, that will be my last day of work. It's just getting too hard. I had intended to work all the way up to the start of the big event, but even if it hasn't started happening by next tuesday and she ends up going past her due date I'm just not going to try and work past August 2nd.

It felt good to send the mail out to my team :-) And it's nice to have a confirmed end of some sort in sight that is solid and not going to change - even if it means after august 2nd I'm just sitting around at home waiting to go into labour (unless she comes before then). I have plenty to occupy myself with so I doubt I'll be bored. More likely I'll be frustrated because I won't actually have any energy or mobility or attention span to do anything productive and as Tim will attest to, I've never been very good at doing nothing :-)

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Rite of Passage :-)

I finally did it. I finally parked in one of the reserved "Expectant Mothers" parking spots at Babies 'R' Us today. I think I've earned it :-)

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2 weeks left

That's right... just 2 weeks left until Baby Girl's due date.

BabyCenter.com update this week: "Baby Girl has really fattened up. She likely weighs between 6 and 7 1/2 pounds now (boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls) and she's probably between 19 and 20 inches long. She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test with your pinky! Her organs are fully developed and in place, but her lungs and brain - though developed enough for her to function now - will continue to mature right through childhood."

At our dr.'s visit yesterday we also went ahead and pre-registered, which they recommend you do 2 weeks in advance, "just in case". I guess the last thing you really want to be doing when you're in active labour is filling out a bunch of paperwork. I can see that ;-)

2 weeks... So how are we doing on our "to-do lists"?

Baby Girl To-Do List:

• Finish writing Birth Plan: On the agenda for this weekend.


• Pack and move all excess objects and furniture to new house - DONE! Thanks to the help of our friends!


• install carseat base and get installation inspected: Also happening this weekend. We did buy a 2nd base for Tim's car this week though.


• Wash all baby bedding, clothes, diapers, toys, accessories, etc - ALMOST DONE! We still have some toys and accessories to wash but all baby bedding, towels, washcloths, diapers and clothes are washed and neatly folded in her chest of drawers


• Set up Baby Girl's bed, dresser/changing area; organize and sort her clothes and accessories - DONE!


• pick up any essential items remaining for Baby Girl - ALMOST DONE!


• Preregister at hospital - DONE!


• pack hospital bags for me, baby and Tim in preparation - STARTED - baby girl's bag is out and I've packed in the baby blanket I crocheted for her when I found out I was pregnant - that's going to be the blanket we take her home in :-) My bag is out too and I've got massage oil and tennis balls in it (don't laugh! Rolling tennis balls feels great on the lower back :-)).


• Put together "call" list - still need to do.


• clean house: always in progress. 2 steps forward, 1 step back. But we're managing! Well - more like managing to not care at the moment ;-)

Work to-do list:

• write employee reviews - ALMOST DONE! 1 down, 1 to go!


• set and publish team goals/objectives and project priorities - ALMOST DONE! Got a draft out this week!


• Send out list of point of contacts for while I'm on leave - DONE!


• Finish transitioning remaining projects, meetings, and partner relationships to temporary owners - ALMOST DONE!


• get mailbox storage increased temporarily - DONE! Although they were stingy and only gave me 500MB instead of the 1GB I requested. Oh well.

personal to-do list (This is the one that's been suffering most!)

• balance our finances - um... no.


• keep up on daily walking until I can walk no more - I've cut back. It's so hard to move!


• try and get sleep whenever I can before Baby Girl is born! The post time of this entry ought to give you a clue as to how well I"m doing on this one


• eat healthy: In progress.


• got to remaining dr appts - of course!


• get back on the no-chocolate wagon. Sigh. I'm on. It's a bumpy ride but I'm staying on.

Moving to-do list:

• unpack all Baby Girl firniture, get it set up, and prep the nursery: We've unpacked the crib to let it air. The glider and ottoman is pretty buried so that'll have to wait a while. We can't move it up to the nursery until they finish the floors and electrical trim.


• notify construction loan people of project end and move-in date and get whatever remaining paperwork taken care of - DONE! We still have the actual papers to sign when we do the final billing with our builder.


• everything else will have to wait until we get closer to our move date.

Prep-the-current-house-for-sale list:

• We're not completely insane. We'll tackle this one once we've made a lot more progress on all the other lists ;-)

Not too bad. And we're still somewhat sane... sort of. I have my moments, to be sure. Tim as usual is my rock :-) But we're getting there!

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Baby Girl Update!

Had our dr. appt. this afternoon. Baby Girl is healthy and I am healthy and things are happening.

So... now that all the bets are in on her arrival date, weight, height, etc. (I hear there's actual real cash being placed in Newfoundland on the due date ;-)) I figure it's my turn to have a little fun so... here's some totally useless teasers for all of you folks with money and/or bragging rights on the line :-)

The doctor did say I was dilated more than last week. But I won't say by how much. Could be a LOT! Could be just a little bit.

She also said my cervix had thinned since last week. But I'm not gonna tell you how much for that either.

She also took some measurements and estimated Baby Girl's current weight. But I ain't tellin' what she said. She might have said she's on the large side of the weight spectrum. Or she might not.

She also gave us her current opinion, based on her exam, about whether we'd be early, or right around the original due date, or late. But... yup... you guessed it... I'm keeping it a secret ;-)

However, the important news is that we're all fine and healthy and we get to do the whole thing it all over again next week (unless, of course, I go into labour before then. Maybe I will... maybe I won't. ;-)

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Getting ready...

After a bittersweet work baby shower (do people honestly think that at this point in my pregnancy I really need or want to hear, repeatedly, with every greeting, about how huge I am? Do they think I don't know? And even worse, do they think I enjoy having them compare my huge belly size to the small belly size of my two pregnant coworkers, due 3 and 6 days after me respectively... not just within earshot of me but actually to my face? And do people really think I'll find it humorous, when we play the happy shower game of "predict the baby's weight and length" when all of the predictions are 14+ lbs? I suppose it's really no different than people who are considered "short" or "tall" having to put up with the same old "short" or "tall" jokes day in and day out. Or people who are bald having to put up with bald jokes day in and day out. I just need to suck it up. It's what people do and it will not change. That doesn't mean I have to like it though.)

Anyway - let's try this again - after a bittersweet work babyshower, I left the office in a somewhat disgruntled mood. But it quickly dissipated when I got home and found Tim there (turns out he didn't have to work late as he was expecting!) prepping yummy steaks for the grill :-) After a completely fabulous dinner, we spent an enjoyable and relaxing evening unpacking and organizing Baby Girl's chest of drawers and changing pad, sorting through and washing and folding Baby Girl's clothes, diapers, blankets, towels, washclothes, etc., unboxing and assembling Baby Girl's toys, gathering together and organizing all of Baby Girl's bathing, diapering and healthcare accessories, her feeding supplies and accessories, and her growing collection of books, and just generally getting stuff ready for Baby Girl. It was quite fun! Still lots to do, wash, organize, but it felt good to get started :-)

I have a dr's appt today at 2. I'm hoping for some tidbit of news that indicates progress is continuing... I... we... are so ready for her to be here already. Sigh. I realize it will bring a whole new level of challenges, sleep deprivation, and anxiety. But I'm kinda done with the whole being pregnant part. We're ready for that next phase to start :-)

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Weekend Update

Busy weekend this weekend! Let's see... where to start... with the fun stuff, of course!

House Progress

Saturday morning we started the day by heading out to the property in the morning to check progress.

- thermostats are installed and so is the air exchange control
- all plumbing fixtures now complete and water filter hooked up functioning. We can get and drink water from our tap and our fridge now! Our fridge is even making ice cubes :-)
- garbage disposal is installed - we got a special one appropriate for septic systems
- stove and ovens are installed and working (we even turned on the gas on the stove - such a pretty sight ;-)
Much of the electrical trim is complete. Still need some switches and circuits hooked up and some fixtures installed, but that should be finished up very soon.
- grass is growing like... well... grass! Still some dry spots but it's looking really good!
- sanding and finishing the hardwood floors starts on monday
- punchlist walkthrough is tentatively scheduled for August 2nd (tentative, because we're all kinda waiting to see what Baby Girl decides to do!)

More photos here.

"Everything Must Go"
A friend of ours is moving out to the east coast at the end of summer to go back to grad school so after playing around at the new house we headed over to her place to help her with her moving sale, get her yard spruced up, get some oddball chores taken care of as she gets ready to leave, and eat yummy food :-). Me - I just supervised ;-). But Janel put Tim to work fixing lighting fixtures, playing with electricity, etc. :-)

Last Supper
After helping Juan with her moving sale/house readiness, Tim and I went out on what will probably be one of our last real "dates" before Baby Girl is born :-) One of my favourite italian restaurants - Italianissimo. We hadn't been there in a while! It was really wonderful to get out of the house and have a nice dinner in a nice restaurant. We've both been moving at about 1000 miles an hour lately between our work, childbirth classes, prepping for Baby Girl, packing up the house and prepping for our pre-emptive move, staying on top of the final details of our new house construction, me trying to get exercise whenever I can, and both of us trying to get in a decent night's sleep.

After dinner we went back out to the property to check it out in the evening light. No pictures from the evening to share, but it was pretty cool! The interior lighting looks fantastic; we can watch the sun set from our back decks, and the moon rise from our kitchen deck. The different light streaming in through the windows gives the inside and the paint colours a different look as well - a nice warm glow.

Pre-emptive move #1
Today (Sunday) was spent moving all non-essential furniture and objects from our current house to the basement of our new house. MANY thanks to all our friends who came out to help out! Our current house is quite a bit emptier now, so we can start the task of getting Baby Girl's stuff set up so she has a place to sleep, be changed, play etc. It was kinda squishy with all of our stuff in the current house.

It was a gorgeous day - probably a bit hot for moving, but the key was that it wasn't raining ;-). It eventually got up to about 85 degrees at the new place. Not a cloud in the sky. We don't have any air conditioning at the new house, and we have a TONNE of glass doors and windows that let sunlight in at all times during the day, so I wanted to see how hot it would get inside. We were quite happy to find the interior temperature at a comfy 68 when we arrived, and only 71 when we left late afternoon. The house was nice and cool the whole time we were there, and the basement even cooler. Very impressive :-)

Needless to say, we're both a little exhausted :-) And we'll be spending the next couple of weeks straighting up and organizing what's left in the current house. But at least the big part - the move "part 1" - is done with (at least for a little while ;-)). Part 2 will be moving stuff from the basement up to the main floor as the hardwood floors are finished, and then Part 3 of course will be the Main Event. Timing for both of these though are at the mercy of our builders and Baby Girl. We'll see what happens ;-)

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It's not just me!

Found this on MSNBC

"The pregnancy panic attack: What don't moms-to-be have to worry about these days?"

So it really isn't just me... comforting to know :-)

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3's Company

Today is the end of week 37. 3 more weeks to go until Baby Girl's estimated due date.

Week 37 is also special because it marks the "full term" point meaning if she's born anytime between now and 42 weeks (2 weeks past her due date), she's considered "full term" as opposed to "premature".

According to BabyCenter.com, Baby Girl probably weighs a little over 6 pounds and measures between 19 and 20 inches, head to heel at this point. Although apparently our loving friends are thinking she'll be weighing in a little on the heavier side of "average" (10+ lbs at birth? Come on people. I'm a NORMAL sized pregnant woman. You're just all used to looking at photos of pregnant celebrity waifs in gossip magazines, who have the luxury to be able to afford an entourage of personal trainers, personal chefs, makeup artists, hair stylists, wardrobe specialists and personal nutritionists at their beck and call 24x7 to keep them looking waifish throughout their pregnancy and who probably also have daily massages from their personal massage therapists to keep their feet and ankles from appearing swollen).

Not that I'm letting it stress me out. I've got enough other stuff going on in my head to do that, without worrying about how giving birth to a 10+ lb baby would feel.

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The era of long walks draws to a temporary close

I believe I have walked my last 2.5 mile walk for a little while :-) It was bound to happen... not bad that I made it all the way to the eve of the end of my 37th week before having to hang up the walking shoes! She was feeling really pretty heavy tonight.

From here on out till Baby Girl is born I think our daily exercise is going to be taking place in the swimming pool at the gym. Or we'll just limit the walking to a short jaunt around the block. But I kinda like the idea of switching to swimming. Gotta love that weightless feeling!

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More Pregnant Ramblings

Multitasking

I used to be a multitasking queen. At work and at home. I could multitask like no other. People worshipped my multitasking abilities. These days I'm lucky if I'm able to concentrate on just one task or and see it through to the end. In addition, it takes me about 3 times as long to finish anything. Not just because I'm physically moving slower, and not just because I have to stop every 15 minutes to go to the bathroom, but mainly because my mind is moving slower. Like a slug.

While I'm sure the sleep deprivation isn't helping, I actually think this is more of a symptom of the hormonal surges taking place within my body. Even on nights when I manage to get a decent night's sleep and wake up feeling somewhat rested, I've found I feel dull-witted and unable to concentrate. And by comparison there have been days where I've gotten absolutely no sleep and am suffering from sheer exhaustion but somehow find it within me to rally and concentrate and get things done.

Nesting - when does that kick in?
I could use an extra surge of energy right now. I've read and heard the theory that the whole "nesting" urge is actually a result of excess adrenaline that is building up in my body - apparently I'm producing and storing the stuff in anticipation of the "big event" when I'm sure I'll need every ounce ;-) But in the meantime I have a list as long as I am tall of things that need to get done at home and at work before Baby Girl is born (as if I had any say in that whatsoever) and I'm thinking a nice little "nesting" urge would be welcome right about now.

Speaking of lists...

Here's our Prep for Baby Girl To-Do list:
- Finish writing Birth Plan
- Pack and move all excess objects and furniture to new house (scheduled for the 18th)
- install carseat base and get installation inspected
- wash all baby bedding, clothes, diapers, toys, accessories, etc
- clean portable bassinet, carrier/carseat, stroller
- set up Baby Girl's bed, dresser/changing area; organize and sort her clothes and accessories
- pick up any essential items remaining for Baby Girl (actually - she's quite well provided for at this point; just need a couple of things)
- Preregister at hospital
- pack hospital bags for me, baby and Tim in preparation (hmm - will entail some sort of shopping trip I'm sure)
- put together "call" list for notifying people of Baby Girl's arrival!
- clean house

Here's my Work to-do list:
- write employee reviews
- set and publish team goals/objectives and project priorities
- send out list of point of contacts for while I'm on leave
- finish transitioning remaining projects, meetings, and partner relationships to temporary owners
- get mailbox storage increased temporarily
- oh who are we kidding - I'll be lucky if I get the above done before she arrives! There's lots more that ideally would be done before I leave, but they'll just have to find a way to manage without me :-)

Here's my personal to-do list:
- balance our finances - get house stuff up to date so we know where we're at
- keep up on my daily walking until I can walk no more
- try and get sleep whenever I can before Baby Girl is born!
- eat healthy
- go to remaining dr appts
- get back on the no-chocolate wagon

Here's our moving to-do list:
- unpack all Baby Girl furniture, get it set up, and prep the nursery
- notify construction loan people of project end and move-in date and get whatever remaining paperwork taken care of
- schedule moving truck and the "firemen" and volunteers for final move
- pack and move everything remaining in our current house
- send change of address notices to relevant people, billers, etc.

Here's our prep-the-current-house-for-sale list:
- replace hardwood floors in entrance and kitchen
- get carpets professionally cleaned
- paint interior
- get furnace inspected
- clean roof
- clean exterior house, gutters, driveway, walkway, and back patio,
mow yards, weed (yard work should actually be minimal - Tim's pretty meticulous.
- clean interior
- sell sell sell! and fast!

I'm pretty sure I could come up with more stuff to add to these lists. Hell - I could probably come up with more lists. But what's the point really? Above and beyond ALL the items on ALL these lists is the #1 priority - Love and care for Baby Girl - now and then from the moment she's born to the end of time ;-)

We're gonna be a little busy, and we'll find a way to get what really needs doing done with the help of family and friends (I say that with confidence now, but suspect at several points along the way I'll be reduced to tears of frustration and panic) , but at least we've got our priorities straight. Baby Girl - #1.

And with that, I'm off for my walk :-)

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Baby Girl Update

Had our dr appt today - starting today we'll have them weekly until, well, she's here :-)

Everything is measuring just fine, heart rates, lengths, etc. Baby girl's head is where it should be (which means the rest of her is also where it should be), my weight is fine... etc.

But the most exciting news of all for me was that her head is definitely lower (although not "engaged" as they like to call it, when baby's head is in the pelvic bone at "0 station") and I'm 1 cm dilated! Woohoo!

Of course, for first time moms especially, it is not uncommon to walk around for - well 2-4 weeks at 1 cm dilated. So it's not like labour is necessarily imminent or anything. But it DOES spell progress! Stuff is happening in there ;-)

In our baby class last thursday one of the women in our class, who happens to be due Aug 1st, mentioned that she had just had her checkup and was 1 cm dilated and I felt the slightest twinge of jealousy ;-)

Anyway - that's the news :-)

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Baby Girl's Day in the Sun

Debra and Becky threw us an absolutely wonderful baby shower yesterday and we spent a gloriously sunny afternoon enjoying the company of our friends, the wonderful food and decorations, playing fun baby games, and of course, talking about the Guest of Honour - Baby Girl herself :-).

Baby Girl is definitely very lucky to be coming into this world surrounded by such loving family and friends. We had the best time yesterday - it was a great party! Thank you everyone!

Here are more photos from the shower :-) (and thank you to Dave for taking pictures of both of us with Tim's camera during the gift unwrapping!)

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Final 4!

Today marks the end of week 36. Exactly 4 more weeks till Baby Girl's due date!

Babycenter.com update: "Baby Girl is still putting on the pounds - about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds and is a little less than 19 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the creamy substance that covered and protected her skin during its submersion in amniotic fluid. She swallows both of these substances [yum] along with other secretions, which will stay in her bowels until birth. This blackish mixture, called meconium, will become her first bowel movement. Most likely she's in a head-down position by now (yes - she is) which is optimal for a smooth delivery. You might notice Braxton Hicks contractions are a little more frequent now (yes - they are)".

In one more week, baby girl will be considered full-term (babies born between 37 and 42 weeks are considered full term; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term, and after 42 are post-term).

36 down, 4 more to go, Baby Girl! Woohoo! You rock :-)

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Practice makes perfect

Around 4pm yesterday (about the time I started the previous blog entry ;-)) I started getting braxton hicks contractions. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened to bring them on - and nothing ever needs to - they tend to start whenever. I didn't think much of it at all as I'm very used to them having been getting them every day for many weeks now, but by 5pm when they were still occurring and were feeling slightly stronger than normal (not painful by any means at all, but just more... thorough... if that makes any sense) I decided to try lying down, drinking some water, and timing them. According to all the stuff our doctor gave us, if I experience more than 4 in an hour before 37 weeks ("pre-term") I should call in and let them know about it. Well, I had 6 between 5 and 6pm, approx every 10 minutes apart. That combined with some other... ahem... changes... I had noticed recently (but that definitely qualifies as TMI for this blog!) made me decide to call the 24-hour healthline for our dr's office to see if there was anything I needed to be concerned about.

I called and explained what I was experiencing, and they decided they wanted me to come in for some observation just to be on the safe side. Then I called Tim at work to let him know what was up, told him not to panic - that I wasn't in pain and that they weren't getting more frequent or more intense but they wanted to just check me out anyway and promised to call him again after the tests - and I went in to the hospital.

When I arrived they checked me in, took a urine sample, and strapped an external fetal monitor on me, as well as a monitor for the contractions. The nurses were all quite nice, although slightly disorganized as it was shift change (7pm is when the night shift comes on) but things settled down quickly. Of course Murphy's Law would normally dictate that the contractions that had now been occurring for the last two hours would stop now that I was being "observed" so as they were strapping the contraction monitor on me I was silently hoping to myself "PLEASE let me have at least 1 contraction while I'm here or they'll think I'm a complete dork. Please, just one... even a little one"). Murphy must have been listening because they continued about 10 minutes apart the whole hour that I was there so I didn't look like a completely neurotic and pathological first-time mom-to-be! They were definitely real, and happening just like I had said. But thankfully they didn't change in frequency or intensity (We're really not ready for her to come early and I made her promise that she would wait until at least 37 weeks anyway ;-)).

After about an hour of observing Baby Girl (who put on a great show for the nurse, with a nice strong heartbeat exhibiting lots of little activity peaks as she wiggled and squirmed the entire time), observing my uterus and contraction patterns, conducting an exam and finding my cervix still closed (yeah I know - sharing that tidbit of info begs the question "so where exactly IS the line of TMI for this blog"... hey... it's at my descretion ;-)) and getting back a negative result on my urine test for amniotic fluids, they sent me home.

The contractions continued on at home for some time and gradually decreased in frequency. I was still having them when Tim got home, but not as often, and eventually they stopped for a while as I fell asleep for the night. Now they're back to their regular random occurrances ;-)

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Another milestone

July 3rd is generally a rather unremarkable day. It's two days after Canada Day, and the day before Independance Day. But this year, it marks exactly 1 calendar month until Baby Girl's due date :-)

I do realize that these countdowns and milestones are somewhat arbitrary. Statistics say that a) only about 5% of all babies are born on their due date and b)first babies are usually born after their due dates.

Of course, we've had the pregnancy statistics discussion before, haven't we, so we know what that's worth :-) There's really no way for me to know which statistical bucket I fall into until after it has happened, so the bottom line is - it's gonna happen when it happens, and your guess is as good as mine as to when that will be! Ok - I might have a slight edge over you - perhaps even by as much as 24 hours or so. But you know what I mean ;-)

Still - there's something satisfying about reaching these little milestones. And yes, I may be a tad disappointed if August 3rd comes and goes and we're still waiting for Baby Girl to decide that it's time for her to make her appearance. Actually - I'm more likely just to be exhausted by that point ;-) We'll see.

But regardless - Happy July 3rd everyone!

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High 5!

That's right - today marks the end of Week 35. Only 5 more weeks to go until Baby Girl's due date. Only 2 more weeks until she's considered "full term". But we'll take the 5 if we can get 'em. Not only is there a tonne of stuff we still have to do around the house to get it ready for her, I have a bunch of stuff I still need to wrap up and transition at work (not that I'll care even one teeny tiny bit about that if Baby Girl were to decide to show up early. I fully expect any worry I have around leaving with a clean transition plan in place would be completely and utterly vapourized as soon as she arrives. :-) )

So here's the babycenter.com update:

"Baby Girl doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and weighs over 5 pounds. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. In fact, most of her development is complete. From here on, she's mostly concentrating on fattening up.

"You don't have a lot of room to grow either - your uterus - now up under your ribs - is now about 15 times its normal size and you may feel like you've run out of room! If you could peek inside your uterus (which, in fact, we did yesterday ;-)) you'd see there's much less amniotic fluid and much more baby in there now (yup. Very true). Your ballooning uterus is crowding your internal organs too, which is why you probably have to urinate more often and have heartburn and other digestive problems (I'll spare you the details).

"Your little one is so snug in your womb that you may notice she isn't doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain the same". (oh yeah. Especially around 3am. And don't let those cute little baby feet fool ya. They're STRONG).

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Baby Girl - A Sneak Preview

Today Tim and I and Baby Girl had a 3D and 4D (3D rendering with real-time motion) ultrasound taken. It was something we just couldn't pass up, and it was an incredible experience to watch our little Baby Girl - in full 3-D rendering - squirming, kicking, waving her little hands, and opening and closing her little eyes and mouth. I just can't describe the feeling. I'm in complete and total awe. She's beautiful.

That's her! That's OUR Baby Girl!!!! I'm so in love :-)

You can view the rest of today's 3-D ultrasound photos here

and also take a look back at our previous 2-D ultrasound photos for comparison.

The place was pretty interesting. They led Tim and I into a spacious room with a big comfy sofa (I guess some people opt to bring in their whole extended family for the viewing ;-)), and a chair for Tim to sit next to me, and a really nice soft bed with an adjustable back that inclined (that was for me, of course ;-). The images were projected onto a large wall in front of us so it was like watching a movie in a private movie theater only much more comfortable, and no sound :-)

We also got to take home a DVD and video tape of the session today which shows Baby Girl in 3 dimensions moving around, waving, etc.

Welcome to pregnancy in the 21st century! ;-)

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6 degrees of separation

Today marks the end of Week 34. Exactly 6 weeks today until Baby Girl's due date! 42 days :-)

I'm feeling pretty good. My tiredness is due to lack of sleep more than anything else at this point. My 2.5 mile walks have gone from 50 minutes to 55 minutes so I'm definitely slowing down ;-) Baby Girl should be packing on the pounds now in preparation for life in the big world. She's still as active as ever (despite the exercise ball bouncing and the rotten apple ;-)

Babycenter.com update: "Baby Girl now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is probably almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers - which she'll need to regulate her body temperature once she's born - are filling her out, making her rounder. Her central nervous system is still maturing and her lungs are well developed by now."

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The return of the irrational fears

When I first found out I was pregnant I was plagued with various irrational fears centered around keeping Baby safe and seeing her through the precarious first trimester. They ranged from foods that I should/shouldn't eat to activities I should/shouldn't do, to fear that the extreme emotional roller coaster I was on as a result of my fluctuating hormones would result in Baby developing Manic Depressive disorder, or Schizophrenia, or even just ADHD.

2nd trimester brought some relief from these fears, as I started to become educated, and also became used to the idea of being pregnant but still maintaining my normal day-to-day routines. Um... with the exception of the one relapse at the U2 concert where I was convinced I had caused irreversable hearing damage to Baby Girl through my selfish desire to attend the concert. What kind of horrible monster of a mother am I?

Now that we're closing in on the end, the irrational fears have returned - the "we've come this far, we're so close, let's not do anything to cause trouble now" type of fears.

I'm an educated woman; I know that there is no basis for these latest fears. They're completely groundless. But yet they occupy valuable space in my head.

1) What if all the rockin' out to Great Big Sea on my bouncy exercise ball this weekend resulted in Shaken Baby Syndrome? Did I brain damage Baby Girl with all the bouncing I was doing?

2) Yesterday I ate an apple at lunch only to take a bite in next to the core and come away with a horrid taste in my mouth and a gaping black hole visible in the core indicating it was rotten. Did I just poison Baby Girl?

Her ongoing kicks and punches and wiggles continue to reassure me she is just fine. Not to mention the fact that I just know better. But still these strange little baseless fears wiggle their way up to the surface of my mind. Wacky.

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Bouncing and Buoyancy

Last week Debra loaned me her exercise ball - the kind you blow up and that you normally see used in exercise videos and classes for core stabilization exercises (although when you're pregnant, apparently it's commonly referred to as a "birthing ball" - our childbirth prep class has a bunch of 'em). Tim inflated it for me this weekend and ever since I've been having a grand ol' time bouncing and bopping to Great Big Sea and Pink Martini. I've removed my desk chair in front of my computer, and now I exclusively use the ball when I'm at home in our office. It's really comfy, and it's just a hell of a lot of fun to bounce on - especially when you've got some great music to bounce to! I have no idea what Baby Girl thinks of all the bouncing. She usually kicks up a storm after I've slowed down or stopped. But I find it entertaining and great exercise for my legs and thighs :-)

Yesterday I went out and bought myself a swim suit. I know I only have less than 7 weeks left until Baby Girl's due date, but as I was walking yesterday (in what turned out to be gloriously warm and sunny weather - not at all what was predicted for this weekend) I kept thinking how good it would feel to be in a pool - kinda weightless in the water, moving around... so I up and bought a swim suit. Yup - one of those maternity kinds. Just plain black (I thought that best ;-)) but I have to say - it actually looks ok - I'm kind of impressed! And I'm quite comfortable (ie - not self concious at all) wearing it in "public" (as public as the pool in the gym I belong to gets, I guess ;-)) Shaving my legs so that I felt somewhat ok about wearing it was a chore though. (We're about to cross the TMI line for this blog, so I'll just move on ;-))

Anyway - got to the gym, got changed, got into the water and it felt GREAT! I ended up staying in for about half an hour. The only thing that got me to come out was the need to go to the bathroom. I think being in a "weightless" environment like that lifts stuff up and shifts it around a bit temporarily. But while I was in there I did 5 laps of the pool - stopping at each end to just enjoy the weightless sensation and feel Baby Girl's reaction. I think it might have felt a bit different to her. I bet it sounded a bit different too. She kicked here and there to let me know she was awake and aware of what was going on. Walking out of the pool was an interesting sensation too - the feeling of gravity "pulling things down" again as I slowly walked up the submerged stairs out of the pool (no way I'm attempting to pull myself up one of those ladder thingies - the stairs did me just fine ;-)) I asked Baby Girl what she thought of the experience on the drive home and she wiggled and punched. I think she liked it. I told her after she's born, when she's a bit older, we'll be going to Mom and Baby "swimming" classes - I can't wait to take her to the pool for the first time - we'll have so much fun!

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Encounters

At the grocery store this morning, standing in line for Tim's coffee, I hear a woman's voice behind me exclaim (in a friendly way) "Wow - it's a pregnant woman who still has ankles!" Mornings are generally a good time for my ankles. It isn't until end of day that they swell. I explained that to her. She went on to elaborate that when she was pregnant she "looked it from head to toe all the time". Guess I don't have it so bad after all ;-)

On my walk later this afternoon I saw two women approaching my direction - clearly out for their afternoon walk as well. As they passed by, the younger of the two, out of the blue, reached out and patted my tummy (3 times - "pat pat pat") and as she did so smiled and said "I have a beautiful name; you should use my name for your baby", and the older one laughed in a kind way and wished me good luck. They had Caribbean accents. I never did learn her name. But I wonder how they knew she is a girl?

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Answer to this week's Friday Night Question

which was asked by Gracie: Do babies urinate inside the womb?

According to what I've read (multiple sources) I've pieced together the following picture:

By about the end of the third month / week 12 Baby's kidneys develop and start draining urine into Baby's bladder. By about the fifth month, the baby is drinking amniotic fluid and urinating into the amniotic sac.

At the start of pregnancy, the amniotic fluid that surrounds and protects baby within the amniotic sac is generated by the placenta. but once Baby's kidneys are formed and functional, they will start generating the amniotic fluid.

Amniotic fluid is constantly circulated by the baby swallowing and "inhaling" existing fluid and replacing it through "exhalation" and urination. This process will repeat continuously, causing the existing amniotic fluid within the amniotic sac to be replaced with new amniotic fluid every 3 hours or so.

Later in pregnancy (about the 36th week) fetal urine makes up a large part of the amniotic fluid present in the amniotic sac.

Excess urine passed by baby into the amniotic sac is transported through the placenta to the mother's circulation and are then filtered by Mom's kidneys.

Any of you out there who are actually educated in the field, please feel free to correct or elaborate :-)

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Self Expression

The thing is, I know I created this. But I don't remember actually doing it. But I do remember waking up the next morning and standing in front of the fridge staring at it, and thinking "Like... yeah... it's so true... I really do..."

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7th Heaven!

Today marks the end of Week 33. That means there are exactly 7 weeks left until Baby Girl's due date :-)

So how is Baby Girl keeping herself busy these days?

BabyCenter.com tells me "This week, your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds and is approximately 17.2 inches long. She's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her bones are hardening. Her skull, however will stay soft until after birth, to make it easier to squeeze through the birth canal (thank you ;-)). You may be waddling a bit now, as your baby fills out even more of your belly. It may be harder to sleep comfortably too. For relief, try sleeping in a recliner or propping yourself in a semi-upright position in bed."

Ah... sleep. Yes. It is eluding me these days. I've taken to falling asleep in the living room in our armchair / ottoman because it's the only thing that surrounds and supports me comfortably enough - and even then I have to stack it with pillows :-) We tried this weekend to get one of those pillows with the back and arms on it that will help you sit upright, but it's so darn uncomfortable and bulky in bed... sigh. So I fall asleep in the living room and wake up around 4:30am and move into the bedroom where I usually manage to catch a couple more hours because I'm so exhausted at that point the discomfort doesn't register! ;-) At least this way Tim gets a bit of relief from my tossing and turning and fretting as well. Poor guy!

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Pregnant and Sleepless in Seattle

to be sung to the tune of "Who needs Sleep" by Bare Naked Ladies

now i lay me down not to sleep
i just get tangled in the heap
i swim in pillows three feet deep
i just lay back and claim defeat

baby kicking, tummy large
i feel like a slow moving barge
while tim slumbers deep and sound
i toss and turn and flop around

lids down, i count sheep
i count heartbeats
the only thing that counts is
that i won't sleep
i countdown, i look around

who needs sleep?
well you're never gonna get it
who needs sleep?
tell me what's that for
who needs sleep?
be happy with what you're getting
there's a guy who's been awake
since the Second World War (Tim thinks it's cause his wife was pregnant too)

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Another clean bill of health

for Mom-to-be and baby girl! Wow - hard to believe in just over 7 weeks (give or take a couple) I'm really going to be a mom and Tim's going to be a dad and we will be a family of 3 (humans, plus 1 dog and 2 cats ;-))

Anyway - had the monthly checkup this morning and we both checked out ok. Baby Girl's heart rate was 152 - right where it should be, and my blood pressure was 90/50 which is where it usually is and which, for some reason, continues to impress the medical staff month after month. Not sure why. I'd like to take credit for it - my 2.5 miles of walking every day, and the physical condition I was in before I got pregnant. I suspect some credit needs to go to my genetics - hopefully ones that baby girl inherits too :-) I'm also thrilled to tell you that despite my continued chocolate indulgences, I've only gained 2 lbs since last month's visit which still keeps me in the range of "normal" weight gain (because my Doctor likes to keep tabs on that). I think it's all my daily walking, morning cheerios, and healthy dinners that Tim's been cooking me that's kept me in check :-)

On a side note, I did a little research on "low blood pressure" just to try and understand the reaction I consistently get from any medical professional who has ever taken my blood pressure (pregnant or not). Not a whole lot out there on "low blood pressure" except that it is generally considered good. Lots more of course on "high blood pressure" which I clearly do not have.

The American Heart Association basically said that "Within limits, the lower your blood pressure reading is, the better. In most people blood pressure isn't too low until it causes symptoms such as lightheadedness or fainting".

at heartcenteronline.com I learned that "Hypotension is the medical term for low blood pressure (under 90/60). Usually, borderline-low or slightly low blood pressure readings produce no symptoms and require no treatment. Low blood pressure can be a sign of good health in some people with no symptoms (e.g., athletes), indicating that their hearts, lungs and blood vessels are well conditioned and in good working order. However, it may also be an indication that the body is unable to properly regulate blood pressure. In these cases, low blood pressure may require treatment".

Another interesting little find at lifeclinic.com talks about a study conducted in Germany to learn how common episodes of low pressure are in the general population. The main finding is that approximately 50% of healthy people have episodes lasting one hour at least where the pressure may be considered “low”, and that the phenomenon is commoner in women than in men.

Anyway - despite my continued (and ever increasing) lack of sleep as I get bigger and bigger, stressing over the house, our finances, getting ready for baby, and the occasional hormonal emotional outburst, it appears these things have had no effect on my blood pressure or general health of me or Baby Girl, so that's one less thing I need to worry about ;-)

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8 is Enough...!

Yup - that's right. Today marks the end of week 32. Exactly 8 weeks left until Baby Girl's due date!

So what's going on? According to babycenter.com "It's getting awfully snug in there! Baby Girl weighs almost 4 pounds and is 17 inches long. She'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next seven weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb".

She's still extremely active all the time - moreso in fact I think than she has been, which I thought would be quite impossible already because she's constantly on the go. Braxton Hicks contractions are occurring throughout the day every day, although I haven't reached the threshold (8 per hour according to my doctor) for any cause for concern. They're still not painful, but they are getting more obvious.

Baby Girl appears to have a preference for the right side of my uterus despite any effort to get her to shift and even out a bit. She definitely is happier cramming herself as far right as possible. Whatever works! As long as she's comfy, and healthy, and growing that's all that matters ;-)

I'm still walking 2.5 miles per day every day - it's taking me about an hour - except for a few days last week when I was out sick, and except for today due to a late day at work (didn't leave work until 7pm). And yesterday I was remarking to Tim on how cool it is that my feet and ankles aren't swollen and I don't appear to be retaining any water. Seems I spoke a tad too soon because much to my dismay, this evening when I got home and put my feet up on the couch, my feet and ankles appeared to be... gasp... PUFFY. I'm not liking this whole puffy business. I should have gone for my walk today.

Between my squished diaphragm and my head cold, I've been sleeping propped almost completely upright. Not that it's helped at all. But I've got 8 more weeks of this so I better figure it out!

I wish I could see what she's doing in there with all that wiggling and poking and squirming. It's really intense. This is what I imagine an ultrasound would show right now if I were to have one:

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Balsamic Vinegar?

June is barely underway but I am still amused at some of the search strings people have used on the internet to arrive at our site. Among my favourites so far this month:

- radioactive glow
- squirrels with cats
- stunk
- doppler tim
- 20 weeks pregnant and can't breath well
- 3 musketeer candy
- balsamic vinegar contractions

The last one intrigued me the most so of course, I had to find out for myself what one could possibly be seeking with that search string. And that was how I learned that apparently balsamic vinegar has been known to be an effective agent in inducing labour. Or so the internet "experts" say. Huh... good to know. I'll have to ask my doctor about that when I see her next week, as I've been indulging regularly in the stuff ever since I posted my new favourite salad recipe.

The things you learn from the people who visit your web site - and they don't even have to leave a comment! ;-)

I'll let y'all know what a REAL doctor has to say about it after next week's visit ;-)

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I feel pretty! Oh so pretty!

So yesterday I decided I needed to get my hair done. It'd been about 7 months since I last visited the hair salon. I was in need of some grooming :-)

Luckily my hair dresser was able to squeeze me in at the last minute at the end of the day. She's awesome. I've been going to her for at least 3 years now if not longer, and followed her when she started at her new salon. She's the only hair dresser I've ever had that I've wanted to make sure I continue to go back to.

Anyway - went and got my hair done. Just what the dr ordered. Got a great scalp massage in the process (there's almost nothing I like better than getting my hair washed by a professional), caught up with my hair dresser, paid, and left. The sun was shining, the air in downtown Kirkland was warm and smelled like flowers, my hair was silky and bouncy and didn't look like a rats nest anymore. I was wearing my faded black jeans and light pink poncho. I was feeling pretty darn good about myself. I think I was probably smiling to myself as I strolled down the street to the waterfront where I had parked my car.

As I was walking down the sidewalk with one hand resting on my pregnant belly, I noticed a man talking on his cell phone on the sidewalk in front of me. He was about my age. Typical East-side kinda guy, standing next to his freshly washed BMW. As I got closer I heard him saying to whomever was on the other end "Yup, I'm good. I'm here in downtown Kirkland, the sun is shining, it's warm out, there's a drop dead gorgeous woman walking towards me who probably thinks I'm some kind of idiot for saying that out loud" as he stared directly at me and smiled at me while I passed by... I glanced in the store window reflection next to me. I happened to be the only woman on the sidewalk.

Anyway - I flashed a friendly smile at him and kept walking. What else can you do when you get a compliment from a complete stranger like that? I have to admit after passing by I did strain to continue listening to see if I detected any snickers or sarcastic comments, but none were said.

I dunno if it should be attributed it to my increased confidence after getting my hair done, if it was that Kate is an awesome hair dresser and her hair cut just made me look stunning, if the fabled "pregnancy glow" has resurfaced, if the afternoon light was hitting me in just-the-right-way, or if the guy was just trying to see if his pickup lines work on an obviously pregnant woman. And you know something? WHO THE HELL CARES!!! Because apparently I'm a drop-dead gorgeous pregnant woman in her 32nd week and I'm feeling pretty damn fine about that ;-)

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Apparently the magic number is "30"

So on May 18th, at 29 weeks, I wrote about how the most common reaction to the question "how far along are you" was "Oh, well, you still have a ways to go".

As soon as I hit 30 weeks (which was over a week ago, since I'm now at 31 weeks - but who's counting ;-)), the response immediately switched to "Oh - not long now!" Often times from the same people who at 29 weeks were telling me I still had a ways to go.

So apparently the magic number is 30. Or 10 if you want to think about it in terms of weeks left.

I liken the phenomenon to retail pricing. People are much more likely to think of $29.99 item as a steal, but the same item at $30.00 will get passed over as too pricey. Apparently 29 weeks pregnant is not a lot, but 30 is significant. Go figure.

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And then there were 9

weeks left until Baby Girl's due date. Today I am 31 weeks exactly! We're in the single digit countdown now, baby!

According to babycenter.com, Baby Girl probably measures about 16 inches long, weighs a little over 3 pounds, and is headed for a growth spurt. She can turn her head from side to side, and she's beginning to accumulate a layer of fat underneath her skin in preparation for life as a newborn.

Tim and I signed up for extra childbirth prep classes - just to be safe :-) We were supposed to start tonight, but I've come down with the cold that's been going around so we decided it'd be better to stay in. As Tim says, it's better to miss the 1st class than the middle class! The classes will take us to July 21st, which will help pass the time. Although time is passing quickly enough all on its own :-)

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Fashion Plate

Today's temps were in the 90s. I was not prepared for this. I have no temperature-appropriate clothes that fit.

Solution: One of Tim's white t-shirts, and his "vintage" elasticized-waisted "Mt. Hood Festival of Jazz" cotton shorts.

Thank goodness we live in the pacific northwest... wearing my husband's clothing, I can still fit right in.

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Take my breath away...

Baby Girl takes my breath away. Quite literally.

Around midnight last night I woke up with the sudden sensation that I wasn't getting enough air in my lungs. No matter how deeply I breathed, I couldn't breath in enough air - it just wasn't satisfying. I consistently felt short of breath.

I got up, walked around. Sat down at the computer and tried to distract myself. Tried watching tv. Tried yoga breathing. Tried sitting up in bed to sleep. Tried sitting up in the living room to sleep. Tried laying on my left side. Laying on my right side. No matter what I did I couldn't satisfy my desire to take in more air.

Baby girl continued her usual late night movements - nothing abnormal. Nothing that felt different. I was taking in oxygen - it wasn't like I couldn't breath at all. But I couldn't breath deeply, and it really didn't feel like I could take a deep enough breath to satisfy my lungs.

After about 3 hours of this it started getting to me. I was exhausted, and frustrated, and by now starting to become a little anxious. And all the attempts to breath deeply were causing me to start to feel a little dizzy and tingly.

So I called my OB's office 24 hour nurse line. By now Tim was awake and trying his best to help me, but there really wasn't anything to be done. I described my symptoms to the nurse. No allergies. No history of anxiety or panic attacks. No history of asthma. No medical conditions. No medications except for the prenatal vitamins. No extraordinary physical exhertion earlier that day. No unusual activity. No complications with the pregnancy to date. No pain or bleeding or cramping symptoms. No apparent cause for what I was experiencing. After going through her procedures and protocol list, she ended up referring me to 911.

So we called 911. Went through the same questions and procedures. Took a while to get through it all because I could only speak so fast due to my breathing attempts. And by now my back was starting to hurt as a result of being strained while I tried breathing deeply. The 911 operator said she would send an aid car out to take a look at me. When I hung up they were already at our front door, quite literally. No sirens, thank goodness! They came inside, and checked me out. The good news - my blood pressure was fine. My pulse was fine. My lungs and breath sounds sounded good. My oxygenation was measuring 100%. I had good colour, and I was holding complete conversations with them
(if a little strained and slow) as I answered their questions. But because I am 30 weeks pregnant and clearly short of breath they asked if they could take me in for further examination at the hospital.

So I walked with them out our front door to the aid car. They pulled out the gurney and lowered the side rail and raised the head so I could sit down and swing my feet on board and lean back. They loaded me into the back of the aid car. Tim followed behind in our car.

In the ambulance they hooked me up to 100% oxygen, and continued monitoring my oxygenation via that little clippy thing they put on your finger and continued to check my vitals, all of which were normal (blood pressure was a little low relatively, but my blood pressure has always been that way, and never low enough to be diagnosed as low blood pressure - it's always been considered quite healthy).

4 minutes later we arrived at Stevens. Tim was there there waiting for me when they lowered me out of the back of the aid car and wheeled me into the E.R. The triage person came out to meet us. I was still short of breath but able to walk into the check-in room and provide him with my information for registration. He took us back to the ER room. The EMTs finished checking me in with the registration desk.

They took my vitals again, and also listened to the baby's heart beat. I was still breathing rapidly and still short of breath. The doctor came out and listened to everything. My lips and nose and fingers were tingly and he explained it was because I needed to slow down my breathing - that the release of the carbon dioxide was what was causing the tingly feelings. He had me concentrate hard on my breathing and slowing it down. The oxygen they had given me had helped a little with that as well.

The doctor explained possible causes of shortness of breath. In pregnant women especially, when this type of thing is experienced, they are concerned about the possibility of a blood clot causing the shortness of breath and inability to breath. He also explained though that if a clot was the cause, It usually would be accompanied by other indicators, none of which I had - eg lower oxygenation (mine was continued to be 100%); pain in my back or chest or legs (I had back pain but it was muscle strain due to my breathing attempts), lower or higher blood pressure (mine continued to be normal). But they wanted to do everything they could to rule out the possibility, so ordered a blood test that checks for a particular enzyme that can be a predictive indcator to a possible blood clot. If the test comes back negative, it is 98% indicative of no blood clot. However the test also has a 30-70% chance of coming back with a false positive. And under normal circumstances, if it came back elevated, further testing that would include radiation, would be required to eliminate a clot in my lungs as a possibility. However being pregnant those tests are not an option. However the first step was to have the blood taken and the test performed, and then we'd decide from there.

They took my blood - had to draw from my hand because my veins in my arms had been exhausted by my 3-hour glucose screening earlier that day (which had left me slightly bruised).

And then Tim and I settled into the ER to wait. It was around 4:50am when the nurse had drawn my blood and sent it to the lab for analysis. It wasn't until 7:30am that we got the results back. By then my breathing had improved, I was relaxed and my back muscles were no longer strained and causing pain.

The results did come back slightly elevated. Apparently anything less than .50 was the 98-100% predictive indicator of no clot. Anything higher was considered "elevated". My reading was 0.72. However the doctor had decided based on my presentation, vitals, and the fact that by 7:30 my breathing had improved, the tingling had subsided, and my back ache had eased due to my being able to relax, that anything less than a 1.5 he would treat as acceptable and not recommend further course of action that included radiation. However because it was elevated above a 0.50, and their hospital policy dictated that any pregnant woman over 20 weeks be seen by the on call OB after being discharged from the ER, I was sent upstairs for further monitoring, and for non-invasive testing via doppler to eliminate the possibility of any presence of a clot in my legs and tummy veins.

So Tim and I headed upstairs. The registration desk was waiting for us and we were placed in a screening room. I was put on a monitor that monitored our baby's heart beat, as well as my uterus for contractions. Interestingly enough they monitor did register contractions - my braxton hicks, which I've been experiencing pretty much daily now for several weeks.

The on-call OB arrived about 9am. she checked the monitor results. Because of the contractions that were showing she also did a physical exam to ensure I wasn't in early stages of labour. Which she confirmed I was not :-) She was able to tell that the baby had turned and is facing head down now. This explained the swift and direct kick to my ribs the other day, and she said could also explain an increased pressure on my diaphragm which could explain the shortness of breath symptoms. However she still wanted to have me undergo the doppler screening in my legs and tummy to eliminate the possibility of a clot at least there.

It was around 9:30am at this point. They gave Tim a coupon to go and get us some food and something to drink from the cafeteria while we waited. I was hungry. Tim was exhausted (he's actually been suffering a really bad cold the last couple of days himself, and not getting much sleep; plus he had to work today.

While we were waiting for the doppler tests, another couple arrived (I was in a semi-private room with the curtain drawn). We never saw them but we heard them. She was due last thursday and was in for a screening to check the baby's heartrate and for signs of contractions and early labour. She still had a week to go before they would consider inducing her labour. As it turned out, today was not "the day" for her - no signs of labour yet. She was scheduled to return next tuesday for more screening. It was interesting to overhear the conversations ;-)

Around 10:00am the ultrasound technician arrived to do the doppler screening. Everything checked out well. I was still breathing ok. Occasionally still needing to breath deeply and not able to fill my lungs, but nothing close to what I was experiencing when this all started. All we needed was the official clean bill of health from the doctor after examining the doppler results, and we could go home.

At 11:00am we were finally discharged.

The final diagnosis: Shortness of breath that was either being caused by the pressure on my diaphragm by Baby Girl possibly shifting, or possibly caused by anxiety/sudden panic attack (or a combination of both - not being able to breath as a result of Baby Girl's position relative to my diaphragm, which escalated into anxiety/panic attack). What I was experiencing was not uncommon and apparently something they see fairly regularly in the E.R. I was given instructions to take it easy the rest of the day, follow up with my primary care physician, and return if symptoms worsened.

And I've been following their advice. Taking it easy has consisted in staying home from work the rest of the day (although I did slog through work emails that had built up by 11:30am),and then napping soundly for about 4-5 hours to catch up on the sleep I lost as a result of this whole ordeal. I was exhausted. Poor Tim was moreso - battling a cold, not getting any sleep, and then getting in a 1 hour catnap when we got home before having to head in to work. He is my true hero.

So that was our adventure last night. Baby Girl - she's totally fine as she always has been. She's been squirming and kicking and doing her usual in-utero-gymnastics likely oblivious to her mommy's discomfort and overnight ordeal. As she should be :-) . They were quite impressed with her activity and responsiveness on the monitors in the hospital. We also got a very slight glimpse of her on the ultrasound when they were checking my veins around my tummy. And I am now fine, if a little tired and still feeling slightly challenged in my ability to fill my lungs to capacity, but nothing on the order of last night. And apparently shortness of breath is going to be the norm for me from hereon out so I'll have to get used to it.

I wonder what else is in store for me in these final 10 weeks!

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T minus 10

Baby girl is due exactly 10 weeks from today!

If we were to equate the remaining pregnancy weeks to the final countdown in a shuttle launch sequence, at "T minus 10" the "go for main engine start" command is being issued by the Ground Launch Sequencer, flares are being ignited under the main engines to burn away any residual gasous hydrogen that may have collected in the vicinity of the main engine nozzles, and in a half second (or 3.5 days in pregnancy weeks) the flight computers will order the opening of valves which allow the liquid hydrogen and oxygen to flow into the engine's turbopumps.

No "Go" command being issued here though, nor are there flares being ignited. And I will refrain from commenting on any residual gases that are collecting :-)

But I will say it is exciting to be in the "final weeks" ;-) Starting next week, we're in the single digits!

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That's a new move...

I've been feeling Baby Girl squirming and kicking and poking and prodding for quite a long time now, and her movements have been frequent and often times pretty intense. I can actually even watch her moving, which is kinda wacky and freaky, but highly entertaining at the same time. She's on the go pretty much all the time.

But today on the drive home from work, I experienced my very first direct and full blown kick to my ribs. Have you ever been kicked smack in your ribs from the inside? It's pretty rough - it actually hurt! She packs a real punch, our little angel does!

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Oddsmakers favour "Baby Girl" over "New House"

By about 10 days.

We learned today that the new projected "final inspection" date for our house is August 12th. 10 days after Baby Girl is due.

Now - in the grand scheme of things, that is actually pretty darn good - given the number of hiccups and delays encountered recently due to circumstances beyond all of our control (delay in flooring due to moisture content of house; delay in painting due to weather; delay in custom tile shipment, etc. etc.). However it is a bit of a disappointment as we were hoping to be in our new house before Baby Girl made her first appearance in the outside world. Our current house is really really cramped, and not exactly the most comfortable place to live in the middle of summer.

But - now that we know, we can at least make plans. It was always a possibility anyway - the previous projected move-in date was July 29th, 5 days before Baby Girl is due. And if Baby Girl came early then we'd be in the same predicament. It's just more certain now :-)

Of course it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that they get finished a few days sooner, and Baby Girl decides to be two weeks late. But we're not planning on it ;-)

So just a heads up to our close friends & family out there - we may be a little frazzled in July and August, and likely calling for various sorts of help between now and then(eg moving furniture early to make room for Baby Girl, hiding out at your house on move-in day so that Baby Girl and I are not caught up in the actual moving-in chaos; potentially help unpacking ;-)) We will of course reward you well with ample nourishment and beverage (likely take-out given the state we'll be in but we also promise to have you back for the first big feast cooked in our new kitchen ;-))

Of course we've still got "a ways to go" (hehe - I am the only one who gets to use that phrase, btw, so don't get any ideas. The rule still applies to everyone else. Just one of the benefits of being the pregnant lady ;-)) but the time's going to fly by pretty quickly given the amount of work we have to do to get this place ready to be inhabited by a new little tiny person... I'm getting a little tired just thinking about it ;-)

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If you search hard enough

you just might find what you're looking for:

Memories of Childhood - the art of John Newby

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You've still got a ways to go

That seems to be a common response to the question "How far along are you" or "when are you due". A ways to go? What about the ways I've come? 29 weeks is not insignificant. I'm not a rookie anymore. Yet here I am at week 29 finding myself in this strange in-between world of being obviously pregnant ("so... you're having twins") but clearly not pregnant enough to have earned any kind of merit badge for my accomplishments thus far("Oh... well.. you've still got a ways to go"). As if to say I'm not entitled to my big belly, or the braxton-hicks, or the difficulty in finding a comfortable position in which to sleep, or the 4am trips to the bathroom. And it's such a disappointing sounding response. Like they were hoping to hear me say I'm 39 weeks and my water could break at any time. Like they actually were actually hoping they'd have a front row seat to my first signs of early labour. Sorry to let you down folks. Show's not on today.

29 weeks. I'm 72.5% of the way there! That's not trivial! If I was running a marathon I'd be approaching mile 19. Have you run a marathon? I have. That's a pretty damn long way (and if you read my marathon post, you'll recall that mile 19 was when my feet started to hurt). In 2 more weeks I'll be in the single digit countdown. "Ways to go..." hmmph. What I should be hearing is "Way to go!"

I feel great physically and I still have a lot of energy, and I will for several more weeks before the late 3rd trimester fatigue sets in (not that it has to, but I suspect it will). But geez - don't trivialize how far baby girl and I have come! I remember when I was 11 weeks pregnant and had 29 weeks to go.

Way to go Baby Girl! You're doing GREAT! I'm so proud of you. And Happy 29 weeks :-)

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What not to say to a prospective employer after an interview

This morning I interviewed a candidate for a job opening on my team. The interview overall went well. Upon conclusion of the interview I stood up to escort him to the lounge area to wait for his next interviewer. As we were walking he glanced at me and said "Oh! I didn't notice you are pregnant when we met last time!"

We had met a couple of months ago so I could give him an overview of hte job and assess whether or not we'd want to bring him through formal interviews. This question didn't bother me at all. It's the question that followed that I thought a little odd...

"Yes - I am! I'm due August 3rd", was my reply.

"Oh! So you're having twins?" he promptly asked.

Ummm... no.

Sigh.

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Entering the "No Fly Zone"...

I don't know what it is about being pregnant that makes people feel like they can infringe on your personal space and your personal life in a manner that otherwise wouldn't occur to them.

I was in a little grocery store outside of our neighbourhood today. I am not a frequent flyer there, the way I am at our local QFC. In fact, I haven't been to this particular grocery store in well over a year. I certainly do not know or recognize anyone, nor is there any way they know or recognize me. At our local QFC everyone knows Tim and I both by face and in many cases by name, and they chit chat with us while ringing up our groceries. They all know I'm pregnant because we joyously spread the news at every opportunity we could when we first found out. So when the local QFC cashier asks me "how are you feeling these days?" or "did you find out if it was a boy or a girl yet?" or "do you have any names" or any of the other usual questions one gets, we happily respond. I'm pregnant! And we're excited! We're pretty much happy to chat with anyone who will listen or opens the door on the subject ;-).

But there is still a line. And most folks, even co-workers, casual aquantances, and the QFC cashiers at our local grocery store, know where it is.

So I was somewhat dumbfounded today when I was standing in the checkout line of this other store where I don't know anyone and, as I stepped up with my basket of groceries and set them on the counter, the cashier immediately followed his required "did you find everything ok today?" with a "So... how far along are you anyway?"

Yes, I am at the point where I look pregnant now. But most respectful people who weren't actually told I was pregnant, would normally be a little hesitant and unwilling to outright ask just in case they were wrong and I'm just getting fat or suffering some illness or something. I mean - you never really know, unless you've been told :-). But, as I said - I am at the point where I look pregnant now, so I actually thought the question wasn't a big deal. Slightly outside of "polite" boundaries, and a little surprising, but no biggie. Hell - I'm not trying to hide it... I'm proud of it! So I smiled and said "just over 28 weeks".

"Ah." was his reply. And then I could see (and I swear I could hear) him calculating out my due date (why he just didn't ask "When are you due" in the first place - I mean since he was bent on going there anyway, that would have been the most useful and direct question to ask for him to get the information he was seeking). "So that means you're due in... uh... um..."

"August", I finished for him.

"August what? My wife is due in August. August 15th. Or 13th. Or 10th. Or something like that" (Wow... what a keeper this guy is. His wife must feel so lucky).

"August 3rd", I reply.

"Do you know the gender?" he asks.

"It's a girl. And yours?" I ask, being polite.

"A boy. But I didn't want to find out. But we had to. If you know what I mean. You know... the tests and stuff".

"Ah" I say. I'm thinking he's about to give me more information than I really need and am hoping he finishes ringing my groceries soon.

And then... "How old are you?" he asks.

Excuse me? Huh? What? Uh... well hell, now I just want to see how far this is gonna go.

"34".

"Ah. My wife is 35. So they wanted her to have all the tests, you know, for Down's Syndrome, and stuff. I didn't want her to. But she wanted to do it. The amnio and everything. I mean - what are you going to do if you know? It's not like you're going to get an abortion. I mean - that's it, you know? What's knowing going to give you except 6 months of stress?"

"well, it depends on the person I think", I reply. "For some people, not knowing for 6 months might be more stressful. Maybe this way she feels like she'll be more prepared if she knows in advance" (geez dude, she's your wife... don't you know why she wanted the tests?).

"Did you have any of the tests?"

Wow... he's going for it. What the hell.

"Well... my husband and I discussed it, and we decided to do only the non-invasive tests that didn't pose any risk to the baby".

"Well it's not even about the risk to the baby... I mean - what are you going to do if you know? I just don't get it." he said shaking his head.

Clearly.

Thankfully the conversation was ended at this point by the cash register spitting out my grocery receipt. I promptly grabbed it and stuffed it in my wallet and said thank you. "Good luck to you" I think he said as I was walking out the door.

Wacky.

So then on a completely separate topic, I was perusing the news and came across the following article. I remember hearing about it on the radio on my drive home from work during the week. But the parallels between the incident in this article and my little story above (albeit, forced parallels from my twisted brain) caused me to giggle.

Actual article: 2 men arrested after plane scare at White House, Capitol (CBC News)

Ok - so read that article, and then read my version below as it relates to my grocery store encounter:

Man arrested after Peppering Pregnant Woman with Personal Questions in Grocery Store

LYNNWOOD - The cashier at a small grocery chain is in custody after straying into restricted personal space with a pregnant customer, causing the evacuation of the store and surroundng parking lot around 5pm on Saturday.

TV reports show a man dressed in a T-shirt and slacks in handcuffs being put into a police car after the pregnant woman was forced to beat him off with the baguette she was there to purchase.

At a press briefing later, officials said the cashier had been pestering the pregnant woman with questions about her due date, her baby's gender, her own age, and whether or not she had an Amniocentesis done to test for Down's Syndrome.

Two store security offers were dispatched to intercept the cashier as soon as they had been alerted to the line of questioning. They fired four warning shots.

The cashier did not respond to efforts to communicate with him.

"This appeared to be a socially inept cashier" said the Lynnwood Police Chief.

One report has identified the cashier as a nervous father-to-be himself.

"We have to remember we are a nation of clueless Americans and there are people who will take offense to a direct line of questioning like this and see it as none of anyone's business", said the Chief. "Incidentally, the pregnant woman was Canadian. And we know Canadians are generally more polite than us Americans. It's no wonder she reacted the way she did".

CNN reports that after the shots were fired, and the pregnant woman let loose on the cashier with her baguette, that security officers had yelled at grocery store staff and reporters to "run, this is no joke, leave the grounds."

Staff were allowed to return to their cash registers 15 minutes later.

What can I say... I just couldn't resist ;-)

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The Unveiling

I bought a frame today for my little Nursery Watercolour Masterpiece. Definitely livened it up a bit, and if I may say so myself, it's not too shabby for a first attempt! I think it will do just fine :-)

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Welcome to my Third Trimester (sorta?)

I had thought it had been obvious now to everyone, but found in fact there were a couple of people at work who were still in the dark as to my pregnant state of being. Until today. And it wasn't as a result of witnessing my office door rebounding off my protruding tummy that they became enlightened. One coworker remarked "are you pregnant? I just noticed! I can really see you are" as I walked past her in the hallway. And at lunch the cafeteria lady, who has seen me every day like clockwork for the past year (and knows exactly what I order and how much it will cost, so her powers of observation and memory are quite trustworthy), exclaimed in happy surprise "Oh! You're having a baby!" as she rang up my soup and odwalla bar ($4.20 USD).

All of which just confirms my suspicions that I grew several inches over the course of last night, thus also explaining my sudden inability to find any comfortable sleeping position and my subsequent middle-of-the-night pillow-throwing tantrum. One pillow landed in the cat water dish. Of course I didn't realize that until after I had gotten up, grabbed it off the floor, and flung it back onto the bed (catching Tim in the face with a stream of cat water in the process).

Have I mentioned how completely stoic and supportive and comforting and uncomplaining Tim has been throughout the last 27 weeks? He is truly my hero, and the love of my life.

So... speaking of 27 weeks - depending on who you talk to or what you read, the 3rd trimester starts either week 25, week 26, week 27, week 28, or week 29. I've seen all variations in my pregnancy books and online sources.

Given that it seems to be somewhat up in the air, I've decided arbitrarily that this day, the start of week 28 for me, is also officially the start of my 3rd trimester, since I really need to feel like I've passed some kind of milestone at this point :-)

So - welcome to my third trimester!

What does this mean? What can I expect in the remaining 12 weeks?

According to babycenter.com, "Your baby's growing steadily as she prepares for her grand entrance. This week she weighs almost 2 pounds and measures about 14.4 inches from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. She's acting more like a newborn now, opening and closing her eyes, sleeping and waking at regular intervals, and maybe sucking a finger. She may also be hiccupping, which you'll notice as little rhythmic sensations in your belly. You may start to get leg cramps, especially when you're lying in bed at night. Stretching your calf and flexing your foot should bring some relief."

- Hiccupping - check
- leg cramps - check

Babyzone.com offers me this insight: "Are you terrified? At some point during pregnancy, virtually all pregnant women are. Your fears—of delivery, failure as a parent, changing lives and relationships, finances, pain, and more—are all common."

- fear of failure as a parent - check
- fear of changing lives and relationships - check
- fear of finances - check

plus lets throw in a few more fears for good measure that weren't mentioned, shall we?

- fear that my emotional ups and downs, and my pillow-throwing fits of frustration, and bouts of crankiness will somehow result in a constantly cranky, crying, upset baby that never smiles and is impossible to comfort and that our friends will shun, and never volunteer to babysit, and quietly acknowledge to themselves "I wish she was more like babyX who is so calm and good-natured and always laughing" after we've left their homes for the evening. Check.

- fear of the laws of karma that say "what comes around, goes around", meaning that given how horrible a child and teenager I was for my parents, it is going to come back to me 100-fold over the course of the next 18 years, and I will have deserved every moment of it. Check.

There's plenty more where those came from, but I don't want to completely overwhelm you :-)

Americanbaby.com says "Your frisky fetus is on another growth spurt, shooting up half an inch this week to measure about 14 inches from head to toe. She weighs roughly 2 1/2 pounds, and will gain approximately half a pound each week for the next 10 weeks. The average full-term baby weighs about 7 1/2 pounds and measures from 18 to 20 1/2 inches, but many normal, healthy babies fall outside this range. Unless your practitioner has told you of a potential problem, it's safe to assume that your little one is right on track. Speaking of weight gain, you're probably up 15 to 20 pounds by now, with your uterus banging against the bottom of your rib cage."

- Weight gain: Check. Definitely. No mention of inward swinging doors, which is also a check.

So there you have it folks. The start of the rest of my pregnancy :-)

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Doors that swing inwards

Although my body definitely feels the increase in girth, and my mind is very much aware of it as well due to the constant sensation of my stomach feeling like it's been stretched over a bowling ball (a bowling ball the size of a basketball, I should clarify), it seems that my mind and body have not yet made the logical leap that increased girth = decreased space between me and whatever object lies directly in front of me.

This week's challenge? Doors that swing inwards.

The most common inward swinging doors I encounter are the ones in the bathroom stalls at work.

Fortunately (??) there are so few women on our floor that I am usually in the bathroom alone when I'm attempting to exit my stall after taking care of business, only to pull the door inwards and have it rebound off my belly and slam shut again.

Go ahead - laugh. I do. I'm just grateful that there is usually not a witness to this pathetic little display of lack of coordination and spacial awareness.

The other inward swinging door I encounter frequently is my own office door. That one, unfortunately, is a little more noticeable when I slip up and manage to bonk myself in the belly on my way out of the office for the day. There are usually people in the offices around me and passing in the hallways.

what can I say - I'm pregnant. I just laugh and shrug. And I admit, it is rather amusing :-)

The first time

Ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the endless skies, my love
...
-E. MacColl

Baby Girl, your dad and I can't wait to meet you out here in the big world and hold you in our arms!

This was the final picture from our 20 week ultrasound back in march. She is so adorable! The rest of the pictures are here in our previous post :-)

Wave hello to the world, Baby Girl!

Baby Girl's left hand at 20 weeks. Doesn't she have a cute hand?! :-) We finally got around to scanning our pictures from our 20-week ultrasound back in March :-)

Here's her right foot:

and a cute little profile shot:

There's still one more picture we want to scan so stay tuned :-)

Since these were taken (I hit 26 weeks tomorrow) she's been quite an active little girl and moreso with every day that passes - she's wiggly and bouncy pretty much non stop day and night! The only time I don't feel her moving is when I'm walking around. I think the motion and rhythm when I'm walking puts her to sleep. She will sometimes quiet down for an hour or so mid-afternoon, and after 11pm too, but then starts up again around 4 or 5am. Luckily I can usually avoid waking up fully during those. I actually I find her wiggles comforting :-) And when I'm sitting in dull meetings all day at work she provides great entertainment and distraction for me :-)

Pregnant Ramblings, Part Deux

Knit one, perl two... and then PUSH... and BREATHE

As Tim mentioned in his recent entry, this past weekend we attended our first of two "Preparing for Labour and Childbirth" class (of course, being in the US, Labour was spelled without the "u" but that's their problem, not mine. I intend for my labour to consist of a "u" - probably several, pronounced "uuuuuuh" or, if directed at my loving husband, "what in the $%*& did 'u' do to me?!" but I digress ;-)).

The class was informative. A little scary. Very real. But what I really want to share was this little gem:

http://www.birthinternational.com/product/model/ta011.html

That's right. It's a uterus. Complete with baby inside. "Knitted in a ribbed design for ease of use in two tone pink wool". This is the tool our instructor used to demonstrate the dilation of the cervix during labour, and the crowning of the baby. There were actually a whole lot of results that came up when I put "knitted uterus" into the search text box, but this one was Australian - so they put the "u" in labour just like me. But I've belaboured that point enough :-).

Note, per the description, that "The fetal doll and placenta will fit inside and the vaginal extension is attached by snap fasteners". It's a very thorough little mockup.

Wait a minute... "and placenta"? What's this? Surely they jest.

But no. The doll really does come with its very own placenta!

http://www.birthinternational.com/product/model/ta003.html

Hmm. Our instructor must have been saving this lovely feature for "Day 2". What other treats lie in store for us this Saturday, I wonder?

The Winds of Change

On a completely separate note (but of course still within the subject of pregnancy ;-)) according to "Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn", the book our doctor gave us, in the 2nd trimester I should expect to experience some or all of the following common emotional changes:

- Greater feeling of dependancy
- Acceptance of pregnancy
- Increased interest in babies and parenting
- Introspectiveness
- More daydreaming and dreaming at night
- Developing sense of growth and creativity
- Varying feelings about changing appearance.

I would say that "Acceptance of pregancy" pretty much came when I first saw the 2nd line appear on the stick :-) It's true it's definitely become more real for both of us in the 2nd trimester though.

On the increased interest in babies and parenting - that might explain my sudden urge to watch "Dateline" last night to hear about parents who condone (and even encourage) teen drinking in their homes as a way of "deterring" drinking and driving. (Don't get me started. That's a whole separate blog entry). And it probably also explains why, when channel surfing this evening, I stopped on "Nanny 911" and watched in amazement and horror as the details of the King Family's completely dysfunctional, chaotic and disrespectful household was revealed before my very eyes. I couldn't turn away. I tried. But I couldn't. It held me captive. After which I immediately ran into the office and told Tim to NEVER NEVER let me watch another one of those shows, and to promise me in 5 years we wouldn't be the subject of some disfunctional family reality TV or talk show.

I would also agree with the introspectiveness. If this blog entry isn't enough proof, then you can go back through the archives :-)

And I would definitely have to agree with the varying feelings about changing appearance. Although I have to admit I've surprised myself by overall how positive I've felt about how I look. Of course, the decision to stop weighing myself around week 11 (or even looking at the scale at the dr's office) was absolutely the right one. Wise move :-) I have no clue how much I weigh. And I'm absolutely ecstatic now that I'm actually showing. It makes me feel "real". Like I've EARNED something now that you can see I'm pregnant. And I have when you think about what all is going on in this body of mine right now! But I do have my moments of self conciousness about my appearance and fits of frustration when things don't fit right. Tim is witness to most of these, and he's been great, even during the worst of them :-)

"Developing sense of growth and creativity" is actually probably the most obvious change that's taken place within me. I was quite surprised to see it printed in black and white in my book and then realize that's exactly what's been happening. It explains why I spent an entire weekend searching the internet for nursery artwork - looking specifically for images depicting little girls in bright colours engaged in gender-neutral or non-traditional activities. For example - there are lots of pictures of little boys in planes, little boys sailing ships, little boys playing soccer. There are very few of girls flying planes or sailing ships or playing sports. "Girl" art consists of flowers and fairies and princesses and ballet dancers. It's even a category on many art/poster web sites in the Nursery art area. And there's nothing wrong with those images - but I'd like our little girl to have a balance, and the gender-neutral animal theme can only go so far. The two images I did find of a little girl wearing a baseball outfit and a little girl playing soccer were done in light pastels, not bright, happy, interesting colours. Exasperated with the options available for purchase but having a vivid vision in my mind of what it was I wanted framed and hanging on our daughter's nursery wall, I promptly went out and bought paints, brushes, paper, and a book on watercolour, and set about creating my own masterpiece. A little girl in flying cap, scarf, and goggles, with reddish/brown hair streaming behind her, flying a bright green, blue and red bi-plane over rolling hills of trees and farmlands. Eh... it's ok (I'm very critical of my own artwork). It's not bad for a first attempt, for sure. And framed, it will make a lovely addition to the nursery and a nice compliment to some of the other nice artwork we've found (and the nice frame job might help minimize some of the beginner-artist flaws :-)). I doubt it'll last on the wall much past the age of 5. She'll get embarassed by it and take it down eventually. But maybe someday when she's older she'll understand that even though it isn't a great work of art, it was painted by her Mom with love and purpose - to let her know she can do and be anything she wants. The sky's the limit.

...

Too soon for separation anxiety?

Well, today we enrolled Baby Girl into Day Care.

She starts in November.

She's not even born yet.

I already miss her.

Sigh :-(

On the plus side, we were thorough in our search and we're very pleased with our choice! She will be safe, secure, and well cared for in a clean, bright, stimulating environment with attentive and nurturing teachers. At least - that is our impression from our visits and interviews and research and I just hope it is right.

Next stop: Pediatricians.

And Voila! A Baby Burrito!

As I alluded to in my previous entry, Tim and I had our first baby class yesterday. The class was entitled "Newborn Care". It covered the basics of baby equipment, newborn behaviour and characteristics, what to expect after giving birth, and diapering and swaddling practice (with dolls! ;-)). Probably the most interesting portion of the class was the photo presentation - the teacher showed a tonne of photos of newborns - many of them only seconds or minutes old - and explained in detail what we were looking at so we could see what the little munchkins REALLY look like when they make their debut, and dispel those tv-perfect gerber baby images from our minds. But the teacher did reassure us that no matter what, our baby would be the most beautiful baby we've ever seen. Of course she will be! I already KNEW that ;-). And just as proof of that, looking at all those photos of tiny wee little babies made me quite emotional. In a good way. I just sat there beaming at picture after picture, eyes alight and brimming with tears, happy in anticipation and totally in love with our own little baby girl, who, incidentally, acknowledged this little onrush of emotion with a flurry of wiggling and kicking and squirming ;-)

Half way through class we got a diapering and swaddling demo, and then the teacher let us loose on the little baby dolls so we could practice building our own "baby burrito". Because that's essentially what you're doing ;-). I'm proud to say I diapered like a true champion (despite Tim's injection of "realism" into our little practice session by taking the baby doll's legs and making them kick at me while I attempted to fasten the diaper ;-)) and also happy to report that Tim's burrito was a fine work of art.

Next week: Part 1 of our "Labour and Birth Preparation" class. I'm thinking that class might be the one that triggers the end of the "fed-ex baby" dreams and the beginning of the real labour dreams that my mind has successfully managed to avoid thus far ;-).

Randomly firing synapses within a pregnant mind

Dreams

Been having a lot of them lately. Most of them rather mundane - from shopping for and inspecting a crib to ensure baby girl's head wouldn't get stuck in the slates and the sides wouldn't fall down - to the comical. Here was my most recent favourite.

I arrive home from work as I do every day. Oblivious to the fact that I am no longer sporting my pregnant belly. Walk in the front door to find Tim standing there with a big grin on his face. He's holding something. I look down in his hands and he's grasping the handle of the baby carrier we bought at Babies R Us and inside is a cute, teeny weeny snuggly happy looking baby girl fast asleep. I look back up at Tim. He says in an excited but hushed voice, "Guess what! The baby came while you were at work! See? Isn't she adorable?" as he extends the carrier towards me for me to get a closer look. "Oh my god! That's amazing! I didn't think it happened like that" I reply. Then I wake up.

Note - I've had MANY dreams at this point about life after the baby is born. I've had none about the actual process of giving birth. For which I am grateful. I'm quite happy for that to remain a mystery until "it's time". Kinda like planning to run a marathon. I'd go as far as 20 miles during training but no further - not really wanting to know what 26.2 felt like before "it's time" ;-)

The Ironies of Child Care

Before I launch into the ironies of child care, let me give you some background :-)

It is a fact of life that we are a two-income family. This is even more true given the house we are building and the baby we are having. I wish with all my heart we could afford for either me or Tim (or both, ideally ;-)) to stay home to care for our daughter when she is born - full time or part time - but wishing does not make it so. If it did, we'd have won the fifty million dollar lottery 10 times over by now, and I'd be writing an entirely different blog entry right now. From the Italian Riviera.

On the plus side, I love my job - it's awesome, rewarding and challenging. And my employer provides for a number of weeks of paid leave as well as additional unpaid leave, with guarantee that I'l come back to a job. So I'll be taking 16 weeks off. But I'm already heartbroken at the prospect of having to go back to work after that and be away from our baby girl, and she isn't even born yet. (Some of you more experienced moms may want to tell me that I feel that way now, but I'll actually find that I'll be glad to have a "break" and something other than baby caring to do. You can try, but I won't believe you. You can say I told you so later but I probably won't remember ;-)).

So given that child care is going to have to be a reality for us, we've started researching the options. In-home nanny? Family Child Care Home? Child Care Center? Found some excellent resources online which I thought worth sharing (feel free to skip ahead if you're not interested in the resources ;-))

Child Care Resources is a not-for-profit child care resource and referral agency serving King County Washington. They have what appears to be a pretty extensive database of Family Child Care Homes and Child Care Centers along with current information on capacity, rates, contact information, etc. $40.00 for a 6 month subscription to unlimited access of their database.

I was actually led to the Child Care Resources web site when I came across their 10th Anniversary Whitepaper they published in 2000 on Child Care accessibility, affordability and quality changes between 1990 and 2000.

I also found an interesting and helpful Working Parents forum.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) organization web site proved to be informative and useful and I learned about their accreditation program.

The National Child Care Information Center is a national clearinghouse and technical assistance center that links parents, providers, policy-makers, researchers, and the public to early care and education information

The National Network for Child Care is an informative source of information relating to child care

The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care also provides resources for parents to help in choosing a quality care child program,links to all fifty states' licensing requirements which providers should be complying with, along with links to your state child care licensing agency for researching facilities, checking to see if there have been any complaints on facilities you are considering, etc.

Child Care Aware is a non-profit initiative committed to helping parents find the best information on locating quality child care and child care resources in their community. has a resource referral line (1-800-424-2246) which provides access to a database of all local daycare options, along with detailed information including licensing and accreditation for each.

The American Academy of Pediatrics publishes a free brochure "Child Care: What's Best for your Family, Guidelines for Parents" which includes a detailed checklist for assessing each facility. You can request the brochure by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to 'Child Care Brochure', The American Academy of Pediatrics, Dept. C, P.O. Box 927, Elk Grove Village, Illinois, 60009-0927.
I read through a whitepaper published by Washington State DSHS on Licensed Child Care in Washington State 2002 (published June 2004)

And finally, I read through, in depth, the Washington State Licensing Standards for DayCare Centers and Family DayCare to familiarize myself with state requirements and standards and arm myself with information in preparation for touring daycare facilities and family child care homes.

You can now anticipate that after conducting all of this research I also came up with 5 pages of detailed questions for when we meet with, tour, and interview various care facilities and family child care homes. Would you expect anything less? :-) I'll publish the questions later.

I also came across a national Nanny referral web site that left me feeling even more anxious than I was already about the prospect of going with the in-home nanny option. While there are definitely pros and cons to in-home nannies vs family home care and day care facilities that warrant thorough investigation into each, I was rather depressed after reading through the nanny-for-hire pages on this web site. An 18-year old "Christian girl who helped raise her two little brothers, loves to play with babies, and has 6 years of experience taking care of infants" is NOT exactly instilling me with a lot of confidence. There were 5 pages of such "qualified" candidates for our area. I'm going to have to do a lot more research and find some local nanny referral agencies to get a better sense of what is available in our area.

Anyway, it was during the course of all of this research and question compilation - qualifications, training, background and education and in early childhood development and education, years of experience, First aid and CPR certification, ratios of staff to infants, employee health benefits and turnover rates, etc - that the irony slowly revealed itself to me. Neither Tim nor I have degrees in early childhood development and education. Neither Tim nor I have "years" of experience caring for infants or children beyond babysitting our younger siblings as teens, neither of us are certified in First Aid or Infant CPR. We aren't accredited by a national agency, nor did we have to be licensed with the state to actually have the child. Aside from being filled with love, having some good sense, and being financially stable, we have NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL WE ARE DOING when it comes to raising a baby (we're a tad nervous about that too ;-)). Yet it never occurred to us to turn over responsibility of caring for our child for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, to anyone outside our family who doesn't meet these requirements and have a great, kind, loving, nurturing, responsible personality to boot.

The second irony is that if you calculate the typical day care center costs at least in our area, it amounts to anywhere between $10,000 - $13,000 a year for one child. According to what I've read so far on the rates of family child care homes, they tend to run a bit cheaper - say $7,000 - $10,000 per year. Nanny rates can vary widely depending on experience, responsibilities etc, but there are Nannies available within that price range as well which is not a significant amount of income for an individual considering that if they are nannying full time, there's not a whole lotta time in there for them to be doing something else that is making them money. I guess the thing that strikes me is that if you asked me to put a price on years of experience, professional education/training, first aid/CPR certification, a loving, nurturing, responsible personality, and a secure yet warm and friendly environment, I'd say it's worth a hell of a lot more than $10K a year. Yet it can still feel daunting.

The final irony that revealed itself to me was the fact that as I was learning the current family home care and day care facility costs in our area, it became apparent that in order to AFFORD day care, we both have to be working. However on the flip side, if only one of us were to work, we can't afford to have the other stay home to care for our baby. So we both work, so we can afford to put our child through day care, which is necessary because we both work (and can't afford not to). This is a fact of life for most American families, but it really just sorta hit me as I was going through and doing the math, that we are now such a family. I always knew it to be true, but the math kinda made it real.

In the end

It's all going to work out. Somehow. Other families make it all work. We will have a baby (although I suspect it will involve me going to the hospital and giving birth, rather than just coming home from work one day to find the baby has arrived ;-)) and we will pay our mortgage, and we will find the right child care for our daughter, and we will work hard, and we will provide for her, and love her and cherish her and raise her well and send her off to college, and... well... it will all be ok. I didn't say it would be EASY - I'm no fool, but it will all work out in the end, and it will be infinitely rewarding :-)

It's official - it's grillin' season!

We actually broke out the grill for the first time this season last week with... what else... steaks. Which were scrumptous. There's almost nothing better than a good grilled steak. And Tim's grilled steaks are always good.

However I have a weakness when it comes to grilled hamburgers. Big, juicy, thick hamburgers - not the pre-made patties you can buy in the store. The hand formed patties rich with real onions inside them, brushed generously with bbq sauce while on the grill, smothered in freshly sliced cheddar cheese, and served on a perfectly fresh hamburger bun sized appropriately of course. Mmmmm mmm. And that's precisely what we had for dinner tonight.

So I inhaled a burger and a half (the half was without bun for me)and then settled in on the couch to stretch out and digest. It was a lotta beef. Even Baby Girl cut her usual post-meal kicking MARATHON relatively short and settled in to a nice beef-induced coma. Like father like daughter, I'm thinking.

The "Pregnancy Glow" : Realty or Myth?

On two separate occasions, over the last two days, by two different people, I've been told that I have that "pregnancy glow" going on.

Perhaps coincidentally, over the last week, 1) I've also had a minor cluster of zits erupt on one half of my face (and my left eyelid); 2) small, dry scaly patches have erupted on the other; 3) my hair has decided to be frizzy and unmanageable; 4) my tummy has "popped" (in other words, I'm definitly showing); 5) my cheekbones appear (at least to me) to be less prominent than they used to, and 6) I have circles under my eyes from nights of interrupted sleep. And not in all of these little bathroom mirror self-assessments have I even once noticed a "glow" about me.

Now, I also generally have a fairly critical eye (as do most people) when it comes to assessing my own appearance, even on good days and even when I'm not pregnant. But the question is now raised - is the "pregnancy glow" rooted in scientific fact (and I'm just being unduly self critical or oblivious when I look in the mirror), is it a myth (and people just feel the need to say it anyway because - well - I'm pregnant and they think it is expected), or is it just a "polite" way for people to comment on one's obviously changed appearance without offending? :-)

I'm not one to just raise questions, and not try to find the answers. So I've been doing some thinking and some research - through my copious library of pregnancy books that are currently littering our living room and bedroom and office as well as on the internet (because if it's on the internet, it must be true, right?). And here is what I've come up with.

First, I will start with an analysis of my general sense of health and well being (because it is clear that an analysis of my face and skin has not resulted in any kind of rational explanation :-)). Despite the frizzy hair, circles, zits, dry patches, and increased girth, I have actually never FELT better emotionally, mentally, and physically since the start of my pregnancy. I'm not achy or feeling sick; I'm not tired, I've managed to get off the emotional roller coaster ride that was my first trimester (I even got Tim to agree last night that I've been pretty stable and normal over the course of the last week or so), I've got a tonne of energy, and in general have been in great spirits. It's like the half-way point came and *poof* I'm back to my old self (at least my old self mentally and emotionally. Physically, I am wearing pants with elasticized waists ;-)) . So - if any of that emotional and mental well being and stability is in any way manifesting itself in my physical appearance through my facial gestures, body language, and a general vibe of increased peace, energy and relaxation in my mood that is visible to others, then I guess I could see how that could be interpreted as a "glow". In which case "glow" is perhaps another way of referring to that "je ne sais quoi" quality; the "there's something different about you, and it's good, but I don't know quite what it is" kind of thing.

But setting that possible explanation aside, Are there actual physical, biological, or chemical explanations for the purported "pregnancy glow"?

In fact, there are.

According to Dr Sears: "The glow that others notice (though you may not) isn't just a sentimental old wives' term. This facial shine actually has a biological basis. The increased volume of blood causes the cheeks to take on an attractive blush, because of the many blood vessels just below the skin's surface. On top of this redness, the increased secretions of the oil glands give the skin a waxy sheen. The flushed face on many pregnant women is similar to the one non-pregnant people experience when they are excited, cry, or do anything that increases their heart rate (which pregnancy does constantly)."

My Analysis:
- It is true that my heart rate has increased
- I don't know about you but my non-pregnant flushed face when I've been crying or in the middle of an intensive cardio workout is anything but attractive.
- There is most definitely increased secretions of my oil glands happening. But all I see as a result are zits, not a "waxy sheen".
- The term "waxy sheen" makes me think of a red delicious apple sitting in the non-organic section of the local supermarket.

Still - it is an explanation that makes sense. Ok... moving on.

An article entitled "The Pregnancy Glow and Other Myths of Motherhood" by Barbara A. Eastom Bates on babiesonline.com appears to be more up my alley. An exerpt: "Although it's rumored there are actually women who sail through pregnancy untouchbed by any ills or discomfort, I was not one of them. If I'd ever experienced a pregnancy glow, I'm certain I could only have been radioactive".

Here here :-) Although I have to admit I've been fortunate enough to never have experienced morning sickness at any point during my pregnancy thus far! And as I've said - at this point I actually really feel great!

Pregnancy-info.net says that by week 12 (I am now just starting week 21, btw) I should start to feel less tired and my nausea (which I fortunately never had) will begin to subside. I should expect compliments on my "pregnancy glow" as the increased blood volume and pregnancy hormones work together to increase oil gland secretion, resulting in flushed, plumper and smoother skin appearance.

Now, I'll buy the plumper skin appearance and I'm sure that somewhere underneath the minor eruptions and dry patches there's smooth skin to be found. I'll let you know. But once again I'm left with the image of a red delicious apple. In particular one that has been coated with wax and genetically modified to make it bigger and plumper. Are we sensing a theme yet?

Finally, on BabyMabels.com I learned that if I want to "keep my pregnancy glow" going, Suzanne's Beauty Lounge has just the beauty booster products for me! Although from everything I've read, I'm not sure why I would need to boost my beauty with external products at all - my increased blood flow and oil gland secretion have me positively radiating gorgeousness everywhere I go. And it doesn't cost me a penny.

So in summary, the scientific explanation for the "glow" is the increased blood flow working in conjunction with the increased oil gland secretion. There you have it folks. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go and cast my glow upon my dear husband, kitties and dog and let them bask in my radiance.

Yes! We have no bananas! We have no bananas today!

Why?

BECAUSE I ATE THEM ALL! Yes. Yes indeedy. My intolerance for bananas and banana-like smells has disappeared. I am a banana eating machine once again.

Gotta go. Baby needs a banana ;-)

Boy? Girl? The answer is revealed...

We had our anatomy ultrasound yesterday and they were able to tell us that we are having a baby girl :-) They let us bring a blank video tape with us so that they could tape the ultrasound (just the images of baby - not the actual procedure ;-) which makes for a cool little momento, as she was pretty active and wiggly the whole time. They also printed out a lot of pictures for us to take home. As soon as Tim scans them we'll post them here. Suffice it to say though, that she is absolutely adorable! Of course! :-)

So yes - that means the name list is automatically narrowed down. Of course, if you recall my entry on baby names, it's still quite a list to choose from and there are only 20 weeks left! Guess we better get to work ;-)

Half-Baked

Today marks 20 weeks exactly. The half way point. 20 down, another 20 to go. The "bun in the oven" is half-baked, so to speak ;-)

Today is also the day we found out whether we're having a boy or a girl!

BUT - I'm not gonna post it here just yet :-) We're gonna let my Dad spread the news to the rest of our side of the family, and we'll tell "the gang" tomorrow at friday night :-)

In the meantime, of course, you're welcome to guess - you've got a 50/50 chance of being right ;-)

Ch-ch-ch-Changes...

I knew about the obvious ones that I was in for - you know, that I

- might have strange food cravings
- definitely would gain weight ;-)
- could be a little more emotional than usual...
- would have to go to the bathroom more frequently

etc.

But I really wasn't prepared for the magnitude of these "changes". Take the whole "hormone/emotion" thing. I'm totally thrown by how much my emotions have been affected by my pregnancy. I was prepared for some weepiness. Some feelings of sadness. Maybe even a little anxiety - the "wow - what have we done" kind. Instead it's been a rapid roller coaster ride of swiftly changing emotions ranging from super-silly highs to down and out sobbing blues. I never know what is going to trigger my next emotional reaction, and I have no way of knowing what that reaction is going to be - whether it'll leave me feeling giddy and goofy and laughing hysterically or whether I'll be sobbing uncontrollably between gasps for breath. Either way it leaves me exhausted and emotionally drained. It leaves Tim totally confused. But he's handling it well. Wish I could say the same :-)

And then there's a whole new dimension of paranoia and lack of self confidence that has set in. I'm constantly questioning myself and my interactions with people. Completely innocent comments that normally wouldn't even cause me a moment's pause are all of a sudden swirling with double-meaning. "What did he mean by that exactly", "Does she think I'm really that stupid", "Why did they feel the need to say that".

I'm hoping this is temporary and not something that is going to stick around for the duration of this little adventure. Because 5 more months of this and poor Tim's going to be crawling the walls screaming "I want my wife back! Give me my wife back!" and while he's doing so I will either be laughing hysterically or crouched in a corner bawling my eyes out.

Add to that...

6) a full night of uninterrupted sleep. Which includes not having to get up to go to the bathroom or blow blood clots out of my nose.

I know I know... you're thinking

a) TMI,
b) I've still got 22 weeks to go - I ain't seen nothin' yet,
c) And even after the baby is born and my bladder and sinuses have returned to normal I'm years away from a full night of uninterrupted sleep.

I'll be fine. Really I will!

Heather's Riddle for the Day

What do the following things have in common?

1) 2 hours of high impact intensive cardio workout
2) A glass - hell, make it a bottle - of nice red wine
3) A 90 minute back massage while laying face down on my stomach
4) 20 minutes in the hot tub followed by 15 in the steam room
5) A deli counter sandwich stacked a mile high with thin-sliced meats

I'll let you figure it out.

On a more positive note, it was a good lunch day in our cafeteria today. The feature soup was "Old Fashioned Tomato". So I high-tailed it to the grill line, ordered up a grilled cheese sandwich, ladeled myself a cup of the "Old Fashioned Tomato" and indulged myself in my perfect comfort-food lunch.

And to top things off - it was still light out when I left work at 5:00pm today.

Yeah - when you've had a week like we've had you have to take pleasure in the simple things.

Heather's Riddle for the Day

What do the following things have in common?

1) 2 hours of high impact intensive cardio workout
2) A glass - hell, make it a bottle - of nice red wine
3) A 90 minute back massage while laying face down on my stomach
4) 20 minutes in the hot tub followed by 15 in the steam room
5) A deli counter sandwich stacked a mile high with thin-sliced meats

I'll let you figure it out.

On a more positive note, it was a good lunch day in our cafeteria today. The feature soup was "Old Fashioned Tomato". So I high-tailed it to the grill line, ordered up a grilled cheese sandwich, ladeled myself a cup of the "Old Fashioned Tomato" and indulged myself in my perfect comfort-food lunch.

And to top things off - it was still light out when I left work at 5:00pm today.

Yeah - when you've had a week like we've had you have to take pleasure in the simple things.

About 2 Ounces

A riddle: What do

a tennis ball,
a paper grocery bag,
a 2-penny version of the cartwheel coin of 1797, and
a Purple Martin

have in common?

At our ultrasound today I watched in complete and utter fascination at the fetal aerobics that were taking place inside me real time. At 13 weeks, 4 days it's still too early for me to be actually feeling all that movement, but there's a hell of a lot of activity going on in there. Our baby definitely knows how to amuse him/herself. It was amazing. I could have watched the ultrasound monitor all day.

Here are some images of what we saw:

As I watched, I was surprised I wasn't being jolted right out of the chair by all of this bouncing and boxing and kicking. It looks like the little peanut packs quite a punch. But then again, he or she is only around 2 1/2 - 3 inches long and weighs about 2 ounces at this point :-)

Veterinarians, Burgers, and Babies, oh my!

It was a full day today. We started off with an exciting and heart-pumping aerobic routine I like to call "Taking Spicey to the Vet". It was time for a teeth cleaning :-).

Next on our agenda was a trip to the property to see the latest progress. They've installed the fireplace, the roof is complete, and so is the plumbing. I believe electrical work has begun as well, and they've started building the back decks off the dining room and master bedroom. Very cool.

We stopped at Kidd Valley to refuel, and then we headed off for our main adventure of the day - Registering at Babies 'R' Us! I have been looking forward to this day since November, let me tell you :-) And naturally Tim and I had done our usual meticulous research which consisted of

• creating a master checklist in excel spreadsheet format that cross-referenced our OB's recommended newborn shopping list, to the Consumer Reports suggested newborn necessities checklist, to the Babies 'R' Us New Parent's checklist.
• hours of research on ConsumerReports.org purusing product reports and ratings and checking recall information
• in depth analysis of product reviews at BabiesRUs.com .
• additional research at consumerguide.com, epinions.com, and that other internet search engine
• multiple "reconaissance" trips to the local Babies R Us store
• final consultation with our very own "new parent" friends, Debra and Chris.

So we headed to the neighbourhood Babies R Us, fully armed with knowledge and ready. We checked in at the registry desk where we received our welcome booklet, congratulations form letter, bar code scanner and instructions, and some brief words of wisdom from one of the registration "specialists". They were actually quite nice :-). Then off we charged to complete our mission, barcode scanner held high. Tim, actually, was in charge of the scanner. I was responsible for the clipboard and pen, and my nicely printed excel spreadsheet (in colour, I might add).

And we had quite a bit of fun! Despite the fact that the place was crowded with parents-to-be who had the same idea we did. We ended up doing a couple of laps around the store to avoid some of the "hot spots" until they quieted down :-) I had originally been assuming that I might get a bit more enjoyment out of this activity than Tim, but was pleasantly surprised when, after we sat down and went through the registry list at the end of our spree, I discovered that that Tim had... ahem... gone a little trigger happy with the scanner while I was browsing the aisles and had made several stealth additions to the list. "Oh - yeah... there's a whole bunch of stuff on there that you didn't know about" I think were his exact words. Cool ;-)

Now - we don't know the gender yet and won't for several weeks. So I anticipate there will be minor tweaks to the apparel, blanket, and towel sections of the registry. There's only so much sage and yellow one will be able to take after all ;-) But we got the big stuff done!

We returned to the registry counter to turn in our scanner and to get a print-out of our list. I was slightly shocked and feeling somewhat guilty at the 11 pages that were handed back to us. Had we gone completely overboard? I had to ask. "11 pages... uh... how does that compare? I mean - it seems like a lot". "Oh honey", the registration specialist replied, "11 pages is good - I often see registeries that are 25-30 pages. And you're going to add stuff. You're going to be back. We'll be seeing a lot of you". I guess we're good then :-)

On the way home we picked up Spice from the vet. Apparently he has beautiful teeth and gums underneath all that tartar. Excellent. His pupils were still dilated, and he's still quite a bit wobbly and acting a little wacked out from the anesthesia but he'll be fine. It's kind of amusing actually. He gets these little bursts of playful energy and then all of a sudden he'll fall over, or stop and wonder where he's at. He'll be fine :-)

Anyway - some folks have been asking so I've added a link to the babiesrus.com registry page in the menu on the right - I haven't linked directly to our registry, but people who are interested can click on the link, enter our first and last names in the search box, and will be taken right to it.

Huh. I think I hear Ginger hissing at Spice again. She hates it when he comes home smelling like the vet. Better go check it out.

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What's in a Name?

Finding just the right baby name is hard. Especially if it’s a girl, since we pretty much know what the name will be if it is a boy - or at least we have already come up with the short list. We’ll keep you in suspense for a little while longer though.

Logic would dictate that we wait until we actually know whether it is a boy or a girl before we spend a whole lotta brain power on thinking up names, half of which would be completely irrelevant once the gender of our little bundle of joy is made known (7 more weeks! Assuming he/she is not as shy as Ella was ;-))

But where's the fun in waiting?

What's so hard about it? Well I think it is a fairly big responsibility to be naming another human being. This is the name that he or she will answer to (or not answer to, which is more likely the case once he/she hits the teen years). And he or she will have to hear it, say it, write it, read it, day in and day out for the rest of his or her life. At least until he or she (damn I’ll be glad when we learn the gender of this kid) is old enough to legally change it. What a huge responsibility! (I know. you’re thinking if we think just choosing a name is a huge responsibility, are we in for a rude awakening).

Anyway – it’s a very important task.

So as with everything I do, I’ve taken a very “Program Manager”-like approach to the whole naming thing. Which should come as absolutely no shock to any of you.

Tim – he’s happy with just watching me go at this point. I think he finds my whole process amusing and slightly baffling. We’ve got 6+ months to pick a name and in all likelihood we will know the gender well in advance. So he’s being smart and waiting before getting too deeply entrenched in wading through my list of girls’ names. Because like I said – if it’s a boy, the whole naming game is a moot point since we’ve already made our choice. But me – I can’t wait! That’s several weeks away at the earliest! I must have a plan! Besides – it’s one of the fun little exercises we get to indulge in as parents-to-be :-)

Well, after spending a couple of hours perusing various baby name sites on the internet, as well as the Social Security Administration “top 100 baby names” list and being completely overwhelmed by the thousands of choices I decided I needed to narrow the playing field a bit. So the first thing I did was to come up with some criteria.

Heather and Tim’s Baby Naming Criteria

The name must:

1. be easy to pronounce and spell – especially by the average North American ;-)
2. have a good meaning. Nothing lame or negative.
3. have acceptable short forms/nick names. Although this one is tough to satisfy because kids can find a nickname for anything. So he/she in all likelihood is just going to have to have thick skin when it comes to his/her name at one point or another in his/her childhood or adolescent career.
4. not be in the top 10 most popular names for 2003 or 2004
5. not be so rare that he or she will get made fun of or feel awkward about it or resent it when he or she gets older.
6. not be the same as any living family member (immediate or extended) so he/she is uniquely identified at family get-togethers and when she hears her/his name she/he will know the person is speaking to / about him/her.
7. not be the same as any of our close friends or their kids for the same reason.
8. not be a stereotypical “pop tart” or “porn” name. I.e. no “Brittany”, or “Amberlynn” or “Candie” or… (although one could argue this is the most subjective criteria and there are a number of names still on our list that could probably qualify as pop tart names... or at least cheerleader names)
9. not have initials that when written together will spell an undesirable word (exercise for the reader - create a list of all 3-letter words ending in H. We can limit it to the english language for now)
10. not be the same name as our pets, or our friends or family’s pets.

That last one I added most recently after Janel suggested “Lucy”. Of course, Janel was mocking me and my criteria when she suggested it. Still – it’s a good rule to add :-)

Obviously the final set of criteria is that it has to "fit" right. But we won't be able to evaluate that until the baby is actually born.

The next step then was to find a comprehensive list of names and start applying the criteria to shorten the list. After checking out several sites, I settled on babyzone.com’s Baby Names. http://www.babycenter.com/babyname It has a very extensive list of names from a variety of origins, allows you to search on a number of criteria. and provides the meaning of the name as well.

After sampling the site a bit, I quickly found I was able to eliminate a number of entire origins right off the bat as a result of applying criteria 1 and 5. The resulting “narrowed-down” list consisted of 1455 girl’s names. A little long, but it's still less than "thousands" and I like to be thorough. Heaven forbid that I miss a potential name because I narrowed the starting list too much. So that became my starting point.

Naturally, I then (ahem… slightly embarrassed sheepish grin; but this is who I am people, so I’m not gonna feel to bad ;-)) imported the 1455 names and their origins and meanings into excel for further sorting and analysis, and set about eliminating names.

As a result, I’ve come up with a “short” list of a 42 names.

And I KNOW you’re all DYING to know what the names are, and to weigh in with your opinion. So - I'll publish them here.

BUT FIRST – a bit of an explanation of this list.

The names are listed in alphabetical order. I have not given any indication as to which of these 43 are Tim and my own personal favourites :-) We will reveal our choices later. In fact, there are some that I don't like but I kept them on the list for now for completeness ;-) The column titled “2004 ranking” indicates where in the top 100 the name falls in the 2004 most popular name list (according to babyzone.com. Naturally I cross-referenced the babyzone top 100 with the SSA web site top 100 and found them to be pretty much the same (although slightly different order)).

So there you go. And if there's a name that is not on the list that you think should be, by all means let us know ;-).

Now – because I know you’re utterly fascinated by this, I thought I’d also share with you some of the names we liked that we eliminated because they were in the top 10 for 2004. Note – with the exception of the last, these were actually on our original shortlist before I started doing all the research that told me how popular they actually are:

I'll spare you the remaining list. But rest assured, if you are so interested, I do have them all in spreadsheet format just in case ;-)

UPDATE
New rule - #11: Baby shall not have a name that is the same as any past boyfriends or girlfriends. Hehe. :-)

Comments

To sleep, perchance to dream -

Ay, there's truth to the whole weird freakin' pregnancy dream syndrome.

They started out innocuously enough. In my first dream I was walking around naked in a public place, and then realized I was naked, and panicked and started running around trying to find something to cover up with. Only no one noticed I was naked, which also freaked me out. I figure it's your standard "feeling vulnerable and inadequate in the face of something that is about to change our lives forever, and no one is getting just how totally unequipped you are and how can they be acting so normal about it all when you're clearly so incompetent you'd leave the house naked" sort of dream. You don't have to be pregnant to have those.

The second one was a really horrible one... a definite pregnancy nightmare. A culmination of all the little pregnancy worries that have gnawed at my subconcious since we first found out... the "what ifs"... Brrr. Shake it off. No good can come from repeating it here.

The last one was the most bizarre. But kinda funny in a whacked-out sort of way. I assume they'll only get weirder from here. In my dream I came across a litter of tiny newborn kittens. They were crying and mewing because they were hungry. But mommy cat was no where to be found, and the kittens were starting to weaken, so I started nursing them with my right index finger which had spontaneously grown a nipple right on the tip. Hey - what can I say. All the books say this is perfectly normal :-)

Stay tuned - I'm sure there's plenty more where that one came from. The next 6 1/2 months are gonna be interesting...

Comments

Sweet Music

I warned ya - I've been squirrelling these entries away for a little while now. Now that we've announced I will try and bring them to you in somewhat chronological order, albeit delayed.

On Monday the 10th we heard the baby's heartbeat on the doppler for the first time! A healthy and strong 160 bpm, right where it should be.

It was actually quite loud, and pretty darn cool. Kinda took us to a whole new level of realization that "wow - we're really having a baby". I mean, it's one thing to pee on a stick at home and see the positive result. And it's another to pee in a cup at the dr's office and be told officially that you're pregnant. And still another to see a little fuzzy blob on the ultrasound screen at 6 weeks and be told that is the embryo. But to hear the heart beating loudly and strongly - holy cow! There's a little living person in there!

I'm still awestruck :-)

But what if you're not?

So how and when did it all start?

Before we were married, naturally Tim and I had conversations about the possibility of kids. Even then we never said "never" - always left it open as a possibility in the future. As time progressed we thought more about it, and "Never say never" turned into "Someday it might be nice", which later morphed into "sometime within the next couple of years" until we finally got to "Ok - let's do it. when should we start?".

Perhaps the latter stages of that evolution were helped along by watching our friends Debra and Chris with their new baby ;-)

At any rate, we decided we would, and it came down to when.

Now - I'm not one to leave things entirely to chance. I'll take calculated risks, and I like being surprised. But I also like to stack the odds in my favour. Luck and fate are only part of the equation. I believe I need to do my part too. The more informed you are the better prepared you are. The more planning you do, the better chance you have of succeeding. This comes as no surprise to most of you, I am sure. I am who I am :-)

So, naturally, I started with some research. webmd.com has an actual whole site devoted to fertility and was a primary source of information. I learned all about Basal Body Temperatures, and fertility problems, and statistics, and liklihood of conceiving each month, and the age factor, and anovulation, etc. I learned all of the "lingo": TTC = "Trying To Conceive"; "BMS" = "Baby Making Sex"; and there are plenty more where those come from. I armed myself with information, an ovulation predictor kit, a basal thermometer, and built a very nicely formatted excel spreadsheet for tracking temperatures and ovulation test results :-). You know I did!

Our first conversation after the "let's have a baby, when should we start" and the completion of all of my research went something like this:

Tim: We should make sure we're in the new house before the baby is born.

Me: Agree.

Tim: So that's what... next July?

Me: (looking at George's very detailed schedule) Yup, around then.

Tim: We should leave ourselves some buffer room.

Me: Absolutely. So - the way I figure it, we should start trying now.

Tim: That doesn't leave us much buffer room.

Me: Well, I've been doing research (I have to give Tim credit here - he didn't crack up at these words :-)) and everything I'm reading says it takes the average couple 3-5 months to actually conceive. And each month you really only have on average a 20% chance of getting pregnant. And I am 33 - turning 34 this year. So it could take a little longer. And sometimes after stopping birth control, it can take the average woman a couple of months to get her cycle back into gear and even start ovulating again. And I mentioned that I'm 33 right. So I'd be giving birth when I'm 34. And that's one year less than 35, which is the "magic number" when it comes to fertility, conception, and pregnancy complications.

Tim: (still alert and sincerely listening to my every word and not cracking up) Yes, but all of that talks about averages, and I'm thinking that you might not be "average".

Me: That's very sweet babe :-) But what if I am?

Tim: But what if you're not?

Me: But what if I am?

Tim: But what if you're not?

[Tim's better at that game than me. So after a couple more feeble attempts I finally stopped]

Me: But I'm getting older. And like I said, at age 35, the chances drop considerably, and then the risk of birth defects and complications during pregnancy rise dramatically (I know my stats. I did research, remember?).

Tim: But what if you get pregnant right away?

Me: The odds are against it.

Tim: We just need to be sure.

Me: You're right. Sigh. ok.

So - a few days later, I'm chatting with my sister in IM. I had left her a blog comment previously that alluded to the possibility that some day Tim and I might have a child. I think something along the lines of "Well when we have a kid we're going to do x, y and z differently. That's for sure". My sister, of course, zeroed right in on that and the very next time she saw me online, made sure to ask about it.

That conversation went something like this:

Sarah: So... what did you mean by the comment in my blog?

Me: Oh... heh. Well, Tim and I are thinking about having a baby.

Sarah: Woohoo! I knew it!

Me: Yeah - well, we're trying to figure out when it is safe to start, given that we don't have the room right now and need to make sure we're in our new house.

Sarah: Makes sense.

Me: Except I've been doing the research and [I regurgitate the facts and statistics and figures that I had previously spewed to tim; followed by tim's reasoning that we shouldn't count on me being "average"]

Sarah: You know, Tim has a good point.

Me: But what if he's wrong?

Sarah: But what if he's not?

Me: But what if it's too late or what if something goes wrong?

Sarah: Well... Mom is the oldest of 6. Dad's the youngest of 10. Both Grandmas were having strong healthy kids for a good long time. And when Mom was pregnant with me she had brain surgery and some pretty heavy duty drugs coursing through her system, and I still came out just fine. I'm thinking that fertility and complications shouldn't be as big a concern for you and Tim. You've got genetics on your side.

Me: true. (She is the life sciences major. And she is smarter than me in general.)

So that's where we left it. For a little while. But I still want to figure out a "start date". Because I'm a romantic. What can I say? So the next conversation Tim and I have goes something like this

Me: Well, I figure if we aim for August as the earliest that we can have a baby be born, then I figure the soonest we can start trying is November. That's 9 months. So even if I get pregnant right away, we should be in our new house by then.

Tim: True. It's still cutting it a bit close; what if the schedule slips?

Me: This will be added incentive for it not to! (my finely honed PM skills, intuition, and experience having obviously abandoned me at this point)

Tim: Ok... (still not entirely convinced)

Me: Ok - how about this. If Kerry wins the election, how about we celebrate by starting Nov 2nd?

Tim: Hehe. But if he doesn't win there is no way I want our baby conceived on the night that Bush wins his 2nd term in office.

Me: Absolutely agree. That would be very bad karma.

Suffice it to say our child was not conceived when Bush got re-elected. And also to say that both Tim and my sister were right in the end. When we did start trying, I got pregnant right away :-). Whether that's genes, or my astute planning and research, or a bit of both plus a lot of luck, who knows or really cares :-). George our builder says he works well under pressure, so I am quite confident that we will be moved into our house by the estimated due date. Of course, whether the baby decides to wait till then is entirely up to him or her. We do have a bit of buffer time though :-) Guess we'll just wait and see how it all works out!

Comments

One plus One equals Three!

Well - now that we've told our family, friends, bosses, employees, architect, and builder, I'm all clear to announce it here as well:

Tim and I are having a baby!

Yup - I'm pregnant. Tim and I are going to be parents! My estimated due date is August 3rd.

I tell ya - it's been really hard keeping the secret for this long. We found out November 30th. Although I had a pretty good feeling the night of the 29th after peeing on a stick and seeing a faint second line. So I peed on another stick the morning of the 30th, saw a stronger second line, went to my doctor later that day and after peeing in a cup for them, the lab confirmed the good news. Peeing is something that comes rather easily for me these days. I can do it at the drop of a hat. I'm told this symptom will return in spades in my 3rd trimester.

We told our parents and siblings right away and swore them to secrecy. This will be the first grandchild for my Mom and Dad but they stood fast and said not a word to anyone. Christmas is when we let the rest of the family know, and after that I just couldn't contain myself any longer so New Year's Eve we broke down and told our close friends even though we had fully intended to wait until the proper passing of the first-trimester milestone before announcing to anyone outside the family. Hey - we were excited!

Since then it's just started coming out where-ever/whenever... when I went to get my hair done, I told my hairdresser. When I went to get a facial I told my facial technician. When I went to get Tim a coffee and the coffee lady asked if anything was new and exciting, I told her. I have to admit - I'm having a good time spreading the word ;-)

Here's some more random info.

Tim and Heather's Baby FAQ

Q: When is it due?
A: Estimated due date is August 3rd.

Q: Was this planned?
A: Absolutely. And very carefully I might add. I am a PM.

Q: Are you [ excited | nervous | scared | thrilled | * ]
A: Totally.

Q: Will you find out the gender in advance?
A: Yes.

Q: Is there just one?
A: Yes.

Q: Have you had any morning sickness or weird cravings?
A: Not really. I stopped being able to eat bananas or anything that smells like them, because the smell does make me feel icky. That's new. So no more "banana nut crunch" cereal for me in the morning. Other than that, as long as my stomach isn't completely empty, I feel fine. I was hungry a lot. In the very very early stages I was absolutely ravenous all the time.

Q: Will you be in your new house by the time the baby arrives?
A: Yup. Err... well... we sure hope so. We'll definitely be in by the estimated due date (Right George? Josh? ;-)). But if she or he comes early, well... all bets are off then and things could get very interesting ;-)

Q: Have you picked out names yet?
A: We've started thinking about it. It's much easier of course when you've eliminated one of the genders :-) I've got a whole other blog entry devoted to naming - so check back soon :-)

Q: Will the baby be both Canadian and American?
A: Yes. We'll have to fill out some paperwork for the Canadian citizenship, but yup, he or she will be a dual citizen for life.

Anyway, to contain myself to this point I've been squirreling away draft blog entries. But now that we've let the cat out of the bag, I'll start publishing them. Stay tuned! And in the meantime, check out our first baby pictures:

Little blurry baby spot at 6 weeks
Slightly larger blurry baby spot at 7 weeks
Baby at 11 weeks, 5 days. We were able to see a very distinguishable head, arms, legs, hands and feet! Cute, huh ;-)

One plus One equals Three!

Well - now that we've told our family, friends, bosses, employees, architect, and builder, I'm all clear to announce it here as well:

Tim and I are having a baby!

Yup - I'm pregnant. Tim and I are going to be parents! My estimated due date is August 3rd.

I tell ya - it's been really hard keeping the secret for this long. We found out November 30th. Although I had a pretty good feeling the night of the 29th after peeing on a stick and seeing a faint second line. So I peed on another stick the morning of the 30th, saw a stronger second line, went to my doctor later that day and after peeing in a cup for them, the lab confirmed the good news. Peeing is something that comes rather easily for me these days. I can do it at the drop of a hat. I'm told this symptom will return in spades in my 3rd trimester.

We told our parents and siblings right away and swore them to secrecy. This will be the first grandchild for my Mom and Dad but they stood fast and said not a word to anyone. Christmas is when we let the rest of the family know, and after that I just couldn't contain myself any longer so New Year's Eve we broke down and told our close friends even though we had fully intended to wait until the proper passing of the first-trimester milestone before announcing to anyone outside the family. Hey - we were excited!

Since then it's just started coming out where-ever/whenever... when I went to get my hair done, I told my hairdresser. When I went to get a facial I told my facial technician. When I went to get Tim a coffee and the coffee lady asked if anything was new and exciting, I told her. I have to admit - I'm having a good time spreading the word ;-)

Here's some more random info.

Tim and Heather's Baby FAQ

Q: When is it due?
A: Estimated due date is August 3rd.

Q: Was this planned?
A: Absolutely. And very carefully I might add. I am a PM.

Q: Are you [ excited | nervous | scared | thrilled | * ]
A: Totally.

Q: Will you find out the gender in advance?
A: Yes.

Q: Is there just one?
A: Yes.

Q: Have you had any morning sickness or weird cravings?
A: Not really. I stopped being able to eat bananas or anything that smells like them, because the smell does make me feel icky. That's new. So no more "banana nut crunch" cereal for me in the morning. Other than that, as long as my stomach isn't completely empty, I feel fine. I was hungry a lot. In the very very early stages I was absolutely ravenous all the time.

Q: Will you be in your new house by the time the baby arrives?
A: Yup. Err... well... we sure hope so. We'll definitely be in by the estimated due date (Right George? Josh? ;-)). But if she or he comes early, well... all bets are off then and things could get very interesting ;-)

Q: Have you picked out names yet?
A: We've started thinking about it. It's much easier of course when you've eliminated one of the genders :-) I've got a whole other blog entry devoted to naming - so check back soon :-)

Q: Will the baby be both Canadian and American?
A: Yes. We'll have to fill out some paperwork for the Canadian citizenship, but yup, he or she will be a dual citizen for life.

Anyway, to contain myself to this point I've been squirreling away draft blog entries. But now that we've let the cat out of the bag, I'll start publishing them. Stay tuned! And in the meantime, check out our first baby pictures:

Little blurry baby spot at 6 weeks
Slightly larger blurry baby spot at 7 weeks
Baby at 11 weeks, 5 days. We were able to see a very distinguishable head, arms, legs, hands and feet! Cute, huh ;-)