Friday, November 30, 2007

Last pre-natal class

Last night was our last pre-natal class. I'm a bit surprised at how wistful I got thinking that it was the final class. I will miss seeing the other couples, and the instructors, and the plastic baby dolls they made us use for practice. It's hard to believe that 6 weeks have already gone by since we started the classes. It seemed like such a long time when I first registered us...

Last night we were all given a little baby doll for breastfeeding practice (even the guys, I guess so that they wouldn't feel left out). I have to say, DH looked really sweet with the tiny little baby girl snuggled up against him. I know I am biaised, but I think he looked the best of all the dads-to-be there. He's the only one of the group that I would entrust with my baby :) Ok, there was one other guy that looked like he was bonding well with his baby doll - maybe I'd let him hold my newborn for a few minutes...

Of course if you told DH I said that, I'm sure he would deny the whole thing. So we'll have to keep it just between us :)

Sunday, November 25, 2007

The end of an era

Friday marked a momentous occasion: the Probe has officially moved on to a new home. After the huge snow dump, I cleaned off the mountain of snow, and then drove all the way to Orleans to deliver it to the new owner. He works at a Ford dealership, and is an apprentice mechanic, so he has easy access to parts and schematics. And he's planning to restore the car over the winter in his brand new garage. He's already booked the shop in the spring to give the car a new coat of paint.



Needless to say, DH is pretty happy to see his beloved car go to someone who will care well for it and restore it nicely. He even promised to send us pictures when the car is all fixed up. Still, it was hard to say goodbye when the time came, and the license plates were removed.



Friday, November 23, 2007

Snow is here

So for the last three days, we've woken up to this sight:



We've been getting snow dump after snow dump. Luckily it's still mild, so we get all the prettiness of winter without the chilliness. The drive in to work is pretty nice now, with the snow covered trees and deer at the side of the road. Also when our street is covered in snow we don't get as much dirt or as many potholes, so it's a much smoother and more pleasant drive. And with the snow tires on the Audi with quattro, you can barely notice the slipperiness (in fact, I have to remind myself to drive slower, because I know my stopping distance is increased, even though I don't get a feel for it - car drives like it's the middle of summer).

Today is Friday, but I've taken a day off work to just lounge around the house and get a few things done. Things aren't progressing as quickly as I had hoped on the baby stuff acquisition front (read: I've been really procrastinating on getting a car seat and "transport system"), but the baby's room is pretty much ready. Here's a picture to give you an idea of what it looks like for now:



And just because, the latest picture of my ever-expanding belly:

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Pregnancy update...

Hate to be boring and repetitive, but work's been pretty busy and hectic lately. And our weekends and weekday evenings seem to be full all the time as well. As a result, blog posts seem to be scarce. I keep thinking of posting, so in my head it doesn't feel like it's been a week since the last post. Oh well, three more weeks of work and then I'll be at home, and able to post on my puny 56k connection (I suspect the picture content may go down even more).

As far as the pregnancy goes, I really cannot complain. The hypochondriac in me keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far so good. Early on, when I started getting nauseous, I was mentally preparing myself for months of torment, but a few dietary adjustments (eat less, more often) really seemed to help, and in the end I only had a handful of "morning" sickness episodes (can't believe my luck on that one). In the second trimester, when I started getting some lower back pain, I thought "here we go, brace yourself for 6 months of discomfort and pain". But once I stopped wearing heels, it turned out that the change in posture really helped, and my back has been pain free ever since (again, so darn lucky!). I keep waiting for the discomfort of the third trimester I've heard so much about, to set in. So far so good. Though I have to admit that I have slowed down a bit. I notice mentally I am not as alert as I used to be, especially when it comes to multitasking at work. Also, climbing up the stairs at work, I've lost some of the spring in my step (which is probably good, as my coworkers were starting to make fun of me bouncing up and down the stairs) :)

The flip side of all of this is that, believe it or not, I still don't remember that I'm pregnant most of the time. When I go see my Junior Achievement company, I am always amazed when the kids offer me a chair to sit on, or when they offer to carry my bags or something. It usually takes me 10 or 15 seconds to remember - oh yeah, I have that big belly that makes me look unbalanced, uncomfortable and fragile... You would think after 7 months of pregnancy I would actually remember at all times that I am, indeed, pregnant. Maybe I just have too many things going on and occupying my brain, so that I never fully embrace my state of expectantness.

What's keeping me so busy? Let's see... Two weekends ago we went to Montreal to visit with my family and celebrate my sister's and DH's namedays, as per the Polish custom. Last weekend we went to London to visit FIL, who is in the last days of radiation therapy, and doing pretty well, too. He's starting to lose his hair, but he's been eating well, and putting on weight, and overall he's looking not too shabby... He seems to be in good spirits too, so that's nice to see. We definitely won't be going to see him again any time soon, because the 7-8 hour trip is becoming a little too taxing for me, and once the winter hits, it's pretty iffy to go there and back on a weekend.

Other than that, I'm still doing the Junior Achievement thing on Mondays, going to my choir on Tuesdays, prenatal classes on Thursdays. Makes for full weeks, and time is just flying by! Halfway through November, December is just around the corner. I'm really looking forward to being home for most of December, preparing for the holidays and for the arrival of the little bundle of joy...

But first I have to get through the next few weeks at work. Delegate, delegate, that's my motto these days.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Long time no post

I've been slacking on the blog front. My only excuse is an enormous mountain of stuff to do at work. I've been doing my best to not let it stress me out too much, but I have been a busy bee... On the home front, we've bought and assembled a crib, and with the addition of the rocking chair, the baby's room is really taking shape. Pictures to come very soon!

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Montreal to see my family, and this coming weekend we're heading to London, ON, to see my FIL. Seems like we're on the road a lot lately... And we still haven't sold the Probe, although there seems to be some interest in it out there. We've had two offers so far, we'll see if either of them will pull through.

Junior Achievement has started again as well, our company this year is called MAGICC, and we're making greeting cards and calendars. We had a few hiccups at the start, so we've fallen a little behind, but we're starting to catch up and we have a great production line all set up. The cards that the achievers designed are really pretty!


Aside from that, not much is new. Belly growing well, the baby has already turned head down, so we hope it stays that way. Now I get the wonderful pleasure of getting kicked in the ribs with impressive regularity. This kid has got the beat! I'm starting to get a little more tired overall, but seeing as I am starting the 8th month, I guess that's not so surprising. Only 1 month of work left, though, so that's pretty exciting ;)