Brrr

What a cold day! Just went out to get some wood, and it felt pretty chilly. Though the temp gauge assures me it's only -13 or so outside...

Not much new happening here. Days are flying by at a very fast pace. Bunny is growing, and she seems to be changing every day. I find it hard sometimes to keep up with her changes, things that work for her one day may not work the next... But she's still a great kid, sleeping well at night, now smiling at our crazy antics.

I try to keep somewhat busy, giving myself tasks for every day. On top of the mountain of laundry (I will have to post a picture of our "diaper trees": clothes racks with drying diapers), I try to get some cooking or cleaning or organizing done. On the days where we don't have any outings that is :) Bunny is sleeping less and less during the day, which is a really good thing as it gets her to interact with the world a lot more, but on the other hand it leaves me with less time to do my daily tasks. It's kind of hard (not to mention dangerous) to be stoking a fire with an infant in your hands, so I try to avoid it!

The picture at the top of the post is of an owl we saw in our back yard a few weeks ago (mentioned in Bunny's blog). I took the picture through our kitchen window, and the owl turned to look at me when I turned the camera on. She could hear that odd sound through our window - what phenomenal hearing!

No other news in this cozy corner of the world. I keep having lots of thoughts for posts, but never enough actual time/concentration to be able to write them all. In time I hope to get more organized, so that I can carve out some blogging time for myself during the week. At least I am now feeling more like myself, as the first 6 weeks postpartum felt like I was walking in a bit of a haze...

Hiatus

Well, maybe not quite a hiatus, but I may post a little less often. I'll be spending more of my time on the Bunny-Rabbit blog. Anything non Bunny related will be on here, but all baby stuff will go to the new blog.

I'll be seeing you over there!

Updates

Taking advantage of a good connection today, I am posting a more recent picture of the Bunny Rabbit - isn't she cute? And yes, we finally have a name for her, but I'm not going to use it on the blog; I'll just stick with BR, short for Bunny Rabbit.

I cannot believe that January is pretty much over; where did the time go? BR is going to be 4 weeks old on Monday! She's already so different from the newborn that first arrived here. But still the little angel! I really cannot complain about her:

• she sleeps lots, and will go 6 hours between feedings at night, giving me a chance to get some much needed uninterrupted sleep.
• she never cries without a reason; even when it seems like she's just being fussy, it usually that she needs a burp, or having some trouble with gas.
• she falls asleep on her own in her crib, and has done so from day 1; she doesn't do it every time, sometimes she needs some carrying around first, but most of the time she will eventually go to sleep in the crib without too much hassle.
• she loves music and singing, and will pretty much always pay attention if you sing to her
• she is patient and doesn't get frustrated easily, which was put to the test when we were learning the whole breastfeeding thing (still not 100% there, but we're getting much better at it); if we can't get the right latch, she will try again and again and again without any fuss.

warning - the next paragraph contains graphic descriptions not for the faint of heart; if you're squeamish, you may want to skip the rest of this post

There is one thing about BR that she would not want you know (but mean Mommy that I am, I will put it in my blog): she is a prolific, explosive pooper. She can poop long distance: when being changed on the bed, she can launch one right onto Mom's pants, missing the bed completely. She's even managed to shoot poop right into my bra (inside the cup), I still can't get over that one! The books always say to treat an undiapered baby as armed and dangerous, and it's so very true with this one! She has also on occasion managed to create a fountain of pee, but in general the peeing is containable, even without a diaper on (lucky for us she's a girl). So diaper changes are always an interesting time :)

Labour story

Ok, so as promised, here's the labour and delivery story.

First of all, let me preface this by explaining my birthing philosophy going in. I wanted the most natural birth possible, which is why I went with midwives. I was hoping to be able to find a good position to handle the contractions, and to not deliver reclined in bed (to prevent tearing). I was determined not to have an epidural, because I wanted to experience the whole thing (plus I also wanted to spare the baby from drugs). Well, that all turned out to be wishful thinking...

So it all started Friday night. I started getting serious contractions, though in no particular pattern. But it got me thinking that labour was coming soon. So on Saturday, we went out to get some spicy food, just to help things along. Well, most of Saturday the contractions were quiet, but overnight they became steady and regular, 10 minutes apart. Needless to say, I didn't get very much sleep that night at all. DH actually slept in the guest bed, because I was tossing and turning so much I was keeping him up (and we thought it would be a good idea if at least one of us got some rest). Again, in the morning the contractions slowed down a little, only to intensify and become more regular and closer together in the afternoon. I called my Mom to let her know that we would most likely be going to the hospital that night. She grabbed her bags and headed to Ottawa.

When we reached the "5 minutes apart, 1 minute long, sustained for 1 hour" mark, we called the midwives. By the time the midwives showed up, my Mom was already here. A quick examination showed that I was 3cm dilated, so we decided to head to the hospital (this was around 8pm).

The delivery room in the hospital was really nice, and it actually felt pretty cozy. My labour progressed nicely, and a few hours later I was at 6cm dilation. Things looked pretty good :) The contractions were gettting harder and harder, though still 5 minutes apart. I was using the birthing ball to get through the contractions, holding on to the bed rail and rolling around. Apparently, even though the brake was on the bed, I managed to move it a bit (and noone was able to move it back). By that time I was pretty tired, so I don't remember all that much detail. But basically, at the next check a few hours later, I hadn't dilated any more, still at 6cms. The midwives were checking me every few hours, and the verdict was always the same: still 6cms. They tried breaking the waters. Still nothing. They gave me some oxytocin to stimulate the contractions. Still nothing. At this point I was definitely exhausted and completely discouraged. The official status at around 5am: stalled labour. The recommended solution: epidural + more oxytocin. Which meant a transfer of care from the midwives to the OBGYN on duty.

And so the anesthesiologist came in and administered the epidural (during a contraction I might add - and he insisted I sit still). I lay down and basically dozed on and off while the nurse played around with the oxytocin dosage trying to get me to have the right amount of contractions for optimal dilation. A few hours later, good news: I was finally fully dilated. So now all I needed to do was push. Ha! Easy enough to say. Because of the epidural, I didn't really feel my contractions, so I had no idea when to push. I had a contraction detector thingy strapped to my belly, but it wasn't working all that well, so we were all guessing at when the contractions were happening. Also, they still needed to play with the oxytocin dosage, because the contractions were not even regular or close together. It was very confusing.

To make matters worse, the baby heartrate monitor was showing that every time I pushed, the baby's heart would slow down to a crawl. I can tell you, through the fog of exhaustion and drugs, that was one thing I was keenly aware of. I kept gulping on oxygen, because I noticed that that would bring the baby's heartrate back up faster.

So here I am, lying on my back, with Mom, midwives, nurse and sometimes the OBGYN, with numerous liquids dripping into my IV, the monitors beeping, baby heartrate dropping... For 2.5 hours I was pushing, all the while expecting to be whisked away for an emergency C-section. Luckily, though, in the end the baby's head emerged, with umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (same thing happened when I was born!). The clamped and cut the cord, baby slipped out, and there was silence. Immediately I froze, not daring think anything. Luckily a few seconds later, the baby let out a strong cry. She was doing so well, that they immediately put her on my chest - and at that point, the whole ordeal seemed so worth it. Who cares I didn't get my dreamed labour and delivery - I got such a precious, beautiful, healthy daughter out of the deal!

And that's when they told me that they would have to put stitches in, because I had a third degree tear. Of course I didn't feel any of it because of the epidural. But it was a bad one. I only know I got "lots and lots" of stitches, no actual count. They're starting to heal now, but they have been a major pain, and the reason for my prescribed bedrest.

So that's the labour/delivery story. Not the hippy, tree-hugging story I was hoping for, but it's certainly an experience I will never forget. I was very lucky to have my Mom there the whole time, she really provided me with lots of support, and having DH at my side for most of it made it even easier to handle. It's hard not to overanalyze and play the "what if" game trying to figure out if I could have avoided any of the interventions. But it is what it is, and I figure it's time to move on. Next challenge: getting breastfeeding right.

Baby pics

I started composing this a few days ago, but it never got posted. Posting it as is :)




Here are the first tiny pictures I have of our little bundle of joy. She's really changing from one day to the next, so I'll have to post something more recent soon.

She's really a sweetheart! Sleeps lots, feeds pretty well and overall seems to have a sunny disposition. Of course, for the last 6 nights, she had her aunts take care of her (carrying, rocking, singing, comforting etc) for the first half of the night, when she seems to be the most cranky/uncomfortable. Now that my family has gone back to Montreal and it's just DH and me, we'll see how I feel about her temperament after tonight :)

Because I've been on bedrest, it's been invaluable help to have my family around for the last few days. They've handled pretty much all of the diaper changes and carrying/rocking duties while I was catching up on sleep whenever possible. My only responsibilities have been the feedings. It's been really good for my recovery, but it's been hard at times not being the one to respond to my baby's cries... Now that it's just DH and me, and I'm feeling better every day, I am looking forward to doing more of the work around here :)

It's a girl

We had a little baby girl on Monday January 7th, 2008 at 12:30. She weighed 7lb 11oz, and measured 56cms. I'll have to do another post about the labour and delivery, probably once my proscribed bed rest is over (i.e. this weekend). We still haven't come up with a name that we can both agree on (sad I know), although I feel we're getting closer.

Thankfully my Mom and sister are here to help for the rest of the week. I have only changed a handful of diapers so far :) But I am really looking forward to being off bed rest for sure.

Baby crying now, gotta go.

No news is good news

Still no news here, baby safely tucked inside and not really interested in moving out yet. Well, that may not be completely true. Today I think I've started what they now call early labour, but used to be called false labour. Erratic painful contractions that pop up from time to time, but nothing to get alarmed by. Of course, the great knowledgeable web tells me that this can go on for days, and in first pregnancies even for weeks before the real thing happens. I guess we'll see :)

In the meantime, I thought I'd compile a list of pregnancy things, while I'm still pregnant :)

My favourite things about pregnancy:

1. Carrying a whole other being inside me - it's been so much fun to be able to see/feel all the different baby parts moving around in there (especially that foot that's been stuck on the left side of my belly, right under the ribs).
   
2. Never being truly alone - I always have someone to talk to :)
3. Feeling healthier than ever - I barely even had a cold the whole 9 months!
   
4. Being able to eat whatever I feel like without any worries
5. Having unusually healthy food preferences: I've been eating more fruits and veggies than I've ever had, and all of it just because that's what I feel like eating - weird but good!
6. So many cute pregnancy outfits out there these days (though to be honest I've only bought a handful of things for the pregnancy, got a whole batch of clothes from a friend and for the rest I improvised with my existing clothes... but at least I knew there were lots of options out there)
7. The hormonal shift - after everything I'd read about pregnancy, I was worried about the mood swings and all that stuff - but it turned out that I had in fact less mood swings than normal. No PMS - gotta be a good thing!
8. People are very nice to pregnant ladies - you get a lot more smiles and offers of help.
9. And of course the cherry on top of the sundae: the promise of meeting the small bundle of joy at the end of it all.
   

And now for the things I don't like about pregnancy:

1. The worrying... I spent the first trimester worrying about miscarriage, and most of the last one worrying about premature birth and wondering about any new symptom that came up. Luckily I managed to keep most of the worrying in check, but it's still no fun...
2. Having to avoid certain foods and medications - especially when my eczema started flaring up with the arrival of winter, it would have been nice to be able to use a stronger cream to get rid of it or at least calm it down. Red itchy hands are never much fun...
3. All the questions, comments and advice that you get from people with strong opinions: "You must do this", "You can't do that", "Make sure you never" etc... I find it intimidating sometimes to have so many people interested in what's happening in my life. I can't imagine how draining that could be for someone who's an introvert! Though I have to admit it hasn't been bad at all, I've only had a handful of those overwhelming experiences.

Can't really thing of many more bad things... Of course the nausea, heartburn, back aches etc... are annoying, but overall I've had it really good when it comes to the usual pregnancy ailments, I really cannot complain.

As you can see from the list, the good outweighs the bad by a long shot. I guess it's been a really good pregnancy. My MIL is suggesting I should have 10 kids, since it seems to agree with me... We'll see about that ;) Let's see how I do with labour first...

Next post may have some more news!

Happy New Year!

So the new year has arrived. And with the new year, the due date for the baby. But apparently, the baby is in no hurry at all to come out and meet us. I went to see the midwife today, and after examining me, she said it doesn't look like I'm going to be giving birth in the next few days... Maybe sometime next week.

I don't really mind, as I am still quite enjoying the whole pregnancy thing, and having the house to myself all day :) But I'd rather not have to have an induction or any other interventions if at all possible. So I guess I will have to start washing floors or something to get the whole show going. I've also been wondering if maybe the baby is waiting to reach a certain weight (still seems pretty small to me, but that's just a gut feel), so I've been eating like a pig trying to get her/him to fatten up ;) Not sure about the validity of my assumptions, but I am enjoying snacking all day on whatever I can find in the fridge. Luckily it's still pretty well stocked with lots of food choices. I still find it pretty unbelievable that with the amount of food I am consuming, I haven't put on more than 2 pounds in the last month. How is that even possible? The baby does seem to be growing, though, making it harder and harder for her/him to move around. The poor thing is pretty much stuck in one position with the left foot almost permanently sticking out on the side of my belly (some find it cute, some find it creepy). I figure soon enough (s)he will have to get tired of being stuck like this, and decide to come out.

In the meantime, I'm just going to keep cleaning around the house and thinking positive thoughts of impending birth. Fingers and toes crossed :)

Goodbye 2007

And so the last day of 2007 has arrived. Where does the time go??? I had a really nice Christmas season, with lots of gifts for the baby-to-be, great food and lots of leftovers (no need to cook for the whole week and a half!), and good times with family. My folks and middle sister had to leave to go back to work, but my younger sister stayed at our place until Saturday, and we watched the first season of Heroes that we borrowed from a friend.

And now DH is back at work, and I'm trying to figure out if the baby is interested in coming out to meet us anytime soon. I've been having lots and lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions for the last few months, getting more and more regular and longer lasting (ok, that may be a little TMI), but I am assuming that the real contractions will be a little more on the painful side and that I'll know when it's time to head for the hospital... The midwife was really hoping for a new year's baby, and while it's still possible, the likelihood of it is dropping with every passing hour today. Although apparently my grandmother has decreed that she sees a speedy and easy childbirth experience for me, and she "knows those things". Obviously, I am very tempted to believe her :)

I don't really have many preferences for the date of birth of the baby. As cliche as it sounds, I'm just hoping for a healthy and happy baby. I'm really looking forward to meeting her/him, so in a way earlier is better, but on the other hand it's not like I'm super uncomfortable and want to get this pregnancy over with. In fact, I am convinced that I will miss being pregnant quite a bit. I always thought that 9 months was a long time, but it's gone so fast, I feel like I barely had the time to properly enjoy it :) Though I am very grateful for being off work for the last month and getting a chance to relax and hang out, just my huge belly and me...

Update

Well, the car was thoroughly checked out, and it appears completely ok. After thawing, there's not even a scratch on the bumper or anything. I guess it's really a good thing I was going so slow, the impact into the cushy snow was minimal. We've driven the car for over 200kms now (and I've even managed to drive by the ditch in question without too much stress), so I think we can safely assume no harm was done.

My sisters have arrived last night to help us prepare for the Christmas festivities. We have a big day of cooking ahead of us: we need to make some breads (gluten-free for the middle sis), our big fancy salad (the cornerstone of the Christmas Eve meal for this family), borscht, cheesecake, and a few more smaller dishes. Luckily my Mom back in Montreal is taking care of the major food prep, all the main dishes and fish stuff... I am getting hungry just thinking about the big feast :)

Tomorrow we set up and decorate the Christmas tree, finish up some last minute preparations, set the table and wait for DH to get back from work and my parents to come up from Montreal. And then we eat (and eat and eat), and open up presents and sing carols and celebrate. Or at least that's the way it's supposed to work in theory. We'll see how things transpire ;)

Time to google some more gluten-free bread recipes...

I ditched the car - eek

Ok, so last night I composed this whole post about the events of the evening, but I wasn't connected, so I saved it to a file (or at least so I thought). It appears there is no such file, so I have to tell you the story again.

So here it goes: I was heading downtown to go pick up DH to go out for supper with friends. Another 5 cms or so of snow had fallen, so our street was one big sheet of whiteness. I was driving along, when all of a sudden my right wheels caught the edge of the street (just snow packed to be level with the street I guess), and all of a sudden I lost the steering, and thump, I ended up in the ditch. I had never ever been in the ditch, and I'm thinking 8 months pregnant is probably not a good time to start...

The luck in the whole situation was that this part of the ditch is right in front of the last house on our street, and this is where our mechanic lives. The whole family was very nice to me, they let me use the phone to call CAA (after first ensuring that there was no way they could pull me out with just their truck), drove me home, and took care of the car when the tow truck came. DH had to take the bus + walk home (2 hour commute). Luckily, it looks like the car sustained no damage, the mechanic put it in his garage overnight and will give it a good look-over this morning. There was so much snow in the ditch, and I was going slow enough, that it was basically like hitting a huge fluffy pillow :)

Unfortunately, I have no pictures for you. It was quite a sight to see, I assure you, but once I'd made it home, I just sat down trying to relax and calm down, as I really didn't want to go into labour with no car, no DH and all that...

Anyway, all is well that ends well, everyone is now safe and sound, and I should hear about the state of the car very soon. I am so grateful for having such great neighbours!

On holidays

So I've now been off work for a week and a half. I had thought (naively?), that being home, with no baby to take care of and only a small amount of chores, I would have lots of time on my hands for relaxing and posting on the blog and the like. Boy, was I wrong... Honestly, I don't even know where the time goes! Well, ok, so we had a dinner party last Friday that I took a few days to prepare for, then last night my choir had a small concert. And then there is that whole snow dump we got over the weekend - over 35 centimeters of snow fell down on the city of Ottawa, and our backyard looks like a winter wonderland. This is the third snow storm this season, and winter hasn't even officially begun yet! Here's a picture of our deck, all ready for Christmas:


Unfortunately they are now predicting rain for the weekend, so all the beautiful snow might get ruined!

So aside from the Christmas prep, cleaning the house, shopping for presents, and getting the nursery ready, I haven't really been up to much. I've been reading a book called "The Aware Baby", about a parenting "method" that sounds kind of neat. The whole premise of the book is that babies (and to a certain extent children as well) sometimes need a good cry to release tension or get over some trauma. The trauma may even include birth (I'm not too sure I buy this one). In any case, the book tries to explain how to sympathize with the child by being there when they're crying (to give them comfort and support) without trying to distract them or pacify them with food or toys... I'm not sure I buy the whole concept, but I can see where they're coming from. After all, who hasn't felt the need for a good cry from time to time, just to release all the stress and tension and feel 100% better afterwards? Though there's still a big distance between understanding/accepting the concept, and putting it to actual use. For that, we'll have to wait for baby's arrival :)

On the one hand, I just can't wait to have the little one here. On the other hand, I think I am really going to miss being pregnant. I love feeling her/him move around inside me, and all those moments when I just realize "hey, cool, I am pregnant". It's kind of weird, I always thought that I when you're pregnant, you are constantly aware of your state of pregnancy, but for me, I don't even think of it most of the time. I am just me, and I still get shocked every time I see my reflection in the mirror or a window or something. Where did that belly come from? It's kinda funny. DH says that pregnancy just is a natural extension of who I am, and because it is so seamless, it doesn't feel out of the ordinary, and so I just feel like myself. Maybe he's right (happens sometimes!) :)

Looks like this post is a pretty fair and accurate reflection of my days at home: a little all over the place, random thoughts, and lots of pondering on my imminent transition from preggo-lady to motherhood...

Kick in the gonads

So this weekend another friend announced she'd just had a miscarriage. It was pretty early on, not too too many people knew about the pregnancy in the first place, and she seems to be taking it amazingly well. In fact, she seems less bothered by the whole thing than I am. She is one strong and determined woman that's for sure...

So why is it that I seem to know way fewer women NOT affected by miscarriage than ones who are? Sure, most of us are not in our twenties anymore, so not exactly at the peak of our fertility (unlike, oh, say Britney), but still... If I started counting miscarriages vs successful pregnancies amongst the people I know (keeping in mind that most people will keep such struggles private), and not even going into the tragic stillbirths, I get stats that are worse than the 50% "worst case" that I've read. So is it something in the water??? Is our pace of life just too fast? I don't know, it just seems so annoyingly unfair.

No one really tells you about this (well, at least no one told me!). I guess we don't want to dwell on the less pleasant aspects of life. And luckily nowadays we have plenty of groups and blogs where one can find support and understanding. But still, it's so frustrating to hear the sad news again and again. And it's doubly frustrating to have clueless people making stupid comments ("isn't it about time you started thinking about children?"), or not understanding why one would be tentative when one actually gets pregnant.

Ok, that's probably enough of a rant for one day. I probably shouldn't get too worked up in my "condition" ;)

Last few days at work

Ok, as a counterpoint to the rant, here's a lighter post for today.

So with the arrival of December, I have accrued a little more vacation, that I have to take before my leave or lose it (can't carry vacation days from 2007 to 2009). The funny thing: I officially have 14.38 hours, or 1.92 days. This is the beauty of our new hour-based vacation accounting system... Not sure how I'm going to take that .92 day off. The awesome thing, though, is that I have to take this time off this week (the rest of the year is already booked off on vacation). So I am pretty sure I'm taking Friday off, and Thursday afternoon, and maybe tomorrow morning too. Which leaves me with very little time for work, not that I'm complaining ;)

I was kind of hoping that I would spend the week cleaning out my desk, setting up out of office reminders, finishing transitioning stuff to coworkers, and doing general cleanup like that. Unfortunately, there's still some actual work that's managed to find itself on my plate... Luckily, though, it's a lot less hectic than it's been over the last few weeks. Which is good, because baby is really kicking up a storm most of the time, making it harder and harder to concentrate.

I only have 70 work items that I have to distribute amongst the 3 people that are staying in my area after I leave. How long can that possibly take? I am hoping less than 2 days :)

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 :)

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.

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:

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.

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 ;)

Summary

[Blogspot appears to have swallowed the original version of this post, so I am reposting it today, even though I wrote the whole thing last week. Sigh]

Just a quick one to summarize some of the events of the last week. We seem to be pretty busy lately, and I keep meaning to sit down and write a good post (I have a few running around in my head), but it might have to wait...

In health news, FIL started his radiation therapy, and so far things seem to be going ok. He hasn't started losing his hair or anything like that, and it doesn't seem to affect him physically too much. He's made of strong stuff, that's for sure. We're hoping to go visit him one of the weekends in November (can't believe October is almost over!), so that should be nice. We'll see how well I handle a trip to London ON in the third trimester ;)

In other health news MIL got her gallbladder out. Sounds like she did very well, was in and out pretty quickly and handled the anesthesia very well. It'll be nice for her not to have the gallbladder attacks anymore, as those seemed to be really painful and disruptive.

In other news, we finally acquired a crib on the weekend. I'd been looking in the classifieds for months now, without much luck. I was getting a little worried that I wouldn't find one until December or something, when I'll be too awkward to assemble it ;) But finally I found the right crib at the right price, It's all white, so it will fit with the rest of the furniture no problem, It's in pieces in the garage right now, and hopefully we can get a chance to assemble it this weekend. I've also acquired a rocking chair, to hopefully help with the feeding and putting baby to sleep (I'm hoping it will go to sleep at some point :S). So the baby room is finally taking shape :)

On the weekend we've also spent some time cleaning up the Probe to get it into showable state. We've posted it for sale, we'll see if we get any interest. It's hard to say goodbye, but we sure don't need three cars! That would be a little silly.