False Alarm - sort of (38+5)

Hello again blogging world.

I just wanted to give a quick little update - My uterus is still contracting - however, very mildly and irregularly. I'm not anticipating a July 8th baby - actually I'm not even anticipating a baby this weekend (although I am still hoping!) Who knows, maybe something exciting will happen. But I'll keep you in the know!

Take care,
Beth

Nearing an end.. I hope (38weeks and 4 days)

Hello Blogworld.

Augh - ooooh - eeeeeeik - breathe. So I'm contracting - irregularly and they go away sometimes and then they come back - and then leave again. And then are more intense - then less intense. Then it's just crampy and then it's my whole stomach (uterus) is hard as a rock. Ahh - early labour. Could last another week - god forbid - contractions could stop altogether- could have a baby tomorrow?? While my ob/gyn is on call... Please??

I'll keep you in the know.
Beth

Happy Canada Day - No June baby for me. (37+5weeks)

Happy Canada Day Blogging world.

How are you planning on spending Canada Day today? Ottawa is funny in that the whole city literally shuts down - it's so weird. Driving on the outskirts is like driving on a Sunday morning at 7am - the roads are deserted; however, as you start heading downtown the festivities really pick up. And I mean REALLY pick up. The government posts and map on their website which lets you know which roads are closed downtown and really the best way to get anywhere is the bus or the O-Train. So this is actually only my second Canada Day in Ottawa (besides a couple when I was younger - which I'm not sure even happened.) Last year we spent it with my cousin and it was a little bit crazy. We left from her house with literally 7 minutes to get to the fireworks (we are at least 13 minutes away) and I was nominated driver (for a few reasons) and we made it there with 2 minutes to spare - and it wasn't because traffic was light. Anyway we parked and were running through the downtown streets of Ottawa watching the fireworks off the reflections of the glass windows. It was pretty neat. We made it for the "grand finale" which wasn't that grand (probably had something to do with the recession.) Anyway, it was a good Canada Day. This year my cousin and her boyfriend have gone off to the cottage for the weekend and I have a feeling this year's Canada Day will be significantly more low key than last years. We're going to head down to Parliament during the day and watch some live music and see the Snowbirds and CF-18s. I think we'll just spend some of the day downtown - I'm not sure if we're going to go back for the fireworks - and I can tell you right now I am NOT spending from noon until 10pm downtown. Hecks no. Also Eric picked himself up a steak last night and I grabbed some halibut so that we can have a nice "Canada Day Dinner" using the BBQ - which we have used almost every day since purchasing (great buy - so far!)

Alright, so I managed to keep the first half of this blog baby free, but since the blog is really about baby (or at least that's why I started writing the blog) I feel as though I should fill you in on the last few days. So as you know I am term now (woot woot) actually I'm 37 + 5 weeks today - if some of you choose to take the time to do that math you will realize that I've lost (or baby has lost) 2 days in gestation. You would be right. My due date based on dates was July 16th and my due date based on the first ultrasound was July 17th - and they go with the first ultrasound - which is fine. But I for whatever reason kept calculating things with the girls at work who are all pregnant and there "switch day" is Thursday (today) so they are all either 32 weeks, 37 weeks or 33 weeks today, so it was easy to just say I was 38 weeks. BUT I'm not really - I'm a poser. Not the point of the story. Anyway - in my last post there was all this hope and desire to be in labour by now (which I'm severely not - I have a very severe case of "Not being in labour") which is fine - as I cry myself to sleep. Anyway, I was really set that I was going to have this baby in June. Which is now absolutely impossible (regardless of what place in the world you are) and that's okay - now I'm aiming for July. Dad suggested I aimed for August, but I don't think he fully understood that the desire of June was that it was SOONER than July. I still love him - even if he doesn't quite get it. One of the nurses who I worked with figured I would have the baby come Friday. I think she's wrong now. You need SOME form of contractions and my uterus just really isn't committing. So to say the least I was a little upset the day before yesterday when nothing was going on - especially because I was doing everything you're supposed to do to induce labour (and more) and nothing happened. Which could be because it's not actually my due date yet. Still not the point. I was walking, biking, climbing stairs, eating pineapple, hot bath taking, yoga-ing, dancing, hula hooping, jumping, breast pumping (owww...), raspberry leaf tea drinking, and several more things that just didn't seem to cut it. So this baby is comfortable and as my dad has said "this baby will come on it's birthday" AUGH. Eric used that line this morning and I almost hit him (love you babe). So due to my disappointment that there is no baby yet I have made a list of reasons why it's better to still have the baby on the inside:

Reasons why it's better to have the baby inside instead of outside:

Leaving the house:

1) You only need to make sure one of you has peed/pooped before leaving

2) You only need to make sure one of you is fed before leaving

3) You only have 1 seatbelt to do up - and temperature in the vehicle is dependent on how you like it, not what keeps baby from crying - also you get to choose the tunes and don't need to play them so loud they drown out the cries of baby (just kidding)

4) Walking 2 dogs is easier when you don't need to push a stroller.

5) Running to the grocery store (okay waddling to the grocery store) is a 10 minute activity before baby, after baby - do you really need to eat?

Sleep:

1) You can at least ATTEMPT to sleep when you like where you like.

2) If you're on mat leave that can be any time at all.

3) When you do finally fall asleep you don't need to worry about that being EXACTLY when baby starts crying.

Showering:

1) You can do it with door the closed.

2) You can take as long as you want.

3) This points go for all bathroom activities actually.

Eating:

1) You can eat almost anything you want (obviously there are the issues if you have heartburn and stuff like that BUT the point is more or less you can have anything) after baby is born be prepared to cut out the foods that make him/her not enjoy your breastmilk or make the baby colicky (which was chocolate for my friend Jess's baby Adair - that sucks.)

2) You still have time to sit down and eat.

3) You can go out to eat and you generally get extra good service - actually that's another point service - while you're pregnant people hold doors open for you and are super friendly - after pregnancy - well I'm sure they would still hold the door open for you BUT you're probably out and about less.

Eric's contributions to my list:

1) Harder to break when it's on the inside.

2) Don't need to worry about losing it.

3) It doesn't poo (that he needs to clean)

Alright, that's my list so far. Pretty much for every day this baby stays in from this point forward I'll find something to add to my list. I don't want people to be confused and start whispering that I don't really want to have my baby - this is just my way of being less frustrated that I don't have the baby yet - I've spent the last 4 days trying to bring on labour - I'm just going to take a break from it for the weekend (as Eric has a nice long weekend) and resume activities and attempts come Monday (and I have a whole list of other possible tricks.)

On that note! Have a spectacular long weekend (for those of you who have one) enjoy Canada Day! If you don't have a long weekend - especially enjoy your normal length weekend!

As always,

Thanks for reading!!

I'm going to lose it.. (37+2, aka go time!)

Hello!

Just to not confuse anyone, it isn't ACTUALLY "go time" not just yet. I would LIKE it to be go time. But It's not. Give me another week (ideally not two, but you never know) and hopefully there will be a baby. BUT even then it could be another 4 weeks (which it wont be if I have ANYTHING at all to say about it.) So anyway, I'm term, or better yet baby is term. And what has been going on?

Well let me tell you:

1) the hospital bags are packed and at the front door. 1 for me and 1 for Eric and baby to share - we've packed a few things for Eric "just in case" he needs to meet me at the hospital from work instead of having the chance to go home and change, more importantly shower, first.

2) Nursery is all set up. I maintain it's not decorated, BUT all of the wonderful clothing I received from the lovely ladies at the Birthing Unit as well as the wonderful clothing from the guys and gals who made it to my surprise baby shower (thanks again mom and Jill) have been washed with Ivory Snow, and are not folded and put away according to size. Also the organic mattress pad and organic muslin sheet that I received have been washed and on the crib (which I know, I know wont be in use for awhile yet) Besides decorating and removing the plastic from the handles of the dresser and bookshelf the nursery is more or less ready to go. Okay, okay, I need to wash the windows, but I'm not going to lie, my mom has offered to do them so I'm going to wait and do windows with my mom when she comes!

3) Bottles, nipples, breast pump pieces and soothers have all been sterilized. Actually they're just drying right now and then they will be returned to their home. I'm not sure when I signed up for these things but I have 3 different kinds of formula - I don't plan on using formula. I plan to breastfeed and pump; however, somehow I have all of this formula. Maybe I'll feed it to Eric and try to fatten him up a little bit.

4) Car seat is in the car. It fits, but when we have baby number 2 we're going to need to buy a slightly bigger vehicle as it requires the front seat to be a little bit more forward than I like.

5) House relatively clean. I sometimes think Eric is working against me in cleaning the house. On that note I KNOW it's not his fault. He's not doing it on purpose. It confuses me a little what happened with him. He was sooooooo good at cleaning when we first got married. Actually he was better than any of the girls that lived in the house (and there were 4 of us at the time) and maybe it was cleaning up after all of us that made him decide he refused to clean, but ever since I've started doing shift work it has become my responsibility to clean the house on my days off. I refuse to clean the kitchen by myself though. When I was first pregnant I couldn't even go into the kitchen without being overwhelmed with nausea. I would gag and vomit and augh. So although it is "Eric's room to clean" It tends to only be cleaned when I am there gently reminding Eric it needs to be cleaned. Augh, I hate kitchens. Anyway, I'm lucky enough again to have a wonderful mother who has offered to help get the house better than "relatively" clean when she visits. I just had to agree to not using any "green products" to clean the home as she thinks they're crap... I'm not going to lie, I gave in in exchange for help cleaning my home.

6) EI applied for... sort of. I'm really fortunate in that I get a "top up" from my employer for the first 6 months of my maternity leave. It's not to 100% but it is still nice to be getting more than the 55% that EI pays out (which I'm also not complaining about - I'm getting paid 55% to be working 0% - okay deal.) So anyway, I thought it was smooth sailing until I was asked to provide my ROE from Magpie Jewellery. Do you think I have ANY clue where that is right now? No of course not. So I'm on the search. I may need to send a letter to Bathurst to get it, but this is all delaying me getting paid. I'm not super heart broken about the delay, I just want it all dealt with before baby is here so I don't need to deal with it then!

7) Too Much Information ALERT. TMI ALERT. (I'm giving everyone a head's up just in case you don't want to read woman body stuff - just skip #7 then). My cervix is very slightly opened. SLIGHTLY. Which is GREAT. It's better than being closed which is more common for a first time mom such as myself. AND baby's head is nice and low! SOOoooOOOoo what does this mean? Well really nothing unless I start having some regular contractions. I've been having some unpleasant Braxton Hicks but until I have some regular contractions, I don't think much is going to happen. BUT it is better than being closed at this stage in the game!!

So more or less I'm now just waiting for baby. Like I said before, I'm hoping sometime in the next week, but I know the odds of a first time mom going early. They're not super realistic. BUT here's to positive thinking and having a bunch of people crossing their fingers or praying for me (whichever they think is more valid.) SOOOoooOOo, if you're not too busy if you could just send some positive thoughts/energy out into the universe for me that I have this baby sooner rather than later I'd really appreciate it!

Father's Day (was yesterday) (36 weeks and 4 days)

Hello all!

So I just wanted to send out a message saying we did end up buying the Weber Genesis BBQ. It was a bit of a splurge, but we decided we could justify it after we saved the money we did on the baby furniture.
So there it is set up in our kitchen. Why is it set up in our kitchen? Well as much as I thought it was a safe place for it... (just kidding) we set it up inside, because our day went a little bit like this....

First thing in the morning we drove across the border (that would be the french border) and went and picked up a filing cabinet I found on UsedOttawa. I love Kijiji/Used Ottawa. Those sites. It was about 40 minutes away and out in cottage country. It was beautiful. My allergies went crazy. I have to admit that is my biggest complaint about being pregnant is that there is NOTHING I can do about my allergies. Luckily they haven't been TERRIBLE this year. But they do still suck.

Second we came back to the house and moved the heavy filing cabinet into the basement.

Then we called Home Depot to see if they had any of the BBQs we were interested in left... THey had 1 and couldn't hold it for us because they were doing 20% off yesterday. So we booked it down to HD (unfortunately it wasn't the one that is less than 2km away, it was one on the otherside of the city). So as we're walking into HD we see a very happy looking brown man walk out with a Weber Genesis, e-320 BBQ. My heart sank. Eric swears it was natural gas, but I KNOW it was Liquid Propane (which is what we needed) ANYWAY. We checked out their BBQ selection anyway, and lo behold they did still have 1 more left. So I guarded it while Eric went a looked for a sales associate to help get it down for us. While he was gone I stood their rubbing my belly giving people angry-hungry looks as they tried to come down the aisle towards MY (Eric's) BBQ. Anyway, to say the least most didn't come near me. So we got our BBQ brought it home with us. The box was super big and awkward and because I'm useless in the carrying department these days we decided to just put it in the driveway open the box and then move the pieces to the back. It worked out very well and everything was on the deck in no time. So we started away on building it (Eric started away on building it while I entertained the dogs). Anyway, first 4 screws are in and it just starts DOWNPOURING. I was starting to take this as a sign that maybe we shouldn't have bought the BBQ.. but there was the one left for us which then is sort of a sign that it was meant to be. ANyway, we moved everything into the kitchen and built the BBQ in the kitchen. Which is why Eric's BBQ is sitting in my kitchen in the picture. We then had Thai food for dinner. Yes yes, we should have used the BBQ but we will tonight - Salmon Steaks. YUMMY...

Anyway, that is all for now. Baby is still doing really well. I was starting to think he/she was going to be Eric's Father's Day gift because I seemed to have started contracting up a storm. Oh the joys or Braxton Hicks. 3 more days and then I'm term. So anywhere from 3 days to 4 weeks and 3 days... So we'll see. My mom was late with us, so I'm not holding my breath...

Take care blogging world! Hope all is well.
Beth

Change of Plans (36 weeks + 2 daus)

Hello Blogworld.

So today was Eric and my big "date day" where the plan had been to go to Montreal to see Cirque du Soleil, Totem and eat Thai food. Well we stayed in Ottawa instead. We decided last night we weren't going to go (and it's good we hadn't bought tickets already - we wanted to do it last minute you know "just in case") and it worked out well because I woke up not feeling so hot. So after spending a good chunk of the morning/early afternoon in bed we finally started a BBQ hunt and came up empty handed... BUT we do know what is out there. See I really want a BBQ because I assume we'll have a decent amount of company stopping in throughout the summer - so I would like to be able to say "Hey Dad - Can you take care of BBQing up dinner tonight" and not being responsible for dinner every now and again. Anyway, I want a Weber Genesis and Eric and I think it may be a little more than what we should spend on a BBQ and unfortunately when my mind is set on something nothing else will do. So it's either the Weber, or nothing at all.. so we're not getting anything (yet.)

So what else did we do? While Eric took some pictures of our new nursery:





(The packaging is still left on the handles on the dresser and bookshelf because I'm a little crazy and would like to try to keep it nice for as long as possible.)

(Mom got "Baby Bronson-Moisey" this ornament 2 Christmases ago and I absolutely adore it. It's from the Nursery Rhyme "Winken, Blinken and Nod" Anyway, for the longest time I wanted to do a Nursery Rhyme themed room, but changed my mind once I realized a lot of the baby bedding/fabric for it is pretty terrible.)

I told him the floor needed to be swept before the pictures were done, but he was already laying on the floor and decided to take the pictures. You can't really see in the corner to the right of the window, but there is a comfortable Ikea chair in that corner. It isn't a glider (we have the glider in the spare room) but it just looks SOO good in the room with the dark finish. As you can see the only picture hanging in the room right now is the picture of the bird which my mom painted eons and eons ago. Anyway, I'm going to move that photo into the spare bedroom and I plan to only hang photography in the room. Probably black and white with a specific colour accent. I was really hoping to hold off until we found out the baby's gender but I may go ahead and buy some fabric and sew up the baby's bedding. I'm still torn between doing black and white with one colour "accented" OR using the fabulous fabric I brought back from India and just having very colourful baby bedding - which could definitely be gender neutral. I'm torn. Regardless, besides the furniture clearly this room isn't super matchy matchy (and I still need a rug!) We'll take some new pictures once it's completely finished being set up. There are still boxes and a car seat in the pictures.. And the floor will be swept next time!

So tomorrow Eric and I plan to go to the beach for the a portion of the day and eat thai food and if the house is cool enough do some cooking and baking. I have a nice list of things I would like to bake/cook and store for when the baby is here but the temperature is just way to hot to have the oven on for hours... Hopefully it cools off just a little bit.

Anyway, I think that's everything for now. I hope all is well with everyone and take care!!
Thanks for reading!

(And just for good measure a picture of my babies who haven't suspected a thing yet...)




(just kidding about Eric... I hope.. he does ask every now and again if I'm "SURE" that I'm having a baby. Generally before big purchases like the furniture.)

Long overdue... (36 weeks)

Wow..

It's been a month since I've posted last! I only have 1 month to go until my due date... although on that note I am doing everything in my power to go just a little bit early. And by a little bit I mean June 30th. We'll see how that goes..

Quick life updates:

1) We got a new dog. His name is Baxter. He's really cute. And him and Pabloe get a long pretty well. They were playing to day. It was sweet.

2) I've locked myself out of the house on a couple of occasions now. (Yes twice and yes I used the ladder to climb back in) I don't find it very reassuring that a pregnant person can break into Eric and my house; however as Eric says if they want to break in it doesn't matter if there is a ladder in the backyard or not they'll get it. If you're on facebook read my note "Morning" and you can get filled in on the details of my breaking back into my house.

3) I finally have 2 of 3 pieces of nursery furniture in the nursery. And we got a GREAT deal on them. That's a long story involving me bringing a sales associate to tears (not actually, but I wasn't very pleasant.) So now I'm still torn between waiting the next couple-several weeks to find out the sex and then just purchase bedding/decorations OR I'm thinking a black/white theme or using the fabric I brought back from India and making it super colourful. I just don't know!

4) I had an AWESOME surprise baby shower thrown by my mom and sister Jill. The only things that could have made it better would have been if Kari could have made it (the youngest sister) oh and if I was a little more cooperative with Eric and let it actually be a surprise. I also had a SPECTACULAR baby shower thrown by the lovely ladies that I work with and between the two showers I fared really well! I have everything I will need and baby will need to survive the first month of life... I think... I hope.

5) Eric and I finally have a list of boy names and a list of girl names. Thank goodness. I was getting a little bit worried that this child would come home with us as "Baby B" or "Baby G". Crisis avoided.

6) I'm on mat leave! As of last Saturday I started my mat leave and I'm so happy I did because today I started contracting. Not regularly or long. Really they'd probably be considered "Braxton Hicks" BUT just in case this baby does come early I was able to get some cleaning done first. Thank goodness.

I think that is pretty much everything as of right now... Eric and I have an exciting date planned for Saturday. Probably our last real big date before the baby comes. I'm sure we'll do dinner and a movie BUT on Saturday we're going to Montreal and seeing Cirque du Soleil "Totem" and then doing dinner (and maybe if we get there early enough we'll do some shopping! YAY).

Anyway I'll try to blog more often in the next couple of weeks and get some photos of nursery up! And maybe of Totem!

Take care and thanks for reading!