I am repeating this over and over again looking at my big tummy: "I can't believe this is happening! We are so blessed and I am so grateful!!!" I can't believe the difference a year makes. I've been tearing up the entire day yesterday and today just thinking about the little miracle that was create in 2011 and has been very active in my tummy.
I was rereading my blog entry from last year's New Year celebration, and here is an excerpt: "My cousin, who immigrated to Canada in the summer, told us that last New Years eve, she and her DH made a wish, wrote it on a piece of paper, burned it and drank it with their champagne when the clock was striking midnight. So, we all tried to do that - the paper was too thick, it didn't burn properly, so we all were chewing those pieces of paper. You all know what my wish was, but that was also the wish of my entire family, they all ate those stupid pieces of paper just to make sure that we have a better chance in our wish, and I am so grateful to all of them." Well, it did work and we are very close to fulfilling our dream of becoming parents. Unbelievable!!! When I talked about it with DH this morning, he reminded me that he did tell me that we would get pregnant before the year end, and we surely did!
Last year I made a list of top 10 things for the passed year, and top 10 things for the New Year. This year my top 10 things for the last year are: 1-10 GETTING PREGNANT!!! I just wanted to compare how I did with all things I set up for myself at this time last year. Take a look:
Top 10 wishes for 2011 (again, in no particular order)
1. To get pregnant and give birth to a baby (or babies);
Well we did get pregnant, but the birth would have to wait another.
2. To lose weight (5-10 kg before the next IVF attempt); I did lose some weight but not as much as I wanted to.
3. Take classes to learn Hebrew; Nope, and I think I forgot what I learned before.
4. Find a new job and/or work less hours; Well, since I became pregnant I am gradually decreasing my hours, so this one is kind of CHECK!
5. learn how to cook; Neaah, but will have to do it once the baby is born and we get into the hang of things.
6. attend 2 weddings (one in Barbados and the other one also in the Caribbean); Unfortunately the wedding in Barbados was cancelled, and the second wedding was local and we did attend (all 3 of us ;) )
7. celebrate my sister's 30th in Las Vegas; We didn't as when my sis was booking the tickets, we didn't know if our 2nd IVF worked. It didn't but by the time we found that out, it was too late for the tickets (nor did we have spare money, as we didn't really know what else is in store for us on the baby front).
8. celebrate DH and I 10th anniversary of our fist blind date, and 5th anniversary of our wedding; That we did, although the 10th anniversary celebration was ruined by me POASing and getting a BFN for our 2nd IVF. The wedding anniversary was better, as we already knew that we were pregnant, although the nausea kept our activities limited on our short trip to Kingston.
9. finish the basement in the house (that's more DH then me, but I am running out of ideas); Basement is not done, but it is much cleaner and DH & his brother did do some work there. They have a plan to have major renovations done until the baby gets here (so in the next 2 months), I'll believe it when I see it. I am not worried though, even though it would be nice to have a finished basement, the house is big, so we have enough space for the baby.
10. organize all paperwork at home. We have done a lot of throwing out stuff, including my papers and notes from high school, university and law school. There are still a few boxes, but the majority is done. So that would be a check!!!
Next year, 2012, will be filled with lots of first, excitement and unknowns, but I think both DH & I are sooooo ready for that. We've been waiting for 5 years for this miracle.
But back to everyday life, yesterday (Friday) was an exhausting day. The 2 hour GD test was not bad. I was supposed to get there by 9 a.m., but because there was barely any traffic, DH dropped me off at 8:50 a.m. There were a lot of people at the lab and I was a bit discouraged. However, it turned out I was the only one who was doing the 2 hour test, even though there were a bunch of pregnant girls doing a 1 hour test. So once they first took my blood, and thereafter gave me the drink, they sent me off to a little room with a very comfy armchair and a foot rest, so I didn't have to stay with everyone. A few minutes after I got settled, I noticed there was another couple who was doing the same test, and they were put in the cubicle (which was not as convenient as my little room!), so I was very happy that we got there when we did. I spent most of the time either on my iphone or just resting. They were pretty good at sticking to the schedule. After I finished my drink, in exactly an hour I had the second blood draw and then 1 hour later the third. They also did it pretty professional, as I had them take it from the same arm and now, a day later, it is barely noticeable. I did get a bit nauseous from the drink and a headache from spending 2 hours at that place, but otherwise it was not a problem.
My dad picked me up and drove me to my parent's house were I had my first meal of the day, close to noon. My mom and I (together with my brother, of course) went to look for something to wear for New Years. We went to a bunch of stores and to the mall. We also stopped by a maternity store that I saw nice things at, but it was the most disappointing as they had nothing nice, and the price were very high. I was so tired I didn't even care that we haven't bought anything for me. We did buy a top for my mom. My mom then mentioned sushi and the three of us went to a sushi place in our neighbourhood.
When they dropped me off at the house, I was so exhausted that I just went upstairs to take a nap, until DH came home about 1.5 hours later. We went to my sis' house for Shabbat dinner (even though I still felt a bit full from sushi) but had a nice time there as well. I made little gift bags for my niece and nephews. We bought a tree ornament for each of them with cartoon characters (cars - for boys, and princesses - for my niece), plus some kinder surprise and other candies. But since I only made them for my family, I couldn't wait to give it to them at our house on New Year's eve as there will be tons of other kids too. We stopped by my BIL & SIL house to drop those presents to my nephews, and spent a few moments with them putting the surprise toys together.
Once back home, we watched some TV and then continued with preparations. DH was cooking and I was tidying up the main floor and finalizing decorations in the living room, as well as decorating the stairs the way I do every year. I was also hoping to clean up upstairs, but I was too tired, and we didn't get to bed until after 1 a.m. However, I was up around 9 a.m., not because I wanted to, but because I couldn't sleep anymore, which was a bummer as I wanted to sleep for as long as possible to be able to stay up very late. I did manage to clean up the bedroom upstairs, while DH was sleeping. He helped me with a few remaining boxes when he woke up. Then, we had breakfast and watched some New Year's programming (from Russia) to try to get into the spirit. I wrapped all the gifts, and am happy to report that I am pretty ready for the kids party at 4:30 p.m. I have a few things to do in between (hopefully to have a nap in between), but otherwise everything is going according to plan.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! AND SEE YOU ALL IN 2012!!!!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
29w0d - 30w0d and My first fail
I have made a post on Thursday about the previous week, and as soon as I was done on the computer I headed to bed. It was 10:30 p.m. and I was happy to have an early bedtime. But, I couldn't make myself comfortable, and our baby couldn't make himself comfortable as well. He was moving all around and from one side to another. After about 30 min of fruitless efforts to fall asleep, I asked DH to come into the bedroom and stay with me for a bit so that his son would calm down a bit. It helped for a few minutes, but as soon as DH's hand left my tummy, the games started again. Soon I noticed rhythmic movements very low, which I assume were hiccups. My poor baby was having hiccups and even though all the books say it is ok, I don't really think he liked it, hence the movement. At around midnight I asked DH for some water, then went to pee and at some point thereafter I dozed off as the movement subsided. The next time I woke up was at 2:00 a.m. when DH came to bed, since he was going to pick up my parents from the airport, I asked him why he decided to go now since it was so close to their flight landing, and he said that he needed a little nap. Well exactly 45 min later my dad called and DH was up and so was I. It took a while to fall back to sleep, the baby was moving a bit, but I was already very exhausted. And of course, I woke up after 4:00 a.m. when DH came home. Ugh. I was sooooo tired, and was hoping that I would sleep on the train on the way to the office. That didn't happen either, as the lady I usually talk to on the platform while waiting for the train brought her kids with her, and even though we never sit together, she decided to sit with me, and I couldn't just turn around and start sleeping, that would have been rude. Needless to say, I barely did any work at the office on Friday, and took an early train home.
My sis has Shabbat dinner every Friday, but because I usually get home later, we don't go. So this Friday, I talked to my sis and DH and we decided to join them as well (we didn't have much food at home either, so it all worked out). It was nice to see my niece and nephew fighting over lighting Chanukiah and reciting the prayer together. My BIL said the prayer over wine (and I had a few sips - I don't think my little one minded LOL) and challah. My sis' live-in cooked and the food was delicious. We also finished with some sufganiyot which DH doesn't buy for me as they are not the healthiest food there is. So overall it was a nice evening. We told them that we are coming next Friday too. :) We stopped at my MIL to keep her company for a bit as BIL & SIL left with the kids until 28th, and then hurried home to watch some TV. I actually managed to put some chocolate candies on the tree before going to bed.
The baby was behaving and within 10 hours of sleep, I only got up twice to pee. I woke up 10:45 a.m. (the yoga was cancelled due to it being Christmas Eve), but the baby was moving a lot and I felt rested, so I got up, and decided to make breakfast for DH. Well, I don't cook, so the only thing that i could do is French toast. I also don't drink coffee, but have time to go to Starbucks after I thought of coffee for DH when the French toast was already on the skillet. So I made a pot of coffee (also an accomplishment!) I thought of taking the food and coffee upstairs to get DH breakfast in bed, but to tell you the truth, I don't really find that really romantic (whether it me or him in bed). One needs to go to the washroom and brush their teeth before eating anyways, so what's the fun. Anyways, I woke DH up with a kiss and the words that breakfast was ready. He was alarmed, and asked me what I've made. I said it is a surprise, but told him that I made coffee for him as well, and he should get downstairs asap as everything is getting cold. He doubted my ability to make good coffee. I set up a table downstairs when he came down the stairs and said that I deserve a "5" for the smell alone. He loved the toast and the coffee too. So it was a success!
We needed to get some stuff from the store, but DH wanted to work for a bit, so he went downstairs, while I cleaned the kitchen and tidied up the first floor (also doesn't happen very often, as I am usually at the office and have no time). We went shopping to get a few last minute things as well as pick up my maternity pants from the shop that hemmed them. Yei!!! I finally have maternity pants to wear. My aunt was making a Christmas dinner, but we weren't really invited (which I didn't mind at all, as my parents were going), so DH & I picked up some meat and decided to make a stake for dinner (I haven't had red meat since my Christmas dinner at work). I suggested that we invite MIL (don't ask me why), and she came for dinner and spent the entire evening with us.
Sunday we had the family over for breakfast (my family, my sis with kids and MIL) and everyone hanged out at our place until mid afternoon. It was Christmas day, so everything was closed (except for the bagel place where we get bagels for our breakfast on the weekends). When everyone including MIL finally left, I was relieved. I love my family, but I've been spending a bit more time with MIL then I have patience for, but I have been a good DIL. DH & I finally made our way into the basement. Our basement is unfinished, and I would love it to be finished before the baby comes, but that's not happening. The one contractor that we really liked and who did an amazing job on another project in our house (which was covered by our insurance), quoted a very high price that after going through 2IVFs and FET, and now me going on maternity, we cannot afford. So DH and his brother were doing some work there to try to finish it themselves, but it has been left far from finished, and as it is getting cold outside, I just wanted to have the use of our basement for the fitness equipment which is there. We cleaned the basement from all the saw dust and pieces of wood etc. I vacuumed while DH cleaned all the equipment. We also sorted out some stuff which we had stuck there for ages and put it for sale on the internet site. My sis was storing some stuff there too, and since they already finished their basement, it was time to let them go as well. But in the mid of her stuff there was baby stuff that she's been saving for me for the past 5 years. We moved 6 boxes of baby's clothes upstairs to the guest bedroom to be sorted out. All in all I am happy that the basement is now usable.
Monday was boxing day, so I had all intention to stay away from any stores and malls. Our cleaning lady was supposed to come by 10:00 a.m. and we were leaving our house to have breakfast at my parents' house. She was late and after picking up MIL we didn't get to my parents until close to 11 a.m., and I was starving. My sis and her family was there, as well as my aunt and uncle. We had a good time, and then played wii with my sis and kids (including my brother). I love to play step aerobics, but at this point I was just making suggestion and explaining to my sis how to play from my position on a couch. When the kids got cranky my sis went home and I sent MIL with them, as we were headed downtown. I've had my degrees on the floor in my office for the past 5 years and it was time for them to go home. I only have one free wall in my office and instead off putting my degrees up, put two painting that my dad painted, so my degrees were just there. Since they are bulky and heavy, there is no way I could have taken them home myself on a train, so needed DH to drive Downtown to pick them up, and that's what we did. On our way back, DH decided to stop by at Costco. The plaza was crazy busy, and I was thinking that there is no chance that we can get a parking spot, but close to the store there were a lot of empty spaces and the store itself was pretty empty. I called my parents to tell them that, and they actually met us at the store, as mom wanted to get out of the house. We spend the rest of the day on the computer with me trying to do some work and of course playing some games :). The most exciting thing that happened was that when the baby started to have hiccups again, DH could actually feel them. It was funny as the first thing DH said was that it was baby's heartbeat, and I explained to him that it is impossible to feel the baby's heartbeat through my tummy with just a hand, and that the rhythm, even though fast, is not as fast as my own heartbeat and baby's heartbeat should be twice as much. But it was a very cool experience for DH.
Tuesday, was also a holiday since Christmas fell on the weekend. I wanted to sleep in, but got up pretty early, and woke up DH too as I felt like I was getting a cold. I was coughing and sneezing. DH & I decided that I should stay home for most of the day and drink lots of tea. It did help as I was feeling better by the afternoon. The snowstorm started the night before, so I didn't really want to be out anyways. I decided to attack all the boxes and things that were in the guest room. DH & I unpacked all the swings, chairs and toys, and we went through the boxes that had girl stuff to pick up the stuff that could be worn by a boy (i.e. green, yellow, purple, red, white). I took one of the smaller boxes and brought it into the office where DH was working, he did seem interested in all the stuff I was looking at. Then I asked him to move some boxes for me in the guest room. He came over and he stayed, so together we were going through all that stuff. It felt really nice, and the best part was that DH was also very excited about doing this.
As the weather was very bad, DH drove me to my yoga class on Tuesday night (I usually take go in on Saturday's but for this week and next week the classes on Saturdays are cancelled so I went on Tuesday night instead. It was a nice class, as there were only 5 students there, and there was a different instructor, which was also good as we had a bit different structure. When I was at yoga class, DH went to a home-hardware store and bought pieces of pipe connectors of different diameter. When I got home (he drove me, of course). He decided to try to pain circles with the pieces that he got, and it was a success. So on Tuesday evening, DH finished painting the nursery, and I LOVE IT!!! The wall colour is still yellowish green, and now it has bright orange, yellow and turquoise circles. I want to get yellow curtains (as we have white blinds there already) and some kind of light fixture. My sis also told me that she has some paintings that she bought for my nephews room and never used.
Wednesday I was back at the office (although not working much). I was checking my cell phone but didn't get any messages from my OBGYN's office regarding the 1 hour GD test that I did last week. So I was happy that everything was fine. I did leave a bit earlier than usual and DH & I went to ikea to look for curtains and a lamp. We also stopped by at a movie theatre and bought a gift card for our second secret santa gift. We didn't get home until 9 p.m. and the first thing that I've heard was the beep of the answering machine. The first message was from my OBGYN office asking for a call back, the second message was more detailed: I failed my GD test, my glucose levels were too high at 8.3 (and the highest they allow is 7.8) so I have to do a 2 hour test which she scheduled for Friday morning. The way that one works is that I am fasting for 12 hours (again!!!) then they take my blood, I drink the crappy drink, wait one hour, they take the second blood sample, then wait the second hour and take the third blood sample. Out of those 3, 2 must be within range, otherwise I will be referred to diabetic clinic. I was a bit pissed, but what can I do. With MIL being diabetic, DH was upset, and told me that I am off chocolates, sweets and bad sugar until at least the baby's birth. I still have my good carbs, like oatmeal in the morning.
My sister called and her and BIL came over so that she could help me sort the stuff. We quickly separated play things in two piles, the one I keep and the one I am giving to my friend, and then started sorting out baby's clothing. We separated that into 3 piles, mainly 0-3, 3-6 and about 6-9, but considering that my baby may be a bigger baby, those can shift a bit. She also found me the cutest little outfit which my baby will wear on his way home from the hospital. We also made a separate pile of stuff to be given to my friend. Needless to say, I didn't get to bed until 1 a.m. so was half asleep in the office on Thursday.
Well, today, Thursday, as we reach the 30 week mark, I am happy to say that the nursery is mostly done. I had my sugaring apt after work, and when I got home DH was continuing cleaning out and organizing the basement, as we are going to have a party there with my BIL bring it his DJing equipment. With all the excitement I almost missed my 9 p.m. deadline for food and drink, I did manage to finish eating by 9 p.m., but took another 15 min to finish a bottle of water. Oh well, I don't think they'll mind, as I am not telling them. Then DH went to his brother's house to pick up the furniture for the nursery. They brought in and put together the dresser with the changing table and the crib with mattress. Once it was done, DH was ecstatic. It is getting so real now. 10 more weeks and we will be bringing our baby home. Unbelievable! It was also cute that while we were standing in the almost finished nursery, the baby started having hiccups again, and BIL actually felt them, he couldn't believe that the baby is so big that he could also feel him. BIL also helped to move final pieces away in the basement, and that is all done. All I did was to pack some presents for kids, and sit down to write this blog. I have lots to do tomorrow, and I am hoping to get another entry in before the New Years. We will see.
My sis has Shabbat dinner every Friday, but because I usually get home later, we don't go. So this Friday, I talked to my sis and DH and we decided to join them as well (we didn't have much food at home either, so it all worked out). It was nice to see my niece and nephew fighting over lighting Chanukiah and reciting the prayer together. My BIL said the prayer over wine (and I had a few sips - I don't think my little one minded LOL) and challah. My sis' live-in cooked and the food was delicious. We also finished with some sufganiyot which DH doesn't buy for me as they are not the healthiest food there is. So overall it was a nice evening. We told them that we are coming next Friday too. :) We stopped at my MIL to keep her company for a bit as BIL & SIL left with the kids until 28th, and then hurried home to watch some TV. I actually managed to put some chocolate candies on the tree before going to bed.
The baby was behaving and within 10 hours of sleep, I only got up twice to pee. I woke up 10:45 a.m. (the yoga was cancelled due to it being Christmas Eve), but the baby was moving a lot and I felt rested, so I got up, and decided to make breakfast for DH. Well, I don't cook, so the only thing that i could do is French toast. I also don't drink coffee, but have time to go to Starbucks after I thought of coffee for DH when the French toast was already on the skillet. So I made a pot of coffee (also an accomplishment!) I thought of taking the food and coffee upstairs to get DH breakfast in bed, but to tell you the truth, I don't really find that really romantic (whether it me or him in bed). One needs to go to the washroom and brush their teeth before eating anyways, so what's the fun. Anyways, I woke DH up with a kiss and the words that breakfast was ready. He was alarmed, and asked me what I've made. I said it is a surprise, but told him that I made coffee for him as well, and he should get downstairs asap as everything is getting cold. He doubted my ability to make good coffee. I set up a table downstairs when he came down the stairs and said that I deserve a "5" for the smell alone. He loved the toast and the coffee too. So it was a success!
We needed to get some stuff from the store, but DH wanted to work for a bit, so he went downstairs, while I cleaned the kitchen and tidied up the first floor (also doesn't happen very often, as I am usually at the office and have no time). We went shopping to get a few last minute things as well as pick up my maternity pants from the shop that hemmed them. Yei!!! I finally have maternity pants to wear. My aunt was making a Christmas dinner, but we weren't really invited (which I didn't mind at all, as my parents were going), so DH & I picked up some meat and decided to make a stake for dinner (I haven't had red meat since my Christmas dinner at work). I suggested that we invite MIL (don't ask me why), and she came for dinner and spent the entire evening with us.
Sunday we had the family over for breakfast (my family, my sis with kids and MIL) and everyone hanged out at our place until mid afternoon. It was Christmas day, so everything was closed (except for the bagel place where we get bagels for our breakfast on the weekends). When everyone including MIL finally left, I was relieved. I love my family, but I've been spending a bit more time with MIL then I have patience for, but I have been a good DIL. DH & I finally made our way into the basement. Our basement is unfinished, and I would love it to be finished before the baby comes, but that's not happening. The one contractor that we really liked and who did an amazing job on another project in our house (which was covered by our insurance), quoted a very high price that after going through 2IVFs and FET, and now me going on maternity, we cannot afford. So DH and his brother were doing some work there to try to finish it themselves, but it has been left far from finished, and as it is getting cold outside, I just wanted to have the use of our basement for the fitness equipment which is there. We cleaned the basement from all the saw dust and pieces of wood etc. I vacuumed while DH cleaned all the equipment. We also sorted out some stuff which we had stuck there for ages and put it for sale on the internet site. My sis was storing some stuff there too, and since they already finished their basement, it was time to let them go as well. But in the mid of her stuff there was baby stuff that she's been saving for me for the past 5 years. We moved 6 boxes of baby's clothes upstairs to the guest bedroom to be sorted out. All in all I am happy that the basement is now usable.
Monday was boxing day, so I had all intention to stay away from any stores and malls. Our cleaning lady was supposed to come by 10:00 a.m. and we were leaving our house to have breakfast at my parents' house. She was late and after picking up MIL we didn't get to my parents until close to 11 a.m., and I was starving. My sis and her family was there, as well as my aunt and uncle. We had a good time, and then played wii with my sis and kids (including my brother). I love to play step aerobics, but at this point I was just making suggestion and explaining to my sis how to play from my position on a couch. When the kids got cranky my sis went home and I sent MIL with them, as we were headed downtown. I've had my degrees on the floor in my office for the past 5 years and it was time for them to go home. I only have one free wall in my office and instead off putting my degrees up, put two painting that my dad painted, so my degrees were just there. Since they are bulky and heavy, there is no way I could have taken them home myself on a train, so needed DH to drive Downtown to pick them up, and that's what we did. On our way back, DH decided to stop by at Costco. The plaza was crazy busy, and I was thinking that there is no chance that we can get a parking spot, but close to the store there were a lot of empty spaces and the store itself was pretty empty. I called my parents to tell them that, and they actually met us at the store, as mom wanted to get out of the house. We spend the rest of the day on the computer with me trying to do some work and of course playing some games :). The most exciting thing that happened was that when the baby started to have hiccups again, DH could actually feel them. It was funny as the first thing DH said was that it was baby's heartbeat, and I explained to him that it is impossible to feel the baby's heartbeat through my tummy with just a hand, and that the rhythm, even though fast, is not as fast as my own heartbeat and baby's heartbeat should be twice as much. But it was a very cool experience for DH.
Tuesday, was also a holiday since Christmas fell on the weekend. I wanted to sleep in, but got up pretty early, and woke up DH too as I felt like I was getting a cold. I was coughing and sneezing. DH & I decided that I should stay home for most of the day and drink lots of tea. It did help as I was feeling better by the afternoon. The snowstorm started the night before, so I didn't really want to be out anyways. I decided to attack all the boxes and things that were in the guest room. DH & I unpacked all the swings, chairs and toys, and we went through the boxes that had girl stuff to pick up the stuff that could be worn by a boy (i.e. green, yellow, purple, red, white). I took one of the smaller boxes and brought it into the office where DH was working, he did seem interested in all the stuff I was looking at. Then I asked him to move some boxes for me in the guest room. He came over and he stayed, so together we were going through all that stuff. It felt really nice, and the best part was that DH was also very excited about doing this.
As the weather was very bad, DH drove me to my yoga class on Tuesday night (I usually take go in on Saturday's but for this week and next week the classes on Saturdays are cancelled so I went on Tuesday night instead. It was a nice class, as there were only 5 students there, and there was a different instructor, which was also good as we had a bit different structure. When I was at yoga class, DH went to a home-hardware store and bought pieces of pipe connectors of different diameter. When I got home (he drove me, of course). He decided to try to pain circles with the pieces that he got, and it was a success. So on Tuesday evening, DH finished painting the nursery, and I LOVE IT!!! The wall colour is still yellowish green, and now it has bright orange, yellow and turquoise circles. I want to get yellow curtains (as we have white blinds there already) and some kind of light fixture. My sis also told me that she has some paintings that she bought for my nephews room and never used.
Wednesday I was back at the office (although not working much). I was checking my cell phone but didn't get any messages from my OBGYN's office regarding the 1 hour GD test that I did last week. So I was happy that everything was fine. I did leave a bit earlier than usual and DH & I went to ikea to look for curtains and a lamp. We also stopped by at a movie theatre and bought a gift card for our second secret santa gift. We didn't get home until 9 p.m. and the first thing that I've heard was the beep of the answering machine. The first message was from my OBGYN office asking for a call back, the second message was more detailed: I failed my GD test, my glucose levels were too high at 8.3 (and the highest they allow is 7.8) so I have to do a 2 hour test which she scheduled for Friday morning. The way that one works is that I am fasting for 12 hours (again!!!) then they take my blood, I drink the crappy drink, wait one hour, they take the second blood sample, then wait the second hour and take the third blood sample. Out of those 3, 2 must be within range, otherwise I will be referred to diabetic clinic. I was a bit pissed, but what can I do. With MIL being diabetic, DH was upset, and told me that I am off chocolates, sweets and bad sugar until at least the baby's birth. I still have my good carbs, like oatmeal in the morning.
My sister called and her and BIL came over so that she could help me sort the stuff. We quickly separated play things in two piles, the one I keep and the one I am giving to my friend, and then started sorting out baby's clothing. We separated that into 3 piles, mainly 0-3, 3-6 and about 6-9, but considering that my baby may be a bigger baby, those can shift a bit. She also found me the cutest little outfit which my baby will wear on his way home from the hospital. We also made a separate pile of stuff to be given to my friend. Needless to say, I didn't get to bed until 1 a.m. so was half asleep in the office on Thursday.
Well, today, Thursday, as we reach the 30 week mark, I am happy to say that the nursery is mostly done. I had my sugaring apt after work, and when I got home DH was continuing cleaning out and organizing the basement, as we are going to have a party there with my BIL bring it his DJing equipment. With all the excitement I almost missed my 9 p.m. deadline for food and drink, I did manage to finish eating by 9 p.m., but took another 15 min to finish a bottle of water. Oh well, I don't think they'll mind, as I am not telling them. Then DH went to his brother's house to pick up the furniture for the nursery. They brought in and put together the dresser with the changing table and the crib with mattress. Once it was done, DH was ecstatic. It is getting so real now. 10 more weeks and we will be bringing our baby home. Unbelievable! It was also cute that while we were standing in the almost finished nursery, the baby started having hiccups again, and BIL actually felt them, he couldn't believe that the baby is so big that he could also feel him. BIL also helped to move final pieces away in the basement, and that is all done. All I did was to pack some presents for kids, and sit down to write this blog. I have lots to do tomorrow, and I am hoping to get another entry in before the New Years. We will see.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Reminiscing
First of all a very Merry Christmas to all of my followers who are celebrating tonight and tomorrow!!!
I have been thinking about this blog entry for a while now, but didn't have time to actually sit down and write it.
In October I missed my anniversary on ivf(dot)ca (an amazing forum which helped me greatly and where I found out about blogging), and in November I missed my 1 year anniversary on the blogger. Now we are in December, and it does warrant a look back.
Five years ago, in December 2006, DH & I happily married for 3 months decided to finally stop protection. I remember the night we first BDed without any protection. I was in awe that it was finally happening. I wanted to have a baby even before we got married, and had all the general blood work done a few months before the wedding. I thought it was it, I was finally getting pregnant, as I could feel DH's swimmers inside me! We were living with my parents and DH was a bit apprehensive about getting pregnant at my parents' house (how naive!!!). Little did we know what life had in the books for us...
On December 26, 2007, we moved into our own house. We had closing at the end of November and spent a month making renovations. I remember that on boxing day we packed DH's Honda civic and my BIL's van and moved all of our little possessions into the new house. We had our king size mattress delivered a few days before, so we kind of had a bed to sleep in. On the way to our new house, DH told me that the mattress was delivered and we would be staying at the house, I asked him if the following night we will be going back to my parents. He said "No", and it felt like he cut my umbilical cord, my connection to my parents. I don't think I was fully ready for independent life. I've been living with my parents for my entire life (although there were periods when I stayed at DH's parent's house more overnight, but I would anyways go to my parents' house before going to DH's). I cried a bit, but composed myself and we started our independent life together in our own house. When DH & I were showing the house to my family and friends we already had a room picked for the nursery, and I am very happy that after so many years that room is finally going to be used for its purpose.
December 2010 brought with itself disappointment and heartbreak of the first failed IVF, which we were told was pretty much guarantee to get us our baby, but that period is already described in my blog, so I am not going into more details.
And now, December 2011, we are feeling our baby boy move in my tummy and anxiously awaiting his arrival in less than 2.5 months.
Wow, what a difference 5 years make!!!!
I have been thinking about this blog entry for a while now, but didn't have time to actually sit down and write it.
In October I missed my anniversary on ivf(dot)ca (an amazing forum which helped me greatly and where I found out about blogging), and in November I missed my 1 year anniversary on the blogger. Now we are in December, and it does warrant a look back.
Five years ago, in December 2006, DH & I happily married for 3 months decided to finally stop protection. I remember the night we first BDed without any protection. I was in awe that it was finally happening. I wanted to have a baby even before we got married, and had all the general blood work done a few months before the wedding. I thought it was it, I was finally getting pregnant, as I could feel DH's swimmers inside me! We were living with my parents and DH was a bit apprehensive about getting pregnant at my parents' house (how naive!!!). Little did we know what life had in the books for us...
On December 26, 2007, we moved into our own house. We had closing at the end of November and spent a month making renovations. I remember that on boxing day we packed DH's Honda civic and my BIL's van and moved all of our little possessions into the new house. We had our king size mattress delivered a few days before, so we kind of had a bed to sleep in. On the way to our new house, DH told me that the mattress was delivered and we would be staying at the house, I asked him if the following night we will be going back to my parents. He said "No", and it felt like he cut my umbilical cord, my connection to my parents. I don't think I was fully ready for independent life. I've been living with my parents for my entire life (although there were periods when I stayed at DH's parent's house more overnight, but I would anyways go to my parents' house before going to DH's). I cried a bit, but composed myself and we started our independent life together in our own house. When DH & I were showing the house to my family and friends we already had a room picked for the nursery, and I am very happy that after so many years that room is finally going to be used for its purpose.
December 2010 brought with itself disappointment and heartbreak of the first failed IVF, which we were told was pretty much guarantee to get us our baby, but that period is already described in my blog, so I am not going into more details.
And now, December 2011, we are feeling our baby boy move in my tummy and anxiously awaiting his arrival in less than 2.5 months.
Wow, what a difference 5 years make!!!!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
28 weeks
Today, we are actually exactly 29 weeks pregnant, and I should have posted yesterday, but I was just getting too tired (in general, not from blogging). I think I am getting the tiredness which is part of the 3rd trimester, as I sleep about the same (of course, with about 2-3 bathroom trips per night) but the total amount of time is the same.
My parents left for Dominican with my brother and my uncles family. I call my mom every day, so I did feel kind of lonely this week. I talked to my sis and she said the same thing that during the day she calls our parents a few times and now she has nobody to talk to. The good thing, I managed to talk to my mom a bit today and they are actual flying in at 3:00 a.m. tonight, and DH is going to pick them up from the airport. I did offer to (a) come with him, or (b) drive myself (although I rarely drive), but he refused both of my ideas. He has been working late anyways, usually coming to bed at 2-3 a.m. and then getting up at 8 a.m. to drive me to my train. I've been trying to get him to bed earlier but he just get so engrossed in his work and has so many ideas that he wants to implement and feels like he doesn't have a lot of time and sleep is a luxury he can't afford right now. I feel so bad for him. I do stress a bit about the money while I am going to be on maternity leave, as the maternity benefits are going to be almost 1/3 of my regular salary, and DH's business has its up and downs (and mostly downs lately). Last week I was talking to the baby about his daddy how carrying and funny he is and how he is going to be loved by his daddy and DH said that he wished the baby had a daddy that could earn more money. And there was so much honesty in this phrase that I hurt my heart. Since the moment we met, I have never put money first, most of the time I was making more money and still do, but it has never been a problem with either DH or me, but I guess deep down inside he does want to make sure that he can take care of all 3 of us so that we had nothing to worry about.
I had a pretty good childhood. We weren't rich but we were ok financially. I have never been the one into shopping and stuff so growing up I didn't need much. I started working just before my 19th birthday and it was an office job. I paid for my tuition in university and law school, plus all the travels I did. On the other hand, DH had been working hard since he was a teenager. When he was telling me stories how he and his brother worked almost 20 hours a day at a banquet hall doing dishes etc. because his parents' couldn't find work, I cried. It still upsets me to this date, but notwithstanding all the BS that he and his brother went through while they were teens and growing up, they are both amazing human beings. I can go on and on about our different upbringings but that would be a very long post, and I should get to last weeks events.
Friday was a quiet evening for us as we went out for some Thai food (nothing spicy for me) and the rest of the night just spent home lounging in front of TV.
Saturday, as always, started with my yoga class. As I was leaving I was talking to a friend of mine. She is studying to become a nurse and is doing her practice at Sick Kids Hospital. Somehow the top of our discussion turned to our struggles to conceive and I told her everything, our full story, all the heartbreaks, the surgeries, IUIs, IVFs and FET. She was also interested in my emotional state during this whole experience, and I did tell her that just before I knew that I am pregnant, I have given up. She wanted to know more about infertility and people who deal with infertility since being a nurse she might be dealing with people like that. It was nice of her to care. The interesting thing is that just a week or so ago, I was rereading my blog entries, the desperation of failed IVFs and the posts leading to FET and just before we got the call that we finally crossed to the other side. It all feels so far away. My brain works in an interesting way, I forget the bad stuff and only remember good stuff. I have no bad memories from my childhood, and even the hard years in law school are getting blurred. The 4.5 years of TTC are still a bit raw, but with the birth of our baby getting near (another 2.5 months) the wound is slowly healing, and I am happy about that.
When I got home (considerably later than I usually do) and had breakfast, DH and I prepared the plan of attack. There were a lot of things that needed to be done. The first stop was at a paint store. We picked a colour for the nursery (green/yellow) and as we were going to order it, I saw a card with a nursery with similar coloured walls. It also had bright coloured circles and we decided to do that too, so we bought smaller containers of bright yellow, turquoise and orange paint. We already have some animal stickers, so we just have to be very carefully in planning where the stickers would go and where the circles would go, so not to make it too overwhelming.
The next stop was at a maternity store. I needed a back belt as my back started to get a bit sore, plus the tummy is getting so big that there were moments when I had to carry it in my arms because it just didn't feel right. We got the belt and a few little things. I was looking for something fancy to wear for New Years, or even something to wear to the office, but didn't really like their stuff, so sticking to the clothes I still have (not maternity), which I am running out of. I didn't wear the belt right away, but have been wearing it this whole week and it makes a lot of difference! It is makes it easier to walk and move around, and I just love love love it!
We've done some more shopping, basically looking for that second present for New Years. By the time we got home, I was exhausted to the point that I have not been exhausted before. I went upstairs and straight to bed, and I just couldn't move. I was just laying there trying to get back to my senses. I didn't realize how much energy it took to just walk around shopping. I spent over 30 minutes in bed and then it was time to get ready to go out for dinner. I spent another 30 minutes in the shower as it felt awesome. We were supposed to celebrate our friend's birthday but due to different games played by his wife (I am not going to go into details here, but I they were once our best friends and for the past year we have been growing more and more apart) anyways, we still went out with another couple and had a nice dinner in a nice restaurant. Actually, when we drove to the restaurant I notice a nice maternity boutique nearby with pretty nice tops in the window, I made a mental note to come back there and look for something for New Years, although it is probably on an expensive side. We will see.
After dinner we invited our friends to our house, and wanted to invite my SIL & BIL but when we called their house, MIL told us that they were outside, so we decided to just drive by them, and ended up staying at their house until 1 a.m. (my sis and BIL were also there).
As both my sis and BIL&SIL were away the weekend before, we decided to make breakfast on Sunday. Everyone came over on time, but my BIL had to leave with my niece for her make up swimming lesson, and so did my SIL & BIL. So at the end it was just me, DH, my sis and my little nephew who is 2.5 years old. I haven't spent much time with my little nephew and was surprised at how he has grown. He understood everything that I was telling him in Russian and was actually talking back to me sometimes in English and sometimes in Russian. He is very soft spoken and when he talks it is hard to hear what he actually says (unless he is having a temper tantrum). My sis made me a 3D snowflake (I found a video on youtube on how to make it, pretty easy, and it looks beautiful), and DH actually set up the tree that my SIL & BIL bought on Saturday and left in our garage.
By 11:30 a.m. I told my sis that I really had to start heading to the office. Had to make excuses as to why, after telling my boss that I am not working Sundays, I am going in on a Sunday again, but whatever... It was a long day as had to do 4 agreements for the client who wanted it done by Monday, plus we stopped by my parents' house to feed the fish and to check that everything is ok. The subway ride was bad, i had hot flashes and felt awful, the train was barely moving and I couldn't wait to get out. When we got to the house, I told DH that I wanted to spend just a few moments outside to enjoy crisp air as I was feeling very hot. As he opened the door into the house and I stepped in, I could feel a faint traces of paint. I turned to DH and asked him whether he painted the baby's room. He said that he wanted it to be a surprise, and asked how did I know. I guess after spending the whole day in the house, he couldn't feel the paint smell anymore, but since I spent a few minutes outside before going in, it was obvious to me. I could also see that he put the lights and the topper on the tree (but decorating is mine, and he doesn't dare to touch it!). We actually saw a very cute topper which has Magen David (the Star of David), but it was pretty expensive and looked very shoddy and cheap, although the idea was great. We will try to find it on the internet for next year. DH also said that he had good news and bad news. The good news was that he did painted the nursery. The bad news was that he took the door to the nursery off its hinges and put it in the hallways, as for some reason the door would not close (we had this issue for a while now) and he wanted to cut the bottom of it so we would be able to close it properly. Of course the door felt and made a hole in the drywall that he would have to fix at some point.
I knew that Monday and Tuesday would be busy days at the office as the boss was going away on Wednesday morning. With all the action at work and me being constantly tired, I still cannot get into the holiday spirit. I am always the first to decorate the tree for New Years, to have our chanukiah and candles out and ready. Last year we went to my sis place for the first night of Chanukkah and had a blast. This time, the first night of Chanukkah felt on Tuesday. I was hurrying home to have something to eat before 9 p.m. as my gestational diabetes test was at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. The day was stressful and once I got home I tried to eat and drink as much as possible (I called my OBGYN office in the morning and they confirmed that even water was not allowed during the 12 hours prior to the test). DH & I relocated into the family room to watch some TV when the phone rang. It was my cousin's husband (who is actually Person) congratulating us with Chanukkah. I realized that I completely forgot! As DH was on the phone with my cousin's husband, I went upstairs, got the prayer and candles, took out our chanukiah and lit the first candle. I still can't believe that I forgot. Last year we were so full of hope, praying and wishing for our own little miracle (that wasn't meant to be until now), and now that I have this little miracle inside me, I cannot get into the mood of the holidays. Although I do lit candles every night when I get home from the office.
DH and I discussed a few days ago that it doesn't make sense for him to come with me for the blood test and wait an hour so that he can hear the baby for a few seconds. He asked if I was ok with it, and I definitely was, as long as he was ok with it, and he also was. So he and my BIL dropped me off at the doctor's office at exactly 9 a.m. and went to the office. As I was getting into the lab, one of the lab technicians was scurrying out of the lab. There were two other pregnant girls and no personnel. We started talking and it turned that all three of us were there for GD test. One of the girls already had her drink, so it was me and the other girl who didn't, it turned out that this girl was also the patient of my doc and had an apt right after me. We waited for 15 min before the only tech which was in the lab finished with her patient and gave us our drinks. I have heard how awful that orange drink is, but even though we were told we have 5 minutes to finish it, both of us just gulped it in about 30 seconds (we were both hungry and thirsty). The girl ("A") let me go first as my apt was 15 min before her. As we had to wait for an hour I sat close to her and we started chatting about everything. She already has an 18 month old daughter, and it turned out that she lives one street over from us. It was so great to chit chat with her that the hour just flew by. I got in a minute before her and when I was done told her that I'll see her upstairs. The doc was waiting for me (as I was a bit late for my apt), so he took me right away. It was a short apt as always. He asked if I had any questions, I said that I didn't. He asked all the standard questions and then we went into examination room. My BP was excellent. As he was feeling the uterus he want all the way to my bra line and I told him that I suspected that it extended that far as the baby has started to kick me in the ribs. To which he said that he was glad as that meant that the baby is getting into the right position. Although I think our little "homyak" (hamster) is doing a lot of movement around and pushes my various organs out of the way (it feels weird and somewhat painful). He tried to listen to the hb but as soon as he found it the baby moved away and he had to hunt for it again. The doc said that the hb was good and that the baby definitely enjoyed the orange drink! On the way back, I stopped to chit chat with the receptionist (unlike most of the receptionists this one is very very nice) and exchanged information with A. I was told that GD results would be available on Thursday, but if they come in too late on Thursday then I would not know until the following Wednesday, as the office is closed on Friday (and both Monday and Tuesday are statutory holidays). Whatever... I am not expecting anything bad. And by the way, it turned out that I gained 2 pound in the past three weeks based on my doc's measurements. So by his measurements I gained 10 pounds and by mine a bit less than 5 kg (which for me is a bit on a heavy side).
I was so excited from meeting A that on my way to work I called DH and told him all about her. I couldn't believe it that I found another mommy in my neighbourhood who is also due in March and also having a boy. Then when I got to work something clicked. I texted my sis to ask her some question about a male friend of hers who I've met a few times and who takes the same train as her on the way home (which I rarely take). I put 2 and 2 together and it turned out that A is actually the wife of that friend! How freaky is that!!!! We both live on adjacent streets and go to the doctor who is across town! She also said that our OBGYN was at the birth of her sister's 3 kids and she was really happy with him. Which was nice to hear, as it turned out that the same doc was the one attending my SIL first birth, and she was not really impressed by his bedside manners.
So those are pretty much the events of the week.
Symptoms pregnancy wise I can say that I've been having headaches more often (pretty much every day for the past 3-4 days). The heartburn has been bad. The worst was the night before GD test, when I couldn't take anything for it, and it was actually very painful. However, usually 1 tablet of tums suffice to stop it for a time being. I've also started to have some blurry vision, both on the weekend and this morning. It sucks, but it does get better and I hope that my vision will be as good as new once the baby gets here.
As I said, the baby has also been very active. A few times he was making a grand performance for DH. We are entertaining ourselves by watching my tummy move as the baby moves from side to side. Plus last time when DH put his hand on my tummy he could really feel the baby move or kick, and he was shocked on how pronounced it was (and it was actually pretty painful for me). I think as the baby has grown, I could feel more of him stretching and moving as he is running out of room and some of his movements are starting to get pretty painful. I have another 11 weeks to go, and have no clue how much bigger I will get. I guess we will see.... as now it feels that the time just flies!
heartburn and eye problems.
My parents left for Dominican with my brother and my uncles family. I call my mom every day, so I did feel kind of lonely this week. I talked to my sis and she said the same thing that during the day she calls our parents a few times and now she has nobody to talk to. The good thing, I managed to talk to my mom a bit today and they are actual flying in at 3:00 a.m. tonight, and DH is going to pick them up from the airport. I did offer to (a) come with him, or (b) drive myself (although I rarely drive), but he refused both of my ideas. He has been working late anyways, usually coming to bed at 2-3 a.m. and then getting up at 8 a.m. to drive me to my train. I've been trying to get him to bed earlier but he just get so engrossed in his work and has so many ideas that he wants to implement and feels like he doesn't have a lot of time and sleep is a luxury he can't afford right now. I feel so bad for him. I do stress a bit about the money while I am going to be on maternity leave, as the maternity benefits are going to be almost 1/3 of my regular salary, and DH's business has its up and downs (and mostly downs lately). Last week I was talking to the baby about his daddy how carrying and funny he is and how he is going to be loved by his daddy and DH said that he wished the baby had a daddy that could earn more money. And there was so much honesty in this phrase that I hurt my heart. Since the moment we met, I have never put money first, most of the time I was making more money and still do, but it has never been a problem with either DH or me, but I guess deep down inside he does want to make sure that he can take care of all 3 of us so that we had nothing to worry about.
I had a pretty good childhood. We weren't rich but we were ok financially. I have never been the one into shopping and stuff so growing up I didn't need much. I started working just before my 19th birthday and it was an office job. I paid for my tuition in university and law school, plus all the travels I did. On the other hand, DH had been working hard since he was a teenager. When he was telling me stories how he and his brother worked almost 20 hours a day at a banquet hall doing dishes etc. because his parents' couldn't find work, I cried. It still upsets me to this date, but notwithstanding all the BS that he and his brother went through while they were teens and growing up, they are both amazing human beings. I can go on and on about our different upbringings but that would be a very long post, and I should get to last weeks events.
Friday was a quiet evening for us as we went out for some Thai food (nothing spicy for me) and the rest of the night just spent home lounging in front of TV.
Saturday, as always, started with my yoga class. As I was leaving I was talking to a friend of mine. She is studying to become a nurse and is doing her practice at Sick Kids Hospital. Somehow the top of our discussion turned to our struggles to conceive and I told her everything, our full story, all the heartbreaks, the surgeries, IUIs, IVFs and FET. She was also interested in my emotional state during this whole experience, and I did tell her that just before I knew that I am pregnant, I have given up. She wanted to know more about infertility and people who deal with infertility since being a nurse she might be dealing with people like that. It was nice of her to care. The interesting thing is that just a week or so ago, I was rereading my blog entries, the desperation of failed IVFs and the posts leading to FET and just before we got the call that we finally crossed to the other side. It all feels so far away. My brain works in an interesting way, I forget the bad stuff and only remember good stuff. I have no bad memories from my childhood, and even the hard years in law school are getting blurred. The 4.5 years of TTC are still a bit raw, but with the birth of our baby getting near (another 2.5 months) the wound is slowly healing, and I am happy about that.
When I got home (considerably later than I usually do) and had breakfast, DH and I prepared the plan of attack. There were a lot of things that needed to be done. The first stop was at a paint store. We picked a colour for the nursery (green/yellow) and as we were going to order it, I saw a card with a nursery with similar coloured walls. It also had bright coloured circles and we decided to do that too, so we bought smaller containers of bright yellow, turquoise and orange paint. We already have some animal stickers, so we just have to be very carefully in planning where the stickers would go and where the circles would go, so not to make it too overwhelming.
The next stop was at a maternity store. I needed a back belt as my back started to get a bit sore, plus the tummy is getting so big that there were moments when I had to carry it in my arms because it just didn't feel right. We got the belt and a few little things. I was looking for something fancy to wear for New Years, or even something to wear to the office, but didn't really like their stuff, so sticking to the clothes I still have (not maternity), which I am running out of. I didn't wear the belt right away, but have been wearing it this whole week and it makes a lot of difference! It is makes it easier to walk and move around, and I just love love love it!
We've done some more shopping, basically looking for that second present for New Years. By the time we got home, I was exhausted to the point that I have not been exhausted before. I went upstairs and straight to bed, and I just couldn't move. I was just laying there trying to get back to my senses. I didn't realize how much energy it took to just walk around shopping. I spent over 30 minutes in bed and then it was time to get ready to go out for dinner. I spent another 30 minutes in the shower as it felt awesome. We were supposed to celebrate our friend's birthday but due to different games played by his wife (I am not going to go into details here, but I they were once our best friends and for the past year we have been growing more and more apart) anyways, we still went out with another couple and had a nice dinner in a nice restaurant. Actually, when we drove to the restaurant I notice a nice maternity boutique nearby with pretty nice tops in the window, I made a mental note to come back there and look for something for New Years, although it is probably on an expensive side. We will see.
After dinner we invited our friends to our house, and wanted to invite my SIL & BIL but when we called their house, MIL told us that they were outside, so we decided to just drive by them, and ended up staying at their house until 1 a.m. (my sis and BIL were also there).
As both my sis and BIL&SIL were away the weekend before, we decided to make breakfast on Sunday. Everyone came over on time, but my BIL had to leave with my niece for her make up swimming lesson, and so did my SIL & BIL. So at the end it was just me, DH, my sis and my little nephew who is 2.5 years old. I haven't spent much time with my little nephew and was surprised at how he has grown. He understood everything that I was telling him in Russian and was actually talking back to me sometimes in English and sometimes in Russian. He is very soft spoken and when he talks it is hard to hear what he actually says (unless he is having a temper tantrum). My sis made me a 3D snowflake (I found a video on youtube on how to make it, pretty easy, and it looks beautiful), and DH actually set up the tree that my SIL & BIL bought on Saturday and left in our garage.
By 11:30 a.m. I told my sis that I really had to start heading to the office. Had to make excuses as to why, after telling my boss that I am not working Sundays, I am going in on a Sunday again, but whatever... It was a long day as had to do 4 agreements for the client who wanted it done by Monday, plus we stopped by my parents' house to feed the fish and to check that everything is ok. The subway ride was bad, i had hot flashes and felt awful, the train was barely moving and I couldn't wait to get out. When we got to the house, I told DH that I wanted to spend just a few moments outside to enjoy crisp air as I was feeling very hot. As he opened the door into the house and I stepped in, I could feel a faint traces of paint. I turned to DH and asked him whether he painted the baby's room. He said that he wanted it to be a surprise, and asked how did I know. I guess after spending the whole day in the house, he couldn't feel the paint smell anymore, but since I spent a few minutes outside before going in, it was obvious to me. I could also see that he put the lights and the topper on the tree (but decorating is mine, and he doesn't dare to touch it!). We actually saw a very cute topper which has Magen David (the Star of David), but it was pretty expensive and looked very shoddy and cheap, although the idea was great. We will try to find it on the internet for next year. DH also said that he had good news and bad news. The good news was that he did painted the nursery. The bad news was that he took the door to the nursery off its hinges and put it in the hallways, as for some reason the door would not close (we had this issue for a while now) and he wanted to cut the bottom of it so we would be able to close it properly. Of course the door felt and made a hole in the drywall that he would have to fix at some point.
I knew that Monday and Tuesday would be busy days at the office as the boss was going away on Wednesday morning. With all the action at work and me being constantly tired, I still cannot get into the holiday spirit. I am always the first to decorate the tree for New Years, to have our chanukiah and candles out and ready. Last year we went to my sis place for the first night of Chanukkah and had a blast. This time, the first night of Chanukkah felt on Tuesday. I was hurrying home to have something to eat before 9 p.m. as my gestational diabetes test was at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. The day was stressful and once I got home I tried to eat and drink as much as possible (I called my OBGYN office in the morning and they confirmed that even water was not allowed during the 12 hours prior to the test). DH & I relocated into the family room to watch some TV when the phone rang. It was my cousin's husband (who is actually Person) congratulating us with Chanukkah. I realized that I completely forgot! As DH was on the phone with my cousin's husband, I went upstairs, got the prayer and candles, took out our chanukiah and lit the first candle. I still can't believe that I forgot. Last year we were so full of hope, praying and wishing for our own little miracle (that wasn't meant to be until now), and now that I have this little miracle inside me, I cannot get into the mood of the holidays. Although I do lit candles every night when I get home from the office.
DH and I discussed a few days ago that it doesn't make sense for him to come with me for the blood test and wait an hour so that he can hear the baby for a few seconds. He asked if I was ok with it, and I definitely was, as long as he was ok with it, and he also was. So he and my BIL dropped me off at the doctor's office at exactly 9 a.m. and went to the office. As I was getting into the lab, one of the lab technicians was scurrying out of the lab. There were two other pregnant girls and no personnel. We started talking and it turned that all three of us were there for GD test. One of the girls already had her drink, so it was me and the other girl who didn't, it turned out that this girl was also the patient of my doc and had an apt right after me. We waited for 15 min before the only tech which was in the lab finished with her patient and gave us our drinks. I have heard how awful that orange drink is, but even though we were told we have 5 minutes to finish it, both of us just gulped it in about 30 seconds (we were both hungry and thirsty). The girl ("A") let me go first as my apt was 15 min before her. As we had to wait for an hour I sat close to her and we started chatting about everything. She already has an 18 month old daughter, and it turned out that she lives one street over from us. It was so great to chit chat with her that the hour just flew by. I got in a minute before her and when I was done told her that I'll see her upstairs. The doc was waiting for me (as I was a bit late for my apt), so he took me right away. It was a short apt as always. He asked if I had any questions, I said that I didn't. He asked all the standard questions and then we went into examination room. My BP was excellent. As he was feeling the uterus he want all the way to my bra line and I told him that I suspected that it extended that far as the baby has started to kick me in the ribs. To which he said that he was glad as that meant that the baby is getting into the right position. Although I think our little "homyak" (hamster) is doing a lot of movement around and pushes my various organs out of the way (it feels weird and somewhat painful). He tried to listen to the hb but as soon as he found it the baby moved away and he had to hunt for it again. The doc said that the hb was good and that the baby definitely enjoyed the orange drink! On the way back, I stopped to chit chat with the receptionist (unlike most of the receptionists this one is very very nice) and exchanged information with A. I was told that GD results would be available on Thursday, but if they come in too late on Thursday then I would not know until the following Wednesday, as the office is closed on Friday (and both Monday and Tuesday are statutory holidays). Whatever... I am not expecting anything bad. And by the way, it turned out that I gained 2 pound in the past three weeks based on my doc's measurements. So by his measurements I gained 10 pounds and by mine a bit less than 5 kg (which for me is a bit on a heavy side).
I was so excited from meeting A that on my way to work I called DH and told him all about her. I couldn't believe it that I found another mommy in my neighbourhood who is also due in March and also having a boy. Then when I got to work something clicked. I texted my sis to ask her some question about a male friend of hers who I've met a few times and who takes the same train as her on the way home (which I rarely take). I put 2 and 2 together and it turned out that A is actually the wife of that friend! How freaky is that!!!! We both live on adjacent streets and go to the doctor who is across town! She also said that our OBGYN was at the birth of her sister's 3 kids and she was really happy with him. Which was nice to hear, as it turned out that the same doc was the one attending my SIL first birth, and she was not really impressed by his bedside manners.
So those are pretty much the events of the week.
Symptoms pregnancy wise I can say that I've been having headaches more often (pretty much every day for the past 3-4 days). The heartburn has been bad. The worst was the night before GD test, when I couldn't take anything for it, and it was actually very painful. However, usually 1 tablet of tums suffice to stop it for a time being. I've also started to have some blurry vision, both on the weekend and this morning. It sucks, but it does get better and I hope that my vision will be as good as new once the baby gets here.
As I said, the baby has also been very active. A few times he was making a grand performance for DH. We are entertaining ourselves by watching my tummy move as the baby moves from side to side. Plus last time when DH put his hand on my tummy he could really feel the baby move or kick, and he was shocked on how pronounced it was (and it was actually pretty painful for me). I think as the baby has grown, I could feel more of him stretching and moving as he is running out of room and some of his movements are starting to get pretty painful. I have another 11 weeks to go, and have no clue how much bigger I will get. I guess we will see.... as now it feels that the time just flies!
heartburn and eye problems.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
27 weeks and entering our Last Trimester!!!
I think since I stopped naming my posts like 16w5d etc. and just started to count in weeks I kind of screwed up my counting, so even though the last week was week 27 in that it consisted of days 27w0d to 27w6d, it was actually the 28th week and today we are actually in the 29th week. Oh well, since I've been naming them this way, that's the way I'll continue.
The good news that starting last week it became easier to breathe, albeit only figuratively. I did manage to cut my hours done by one more hour (so now I leave at 6:20 p.m. instead of 7:20 p.m., which cuts my daily hours to only about 9, which is a big difference from usual 12 that I've been working for the past 5 years). The work load is also less intense. I have minor bits and pieces to catch up on, but by most part, I can spend some time on the internet, checking my emails, FB and of course read blogs (I can't comment, but I still read). I also had the full weekend this week, not working on Sunday! although I did threw a little hissy fit on Friday when my boss told me that we will have to finish one of the agreements on Sunday, I guess pregnancy hormones are doing their job as we managed to finish everything on Friday and I had a weekend all to myself :)
Since my dad left on a business trip, I decided to visit my mom after work on Friday. She had tons of yummy food and of course, both DH & I ate too much. When we got home, DH invited a friend to come over, which was fine as I only kept DH company until the guy showed up, kissed them both goodnight and went to bed.
Saturday I had so many plans, but after yoga in the morning, when I got home MIL was there and I was a bit pissed, thankfully she didn't stay long. We went to a few stores to look for a new year's gift. This year (like last year) we've decided that we are doing something like Secret Santa, where each person brings a gender neutral gift for about $25. Well we were in Cos.tco a week or so ago and bought a nice tea set with a kettle which was about that price, so now we need a second present. We couldn't find anything and instead bought one of those decorations that is filled with air and it is about 1.5 m high and is in the shape of a snowman. It was on sale plus we had a coupon so it turned out to be very cheep. DH told me before the MIL also wanted to buy one for his nephews, so out of the goodness of my heart I told DH that we should invite MIL to go out for dinner with us and also stop by the store and buy another of those decorations for her. Of course, she wanted exactly the one that we got, but DH managed to convince her to buy another one, so the disaster was avoided (I would not have been happy if she got the same one as we leave one street apart!). Well the dinner was uneventful (thankfully) and thereafter I suggested that we go to our house for tea with chocolate. Again MIL didn't hang around much and we spent a quiet evening with DH.
Sunday we had a smaller version of our family breakfast as only MIL, my mom and brother were in town. After we were done with breakfast I told my mom that I wanted to visit my uncle who arrived on a Saturday (haven't seen him since we told him that we are pregnant at 12 weeks). So off we went to their house, and of course, they put some sweets on the table, I had juice and DH & my mom had more coffee (the breakfast was pretty filling and I was thinking that I was going to burst from extra food just a few hours after finishing breakfast!) We watched the video that DH made from pics and videos that we took in SD and Mexico (if anyone is interested, email me and I'll send you a link - it's on youtube). Then my plan was to visit one of our friends (who are also friends of my parents) as she had some baby stuff that we could use or pass forward. Of course we couldn't go there empty handed, so we picked up some pastries on the way, and had more food, pastries and tea/coffee there. My mom was with us after a few hours of hanging out we packed the stuff in both cars and went home. I invited mom to stay but she said that she wanted to go home. I was also exhausted from such a "hard" day! LOL I told DH that I was going to take a nap, but instead ended up talking to my sis' BIL, who is a friend of the pediatrician that we want for our baby. He actually talked to the doc and he agreed to take us in (even though he is not accepting new patients). The good thing about that particular doc is that my niece and all my three nephews are under his care and just love him. So I was too excited to sleep. My mom called and invited us for dinner, which was good as with all the sweets that we had during the day it was nice to have some normal solid food for a change.
On Monday I was back to work. I tried to call the pediatrician after lunch and the message said that the office was closed for lunch until 3 p.m. I guess I was so nervous about the confrontation with the secretary (as she is known for giving hard time to new patents) that my hands were shaking when I was dialing the phone. I am a wimp when it comes to confrontations - I just can't stand them. I called DH and he calmed me down and told me what to say. I was determined to talk to them notwithstanding feeling like I am going to pass out from nervousness. Again, I think all my feelings are exaggerated due to pregnancy hormones. Anyways, when I called just after 3 p.m. the line was busy, it took me half an hour to finally get through, when the machine recordings told me that their office was closed until next morning. I tried to control the words that were coming out of my mind as I was swearing at the phone. Anyways, I texted my sis to find out the best time to call and she said that first thing in the morning - around 9 a.m. works the best.
The next morning I did call once I got to work and did get through. The conversation was not as bad as I had it in my head. She did tell me that the doc is not accepting patients, to which I replied that the doc knows about us and agreed to take us. She wrote down the name of my BIL who talked to doc and made us an apt for Feb 14 at 5 p.m. Yei! for little victories. Once little thing that I can cross off my long list of things to-do.
The list is long and we haven't done much, and given that we have holidays approaching and only 12 weeks left until the due date, I am getting a tiny bit anxious. I've been pestering DH to put us on the waiting list with the daycare that again my niece and nephews all going to. The thing is that he is driving one of the nephews to this day care EVERY MORNING so how hard is it to just go down the hallway (or up a floor, whatever) to talk to the owner and put us on the list!!! The don't take kids younger then 18 months, but the waiting list is long, and there are not many alternatives in the neighbourhood. This daycare is a daycare with a slight Jewish inclination (but not too religious). It is located close to home and backing into the ravine, so when the kids are outside they are playing in the forest and not close to major roadways. And both my sis & SIL love the care that kids receive there.
But back to the list. The nursery is not even close to being done. We moved the shoes from the closet, and that's pretty much it. A few days ago, when I decided to dig some more in that closet, I found the yarn that I bough a year or so ago to knit a sweater for myself, I've never even started, so I got an idea to knit something for my baby. I found a nice pattern on the internet (although it says that it needs a high level of expertise, I think I can handle it, just have to be very careful). My mom taught me how to knit when I was little. She knitted everything for my and my sis - hats, scarves, mittens, socks, leggings, dresses. She actually had a machine for knitting when we were a bit older. Also in school we had a class which was called something like taking care of the house (it was only for girls) so we did do some knitting there as well. A few years ago I crocheted a scarf for my SIL (although I am more comfortable with knitting then crocheting). So I started the blanket! In the past few days I knitted 12 rows. I just realized that I don't know knitting lingo in English, so will just say that the width is 163 loops or whatever they are called in English, but that's pretty wide, and it takes me about 15 to 20 min to knit one row and that's with the pattern right now being rather simple. Once I get into more complicated pattern, I'll post some pics, but even now I am satisfied with what is coming out.
The baby has been very active most of the days; hence, my reference to not being able to breathe. He has found a new game - the most fascinating game ever. He get high up and kicks his mommy in the ribs - lots of fun, right? When he is high up it is hard for me to catch my breath if I am talking or walking. When I left work this evening (after going to the washroom of course) I started walking towards the train station and I could feel the familiar feeling of the baby being on my bladder and the need to pee. I politely asked him to move away from the bladder as I didn't have any time to go to the washroom again. And he, being a good boy, moved away from the bladder, way away, all the way to my rib cage, so that I was hard to catch my breath and I had to slow down. Fun times!
The most fun our little one has in the evenings and just when I go to bed. As he tries make himself comfortable I can feel him moving around from side to side. It's a weird feeling, but so so cool. It is hard to sleep through the night, as I am a tummy sleeper and even though I figured out how to keep myself on my side with the body pillow I still turn a lot and with the baby moving inside it is much harder to fall asleep. Plus, I get up to pee every 3 hours or so. Usually if I go to bed between 11 and midnight, I'll get up once around 3:30 a.m. and then around 6 a.m., and then whenever my alarm would ring around 7 a.m. Ugh... The good thing, is that I do manage to fall asleep relatively quickly after my bathroom trips and a few sips of water.
I am a bit stuffed up, but I can't understand if it is a cold or pregnancy symptoms. I am more stuffed up in the morning though, but start sneezing more towards the end of the day. Although I haven't had a cold this year(know on wood!!!). Even my boss mentioned that by December I usually have a few bouts of cold, but not this year. I attribute same to having more vitamins (I do eat lots of fruits), plus the weather is milder. It was 10C today, which is freaking hot for mid December. As well as I am taking more precaution when on the train or a subway, and of course, we did to the flu shot, so may be that helped too, who knows...
I do get emotional when I think about the next few months and that we will finally going to have a little one in our lives. I think I day dream about our baby a bit too much and get myself anxious. I was thinking about brit-mila (circumcision) for our baby and organizing this whole thing within a week after giving birth is a bit overwhelming even to think of right now. I hope that my sis & BIL get involved as BIL knows a very good moel who apparently can do the procedure quickly and painlessly (to the extent possible) for the baby. My sis wanted him, but he was already booked, so my BIL has to give him a call the moment the baby is born. DH & I were also discussing who is going to be holding the baby. We have two candidates, my dad and DH's brother. Of course, I want it to be my dad. When my nephews were circumcised (BIL's kids) my SIL father was holding the oldest kid, and then DH was holding the younger one. When my sis' kid was circumcised - her FIL was holding the baby, so my dad has never done it. DH said that he thinks that even if he asks his brother, his brother will refuse as he is a bit of a wimp in that department. But I told DH to be carefully how he asks, as I don't really want him to say yes, as I want my dad to do it. DH's dad passed away almost 7 years ago, so he will be there in spirit.
So that's pretty much it for this week. Next week will be interesting as I have my GD test on Wednesday, and my boss' last day at the office is Tuesday, so unfortunately I do have to come in on a Sunday, but the rest of the week should be more fun.
The good news that starting last week it became easier to breathe, albeit only figuratively. I did manage to cut my hours done by one more hour (so now I leave at 6:20 p.m. instead of 7:20 p.m., which cuts my daily hours to only about 9, which is a big difference from usual 12 that I've been working for the past 5 years). The work load is also less intense. I have minor bits and pieces to catch up on, but by most part, I can spend some time on the internet, checking my emails, FB and of course read blogs (I can't comment, but I still read). I also had the full weekend this week, not working on Sunday! although I did threw a little hissy fit on Friday when my boss told me that we will have to finish one of the agreements on Sunday, I guess pregnancy hormones are doing their job as we managed to finish everything on Friday and I had a weekend all to myself :)
Since my dad left on a business trip, I decided to visit my mom after work on Friday. She had tons of yummy food and of course, both DH & I ate too much. When we got home, DH invited a friend to come over, which was fine as I only kept DH company until the guy showed up, kissed them both goodnight and went to bed.
Saturday I had so many plans, but after yoga in the morning, when I got home MIL was there and I was a bit pissed, thankfully she didn't stay long. We went to a few stores to look for a new year's gift. This year (like last year) we've decided that we are doing something like Secret Santa, where each person brings a gender neutral gift for about $25. Well we were in Cos.tco a week or so ago and bought a nice tea set with a kettle which was about that price, so now we need a second present. We couldn't find anything and instead bought one of those decorations that is filled with air and it is about 1.5 m high and is in the shape of a snowman. It was on sale plus we had a coupon so it turned out to be very cheep. DH told me before the MIL also wanted to buy one for his nephews, so out of the goodness of my heart I told DH that we should invite MIL to go out for dinner with us and also stop by the store and buy another of those decorations for her. Of course, she wanted exactly the one that we got, but DH managed to convince her to buy another one, so the disaster was avoided (I would not have been happy if she got the same one as we leave one street apart!). Well the dinner was uneventful (thankfully) and thereafter I suggested that we go to our house for tea with chocolate. Again MIL didn't hang around much and we spent a quiet evening with DH.
Sunday we had a smaller version of our family breakfast as only MIL, my mom and brother were in town. After we were done with breakfast I told my mom that I wanted to visit my uncle who arrived on a Saturday (haven't seen him since we told him that we are pregnant at 12 weeks). So off we went to their house, and of course, they put some sweets on the table, I had juice and DH & my mom had more coffee (the breakfast was pretty filling and I was thinking that I was going to burst from extra food just a few hours after finishing breakfast!) We watched the video that DH made from pics and videos that we took in SD and Mexico (if anyone is interested, email me and I'll send you a link - it's on youtube). Then my plan was to visit one of our friends (who are also friends of my parents) as she had some baby stuff that we could use or pass forward. Of course we couldn't go there empty handed, so we picked up some pastries on the way, and had more food, pastries and tea/coffee there. My mom was with us after a few hours of hanging out we packed the stuff in both cars and went home. I invited mom to stay but she said that she wanted to go home. I was also exhausted from such a "hard" day! LOL I told DH that I was going to take a nap, but instead ended up talking to my sis' BIL, who is a friend of the pediatrician that we want for our baby. He actually talked to the doc and he agreed to take us in (even though he is not accepting new patients). The good thing about that particular doc is that my niece and all my three nephews are under his care and just love him. So I was too excited to sleep. My mom called and invited us for dinner, which was good as with all the sweets that we had during the day it was nice to have some normal solid food for a change.
On Monday I was back to work. I tried to call the pediatrician after lunch and the message said that the office was closed for lunch until 3 p.m. I guess I was so nervous about the confrontation with the secretary (as she is known for giving hard time to new patents) that my hands were shaking when I was dialing the phone. I am a wimp when it comes to confrontations - I just can't stand them. I called DH and he calmed me down and told me what to say. I was determined to talk to them notwithstanding feeling like I am going to pass out from nervousness. Again, I think all my feelings are exaggerated due to pregnancy hormones. Anyways, when I called just after 3 p.m. the line was busy, it took me half an hour to finally get through, when the machine recordings told me that their office was closed until next morning. I tried to control the words that were coming out of my mind as I was swearing at the phone. Anyways, I texted my sis to find out the best time to call and she said that first thing in the morning - around 9 a.m. works the best.
The next morning I did call once I got to work and did get through. The conversation was not as bad as I had it in my head. She did tell me that the doc is not accepting patients, to which I replied that the doc knows about us and agreed to take us. She wrote down the name of my BIL who talked to doc and made us an apt for Feb 14 at 5 p.m. Yei! for little victories. Once little thing that I can cross off my long list of things to-do.
The list is long and we haven't done much, and given that we have holidays approaching and only 12 weeks left until the due date, I am getting a tiny bit anxious. I've been pestering DH to put us on the waiting list with the daycare that again my niece and nephews all going to. The thing is that he is driving one of the nephews to this day care EVERY MORNING so how hard is it to just go down the hallway (or up a floor, whatever) to talk to the owner and put us on the list!!! The don't take kids younger then 18 months, but the waiting list is long, and there are not many alternatives in the neighbourhood. This daycare is a daycare with a slight Jewish inclination (but not too religious). It is located close to home and backing into the ravine, so when the kids are outside they are playing in the forest and not close to major roadways. And both my sis & SIL love the care that kids receive there.
But back to the list. The nursery is not even close to being done. We moved the shoes from the closet, and that's pretty much it. A few days ago, when I decided to dig some more in that closet, I found the yarn that I bough a year or so ago to knit a sweater for myself, I've never even started, so I got an idea to knit something for my baby. I found a nice pattern on the internet (although it says that it needs a high level of expertise, I think I can handle it, just have to be very careful). My mom taught me how to knit when I was little. She knitted everything for my and my sis - hats, scarves, mittens, socks, leggings, dresses. She actually had a machine for knitting when we were a bit older. Also in school we had a class which was called something like taking care of the house (it was only for girls) so we did do some knitting there as well. A few years ago I crocheted a scarf for my SIL (although I am more comfortable with knitting then crocheting). So I started the blanket! In the past few days I knitted 12 rows. I just realized that I don't know knitting lingo in English, so will just say that the width is 163 loops or whatever they are called in English, but that's pretty wide, and it takes me about 15 to 20 min to knit one row and that's with the pattern right now being rather simple. Once I get into more complicated pattern, I'll post some pics, but even now I am satisfied with what is coming out.
The baby has been very active most of the days; hence, my reference to not being able to breathe. He has found a new game - the most fascinating game ever. He get high up and kicks his mommy in the ribs - lots of fun, right? When he is high up it is hard for me to catch my breath if I am talking or walking. When I left work this evening (after going to the washroom of course) I started walking towards the train station and I could feel the familiar feeling of the baby being on my bladder and the need to pee. I politely asked him to move away from the bladder as I didn't have any time to go to the washroom again. And he, being a good boy, moved away from the bladder, way away, all the way to my rib cage, so that I was hard to catch my breath and I had to slow down. Fun times!
The most fun our little one has in the evenings and just when I go to bed. As he tries make himself comfortable I can feel him moving around from side to side. It's a weird feeling, but so so cool. It is hard to sleep through the night, as I am a tummy sleeper and even though I figured out how to keep myself on my side with the body pillow I still turn a lot and with the baby moving inside it is much harder to fall asleep. Plus, I get up to pee every 3 hours or so. Usually if I go to bed between 11 and midnight, I'll get up once around 3:30 a.m. and then around 6 a.m., and then whenever my alarm would ring around 7 a.m. Ugh... The good thing, is that I do manage to fall asleep relatively quickly after my bathroom trips and a few sips of water.
I am a bit stuffed up, but I can't understand if it is a cold or pregnancy symptoms. I am more stuffed up in the morning though, but start sneezing more towards the end of the day. Although I haven't had a cold this year(know on wood!!!). Even my boss mentioned that by December I usually have a few bouts of cold, but not this year. I attribute same to having more vitamins (I do eat lots of fruits), plus the weather is milder. It was 10C today, which is freaking hot for mid December. As well as I am taking more precaution when on the train or a subway, and of course, we did to the flu shot, so may be that helped too, who knows...
I do get emotional when I think about the next few months and that we will finally going to have a little one in our lives. I think I day dream about our baby a bit too much and get myself anxious. I was thinking about brit-mila (circumcision) for our baby and organizing this whole thing within a week after giving birth is a bit overwhelming even to think of right now. I hope that my sis & BIL get involved as BIL knows a very good moel who apparently can do the procedure quickly and painlessly (to the extent possible) for the baby. My sis wanted him, but he was already booked, so my BIL has to give him a call the moment the baby is born. DH & I were also discussing who is going to be holding the baby. We have two candidates, my dad and DH's brother. Of course, I want it to be my dad. When my nephews were circumcised (BIL's kids) my SIL father was holding the oldest kid, and then DH was holding the younger one. When my sis' kid was circumcised - her FIL was holding the baby, so my dad has never done it. DH said that he thinks that even if he asks his brother, his brother will refuse as he is a bit of a wimp in that department. But I told DH to be carefully how he asks, as I don't really want him to say yes, as I want my dad to do it. DH's dad passed away almost 7 years ago, so he will be there in spirit.
So that's pretty much it for this week. Next week will be interesting as I have my GD test on Wednesday, and my boss' last day at the office is Tuesday, so unfortunately I do have to come in on a Sunday, but the rest of the week should be more fun.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
25 & 26 weeks & some excitement!!!
As always, I have been crazy busy in the office and too tired when I finally get home to spend more time in front of my computer and write this blog. So again, this post is for a two week interval. It is going to be a long one as well. The good thing, I do keep little notes so I can remind myself and continue with my documenting the creation of my little miracle, who has been very active to let his mommy know that he is doing great.
Well I did mention that in Mexico I could see my tummy move when the baby was kicking me but nobody was around to see it. Thursday the 24th of November, my first day back (and us being exactly 25 weeks) the office was crazy as I was swamped with urgent work assignments. I had my doctor's appointment scheduled for Friday, but I couldn't imagine taking half a day off as my boss would have bitten my head off. I texted DH and he rescheduled our appointment for Wednesday. I do have a great and supportive DH!!!!
I didn't get home until after 9 p.m. DH made dinner and then I had 2 apples for desert and we nestled on the couch to watch some TV. I was wearing a t-shirt and could feel the baby moving up the storm in there, so I moved the t-shirt up from the tummy and started watching and sure enough I could see the tummy moving again. I told DH to look as well and he tried to watch both my tummy and the TV and of course for the first few times the baby kicked DH was looking at the TV. I told him to just watch it, and then it happened again. So DH told me to stop moving my tummy as he would not be able to see the baby, to which I replied that it was the baby. He had a nice grin on his face. I told him to put his arm on the tummy (and this time it didn't take much convincing). Surely enough the baby rewarded him with two nice kicks. He was ecstatic!!! I was pretty happy too as I really wanted him to feel the baby so as to make it more real for him as well. The baby has been active and I can feel him pretty much all the time now (well, most of the time, as he does go to sleep at some point).
As I haven't seen my parents for over two weeks, Friday after work I decided to go to my parents house to spend some quality time with them, and also talk about DH having felt the baby the night before. Then Saturday didn't do much. As usual went to a yoga class in the morning and then decided to drop by a friend for 5 min, which, of course, turned into a 2 hour visit as we haven't rally talked in a while, and since she does have 2 kids we had lots to talk about:). When I got home I wanted to start clearing out the spare room for the nursery, but when I opened the wardrobe and saw all the stuff inside, didn't know where to put it, so we kind of left it for now. We had an uneventful Saturday night at our friends (A&D) house.
Sunday I was supposed to go to the office, but since it was the first weekend back, we also decided to do breakfast at our house. By the time all was said and done, I didn't get to the office until after 1p.m. and it was a long day.
We have been preparing to close a major transaction so days were long. I was getting very uncomfortable, and I was thinking that I still have 3 more months left, and it will only get worse, plus I was hot most of the time which is very strange for me as I am always cold. In addition, dad need something notarized so he came by on Monday night after I got home from the office (which made the day even longer).
My weight gain after vacation put me at 4 kg gain through the pregnancy (almost 26 weeks). Since vacation, all I could see when I weighted myself is the weight creeping up and up. I know it is stupid and I understand with my mind that as I am pregnant and the baby is growing, I will be gaining weight, and now is not the time to go on a strict diet etc. but I still cringe every time I weigh myself and see the weight going up.... ugh... I am slowly running out of the room that I allowed myself for gaining weight - 2 more kg. My heaviest weight ever was another 6 kg, so theoretically I still have some room to manoeuvre, may be I should increase my threshold... I talked about it with my US friend and she made me feel a bit better. She is overweight herself and understands me like no one else.
Most of the week is a blur as we were preparing for the closing of the major transaction and I was working more hours than what I have been working before the vacation. I think the stress really got to me as the baby was super active on Thursday night and when I went to bed, I couldn't fall asleep, the baby was moving a lot and I think I was having branson hicks contractions. I am not sure if those even were contractions, but it was a very weird feeling with my entire stomach going stiff and kind of hard for a few seconds and then letting go. When DH came to bed, I already had 3 in about 30 minutes. I told him that I am not feeling good and started considering whether to go to the hospital, but then I felt asleep. I didn't get much sleep though as was awaken by a very bad cramp in my leg. I've had that before and to relieve it all I usually would do is just flex my foot and the cramp would go away, but not this time. It would go away and then come back with new force. I cried so hard from pain. DH tried to massage the muscle and he could feel when it would cramp again and tried to comfort me. After about 30 minutes I managed to get out of bed and walk around a bit. It was still very sore. I had another 15 min before the alarm would ring, which is annoying as I hate waking up before the alarm as there is not enough time to go back to sleep. My leg continued to be sore for a few days thereafter.
Friday I had scheduled 5 interviews with me being the interviewer, as we are looking for some assistance while I'll be away on maternity leave. I have never thought how exhausting it is to interview people. After my last interview, I was so exhausted that my legs were shaking. At 4:45 p.m. I told my boss that I am leaving, and I guess I didn't look so "hot" either that he didn't even try to stop me. And by the way, 4:45 p.m. is very early for me even on Friday. DH and I watched some discovery channel and I was falling asleep on the couch, so I went to bed and slept for almost 12 hours.
I woke up on Saturday just in time to get to my yoga class, which was interesting as we had a guest speaker - a nutritionist consultant who had her baby 4 months ago. She was supposed to talk about nutrition during pregnancy, but we talked more about nutrition after birth including what to do make sure that you have enough milk. The main thing - eat and drink!!! and of course a few natural remedies. I know it's a bit early, but over the last few days I've been flipping through a thick book on feeding the baby which has a lot of information on breastfeeding. And I think I have "flat nipples", but the jury is still out on that, so I'll wait until our breastfeeding class in early February to pass judgment on that.
After yoga I got home just in time to get some food in and rush out for my sugaring appointment (it does feel good to be all clean "down there" as I can't see anything anymore!). When I got home, I actually had another 2 hours of sleep, I was that exhausted from all the work that week. In the evening we had a wine and cheese party that my SIL & BIL were hosting for just a few couples. They went all out, and DH & I brought a veggie platter so I would have something to eat(I did try a few hard cheeses though). The funny thing that our friend A was sitting next to me when the baby started kicking and she put her hand on my tummy and the baby kicked her. She was impressed. She doesn't have kids (although really wants to settle down), so it was all new to her. My sis came over too, and the girls did talk a lot about labour with my pregnancy being the centre of attention.
This Sunday the breakfast was at my SIL & BIL for a change, which was great, as I could leave to get to the office by noon. Sunday night our friend S was coming over. Every Christmas she collects money and buys toys and other items for kids at a shelter for battered women. This year both my SIL and my sis told her that they want to give away toys that their kids don't play with, so S was coming over to our house to pick up money from us and bags of toys from my sis and SIL. I don't see her often so it was great having her over. We chit chatted until almost 1 a.m. The highlight of her visit was that she told me that they started TTC. She is the same age as me and I've been on her case for some time as she does know how long it took us to get to the point were we are right now. I gave her all my pregnancy and ovulation tests and sent her information on how to do charting, etc. I so hope and pray that her journey will be a short one and our kids would not have much age difference. Even now as I type this I have a big smile on my face, gotta be those pregnancy hormones.
This week, the weight has started to drop and as of Wednesday (26w6d), I am down to only 3 kg gain, which scares me a bit. I am trying not to worry about this, as I should probably attribute my previous gain to all-inclusive. However, I get more and more uneasy feelings about the pregnancy. I am constantly trying to analyze cm and determine if I am leaking or not. I guess as I am nearing the 27 week mark, I can't take out of my mind that that's the time when my mom's water broke and my brother was born exactly a week after at 28 weeks. As my dad was away, I spent a lot of time with my mom and that experience is stuck in my brain. I keep telling myself that I am not my mom and that my sis had two babies close to term and there is no reason why I should be worried, but I am and it is on some subconscious level. I will feel much better when we hit the 29 week mark.
I've been also feeling more sharp shooting pain in the past few days, which I try to attribute to baby's growth. I sneezed a few moments ago and got such a sharp shooting pain that DH actually run up to me to make sure that I am ok. I could feel the baby move and that made the experience a bit more bearable. I've had been having various aches and pains again, and my OBGYN apt is not for another two weeks. It is on 21st when I will be almost 29 weeks. It is also the day when I'll be doing my gestational diabetes test, which I think is kind of late. I am stressing out a bit about the test too, as the baby is larger than average, and another girl on the forum mentioned that her OBGYN is sending her for GD test earlier because she has been waking up thirsty all the time. Well... I've been waking up very thirsty and yesterday, I drank an entire bottle of water when I woke up as I couldn't seem to get enough water. So, yes, a bit concerned. I just hope that with the Christmas holidays the test can still be done pretty quickly.
The good news is that today (Wednesday) was the first day when the work actually slowed down, and I could leave an hour earlier. I did talk to my boss on Sunday and told him that I was exhausted and that I was having contractions last week, so unless he wants me "out of commission" very soon, I must take it easy. He said he understood, but then Monday and Tuesday was still pretty busy, and I was doubting if my plan to leave earlier every day is going to work, when today hit, and I could actually take it easy at work. My mom was Downtown for mammogram so I met with her at 11:30 a.m. It was early for me to have lunch, but I did buy her my favourite soup, clam chowder from soup nu.tsy and we spent a good 45 minutes together.
My sis & family, and SIL & family left for vacation this week (not together) and my dad is leaving tonight, so it should be a quiet weekend with just MIL & my mom. I've promised a few people that we would stop by on the weekend. My uncle is flying in and I was talking to my aunt (I called her to thank her for sending over some pies with cabbage and poppy seeds) and she really wanted to see my growing tummy. I haven't seen them in awhile. Plus I called to wish happy birthday to our friend V and his wife told me that she have all the baby stuff ready for us to pick up. Most of it is for my US friend anyways, but we were supposed to pick it up a while ago, but she was sick so we decided it is better to do it another time, and that time never happened. I also haven't seen or talked to her since before our vacation, so it would be nice to stop by there to pick up the stuff and just have a chit chat. So that's the plan. Will try to report in a about a week.
Well I did mention that in Mexico I could see my tummy move when the baby was kicking me but nobody was around to see it. Thursday the 24th of November, my first day back (and us being exactly 25 weeks) the office was crazy as I was swamped with urgent work assignments. I had my doctor's appointment scheduled for Friday, but I couldn't imagine taking half a day off as my boss would have bitten my head off. I texted DH and he rescheduled our appointment for Wednesday. I do have a great and supportive DH!!!!
I didn't get home until after 9 p.m. DH made dinner and then I had 2 apples for desert and we nestled on the couch to watch some TV. I was wearing a t-shirt and could feel the baby moving up the storm in there, so I moved the t-shirt up from the tummy and started watching and sure enough I could see the tummy moving again. I told DH to look as well and he tried to watch both my tummy and the TV and of course for the first few times the baby kicked DH was looking at the TV. I told him to just watch it, and then it happened again. So DH told me to stop moving my tummy as he would not be able to see the baby, to which I replied that it was the baby. He had a nice grin on his face. I told him to put his arm on the tummy (and this time it didn't take much convincing). Surely enough the baby rewarded him with two nice kicks. He was ecstatic!!! I was pretty happy too as I really wanted him to feel the baby so as to make it more real for him as well. The baby has been active and I can feel him pretty much all the time now (well, most of the time, as he does go to sleep at some point).
As I haven't seen my parents for over two weeks, Friday after work I decided to go to my parents house to spend some quality time with them, and also talk about DH having felt the baby the night before. Then Saturday didn't do much. As usual went to a yoga class in the morning and then decided to drop by a friend for 5 min, which, of course, turned into a 2 hour visit as we haven't rally talked in a while, and since she does have 2 kids we had lots to talk about:). When I got home I wanted to start clearing out the spare room for the nursery, but when I opened the wardrobe and saw all the stuff inside, didn't know where to put it, so we kind of left it for now. We had an uneventful Saturday night at our friends (A&D) house.
Sunday I was supposed to go to the office, but since it was the first weekend back, we also decided to do breakfast at our house. By the time all was said and done, I didn't get to the office until after 1p.m. and it was a long day.
We have been preparing to close a major transaction so days were long. I was getting very uncomfortable, and I was thinking that I still have 3 more months left, and it will only get worse, plus I was hot most of the time which is very strange for me as I am always cold. In addition, dad need something notarized so he came by on Monday night after I got home from the office (which made the day even longer).
My weight gain after vacation put me at 4 kg gain through the pregnancy (almost 26 weeks). Since vacation, all I could see when I weighted myself is the weight creeping up and up. I know it is stupid and I understand with my mind that as I am pregnant and the baby is growing, I will be gaining weight, and now is not the time to go on a strict diet etc. but I still cringe every time I weigh myself and see the weight going up.... ugh... I am slowly running out of the room that I allowed myself for gaining weight - 2 more kg. My heaviest weight ever was another 6 kg, so theoretically I still have some room to manoeuvre, may be I should increase my threshold... I talked about it with my US friend and she made me feel a bit better. She is overweight herself and understands me like no one else.
Most of the week is a blur as we were preparing for the closing of the major transaction and I was working more hours than what I have been working before the vacation. I think the stress really got to me as the baby was super active on Thursday night and when I went to bed, I couldn't fall asleep, the baby was moving a lot and I think I was having branson hicks contractions. I am not sure if those even were contractions, but it was a very weird feeling with my entire stomach going stiff and kind of hard for a few seconds and then letting go. When DH came to bed, I already had 3 in about 30 minutes. I told him that I am not feeling good and started considering whether to go to the hospital, but then I felt asleep. I didn't get much sleep though as was awaken by a very bad cramp in my leg. I've had that before and to relieve it all I usually would do is just flex my foot and the cramp would go away, but not this time. It would go away and then come back with new force. I cried so hard from pain. DH tried to massage the muscle and he could feel when it would cramp again and tried to comfort me. After about 30 minutes I managed to get out of bed and walk around a bit. It was still very sore. I had another 15 min before the alarm would ring, which is annoying as I hate waking up before the alarm as there is not enough time to go back to sleep. My leg continued to be sore for a few days thereafter.
Friday I had scheduled 5 interviews with me being the interviewer, as we are looking for some assistance while I'll be away on maternity leave. I have never thought how exhausting it is to interview people. After my last interview, I was so exhausted that my legs were shaking. At 4:45 p.m. I told my boss that I am leaving, and I guess I didn't look so "hot" either that he didn't even try to stop me. And by the way, 4:45 p.m. is very early for me even on Friday. DH and I watched some discovery channel and I was falling asleep on the couch, so I went to bed and slept for almost 12 hours.
I woke up on Saturday just in time to get to my yoga class, which was interesting as we had a guest speaker - a nutritionist consultant who had her baby 4 months ago. She was supposed to talk about nutrition during pregnancy, but we talked more about nutrition after birth including what to do make sure that you have enough milk. The main thing - eat and drink!!! and of course a few natural remedies. I know it's a bit early, but over the last few days I've been flipping through a thick book on feeding the baby which has a lot of information on breastfeeding. And I think I have "flat nipples", but the jury is still out on that, so I'll wait until our breastfeeding class in early February to pass judgment on that.
After yoga I got home just in time to get some food in and rush out for my sugaring appointment (it does feel good to be all clean "down there" as I can't see anything anymore!). When I got home, I actually had another 2 hours of sleep, I was that exhausted from all the work that week. In the evening we had a wine and cheese party that my SIL & BIL were hosting for just a few couples. They went all out, and DH & I brought a veggie platter so I would have something to eat(I did try a few hard cheeses though). The funny thing that our friend A was sitting next to me when the baby started kicking and she put her hand on my tummy and the baby kicked her. She was impressed. She doesn't have kids (although really wants to settle down), so it was all new to her. My sis came over too, and the girls did talk a lot about labour with my pregnancy being the centre of attention.
This Sunday the breakfast was at my SIL & BIL for a change, which was great, as I could leave to get to the office by noon. Sunday night our friend S was coming over. Every Christmas she collects money and buys toys and other items for kids at a shelter for battered women. This year both my SIL and my sis told her that they want to give away toys that their kids don't play with, so S was coming over to our house to pick up money from us and bags of toys from my sis and SIL. I don't see her often so it was great having her over. We chit chatted until almost 1 a.m. The highlight of her visit was that she told me that they started TTC. She is the same age as me and I've been on her case for some time as she does know how long it took us to get to the point were we are right now. I gave her all my pregnancy and ovulation tests and sent her information on how to do charting, etc. I so hope and pray that her journey will be a short one and our kids would not have much age difference. Even now as I type this I have a big smile on my face, gotta be those pregnancy hormones.
This week, the weight has started to drop and as of Wednesday (26w6d), I am down to only 3 kg gain, which scares me a bit. I am trying not to worry about this, as I should probably attribute my previous gain to all-inclusive. However, I get more and more uneasy feelings about the pregnancy. I am constantly trying to analyze cm and determine if I am leaking or not. I guess as I am nearing the 27 week mark, I can't take out of my mind that that's the time when my mom's water broke and my brother was born exactly a week after at 28 weeks. As my dad was away, I spent a lot of time with my mom and that experience is stuck in my brain. I keep telling myself that I am not my mom and that my sis had two babies close to term and there is no reason why I should be worried, but I am and it is on some subconscious level. I will feel much better when we hit the 29 week mark.
I've been also feeling more sharp shooting pain in the past few days, which I try to attribute to baby's growth. I sneezed a few moments ago and got such a sharp shooting pain that DH actually run up to me to make sure that I am ok. I could feel the baby move and that made the experience a bit more bearable. I've had been having various aches and pains again, and my OBGYN apt is not for another two weeks. It is on 21st when I will be almost 29 weeks. It is also the day when I'll be doing my gestational diabetes test, which I think is kind of late. I am stressing out a bit about the test too, as the baby is larger than average, and another girl on the forum mentioned that her OBGYN is sending her for GD test earlier because she has been waking up thirsty all the time. Well... I've been waking up very thirsty and yesterday, I drank an entire bottle of water when I woke up as I couldn't seem to get enough water. So, yes, a bit concerned. I just hope that with the Christmas holidays the test can still be done pretty quickly.
The good news is that today (Wednesday) was the first day when the work actually slowed down, and I could leave an hour earlier. I did talk to my boss on Sunday and told him that I was exhausted and that I was having contractions last week, so unless he wants me "out of commission" very soon, I must take it easy. He said he understood, but then Monday and Tuesday was still pretty busy, and I was doubting if my plan to leave earlier every day is going to work, when today hit, and I could actually take it easy at work. My mom was Downtown for mammogram so I met with her at 11:30 a.m. It was early for me to have lunch, but I did buy her my favourite soup, clam chowder from soup nu.tsy and we spent a good 45 minutes together.
My sis & family, and SIL & family left for vacation this week (not together) and my dad is leaving tonight, so it should be a quiet weekend with just MIL & my mom. I've promised a few people that we would stop by on the weekend. My uncle is flying in and I was talking to my aunt (I called her to thank her for sending over some pies with cabbage and poppy seeds) and she really wanted to see my growing tummy. I haven't seen them in awhile. Plus I called to wish happy birthday to our friend V and his wife told me that she have all the baby stuff ready for us to pick up. Most of it is for my US friend anyways, but we were supposed to pick it up a while ago, but she was sick so we decided it is better to do it another time, and that time never happened. I also haven't seen or talked to her since before our vacation, so it would be nice to stop by there to pick up the stuff and just have a chit chat. So that's the plan. Will try to report in a about a week.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
San Diego & Mexico (weeks 23 & 24)
I've started writing this blog when I had a few spare minutes on vacation so that I can remember everything. Overall great experience, but we did have a few bumps.
It all started Friday morning when DH decided to check in for our flight (24 hours in advance). There were problems with our reference number as we did change the flight about 3 weeks ago, but it was showing the old flight and DH spent 4 hours on the phone with the airline and the company through which we ordered the tickets. Finally, by noon the problem was resolved, but I was pissed. On top of it, my boss was really stressed out as we had lots to finish and he wanted to go home at a decent time on Friday, and to tell you the truth, I told myself that I'll probably be there until midnight, so leaving at the same time as I leave every day (although late for Friday) was a bonus. When DH picked me up from the train we decided to go out to eat as there was nothing in our fridge, then we went to a grocery store to pick up some food for the flight (the smartest move ever) and finished packing. By the time everything was said and done it was 1 a.m. and my BIL was picking us up at 4:45 a.m.
The ride to the airport was a bit stressful as the road work closed the exit to the airport and we had to do a little detour. We still made it on time. The only bad thing was that when we declared that we are taking food to US the customs guy asked us what it was. I washed a few of my favourite apples, and they took them!!! They said that they would only let them pass if they had stickers "made in USA", and those didn't have such stickers and they were actually Ontario grown. The fact that we would eat them on the plane and that I am pregnant and need my vitamins didn't sway the customs guy. Oh well... We had seats in the isle, for which I was grateful as during the 5 hour flight I got up to pee about 7 times. I don't think the baby enjoyed flying that much as he was pushing on my bladder most of the time. The layover was in San Francisco and the weather was wonderful - warm and sunny. During the flight to San Diego we had a window and a middle seat, but the flight was very turbulent so I could only get up once in between the pilot switching the seat belt sign off and on again. Once we were at the airport we got free wi fi so both DH and I called our families to let them know that we arrived and that everything was good. Boy were we wrong. When we got to the baggage pick up area we got a text that our friends just landed. We waited for our luggage and got DH bag off the belt and continued waiting for mine. When there was only one lonely bag going around and around on the belt and no more people waiting we figured that something was not right. I was freaking out. ALL my clothes were there, my maternity clothes!!! It took a while to log the complaint and figure out that my bag is actually on the next plain, so our choice was to either wait in the airport for 2.5 hours or have my suitcase shipped to the hotel. When we met our friends we decided that we are not going to be doing much which would require me to change (as I was in sweat pants). The weather in San Diego was completely opposite to San Francisco- the rain was pouring hard, but since we didn't want to lose any time we decided to stick to our itinerary.
After we checked into the hotel and got the adjoining rooms with our friends, we took a taxi to Seaport Village which would have been wonderful if not for the rain, so we finally just went to one of the restaurants there. We decided to go to a mall thereafter and wait out the rain there. It was getting late so we wondered the streets a bit and then took a taxi to our hotel. I was expecting my bag to be in the room, but it wasn't, so DH started working the phones. By that time it was already 8 p.m. which with the time difference of 3 hours was like 11 p.m. plus with me sleeping only 3 hours the night before, I was exhausted. We were promised that the bag would arrive no later than 9-9:30 and all I could do is to lay on a bed waiting for it, as DH went to our friends room for some guy fun. Close to 9 p.m. when the bag still didn't arrive, DH took pity on me and called the front desk. They said that the bag is there but they are waiting for the bell boy, to which DH said that he is going to just get it himself. Once the bag was in the room I could finally go to sleep.
Being pregnant and sleeping without my body pillow was a bit tricky and I still had to get up at least 2 times to pee. We were up early as we had to have breakfast at the hotel and then go with a tour which was picking us up just before 8 a.m. The tour was nice, there were not that many people and the tour guy was funny. We saw a few places some of which we decided to go back to the next day. At the end of the tour we asked our tour guy to drop us off at the restaurant that my friend found in one of the guide books. It was a popular restaurant and the wait was over 1.5 hours. Well we were all starving so we just wondered the street looking for a place to eat. We stopped at the Mexican restaurant and even though I can't eat spicy food, I found the dishes that were tolerable. Thereafter the plan was to visit Balboa park and we started walking in the direction of the park and looking to find the taxi. The first taxi passed us when we were almost at the park, and the taxi driver didn't even see us as he was texting on his cell phone. Anyways, we found the park ourselves and walked around a lot. The gardens were beautiful and we took tons of pictures. As it was getting dark and cold we stopped by a cafe and stayed there for a while enjoying hot drinks. We decided to start walking and catch the taxi on our way so that we can get to the hotel. As we walked, we figured that we were going downhill and that it was turning out to be a pretty nice evening so we walked to a gaslight district close to downtown Sand Diego and stopped for some desert there, and then took a taxi to our hotel. We did so much walking that day that all I could think about is getting into a made up bad as the night before I was struggling with all the blankets and sheets they had. When I opened the door I saw that the room was not cleaned, and I almost lost it. As I was calling the front desk I was on the verge of being hysterical (from both being extremely exhausted and from all the pregnancy hormones). Apparently the clerk put us on their green choice program which we specifically refused, and after asking the hotel person what they can do for us to compensate, she replied we can use the coupons that we got, I did lose it as we didn't get anything! She assured me that she is sending fresh towels and supplies and that we would get all the coupons for our entire stay and that the next day the room will be cleaned. So again, I was on my bed waiting for something to be delivered. The towels were sent right away, and then 15 min later I noticed an envelope next to the front door, those were the coupons. So I could finally go to sleep.
On Monday we had a plan to rent a car. We took a shuttle back to the airport and the guys figured out the place where they want to rent the car from. We decided to go for breakfast at the same restaurant where we couldn't get lunch the day before. It was after 11 a.m and we were all starving. There was still a line up but not as long as the day before. We were told the wait for 30 min, but some people in the line told us that the wait is much less than that, and it was not more than 10 min in which our boys managed to go exploring and we had to call them and tell them to get back asap as they would not seat us without them. The portions were HUGE, the food was great and the prices were even better. After we were done with breakfast we drove to Coronado and walked around there for a while, along the beach and a bit into the town. We went by the hotel where one of my favourite movies "Some Like it Hot" was filmed. Thereafter we drove to La Jolla and walked along the coast there looking at sea lions. The weather took a turn for the worse as when we approached La Jolla the sky was covered with clouds and the wind was very cold. I was happy that this time around I had my warm sports jacket with me, as I was wearing a t-shirt and a light cardigan. We decided to return closer to Downtown San Diego for Dinner and found a seafood restaurant not far from Seaport village. The food there was also great and DH and I decide that we are going to return to the same restaurant on our stop over at San Diego on the way back. As the night was still young we decided to go for a desert at a different restaurant and drove to a bakery in a different part of the town. After returning the car we got a shuttle to our hotel where we started packing as we were leaving next morning. And by the way, the room was all clean.
The next day (Tuesday) we had breakfast at the hotel (and used our coupons) before heading to the airport. We said good bye to San Diego and were off to Mexico. We stayed at Barcelo in Los Cabos, and the hotel and amenities exceeded our expectations. The rooms were nice and modern. There was a smart room technology which meant that we could control everything (air conditioner, lights etc.) from the TV. I also found that you can close curtains from either the switch next to the bed or from TV and after playing with it a few times I broke it (they did fix it the next day when I called it in). The only downside was that the water in the pools was very called and in 7 days that we were there we only ended up swimming in the pool two days. There was a black flag on the beach which meant that it is not safe for swimming, but we actually got into the ocean every day. The waives where huge (the way I like them) and if I wasn't pregnant I would spend more time in the water and further away from the shore. My friend was afraid so we stayed where the water was just above our knees and not deeper than our butts. At one point I was hit a bit harder by the huge waive which actually made my two piece bathing suit go different ways (the top one went up and the bottom one went down), but I did manage to pull it all back together before getting out of the ocean, so no harm down. Only on the last day DH didn't let me get in more than ankle deep, as the waves were crazy huge and even he had difficulty to maintain control.
Overall we had a great experience. Our regular day would start at around 8:30 a.m. we would go to have breakfast and then to our room to get ready for the sun. Depending on our moods me and my friend either stayed by the pool in semi shade or went to the beach where we had to move lounge chairs to be in the shadow of a palm tree as I don't really like being in the sun for too long. We would chat or read and than go into the water (most of the time the ocean). One day when the weather was extra hot, we managed to get a nice swim in the pool and even did aqua aerobics. Most other days the water was too cold to stay in the pool for any period of time. We would have lunch at around 2 - 2:30 and head back to the beach. In the first two days we took nice 1 hour long walks on the beach (each day to the different direction). One day after lunch we want to a small town which was near by (10 min cab ride). It was very small and there were barely any people there. Our boys went diving on Saturday and discovered another town (on another side of the resort) about 35-40 min away. They loved it and wanted to return there. So Monday after lunch we took a taxi and went there on our own. I have to say that we all felt very safe in this part of Mexico. When we were looking at the tours from the resort we were offered a cruise to see the famous arch. The tour was a bit expensive and we couldn't decided if we wanted to take it. So when we were at the town, there were water taxis so the guys negotiated a price for a boat to take us to see the arch (the price for 4 of us was cheaper then what the resort wanted per person). Our captain turned out to be a great guide, showing us a lot of attractions and making tons of pictures of us (he got a good tip afterwords), but because we were stopping a lot I started to feel like I am going to be feeding fish very very soon. I told my friend that I am not feeling good, and luckily she had sea sickness pills that her OBGYN approved. It did help and there were no accidents. Although I was really happy to be on the solid ground when we were done. :) That town turned out to be a nice vibrant town with lots of shops, cafes, restaurants etc. We walked the streets until it was getting dark and took a taxi back to the hotel.
The funny part was that when the guys were making arrangements for their dive, my friend and I sat down at a nearby desk and started talking to a clerk there. She turned out to also be pregnant, also 5 months and also with a boy!!! She told us that the food on the resort was safe as she eats on the resort herself. The food was good and I was only disappointed once when we had dinner at the buffet and the theme was Mexican - the only thing I could eat was some tomatoes and corn, and I asked the server to wash a sweet pepper for me (which was part of decoration).
My only problem was sleep. I couldn't adjust to the time difference, which was 3 hours in San Diego and 2 hours in Mexico. By 10 p.m. I would be falling a sleep, but then I was waking up a lot during the night as the beds were too soft and I couldn't make myself comfortable without my body pillow. I was sleeping with one pillow in between my knees, one pillow on each of the sides and one pillow for my head. I was also waking up at least twice to pee and usually was up around 7 a.m. Once I got home the sleep did improve some what.
I did have a little scare in Mexico, as one day when I was getting ready to take a shower and was naked when I felt a drop or two of liquid streaming down my thigh (on the inside). I freaked out a bit and tried to remember what I did just before to justify it. I did pee before and then washed my hands so that could have been water from when I washed my hands or may be I didn't wipe myself properly. I did manage to calm myself as there was nothing much I could do there. Something similar happened again in San Diego on our way back, so I am definitely mentioning this to my doctor when I see him next Wednesday.
The most exciting thing pregnancy wise happened on our last day in Mexico. DH went to swim in the ocean and our friends were in their room changing (since we didn't have much time until we had to leave, I wore my bathing suit to breakfast so didn't need to change). So I was laying on a lounge chair when I felt the baby kicking, then I looked down on my tummy and I saw it wobbling. Yep, I could see the baby kicking from the outside. I jumped up excited, but there was no one to share the news with. So disappointing...
On the way home from Mexico we had an overnight stay in San Diego. We checked into our hotel and decided to continue exploring our surroundings. The weather was a bit on a chilly side, but still much warmer than in TO. We went to Horton mall and then walked through Seaport Village to the fish restaurant where we had dinner before. This time around we changed what we ordered and the food was still good. We walked more through the Seaport Village (even though all little stores were already closed) and then decided to go to a supermarket for a desert and some food for the flight home. We ended up eating our desert in our room before going to sleep.
The next morning I woke up at 6 a.m. (as it was 7 a.m. in Mexico). I was still in bed when I heard my cellphone ring. I let it ring before getting up to go to the washroom and check who it was. It was the office. I knew exactly why. I did notice that my boss put in the wrong date for my arrival in his calendar, but since I gave him the right dates in writing I really didn't care. So I texted my clerk and asked her if any thing is wrong and they need my help to which she replied confirming that my boss was furious that I wasn't at the office... oh well... We had breakfast at a little cafe that DH found on the internet as one of the top 10 and we were a bit disappointed as it wasn't anything special. We then walked through Seaport Village again, this time stopping at the little shops and enjoying the rustic beauty, and then walked along the waterfront for almost 2 hours until it was time to get a taxi to the airport.
The flight was pretty uneventful and our bags were amount the first 10-15 on the belt. My BIL picked us up and SIL ordered some food. I wasn't hungry but we had absolutely no food in the fridge. We had to stop over BIL & SIL's house as DH wanted to say hi to his mom, so I got in to say hi to my SIL. We ended up staying there for about an hour eating some food and just talking in general, so didn't get home until 10:30 p.m.
As expected, work was crazy busy on Thursday, when we hit the 25 week mark, but that's the topic for the next post.
It all started Friday morning when DH decided to check in for our flight (24 hours in advance). There were problems with our reference number as we did change the flight about 3 weeks ago, but it was showing the old flight and DH spent 4 hours on the phone with the airline and the company through which we ordered the tickets. Finally, by noon the problem was resolved, but I was pissed. On top of it, my boss was really stressed out as we had lots to finish and he wanted to go home at a decent time on Friday, and to tell you the truth, I told myself that I'll probably be there until midnight, so leaving at the same time as I leave every day (although late for Friday) was a bonus. When DH picked me up from the train we decided to go out to eat as there was nothing in our fridge, then we went to a grocery store to pick up some food for the flight (the smartest move ever) and finished packing. By the time everything was said and done it was 1 a.m. and my BIL was picking us up at 4:45 a.m.
The ride to the airport was a bit stressful as the road work closed the exit to the airport and we had to do a little detour. We still made it on time. The only bad thing was that when we declared that we are taking food to US the customs guy asked us what it was. I washed a few of my favourite apples, and they took them!!! They said that they would only let them pass if they had stickers "made in USA", and those didn't have such stickers and they were actually Ontario grown. The fact that we would eat them on the plane and that I am pregnant and need my vitamins didn't sway the customs guy. Oh well... We had seats in the isle, for which I was grateful as during the 5 hour flight I got up to pee about 7 times. I don't think the baby enjoyed flying that much as he was pushing on my bladder most of the time. The layover was in San Francisco and the weather was wonderful - warm and sunny. During the flight to San Diego we had a window and a middle seat, but the flight was very turbulent so I could only get up once in between the pilot switching the seat belt sign off and on again. Once we were at the airport we got free wi fi so both DH and I called our families to let them know that we arrived and that everything was good. Boy were we wrong. When we got to the baggage pick up area we got a text that our friends just landed. We waited for our luggage and got DH bag off the belt and continued waiting for mine. When there was only one lonely bag going around and around on the belt and no more people waiting we figured that something was not right. I was freaking out. ALL my clothes were there, my maternity clothes!!! It took a while to log the complaint and figure out that my bag is actually on the next plain, so our choice was to either wait in the airport for 2.5 hours or have my suitcase shipped to the hotel. When we met our friends we decided that we are not going to be doing much which would require me to change (as I was in sweat pants). The weather in San Diego was completely opposite to San Francisco- the rain was pouring hard, but since we didn't want to lose any time we decided to stick to our itinerary.
After we checked into the hotel and got the adjoining rooms with our friends, we took a taxi to Seaport Village which would have been wonderful if not for the rain, so we finally just went to one of the restaurants there. We decided to go to a mall thereafter and wait out the rain there. It was getting late so we wondered the streets a bit and then took a taxi to our hotel. I was expecting my bag to be in the room, but it wasn't, so DH started working the phones. By that time it was already 8 p.m. which with the time difference of 3 hours was like 11 p.m. plus with me sleeping only 3 hours the night before, I was exhausted. We were promised that the bag would arrive no later than 9-9:30 and all I could do is to lay on a bed waiting for it, as DH went to our friends room for some guy fun. Close to 9 p.m. when the bag still didn't arrive, DH took pity on me and called the front desk. They said that the bag is there but they are waiting for the bell boy, to which DH said that he is going to just get it himself. Once the bag was in the room I could finally go to sleep.
Being pregnant and sleeping without my body pillow was a bit tricky and I still had to get up at least 2 times to pee. We were up early as we had to have breakfast at the hotel and then go with a tour which was picking us up just before 8 a.m. The tour was nice, there were not that many people and the tour guy was funny. We saw a few places some of which we decided to go back to the next day. At the end of the tour we asked our tour guy to drop us off at the restaurant that my friend found in one of the guide books. It was a popular restaurant and the wait was over 1.5 hours. Well we were all starving so we just wondered the street looking for a place to eat. We stopped at the Mexican restaurant and even though I can't eat spicy food, I found the dishes that were tolerable. Thereafter the plan was to visit Balboa park and we started walking in the direction of the park and looking to find the taxi. The first taxi passed us when we were almost at the park, and the taxi driver didn't even see us as he was texting on his cell phone. Anyways, we found the park ourselves and walked around a lot. The gardens were beautiful and we took tons of pictures. As it was getting dark and cold we stopped by a cafe and stayed there for a while enjoying hot drinks. We decided to start walking and catch the taxi on our way so that we can get to the hotel. As we walked, we figured that we were going downhill and that it was turning out to be a pretty nice evening so we walked to a gaslight district close to downtown Sand Diego and stopped for some desert there, and then took a taxi to our hotel. We did so much walking that day that all I could think about is getting into a made up bad as the night before I was struggling with all the blankets and sheets they had. When I opened the door I saw that the room was not cleaned, and I almost lost it. As I was calling the front desk I was on the verge of being hysterical (from both being extremely exhausted and from all the pregnancy hormones). Apparently the clerk put us on their green choice program which we specifically refused, and after asking the hotel person what they can do for us to compensate, she replied we can use the coupons that we got, I did lose it as we didn't get anything! She assured me that she is sending fresh towels and supplies and that we would get all the coupons for our entire stay and that the next day the room will be cleaned. So again, I was on my bed waiting for something to be delivered. The towels were sent right away, and then 15 min later I noticed an envelope next to the front door, those were the coupons. So I could finally go to sleep.
On Monday we had a plan to rent a car. We took a shuttle back to the airport and the guys figured out the place where they want to rent the car from. We decided to go for breakfast at the same restaurant where we couldn't get lunch the day before. It was after 11 a.m and we were all starving. There was still a line up but not as long as the day before. We were told the wait for 30 min, but some people in the line told us that the wait is much less than that, and it was not more than 10 min in which our boys managed to go exploring and we had to call them and tell them to get back asap as they would not seat us without them. The portions were HUGE, the food was great and the prices were even better. After we were done with breakfast we drove to Coronado and walked around there for a while, along the beach and a bit into the town. We went by the hotel where one of my favourite movies "Some Like it Hot" was filmed. Thereafter we drove to La Jolla and walked along the coast there looking at sea lions. The weather took a turn for the worse as when we approached La Jolla the sky was covered with clouds and the wind was very cold. I was happy that this time around I had my warm sports jacket with me, as I was wearing a t-shirt and a light cardigan. We decided to return closer to Downtown San Diego for Dinner and found a seafood restaurant not far from Seaport village. The food there was also great and DH and I decide that we are going to return to the same restaurant on our stop over at San Diego on the way back. As the night was still young we decided to go for a desert at a different restaurant and drove to a bakery in a different part of the town. After returning the car we got a shuttle to our hotel where we started packing as we were leaving next morning. And by the way, the room was all clean.
The next day (Tuesday) we had breakfast at the hotel (and used our coupons) before heading to the airport. We said good bye to San Diego and were off to Mexico. We stayed at Barcelo in Los Cabos, and the hotel and amenities exceeded our expectations. The rooms were nice and modern. There was a smart room technology which meant that we could control everything (air conditioner, lights etc.) from the TV. I also found that you can close curtains from either the switch next to the bed or from TV and after playing with it a few times I broke it (they did fix it the next day when I called it in). The only downside was that the water in the pools was very called and in 7 days that we were there we only ended up swimming in the pool two days. There was a black flag on the beach which meant that it is not safe for swimming, but we actually got into the ocean every day. The waives where huge (the way I like them) and if I wasn't pregnant I would spend more time in the water and further away from the shore. My friend was afraid so we stayed where the water was just above our knees and not deeper than our butts. At one point I was hit a bit harder by the huge waive which actually made my two piece bathing suit go different ways (the top one went up and the bottom one went down), but I did manage to pull it all back together before getting out of the ocean, so no harm down. Only on the last day DH didn't let me get in more than ankle deep, as the waves were crazy huge and even he had difficulty to maintain control.
Overall we had a great experience. Our regular day would start at around 8:30 a.m. we would go to have breakfast and then to our room to get ready for the sun. Depending on our moods me and my friend either stayed by the pool in semi shade or went to the beach where we had to move lounge chairs to be in the shadow of a palm tree as I don't really like being in the sun for too long. We would chat or read and than go into the water (most of the time the ocean). One day when the weather was extra hot, we managed to get a nice swim in the pool and even did aqua aerobics. Most other days the water was too cold to stay in the pool for any period of time. We would have lunch at around 2 - 2:30 and head back to the beach. In the first two days we took nice 1 hour long walks on the beach (each day to the different direction). One day after lunch we want to a small town which was near by (10 min cab ride). It was very small and there were barely any people there. Our boys went diving on Saturday and discovered another town (on another side of the resort) about 35-40 min away. They loved it and wanted to return there. So Monday after lunch we took a taxi and went there on our own. I have to say that we all felt very safe in this part of Mexico. When we were looking at the tours from the resort we were offered a cruise to see the famous arch. The tour was a bit expensive and we couldn't decided if we wanted to take it. So when we were at the town, there were water taxis so the guys negotiated a price for a boat to take us to see the arch (the price for 4 of us was cheaper then what the resort wanted per person). Our captain turned out to be a great guide, showing us a lot of attractions and making tons of pictures of us (he got a good tip afterwords), but because we were stopping a lot I started to feel like I am going to be feeding fish very very soon. I told my friend that I am not feeling good, and luckily she had sea sickness pills that her OBGYN approved. It did help and there were no accidents. Although I was really happy to be on the solid ground when we were done. :) That town turned out to be a nice vibrant town with lots of shops, cafes, restaurants etc. We walked the streets until it was getting dark and took a taxi back to the hotel.
The funny part was that when the guys were making arrangements for their dive, my friend and I sat down at a nearby desk and started talking to a clerk there. She turned out to also be pregnant, also 5 months and also with a boy!!! She told us that the food on the resort was safe as she eats on the resort herself. The food was good and I was only disappointed once when we had dinner at the buffet and the theme was Mexican - the only thing I could eat was some tomatoes and corn, and I asked the server to wash a sweet pepper for me (which was part of decoration).
My only problem was sleep. I couldn't adjust to the time difference, which was 3 hours in San Diego and 2 hours in Mexico. By 10 p.m. I would be falling a sleep, but then I was waking up a lot during the night as the beds were too soft and I couldn't make myself comfortable without my body pillow. I was sleeping with one pillow in between my knees, one pillow on each of the sides and one pillow for my head. I was also waking up at least twice to pee and usually was up around 7 a.m. Once I got home the sleep did improve some what.
I did have a little scare in Mexico, as one day when I was getting ready to take a shower and was naked when I felt a drop or two of liquid streaming down my thigh (on the inside). I freaked out a bit and tried to remember what I did just before to justify it. I did pee before and then washed my hands so that could have been water from when I washed my hands or may be I didn't wipe myself properly. I did manage to calm myself as there was nothing much I could do there. Something similar happened again in San Diego on our way back, so I am definitely mentioning this to my doctor when I see him next Wednesday.
The most exciting thing pregnancy wise happened on our last day in Mexico. DH went to swim in the ocean and our friends were in their room changing (since we didn't have much time until we had to leave, I wore my bathing suit to breakfast so didn't need to change). So I was laying on a lounge chair when I felt the baby kicking, then I looked down on my tummy and I saw it wobbling. Yep, I could see the baby kicking from the outside. I jumped up excited, but there was no one to share the news with. So disappointing...
On the way home from Mexico we had an overnight stay in San Diego. We checked into our hotel and decided to continue exploring our surroundings. The weather was a bit on a chilly side, but still much warmer than in TO. We went to Horton mall and then walked through Seaport Village to the fish restaurant where we had dinner before. This time around we changed what we ordered and the food was still good. We walked more through the Seaport Village (even though all little stores were already closed) and then decided to go to a supermarket for a desert and some food for the flight home. We ended up eating our desert in our room before going to sleep.
The next morning I woke up at 6 a.m. (as it was 7 a.m. in Mexico). I was still in bed when I heard my cellphone ring. I let it ring before getting up to go to the washroom and check who it was. It was the office. I knew exactly why. I did notice that my boss put in the wrong date for my arrival in his calendar, but since I gave him the right dates in writing I really didn't care. So I texted my clerk and asked her if any thing is wrong and they need my help to which she replied confirming that my boss was furious that I wasn't at the office... oh well... We had breakfast at a little cafe that DH found on the internet as one of the top 10 and we were a bit disappointed as it wasn't anything special. We then walked through Seaport Village again, this time stopping at the little shops and enjoying the rustic beauty, and then walked along the waterfront for almost 2 hours until it was time to get a taxi to the airport.
The flight was pretty uneventful and our bags were amount the first 10-15 on the belt. My BIL picked us up and SIL ordered some food. I wasn't hungry but we had absolutely no food in the fridge. We had to stop over BIL & SIL's house as DH wanted to say hi to his mom, so I got in to say hi to my SIL. We ended up staying there for about an hour eating some food and just talking in general, so didn't get home until 10:30 p.m.
As expected, work was crazy busy on Thursday, when we hit the 25 week mark, but that's the topic for the next post.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
21 and 22 weeks
Well, today we are actually crossing into week 23, but I have been one busy bee lately so I let my blogging slide and this is going to be one long post.
I guess I should start with our OBGYN apt at 21w1d. As always it was quick, efficient and straight to the point. The doc quickly reviewed our ISP/NT results that were very good with a chance of down 1 in 20,0000 (which is the lowest that our hospital gives). The anatomy scan results were also in, and it did say "male" at the beginning of the report. The doc also told me that my blood work was good, including my iron level (I did have some problems with iron a few years ago). We've heard the heart beat again and the doc said that it was good too. He was measuring my uterus and it was about 10 cm or so above the belly button!!! (to tell you the truth, now at almost 23 weeks, I can feel the baby all over the place and both my upper and lower stomachs are very hard). We talked a bit about the flu shot and he was very adamant that we get it (we were swaying towards it anyways), he cautioned us that a flu complication can kill both me and the baby. We also asked him about our vacation in Mexico and his suggestions were to drink only bottled water and refrain from salads. I also talked to him about sleeping and I gravitate toward my stomach and wake up nauseous, he said to try to avoid sleeping on the stomach and it is better if I sleep on the side but need to lean in some direction, that I partially lean on my back. Next appointment in 4 weeks (which is exactly the week we are coming back). We also scheduled an apt for December in another 4 weeks as his morning started to fill in quickly (ugh...).
That Friday was also a girls night out. My sis picked me up as well as my SIL and another mutual friend (all three of them have 2 kids of roughly the same age). We went to a restaurant/lounge and had some fun. We were celebrating my pregnancy, and friend's finishing b/f and since she didn't drink for the last 4 years (having one kid, then b/f, then having another, then b/f again) she got a bit tipsy. I drove home as I was the only one who didn't drink that time. It was so nice to get out and talk mostly about kids :)
On Saturday, I went to my yoga class as always, and then DH & I ran some errands. In the evening we went to my parents' house as we were babysitting my brother. He was good. ME and him played some Wii while DH picked up some food for us. My brother managed to eat all of his oatmeal plus meat and rice that DH bought (he is 13 and his body is growing I guess). My brother was so cute, when I ask him where the baby is - he pats my tummy. I really love my brother as he is also my baby (I was 18 and a half when he was born and we were very close). I helped him brush his teeth and put his pj on and wished him goodnight, and then when I came up in about 10 minutes he was not sleeping yet, so I just sat next to his bed a bit. My brother is autistic so he need much more help than a regular 13 year old. As I was sitting in the dark in his room, I realized that I can do it, I can be a mom to a baby boy, and my baby would love me as much (if not more) than my brother.
I took Sunday off and I think I am getting some of the nesting instinct, as I went through the second bathroom (which is right across the baby's room and will be his bathroom) and threw out and recycled tons and tons of plastic bottles from all the shampoos, conditioners, creams and other cosmetics that I haven't been using for ages. DH was working on his computer and I was begging him to go for a walk, but then my sis called and invited me to come with her to parents' place so we can all go for a walk there. So off I went with my sis together with her kids as well as my mom and my brother. It was a nice 3 km walk, and I wish I could do it much more often.
On Monday was Halloween, and I was lucky that my boss disappeared from the office at around 3 p.m. I took an early train and was at home around 6 p.m. It was still light outside but kids already started to trick or treat. DH & I quickly had a bite to eat before my parents came over with my brother. I've been taking my brother trick or treating since he was 2 years old - every year, so that's our little tradition :). As we were getting ready to leave, we had about 10 kids come to our door to get candy. Our neighbourhood had soooo many kids out and we've met EVERYBODY! I have never seen so many kids and people on the streets. I guess the weather being not too cold contributed to that. We met up with my sis and her family as well as with my SIL and her family and tons of other friends. I got bunny ears with lights from my BIL (who worked a night club the night before and had all the trinkets). We mostly ended up walking either by ourselves or with my sis and my niece as others were taking too long talking to the vast amount of friends and acquaintances that we were meeting. There were so many kids that a few houses we visited ran out of candy. One guy told me that he went through 10 boxes of candy just giving out one candy per kid. I tried to take it easy and did not go up to all the doors with my brother, although I do worry as he can be a bit unpredictable (like actually going into people's houses), so I had to stay close anyways. By the end of about 2 hours of walking and trick or treating I was DONE. I had to stop a few times to bend over, which helps me feel better (I guess it releases pressure from somewhere). I wanted to show my parents a cool house in our neighbourhood, but by that time I was too exhausted to walk, so we got our car and just drove there and back. DH made some food for my parents, and I went through and sorted all the candy that my brother got (I also do it every year, LOL). Well I did eat some of it (he doesn't mind), but most of them went home with my brother.
On Tuesday my mom had a minor surgery. I talked to both her and dad before and then my sis called me and said that she left work early so she can stay with mom at the hospital since she is there all alone (which was a total BS as mom did not want anyone there and dad was picking her up). Of course, about 10 min after she called, my dad called that the doctor told him that it is ok to pick mom up, and then mom called herself. By the time my sis came, mom was already home. So then, mom called me and asked me if we would come over, and I couldn't say no. So I after work I went to my parents' house as opposed to going home. I enjoy spending time with my parents, but being a mid week night, by the time we got home, I was exhausted as it was very late.
I guess spending so much time withe my family and kids in general resulted in me really wanting my baby. I had very vivid dreams about my baby AFTER he was born, not the labour and delivery part, and when I woke up I had a real longing for him. I cannot imagine that I can love and long for someone who I've never even met. It is a new feeling to me. Till this day every time I see my growing belly in the mirror, I remind myself that YES it is actually happening to ME. We ARE having a baby in short 4 months. We've been on this road for such a long time that it is still hard to believe.
Thursday (22 weeks) started like a normal day until I got to the train and sat down. I felt sharp pains in my tummy and around, so I though that may be the baby is not comfortable (he is known for that- wants his space - just like his daddy), so I unzipped my jacket and that didn't help one bit. I had sharp pains all day and after doing some research on google I found out that those were probably still round ligament pains - and they were a common occurrence even at 22 weeks. Who knew??? Luckily the pain subsided on Friday, so I am thinking that the baby was going through a growth spur, and I am happy with that.
Last Friday I had lots of plans for what to do after work, but first decided to stop by my parents' place to pick up some dresses for the beach. Well my dad's friend showed up and needed help with his computer so we pretty much stayed at my parents until well into the night.
DH and I were both busy bees on Saturday. I had my yoga class and sugaring (Brazilian)right after (at a different place of course). I stopped by the house to have breakfast (at 1 p.m.) and had to rush out to go to a pedicure. The weather was so good that i decided to walk (it's only about 40 min walk). It was nice, but I had to stop a few times to bend over when I wasn't feeling to good. When I got to the place I saw my sis there. It was a surprise as I chatted with her in the morning and asked what her plans were and she said she didn't have any, but then when her kids went for an afternoon nap she called the place and they had an opening. So we had a nice time together catching up. Since I stopped taking an early train with her we don't interact as much. She also dropped me off at my house.
On Friday, I spent a great deal on the computer researching - I found out that there will be a flu clinic not far away on Saturday, found out what vaccine they offer and did research regarding those vaccines, including manufacturing documentation and information from various FDA applications. By the time I got home on Saturday after a pedi we only had less than an hour until the clinic would be closing. As I had a very heated discussion about this with my sis and SIL, I told DH not to tell anyone, and felt a bit bad sneaking around to get the shot. Once we got to the clinic (which was in the middle of the mall), I was still hesitating a bit if we are making the right decision, and then I saw how many infants they had there and decided that it was a right one. I did my research, I knew what I was doing, and it was my decision based on facts rather than somebody else's based mostly on emotional don't do it!
We stopped by at a store to buy a gift certificate for a friend (who I actually distanced myself from - or was it mutual? but that's a long story and not for this post). We headed downtown to a nice restaurant to celebrate her birthday. The food was good and we stayed there pretty late. Of course, during the course of the dinner I had to get up 5 or 6 times to go peel (but as everyone drank alcohol, I just jugged water, so that might have been the reason).
On Sunday, we had breakfast at my SIL's house with MIL cooking, and then I headed out to the office. DH was amazing. I did some research regarding sunscreens and chose a few natural brands. As I knew that I would not have any time to stop by a health food store, I forwarded to him my research and he got me two bottle - SPF 15 and SPF 30, although they were a bit pricey.
I was hoping to start packing on Monday, but it turned out to be a 13 hour day at the office. So, on Tuesday, I asked DH to get the suitcases upstairs into our bedroom so that I can start putting some clothes in them. Well, it is now Thursday, and mine has only 2 things in it. So as soon as I finish writing this blog, I am off to trying on clothes to take with us.
Some general observations for weeks 21 and 22:
- I still sneeze a lot during the day and occasionally have a runny nose;
- My bbs hurt and my nipples are extremely sensitive;
- I constantly feel pressure in my tummy and a lot of stretching pains and aches;
- It is getting hard to bend over to take off or put on my shoes, or pick something from the floor, it is also getting harder to getting up from sitting position;
- I think I feel the weight of my baby and he is getting heavier;
- I gained about 3 kg (and a bit upset by that) as it is not all baby, but my inability to get exercise into my daily routine and finishing up Halloween candy;
- the sleep has been awful. I've been sleeping in little increments waking up constantly to turn or to go pee. Even before I got pregnant I was sleeping with a body pillow. I basically just lean on it as opposed to sleeping directly on my stomach, but lately since my tummy grew so much, leaning on it made me nauseous and hence horrible time sleeping - tossing and turning all the time. A couple of nights ago I actually figured it out. I now put one end of the pillow between my knees, which surprisingly helps me to sleep more on my side rather than leaning on my stomach, who knew... I do wake up though when I have to change sides (but not as often as before), and unless I have to pee, I fall asleep pretty much right away. The only problem with that is that I think my thighs are starting to hurt a bit. Never a dull moment.
So I think this is it for now. My next update will follow once we are back home which will not be until Wednesday, November 23rd, at which point I'll be at the end of week 24!!!
I guess I should start with our OBGYN apt at 21w1d. As always it was quick, efficient and straight to the point. The doc quickly reviewed our ISP/NT results that were very good with a chance of down 1 in 20,0000 (which is the lowest that our hospital gives). The anatomy scan results were also in, and it did say "male" at the beginning of the report. The doc also told me that my blood work was good, including my iron level (I did have some problems with iron a few years ago). We've heard the heart beat again and the doc said that it was good too. He was measuring my uterus and it was about 10 cm or so above the belly button!!! (to tell you the truth, now at almost 23 weeks, I can feel the baby all over the place and both my upper and lower stomachs are very hard). We talked a bit about the flu shot and he was very adamant that we get it (we were swaying towards it anyways), he cautioned us that a flu complication can kill both me and the baby. We also asked him about our vacation in Mexico and his suggestions were to drink only bottled water and refrain from salads. I also talked to him about sleeping and I gravitate toward my stomach and wake up nauseous, he said to try to avoid sleeping on the stomach and it is better if I sleep on the side but need to lean in some direction, that I partially lean on my back. Next appointment in 4 weeks (which is exactly the week we are coming back). We also scheduled an apt for December in another 4 weeks as his morning started to fill in quickly (ugh...).
That Friday was also a girls night out. My sis picked me up as well as my SIL and another mutual friend (all three of them have 2 kids of roughly the same age). We went to a restaurant/lounge and had some fun. We were celebrating my pregnancy, and friend's finishing b/f and since she didn't drink for the last 4 years (having one kid, then b/f, then having another, then b/f again) she got a bit tipsy. I drove home as I was the only one who didn't drink that time. It was so nice to get out and talk mostly about kids :)
On Saturday, I went to my yoga class as always, and then DH & I ran some errands. In the evening we went to my parents' house as we were babysitting my brother. He was good. ME and him played some Wii while DH picked up some food for us. My brother managed to eat all of his oatmeal plus meat and rice that DH bought (he is 13 and his body is growing I guess). My brother was so cute, when I ask him where the baby is - he pats my tummy. I really love my brother as he is also my baby (I was 18 and a half when he was born and we were very close). I helped him brush his teeth and put his pj on and wished him goodnight, and then when I came up in about 10 minutes he was not sleeping yet, so I just sat next to his bed a bit. My brother is autistic so he need much more help than a regular 13 year old. As I was sitting in the dark in his room, I realized that I can do it, I can be a mom to a baby boy, and my baby would love me as much (if not more) than my brother.
I took Sunday off and I think I am getting some of the nesting instinct, as I went through the second bathroom (which is right across the baby's room and will be his bathroom) and threw out and recycled tons and tons of plastic bottles from all the shampoos, conditioners, creams and other cosmetics that I haven't been using for ages. DH was working on his computer and I was begging him to go for a walk, but then my sis called and invited me to come with her to parents' place so we can all go for a walk there. So off I went with my sis together with her kids as well as my mom and my brother. It was a nice 3 km walk, and I wish I could do it much more often.
On Monday was Halloween, and I was lucky that my boss disappeared from the office at around 3 p.m. I took an early train and was at home around 6 p.m. It was still light outside but kids already started to trick or treat. DH & I quickly had a bite to eat before my parents came over with my brother. I've been taking my brother trick or treating since he was 2 years old - every year, so that's our little tradition :). As we were getting ready to leave, we had about 10 kids come to our door to get candy. Our neighbourhood had soooo many kids out and we've met EVERYBODY! I have never seen so many kids and people on the streets. I guess the weather being not too cold contributed to that. We met up with my sis and her family as well as with my SIL and her family and tons of other friends. I got bunny ears with lights from my BIL (who worked a night club the night before and had all the trinkets). We mostly ended up walking either by ourselves or with my sis and my niece as others were taking too long talking to the vast amount of friends and acquaintances that we were meeting. There were so many kids that a few houses we visited ran out of candy. One guy told me that he went through 10 boxes of candy just giving out one candy per kid. I tried to take it easy and did not go up to all the doors with my brother, although I do worry as he can be a bit unpredictable (like actually going into people's houses), so I had to stay close anyways. By the end of about 2 hours of walking and trick or treating I was DONE. I had to stop a few times to bend over, which helps me feel better (I guess it releases pressure from somewhere). I wanted to show my parents a cool house in our neighbourhood, but by that time I was too exhausted to walk, so we got our car and just drove there and back. DH made some food for my parents, and I went through and sorted all the candy that my brother got (I also do it every year, LOL). Well I did eat some of it (he doesn't mind), but most of them went home with my brother.
On Tuesday my mom had a minor surgery. I talked to both her and dad before and then my sis called me and said that she left work early so she can stay with mom at the hospital since she is there all alone (which was a total BS as mom did not want anyone there and dad was picking her up). Of course, about 10 min after she called, my dad called that the doctor told him that it is ok to pick mom up, and then mom called herself. By the time my sis came, mom was already home. So then, mom called me and asked me if we would come over, and I couldn't say no. So I after work I went to my parents' house as opposed to going home. I enjoy spending time with my parents, but being a mid week night, by the time we got home, I was exhausted as it was very late.
I guess spending so much time withe my family and kids in general resulted in me really wanting my baby. I had very vivid dreams about my baby AFTER he was born, not the labour and delivery part, and when I woke up I had a real longing for him. I cannot imagine that I can love and long for someone who I've never even met. It is a new feeling to me. Till this day every time I see my growing belly in the mirror, I remind myself that YES it is actually happening to ME. We ARE having a baby in short 4 months. We've been on this road for such a long time that it is still hard to believe.
Thursday (22 weeks) started like a normal day until I got to the train and sat down. I felt sharp pains in my tummy and around, so I though that may be the baby is not comfortable (he is known for that- wants his space - just like his daddy), so I unzipped my jacket and that didn't help one bit. I had sharp pains all day and after doing some research on google I found out that those were probably still round ligament pains - and they were a common occurrence even at 22 weeks. Who knew??? Luckily the pain subsided on Friday, so I am thinking that the baby was going through a growth spur, and I am happy with that.
Last Friday I had lots of plans for what to do after work, but first decided to stop by my parents' place to pick up some dresses for the beach. Well my dad's friend showed up and needed help with his computer so we pretty much stayed at my parents until well into the night.
DH and I were both busy bees on Saturday. I had my yoga class and sugaring (Brazilian)right after (at a different place of course). I stopped by the house to have breakfast (at 1 p.m.) and had to rush out to go to a pedicure. The weather was so good that i decided to walk (it's only about 40 min walk). It was nice, but I had to stop a few times to bend over when I wasn't feeling to good. When I got to the place I saw my sis there. It was a surprise as I chatted with her in the morning and asked what her plans were and she said she didn't have any, but then when her kids went for an afternoon nap she called the place and they had an opening. So we had a nice time together catching up. Since I stopped taking an early train with her we don't interact as much. She also dropped me off at my house.
On Friday, I spent a great deal on the computer researching - I found out that there will be a flu clinic not far away on Saturday, found out what vaccine they offer and did research regarding those vaccines, including manufacturing documentation and information from various FDA applications. By the time I got home on Saturday after a pedi we only had less than an hour until the clinic would be closing. As I had a very heated discussion about this with my sis and SIL, I told DH not to tell anyone, and felt a bit bad sneaking around to get the shot. Once we got to the clinic (which was in the middle of the mall), I was still hesitating a bit if we are making the right decision, and then I saw how many infants they had there and decided that it was a right one. I did my research, I knew what I was doing, and it was my decision based on facts rather than somebody else's based mostly on emotional don't do it!
We stopped by at a store to buy a gift certificate for a friend (who I actually distanced myself from - or was it mutual? but that's a long story and not for this post). We headed downtown to a nice restaurant to celebrate her birthday. The food was good and we stayed there pretty late. Of course, during the course of the dinner I had to get up 5 or 6 times to go peel (but as everyone drank alcohol, I just jugged water, so that might have been the reason).
On Sunday, we had breakfast at my SIL's house with MIL cooking, and then I headed out to the office. DH was amazing. I did some research regarding sunscreens and chose a few natural brands. As I knew that I would not have any time to stop by a health food store, I forwarded to him my research and he got me two bottle - SPF 15 and SPF 30, although they were a bit pricey.
I was hoping to start packing on Monday, but it turned out to be a 13 hour day at the office. So, on Tuesday, I asked DH to get the suitcases upstairs into our bedroom so that I can start putting some clothes in them. Well, it is now Thursday, and mine has only 2 things in it. So as soon as I finish writing this blog, I am off to trying on clothes to take with us.
Some general observations for weeks 21 and 22:
- I still sneeze a lot during the day and occasionally have a runny nose;
- My bbs hurt and my nipples are extremely sensitive;
- I constantly feel pressure in my tummy and a lot of stretching pains and aches;
- It is getting hard to bend over to take off or put on my shoes, or pick something from the floor, it is also getting harder to getting up from sitting position;
- I think I feel the weight of my baby and he is getting heavier;
- I gained about 3 kg (and a bit upset by that) as it is not all baby, but my inability to get exercise into my daily routine and finishing up Halloween candy;
- the sleep has been awful. I've been sleeping in little increments waking up constantly to turn or to go pee. Even before I got pregnant I was sleeping with a body pillow. I basically just lean on it as opposed to sleeping directly on my stomach, but lately since my tummy grew so much, leaning on it made me nauseous and hence horrible time sleeping - tossing and turning all the time. A couple of nights ago I actually figured it out. I now put one end of the pillow between my knees, which surprisingly helps me to sleep more on my side rather than leaning on my stomach, who knew... I do wake up though when I have to change sides (but not as often as before), and unless I have to pee, I fall asleep pretty much right away. The only problem with that is that I think my thighs are starting to hurt a bit. Never a dull moment.
So I think this is it for now. My next update will follow once we are back home which will not be until Wednesday, November 23rd, at which point I'll be at the end of week 24!!!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
20 weeks - Half Way to the Finish Line !!!
Well, the week 20 which started last Thursday has not been as excited as the previous week, although we are half way through our pregnancy. I have been feeling my baby more during this week and feeling him brings smile to my face wherever I am. In accordance with one of my tickers, the baby is now the size of a cantaloupe, and it definitely feels this way. I think he is constantly growing and I feel how heavy my tummy becomes and constant stretching of my tummy.
I was on pins and needles on Friday afternoon waiting from a call from my friend in the States as she was having her anatomy scan. When we were in US, I was kidding that I am going to have a girl and she is going to have a boy (that's what we both wanted) and that our kids would get married. Well, I am having a boy, and was sure that she is having a girl, as it switched for us. She jokingly suggested that if she is having a girl we can switch. LOL. She is my best friend and I am ashamed to admit that I felt a ping of jealousy when I thought that I'll have to give her all the girl stuff that my sis saved for me. Well the call came, and she is also having a BOY. Ha ha, so there will be no marriage, but two best friends. Good enough for me!!!
Friday evening I made a date with my pregnant friend N who is just a few days ahead with a due date on March 5th. We actually made it a double date and had our DHs with us. I was lucky that my boss left a few minutes before I had to leave so it wasn't a big problem. The dinner was nice. She looked great and her tummy looked huge, but she is much more petite than me. The surprise was that she gained close to 12 kg and I only 1.5 kg (and I am trying to keep it at that for a while if I can, although now it is closer to 2kg). We were done close to 10 p.m. and even though we were invited to another friend's house, I was too exhausted to go anywhere else, as the night before I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to pee, and when I returned to bed, DH wasn't sleeping and wanted to hug me and kiss the baby (apparently he just got to bed), so one thing led to another and you can guess where it ended. So, of course, thereafter I had no inclination to go back to sleep, we chatted for a bit about his business and then he easily went to sleep, and I was left tossing and turning all night unable to fall asleep or dozing off for little periods of time. Ugh. So, I decided to go to bed on Friday night earlier, and of course, as I got to bed, I decided to call my friend in the States as our earlier conversation was very short as she had tons of people to call to tell the news. I ended up on the phone with her for over 2 hours!!! We talked about everything including our vacation in the near future and she brought up a couple of good points - what are we going to eat?, what are we going to wear to the beach? and what are we going to use as a sun block? Hmmm.... have to think about that more. By the way, any thoughts re whether it is safe to eat raw vegetables and fruits on an all-inclusive resort in Mexico?
Saturday started as always with me going to my prenatal yoga class. On the way back I decided to do a surprise to DH and buy him his favourite Star.bucks coffee, but then I remembered that the week before he actually walked to the store(as we have one car) and bought himself one. So, I called and told him about the surprise from his son & myself, and he said if I show up with a Star.bucks coffee, he will act very much surprised LOL. So we did just that.
As we were having breakfast my dad called and invited us for sushi for lunch. Umm... second day in a row... but he was so insistent that we decided to oblige. As it was close to noon and we were just having breakfast (as I don't eat before going to yoga class), I told him that we should do it close to 3 or 4 p.m. I also was not in the mood for shopping, so I convinced DH to go to my parents' house and go for a walk on the new walkway built by the city next to their house. The weather was a bit chilly, but the walk was still nice. I am estimating that we walked over 4 km, with me, my mom and my brother walking and DH with my dad rollerblading. We did go out for sushi thereafter, and DH also invited MIL to come with us. Since my parents were present too, I didn't mind her that much, so overall it was a nice experience. We dropped MIL at her house and went home to chill out a bit. I tried to sleep, but was not successful. For the rest of the night we just went to my sis' house to spend time with her, BIL and our mutual friend.
Sunday, as DH was driving me to the subway to go to the office, he mentioned how good the weather was, as it was much warmer than Saturday. I did promise him that I would go outside for a bit, which I did walking a longer way from the subway to the office outside. I did spend most of the time in the office though.
Monday, I decided to see if I can sneak out of work a bit earlier, and it just turned out that I didn't have any pressing matters (and by the way, earlier for me is 6:30 p.m.). When I got home, I managed to get DH to agree to go for a walk with me. It was close to freezing, but I was dressed pretty warm. The only thing was that I had a t-shirt and a warmer sports jacket on top, which didn't close, and then my warm jacket which does close, but my tummy created a little tent so the wind would go underneath and the tummy was only covered by the t-shirt and felt a bit naked. Oh well, as we started walking we both got warmed out. We had a nice 2.5 km walk in our neighbourhood. As DH was driving earlier in the afternoon he noticed a cool "haunted house" so we went to see it. The people who live there did go all out. It was a corner house and it was fully decorated with huge moving cats filled with air, to tons of tiny details and an amazing lighting. We decided that the next day we would go in another direction to another "haunted house" which usually is the star of the neighbourhood, as they not only decorate outside, but also inside and their back yard and take donations on Halloween to benefit Sick Kids Hospital, which is a great idea. Unfortunately, both Tuesday and Wednesday I worked to my normal hours (i.e. 7:30 p.m.) and it has been raining, so not really walking mood.
I've been also thinking a lot about our OBGYN visit this Friday (21w1d) and I have a few questions to ask the doctor:
1) I want to know his position regarding flu shots. I am more inclined on taking it (the one specifically formulated for pregnant women, without mercury), but do want to hear his opinion;
2) I also want to know the results of our NT & IPS tests, and of course the second u/s. I have been thinking about it and the last blood work for IPS was done at 17w, so his office should probably have results already, and if they didn't call, then it means that everything is alright. I was also thinking that whatever the results are - it would not change our mind about giving birth to this baby. So, theoretically, who cares...
3) I also want to confirm with him that it is ok for me to fly in about 2 weeks (yei the vacation is coming!!!) as well as ask his thoughts regarding food in Mexico;
4) The last point, is that I got a bit paranoid that I am squishing our baby when I am sleeping. I do use the body pillow, but most of the time I am actually sleeping leaning on to eat and almost on top. I usually feel a few nudges from the inside when I am trying to all asleep or when trying to sleep the last minutes before the alarm. So I think I might not leave him a lot of space. I don't know....
So, yesterday, I also tried my two swimming suites (they are both tankinies), and one is already too small. I can still fit into it, but the underwear are too tight and I have to make sure I fold them to be under my tummy, and then the top part doesn't cover the full tummy, which is OK when you are normal weight and have a nice pregnant belly, but not when you are overweight. So DH & I did some research and bought 2 maternity swimsuits on line and sent them to our US friends, cause its cheaper and they are coming with us so they'll bring it with them to our vacation. But since we are on the topic of my body, here is the scoop for 21 weeks. I gained almost 2 kg, which puts me at about the same weight as I was pre pregnancy. That's ok. I have tons of stretch marks on my bbs and my thighs, but I had stretch marks there before, so not really sure if there are new ones (that's the beauty of being overweight all your life and yo-yoing weight). The tummy is holding on, no stretch marks there, and I am hoping none are going to develop. I do put stretch mark cream all over every morning, so here is hoping that it will work. Well, that's it for now. With new updates to follow after OBGYN visit.
I was on pins and needles on Friday afternoon waiting from a call from my friend in the States as she was having her anatomy scan. When we were in US, I was kidding that I am going to have a girl and she is going to have a boy (that's what we both wanted) and that our kids would get married. Well, I am having a boy, and was sure that she is having a girl, as it switched for us. She jokingly suggested that if she is having a girl we can switch. LOL. She is my best friend and I am ashamed to admit that I felt a ping of jealousy when I thought that I'll have to give her all the girl stuff that my sis saved for me. Well the call came, and she is also having a BOY. Ha ha, so there will be no marriage, but two best friends. Good enough for me!!!
Friday evening I made a date with my pregnant friend N who is just a few days ahead with a due date on March 5th. We actually made it a double date and had our DHs with us. I was lucky that my boss left a few minutes before I had to leave so it wasn't a big problem. The dinner was nice. She looked great and her tummy looked huge, but she is much more petite than me. The surprise was that she gained close to 12 kg and I only 1.5 kg (and I am trying to keep it at that for a while if I can, although now it is closer to 2kg). We were done close to 10 p.m. and even though we were invited to another friend's house, I was too exhausted to go anywhere else, as the night before I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to pee, and when I returned to bed, DH wasn't sleeping and wanted to hug me and kiss the baby (apparently he just got to bed), so one thing led to another and you can guess where it ended. So, of course, thereafter I had no inclination to go back to sleep, we chatted for a bit about his business and then he easily went to sleep, and I was left tossing and turning all night unable to fall asleep or dozing off for little periods of time. Ugh. So, I decided to go to bed on Friday night earlier, and of course, as I got to bed, I decided to call my friend in the States as our earlier conversation was very short as she had tons of people to call to tell the news. I ended up on the phone with her for over 2 hours!!! We talked about everything including our vacation in the near future and she brought up a couple of good points - what are we going to eat?, what are we going to wear to the beach? and what are we going to use as a sun block? Hmmm.... have to think about that more. By the way, any thoughts re whether it is safe to eat raw vegetables and fruits on an all-inclusive resort in Mexico?
Saturday started as always with me going to my prenatal yoga class. On the way back I decided to do a surprise to DH and buy him his favourite Star.bucks coffee, but then I remembered that the week before he actually walked to the store(as we have one car) and bought himself one. So, I called and told him about the surprise from his son & myself, and he said if I show up with a Star.bucks coffee, he will act very much surprised LOL. So we did just that.
As we were having breakfast my dad called and invited us for sushi for lunch. Umm... second day in a row... but he was so insistent that we decided to oblige. As it was close to noon and we were just having breakfast (as I don't eat before going to yoga class), I told him that we should do it close to 3 or 4 p.m. I also was not in the mood for shopping, so I convinced DH to go to my parents' house and go for a walk on the new walkway built by the city next to their house. The weather was a bit chilly, but the walk was still nice. I am estimating that we walked over 4 km, with me, my mom and my brother walking and DH with my dad rollerblading. We did go out for sushi thereafter, and DH also invited MIL to come with us. Since my parents were present too, I didn't mind her that much, so overall it was a nice experience. We dropped MIL at her house and went home to chill out a bit. I tried to sleep, but was not successful. For the rest of the night we just went to my sis' house to spend time with her, BIL and our mutual friend.
Sunday, as DH was driving me to the subway to go to the office, he mentioned how good the weather was, as it was much warmer than Saturday. I did promise him that I would go outside for a bit, which I did walking a longer way from the subway to the office outside. I did spend most of the time in the office though.
Monday, I decided to see if I can sneak out of work a bit earlier, and it just turned out that I didn't have any pressing matters (and by the way, earlier for me is 6:30 p.m.). When I got home, I managed to get DH to agree to go for a walk with me. It was close to freezing, but I was dressed pretty warm. The only thing was that I had a t-shirt and a warmer sports jacket on top, which didn't close, and then my warm jacket which does close, but my tummy created a little tent so the wind would go underneath and the tummy was only covered by the t-shirt and felt a bit naked. Oh well, as we started walking we both got warmed out. We had a nice 2.5 km walk in our neighbourhood. As DH was driving earlier in the afternoon he noticed a cool "haunted house" so we went to see it. The people who live there did go all out. It was a corner house and it was fully decorated with huge moving cats filled with air, to tons of tiny details and an amazing lighting. We decided that the next day we would go in another direction to another "haunted house" which usually is the star of the neighbourhood, as they not only decorate outside, but also inside and their back yard and take donations on Halloween to benefit Sick Kids Hospital, which is a great idea. Unfortunately, both Tuesday and Wednesday I worked to my normal hours (i.e. 7:30 p.m.) and it has been raining, so not really walking mood.
I've been also thinking a lot about our OBGYN visit this Friday (21w1d) and I have a few questions to ask the doctor:
1) I want to know his position regarding flu shots. I am more inclined on taking it (the one specifically formulated for pregnant women, without mercury), but do want to hear his opinion;
2) I also want to know the results of our NT & IPS tests, and of course the second u/s. I have been thinking about it and the last blood work for IPS was done at 17w, so his office should probably have results already, and if they didn't call, then it means that everything is alright. I was also thinking that whatever the results are - it would not change our mind about giving birth to this baby. So, theoretically, who cares...
3) I also want to confirm with him that it is ok for me to fly in about 2 weeks (yei the vacation is coming!!!) as well as ask his thoughts regarding food in Mexico;
4) The last point, is that I got a bit paranoid that I am squishing our baby when I am sleeping. I do use the body pillow, but most of the time I am actually sleeping leaning on to eat and almost on top. I usually feel a few nudges from the inside when I am trying to all asleep or when trying to sleep the last minutes before the alarm. So I think I might not leave him a lot of space. I don't know....
So, yesterday, I also tried my two swimming suites (they are both tankinies), and one is already too small. I can still fit into it, but the underwear are too tight and I have to make sure I fold them to be under my tummy, and then the top part doesn't cover the full tummy, which is OK when you are normal weight and have a nice pregnant belly, but not when you are overweight. So DH & I did some research and bought 2 maternity swimsuits on line and sent them to our US friends, cause its cheaper and they are coming with us so they'll bring it with them to our vacation. But since we are on the topic of my body, here is the scoop for 21 weeks. I gained almost 2 kg, which puts me at about the same weight as I was pre pregnancy. That's ok. I have tons of stretch marks on my bbs and my thighs, but I had stretch marks there before, so not really sure if there are new ones (that's the beauty of being overweight all your life and yo-yoing weight). The tummy is holding on, no stretch marks there, and I am hoping none are going to develop. I do put stretch mark cream all over every morning, so here is hoping that it will work. Well, that's it for now. With new updates to follow after OBGYN visit.
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