Neurologically speaking...

I'm A-OK. Ha, did I ever fool him! :)

So we bought the king sized bed, I'm so excited. And it works out well, my friend Lisa is moving into the neighbourhood tomorrow and she has rented a 10 cube foot van, so we are going to borrow it to pick up the bed. Otherwise, we'd have to drive it on top of the van and that didn't seem like the best option to me.

We picked up a roller for the stucco ceiling in the babe's room and we are going to paint this weekend. We were going to start Friday night, but now the bed moving will take place then (and we are taking our existing queen in the spare room, lending it to Lisa and moving the queen sized bed in our bedroom into the spare room). We may as well do it all while we have the truck. We are also giving her a single bed cause we were just going to toss it anyways, we have 4 beds (soon to be 5) for a 3 bedroom house.

The baby is kicking all.the.time I mean it, as soon as I sit down for longer than 5 minutes this baby is doing ninja chops inside my stomach! Apparently it will eventually slow down as the baby will have less room to move around, and I know I will miss it when it's gone.

2 people yesterday told us we were nuts for not finding out the sex. But, how excited will YOU be when you get the call "we had a .....!"

Tonight is a girl's night out on Elgin street for some dinner and drinks. Anne is visiting from Vancouver... I'm looking forward to it!

Ebay

I just made my first bid EVER on ebay. I bid on two maternity T shirts. They are super cute - from Belly Incorporated and only $4 Cdn for each one - and the seller will ship them in a legal sized envelope so to minimize shipping costs. I normally would never order clothes, but it's only a T-shirt and hey, if it doesn't fit or look right, I'm only out about $15.00.




And really, I would rather my first buy off e-bay be small... I just feel more comfortable with it. But if all works out OK, watch out ebay :)

Wow...

The baby weighs 2 lbs and is 14 inches long. That's incredible to me. But, from the strength of his kicks, I can believe it.

Just this morning Jeff told me how much I move when I sleep now, I didn't use to before. It's because I just can't get comfortable anymore when I'm sleeping. And it's not just because I'm big, it's that I like sleeping on my back. But, you're not supposed to so every time I wake up during the night (which unfortunately is quite a lot) I'm always on my back, so I have to turn on my side. What a pain.

BUT, tonight we are going to look at the king sized bed. SO excited. SO SO SO excited. The only down side is we have a ton of beautiful sheets and duvet covers for our queen sized bed. Now I'm starting at ground zero again and have to build up my beddings for the king sized. I was at Ikea the other day and saw a beautiful duvet cover and sheets and they are damn cheap there. I don't think they are above a 200 thread count, but I'll probably get them anyways.

The sheets that go with it are a plain dark red and I think it will look perfect with our dark brown furniture and olive green walls. I also have to get a king sized quilt now. I will probably hit up Winners and/or Home Sense... my last two duvets I got were down filled, but they get flat after a while so I think I'm going to go for the old school polyester filled - I like when they are big and fluffy.

Ok, so maybe this was completely not pregnancy related, but in a weird way it all ties in.

Looking back at the pictures I posted of me last week, I look HUGE! I actually look bigger than I do today. It totally depends on what I wear. Yesterday I think I looked 8 months pregnant (although, aren't we all our own critics) and today I look just 5 or 6, which thankfully I am.

Tonight after looking at the bed, we have to head to Rona to pick up some more paint so J can finish off the bookcases and I'm going to pick out paint for the stairwell, hallway, guest bedroom and second bathroom upstairs. Not sure if I mentioned it, but we are hiring someone to paint so my only job is picking the colours, which really is the only fun part about painting. Yippeee! I love having a step-father who's a tradesperson and Italian because he knows someone who does everything you ever need done in a house.

25 weeks today....

Last night Jeff finished one of the book cases and it looks fantastic (thanks J, you're the best!). We're using an oil based paint so I can't paint, I just supervise :) We've also decided we are going to hire someone to paint the stairwell, spare bedroom & second bathroom. We want to get it done before the baby comes, and so the only way I see it getting done is to hire someone. I can't wait!

I have an appt with the neurologist tomorrow morning to figure out why I'm getting this horrendous headaches. Of course, they have subsided since the first trimester but I've still gotten quite a few. I thought the appt was Thursday, but it's tomorrow, good thing I checked last night. My memory has been failing quite a bit these days so I'm happy to have remembered.

I had a big long talk with my compensatory advisor regarding maternity leave and she gave me some good tips. The best? Exhaust my sick leave and personal days the days leading up to my due date and only start actual maternity leave the day the baby is born. You have to go back to work (well, you can no longer receive EI) exactly 52 weeks from the day the baby is born. So if I were to leave Dec 1st (which I was planning on) then EI would be cut off Dec 1st. But if I use my sick leave (I have about 12 days) and some personal days, family related days etc, I can take up to 4 weeks off before the baby is due without going on maternity leave. I really want to work as long as I possibly can, I don't see myself leaving at all before Dec 1, but I've also never been 9 months pregnant before so my mind may change. I must say, I'm pretty happy I got into the gov't before we decided to get pregnant, we could have easily survived on EI only but the top up will be really nice to sack away for a rainy day. *mental note - call John, our financial planner*

Good god, good thing I don't live in the States or else I would have already gone broke from shopping at Pottery Barn Kids - they have THE most adorable stuff for a nursery. I've set myself a limit that I won't go over for this nursery, and so much stuff we are getting second hand so I do have a little bit of room to play with. But I have to keep reminding myself, it's a NURSERY. The baby will grow out of it in 2 years time, so don't spend millions of dollars. It's just that baby stuff is so darn cute.

The quilt I want is on this page

http://ww2.potterybarnkids.com/index.cfm?cid=romnurtwk&area=rms&age=

and I want to stencil "twinkle twinkle little star" like they have on the wall. Those are teh colours of my room though - yellow, blue and green.

I won't go overboard, I won't go overboard. If I say it enough times, maybe it will come true.

I will miss you weekend!

Even though my weekend was none too exciting, I will miss it. Friday night I went out with some friends, kept score of their volleyball game (I had been having a bit of cramping/stretching during the day so I thought it best to stay on the sidelines rather than play) and then went out for a bite to eat. Saturday I got up early, went to Benjamin Moore to choose the paint for the nursery (then Ricky will go get his discount and pick it up for me) and it's this lovely blue/aqua colour called Serenity. It matches beautifullly with the yellow that's already there, so we are going to keep the bottom half yellow, put a chair rail (moulding) up and then do aqua at the top and the ceiling. Kaethe called and said she has sun, moon and stars stamps from Pottery Barn for Kids that she'd happily lend me, which is great, I had been looking at Michael's earlier for stamps. After Benjamin Moore, we went to Ikea and I picked up a closet organizer that I'm super excited about, it has 12 drawers and it goes in the bottom half of the closet so we can use the existing rod that's already up in there to hang up clothes too.

I started to empty out the soon to be nursery, all my pre-pregnancy clothes are in there so I have to shuffle them to the guest room. We are planning on painting this weekend... I really hope we get around to it. With long weekends you never know what springs up at the last minute.

My mom bought a cute what-we-thought-was-a-dinosaur-but-was-realy-a-giraffe from Ikea cause it's the perfect shade of aqua blue we are paining the room in. Even Isabelle thought it was a dinosaur, so I'm sticking with that. Saturday afternoon Jeff went golfing, so I picked Isabelle up, did a bit of shopping, went to visit Grandma and Nono... then took her home, we got into our jammies, got into my bed, watched some TV and had a sleepover. She talks about the baby all the time, and her last words before falling asleep here "the dinosaur is for the baby". Breakfast on Sunday morning, quick trip to Babies R Us, a quick visit with Kaethe and Peter then home again where I cleaned a whole bunch, changed all sheets towels etc and got ready for another Monday. Jeff BBQd some mean steaks last night, topped with a salad and brocolli, it was a delicious Sunday night din din.

How was that for a boring post?

My best news from the weekend... we are buying a king sized bed! For those of you who sleep well with your partner, you may not understand the excitement, but Jeff and I have been sleeping in separate rooms for I'd say the majority of this pregnancy - we don't sleep well together when I'm NOT pregnant, so now it's only even more so. So, with a king sized bed we can happily sleep and not be touched by our significant other (he can touch me all he wants when I'm not sleeping, but when it's time to sleep, it's time to sleep! Good thing we both feel that way).

I'm tickled pink.

Whoops...

I wasn't finished, but hit publish by accident.

The rest of the day was very blah, just feeling emotional and tired and.. well, you pregnant ladies know what I'm talking about. Then I went out to dinner with the ex-Winfund girls (at the Keg, yummy), had a great time and my woes were forgotten! I was going to cancel, but very glad that I didn't.

I went shopping at Thyme the other day and once again, just not happy with their clothes. They fit funny - frumpy I would say. Maybe my body type is just really awkward or something (I was a perfect size 8 before I got pregnant) but I don't know, they fold in all the wrong places and they just don't fit right. I did find one sweater (ribbed zip-up) that I know I will wear practically every day, so I think I have to get it in another colour. I think I'll head back to my trusty Motherhood for pants (I got 3 or 4 pairs for the summer and they fit amazing!) and they are cheaper too, which is always good seeing as I always end up buying too much. I think I need to buy a few pieces of clothing for the gym too, I have been wearing my regular clothes up until now but the pants are feeling a tad snug and I just think going forward I'd be more comfortable in actual maternity work out clothes.

Well, it's Friday and I'm smiling!

I'm glad yesterday is over!

I had a really emotional day yesterday, one of those days where you freak out over the silliest things that you really shouldn't waste longer than 5 minutes thinking about? That was me, yesterday. It was the colour of the baby's room, I went over colours for a few hours, tried to reason each and every decision - when I finally had to realize that it's just the colour of the damn nursery! I didn't put that much thought into painting our own bedroom. Looking back, it was a total pregnant-out of my mind-emotional thing, but at the time I was stressing.

We had a dr's appt yesterday morning, baby's heartbeat is 144 (another clue to it being a boy?) and the measurement from my belly button to above the pubic bone is 24 cm which is right on track (Can't remember the name of it) so I'm happy about that. I got requisitions for my glucose test, and two other blood tests... and Jeff dropped off his blood test results for the doctor as he's AB+ and I'm A- so I need to get a shot at 28 weeks and at time of delivery due to the difference in rhesus factors. So all in all, it was a good appt. I will need to get another ultrasound at 32 weeks because I have a low lying placenta and they want to make sure it's moved. On one hand, I'm happy to have another ultrasound, to see the baby again, but on the other hand, I would like to have as few ultrasounds as possible. I guess 2 won't cause any harm :)

Hump Day!

Heartburn was all but gone yesterday, but sleep didn't come like I thought it would. Unfortunately, we are making great use out of the spare bedroom because I almost need a whole bed to myself to place the pillows appropriately to make myself somewhat comfortable. I don't know what it's going to be like at 8 and 9 months, but for now I have discovered how to be comfortable and it involves 3 pillows and a body pillow. It's pure bliss, but still doesn't allow sleep to come easily.

I've been eating so well the past few weeks, last night I indulged in some rainbow sorbet and damn was it ever good, just the touch of sweet I needed after dinner.

I'm somewhat happy that it's almost fall, I am wearing a long sleeved shirt today and I feel much skinnier then when I wear sleeveless or short sleeve shirts, I think some of my fat gain has gone into my arms, they are definitely not as thin as they used to be, so covering them up makes me feel better :)

First potential purchase for the nursery

This is the rug I want for the nursery! I think I'm going to stencil "twinkle twinkle little star" as a border around the top of the wall and I think this would match it nicely. We are kind of going around a Nursery Rhyme theme and my mom made two really sweet canvas things to hang over the crib, one says Sweet Dreams and the other says Good Night Sleep Tight and they are done in blues, with some glitter and a yellow wood moon and star. I will have to take pictures of them, I wish I had gotten the artistic bone from my mom!

Fire in my throat...

Ok, so maybe I didn't get morning sickness, but I did have a headache that lasted 37 days and now I have heartburn. And it's bad. I never had heartburn or acid reflux or anything of the sort until I got pregnant and I think it's making up for it all at once.

I ate mini wheats for breakfast (with skim milk), I ate carrots and 6 perogies at lunch (that I had made at home myself) with some low fat sour cream, I had a peach, a nectarine and a container of vanilla yogurt and a sandwich on 12 grain bread last night (lettuce, turkey, mustard) for dinner. And I don't know what exactly it wsa (I guess the perogies), were in my throat all night. It burns. Then I would get this horrible pain in my chest, like someone was pressing on it, that happened about every 5 minutes for a couple of hours.

The result? No sleep. I had only gotten a few hours sleep the night before, so I was EXHAUSTED and figured as soon as my head hit the pillow I would be out, but I wasn't lucky enough for that. I tossed and turned, had to try and fall asleep sitting up so the heartburn wouldn't get any worse. I fell asleep finally at some point, but woke up every hour.

I felt better this morning, steered away from my Mini Wheats and had plain oatmeal with a banana and voila - Mr Heartburn is back. I'm eating cantaloupe now and drinking a crapload of water, we'll see if that helps.

I have been taking Rolaids and Tums, but only 4 a day. Carrie said she took Zantac so I am going to wander down to the pharmacy at lunch and see what the pharmacist says about taking it while pregnant.

24 weeks today! 16 weeks left, that's INSANE!

Pictures...

Holy jumping am I ever big already... not surprised though. It's hard when you see all these beautiful pregnant ladies with just the perfect bump. I am constantly reminded that I'm still healthy and that I have to take care of the growing baby inside of me, but the weight gain is hard, I have to admit it.

Anyways, might as well show pictures of the freak show! I also had to add a picture of the cutest little boy in the whole world - Justen! He came on our trip to PEI with us and he was just the happiest baby, you just want to hug and squeeze him (and maybe throw him against the wall he's so cute but apparently that scares the parents when I say that)

Thank goodness it's Friday

It's not that it's been a bad week, I am just really looking forward to the weekend. Not for any real reason, and maybe that's the exact reason! We have no plans, did you hear me? No plans. I think for the first time this summer (the worst part is, I'm not exagerating) we have no plans. I think Jeff will be passing on Steve's birthday plans tomorrow night, if not, we will be going out for drinks but that's it. Normally, our weekends are filled with 4 or 5 "things" to do, but not this one!

Tonight is Jeff's poker night. I am either going to a) go shopping or b) sand down the furniture I mentioned in my previous post. Tomorrow is priming and painting the furniture (going to do it in the garage with the doors open so don't worry about the paint fumes mom!), helping Jeff clean out the basement and hanging up a clothes line (finally!). Then Sunday, hanging the new armoire in our bathroom (it's a beautiful espresso brown to match the cupboards I painted in the winter, for before/after pictures go to http://missusg.blogspot.com/ and just scroll down on the page) and going to Home Depot to choose paint for the stairwell, upstairs hallway, guest room and second bathroom. LOTS of painting to do before the guppy comes, not sure how much will get done but I'm hoping all of it :)

Wow, this post was not at all pregnancy related. Um, feeling great today! I'm wearing a cute new maternity top from the Gap and for those of you who know me, having a new outfit always makes for a very happy Christy.

Until Monday....

xo

23 weeks and counting....

Ok, so it's actually 23 + 2 days, but who's counting?

I haven't felt very bloggerish lately, nothing really new to report. The baby is constantly moving, so I am constantly smiling. I went into Babies R Us last night and got scared. There are rows and rows and rows of... stuff. What do I need? What's necessary? I bet there's a list somewhere of must haves for when the baby comes. I know, I have the best resources (my mom, my sister (who had twins), my two closest friends) who I can call up on a dime (and often do) and they will re-assure me, but that's who I am. I get freaked out, stressed, and I just need someone to calm me down, it always works out in the end.

I do know I want a bumbo chair though

http://www.getreadyforbaby.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=279

Justen loves it and so does Tao... so I think it may go on the baby registry.

Told you not much was new. I slept so-so last night, brutal dreams (as per the norm). Last volleyball game tonight unless we make it to the championships, but I've been having alot of cramping as of late so I may just sit on the sidelines. I'll see how I feel closer to the game.

There WAS something exciting that I forgot to post about!

This baby moves... all the time! The first real kick (when I knew it was an actual kick) came the first night of our vacation. It happened twice. Then during the week it slowly started happening more and more. As soon as I get into bed and lie down, bam, the baby wakes up. I love it. I just sit there and smile, and sometimes even cry. It's amazing.

A week to the day that I first felt it, I told Jeff to put his hand on my stomach and he felt it too! He wasn't sure if he did or not, or if it was just my breathing, but his eyes lit up as soon as it kicked so I know he felt it.

Now if I lie on my back when the baby is awake, you can actually see my stomach move from the kicking. Wowsers, I could do that all day. Now that I'm sitting down for 7 hours a day at work, the baby is wide awake during the day and is moving all the time. Then he or she sleeps until I go to bed and then it's wakey wakey time.

I'm now researching strollers, I think I may sign up for a month's subscription for consumer reports. That site is great, I got a few articles on what to look for when searching for a stroller, there are just way too many strollers out there. And I'm looking for a Chariot for when I start running again :)

It's baaaaaaaack....

My headache that is. It came on around noon and lasted until .... wait, I still have it. I took 3 Tylenol in the past 24 hours, I'm not really willing to take anymore, so I will just have to deal.

I haven't experienced any mood swings since I've gotten pregnant (I even checked with Jeff to make sure) until this past weekend. I didn't want to talk to anyone, see anyone, and of course we had 4 things to do that involved friends and family, so I apologize to anyone for my grumpiness.

I'm feeling a bit better today, but now the headache's here, so I'm just not my normal self. I want to be in bed watching a movie, and I never want to be in bed watching a movie so that should tell you something! I watched 2 movies this weekend, normally I watch 2 a year, so I know something is up.

They have the CUTEST outfits at Loblaws of all places that are on sale. Outfits for regular $20 on sale for $2.99, it's insane! That's definitely a 'pro' to finding out the sex of the baby, you can shop in advance.

The plans for the nursery are coming along swimmingly. We have the colours picked out (a green for the walls and a blue for the ceiling and the top last foot of the walls, so it's kind of like grass and sky), I've finally decided on what to do with the closet, we are getting this fabulous closet organizer from Ikea, so that reduces the need for another dresser in the nursery. My mom is giving us her gliding chair for the nursery (and I think we are getting a friend's glider for the basement), today at lunch I'm going to look for sheets for the single bed and I'm going to ask Julie is I can paint the change table white to match the crib (which we need to pick up from my sister) and then the book cases need to be painted white and that's it! I'm hoping to paint this weekend, so far we have no plans so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way.

Once I start listing what needs to be done (and the above is just for the baby's room, I haven't begun to list what needs to be done in the rest of the house!), I realize that 4 months is just around the corner.

T - 4 months

My due date is 4 months away today. That scares me.

Vacation was wonderful, I love taking two weeks. I find with one week, I just start to get relaxed and then I'm back at work. We had incredible weather.

I'm now big. Like, getting really big. I know that's what being pregnant entails, but wow.

I just e-mailed my compensatory advisor and she won't meet with me until 6 weeks before I leave on mat leave! I want to know my options for paying into my pension while I am off so we can figure out our budget for the year (ha, those who know me knows budget is not part of my normal vocabulary), but I just want to know what my options are and what we are going to do. Oh well, I'm going to respond asking if I could meet earlier and see what she says. I printed some stuff off from the treasury board too so I'll try and read my way through that and e-mail her with any questions.

I'm hot these days. Like my body temperature is high and I'm always warm.

I wish I had something more exciting to write about seeing as I was gone for 2 weeks, but I have a pile of work to get to.....