Week 25

Here I am in Week 25.  Months ago I thought I’d never reach this date (I’m sure I’ll say this again at some point).  This pregnancy has been surprising in many ways and it hasn’t been too hard (comparing to a lot of what my fellow bumpies on the Bump are going through).

Our car seat is finally in!  Woohoo!  We picked it up last week and now it’s sitting in the living room.  I asked Dre what we should do with it for now because I was thinking of moving it to the baby room or into the basement.  He wants to leave it where it is; he says it accessorizes our house wellJ  He’s cute. 

Chicco Keyfit in Fuego
So cute!

We had a really packed weekend this weekend.  I really wanted to go see a movie this weekend so I could indulge in my obsession over popcorn, but we didn’t have time.  We did end up going to one of our friend’s Halloween party on Saturday night (costumes required) which was a ton of fun.  Dre dressed as an Emo kid.  He let me straighten his hair and then spike it into a Mohawk.  He even let me put black nail polish on him…it was a big hit with everyone who saw it.  I was also going to put eyeliner on him, but it wouldn’t stay on and every time he blinked he looked like he’d been mugged so we washed that off.  I went as a trashy bride.  It was awesome!  I always wanted to re-wear my wedding veil so this was a great occasion.  I just pinned up the back since it’s knee length.  Here’s what we looked like…

At some point, I'll stop being so paranoid and actually post a picture of our faces.  For now, you get black bars!

Since today is Halloween, we have to rush home after work so we can be ready to give out candy when the kids start coming around.  Some of them start coming really early!  My family didn’t celebrate Halloween when I was a kid, but since I started dating Andre I’ve started dressing up for it because we’ve been invited to a costume party every year and we hand out candy.  I think that whatever people say about the roots of this “holiday” being evil, I’m going to eat my weight in chocolate today because after that I have to be good so I can go take that stupid Gestational Diabetes test this weekend.  I personally think that it’s just a fun holiday where we get to be kids again and dress up.   Since almost all of our Christian holidays have pagan roots which is a fact that a lot of people ignore, I don’t think that celebrating it is a very big deal.  I know a lot of people would disagree with me, but I think that if I decide not to celebrate Halloween because of what the day meant back in the old days then I should also choose not to celebrate Christmas since it was a pagan holiday before the Christians adopted it and made it Christmas. 

Week 24

Week 25

A few people online have mentioned the fact that when you’re pregnant you tend to have a couple of months of big weight gain.  I didn’t know that and I’m glad to know that I probably won’t be putting on almost 2 lbs every week until the baby gets here.  This week my average weight is 167.9 lbs which is a 0.8 lbs gain.  In total, I’m up 14.9 lbs so far in this pregnancy.  It’s not bad at all when you think of the number, but when you see your scale flash 170 lbs at you in the morning it kind of whacks in the head with that number.  I’m like, “WTF is 170?   Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  I’m a whale!”  Then I see tons of lovely pictures taken at the Halloween Party which make me look like a blimp and I have to wonder if it’s the clothes I was wearing, the camera adding pounds, or do I just see a skinnier person when I look in the mirror because I definitely don’t see myself as that big already.  So for now, I’ll just keep going on with my random freak outs over the weight…it’s not like they’re stopping me from reaching for the Reese’s Peanut Butter cups!

The heartburn is a lot better.  When I saw the doctor last week, she gave me a prescription of Zantac that I can take as needed.  The funny thing is that Zantac is most effective when taken before you eat.  It’s hard to play psychic and figure out that you’ll get heartburn before it happens.  I’m glad I have the Zantac though since I can it if the heartburn gets really bad again.  14 weeks to go and then I can eat peanut butter and cinnamon once again!

Baby is still pretty active.  Some of the books/websites claim that the baby is now moving approximately 30 times per hour.  Yah right!  Mine is way quieter than that and I’m glad because he would seriously drive me bonkers if he moved that much.  It might just be that the baby is moving that much, but that I can’t really feel him if he’s kicking towards the inside. 

I’ve had a few BH this week and they’ve been accompanied my cramps which is great!  A lot of women say that BH never hurt, but I guess I’m in the few lucky ones that get slightly crampy, uncomfortable ones every so often.  No other stretch marks have shown up this week!  Victory!  I plan on keeping my solitary stretch mark all alone.  Of course that means I have to lube myself up with body butter and bio oil every time I think about it. 

By the way when I mentioned my sciatic nerve to the doctor, she told me there wasn’t really anything they could do about that.  Blah!  I figured that would be the answer so now I’m trying to do my yoga stretching every night to stretch the sciatic nerve and to keep away the stupid leg cramps that make me limp for 2 days that I tend to get.

I’m really looking forward to eating all that candy tonight, going to yoga tomorrow night, and then to Costco on Wednesday night (mainly because I get to look at all the awesome Christmas stuff that’s on display already…I LOVE Christmas).  Busy week, but it should be a fun one!

Baby is the size of an eggplant this week.  He’s getting pretty big!  I can tell because everyone at work feels the need to tell me how much bigger I’m getting EVERY SINGLE DAY!  It’s getting old…I wonder what they’ll have to say when I’m 9 months along…bahahahahaha!

Woohoo

This is my 100th post!  It's time to celebrate!

When I started this blog back in January right after I got pregnant for the first time, I never would have thought that I'd have enough stuff to write about.  I still struggle with that, but I find that if I don't try to "force" myself to write every day then I'm much more motivated to come back here and find something to tell you guys. 

I think that lately I've struggled with what to write because it feel like my whole life is encompassed into the fact that I'm pregnant.  Almost everything Dre and I do now has to do with planning for the baby, naming the baby, or buying stuff for the baby.  It's time consuming and not very interesting to you guys.

However since this is my favorite season, I have decided that I need to have some adventure in my life before the baby gets here.  Even if I'm dead tired every night after work, I need to get off my ass I go for a walk so I can enjoy the gorgeous weather and the brightly colored trees right now.  Usually by the time November rolls around, it's bitterly cold and all the leaves have been stripped from the trees.  The trees usually stand there all alone and naked under a chilly gray sky.  Those are the late October/November months I remember from my childhood.  That desolate image of the earth going back to sleep before winter was never a depressing time for me because I loved fall so much.  I love the colors!  I love the cool weather.  I love all the warm comfort food that these months bring.  I love the decorations.  I even love the dark, gray skies that rain chilly raindrops on me. 

In the spirit of trying to focus on something else than how the hell is the baby's room ever going to be ready, I'm dressing up for Halloween tomorrow and going to have a smashing good time at my SIL's for dinner then off to a Halloween (costumes required so I'll try to get a pic) party with all of Dre's friends.  And even though I can't indulge with my favorite friend, Chardonnay, I'm going to eat tons of Halloween candy and tell everyone that the baby requires me to eat my body weight in candy.  Love it!

Now, the only dilemma I have is that I can't decide if I want to be Juno (from the movie named Juno obviously) or a trashy bride.  Being 6 months pregnant really lends itself to these 2 costumes.  I can't decide which one would the most spectacular outfit though.  I'll let you know what I picked in my next post!  Dre decided to wanted to be an Emo kid and walk around all night telling ppl all about his feelings.  If he sticks with this idea, it's going to be awesome!  So funny!  I'll also get to use tons of gel and a straightener on his hair as well as putting some black nail polish on him.  I would love to put eyeliner on him too, but I don't think he'll let me take it that far.  Too bad though because it would be spectacular as a costume.  The good thing with both of our costumes this year is that they'll have cost us...NOTHING since we have everything already.

I'm looking forward to this weekend so hopefully my mom won't drive me too crazy since she's at my house right now.  Countdown to my massages is commencing now...2.5 hours before the massage therapist rubs away all my aches and pains!

V-Day! Week 24

Week 24!  I have officially reached viability (V-Day)!  While I don’t want Baby boy to be born right now, there is a certain amount of relief in knowing that if something were to happen and I delivered that baby would have a good chance of being ok.  I never thought I would worry about all this crazy stuff before I got pregnant, but apparently I don’t have enough to think about.

Dre and I are still waiting for a call from the baby store letting us know that our car seat is in.  They told us it would arrive last week, but we haven’t heard from them.  I, also, managed to pick out bedding for the crib this week!  It has monkeys on it (of course) and polka dots so it’s the best of 2 worlds!  Dre is obsessed with monkeys and I love all thing polka dots.  It’s perfect!  Now, my mom just needs to stop trying to get me to pick bedding based on what she likes.  I’m sure she’ll like this one anyways.

It doesn't have very many monkeys on it,
but we're going to put monkey decals on the walls so Dre's happy.

So, after deciding to wait on buying a baby monitor until the baby was here, we found one on Kijiji (brand-new in the box) for half price.  We were very excited to find it for so cheap so we bought it.  Then Dre ran around like a kid in the candy store testing the camera in the dark basement.  He’s so cute when he does stuff like this.  Electronic toys are the things that really interest men when it comes to baby stuff.  The nice thing is that I don’t have to read the owner’s manual to figure out how it works since Dre set it up already and tested it.

Week 23

Week 24

It seems that every week I’m on here saying how much BIGGER I’ve gotten.  It’s not just my imagination now people because my friend just saw me at lunch and told me I was already noticeably bigger than last week.  So it’s not just my imagination!  My average weight this week is 167.1 lbs which is a 1.9 lbs gain this week!  Eeeep!  It’s my biggest gain in one week so far.  I think the baby has started putting on some weight though because my scale had a huge 2 lbs. jump this week and my eating habits really haven’t changed.  I’m up a total of 14.1 lbs this pregnancy.  Hopefully, I don’t start putting on 2 lbs a week like my doctor said she sees a lot of the time in the 3^rd trimester. 

I’ve had less heartburn in the last few days because I noticed that cinnamon seems to make the heartburn appear.  I love cinnamon so this is a very, very sad thing!  The indigestion has shown up again though.  I just keep telling myself that I survived 6 months of indigestion/nausea already then I can do another 3.5 months of indigestion/heartburn. 

Baby boy is quite the active baby when he decides to wake up, but he’s like his mommy and spends most of the time snoozing and refusing to move when Dre tries to get him to kick his hand.  He does tend to wake up when I lie down in bed for the night so Dre can usually get a good 10 kicks or so which he loves. 

I haven’t really noticed any Braxton Hicks contractions this week.  Now, I usually say no stretch marks, but Dre points at my boob last week and says, “What’s that?”  Of course, I’m freaking out because I think it’s something horrible on my boobs or that one is bigger than the other.  Nope.  It’s a possible stretch mark on the underside of my boobs.  I freaked out…of course…I mean what other reaction is there to realizing that your boob is going to have a permanent mark on it FOREVER!  After I calmed down, I realized that at least my bathing suit would hide that stupid mark so I didn’t feel so bad anymore.  I’ve started slathering on the lotion every time I think about it because I don’t want my boobs to start resembling a map.

I’m really looking forward to my doctor’s appointment this week.  I have a ton of great stuff to ask her about.  Like…”Why are my nipples so itchy all the time?” “Should I be counting baby kicks or is that going to make me a crazy, paranoid person?”  “What the hell is wrong with my sciatic nerve? (I can’t even walk around the grocery store without pain anymore.)”  These are all very, very important questions then I get to go to my friend’s house so she can do my hair.  (She’s a licensed hair dresser so stop worrying people.)

Guess what size the baby is this week!  A papaya AGAIN!  Yeah!

Week 23

Week 23 snuck up on me.  Dre had to remind me that my week had changed on Saturday.  This used to be what I looked forward to every single week, but now I find that I’m focusing less on the week and more on what I still need to do before baby arrives.

This past weekend Dre and I visited a lot of baby stores to finalize our registries, order some things, and look at crib bedding. 

Since my shower invites are going out this week, I had to get my list to my SIL last Friday.  I could not believe that I had 42 names between me and my mom’s invites (one big shower instead of multiple smaller ones)!   My SIL told me that she added 15 names on her side of the family so that brings the number of invited guests to 61!  SIL and I are hoping that they don’t all decide to come; otherwise, her house is going to be packed.  I’m getting really excited for my shower now that I’ve finished the guest list and done my registries!

I hauled Dre to a cloth diaper store yesterday and made a registry there.  I put everything on that registry that I would need since I definitely want to try different kinds of diapers out before committing to 2-3 kinds that I’ll use.  So I registered for 4 of my top picks and asked for 1-2 diapers of each.  I’m hoping that if people really want to help with the CD that they buy me Gift Certificates to this store since those would be so helpful once I’ve decided what kind of diapers I want to use! 

We also went to Babies R Us and looked at some video monitors that were on sale.  We decided to just hold off on this one and see if we think we need it after the baby gets here.  We looked at some crib bedding there and Dre fell in love with monkey themed crib bedding.  So we’re looking at bedding sets that have monkeys on them now.  I told Dre that since I’m indulging his monkey obsession I get to pick the bedding when we have a girl.  He agreed!  Yeah!  We asked the BRU staff about the fact that we’ve heard about gift bags that they give to people who open a registry full of coupons and such and they actually told us they ran out of them.  Hello?  Maybe that’s something you should have mentioned when we were in the store instead of hoping we’d just go on our oblivious way.  I hate BRU.  They have crappy services, you can never find the price of things (Dre had to go scan 4 things yesterday to figure out pricing), and their staff know NOTHING about their products. I’m going to send them an email this week expressing my displeasure with the service we’ve received in our store. 

Finally, we went to another store and ordered the Chicco Keyfit in Fuego (red) for the baby!  It should be in this week which is exciting.  We also took the time to pick up the spare parts we needed for my Medela Pump in Style that I found on Kijiji.  So for under $200, I’m all ready to use my pump and I won’t feel too bad if it turns out that breastfeeding or pumping is not for me.  Those things usually go for over $400 over here!  The staff at this store are so helpful and knowledgeable about their products which is a refreshing change. 

Week 22

Week 23
Dre had orders to make sure I didn't look like a
pasty, pregnant whale this time...he did a good job:-)

My average weight this week is 165.2 lbs which is a 1 lb gain this week.  I was pretty happy about that until I stepped on the scale yesterday and this morning.  Apparently my body and the baby are making up for the weight I didn’t put on last week!  So, overall this is a 12.2 lb gain so far this pregnancy.  I’m still working on doing more exercise.

Heartburn shows up periodically.  I’ve had indigestion today and yesterday.  I’m still feeling pretty good overall.

Baby is rolling around, kicking, and punching in there.  He’s quite the active little fellow.  Dre is obsessed with feeling the baby move around and stalks after me around the house trying to see if the baby is moving.  It’s cute most of the timeJ

No BH contractions this past week which is nice.  No stretch marks, but I have to put lotion on 3 times a day now or I get pretty itchy.

I’m looking forward to having my lunch buddy back at work.  She went for surgery on her arm and has been out for the past 2 weeks which makes for really long lunches.

Baby is the size of a papaya AGAIN this week.  I guess they stop growing as much now since the fruit stays the same for a few weeks.

Showers are harder than they seem

It's a good thing I'm not planning my own shower because I would probably have a breakdown.  Just coming up with the guest list is a harrowing experience.

For the last few days, I've been trying to gather the email addresses of everyone on my list.  This seems like a pretty easy task since I know all of these people.  Right?  Wrong!  The problem is that I communicate with most of these people on Facebook and so I don't keep very good contact information for most of them because I know that if I need to talk to them I can always FB message them.  Thankfully, 98% of them listed an email address on their FB profile which saved me from having to send a mass FB message asking for everyone's address. 

Now, the problem I'm having is finding the email addresses of my relatives (who are not on FB for the most part).  The problem with having huge extended families like mine is that when you invite one aunt you kind of feel like you should invite them all.   Sometimes, that feels like I'm just asking for a gift though since I know they won't come. 

Also, my mom has several of her friends that she wants to add to the list which is completely fine if they know me, but some of these people I have barely talked to since I was a child.  Awkward!  My SIL informs me that I'm not supposed to know everyone at my shower and that people just randomly bring strangers along that you don't know usually.  I never knew that...it's news to me!

So that's what I've been up to for the last few days.  I'm really looking forward to my shower.  It's on Nov. 19th which is in a little more than a month.  Then on the Nov. 22nd, I'm starting the next series of baby courses.  This one should be much more interesting since they're going to go through the labour process, your options, breastfeeding, and all that stuff.  We're also going to get to tour our hospital to see where everything is located.   So I'm really looking forward to November!

Week 22

It’s Week 22 and it feels like this week just snuck up on me.  I guess I’ve been pretty busy and I completely forgot about obsessing over weeks for a while!

This past long weekend, Dre and I made the long trip to Northern Ontario (where he’s from) to spend Thanksgiving weekend with his parents.  6 hour trips are definitely not my favourite thing, but they’re even better when you’re on the road with a million other crazy people.  Every time we would stop at a Tim Hortons so I could pee and stretch my legs (per doctor orders every 2 hours) there was this gigantic line for the bathroom and to buy food!  The first time we stopped we by-passed the Tim Hortons line and decided to try some Coldstones Ice Cream.  I’ve had Marble Slab Ice Cream when I lived in Florida for 5 years, but I’ve never seen either Coldstones or Marble Slab in Ontario before.  They had cake batter ice cream…so of course, that’s what I HAD to get.  It was so good!  Yumminess!  It’s funny that I’ve been so obsessed with ice cream this pregnancy since I’m really not a big ice cream person normally.

While we were at the in-laws, we visited all the grandparents, went to see an interactive museum that Dre hadn’t been to in 20 yrs (it was fun), and had Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night (along with most other ppl even though Thanksgiving is not really until Monday) with the grandparents and the in-laws.  I think what I enjoyed the most about this trip was the fact that I didn’t have to plan or cook a single meal.  It was great to have someone cook for me for a change.  Dre does cook a lot more now, but it’s not the same (even though I really appreciate it) as having a whole 3 day weekend off of cooking.  All in all it was a good weekend.  We’re glad we took the time to go visit the ILs since we hadn’t been in quite a while and I don’t think I’ll be doing a 6 hour trip with a baby anytime soon.



Week 21



Week 22
Wow!  That's not a flattering picture at all! 
I'm sending Dre back to photography school apparently!



Since we had good food and awesome desserts all weekend, I was afraid of the scale when I stepped on it this morning.  It said 167 lbs!  Crazy!  Obviously, it’s having an identity crisis because when I stepped back on it to check it gave me a more normal 164 lbs.  I didn’t have a scale at the ILs so I couldn’t weigh myself from Saturday to Monday!  When I asked Dre if his parents had a scale, he told me yes and looked at me like a crazy person when I suggested that we bring our scale just in case.  As you can tell, the scale stayed home.  My average weight this week is 164.2 lbs which is a 1.6 lbs gain from last week.  Overall that makes for a gain of 11.2 lbs so far.  I think I need to do some more exercise to balance out the weight gain because if I keep going at this rate I’m going to definitely gain more than the recommended 25-35 lbs. 

Heartburn is kicking my ass as we speak.  I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in a couple of months when this kid gets bigger.  Apart from that I’ve been feeling good.  It’s surprising after suffering from nausea and indigestion for 4 months, but now I finally feel like I know what ppl are talking about when they talk about the 2^nd trimester being the golden trimester. 

Baby is kicking more often, more consistently, and much harder.  Dre thinks it’s hilarious when I tell him that the baby is bouncing up and down on my bladder.  I’ve offered to kick him in the bladder so he can experience this awesome feeling too, but he just thinks I’m violent. 

I can see how maternity clothes get old quickly.  You don’t want to buy too much because it’s not like I’ll be wearing the stuff next year, but at the same time wearing the same pair of jeans all the time gets old!

I’ve had a few BH contractions over the last week, but nothing too noticeable.  No stretch marks in sight, but my stomach been a lot itchier lately during the day. 

I’m looking forward to my shower even though some days the subject makes me want to pull my hair out.  Since I’m only having one shower, everyone needs to be invited to this one and I’m tired of trying to figure out who I should invite between listening to my mother’s opinion of the guest list and who I think should be invited.  For my wedding shower, a number of my friends were not invited so I want to make sure that they’re invited to this one.  I’ll be happy once it’s here and I can just enjoy it. 

Baby is the size of a papaya this week.  He’s doubled in size and weight from weeks 18 to 22 according to my pregnancy books!

Week 21

Week 21 has rolled in.  Time is starting to fly by and I have tons of stuff I need to do before this baby gets here.

Dre and I decided to go to Oktoberfest this weekend with his friends. Beer, food, friends...makes for a great time usually!  Except that it was 7C on Saturday and it started raining around 3 pm which means it was freezing cold, windy, and rainy!  We decided to leave early and then took a 2 hour nap when we got home. It was great!  I feel like I need more sleep now then I did in my first trimester.  Then I dragged Dre to a friend's house to play a board game. I love board games, but Dre hates them! We had a ton of fun...glad we did that. Dre even admitted that he kind of enjoyed that game.

Week 20

Week 21
I feel like my stomach has gotten huge in just one week!

The overall weight gain has picked up speed in the past few weeks.  My average weight this week is 162.6 lbs. which is a 1.3 lbs gain from last week. That’s the exact same amount of weight gain each week for the last 2 weeks or so.  Overall that makes a gain of 9.6 lbs since my starting weight.  I’m surprised I’m not gaining more weight overall since I keep eating massive amounts of candy, junk food, and dessert.  I need to cut all the sugar before my gestational diabetes test in a few weeks.  Especially, since I just found out that my mom had GD with all 4 of us which is why we were all such big babies.  I was an 8 lb baby and the smallest of the bunch; both of my brothers weighed 10.3 lbs when they were born.  My mom also mentioned that back then they didn’t even test you or monitor your insulin at all.  She was only tested with my older brother (2^nd kid) and not with any of the others.  No diet, no exercise, nothing.  Things sure have changed a lot!

The heartburn comes and goes.  People keep telling me that it’s linked to what I eat, but apart from peanut butter (peanut butter = heartburn every time) everything else is hit or miss.  Even my broccoli chicken gave me heartburn at lunch today.   I just keep sleeping with 2 pillows every night…it’s much better than having indigestion every day...sometimes. The indigestion has pretty much stayed away unless I eat really big meals or spicy meals. I need to get better at limiting my portions even when I’m so hungry that I can just eat and eat and eat. 

Baby is still kicking me like crazy on some days; other days he stays pretty quiet.  

I finally got some maternity pants from one of my friends.  We’re both the same size and about the same height. I guess she liked wearing heels with her work pants because they all require some type of heel.  Ughh!  I haven’t really worn heels in months since my feet swell up and start hurting pretty easily.  Today, I squeezed on my ankle boots and that’s what I’ve been wearing all day.  They’re comfortable enough to walk in, but if I don’t get a seat on the bus tonight I’ll definitely be feeling them.  I think I’m going to take a trip to the maternity store in a couple of weeks and see if I can find myself a pair of black dress pants that are shorter so I can wear them with flats and some more sweaters since the cooler weather seems to have finally arrived here!

I've had some Braxton Hicks contractions. They don't really hurt, but they do make my belly really tight and somewhat uncomfortable. I don't have many of them so I'm not worried. I'll mention it to my doc at my next appointment, but I think it's fairly normal for the 2nd trimester. I still haven’t seen any stretch marks and I hope they stay away for good!  The skin on my stomach has been really itchy lately. Today, I pulled up my shirt and started slathering on belly butter stuff in my cubicle at work. I almost had a heart attack when I heard my co-worker get up and pulled my shirt down fast!  Haha!  My bump has been growing very fast lately so I guess that's why my skin feels like it’s being stretched like crazy. 

I'm looking forward to having the nursery furnished and decorated. It's starting to feel like I have no time left and I need to get all that stuff done now before Christmas preparations take over. I think I'll get Dre to call IKEA tonight to see when they might be stocking the crib that's in their new catalogue. Call me crazy, but when you send me a catalogue with something in it I kind of expect you to have it in your stores or be able to order it. 

Baby is the size of a banana this week.  These fruits don’t seem to be in order some weeks, but I guess they mean the length of a banana more than the actual size since last week baby was a cantaloupe.