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.  

It's raining apples!

Apples, apples, apples

SIL and I decided to go pick apples with our families and then make applesauce and some apple pies.

On a gorgeous Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, we decided to head to the apple farm and started filling bags up with apples.  Once we’d done 4 bags, we decided that that just wasn’t enough apples.  So we got another 2 bags and filled them up.  Then we went to get our apples weighed since that’s how they charge you and we had…81 lbs of apples!

Hmmmm, we bought a lot!

Yes, the sinks are full and 3 cookies trays are piled full too.

What do you think?  That is 81 lbs of apples washed and ready to be peeled and sliced.  Good thing I own a food processor for the slicing part but we still had to peel the things.

Well 6 hours later, we decided that next year we’d get a food mill or something so we didn’t have to peel millions and millions of apples!  I thought my hands were going to fall off!

We made the first batch of applesauce.  Then I decided to use my immersion blender to chop up the apples.  It worked great except that the sauce wasn’t so much a sauce anymore but a thick liquid.  So next we decided to cook the apples for 30 minutes like the internet said and mash them with a potato masher.  That was hard work!  We ended up with a lot of apple chunks that were not quite mashed away, but the consistency of the applesauce was much, much better.  We combined both batches so that the first batch was more edible.  The last batch we made we cooked for about 45 minutes and stirred it about every 10 minutes and it mashed into perfect applesauce.  SUCCESS!!! 

Imagine it's not sideways since it's Friday and all my brain cells are dead so I can't figure out how to flip it right side up.

Here is all our applesauce.  It’s quite dark because of the cinnamon we used in it and we decided to use brown sugar instead of white since I don’t cook much with white sugar.  Pretty, eh? (Yes, I say “Eh?”…French Canadian here)

Yummy canned applesauce!

We got to working on making the pies.  I mixed the dough and made balls and my SIL was rolling out the dough and putting it on the pie tins.  Of course, I only decided to taste the dough on my 3 batch and found out that it was WAY too salty so I had to cut the salt in half for the rest of the recipes.  Hopefully they’ll still taste good since we were using a new dough recipe and a new apple pie recipe (the internet is a great place). 

We managed to get all 8 pies done fairly quickly, but by this time SIL and I were sick of seeing apples!

Forgot to take a picture of the pies and crisps before we wrapped them up. 
I'll take one when we cook them up!

So we threw the rest of the apples into a bowl and I made some apple crisps from a super easy recipe my mother had given me.

We still had some apples left, but we decided that we would feed them to the nephews and Dre because we couldn’t bear looking at another apple.

Sideways photo alert...
We filled an entire lawn bag with apple peels & cores!

Dre was great and peeled and cut apples all day long with us.  He did the dishes several times so the giant tower of dishes didn’t crash down unto our pies and so we had clean dishes to use.  Good thing he helped or SIL and I would probably still be peeling apples!

I think by next year we'll be ready to do this again:-)

Also...

I forgot to mention that I changed the look of the blog!  I got bored of looking at all that blue and decided to go for something else that was a little more fall/holiday inspired. 

Also, I fixed the comments!  Yeah!  I can now comment on my blog and other people's blogs once again!