All is Good!

I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday.  This was my last monthly visit.  From now on, I see her every other week until 36 weeks and then every week.  So she had me schedule all of my remaining appointments until she goes on maternity leave. 

***Side note, she’s pregnant and due 7 days after me.  She’s working until I’m 36 weeks and then my care is being transferred to her OB.  Have never met this OB so I hope I like her since I think it’s too late to find a new one at 37 weeks which is when I’ll meet her.***

I am going to be seeing my doctor a lot in the next 2 months!  It’s funny because I feel like I really don’t have many questions for her anymore.  She just measures my uterus height and listen’s to baby’s heart and then we’re done.  Uterus was measuring at 29 cm yesterday.  Normally at 28 weeks you would expect me to measure 28 cm, but doctors aren’t too concerned by a +/-2 cm variance. 

She also poked all around my uterus trying to figure out where baby’s head was.  She thinks he’s head down.  He hasn’t been until yesterday though.  He did this major flip and exercise routine midday yesterday and I guess he decide to get in place.  That’s good because I didn’t want him staying breech.  I know he could flip back around just as easily since he still has quite a bit of room to move right now, but he doesn’t do the big major somersaults very often so we’ll see.

I did pass my gestational diabetes test with no problems.  The CBC panel run on the extra blood drawn didn’t show anything bad and it showed that I’m not anemic.  Yay!  No extra iron pills for me.

I did have to pee in a cup yesterday.  This isn’t exactly news since they make you pee in the damn cup every time you go to the office when you’re pregnant.  I’ve recently noticed that I cannot see my lady bits anymore which makes peeing in a small container is really, really hard.  It’s hard to aim for something that you can barely see!  I have no idea what I’ll do at the end since I won’t be able to see anything by then.  I ended up peeing all over that damn container.  It’s a good thing that the nurses wear gloves!

So everything is going well.  Next appointment is coming up in just 2 weeks!

Week 28

In the news today, I PASSED MY GD TEST!  Oh yeah!  Since there was no way in hell that I was taking that 3 hour test with multiple blood draws, this is a very, very good thing.

I also didn’t make it to IKEA last Wednesday.  SIL and I just didn’t feel like driving to the store.  I’m so lazy during the week.  It would have been good to go and get the dresser though since I had my baby shower on Saturday.  Now I have a room full of stuff and nowhere to put it.  My mom who LOVES to clean and organize has decided that all the baby stuff simply can’t lie around until I get to it so she hung everything up and started organizing it.  She also decided my kitchen floor was dirty and hand scrubbed it.  Meh!  I don’t really care since I was never going to get on my knees to wash it anyways.  Now it’s all nice, sparkly, and clean.

Dre and I start the second part of our baby classes this week.  It’s so exciting because we get to tour the hospital and have discussions about that particular hospital’s ideas on labour and delivery.  I’m sure Dre is less excited than me, but since he’s really obsessed with my belly he gets to come and learn all about breastfeeding and pushing a watermelon out of a donut hole.  I’m sure this will not scar him at all!  Hehe! 

Dre probably kisses my belly more than he kisses me.  The man has a serious obsession with babies!  It’s very cute though.  He’s started playing classical music to the baby at night which is fine with me.  I refuse to play music and put headphones on my belly though.  I don’t want to scare the little guy to death when his nice quiet, floaty environment is invaded by this crazy orchestra music.

Whoa, weight gain!  This week played havoc on my weight.  I started to freak out a little, but I realized that I’ve been constipated.  I’m not someone who tracks whether or not I’ve pooed on a particular day.  Because of that it usually takes me a while to realize that I’m constipated and maybe I should eat something to get me all cleared up.  The problem is that the most effective things for me are green tea or coffee which are things I’m trying not to drink while pregnant.  Green tea because it blocks the absorption of folic acid into your system and caffeine because I think that giving the baby caffeine jolts every day is stressful to his tiny body.  I’ve limited my caffeine to chocolate because there is no way I’m giving up chocolate.  No way!  Want to know how I got rid of Mr. Constipation?  Popcorn!  That’s right, I went to see Breaking Dawn with SIL and I had a huge bag of popcorn.  I’m addicted to movie theatre popcorn…yes, I’m aware that it’s about a million calories and 12 times my daily salt intake, but do you know what else popcorn has?  Fiber!  So next time I’m all stopped up, I’m going to see a movie and eating my body weight in popcorn!

Week 27

Week 28

So my average weight this week is 172.0 lbs.  Yeah, that would be a 2.7 lbs gain in one week!  Lovely!  The baby is either packing on the weight or my poo weighs a lot.  My total weight gain so far is 19 lbs in 28 weeks.  Hopefully, baby boy doesn’t decide to add almost 3 lbs of weight to mommy’s butt every week or I’ll be rolling into the hospital at 40 weeks. 

Heartburn, acid reflux, and indigestion like to hang around.  I figure it’s because the baby has started taking up so much space.  I just need to get the hang of eating less at meals and snacking more often.  Easier said than done.

No BH in sight.  Instead I have this weird pain in my pelvis.  Doctor says it’s ligament pain so most likely round ligament pain (RLP).  It hurts a lot more than the ligament pain I had in the 1^st trimester.  I still only have one stretch mark and my goal is to make sure he stays an orphan. 

Sciatic pain is there.  Back pain has also flared up.  I think it’s because of how I need to sit at work now to make my belly comfortable.  I still need to remember to stretch every day.  The leg pains seem to have vanished for now so I’m happy. 

I’m really looking forward to visiting my aunt in Vermont on Friday!  Black Friday shopping here I come!  I’ve really missed you over these last 5 years.  Of course, the first year I decide to go to the States for Black Friday Canadian stores decide that they’ll get in on some of the action and start advertising Black Friday deals.  WTF!  Whatever baby stuff is still cheaper in the States since our dollar has been at par for the last year.  I plan on scouring all the baby and maternity stores.  Poor Dre!  I might have to buy him boy toys to reward him for spending a day shopping among the crazy deal hunters.

Baby is the size of an eggplant again according to the ticker I have on the sidebar.  Really!  It’s been 4 freaking weeks and they haven’t figured out what other type of fruit or vegetable could be about the same size so we could have a variety.  Hold on…according to another website baby is the size of a CHINESE CABBAGE!  Yay!  Although I have no idea what that is…

Shower Time

I had the best shower on Saturday!
Lots of amazing people showed up and we had tons of fun.  My SIL who hosted the shower put tons of work into making it the best shower ever.  Several people commented about the fact that the shower was very impressive, well planned, and well though out.  They were impressed with how SIL had thought of everything! 

So a huge thank you to my SIL!  (I didn't just put that on there 'cause she reads this though:-)

My mom, brother's girlfriend, and myself all headed to my SIL's house about 30 minutes before the guests were supposed to show up.  SIL thought it would be a good idea for me to be there and greet everyone as they came in.  For showers, I would usually be the last to arrive which is what happened for my wedding shower, but I much preferred doing it this way.  At my wedding shower, I felt like the center of attention and like I didn't have time to talk to everyone for a few minutes.  Since I saw everyone come in, I had the time to take a few minutes with everyone and chat which was really nice. 

I mean I like attention, but I don't necessarily like being the center of attention for a group of 30 women.  That part can be a little daunting.

Anyways...when we arrived I spotted the awesome diaper cake that SIL made for me. 

Diaper Cake

Isn't it gorgeous?  She has lots of talent people!  The best thing is that when SIL asked me what color I wanted for the shower I told her blue and green.  I didn't specify any shades of blue and green or anything.  She found the exact blue and green that I LOVE and even got ribbon with polka dots on them.  AWESOME!  I really wish I could have found crib bedding with these 2 colors for our baby boy, but whenever these 2 colors are combined they tend to be for girls.  Apparently boys only like pastel blue, brown, and red because those are the predominant colors in boy bedding sets...oh and navy blue.  Blech!  I love bright colors!

SIL had several games setup on the main floor of her house as well as a table full of appetizers to tide guest over.  She had diapers full of melted chocolate which were revolting looking.  She had baby food jars without the labels so we could guess what kind of baby food it was.  Then, she had a baby BINGO where you guessed what I would receive as a gift and as I opened them they crossed them out until they had a BINGO.  The games list went on and on, but they were all fun and not the kind of games that are all like.  LOOK AT ME!  WE'RE PLAYING A GAME!  There were plenty of games. but they were unobstrusive.

Games and my presents (pack and play) from SIL and MIL!

After that we got herded downstairs and I got to open presents!  Yay!  Presents for the baby!  There were so many presents...it was overwhelming.   Halfway through opening the presents I was done.  If someone had told me a few months ago that I would get tired sitting in a lazy boy and opening presents I would have laughed at them.  I love presents so I love opening them = not a chore.  Apparently when you're pregnant and in your 3rd trimester, ripping prettty, sparkling paper out of gift bags and off of boxes is really hard work.  Who would have guessed?

This picture doesn't do justice to how pretty everything was downstairs!

Dre and I got tons of stuff for the baby and tons of gift cards for Baby R Us so we can go get the stuff we're missing.  We were truly blessed by our friends and families!

Presents!

After presents, SIL rolled out the food.  There was soooooo much food and it was soooo good!  She even made the shower cake from scratch and decorated it herself.  Isn't it cute?  Yah, cutting into a cake that looks like a baby is a little creepy at first, but it was so good that we got over that one rather quickly.

Baby Cake.  It was so yummy!

This was the most creative fruit salad I've ever seen.

Overall, I think that everyone had an amazing time.  I had a great time even though I was exhausted by the end.  When we got home, I just sat surrounded by all the gifts and organized everything from the couch. 

It was the perfect shower!  I couldn't have asked for more.

Today...

I had an awesome shower today!

Now I'm totally exhausted. It's surprising that the only thing I did today was eat and open presents and it totally drained me.

So I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Funny Kids

I asked my oldest nephew what he wanted for Christmas today.  His answer...an iPod.

I guess this generation of children is really different from our generation.  When I was eight, I wanted the latest Barbie and her awesome pink car!  Everything revolved around who had the coolest Barbies and accessories.  Yes, we had a computer, but back then we were still running stuff on the MS-Dos platform (not advanced at all) and the Internet hadn't come into our lives yet.

Today, my nephew wants a laptop, and iPod, or a 3DS (he has a DS already).  My 9 year old niece probably wants some similar things for Christmas...I just haven't asked her yet.  My 16 year old niece only wants cool stuff and never has any money so she's easy to buy for and my 5 year old nephew can amuse himself with a piece of paper and tape for hours. 

I think I understand what my aunts and uncles found difficult about buying us presents when we were kids.  I couldn't understand why they didn't know what was cool and what I would want for my birthday or Christmas.  Now I understand since I can't for the life of me figure out what to buy for nieces and nephews when birthdays and Christmas roll around. 

I'm guessing that getting them a lump of coal for their Christmas stocking isn't going to be popular so I'm just going to have to go back to the drawing board to figure out presents this year.  That or I'll start harassing SIL to give me ideas for them, but since she has to give ideas to all the grandparents and other relatives who want to buy the kids gifts it's not that easy.

One thing I do know...I'm not buying the nephew an iPod, or a laptop, or a 3DS...I'm way too cheap for that:-)  Plus, nephew seems to think that Santa brings iPods, laptops, and 3DS'.  If that's true, I've been sending my wishlists to the wrong person.  I need to start sending some ideas about a brand new Kobo or awesome Le Creuset dutch oven to the North Pole!

I do love seeing Christmas through the sheer joy that kids get from that holiday.  It's what makes Christmas magical!

Why Mondays Suck…This is One Reason

Every day I get the privilege of joining the masses that take the bus out of our suburb into the city to go to work.  On most days, this is a boring trip punctuated by nothing more than late or early buses.  I’m sure bus drivers arrive early or late on purpose to see how many people’s schedule they can screw up.
Late last year, the bus company (which is owned and subsidized by the city) decided that they needed to make the transit system more efficient to save money which would in turn help to pay for their new $12 million dollar call system.  Now, I’m in favour of creating more efficient routes to save money, but what I cannot understand is how making the system “moreefficient” means that buses are NEVER EVER where they are supposed to beat the time they’re supposed to be there.  This makes us, the riders,annoyed which make the bus drivers surly and annoyed.  Who am I kidding?  They were surly and annoyed before these changes. 

We have about 10 major transit stations in this city.  Every day, I have to get off at the transit station hub that is in the middle of the city. Almost every bus in circulation will go through this station.  So it’s an understatement to say that this station is busy.  It’s a zoo at night!  You have to keep an eagle eye out for those slippery buses because if you glance down at your phone for .000005 second your bus will have come and then taken off like lightening.  These drivers have perfected the art of stopping and then immediately stomping on the accelerator pedal to peal off if they don’tsee someone frantically running towards their bus.  These same drivers have been known to pretend to not see frantic people trying to weave through the masses to get to the bus.  You can never be sure where exactly your bus will stop along the designated portion of the transit station for the busyou’re waiting for.

My stop is the busiest at night because it’s the stop for every express bus through that station and the stop for the several other very buses.

Let’s go back to Monday.  I’m blissfully waiting on the curb trying to spot my bus.  I’ve texted their new $12 million dollar POS system, but of course the thing is fried and tells me the bus has already gone by.  I know it hasn’t because Dre is happily sitting on the bus textingme the bus’ progress towards the station.  (Dre takes this bus from the downtown core.) 

I see the bus turn the corner and I start walking towards it since there are 2 stretch buses in front of it.  Suddenly, the stretch buses pull away and lovely driver decides that he needs to pull up to the stop sign. That’s OK…they do this frequently.  I don’t have to run after it because surely the awesome driver will stop under the sign like he usually does so I don’t have to haul my 6 month pregnant ass by running to said bus.  To make sure that the bus stops, I wave at it with my pass.  (See picture) Then I turn and start walking fast to the spot where he should stop. Bear in mind that the bus hasn’t even gotten close to the curb once in this whole story. 

Aren't my drawings so awesome!

Wait!  Are you kidding me!  Fucking POS bus driver just peeled away as if no one was trying to get on his @$%^$%^#@## bus.  He never even stopped. Now, a lot of buses manage to not stop at this station, but they usually have handy excuses like, “My bus was full.”  This bus was almost empty. It’s why I take it.   I hurry and text Dre, “Your bus driver is a fucking moron.”  in the hope that he’ll go chew a piece off of this particular driver’s ass. 

I’m looking for another bus and I see another express.  No choice, I have to take this one.  Of course, it’s full and it’sstanding room only which is great when you’re 27 weeks pregnant and your balance is shot.  I get on and try to hang on as the bus driver who thinkshe’s an Indy car driver squeals around the corners.  Then Dre calls me and tells me that he’s at the transit station since he basically got kicked off the bus.  What???   I tell him to get on another bus and I’llget the story straight later on.  He tells me that he’s calling a complaint to wonderful bus company.  I get to last major transit station and I have to get off as this bus veers into a suburb where my car isn’tparked.  I wait for another bus to come along to take me to my car and Dre arrives.

He tells me that when he noticed the bus driver not stopping he started yelling at him (from the back of the bus) to stop the bus and got up and went to tell him that he’d left me, his pregnant wife, behind.  Apparently,bus driver finally decides to stop at the end of this station (there’s noway I can see that since millions of other buses are blocking the view).  Bus driver tells Dre to look and see if I’m coming.  Hello?  Yes, I can magically see your bus through the other buses and will run for it and try to plow through thousands of people before you decide to peal away again.  Anyways by this time, bus driver is feeling self righteous and decides to tell Dre that I didn’t wave enough to get him to stop.  So Dre, the love of my life,tells him, “What?  You want her to stand there and jump up and down in joy to get you to stop?” 

Driver, seeing that he sounds like a moron now, tells Dre, “Sir,do we have a problem here?”

“YES, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!  YOU LEFT MY 6 MONTH PREGNANT WIFE AT THE BUS STOP!”  Bus driver tells Dre to go see if he can find me but that the bus might not be there when Dre comes back.  Dre gets off and driver slams the door behind him.  Dre turns back around and the driver opens the door again and asks him if he's getting on or off since he needs to go.  So Dre went to get his bag and got off the bus because he was so mad at the driver.

So basically dumb ass driver didn't stop when he was supposed to and instead of waiting for Dre to go get me, he took off as fast as he possible could.  Jokes on him though since Dre called customer service twice and filed a complaint.  Customer service agent told him on the second call that another gentleman had also called to complain about the "appalling behavior he witnessed on the bus".  Dre's co-worker called to file a complaint...she takes the same bus we do.  Even I called customer service and that is not like me.  I hate phones and never use them, but I was so mad that I didn't think I could adequately convey my message through the online forms.  The customer service agent I spoke to said that EVERY bus driver is required to stop at major transit stations.  Driver is going to have a least 4 complaints against him for the same incident reported to his supervisor.

So that was my lovely trip home on Monday.  After that Dre and I went to do the groceries because we were both too mad to make dinner and then ordered pizza.

Dear Non-Pregnant Person,

(I got this off of The Bump and the person I copied this from didn’t remember where she got it.  Anyways, I’ve included my thoughts in bold because I can’t just let you guys read this and not put in my opinions.  Come on!)

Need to buy this!

I hope you find these guidelines helpful in your interactions with pregnant women as failing to follow them may result in serious physical harm....
If you are thinking, surely she doesn't mean me- then you should probably read this twice. (Yes, I mean YOU!)

1) The appropriate response to a couple telling you they are having a baby is "Congratulations!" with enthusiasm. Any other response makes you an a$$. (Asking me if it was planned when I’m 28, have been married for over 2 years, and have a steady job makes you a douchebag or someone who doesn’t think a lot before blurting out whatever goes through that brain of yours.)

2) Through the wonders of science, we now know that babies are made ONLY by the mother and father- not grandparents. Unless the baby is in your uterus or you are the man that helped put it there, you may not ever use the phrase "my baby". (Bahahaha!  Love it!  My mother actually told me that SHE was the grandparent as if that gave her more say than ME the mother.  I need to send this to her.)

3) On the same note, unless you made the baby as defined in 2, the pregnancy, birth and raising of the child are not about you. You do not have input. No one wants to hear your opinion unless they ask for it. The same goes for the name of the baby. (I need to come up with something to meddling people that tell me what they think before it happens.  I don’t want to be standing there just giving them a dirty look because I can’t think of a good comeback quickly enough.  I always think of great ones after I walk away.)

4) The body of a pregnant women should be treated the same as any other body. You would not randomly touch someone's stomach if they were not pregnant, nor would you inquire into the condition of their uterus, cervix or how they plan to use their breasts. Pregnancy does not remove all traces of privacy from a woman. (For some reason, a lot of the people I work with think it’s fine to touch my baby belly whenever they feel like it.  Really!  Do I walk around randomly groping you and standing in your personal space?  All my friends have managed to ask before they touch me so I can’t figure out why co-workers and acquaintances can’t figure this one out.)

5) Likewise, no woman wants to hear comments on her weight- ever. A pregnant woman does not find it flattering that you think she is about is pop, must be having twins, looks swollen or has gained weight in her face. Telling her she looks too small only makes her worry that she is somehow starving her baby. Making such comments invite her to critique your physical appearance and you may not act offended. The only acceptable comment on appearance is "You look fabulous!".  (Co-worker asked me what my doctor thought about my weight gain.  In what reality is this an appropriate question…ever?  When I tell my friends I’ve gained about 17 lbs, they all tell me that I don’t look it and I look great which is awesome!  Also, if you’re going to tell me that I look like I’m 2 months pregnant when I’m 6 months pregnant on the bus be prepared to get the bitch face.)

6) By the time we are 20-30 years old, most of us have picked up on the fact that the summer is hot. We are hot every summer when we are not pregnant. We don't need you to point out that we will be miserably hot before the baby comes.  (Or cold.  Or tell me how lucky I am that I won’t have to be SO HOT when I’m huge like a beach whale {their words, not mine}.  I’m aware of the temperature and also the hormones they make me snarkier so don’t tell me the sky is blue and that winter is cold.)

7) There is a reason that tickets to L&D are not yet sold on Ticketmaster. Childbirth is actually not a public event. It may sound crazy, but some women really do not relish the idea of their mother, MIL or a host of other family members seeing their bare butt and genitals. Also, some people simply feel like the birth of their child is a private and emotional moment to be shared only by the parents. Like everything else in life, unless you receive an invitation, you are NOT invited. This includes doctor appointments, ultrasounds, labor, delivery, the hospital and the parents’ home. You do not decide if you will be there for the birth or if you will move in with the new parents to "help out". If your assistance is desired, rest assured that you will be asked for it.  (Someone needs to tell my mother this.  She hasn’t gotten the memo that I don’t need her to “teach” me how to be a mother…her words.  Also, no one is allowed in while I’m in labor unless your name is Dre, doctor, or nurse.  I’m not pleasant when I’m in pain.)

8) If you are asked to help after the birth, this means you should cleanup the house, help with cooking meals, and generally stay out of the way. Holding the baby more than the parents, interfering with breastfeeding and sleeping schedules and making a woman who is still leaking fluid from multiple locations lift a finger in housework is not helping. (Interfere with my schedule and feel the wrath!  I’m just saying.  We’re trying to get the new baby on a schedule here not make sure the grandparents get 10 hours each of baby holding time.)

9) The only people entitled to time with the baby are the parents. Whether they choose to have you at the hospital for the birth or ask for you to wait three weeks to visit, appreciate that you are being given the privilege of seeing their child. Complaining or showing disappointment only encourages the parents to include you less. (I might post this on my door except it’ll say something like this…”If you disapprove of how I do things, though bananas.  Tell me you disapprove of how I do things and I might kick your ass.”  Just a thought before you come hold our new baby bundleJ  Do you think they’ll like my sign?
I hope this helps- it sure makes us feel better.

Signed,
All Pregnant Women