I'm back... :-)

I think I've decided to start blogging again.

Over the last 18 months, I found it too challenging to find time to post and stay home with my son (for the first year) and then working and spending time with the baby and husband.

So what we've been up to!  Well we bought a house, sold our old townhouse, and were temporarily homeless for 2 weeks in between house closing dates last September.  Boy, am I glad that we decided to move before our 5 year plan since staging a house with a toddler would be impossible.

Baby boy, Kaleb, is now 18 months and has finally decided to join the land of the walking.  It took him until the week before his 18 month birthday.  He liked being carries around apparently:-)   He talks a lot though he has a good vocabulary of about 75 words at 18 months and every day he's adding 2-3 words and remembers them in the correct context the next day.  Most words are French, but lately he's started adding a ton of English to it too.

The latest news is that we're expecting Baby #2 in late April 2014.  This is super exciting news to us and we were very surprised since we had just gotten back on the TTC train and got pregnant on the first go.  My first u/s to "date" the pregnancy is next Monday and I cannot wait.  Even though I'm sick as a dog I still need that u/s to confirm that this isn't another missed m/c.  Nausea decided to wait until the end of week 6 to appear, but it appeared violently and I don't have the luxury of lying on the couch for weeks on end anymore.  I'm a walking zombie and get nothing done at work because I'm so tired that I can't concentrate.  I cannot wait for the 2nd trimester energy to come around; otherwise, the baby will arrive with nothing done except a painted room to welcome him or her (I think it's a her this time around).

This pregnancy is one of the big reasons I decided to start this up again because I've been referring to my posts from my last pregnancy to compare symptoms and stuff like that.  It's been helpful and I kind of wish I had stuck it out and written through K's first year so I could remember exactly when stuff happened instead of vaguely.

Well, see you soon hopefully:-)

Teas, teas, teas

Recently, I had the amazing opportunity to sample some great teas to review them! I got the teas right before Kaleb was born so it's taken me a little time to write about the yummy teas, but I'm finally doing it now.

Steeped Tea

Steeped Tea is a company that works by having consultants hold parties at your house. As the host, you get a percentage of the sales of the day. I was introduced to Steeped Tea when one of my friends decided to hold a Steeped Tea party and I got to sample some of their teas.

I have to say that I was pretty impressed when I looked at their catalogue. They have so many different kinds of teas that you can't find anywhere else. The teas are all loose leaf teas, but they do sell things like reusable tea bells or tea bags.

I tried the 5 different teas that Steeped Tea sent to me and I also wanted to tell you about the 2 teas that I bought at the party.

Let's start with "Toffee Crunch". This tea is phenomenal! Both Dre and I love this tea and are going to be life-long drinkers of this one. This tea smells amazing and what's even better is that it tastes exactly like it smells. I'm sure you know that often teas smell better than they taste. This is a rooibos tea so it happens to be naturally decaffeinated which is great for me since I'm breastfeeding Kaleb and I can't have too much caffeine. I give this tea 5 thumbs up. Go buy it...you'll love it!

Next up is "Lady Layla's Whole Fruit Tea". It's really good. This tea is caffeine free as it's fruit tea. It's taste reminds me of summer berries. You can make this tea as an ice tea and I imagine it's phenomenal when you drink it that way. Since it's still cold over here, I haven't tried it cold, but I really look forward to trying it this summer when it's nice and hot outside.

Then I tried "Peppy Peppermint". This tea is good. It's good peppermint tea. Drinking a cup of this tea makes me feel energized and fresh. Peppermint is one of those flavors that is great all the time and makes you feel refreshed when you drink it.

Next came a classic, "Earl Gray de la Creme". This tea is a very good earl gray. I really enjoyed this one. It's very good when you want that classical tea taste...especially on a cold day. I loved it! I can't wait to have it again.

Then we tried the "Breakfast Muffin". This tea smells so good before it's brewed and after it's brewed. I didn't think it tasted as good as it smelled though. It did taste good, but the smell was just better than the taste. I think I'll have to try this tea a few more times to really appreciate all the flavors that are in it.

Next is "Cherry Rose Sansha". This tea was real surprise. When I read the ingredients, I really didn't want to try this tea because I didn't think I'd like it. Well, surprise, surprise...I really liked this tea. It has nice light floral tones and is a perfect afternoon tea.

Last tea is "Caramel Comfort". I thought I would love this tea. Why not? It's made with caramel! Well, I really didn't like this one. I think it tastes like eating cigarettes or something like that. Dre thinks I'm crazy though and thought this tea was great so it's probably just me that didn't like this one.

I also got the opportunity to try their "Red Pepper Jelly". I have nothing to compare this jelly to though as I've never had Red Pepper Jelly. I was pleasantly surprised when I talked myself into trying it though. I tried it with some crackers, but I imagine that it would be amazing served on top of cheese like melted Brie.

Overall, I found the Steeped Tea teas to be phenomenal and of great quality. I can't wait to buy some more and try some of their other flavors!

Disclaimer: Steeped Tea provided me with 6 flavors of tea and the Red Pepper Jelly at no cost to me.

41 Weeks

You thought I disappeared didn't you?

The truth is that between feeding Kaleb and trying to get simple stuff like emails answered I just don't have any time to sit down and take 30 minutes to hammer out a post.  So sad!

Anyways, here is my 41 week picture.  This was taken a couple of hours before we left for the hospital to have Kaleb and the day before he was born.  I was huge!  Whenever you see these pics, you realize how much weight gain was going on and it's kind of crazy to see how much I've lost now. 

Week 41

My doctor wanted to induce me when I hit 41 weeks, but Dre and I told her Biophysical Profile.  Fancy term for another NST test and an ultrasound.  Dre decided to come to the ultrasound with me since they might have kept me if the results showed that Kaleb was not doing well.

The last ultrasound I've had was at 18 weeks so I was looking forward to seeing how different this one would be.  It definitely was different.  For one, the baby is so big when he gets to full term that to see everything they have to look at him in sections.  The ultrasound person started the ultrasound after confirming that we were just there to check on the baby's progress and well-being.  Right away she told me I had tons of amniotic fluid.  She went on about this for a while so I guess I really did have lots.  She told me that usually by now she can't get good shots of things like his face because most of the amniotic fluid is gone, but because I had so much she was able to give us a picture of baby Kaleb's face.  Exciting!  She checked everything and measured things like his head and stomach.  Then at the end she tells us, "I estimate the baby's size to be 4.8 kg."  We were like oh that not too bad...then we made the conversion to lbs and I freaked the crap out.  That's 10.5 lbs people!  Dre and I then spent the next 2 days convincing ourselves that weight estimates on ultrasounds are very often wrong and that the baby would be a least 3 lbs less than that.

Well as it turns out that ultrasound was not too wrong!  I had a 10 lbs 2 oz baby!

On the day, that I went into labour I weighed 193.4 lbs.  That is a total pregnancy weight gain of 40 lbs.  Yes, that is right...I managed to gain massive amounts of weight in the last 1.5 weeks.  Every other day I would step on the scale and it would be up another couple of lbs.  It was craziness! 

That's what was going on while we were waiting for our little baby boy to make an appearance.  Up next...the birth story.  I'm still working on it, but I hope to post it in the next day or 2.  Then I'll post pictures of our little man because he's sooooo cute!

Update

Since I'm up all night now, I might as well update. But I'm warning you guys that I'm typing one-handed on my phone so no pics and there might be mistakes because of the lovely autocorrect feature.

Baby Kaleb Jacques was born last Monday at 9:53AM weighing 10.2 lbs, and measuring 22.25 inches by c-section. This is one big baby. A fact that every single nurse and doctor in the hospital pointed out to us. I'll type a proper birth story very, very soon. I promise!

For now, I'll just catch you up on a little of our lives. Dre is at home with me. He was supposed to go back to work next week, but he managed to get an extra week. My mom is also coming to help out next week so that will be nice. I need lots of help since I had a c-section and am supposed to take it slow.

I am breastfeeding, but that is the biggest challenge ever. Especially when you have a baby that clearly prefers one side over the other. Kaleb also was born with a tongue-tie and has a short tongue. The tongue-tie thing was easily fixed, but the short tongue is what makes his latch so difficult and we can't fix that apart from just wait till he hats bigger.

Also, this baby loves to suck even when he's not hungry. We tried a pacifier on him but he just spits that put. Also we think that the pacifier might be confusing to him as he's still learning to suck properly. So I'm taking it one day at the time and concentrating on getting the latch correctly every time.

All of this feeding though means that I do that ALL the time and don't have time make a proper post.

Alright, I'll update soon again!

Week 40

Well I’m over my due date by 4 days now.  Blah!  I get texts, emails, and Facebook messages from a hoard of people every day asking me how I feel and if the baby has come yet.  I’m pretty sure that I’d let most people know if the baby had decided to make an appearance.  Also, I’m not really sure what to say about how I feel.  I’m huge!  My skin is stretched to the max and this baby seems to still be gaining weight so I don’t feel great, but I also don’t feel awful either. 

I see the doctor on Thursday and she’ll most likely want to induce me right away since the weekend will be coming and next Monday is Family Day.  I had my non-stress test (NST) on Monday and everything looked good.  Baby was moving well, had a good heart rate, and showed no sign of stress.  The resident who came to review my results with me told me that since I’m overdue I can look forward to these every 3 days until I get induced or have the baby.  I’m not too excited about that since I have to do the NSTs at the hospital and they have ridiculous parking rates over there. 

My mom is coming tomorrow.  I really didn’t want her around before the baby comes, but she has some business stuff she has to do.  The problem is that whenever she comes down she manages to stay at my house or friend’s houses for 1-2 weeks.  I can only take about 1-2 days before she gets on my nerves and I want to send her back.  She loves visiting though and so she’s usually here way too long and we end up fighting because she gets on my nerves or disrupts Dre and I’s schedule.  Anyways, I’m picking her up at the bus station tomorrow afternoon if I haven’t gone into labour by then.

I’m getting tired of drinking Raspberry Leaf Tea.  It doesn’t taste bad, but it just hasn’t done anything yet and it gets really old to drink the same tea 1-2 every day.  I’m also still taking Evening Primrose Oil, but I think I’ll cut back to 1 or 2 a day because those pills are seriously giving me the runs and that’s not cool!  They’re the perfect cure to constipation!  I’ve gotten every suggestion under the sun to “naturally” start my labour, but I personally don’t think any of them work unless your body is ready or was going to go into labour anyways.  The weirdest ones I’ve had suggested are to eat lots of popcorn and to drink castor oil with orange juice.  Hmmm, yes I totally want to drink an oil that’s going to give me the runs.  So needless to say, I’ve tried most of the sane ones like walking a lot and all that, but I’m going to stay far, far away from the crazy ones like castor oil.

I lost my To-Do list so I consider it all done.  Of course, I have a ton of small things to do every day, but nothing major is left.  I just need to do stuff like go consign the baby clothes I’m not keeping, harass my insurance company into paying the expenses they’re supposed to cover for Dre, send in my claims for the massage therapy and chiropractor expenses of the past few months. 

We’re done the baby room!  Yay!  Dre and I are in the process of buying the letters to spell the baby’s name and then I’ll paint them.  Michael’s only lets you use one coupon per day, but you can print as many as you want so every time I go by the store I pick up another letter.  Also, I need to figure out how to paint MDF wood since that’s all they had.  We don’t plan on hanging the baby’s name until he’s born since we’re not telling anyone what the name is.

Here’s my pictures.  I just keep getting bigger…

A disclaimer…my weight is leaping up every few days.  I mean in the past 2 days my scale tells me I gained 5 lbs.  How is that even possible?  I’m going to eat more Valentine Day Hershey’s Chocolates with cherry filling to make myself feel betterJ My average weight this week is 186.0 lbs which is a gain of 2.5 lbs since last week. This makes my total weight gain for this pregnancy exactly 33 lbs. That’s the most weight I’ve gained in one single week this pregnancy.  I’m pretty sure it’s going to be even worse for this week (Week 41) too.

I’m still tired and achy.  I also am having a really hard time doing things like putting on my winter boots and picking stuff off the floor.  Most of the time if it falls on the floor, I just want to leave it there.  So last week I mentioned that I found a diaper bag, but since it’s impossible to find in Canada I’ve just decided to ignore the fact that I don’t have a diaper bag.

No contractions.  No Braxton-Hicks.  Nothing.

I’m really looking forward to meeting this baby.  The end!

Baby is still the size of a watermelon.  Although with all the weight he’s gained he’s probably a really big watermelon by now!

Due Dates

Well, my Friday due date has come and gone and I'm still pregnant!

Dre is really cute. He keeps telling the baby where the exit is and that he has to push the exit button or asking him when he'll show up.

I've tried all the old wives tales stuff. Well most of them. There are still a few that I haven't tried. I'd like to say that they're doing something, but so far nada!

I don't get to see my doctor until Thursday and by then I'll be a week overdue. Instead of seeing me tomorrow which she should be doing since she last saw me last Monday, she's sending me to L&D to get "monitored" to make sure everything is going well. Blah! I'm not really looking forward to that at all. It's not hard, but I do have to drive to the hospital and find parking around it (and walk) or pay for $13 parking just to have a 30 minute monitoring. I kind of feel like my new doctor is just passing the buck.

Anyways, I hope that baby boy decides to show up really soon since I don't want to be induced. Of course if I end up being induced, it won't be the end of the world, but I want to avoid it if I can.

40 week update tomorrow unless baby boy decides to make an appearance...

Week 39

I can’t believe that I’m so close to my due date!  Due date is officially Friday.  Of course, ultrasound techs and my doctor have managed to give me 4 different due dates which include the 9^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th.  So who knows if the 10^th is really accurate as my due date, but that’s what we’ll go with.

I saw my new doctor last Thursday and then again this Monday since she couldn’t see anyone this Thursday.  I’m still not crazy about this doctor because she likes to just give general information instead of concrete number information.  You have to sit there and ask for everything…it’s very frustrating.  At both appointments, she did an internal exam.  Man that was the worst experience of my life.  I hear it’s worse when your doctor has small hands and this one does.  Anyways, the so not fun experience revealed that I’m barely a fingertip dilated (which is not even 1 cm) and pretty much not effaced at all since she said my cervix was still very high.  It’s depressing to hear this when you’re at 39 weeks.  Then, wonderful new doctor was like I’ll see you next Thursday (meaning the 16^th) and you’ll be almost at your due date.  Ummmmm, no my due date is this Friday.  Do these doctors not bother to read the charts or something?  So she starts having a discussion with herself about what to do because obviously if I go over my EDD then she should be seeing me 2x a week.  Her solution is to send me for a non-stress test (NST) at the hospital next Monday if the baby hasn’t shown up by then to make sure everything is going well.  Okayyyyyyyyyyyyy…..  Then she tells me that if I make it to our next appointment on the 16^th that we’ll discuss and most likely schedule an induction.  OH GOODY!  This is just what I’d like to look forward to right now.

BTW, I did start drinking Red Raspberry Tea Leaf and taking Evening Primrose Oil every day and so far that really hasn’t done anything.  I’m still taking the stuff though because you never know if it’s helping stuff along.

The To Do list is getting shorter, but it just seems like there’s always something new that I need to do and it’s daunting.  I just want someone else to get everything done for me so I can sit down and say, “Everything has been done and is ready for the baby.”  Any volunteers?  No?  Oh, well!  Booh!

Every time I think I’m done cleaning baby stuff, I turn around and there’s another pile.  Ughhh!  I’m not even going to try to clean the toys any more.  My mom can clean all of those when she comes to visit.  I’m a little overwhelmed and I don’t really want to deal with them at this time.  Plus I doubt that baby boy is going to care if he had toys to play with in the first few weeks.

In the baby’s room, Dre and I put up all the wall decals this weekend.  Now Dre needs to install the double curtain rod so I can add sheer curtains.  I need to buy a garbage can, lamp, and really overpriced letters to spell baby boy’s name for the room and then I’ll officially be done!  So we’re almost done!  It’s my goal to do most of this this weekend.

We haven’t seen any mice at all in 2 weeks so I think that we managed to get rid of all of them in a couple of days.  Dre did a good job of taking care of that!

Here is this week’s picture!  According to a lot of people, I’ve majorly dropped in the last 2 weeks.  Too bad that doesn’t mean that the baby decides to make an appearance now.

I still think this is going to be a big baby because my weight gain in the past 2-3 weeks has been really high and I’m not eating any more than I was before or any differently.  My average weight this week is 183.5 lbs which is a gain of 1.3 lbs since last week. This makes my total weight gain for this pregnancy exactly 30.5 lbs. With the way that my weight has been this week, I think I’ll reach the 35 lbs weight gain easily if I go over my EDD by a week. 

I’m tired of talking about acid reflux, indigestion, and heartburn.  They all suck!  End of story.

I still get tired easily and I find that I sleep a lot more.  I go to bed with Dre at around 10:30PM and get up to pee around 4-7 times a night now and sleep until 9:00AM every day.  It takes me a while to do everything because I have to do them around this huge belly and getting up off the couch or the floor is a workout, but I do managed to slowly get some stuff done.  Did I mention that I finally found a diaper bag?  Well, I did and it’s not the Coach or Jujube bags I wanted which cost an arm and a leg.  It’s a really nice, affordable Carter bag, but it’s impossible to get in Canada.  Booh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BHs.  I don’t get very many anymore.  I think I was getting so many before because my job was stressing me out.  Since I’ve stopped working, I don’t really get more than a couple a day. 

I’m really looking forward to having a baby and having everything organized in my house!  This is what my kitchen looked like last week when I decided to organize my cupboards.  Dre was so impressedJ  I ran out of steam in my last cupboard so I left everything out and directed while Dre put it all back.  I never do this type of organizing because I find it boring, but so far I’ve done the fridge, freezers (with Dre), and the cupboards.  I might even do the front closet which is stuffed full of coats and shoes we never use.

Baby is still the size of a watermelon.  Who knows what he weighs now, but I think he’s well around the 7-8 lb mark.  If he comes out weighing 6 lbs, I’ll be very shocked. 

We’re waiting for you baby boy!  People want to know what we named you and honestly I’m getting tired of not telling.