Wednesday, April 30, 2008

It's Hump Day

And it's all downhill from here for the rest of the week. :)

I honestly don't think I have anything interesting to write today. Work was work. Kind of busy but not really. I'm on top of my paperwork again and am not feeling behind so I'm quite happy. I always feel frustrated and overwhelmed when I fall a few days behind in my paperwork. I guess that's the anal retentive side of me that needs to have everything done in a certain way within a certain timeframe.

So I've been thinking some more about my mother dilemma and I think I might be coming up with a solid gameplan... First part will be to tell her that the MWs only allow one person in L&D and that is John of course. The next part is a bit dependent on my older brother... both he and my SIL said they're more than willing to do whatever to help John and I out. So if my parents insist on coming down before the babe's born and staying for a while, I'm going to find out if they can stay at my brother's place for the first 4-5 days after the baby's birth. In the end though, I think I owe it to my baby and John to just let our wishes be known... it's going to be hard and sucky though. I still have a strong feeling that my mom is going to be hurt and will play the martyr....

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Preggo Hormones?

Today was a fairly good day at work. Most things went well and all my clients showed up. I guess it's because it's the end of the month and cheque day is coming soon... but still. I like to think that there are other motivating factors making them come to their appointments. =P

I did get my back up today though and I swear, if I had any less patience or any more angry preggo woman hormones, I think I would have been ruder. One of my clients' girlfriend's is pregnant as well - she's about 2-3 weeks ahead of me. However, as I deal with people who have addictions, she is definitely not showing nearly as much as I am... not even half as much (I'm sure you can figure out why). So my client had the audacity to look at me and say "my, you're HUGE." And kept on going about how BIG I was. Gee, thanks arsehole. It took everything in me to bite my tongue and not say what I was thinking... which was "this is what a healthy 23 week old pregnancy looks like." I won't lie though, I definitely thought that. Seriously.

I went to visit John at work today too - he works late on Tuesday nights so I figured I'd pop by over the dinner hour and bring him a Starbucks. I know most of his work friends anyways so it wasn't weird or awkward. Anyways, we're all sitting in the mess (army term for the bar) and one of the guys goes to light up a cigarette. And I think we all knew what was coming except for him. The minute he lit up, John really dug into him and gave him sh!t for lighting up "in front of a pregnant woman no less." LOL. It was good - we all had a good laugh and even more so because he became sooo embarressed.

**inserting disclaimer here - it was well ventilated and I swear, if I smelled any of the cigarette smoke, I would've been out of there... I'm not exposing my babe to second hand smoke if I can help it.... **

Anyways... Other than that, John and I are trying to come up with a polite, non-hurtful way to try and explain to my mom that we don't want her to come down for the first week after the baby is born. I have no idea how we're going to do this and I'm so worried that I'm going to hurt her feelings or that she's going to misunderstand what we're asking and that she's going to be upset and feel un-needed (is that a word??). I guess my problem is that I always put others' needs and feelings before mine and I really wish that in this situation I could be a bit of a b!tch and just ask her to back off without feeling guilty... but I can't.

Monday, April 28, 2008

DH Felt Movement!

So today I was thinking on the way home and decided that I'm going to make a concerted effort to spend at least 10 minutes a day blogging just for the sake of it. Not only because I've been feeling guilty for not keeping this up to date but because it's actually a good way to unwind, de-stress and even process somethings. So here goes nothing and hopefully I can add even a few lines each day.

So last night as we went to bed, the babe started kicking up a storm. I had John put his hand on my belly and at first he didn't feel anything but then said he felt two good strong kicks. Yayness! I'm so excited that he's finally feeling something. I honestly think it's so hard at times for guys to get as involved and as excited about the pregnancy because their experience is so different from ours (obviously!). I'm hoping the LO starts kicking again tonight so he can feel her again.

I called the maternity registration clinic today and I have both our tour and the registration appointment booked. June 4th we go for the tour and June 23rd is our registration date. It seems so far away and then again it doesn't. Really, it's only a month and a bit away... insane really. I still can't believe how quickly time is flying with this pregnancy.

So my next stressful event is my parents coming down in two weeks. Not even - they're coming the weekend before the May 2-4... They should be arriving the 8th or 9th and are staying with us for a few days. I haven't seem them in some time as they live 8 hours away so this should be a nice visit. I hope. As with all families, mine are a bit odd in their own way too. So we'll see how that goes.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Movement

Oh and I have to share this... last night / early this morning as I was going to bed (I think it was after midnight) I felt the baby's first real kicks. Not just flutters and bubbly movements as I've been feeling for the past week or so but two good solid kicks. Very neat to say the least. I'm a bit sad that it's taken this long to start feeling real movement but I'm so happy now that it's here. I found out at my last MW appointment that I have an anterior placenta. So it's been padding me from the baby's movements and making them less discernible. I'm also wondering if this is why I started showing and growing out of my regular clothes sooner than other people? The only thing I'm mildly concerned about right now is that my placenta is almost "low lying." Basically it's not touching my cervix but is only 12mm away from it. Appparently it needs to be 25mm away in order for the hospital staff and everyone else to be comfortable enough to proceed with a normal birth. So I've been scheduled for an u/s around 28 weeks to see if my placenta's moved. Apparently this is quite normal and the placenta will have moved (or should) as my uterus continues to grow. So here's my fingers crossed that it's moved by 28 weeks.

23 Weeks (aka I Suck at Updating this Thing)

And the title says it all.
So I'm going to try and do a Reader's Digest update on what's been going on lately.
I guess first things first... We had the ultrasound done at 19 weeks, 3 days and IT'S A GIRL!!! How exciting is that!!!?? So of course here are pictures:




OK, so they're not much to look at but seriously - the u/s was tres cool!! Unfortunately, I only got to see about 5 minutes of the show while John got to see the whole thing - a good 20 minutes or so. The tech was really nice and she showed us all the major organs and body parts afterwards. And our daughter (how cool is that!!) was really kicking up a storm in there that day. The tech actually hard a hard time "pinning" her down to get the last few measurements of her heart.

So I went to the midwife the week after and the babe is measuring completely normal which is fantastic so I'm completely happy!

My biggest concern right now is how quickly I'm gaining weight. Everyone says I look fantastic and I don't think I look half bad most of the time but I did gain 9lb in one month. At my last MW's appointment I weighed in at 168lb... this week I'm already at 175 and I have 1.5 wk until my next appointment. I really really hope I don't gain another 9 lb in between appointments. I do know where all this weight is going though - my poor boobies. :( I swear they just keep on growing. Grrr. Which would be fine but they're already big enough and I really don't want them to get any bigger.

Other than that, the nursery is coming along nicely. John's painted the walls and now it's a matter of putting in the baseboard and trim. Here are some up to date shots - I don't think you can truly make out the contrast in colour yet though.



I can't wait till everything is done! Not much longer now I think!!