Week 16

today we officially completed 16 weeks of development. amazing :)

here is a picture of whats going on inside my body during the development phase of week 17 (no wonder why i still have to pee so much!)

Online Baby Pool

click this link for access to our ONLINE BABY POOL :)

go there to enter your guesses about the baby's gender, weight, length, birthday (due date). its just for fun, but there will for sure be a winner (of sorts) - anyone is welcome to enter a guess

have fun & thanks for participating!

Musings

this weather is lulling me into (what i'm afraid is) a false sense of spring security. with my mini-turning-30-soon-mid-life-crisis looming, the dismal weather has not been helping. waking up this morning to see the sun again really did wonders for my state of mind. i just hope the sun actually stays! who else is sick of wearing sweaters? me! me!

lately i've been thinking a lot about "labour", that big scary "L" word. i faithfully PVR "A Baby Story" and "Bringing home baby" (which i prefer b/c the labour is over & they focus on the 1st 48 hours of the new baby in the house)... i thought that these shows would alevieate my fears, but if anything, its making them worse! i watched an episode last night where a woman pushed for hours & hours, vomited, cried, broke blood vessels, then still had to have a scary c-section; & the episode of BHB wasn't much better - the kid wailed through the first night, shit so much it filled up the diaper & spilled up his back *all the way to his neck* (OMG disgusting!!) & franky, wth is with the belly button stub? how are we supposed to take care of that? what do you do with the stub once it falls off? (it seems so wrong to just chuck it in the trash)...

*shudders*

whenever anyone asks me what i think about labour i tell them the truth. i think its archaic. i think that we live in the year 2007 & that pushing is a thing of the past. i think that if we were meant to push & only push that god wouldn't have invented the C section. my bf Meg disagrees with me on this - actually a ton of people do (mishky, mom, kim, etc.) but i don't care! the thought of having to suffer for hours while my hip bones realign & my contractions force my baby further out of my body & closer to my vag, then to have to push while ripping that spot between my ass & my vag... omg... its too scary for words. i won't do it!!

i'm not ruling out the possibility that i might change my mind... after all, there was a time in my life when i didn't even want kids. still... okay this is too heavy for a saturday morning, i'm off to have breakfast with my sister

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liam through the ages

brand new

one month

two months

three months

four months

five months

six months/seven months

eight months

nine months

ten months

eleven months

first birthday!

13 months

14 months/15 months

16 months/17 months

18 months

Success!!

i found jeans! *does a happy dance* Meg & i went to Bayshore last night & first went to Old Navy where we laughed our heads off @ the massive maternity tops & pants; but didn't find anything. then we tried THYME Maternity & BINGO!! SUCCESS!! i bought 3 pairs of pants to fit my expanding belly & they are super cute. 1 pair super dark wash, 1 pair light wash & 1 pair brown cargo's i'm wearing at work right now. Also picked up 3 pairs maternity thongs (note: no one ever told me that i would outgrow my old underwear... it would've been nice to have some kind of warning)

We are now 15 weeks completed, which means we're in our 16th week of gestation & according to my handy dandy calculator, 1/3 of the way there!!! thank god

Meg was a huge help last night, not just with the pants, but with the crisis i've been having but hiding really well from everyone but her. Its my mini-turning-30-soon-crisis. Sort of mid-life, but 20 years too early to be truly "mid". The end of my 20's, the end of an era, the end of singledom, the end of just "me & shaun" (with the arrival of the kid), the end of renting, the end of wondering where my next drink or meal is coming from and... sadly (how its felt lately) .. the end of spontaneity.

Listen before you all read this & start really worrying about me .. don't. I'll be fine. I'm really very happy with my life & where its taken me & i couldn't ask for a better husband, an easier pregnancy or a simpler first time home-ownership deal. I love my life. I really, really do.

I just need some time to mourn my childhood b/c its finally starting to feel "officially over".

14 weeks, 6 days

went to the dr. last night for a mini-check up & got weighed. jeeeez. i know we're supposed to gain weight when we're expecting but this is rediculous. first i wasn't gaining enough, now i'm instructed to "slow down a bit" since i put on 4 pounds in 2 weeks. in my defence, 2 weeks ago i was hardly showing & now i have a small water balloon under my tummy. & is it my fault that mcdonalds is on my way to work? is it my fault that suddenly ketchup chips taste so amazing?? no, i don't think it is. i think its my baby's way of telling me that it wants salty, crispy snacks & who am i to deny my child anything it wants?

stupid me went home & told DH so now i just know he's going to make sure i stay on "the right food track" which means no more sweets & lots of veggies. BARF.

good news, got to hear the heartbeat again. it was 160 bpm. old wives tales say anything over 150 is a girl, under 150 a boy. since we've had TWO hearings & the first was 120 bpm i'm irrationally afraid its a hermaphrodite. not that it would make us love himher less ... but still ...

dr. also said that the baby is "very active" b/c she had to keep chasing himher around my abdomen with the dopplar. first it was left, then right, then in the middle. squirming all over the place. which is a great sign. means that things are progressing along perfectly.

we're scheduled to have round 2 of IPS testing on the 30th, which is (sadly) just a blood test & not an ultrasound. but the gender ultrasound should be sometime near mid-april. IPS testing is where they determine "probability" of downs, spina biffida or other physical disorders. so for now we just have to cross our fingers & find out the news in April.

although i just know that everything is fine :)

14 weeks, 4 days

wow ... 14 weeks, 4 days already; time sure is flying by! this weekend was pretty good baby-wise. last week i started feeling movements; like butterfly wings or a fish tugging on a fishing line. then out of the blue (last week) i felt 7 quick tiny kicks from the inside. they weren't big enough to feel on the outside, but they were still really amazing.

this weekend i faced my toughest challenge to date: maternity jeans!

i only have 1 pair so far & they are okay looking. a dark grey/blue wash, pretty straight leg (when i love bootcut or even bells), with a nice wide over-the-tummy band. only problem is, they're the only jeans i've found that i sort of like so they're getting lots of wear. which means, i'm already really sick of them. so i need to find new jeans. i went shopping with tracy yesterday & had no problem finding tops (thanks to the gods of fashion of bringing back this seasons BABYDOLL trend); but jeans? they're NO WHERE to be had.

which got me thinking: if i'm having a hard time finding jeans that are NICE and HOT; not "mom jeans", then other ladies my age & status (yuppie) must be having the same problem. since i can't afford Holt Renfrew "Sevens" maternity jeans or "Citizens" or "Paige" (which all start around $100 and are quite reasonable for non-maternity jeans) then what does that leave girls like me? Gap? Thyme? Motherhood? Old Navy? what to do? how to look fashionable, yet comfortable, yet budget-realistic.

case in point: how cute are these?? i'd want to wear them even if i wasn't preggo! Ginger Jeans from Seven

my only answer is this: buy a sewing machine and start making my own clothes. its really my only option.

ps. i'm up to 138. ack!

The Alien baby post

don't freak out!! here's out little alien :)

Baby!!

Little baby is 12 weeks, 5 days old!

Answer to Kim's Question & update

so for fruit, i was eating 8-9 portions a day of the wrong kind of fruit. i was craving melons, pineapple, grapes... all really watery, high in sugar fruit. and was wondering why i was feeling dumb all the time & why i was also feeling hungry and head achy near the end of the day.

she said that its a common myth that pregnant women lose braincells, and that, if anything, i should be feeling smarter not dumber (because i should have more synapses snapping around) & that made her really worried.

so she started asking all these questions about my diet and it finally came out that all i've really been eating is fruit, carbs and yogurt... when i need at least 40% protein in my diet, i was getting close to zero (other than the occasional egg or bacon or bologna).

the reason she said i needed to start eating RED fruit is b/c its the highest in fiber. so anything with little seeds are great for me, but the other stuff is like junk food fruit (who knew? i certainly didn't... i thought i was doing everything right)

then it turns out that the protein i've been missing (not being able to stomach meat) is BRAIN FOOD for the kid. so now i feel kindof guilty that maybe i accidentally made my kid dumber. but i did eat a giant ham/turkey/bacon sub from Quizno's yesterday (and it was DELISH) so as long as i eat some meat every day i'll be okay (& she was totally right, the protein did make me feel fuller for longer!)

hope that helps explain it a bit better :) :)

as for today's update, i slept like shit last night. the bar that we're behind had a busy night with lots of loud thumping bass & drunken customers. i got really pissed at one point and called the bar. when no one answered i left a message that said "hi, this is a resident in the complex behind you. your bass is so loud i can hear it in my bedroom. if you don't turn it down i'm calling the cops." i gave them 5 mintues, then phoned in a by-law complaint. within an hour, it was back down to normal & i was just drifting off to sleep (around mid-night) when it started up AGAIN. only this time it was someone in the parking lot hanging out in their car.

so i tried earplugs. didn't work. thats the thing about bass, it penetrates everything b/c of the vibes. normally i LOVE bass. but not when i'm exhausted and trying to sleep for work the next day. i think it died down around 2am because i dont' remember looking at the clock after that.

also i think... and this is just speculation mind ... that at least once a week the KID goes through a growth sput that keeps me awake almost all night with raging, crashing waves of hormones. it happens every single week where there is one night i am dying laying awake, then everything is back to normal. anyway, i have no evidence to back up the "growth spurt" idea. it was probably just the bass.

check point!

we had our checkup today and got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. it was 130 bpm and very faint, but its there and its strong and we're very happy and very relieved.

so far i've gained 3.5 pounds. she told me start putting on some more weight, bit by bit.

um... what else. i'm off juice for now. i've been eating WAY TOO MANY servings of fruit every day and not enough protein (which we knew could be a problem). so she gave me the green light to eat cold cuts as long as they're not "junk" like salami or bologna booo :*( i love fried bologna

we have to learn how to cook tofu to make up for my lost protein. to eat more hummus and chick peas. oh i'm only allowed now to have RED fruits - so strawberries, raspberries, cherries, apples... no more melon, grapes or pineapple (which is what i've been living off of the past month)

we go in for an ultrasound as soon as i can schedule one & genetic testing at the same time (for downs, etc.)

but otherwise she said i'm right on track, very healthy, great blood-pressure, great everything else & to just be happy and start eating some protein.