Today Zoë and I went to the library baby story time for the first time. I was really glad to get out of the house, but I have to say the timing of it could be better. It starts at 10am which is just about the time she gets sleepy after being up for two or three hours. A couple of the other moms there said they also had that problem. She's also still a bit young to fully appreciate it, but the other parents there are nice. I will try and make it a regular outing for the two of us.

Last week's doctor's appointment went as well as could be expected. The needles were a bit traumatic for everyone concerned but since they managed to do them while I was breastfeeding her, I think she forgot about it almost immediately. Joe and I still remain scarred though.
She weighed in at 9lb 9oz and was 23 1/2" long. No wonder she is starting to grow out of some of her sleepers. We also had to start buying the next size up in diapers. She had been wearing the newborn size up until earlier this week but they were definitely getting small on her. Thank goodness the cloth diapers we are using at home don't have such a small size range. The ones that aren't 'one size fits all' mostly go up to about a 15lb limit, so I have a bit of time yet until I have to buy more of those.

That's it for now, so I leave you with week 9 and 10 as well as a bonus close up. (in week 9 the sleeper she is a size 3-6mos which explains why it is so huge on her!)







(thanks to Stephanie for the last one!)

I don't know why I haven't posted in over a week, I guess things just get away from me so easily these days.
It was her 2 month birthday on Friday. It feels like so much longer (in a good way). I can barely remember our life before her. Of course that could be the tiredness talking. She has changed a lot in the two months. She has most decidedly grown out of the newborn sized clothes that we have and is starting to fill out the 0-3month clothes. She's holding her head up consistently (it still flops when she's tired though) and she will occassionally grace us with a smile. She has started to babble and she may or may not have reached out for things on purpose. I think her eyesight is getting better as well. She seems to notice us when we are further away. And when we take her out these days she is much more apt to stay awake and look around. She really enjoyed Dufferin Mall and Home Depot last week!

And of course there was Halloween on Wednesday. We weren't going to do anything with her this year even though Joe and I love Halloween. But when Joe was out buying candies, he saw some costumes and had to get one for her. She wasn't too impressed, and slept through the whole thing.


Next year we will go all out though.

The other thing that seems to have gotten away from Joe and I are taking the weekly pictures. We missed week 6 and the week 8 one is just by chance and not on the blanket. (we were at the one month birthday banquet of her cousin)






Today is her two month check up. She gets her first round of vaccinations today. Wish us luck!

Game On!

Well, I thought my water broke at around 4:20 this morning so as per my doctor's instructions, we made our way to the hospital to make sure the baby was in the correct position.
When we got there, the tests said that my water hadn't broken, but the ultrasound showed less fluid than the resident liked around the baby. Added that my blood pressure was starting to get high, they decided that they wanted to induce. Unfortunately, there wasn't a free bed at the time, so around 7:00am they sent me home telling me they would call when they could fit me in.
The call came at 8:15am. I am currently waiting for one of my sisters to pick me up to take us back to the hospital to be induced. I am having very mild, irregular contractions right now, but that's it.

The next time I post, I guess it will be with baby!

Another week, another doctor's appointment, another position for the baby.

At least this time, it's the correct position! Finally! She is head down with her back towards my front. She actually responded to the stern talking to she got from Joe last night to stop fooling around. This has really relieved a lot of anxiety on out part. We had been a bit terrified that we would go in for our appointment and the doctor would say 'what the hell, let's just get her out of there now' and start prepping me for a c-section right there - this actually happened to someone I know at work. I don't know the details of why she had to have a c-section, but her doctor decided at her weekly appointment that he had to get the baby out that day, but the way she told it, it didn't seem like it was an emergency. I've had a bit of irrational fear of that happening to me and it has spread to Joe.

I do have to admit that I am starting to really want her to be outside rather than inside now. I'm not necessarily sick of being pregnant, but I am getting really impatient. The tiredness and back aches have also increased to make me just not enthusiastic to do much of anything anymore. I am baking though, which I have been told means that labour is imminent.
It's funny, last week, I thought, no way I'm giving birth before my due date, now, I'm not so sure. For the longest time, I've has it in my head that she would be born on the 6th of September, but this last week, I've moved the estimate up to next weekend. I'm officially due the 3rd and I think I'll hit very close to that. Now I'm not sure that my body is telling me that or if it's just a case of wishful thinking!

Sorry about the lack of post last week. We went away for a few days and I've just been keeping myself too busy since we got back.
But the news for the week is that the baby changed position. She is no longer lying posterior but is now lying transverse (ie: sideways). This is worse. If I go into labour and she doesn't change position the likely course would be a C-section.
After 8 months of smooth sailing, now she decides to act up!
We are trying all we can think of to convince her to lie head down. I've been playing music through headphones very low on my pelvis, and Joe has been trying to talk her down as well. She moves around a bit when that is happening, but then it seems like she just goes back to her new favourite position.
This does give us a bit of hope though as she still seems to have a lot of room to move around in, and I don't feel like I'm going to be going into labour any time soon so we have some time to work with.
I've been told that swimming would help as well so I think if it's warm enough tomorrow, I will be off to my sister's place to just hang out in the pool for a while.

Due to a combination of my being late for the Doctor's appointment on Monday and the baby not being in a optimal position for a 3d picture, we did not manage to get a 3d ultrasound done on Monday. We are going to get another appointment for the ultrasound. We are determined to do this!!
We did get the sizing done though. It seems that even though I am still losing a bit of weight (back down to 159lbs where I started!) she is growing well. The technician said she was of average size and weighed about 3lb 4oz. They also told us how she is positioned - head down with her spine against my left side. I'm not sure if she is still positioned like that. She does like to move around a lot.
It did give me a sense of just how big she is in there. I don't know. I've always thought of her as sort of two dimensional, but for some reason, now I can picture the depth of her. It is a bit disconcerting to realize just how large she is now and how large she will become in the next couple of months.

The sugar test came back and I technically don't have gestational diabetes. The doctor is still a bit concerned that one of the three blood samples came back elevated though. So I have to see a dietitian again. It's a bit frustrating because I know what the dietitian will say - eat more vegetables and high fibre starches and cut down on white bread and high in sugar foods. I know this. I just maybe don't follow it very strictly all the time.
I really do think my initial high sugar reading was a result of all the leftovers from my birthday party. I was eating sugary desserts every day for three weeks before that first test. Thank god it's mostly all gone now.
I was also surprised yesterday that my weight went down again. Two weeks ago, I came in at 164lbs (up from 158lbs the month before) and now I'm back down to 161lbs. was that also due to my cutting down on the sugary foods?
And to end on an exciting note, in two weeks we will be getting another ultrasound. I've booked it as a 3-D one so hopefully we'll actually be able to see what she looks like!

Just finished gorging myself on Japanese food after my 2 hour blood sugar test. Man was I hungry. The fasting for 12 hours beforehand was tough!
Now we just have to wait for the results.

In other news, I went over to my sister's house the other night and she gave me more clothes. Mostly stuff for older kids that I now have to find a place to store. But she also gave me a lot of things my other sister and I made for my niece. There is a blanket that I knit as well as a couple of sweaters and some overalls, and a dress my sister made. She wants all this stuff back so my niece can have them when she gets older, but it's great that they will get used again soon.

There was one more thing my sister gave me. A very special but unremarkable looking onesie.
It is the one thing we know for sure belonged to my oldest nephew and I assume was passed on to every other grandchild of my parents. This sucker is almost 28 years old. it thrills me beyond words that I have this. This one my sister does not get back. Pretty soon the original wearers of this thing will be having kids. It has to keep moving on.

Just got a call from the doctor's office. I just hate those.

It seems my glucose test came back slightly elevated and I have to go back and do a 2 hour sugar test. This time I have to go on a special diet for two days before doing the test again. I pick up the diet information tomorrow. sigh. I guess I have to cut down on the frozen birthday cake I've been having for the last month!

Last night, Joe and I went to the Communication Night at Women's College Hospital. The panel consisted of an obstetrician, a Family Practice doctor, a delivery room nurse and an anesthesiologist. There were about 20 other couples there with us, peppering the panel with questions that mostly had to do with pain relief, funny enough.
We got some good information about the procedures within the hospital and what the hospital's stand was on various controversial subjects like epidurals, episiotomies, induction and C-sections. And we also found out a bit more about the facilities themselves.
We'll learn more (I hope) when we go in for the prenatal classes in July.
There's one more communication night before my due date, so if any more questions come up, we'll have a chance to ask them before it gets too critical.
The funniest part of the night was the end when we all left. After keeping the 20 or so pregnant women in a room for an hour and a half, the nearest bathroom only had 2 stalls! Really, what were they thinking?

I also had a doctor's appointment yesterday. That went as usual, and since I am almost done my second trimester, we now start going every 2 weeks to see him instead of once a month. Oh, and I drank the orange crush for my glucose testing. I nearly messed it up because they didn't really give me any directions when I got the bottle. I had a small swig of water between drinking the stuff and getting the bloodwork done. oops. I should have known better. The nurse was very forgiving though. Hopefully I passed the test!

I totally didn't talk about the Doctor's appointment on Tuesday! Partially because since I can feel her moving constantly, there was very little angst leading up to it, and because nothing really exciting happened during it. But there were some interesting things to note:

-I will be getting another ultrasound at 32 weeks (10 weeks from now) - hopefully we can get that one as a 3-d one

- the next appointment at 26 weeks will include glucose testing which means I have to drink tons of sugar to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes

-and last but not least, I did not gain any weight since my last monthly appointment! This surprised me to no end since I am definitely starting to show. I guess even though I'm not dieting, the eating plan my dietician has me on is a lot less than what I used to eat say, a year ago. Now that I know I'm not ballooning out of control, I'm being less obsessive about how much I am eating and just eating until I am full. Portion sizes are slowly going out the window. Especially this week!

No question about it. The ultrasound technician was very confident as she said: "It's a baby girl".
Joe is over the moon. We are also over the moon about the fact that everything is developing normally and there are no scary shadows on anything. We saw the heart beating, the spine and the tiny hands and feet. And boy was she active. The doctor asked me if I had anything sweet to eat prior to the ultrasound, she was moving so much. I think it's more that I had just gotten off the streetcar and I'm really noticing that she gets agitated when I'm in a moving vehicle.

It's really crazy feeling her move so much. Sometimes I think it's just my stomach muscles contracting involuntarily, but then I realize that, no, it was probably her kicking me.

Oh, and yes, we have a name, and no, we're not telling you.

Ultrasound today! I'm less worried this time because I can feel the little bugger moving around quite a bit.
It is a bit nervewracking still, because this is the ultrasound where they check out all the organs and make sure everything is developing correctly. I've been hearing stories from people about shadows on ultrasounds that turn out to be nothing and others that turn out to mean lots of surgery for the little one after birth. I'm trying to not obsess about it too much though. Instead I've been concentrating on the fact that hopefully we will be able to find out the sex of the baby today. I've been telling it for days to not be shy and show all. Hopefully I have an obedient child. If not, this will be the first of I'm sure many times that it won't listen to me.

Just got back from the doctor's appointment. Whew.
My blood pressure is still good, and we heard the whoop whoop whoop of the heartbeat, so I am reassured - at least until the ultrasound in 3 weeks.
He also said the screening tests came back beautiful and he didn't think we would need any more tests done. So no Amnio!
The whole thing was a huge weight off of both our minds.

So Joe noticed last night that right before every doctor's appointment I get very tense. I don't know how normal this is, but the fact is, I'm terrified that the doctor will have bad news for us.
There's no real reason for me to think this. Everything seems to be going fine with me, no spotting, no pain, no weird symptoms. Just a huge amount of free floating paranoia.
I'm telling myself that it will go away once I can feel the baby moving, but until then, I'm thinking of renting a fetal monitor for a couple of months. The one my friend Stef gave me is not very sensitive. Apparently you don't really hear the heartbeat with it until much later in the pregnancy and as my sister says, by that time you're getting kicked in the ribs all the time, so you don't need the reassurance as much.
The one thing I'm hanging on to right now is the fact that once my sisters got past the third month, there were no real problems with their pregnancies. I know that every pregnancy is different, but it does make me feel better that, genetically at least, there is a good track record.

Well the appointment was a bit anticlimactic. We weren't able to hear the heartbeat (there wasn't time to try as he had to go and deliver a baby), but the doctor said everything seemed to be in the right place and was the right size. We go back on Friday for the Nuchal testing ultrasound. Joe is really excited about that.

Also saw a very interesting documentary last night on hothousing babies and toddlers (they weren't in favour of it), which gave rise to a really great conversation with Joe about child rearing and how we wanted to approach it with our child. I'm glad we agree. It would suck to find out at this point that we had completely divergent views.

Today's source of anxiety

After getting through the nerve wracking experience of telling the family on the weekend, I can concentrate on the first appointment with the obstetrician this afternoon. Hopefully he will be able to hear the heartbeat, thus giving us the first bit of concrete proof that something is growing inside me. 'Symptoms' and 'test results' are all fine and good, but God knows I've thrown up many times in my life without being pregnant.
I am happy that I (we?) apparently enter the 2nd trimester today. That means that the nausea should go away (please!) and the risk of miscarriage gets significantly lower. And it drops even more if we can hear the heartbeat.

Oh. A note about doctor vs midwife. Joe and I chose to go the obstetrician route because my age and my high blood pressure bump this pregnancy into the high risk category. I know that for some people I hang out with, this decision will horrify them, but honestly, a midwife would probably end up referring me to an ob/gyn at some point anyway, so why not cut out the middleman.