Daniel and Shari's new baby

Cute video of Connor singing!

2010-10-09T20:47:00.001-04:00

New Arrival

2010-04-22T17:47:00.008-04:00

So, here's the whole labor and delivery story (without all the gory stuff!!).

After feeling rather slight and somewhat painful contractions since Sunday the 11th I woke up on Sunday a week later and told Dan that I felt it would be soon, possibly today as the contractions really changed and were very close and very painful. Well, we had plans Sunday to go out to breakfast, I was going to go get a pedicure (thanks to Becky and Nadine for that one:) and then head to Becky's because they had some presents to give us. Well, we actually made it to all 3 things then we left Becky's house and headed home to time some contractions as the doctor told us not to go to the hospital until they were 4 minutes apart. By around 5pm the contractions were that close so we headed over and waited 3 hours in the pre delivery room while they assessed me to decide to admit me or not. After an hour or so they couldn't figure out why my contractions were so close together when the baby hadn't even dropped down. They thought he may have turned position and was now breech. So, they had an ultra sound tech come in to check. He determined the baby was still in the head down position. After that the hospital doctor (after consulting mine) decided the baby was still too high and thus it was too soon to admit me. So, they gave me a pain killer and sent me home, letting me know if the pain killer didn't work and contractions got worse to come back but they were confident the pain killer would cause the contractions to subside.

We headed home, a little disappointed. By the time we were home, within an hour, it was obvious the pain killer didn't work and I was in some serious pain with some very fast and hard contractions. Dan decided to give the hospital a call to ask them what to do. They asked him how far apart the contractions were now to which he responds "I don't know she wont stop crying!!" The person on the phone told him to bring me back in and so we literally turned around and went back to the hospital! This time they admitted me around 11pm and put us in a HUGE delivery room with all the "perks" even a hot tub.

A little after midnight I was given an epidural and hooked up to about 6000 other machines. Well the next several hours, from midnight until he was born at 10:37am the details are very fuzzy but I will post what I remember.

1. The active labor was nice with the epidural! The epi didn't hurt a bit despite the nurse and anesthesiologist making it sound like it was going to be the shot from hell. And it helped so much that I didn't feel any contractions for many hours to come. In fact, my body felt them so little, that the contractions all but stopped and the nurses had to put me on Oxytocin to induce me and get the contractions started again.

2. According to what the doctor told me today, I should have had Connor 5 hours earlier than I did. Unfortunately, he was positioned wrong, facing my leg rather than my spine and it was soon determined that was why he wasn't dropping with the contractions because he was "stuck" behind my pelvis bone. The doctor decided to give it time and headed off to work for a few hours with a promise to be back soon. Of course AFTER he left was when everything went crazy...

3. I was suddenly in a LOT of pain, and I mean a lot LOT. I could feel everything despite the constant shots of epidural I was giving myself as boosters. They called my doctor and asked him to come back, even though he had just left as I had just jumped from 5cm dilated to 8cm (something I tried to warn them about before the labor that I stay at 5 forever and then just jump up to the pushing stage but no one believed me!!) I remember the nurse saying "wow I guess you were right I should have believed you."

4. Then the baby's heart rate dropped from the normal 150 beats to only 60 beats and next thing I know there are literally 20 some doctors and staff in that room. The lead resident doctor gave me all of 10 seconds to decide if I wanted an emergency c-section or if I would accept her reaching up inside of me and using the vacuum to try to shift his position to get his heart rate back up. So during all this chaos I agree to the vacuum adjusting and let me tell you does that hurt! She adjusted him and his heart rate immediately returned to normal but... then... I don't know what was wrong with her, I think it may have just been panic or stress or maybe lack of experience... Dan thinks she just decided she wanted to "pull" the baby out... but she reaches inside of me again with the vacuum and starts literally pulling on him. She pulled on him so so so hard that the suction cup POPPED off his head!!! I'm screaming out in pain and Dan is saying to her (I don't know how he was staying so calm) "if his heart rate is back to normal can't we just leave him??" The delivery nurse agreed so she stopped and the room cleared out again. I cannot tell you how angry and upset I am that she did that though and that Dan was the one that had to stop her as her actions caused #7

5. Of all the friendly and wonderful nurses we met on this journey, there was one that I wanted to seriously punch! Here I am in a HUGE amount of pain and some anal nurse decides that is the time to fix the 5000 tangled wires coming off the machines and plugged, taped, stuck into my body, so they would be "organized." Organized?? Are you @#%@! kidding me?? For the next... I don't know... felt like 5 hours she was turning me and pulling at me and adjusting me and driving me crazy! Oh heaven forbid that some wires were crossing and twisted. Actually, I complained about her later on that evening (after the birth) to another nurse who responded "Oh that was Laurie... yea we all make fun of her too." So, really, I'm not exaggerating! And the whole time she's adjusting my wiring I'm screaming "I have to push" and she's like you can't push until your doctor gets here. Yea, right... that was impossible. I swear it took my doctor 8 hours to drive the 20m to the hospital.

6. Finally, my doctor was in the room with me, and pretty much all I remember after that was a lot of screaming my lungs out as the baby was still sideways and not really fitting but eventually I delivered a 9.14 lb baby boy.

7. When they brought him over to me I was informed that due to the other doctor's actions, Connor had a very swollen head and lacerations to his scalp in the shape of a big suction cup. He spent the next 3 days in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Connor is now at home with us. He has a huge circle scab/bruise on the back of his head and bruising all the way down onto his neck which makes it very hard to nurse him as I can't touch his head or neck without hurting him. :( But, we are finally able to rest and heal as Dan and I have spent the last 3 days living in the waiting rooms of the hospital so that we could feed him every 3 hours. I was discharged from the hospital that same night at 11pm we went and fed Connor then left the hospital around 1am and were back by 8am and staying until 1am again. We spent Tuesday and Weds like that and brought him home on Wednesday. Although, we have to keep bringing him back every day at 9am so they can check to make sure he doesn't have jaundice.

I am so swollen everywhere and sore and tired, our house is a mess with baby and hospital stuff everywhere, we have absolutely no food and no time to even shop and when we have the time we are so exhausted all we can do is go home and sleep! I am soooo looking forward to the day at home in bed enjoying the new baby. When that will happen is yet to be known...

On a positive note, though, I must say how impressed I was with my doctor. He was so patient and he was there almost the entire time. He didn't come rushing in as the baby was crowning, but was there to walk me through and calm me down during a huge portion of my delivery, almost the whole thing. He is very kind and understanding and even delivering a baby that big and mispositioned I didn't need any stitches and had absolutely no "common" birth issues. And even better... today when we took Connor to his office to see him we found out that he charged us LESS than HALF of his fee for the delivery!!! The guy is amazing. Period.

I'm sorry here's some flowers

2010-04-09T12:59:00.006-04:00

So, Monday I went to the doctor for my weekly visit. It was a "semi" holiday... the day after Easter... so it was only the doctor and one receptionist working. I am assuming I was the last appointment of the day at 3:15 because they called me at 1pm asking if I could come in earlier as early as possible. Problem was, I was waiting for Dan's mom, Carol, to come over at 2pm as she was going to go with me to the appointment. So, I tried to call them back, to let them know but because of the "holiday" they weren't answering the phones and their message said such. So, we showed up around 2:45 which was the earliest we could get there, so I guess they still got off work half an hour earlier! It was weird not having the nurse there, the receptionist was filling in for her and seemed rather frazzled and ready to go home after a day of doing 2+ person's jobs.

I had gained 4 pounds in the week, which I knew I had already because my hands and feet keep swelling up like balloons (well they feel like that anyway) so I knew before I went that I was retaining fluids. I also knew that the combination of 4 or more pounds, high blood pressure and protein in the urine all mean preenclampsia and could mean some serious bed rest for me or inducing labor.

Well, when the doc took my blood pressure it was creeping up 140/88 but I explained to him we had been running around a lot in the past few days and I hadn't slept at home the night before and you know... other things that make the BP go up. He was a little concerned that with the weight gain spike and the blood pressure I *may* have the beginnings of preenclampsia, even though I was lacking the 3rd piece (protein in the sample), and wanted me to come in on Weds again to get my blood pressure checked. Well, being that it's a good half hour drive for us to go there, I asked if I could just go check it at the nearby pharmacy and he was alright with that.

On Weds I went and checked my blood pressure and all was back to normal. Phew. I am refusing to be induced with this baby, I went through that with Tyler, granted it was at 8 months and this baby is full term now so it would be different. But my labor and beyond with Tyler was so traumatic for me, I swore to myself I would forever choose bed rest over induction for any other kid (unless of course it's life threatening).

So, past few days I've been taking it pretty easy, laying down a lot. I use the laptop to keep myself entertained. I think going on bed rest at 6 months when I was pregnant with Tyler would have been a heck of a lot easier if I had had a laptop. Been drinking fluids like crazy as well.

This month is going so so so slow I am not due until the end of the month but it already feels like I am overdue! Yesterday, I was sure it *must* be close to the end of the month only to check the date and see it was only the 8th! I am NOT looking forward to the labor at all. Once again, I have now opted against an epidural, being that since we are paying out of pocket for this baby an epidural starts at $800 bucks. Not to mention, I really want to be able to walk around and the thought of a needle in my lower back freaks the heck out of me. So, I figure I already did it before epidural free and I can do it again. I told Dan to be prepared to make a lot of apologies to nurses and staff after the birth! Those of you that were with me for my first birth know what I'm talking about :) I got pretty... mouthy... angry... whatever at the nurses!

Well, I'm hoping that this birth will be easier than the first, mainly because I wont be medically induced and go through a month of pregnancy in a few short hours like I did with Tyler. But, the doctor said it won't be all that easy because it's been 10 years not 2 since I had Tyler.

I think I will just buy thank you/I'm sorry cards, candy and flowers for the staff now...

Home Stretch!

2010-03-31T15:06:00.004-04:00

Well, my doctor appointments have changed to once a week now!! It's a half hour drive to his office, but it's a nice outing :) My belly is so huge and awkward now, I knock stuff over with it and I'm really paranoid about people running in to me in the store. I also get tired and tired of standing super easy and feel very off balance. On Sunday, I was 36 weeks. At 36 weeks was when I had Tyler, so it was no surprise to me when on Monday I felt contractions. Fortunately, I was heading to the doctor that day, so after all the routine questions, I told him that I was feeling sporadic contractions since the middle of the night before but nothing that seemed regular. He, of course, asked how my first labor went to which I answered that I was induced at 36 weeks so I really had no idea. Actually, I had never felt a contraction until I was in the hospital being induced with Tyler and I wasn't even sure if it was contractions or just pelvic pressure. He had me undress, gave me this... napkin... to cover up with and then checked me. His answer was that I was not in labor, although everything was "soft" and he could feel the baby's head. Then he let me know that if I felt these contractions get longer or more regular to head over to the hospital and they'd contact him. He ended with "lets hope the baby stays in there a week or two more!" By the next day I was feeling fine again so I'm assuming this was just Braxton Hicks.

One thing that is nice is that the baby has dropped low enough that he's not kicking my internal organs all day and night. Also, seems like he grew large enough that he doesn't have much room to move around in there, so the movements are more slow pressure of him "readjusting" himself than sharp jabs. Good news is that I have been feeling a lot less sore in the upper abdomen area :)

I was reading that only 5% of women actually give birth on their doctor set due date and anything from 37 weeks to 42 weeks is considered a full term birth. This of course set in the fact that I'm now over 36 weeks and the baby could come in less than a week! I am sooo scared of the whole birth process and am hoping it won't be as bad. My first was a horrible experience, I showed up to the hospital for a "routine" checkup, they made sure the baby's heart rate wasn't distressed because of my high blood pressure and next thing I know I'm being induced and going through a months worth of pregnancy in a few hours! Anyway, the whole experience was horrible. And with one month or less, the thoughts of the previous birth, 10 years ago, have set in again. Maybe some day they will invent teleporting and be able to just teleport the baby out of your stomach... that would be nice!!

Well, I really hope the baby stays in for the babyshowers which are all planned for April and are really late. But we wanted to wait until all the snow birds in the family had flown back from the southern US states. I guess it's not a huge deal to have the baby at the shower (that's how Tyler's baby shower was and it was so fun!) but with all the running around we need to do in April, it'd be easier to do it without a baby in tow! Not to mention, without that baby shower, we have virtually nothing... hmm there is still a whole list of things we need to buy as well for the arrival. Frozen dinners so we don't have to make food and diapers come to mind right away... where has all the time gone!! Argh.

Hope everyone is doing great :) And I will try my best to keep the blog updated after every doctor appointment, which should be once a week... but no promises!

Dino Sore!!

2010-03-16T00:02:00.004-04:00

I realize it's been quite a while since my last post but my pregnancy is so "normal" that I find it hard to find things to talk about... although my mom always said "no news is good news" so I think I'll go with that quote here!

Dan and I have been working on the room and it's still coming as of tonight there is one last dinosaur to finish before beginning to set up the room. The room is sooo cute, Dan drew all the dinosaurs based off my designs and he's hand painting them. He's done such a spectacular job that when we show people the pictures they think it's a wall sticker. He is so talented and I cannot wait until the whole room is complete. I'm sure most of you saw the pics on facebook, but I'll post them again here just in case you didn't. The pictures are big so they are cut off in the blog (and possibly email) but if you just click on the picture it should open up the full size pic...

Here is the most recent addition to the dinosaur nursery:

This is the first one Dan completed, the baby dinosaur:

In this picture you can see one of the entire walls including the palm tree and the brontosaurus (which apparently are not a dinosaur anymore). The purple one didn't capture on the camera alone properly because the window is near it and causes a huge glare, so we just took it as the entire wall. I'll try to get a picture of it again at night sometime.

This is a picture of the footprints up the side of the wall that the lightswitch is on. I got a nice little matching dinosaur lightswitch cover from Ebay for $3.50 you can see it in this picture too.

Well, it's hard to believe that I'm now 34 weeks along and the baby will be here in just a few more weeks! We went to the doctors today and again everything was, as I said before, normal. My only real problem is how painful the baby kicking is!! I mean the baby lays in, what seems to me, one position, with his feet up under my right ribs. He never, ever stops moving! My right side is so incredibly sore! I never remembered Tyler moving about so painfully like this but maybe I just forgot... I seem to remember enjoying Tyler's movements while pregnant not clutching my side in agony!! I actually told the doctor about it and asked if it was ok for me to push against my side to try to "move" the baby out of a specific spot. I was worried that maybe I would squish him or something so I figured I should ask. The doctor laughed at me and said it was fine to do but the baby will probably just move right back into the same spot anyway.

And sleeping is so difficult, I got some little wedge shaped pillows specifically designed for pregnancy and those really help but I am still awake the majority of the night. I am either getting up every hour to go to the bathroom or being woken up from the baby wiggling around. I have been playing endless suduko on my cell phone in the middle of the night to wait for the baby to settle enough for me to sleep. Ahh well I know after he's born it'll be even less sleep :)

My next appointment, in 2 weeks, starts all my weekly appointments... the final stretch!

The Thin Green Line

2010-02-21T14:40:00.003-05:00

So, Tuesday was my latest doctor appt. Everything was still nice and normal. Andrea (Dan's sister) went with me to this appointment and got to hear the heartbeat... These are all kind of uneventful appointments in my opinion :) But, it was nice to have someone else in the family come along!

On Saturday we started to paint the base layer of the baby's room. The blue went on very nicely and I painted the old, white dresser to match: Blue with green drawer fronts. This went so smoothly I had no doubt we'd finish it before it got dark. However, that wasn't the case because it was after the blue that we started to have problems. The first was the tape. We taped at about waist high for the marker as to where the green line would go after. First the tape wouldn't peel off and the drips of blue made it stick to the wall and we had to go around the room scraping it off with our finger nails because when you just peeled it straight off it tore into little shreds. I said it was because of the tape we used but Dan reminded me that he had bought actual painting tape. So, that was annoying but no big deal, all the little pieces eventually were cleaned off the wall. Next was the ugly, off-white paint in this place is obviously very cheap and as we peeled the tape off it started to peel the paint right off the wall and revel the previous color of the bedroom which was pink! Well, this was no big deal though as the green stripe was still going to be painted there to cover it over. However, this meant that we couldn't tape the bottom portion of the green line because if it peeled up the white again we had no way to fix that on the lower portion of the room.

Next came the green line. Dan swore it'd be easy and his hand was steady enough that we wouldn't need to tape anything. Then he dunked the new brush (a flat square one made for painting edges) in the paint and slapped it again the wall. Only problem is, he didn't squeeze out enough paint and as soon as it hit the wall it dripped copious amounts of paint down into the other section!! Argh! So trying to fix it, he wiped it with a dry papertowel which just made it smear all over the wall. Fortunately, this was at the top portion of the wall so he just needs to repaint the blue section again. After that he got the hang of it and with only a few other drips (which by the way wipe cleanly off with a magic eraser) and a few wavy areas (since we couldn't use tape) we... well mostly Dan... got the job done. Needless to say, however, painting the lines ended up being a huge chore and, while it looks awesome, it was a lot of work. But Dan has such a great attitude and never said one word of complaint! He's awesome.

Next weekend we are going to finish it up with the actual artwork and Andrea is coming over to help with that. I'm really excited to get it finished as I am now 31 weeks along and have only a few weeks of pregnancy left so I'm getting antsy for completion :)

Baby room design

2010-02-08T23:17:00.008-05:00

So, designing a baby room that is not your typical nursery is proving to be a bit of a challenge, we have been browsing store after store and website after website and because it's not only baby items (already overpriced) but "specialty" baby items (not Winnie the Pooh or Racing Car themes) the prices at the stores are very steep with items being few and far between and almost never matching.

But, today I finally had an idea. I logged on to Ebay (probably the only site on the entire World Wide Web I forgot to check) and typed in "dinosaur" into the baby search section and hundreds and hundreds of items came up!! And sooo inexpensive! I mean there's everything: dinosaur bibs, stuffed animals, curtains, toys, clocks, pillows, borders, stencils, growth charts, bedding, pacifiers, artwork, drawer knobs... everything!! I was worse than a kid in a candy store. There are literally hundreds, heck probably thousands of people and ebay stores that sell every possible dinosaur nursery item you could need and there's even people who, if they don't make it WILL make it for you! I even found a dinosaur light switch cover that someone hand paints! I wish that I could register with Ebay.com instead of the "standard" (and very overpriced) stores *coughbabiesruscoughcough*

Anyway, after being very very inspired for nursery ideas, I got into Photoshop and designed the layout I want Dan and Andrea to paint for the nursery walls. I am really in love with this theme because it's a theme that can grow with the child too. So, later on, the room can be converted into a more of a child's room rather than a baby's room. Right now though, it's pictures of cute, little baby dinosaurs. I tried to keep it simple to save on time and paint costs but still give it that playful, bright baby room feel.

Basically, there are 2 full walls, one wall with a big window and the 4th wall is all entire closet door. So, this gives me 3 walls to work with. With the largest wall, I wanted to find some cube shaped (or at least half square/modern looking) shelves to display a few items on the walls. Also, the shelves will help to fill some of the extra space in without it looking overly cluttery.

The wall with the window on it cannot fit as much, but I figured the narrow space between the wall corner and the window can be some dinosaur footprints and just hanging a simple green curtain (although the curtain idea may change if I can find matching or near matching curtains) You may also notice the two tones to the room separated by the green borders, which will be at about waist height. This was because I didn't want to have all these beautiful decorations on the walls that would then be covered up by furniture! I figured this way we can put the furniture around the room without taking away from the design.

And on the final wall, the last of my two favorite dinosaurs in cartoon format, triceratops and stegosaurus.

I plan on painting the built in shelves in the closet to match as well and I may throw a volcano into the mix somewhere but these were my basic plans so far. Of course there is always the fear that the ultrasound maybe was wrong and we'll end up having a girl... but I figure that if she's anything like me, all of my "imaginary friends" as a child were dinosaurs, this will still be an appropriate room for her, which is also why I tried to keep the colors very pastel... just in case.

Other than that, my health is still great, went and got a gestational diabetes test the other day, Wednesday and boy was that painful. The nurse didn't know what she was doing and ended up poking me ALL over until she was finally able to draw the blood out of my hand, leaving my hand aching the rest of the day. Doc said that as long as I didn't hear from him everything was normal and so far I haven't heard anything. My belly is also horribly heavy feeling and weighing on my muscles like crazy making sleeping, sitting, standing and walking or doing anything a pain and I'm thinking of going out and buying one of those maternity back/belly braces tomorrow if I can find one.

Well goodnight to everyone, I hope the day finds you all healthy and in good spirits. :)

Final Stretch

2010-02-02T12:17:00.003-05:00

Well, here we are 28 weeks now and officially in the 3rd trimester. I have wanted to begin working on the baby's room but as of right now it seems to be more of a storage room than anything else! So I'm hoping this weekend my very able bodied man of the house will move everything to the basement!!

The weekly email tells us that the baby is now the size of a cabbage... and I don't know... the comparisons of baby to food is starting to really bug me as I get further along! It kind of feels wrong, can't they compare it to a doll or a kitten or a toy or something non edible?? It's weird to me! Here's some other facts I just learned... his hair has started to gain color now and his brain was smooth previously is now, due to rapid growth, is gaining those wrinkles on it. Apparently, the baby is now positioned head down and has very little room to move, unlike the widget that shows the baby floating in circles!

I have been feeling wonderful, went to the doctor yesterday and blood pressure is down still lower than before my pregnancy (126/70). Doc says I have no signs of preeclampsia, the high blood pressure, swelling and protein issue that caused me to have Tyler early, so that made me very happy to hear. I am for some reason highly emotional however... something I thought went away after the first trimester has only seemed to get worse with me and now I find myself crying and getting upset over the tiniest things heck even TV commercials get to me and I'm not a big cryer! Sleeping is also a pain, literally, which, now that I think about it, may be why the increase in my emotional state. I can only sleep on either side and the weight of everything pressing down against my sides causes me to toss and turn all night and to have super sore hips during the day and every day the recliner is starting to look more and more like a better sleeping option! :)

Also, my belly sticks out so far now that when I eat I spill things on my stomach! Those of you that have ever eaten with me know that I am notorious for spilling something (pretty much every meal) on the ol' food catchers!! Now I sit so far back from the table and have and lean over this awkward "bowling ball" that I have to keep my shaky hands steady as the fork makes the journey from my plate to my mouth or more of my dinner will end up on my belly than makes it in my mouth...

I have to go this week to take the gestational diabetes test. It's the one where they have you drink some super sugar drink then sit for an hour and then they draw your blood. So, here's to hoping that test is normal too!

Well, all in all, I'd say these things are pretty minuscule to the problems I had in my other pregnancy and I am happy to accept these in exchange for a healthy and so far very easy pregnancy!

I hope everyone has a great week, wherever you are :)

The Big Move

2010-01-17T13:35:00.003-05:00

So, we spent all day Saturday moving in to our new place in Bayshore. I didn't lift anything heavy, heck I wouldn't have even if I *wasn't* pregnant!! :) We had a lot of help: Lee, Dan, Mike and Chris which equaled 2 pickups, a U-Haul trailer and 3 cars worth. There's no way we could have done it without them, we are so thankful for their help. We still didn't finish everything, it started getting too late and too dark and everyone was so tired. Andrea came and kept me company and also helped setting up things in the new place and making those "important" women decisions such as where to place the couch and tv and which cupboard to store glasses or alcohol in. It was also nice to have someone to converse with (she can't lift anything either because of recent surgery) while the guys did all the heavy stuff. We have the other place until Jan 31st so the remainder of the items we will just bring over in the car and clean throughout the rest of the month. It was actually a pretty relaxing move for me (I'm sure Dan would disagree for him) because we have a half a month to move out rather than trying to do it all, including cleaning, in one weekend. I think my cat took the move the hardest and is still trying to figure out what this new place with all our stuff in it is. She spent the better part of last night meowing in our faces while we slept until Dan threw her out of the room and closed the door. Of course then she just sat outside the door meowing, but at least it was easier to sleep. She also refused to use the litter box and instead went in the tub... Well, at least it was easy to clean up. She is also very anxious,antsy and always under foot while unpacking. I feel bad for her because she's so confused and can't wait until she settles down these next few days.

As for the baby, I'm excited to be in the new house and get a baby room set up, we are still planning on going with a dinosaur themed room and have been mulling over ideas for how to decorate it. So far, Dan is going to draw big dinos and plants on the wall and Andrea is going to paint them. If anyone has other ideas, please leave comments so we can add them to our decorating list!!

I am now 26 weeks along and the pregnancy email we get says that the baby's ears are very developed and he can hear not only my voice but those I'm conversing with as well. Dan has found amusement in talking to my belly, especially when the baby isn't moving and trying to "wake him up" so he will move around. He also discovered if he lightly tickles my belly over the top of the baby then the baby will kick his fingers over and over again even when he moves to another spot. I said he's probably irritating the baby! Nevertheless, it's very cute.

Well, I can't go in the sauna or hot tub until after the baby is born, so I'm thinking I may go take a swim in the indoor pool later on. That is if my bathing suit will still fit me! Hope everyone has a wonderful week :)

Pregnancy Confessions?

2010-01-13T12:59:00.007-05:00

So, I was reading an blog/article on a baby website and the posting mother was "confessing" all of her pregnancy nono's that she had committed and asking people to reply with things they had done as well. So, I was scrolling down through the confessions that others responded with and some of them were pretty bad: People that smoke while pregnant, mothers who had drank wine/beer while pregnant (that was actually the majority of the comments), others who refused to take prenatal vitamins due to taste, some who fake pregnancy sicknesses to get out of doing work. Ok, so these mothers stuck to the assignment at hand!

However, there were these mothers... who I imagine are these "perfect" housewife, suburb, snobby, rich, anal people with the anal children and the unhappy husbands... you know the women I'm talking about! Anyway, their "confessions" if you want to call them that, were things like how they dyed their hair while pregnant or had a diet coke while pregnant or used Ceaser salad dressing??

Here's some examples copy and pasted directly from the comments:
Mrs. Anal Amy writes: "Since about 18 weeks along, I’ve had Diet Coke a few times a week. Sometimes I forget and have a couple a day on the weekends but I figure it all evens out."

Seriously?? Clearly a horrible example of a mother here!!

Mrs. Good E Two Shoes says: I drink a Pepsi a day, I can’t kick the habit, I eat lunch meat...

Wow... and I thought I was bad

Mrs. Snobby Sandra claims: "I have a cup of tea every day and at least two cups of decaf coffee a day for the taste"

Oh the horror!

And my favorite...

Ms. I Look Down My Nose At You confesses: "Have had lunch meat on several occasions that I didn’t microwave. Have eaten Caesar dressing (on wraps) a few times.
Have had cravings for french fries and hamburgers and answered those cravings!"

Really?? What a horrible person does she not realize that French Fries are the number one cause of birth defects?? Clearly her baby will arrive with French Fry Syndrome (FFS) a common birth defect seen in babies of mothers who eat french fries!

Ok, all I can do is read those comments and laugh, seriously, just because you are pregnant doesn't mean you have to live in a little unhappy bubble for 9 months. As long as you are happy and generally stress free chances are you'll have a healthy baby... even if you mess up occasionally.

I can't imagine what these women say about us "normal" women... Actually, I feel sorry for these women's husbands.

New years adventures and the visit with the doc

2010-01-05T00:10:00.004-05:00

Our New Years Eve was fun, we went to a sports bar with Andrea and Mike and it was pretty quiet there. But we watched the Sens and the Junior Hockey games on the big screens there and got (mostly) speedy service because our waitress was probably bored and the bar was probably overstaffed. Going out to bars these days is pretty boring and smelly for me (that overwhelming stale alcohol smell) but Dan has been laying off on the alcohol as well and since it was snowing badly he was driving the 4 of us back to Andrea's and us eventually home.

It was the way home at 3 in the morning that was the adventure. It was very windy and very snowy, and being a holiday, there were no snow plows out and on the way home a gust of wind picked our tiny car up and whipped it in a full circle on the freeway!! It was so scary that I covered my eyes and screamed something about how we are all going to die :) Dan, being the calm and rather skilled snow driver he is (and ignoring me) gracefully danced the car in such a way that we ended up remaining on the freeway and even came to a stop in the correct direction in the empty bus lane!! Anyway, after I calmed down, I was extremely impressed and glad to be alive and the car not in the ditch. Dan just laughed about it and kept on driving, to which of course I replied with "how can you laugh about such things???" (He was most likely laughing at me I'm sure...)

Anyway... we had another doctor appt today, one more 4 week wait and then beginning of February my doctor visits go to every two weeks instead of every four. It was pretty routine, the office asks you to take your boots off at the door because of the amount of water/snow being tracked into the office (not uncommon up in this area), so my socks got soaking wet before I could even get to a waiting room chair. The waiting room was empty and I was called in to the nurses station before I could even sit down. The nurse took my blood pressure which was normal for me 122/80, actually my blood pressure has been lower now that I'm pregnant than when I'm not, I told Dan it's because he keeps me so calm :)

So, after that Dan and I went in the room and met with "Dr. Cool." (Who, of course, walked in right as I was rifling through his cabinet drawers and didn't say a word:) He listened to the baby's heart which was 136 said he sounded like a "good, happy baby" then he measured my belly and said I was a tad big for how far along I was but since I've gained only two pounds the entire pregnancy, he wasn't really concerned.

And that's about it, the baby constantly moves, Andrea was the first person (besides Dan of course) to feel the baby kick! We hope that everyone is having a wonderful New Year wherever you are!! :)

Maybe not hockey, but I definitely see soccor in his future!!

2009-12-31T11:57:00.003-05:00

Sorry I didn't write last week. I've been trying to keep up on writing at least once a week but last week was soooo hectic with all the running around. On Saturday we went over to Al and Deb's house (our last outing) and by then I was so exhausted I felt as if I was on some strong sleeping pills and actually fell asleep in the chair! On Sunday, we finally stayed home and did nothing, it was wonderful :) Actually, I had fun this Christmas and everywhere we went was a continuous stream of questions from more distant family and the constant reminder that this time next year Dan and I will have an 8 month old... Crazy.

Now I am 23 weeks along and feeling the baby kicking like crazy. He's so active and almost never stops moving, seriously. I never went through this with Tyler, actually, I made two extra visits to the doctor, while pregnant with Tyler, because I *didn't* feel him moving enough and thought something might be wrong. Not the case here... It's gotten so bad that all of my dreams are about people kicking or punching me in the stomach!! On another note, the baby email says that at this point he can hear all the same sounds I do, just more muffled, he now weighs about 1 pound and would be about 11 inches long, the size of a large mango.

As for my health, I've been feeling awesome, most of my ability to eat a variety of foods has returned (except for spaghetti) and my super smelling ability has calmed down somewhat. My blood pressure has remained unusually normal (something I don't even really see when I'm not pregnant) and long walks... generally the after xmas sales at the mall... cause the muscles in my stomach to tense up and really hurt.

I am almost always hungry and I feel like a bottomless pit, so if I'm not constantly eating and drinking water I feel very sick or these HUGE unbearable hunger pangs until I do eat. Now, I am bigger in the stomach area than I ever was with Tyler, all of my clothing is maternity clothing. If you remember from previous posts, when I was pregnant with Tyler I had only 1 pair of pants and 1 shirt that I wore once in my 8th month. This time though, at the beginning of my pregnancy, I thought I'd be able to get by with only a couple pairs of maternity pants but now even my shirts don't fit me and ride up to my upper stomach. I feel like I'm lugging a bowling ball around and turning from one side to the other in bed is tough too. Don't really want to know what it will be like in a few weeks!! :)

I have my next doctor appt on Monday, so I will post anything new we hear while we are there. I feel very lucky that Dan goes to every single doctor appointment with me, something that most women don't get from their partner.

Dan and I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and time off work and that 2010 will be even greater for you all, we know it will be for us!

21 weeks or 5 months and 1 week!!

2009-12-15T12:28:00.004-05:00

21 weeks already, my how the time is flying! I was talking to my sister-in-law, Tress the other day and said 21 weeks to which she replied "don't say it like that? Tell me how many months!!" Then I remembered how much I hate it when people do that to me too, like a mother saying their 1 year and 3 month old child is 15 months!! I mean come on people, don't make me figure out your precious child's age, I don't care enough and I'll just make up my own number!! Besides, really... once they are over a year, shouldn't you just spare us all and say "my kid is 1 yr old." Heck if you really want to be specific, you can say "my kid is 1 yr and 3 months old." Anyway, so now I find myself doing the same thing... However, in my defense, all the baby emails, websites, doctors, nurses, hospital staff and anyone else you deal with refer to it as 21 weeks and get confused if you say 5 months and one week. So, I did get used to saying how far along I was in weeks and actually, I'm the one left figuring out how far along I am in months!

Anyway... 21 weeks, 5 months 1 week, either way, the baby is still developing. The weekly email I get says the baby is now the size of a carrot and eyebrows and eyelids are now present. Also, both Dan and I can feel the baby moving around, which usually happens early evenings and at bed time. Overall, I feel great, my blood pressure has stayed down and not much sickness (other than a couple colds). I am always hungry even though I feel like I eat all day and I can't get enough sour candy and food. None of my clothing, even the maternity stuff, fits. It's too tight, too big, too short, or too loose, getting dressed is a huge chore! That and the fact that I have a heck of a time turning over in bed because my stomach feels so heavy are really my only two complaints. Other than that though, everything is wonderful :)

Dan and I have decided on the name Connor Lucien Rozon and have started collecting some baby things like a crib and a bathtub and also registered at babiesrus.ca which actually made me have an emotional pregnant woman breakdown. I was happily browsing through babies 'r' us online inventory and picking out things, when I noticed that there were some things on my registry that I didn't pick out. So, I deleted them and tried again... same thing! What I found out, that babies 'r' us, in their desire to be "helpful" to the shopping mom, substitutes a "similar" product if the one you chose is out of stock. However, their substitutions are horrible! For example, I picked out some blue baby socks that were out of stock and they substituted it with pink! I mean sheesh, at least stick to the general gender color! And a pair of lion slippers was substituted with an elephant stuffed animal!?? But what really did me in, was trying to register for a bassinet. I selected a brown "jungle spots" one and it won't let you just pick the bassinet, it puts the entire bedroom set in it! So, instead of the $100 bassinet, it has me registered with the near $500 set! I don't want the bedding, crib, highchair, stroller and playpen! So, by this point I'm nearing my breaking point, I delete the set and after trying to select *just* the bassinet, give up and decide that I'll just select a different one. I go to their bassinet section to find that they have 11 choices of bassinets, 1 blue one, 1 jungle spots one and 9 PINK ones!!!!!! I could no longer take it and burst out sobbing then went and took a nap, figured I'd try again later.

I explained to Dan that the first, I'd say, two years of shopping for a baby boy is really hard. Apparently, all the retailers think that everyone either only has baby girls or that only those with baby girls do any shopping. So, for two years you are inundated with pink, pink, pink and an occasional peach-pink. I've been in stores where, if you glance over the racks of the entire baby section the main color is pink and I found the *one* *single* rack of "blue" clothing tucked in a back corner by the bathrooms. ARGH! Anyway... after about two or three years, the boy selection gets really cute and balances out with the girl's sections. But, seriously, if I had the money, I'd open up a boy's only baby clothing store, I'm sure there would be many appreciative baby boy mothers out there!

Half way there!

2009-12-08T12:25:00.006-05:00

So, this week I'm 20 weeks along, it's crazy to me how fast the time is flying by. I have only been sick a couple of times and I feel really good, I forget I'm pregnant a lot because I don't *feel* pregnant.

A lot has happened this last week. Dan and I found a really, really nice apt in the Bayshore area, signed the lease, and I am super excited to move, mid Jan. There is everything from indoor and outdoor pools, heated indoor parking, parks, it's very close to an elementary school (right on the other side of the park), in suite storage and even guest suites in the basement so when my mom and dad come to visit this summer, they won't have to stay in a motel.

On Thurs last week I had an ultrasound. It was a very long appointment, running over an hour. The girl doing the ultrasound was obviously in training and had her "mentor" over her shoulder, an older guy, pointing out this and that to her. At the end of the appointment, we asked what the sex of the baby was, to which the trainee looked at the man and said "can you check I can never tell." So, he sat down and started looking around on the computer monitor. He says, repeating what I said earlier, "you have a boy already?" To which I reply "Yes" again. "Oh that's good, looks like a girl this time..." I get all excited on the inside, then he adds "I think..." He is still poking the device all around my stomach and rather roughly! "Yep, I believe it's a girl." I try not to get too excited, these things can be inaccurate... "Probably," he adds again, grr. Still I'm biting my tongue and waiting, not saying a word either way. Another minute. "Oh wait no no... there's the penis and testicles" he says pointing them out to Dan, "yep definitely a boy. See how BIG it is??" Dan laughs and I smile not exactly what I wanted, but there's always next time, "Besides," I tell Dan in the car, "Boys are so easy to raise." We came away with one picture (they are very stingy with the U/S pics up here in Canada) He actually printed us two but the tech didn't give us the other one and we didn't realize it until we left. So, I've included the one we got. In the picture you can see the long spine and the baby's head. And, it looks like I'm having a baby skeleton! :) You can click on the picture to see it bigger.

Anyway, when I get home I start making phone calls, Tyler is very happy because now the room will be "boyish and not all ponies and princesses." My sister's response was "yay, now we can stay even!!" (she has two boys). Dan, Tyler and I all decided on a baby room theme to decorate the room once we move as well. We are going to do a dinosaur themed room and Dan is going to paint big dinosaurs on the walls. This is another reason I'm looking forward to moving, so we can get on with setting up the baby's room.

So, other than that, had another doctors appt yesterday, he said everything seemed fine with the baby. My blood pressure was a little high but he didn't seem concerned at this point. I was really nervous that I'd have to see nurse hulk again, especially since I got a cold again last week and have a mild cough, however it was a different nurse and she was much nicer. I even accidentally coughed right in front of her and she didn't even blink! PHEW!! I have been eating non stop and I haven't gained a single pound, I'm still the same weight as I was pre-pregnancy, but the baby is still growing. It was a longer doctor appointment because we had a lot of paperwork and a birth plan to go over with him this time, but other than that, it was a normal visit. Also, I changed the blog around a bit to be a bit more blue/gray than the previous pink/gray as I felt it was more appropriate :)

Upcoming Ultrasound

2009-11-30T15:37:00.002-05:00

So, Tuesday, Dec 1st, is Dan's birthday, he can't take it off work. He took of Wednesday though, which is an even more important day for us, the day I get my ultrasound. Had he had Tues off, he may not have been able to go with me for this!

During the ultrasound, we plan on finding out what the sex of the baby is. I hate waiting until delivery to find out. I'm not much in to the "unisex" baby colors of pastel green and yellow. I want to decorate the room in our new place as well (although I think we are going with a unisex baby theme, teddy bears) Also, I find out that you bond much better with your baby if you know what it will be before hand, then you can refer to my son or my daughter and even call them by their soon to be name. I find it much more personal than referring to the baby as "it" for 9 months!

As many of you know, I'm convinced I'm having a boy, that way, when I find out it's a boy, I'll be happy. Of course, if I find out otherwise then it will be a surprise, but at least I won't be in for this huge "letdown" so many experience when they get their hopes set on one sex or the other.

Well, needless to say, the closer the ultrasound gets to the date the more nervous I am. I am nervous that they won't be able to see the sex of the baby and if they do, what it will be! I am nervous that I will cry when they tell me, the way I did when I found out Tyler was going to be a boy. Which is weird, because I don't mind if it's a boy, trust me, Dan will be a great dad to a little boy, he loves sports, wrestling and "boy" type activities that I couldn't or wouldn't do with a son. Anyway, we'll post or call people if/when we find out.

The conclusion I've come to is, even though people say they dont care what the baby is, they just want it to be healthy, I believe that it's a lie, secretly deep down, they and their family want a certain sex. But, by verbally saying you don't care, it is possible to convince yourself and your family that it really doesn't matter! :)

I am not diseased!

2009-11-12T15:51:00.008-05:00

((To start, I know a lot of you read this only in email and if you are, you may not be able to see the lovely cartoon illustration I made to go along with this post, so please, for the full experience view the blog site at babyrozon.blogspot.com. If you can see the illustration, in your email, then please carry on :) The blog space is limited and the cartoon is two frames, but it will show both frames if you just mouse over it!!))

My latest visit to the doctor was on Tuesday. Dan and I arrived, to a virtually empty waiting room and I did my usual pee in the jar test and went in with the nurse to the nurses station. The friendly, gray-haired nurse introduced herself and took my blood pressure, which was still very normal. She wrote a few thing on her clip board while we chatted and then asked me to step on the scale. As I was stepping up, I made the horrible mistake of clearing my throat.

"Oh, sweetie, do you have a cough?" I hear the concerned nurse ask.

"No, no, just a bit of allergies... I had a cold about a month ago, might be a lingering cough... ya know how that is," I laugh, thinking how sweet it is of her to be so concerned as I step up onto the scale.

Next thing I know, the nurse has hulked into some crazy anti swine flu monster and is breathing heavily down my neck.

"Well..." she grumbles, "Everyone with a cough has to wear this!!" She thrusts a surgeons mask into my hand and stands there with her arms crossed waiting for me to put it on. I sigh and meekly take it from her, slipping the thing over my ears and covering my nose with it before she returns to her former self.

by jade2010

Now, if you have ever had to wear one of those things, it's hot as hell and it makes you feel as if you are suffocating, which was only made worse by the fact that my lungs are squished up and I have a hard enough time breathing as it is.

Anyway, Nurse Hulk, weighs me and then marches me back into the waiting room like some freakish alien. "It'll be fine," I think, comforting myself, "No one was even in the waiting room except Dan." Of course, by now, that's all changed and the place is literally packed. I scamper over to Dan, with my head down, watching all the patients (most of them pregnant) shuffle away or make the wide circle around me. I whip off the mask as soon as the nurse disappears around the corner. I'm sure by now all the people in there are sanitizing their hands and holding their breath. I couldn't blame them, I would have done the same thing, I'm sure!

Now, I'm sitting there, waiting to be called into the dr.'s office and all I can think about is how much I have to cough, so I am gulping down water, but my throat is now burning and begging me to cough and clear it and I'm out of water... So, I slip the mask back on and manage the tiniest cough I can... Well, if you know how it is when you have an itch you refuse to scratch... It was like that, the tiny cough only made it worse. I sigh and hack out a big (and I'm sure, very swine flu like) sounding cough.

After what felt like hours, the nurse called me back into the dr.'s office and I began my walk of shame through the waiting room once again. Of course, as soon as I was in the office and the evil nurse had shut the door I took the mask off.

The doctor came in, this was our first meeting, he was very kind, probably late 40's with pierced ears and jeans... the type of doctor that isn't really "doctorly" but more like "hey want to go grab a beer after your kid is born?" type of doctor. I can imagine he was a hippy back in the day. He was cool and answered all my questions then told me to hop up on the table to listen to the heartbeat. I went to the door and called Dan in so he could hear it too.

Dr. McCarthy had me lay back and measured my belly, which he said was 15 (inches? cm? no idea) but he said it was perfect for 16 weeks. We listened to the heartbeat which sounded more like a woosh and was 144 beats a minute. Again, he said that was great and sat me up. He bid us farewell and sent us on our way.

On the way out, I kept the mask stuffed deep in my pocket, my hand gripping it tightly. We walked down the long hall and I prayed Nurse Hulk wouldn't see me on the way out. Thankfully, the waiting room was now filled with a new set of patients and, having already had set up all my future appointments, slipped quickly out the door to the safety of my own car! phew...

Baby Names

2009-11-09T12:17:00.004-05:00

As many of you know, picking out a baby name is hard work... After all the kid has to spend their entire life with that name, no matter how horrible it is. (Well I guess there are nicknames, middle names and name changes). Dan and I have been going through a ton of baby naming sites and having a lot of discussions on names. After going through life with a short name that rhymes with just about everything (Shari) and a full name that has never once been pronounced correctly (Sharone) and both names never having been spelled correctly by another person (other than my mother) I am very particular about the type of name we choose. I want a simple name with no fancy spellings (Tylor? Caden?? Zavier? Sharone? Etc...) that everyone can pronounce and isn't really big on the name bullying.

So, here's what we've come up with so far:

We agreed on the girl's name of Chloë. According to babynamesworld.com Chloë is recommended by 76% of the people, occasionally mispronounced, 55% say it's always misspelled, and 81% say they were never bullied because of their name. Bullying includes things like name being purposely mispronounced, and Slowy Chloë. All pretty small "infractions" if you ask me!

As for middle names, we have tossed around Corrine, Rhea and my grandmother's name of Lena or Mary. So here's the list of the complete name:

Chloë Corrine Rozon

Chloë Rhea Rozon

Chloë Lena Rozon

Chloë Mary Rozon

As for boys names, that's a little more work and we have yet to nail a name down, despite my being convinced that we are having a boy. It seems that the "nice" sounding boy names we agree on are either too popular, such as any name ending with an "en" (Kaden and Aiden), not popular enough (such as Xavier and Zander) or endlessly misspelled and mispronounced (again Xavier).

We did agree on one name... sort of... and that's Tyce. We got it from the name of the wonderful choreographer from So You Think You Can Dance. I can't find much info on this name as most say it's short for Tyson (which I definitely wont go for due to Mike Tyson and Tyson Chicken). We got it from the name of the wonderful choreographer from So You Think You Can Dance. However, I'm not too keen on the idea of it as a first name because it seems too close to Tyler and both would have the same shortened nickname. Dan doesn't seem to think this is a problem though, however, I'm much more agreeable to it being a middle name.

Our first choice is Lucian, this is a family name from Dan's side of the family. I think it's very mysterious sounding, quite unique but a bit old fashioned. However, it is a family name and I like giving those preference. It's not a great name for a child, in my opinion, but for an adult I feel it's a very "strong" male name. It's gaining more popularity recently due to it's use as character names in movies. babynameworld.com says that Lucian means light in Latin. 82% of people recommend this name, 60% say it's occasionally misspelled, 48% were never bullied, 90% say they like being named Lucian. Most of the teasing was simply being called Luci or a girl.

I like the name Basil, personally, and Dan "sort of" likes it. He doesn't think it'd make a good hockey player name... haha. But I think Basil Tyce Rozon is very nice sounding. Again, babynameworld says that Basil is a latin name meaning kingly. 80% of people recommend the name Basil, it's only occasionally misspelled, and bullying includes things like being called a Spice or told their name was "lame." Again, not too high on name bullying list.

Another name we are considering River. To me, River is very unique and brings about a sense of peace and tranquility that is often seen from bodies of water. River Rozon flows together smoothly too (no pun intended!!). And yes, it is a unisex name, but as far as I'm concerned, most names ending in a hard consonant sound are masculine. babynameworld says that from the people named River 79% suggest it and 88% like being named River. 88% also say it's never mispronounced or misspelled and 49% say they were never bullied because of their name. Bullying included being called River Dance, Lake, Pond, Flood and "Your name is stupid."

The final name (at least so far) we are considering is Jett. Jett is a black gemstone. To me it's a very masculine name, pretty unique and would most likely always be misspelled as Jet. 79% of people named Jett recommend it, 54% say they were *never* bullied because of their name and bullying included being called an airplane, asking if they could fly someone to a location and called Jet Dry. Of course the drawbacks are that the initials of Jett Rozon are JR and he might be called Junior a lot!!! And yes, we are aware that it's the name of a rock group as well as Joan Jett, but being named after rock is cool anyway. :)

So the list of boy names would be:

Lucian Tyce Rozon

Basil Lucian Rozon

River Lucian Rozon

Jett Lucian Rozon

Tyce Lucian Rozon

With how mean kids in school are, it's virtually impossible to find a name that someone couldn't figure out how to make fun of and at the same time find a name that you both agree on, that doesn't bring up a "bad" person in your mind or a stupid movie or celeb and that isn't overused.

So let us know what you think and if you guys have any suggestions or family names!

Permanent Residence Pickles

2009-10-22T14:34:00.004-04:00

Well, after about 2 months of continuous paperwork and collecting everything from birth certificates to addresses of where I lived in the past 10 years, we finally sent out the permanent residence paperwork! Actually, it was still missing a few things, we just included letters that they are on the way. For example, my fingerprints from the US FBI. The Immigration website is not at all helpful as it states in some places that you need to send the application with fingerprints and in others states that it's ok to apply without them as long as you send them in later. Well, being that it's several weeks wait to get the fingerprints back from the FBI, we decided to send them in later, only to find out the day we were sending them in that indeed we were supposed to send them in together! So, we rushed out to get my fingerprints done and mailed to the FBI, then figured we'd send the application in anyway along with a letter explaining where the fingerprints were. So, now it's all about waiting...

As far as the pregnancy goes, I am now almost 14 weeks along and none of my old clothes fit me anymore; my pants are too tight and my shirts are too short. I need more maternity clothing. I currently look like I did when I was six months pregnant with Tyler!! As I think I've mentioned before, I wore regular clothing up until I went into the hospital with my first. I've still had no morning sickness, yay! However, I am having food cravings like crazy! I go through almost a jar of pickles every other day!!! :) Other cravings include: raspberries, chinese food and candy (especially sour candy). It's a weird combination. My memory has totally left me as well, something I read was common in 50% of pregnancies! It has left me having to write down *every* appointment including shopping, visiting people, calling someone as well as dr. appts. It also has me asking Dan the same questions over and over again. I think I asked him 3 or 4 times the other day what day it was, then still couldn't remember, I'm sure it's driving him crazy lol. Well, it's one of the least horrible pregnancy "side effects."

Other than that everything has been going well, I had to get on some antibiotics and they gave me the liquid kind (due to my allergy to pills) but it's this disgusting banana flavor... ugh. Three times a day I have to gag that stuff down! Only good thing about it is that the pharmacy included a syringe, so I can literally squirt it down the back of my throat. Anyway, it's nasty, nasty, nasty stuff and I will be so glad when Friday comes around and I can be done with it! My next Dr. appt is in Nov. though if anything interesting happens between now and then, we'll let you all know :) I hope you are all doing well!!

Ultrasound and Due Date

2009-10-14T20:50:00.003-04:00

So yesterday was my first doctor visit. Finally! Actually, I didn't much sweat the first visit, I mean once you've done this before you basically know what to do... take a prenatal multi, don't take medicines, don't eat fish, don't sit in a hottub... anyway, I knew the drill, so I figured as long as I didn't have any issues, I'd just enjoy my very long visit to California and worry about seeing a doctor when I got back to Ottawa.

Well, for the first visit, I didn't see the OB, Paul McCarthy (who I am sure I'll accidently call by a familiar Beatle's name when I meet him:) I saw his associate Dr. Rangwalla. Dan came with me, which made me very happy. Dr. Rangwalla and his medical student shadow were very nice, he asked us all the standard questions... any diseases in the family, any bleeding, etc... then charged us a nice fee of $60 and sent us on our way. The receptionist, when I told her I didn't have OHIP (free health coverage for Canadian citizens) and that I was paying for all of these out of pocket then explained that most visits would only cost $30 dollars, that's not bad at all. She then scheduled a visit with a lab for an ultrasound and some blood work which happened to the very next day at 2:30.

So, today, Dan came home from work early and took me to the hospital lab. The ultrasound lady was pushy and when we checked in, called us in immediately, in a huge rush. In fact it was so fast that Dan didn't even know he was invited in, so I went in the room and she shut the door and I asked her to wait because he was coming and she was like "well he better hurry..." so I opened the door and go back to the waiting room and bring him in. Later, when I asked where he went, he said he just sat back down, he thought it was like an Xray and that he couldn't come in! lol. Sometimes, I forget he's unfamiliar with the whole process and gets lost easy. :) I told him as long as he comes with me to these appointments he's welcome to come in to all of them, no matter what.

Well after some cold lube spread around my belly, we saw the first pictures of the baby! They were fuzzy and staticy (as I'm sure most of you know how ultrasound pics go) and we opted not to get a picture as the place charged you $3 per pic, we figured we'd get them at the next ultrasound when things are more "defined." And just a side note, ugh at how much everything costs in the city, seriously. Anywho, after she took some measurements and confirmed an April 25th due date (I've adjusted the widget accordingly) she sent us on our way and the receptionist thanked us by handing us a bill for $182 bucks! ouch. Paying out of pocket is already killing us!!

After the ultrasound, we headed to the next lab to get all the blood work done, it was just downstairs. That ran us another $120 dollars and 8 huge vials of my blood. I think they should be paying me for all that blood. And that was about it. When we came out of the hospital, it was snowing!!

Well, all my appointments are scheduled with Paul McCartney up until May 2010. So, I don't have another baby appointment for 4 weeks, however on Monday I have a visit with a doctor for permanent residency, the one that tells the Canadian government that I don't have any diseases or issues as my reason for trying to immigrate, that's going to run us yet another $180 bucks and I have to get more blood drawn. But, we are glad most of the tests are out of the way, and after this Monday visit, I can send my perm residence paperwork in and hopefully by the next few OB visits I will have coverage, keeping my fingers crossed!

Canada and the U.S

2009-09-29T20:52:00.003-04:00

There is so much here that gets taken for granted, that .. I think when all this is said and done, we'll be able to take a step back and laugh at some of the things.

This if course is a new process for me, I've never gone through any of this. However, for Shari, it is something she's gone through, just in a different country. She asks me a lot about how we should do things as far as booking an appointment and such, and most of the time my response is: "I don't know, go to a clinic, get a referal?' 'Go to the hospital, they tell you what to do?' Etc etc. To which she states is rediculous, as why would you go to the hospital to get a referal for something that is so obvious.

Yet in almost every case, that's been how it works. I've concluded, that our health care system in Canada, is dumby proof - but completely non-cost effective, as we are finding out first hand. Everything requires two appointments pretty much. Which is fine, if you don't have to pay for those appointments. Not very fun when you do. But leads me to dwell on how much our health care system could save, if they'd just allow people to call specialists directly to make appointments for obvious things, rather than requiring a referral for everything.

Maybe after this is all said and done, and I've finished writing my book on the immigration process, I'll send my book to parliament and they can save a few million a year, just by taking out the middle man in the health care system.

The mystery of the OB/GYN

2009-09-29T14:07:00.004-04:00

So tomorrow I'll be heading to Georgia, I just found out there will be no internet. This fact annoys me as the internet is my lifeline lol. Also, if I don't check my email daily it gets very full and I'll probably have 200-300 emails by the time I return! After Georgia I return to Canada, will arrive in Syracuse, NY on Tues the 6th. In baby news, the baby is now the size of a fig (1 and a half inches long) according to the weekly email and moving around freely. My nausea has subsided somewhat, but I have had a cold this last week and so whenever I cough, I gag! Not fun when you have a cold. But on with the story...

Got my first doctor appointment on the 13th. That was a fiasco trying to make an appointment... See, I say to my parents that Canada is pretty much just like the US in every way... and for the most part I still agree. However, there are these subtle differences, particularly because of the health care system there, that make it different. When you "break" these specific "protocols" people get pretty annoyed and ends up leaving the offender with a feeling of "what the hell do I do now??"

Anyway, so my story goes... In the US when you are pregnant, you look up the number of your nearest OB/GYN and you call the office and set up an appointment. That same doctor is with you through the whole pregnancy and beyond. So, a few weeks before my return up there, I looked up some ob/gyns and picked one and called them up. Well, the french woman, who I could hardly understand on the other end was more than simply impolite on the phone when she informed me that I have to call the hospital to make an appointment. When I tried to question her with my misunderstandings, she abruptly interupts me with the phone number and hangs up. So, being in my highly emotional state I begun to cry. Having a baby is one thing, but having a baby in a foreign country where you don't know the "rules" and having people be very rude about said rules and not understanding the rules can wear on a person's emotions. That's not to mention the whole money stress, which is yet another story... Anyway, so I'm left holding the phone, pondering why she'd want me to call the hospital. See, in the US the hospital is used for surgery, labor, emergencys, etc, you don't just call them to bug them or set up appointments or find doctors. So, I give it a few minutes, wipe my eyes and call up this number she gave me, of course I get another french greeting and I ask her for this place I *think* the woman, with the thick accent, said. Well, she's never heard of it, so after explaining the situation to her, she transfers me to what she believes is the office I'm looking for and I'm greeted with a "Hi, we are out of the office..." so I hang up.

I think at this point, Dan takes pity on me, because during this whole thing I'm on instant messenger with him explaining it, and he asks one of his workmates who supplies him with a doctor name and phone number that she used for her recent baby. So, I call this new number. The receptionist, fortunatly, doesn't have an accent and I explain the whole situation to her and that I'd like to see the doctor there. She wants to know who is referring me. Referring me? Why would I need a reference to see a doctor? I say no one, she asks "Who told you to call us." Heck if I know, it's someone Dan works with, "uh... Jean... but I dont know her last name." So, she says I need to go to my general practioner and get a referral to them, all I hear is more costs in my head now, I mean now I have to see a doctor to see a doctor?? I pay out of pocket for all these visits. Ok... so I say well I don't have a family doctor. "Please hold" I wait... She comes back, ok I'll put you in to see doctor . Great, now I have an appointment, I thank her. She says "oh one more thing, don't call this number, it's our *private* line." Argh, more rule breaking... I ask for the number to call, appologize and hang up.

Well, at least I have a doctor appointment now.

10 weeks

2009-09-22T12:36:00.003-04:00

So, the weekly pregnancy email informed me that I am 10 weeks along today and explained to me why I have to get up two or three times a night to pee! According to them, the baby is now the size of a kumquat, which left me wondering, "what is the size of a kumquat?" and "should I blog first or go pee?" :) So, for those that are wondering the same thing I am (hopefully it's the first question) I have posted a picture of a kumquat. It's pretty small! The email also said really cool things like: nails and hair are forming, limbs can now bend, and from crown to rump the baby is about 1 1/4 inch long. The widget is starting to look more baby and less alien every week as well!

As for me, I've been pretty "normal" for the most part, still no morning sickness, the "smell" thing hasn't eased up and 90% of my favorite meals have been replaced by crackers, cheese, yogurt and fruit. Eating is a hard time of the day for me, it's pretty depressing. Every day I try something I like to see if I can "stomach" it only to find myself dumping or giving it away and heading back to the bland foods. Still haven't had morning sickness, but with Tyler I wasn't sick until trimester 2 and then I was really really really sick and needed medicine and everything. I am hoping that doesn't happen again!

Well, that is pretty much it, I head to Georgia for the family reunion in a week and back home a week after that and I cannot wait!

Still skirting that morning sickness... somehow...

2009-09-12T21:18:00.002-04:00

I feel like I have some super powered dog nose. The smells around me are insanely intense and often send me into a very seasick like feeling. Each room in my parents house smells different and the smells are changing so rapidly it's driving my poor sniffer crazy (and more importantly my stomach). The kitchen smells like fried grease or burnt toast or sauces or meats whatever happens to be on the menu. Smells that are enjoyable to me at most times, say the smell of Febreze or a candle, now smell so perfumey and overpowering it makes my eyes water. Heck even the smell of food grosses me out, like baked cheese (and I *love* cheese) or melting butter. Ugh. Oh and the combination of smells is killing me! I innocently sprayed Febreze around my room then brought in some food and it about knocked me over! Every room stinks, bedrooms smell like sleep, the living room smells like candles, perfumes, whatever. The big blast of semi warm, smelly air you get in the face when you open the microwave. The bathroom smells like flowery poo! At random intervals I keep hiding my nose in my shirt, except the other day made the mistake of putting some perfume on and hid my nose right in a flowery burst of "sunshine" lol!!

Right now, the only room I enjoy being in... as weird as it is... is the shop in the backyard. It has that old dusty "stuff" smell, like storage rooms and attics get. It's very plesant and unchanging and I have actually been just sitting in there relaxing when the smells get too overpowering. I hope this doesn't last long because anymore of this is seriously going to send me running to worship the porcelain god. :)

The size of a kidney bean?

2009-09-08T22:27:00.003-04:00

So I get these little weekly emails about my pregnancy during the week. This week they said the baby is about the size of a kidney bean. Are you kidding me? I actually looked in my mom's cupboard for a kidney bean to compare, but I didn't see any so I compared it to an elbow noodle! If it's that tiny, why are my pants not fitting?? :)

Actually, I'm looking forward to "showing" this time around, when I was pregnant with my son, I was extremely sick and I lost so much weight that I never showed and since I had him at 8 months he never grew that final 9th month when you gain tons of weight. When I returned to work people were shocked that I was even pregnant! So, I kind of missed the annoying strangers coming up and asking how far I was and trying to touch my belly, like you hear so many preggo women complain about. I also only ever owned one pair of maternity pants and a blue maternity shirt. I will never forget rushing out at 8 months to the store to buy them. I didn't need them, I still fit in all my clothing easily heck some of it was big on me! But, since I was pregnant I just had to own *something* maternity! I bought my one outfit, wore it one time and was in the hospital having Tyler.

This time, here I am 8 weeks and I haven't gained a single pound except in my belly and the baby is the size of a kidney bean! So I put my pants on today and they were so uncomfortable and not squeezing... but putting an uncomfortable pressure on my belly so I actually went to the mall and bought a pair of maternity pants! I guess by the end of this pregnancy, I'll have more than a single maternity outfit :)

Hard being apart.

2009-09-05T01:10:00.003-04:00

When Shari had said that she'd be gone for over a month. I'd originally thought it would not be such a big deal. I mean, we've been apart for long periods of time before, it seemed like something that would be easily managed. However, it's turning out to be a lot more difficult than I would have originally anticipated. Especially with the baby and all, just those little things seem to be missed that much more.

It's definitely hard being apart for sure. And I know we both feel it. But at the same time, it makes you more appreciative I guess. Time can't move fast enough! I can't wait to have her here again.

7 weeks today!

2009-09-01T12:42:00.002-04:00

Just 7 weeks along, the little email I get about my pregnancy week to week tells me I'll probably be having morning sickness. I sure hope not. I was soooooo sick during my pregnancy with Tyler for months on end, so sick I had to take medicine for it and I lost 30 some pounds! So, hopefully I won't go through that again, it's horrible.

I installed a little baby widget on the right side of the blog. You can click on the day below the little picture of the baby to change it to weeks to come or how far. I think that its a neat widget. It's weird to see what the baby looks like inside of me at this point, kind of like a bean or something. The email said it's about the size of a blueberry now!

So, I see Dan wrote a blog about it "sinking in" that is true. Now that the dust has settled somewhat it is sinking in. I think it's sinking in a different way for me than for him though. You see, this is going to be my second baby and his first. He's still at that naive, blissful state where you think raising a baby is... well like on TV. The baby is always smiling and laughing and staring up at you with big blue eyes, patiently awaiting it's feeding time. What he doesn't know are the long nights of waking up every two hours all through the night for months to a screaming baby demanding to eat with a diaper full of liquid poo that pees all over you as soon as you lower the diaper. Getting spit up on every time it eats, pretty much having no nice clothes any longer. LOL Sure there are those happy times, but they are much fewer than Hollywood would have you believe. Ahh... what it would be like to be in that blissful, unknowing state he's in!! :)

How it all began...

2009-08-31T18:23:00.000-04:00

So, the two days before I left with my son, Tyler, for California, I was a couple days late and we decided I should take a pregnancy test. I was skeptical after all I was 2 days late max, could just be late! However, It came back positive... or so we thought... the line was so faint we thought it might be a mistake. After squinting at the incredibly light pink line for the allotted time listed on the box, we were still unsure, so Dan rushed out and bought 2 more tests!! I waited til the next morning and took it again only to find the same result. So, of course, I did what I always do in situations like this... I asked Google :) Well, I found out that a line is a line no matter how faint! We were super happy and started to call up his family and let them know the great news. Tyler was happy, he's wanted a baby brother or sister for years! I decided to wait until I got back to California to inform my family since I was going to see them the next day.

It's funny to me the questions people ask you when they first find out... Most of them were "was it planned?" and "are you getting married?" "Where will your baby be born?" First, it was planned, we just didn't think it would happen so fast. Hormone issues run in my family and the women generally take years to get pregnant, so when my birth control ran out in July, Dan and I talked about it and decided to give it a go. I figured it'd be quite some time (if at all) for this to happen and what do you know, by August 17th I had a positive pregnancy test! Crazy... Anyway, as for getting married, I don't think that a pregnancy is any reason to rush to the altar. You should get married because you both want to, not because you have to. I'm sure we will in the future, I just love weddings, just at this moment, one life changing event at a time, please!

Lastly, the baby will be born in Canada and I am currently in the process of applying for Permanent Residence in Canada. Making sure I was going to have medical coverage as a Canadian Visitor (my current status) was a huge run around. When we called Immigration to ask them about the pregnancy their answer was that they wont cover anything until the baby is born! Well, to me that didn't seem right, since proper prenatal care leads to a healthier baby not to mention this is the child of their own citizen and basically they were telling him they wouldn't cover it? Weird... anyway, it was a huge stressful situation... because we thought I may have to move back to California, where I'd be covered, to have the baby and then Dan would have to try to get time off work and fly back and forth and... ugh. Big mess. Anyway, again we asked the almighty Google and found out there are actually work-arounds to this, just for obvious reasons, immigration doesn't want you to know about them. So, Dan made the appropriate phone calls and within a few minutes I was covered! Well, verbally covered, still have to wait for exact directions on what to do... but it's the government and whether in the US or Canada they function the same! So, we were told to wait for two weeks for further instruction, for some reason I feel like I'm waiting for the Godfather to call in a favor on us lol...

So far everything for me has been running pretty smoothly. No morning sickness yet, although eggs really are disgusting and nearly put me there when I ate a bite of them the other day. Also, I do feel a little queasy when someone mentions something I view as disgusting. I am not really showing or anything although my belly is already getting firm and I can't suck my stomach in anymore. I have to get up every few hours in the night to go to the bathroom, that's annoying and I spend most of my day groggy from lack of sleep! Other than that, it's pretty awesome so far, can't wait to get back to Canada though, I miss Dan so much and wasn't really around him long enough for this to "sink in" and I'm excited to start a family with such a wonderful man :)

Anyway, so that's been the story so far, I'm only about 6 weeks along, still a long way to go. I'm glad it'll be during the winter though it's much more comfortable than a pregnant summer would be! I have yet to go to the Dr, which Google said was ok as most people don't realize their pregnant until 6 to 8 weeks and then you have a wait for a Dr appt anyway. So, I figure if there's any issues while I'm here in California, I'll go visit my old obgyn and pay out of pocket, if not I'll just wait until my return to Canada on Oct. 6th. After all I really want Daniel to be able to go to the first doctors appointment with me!

Finally Starting to sink in.

2009-08-31T17:11:00.002-04:00

So, it's finally starting to sink in. I'm going to be a dad!

Been pretty crazy thus far, with so many questions to be answered and so many worries. But everything seems to be falling into place. When we first found out, I was pretty excited, but the worries about where it would be born, how we would get coverage - all these things, definitely took some of the steam out of it.

I was calling around like a mad man, calling immigrations, calling embassies, trying to find out a way to make sure that the baby could be born in Canada. Looked into insurance and how that works, found out that they generally only cover a pregnancy up to 6 months if you weren't covered before hand... I was pretty wired up, and further more, losing a lot of weight just due to stress.

As Shari said though, after looking up on google, found out that the thing to do was to call the local MP. Got some assurance from the person I spoke with that they'd see to it that Shari got covered. So, while I still think there is going to be some work involved, I'm a little more comfortable with that situation, so now, I can start feeling happy! :) It's a good feeling, and I really can't wait. I'm looking forward to Shari's return home, I miss her a lot. Especially with all that is going on, makes it that much harder to be away from her, but at least we have the internet! :)

So, now I can relax a bit (not too much though, still lots to do) and let it sink in and start enjoying the ride so to speak :)