http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBfi8OEz0rA
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
North American House Hippo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBfi8OEz0rA
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Megan's Mural Painting (so far)
Me painting the hippo:
Megan's boy Alex, breaking in/test driving my crib:
The monkey side:The hippo side:
Friday, July 24, 2009
Middle Name Contemplation
Hubbie: Tyler Evan
His dad: Larry Evan (goes by Willie)
My dad: David Albert Johnson
My dad's dad: Albert (middle?) Johnson
My mom's dad: Larry Ernest McKen
My brother: Cody David Johnson
Grandma's Maiden: Lagace
I have an uncle, great uncle & great grandpa whose first name is Richard so it's sort of a family name, but I didn't meet my great-grandpa & I'm not particularly close to my uncles.
Maybe I could do some sort of name combo like 'Van' from Evan & 'Bert' from Albert and make a cool 'VanBert' last name sounding name LOL like fitzgerald. I've always wanted a name like that.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Baby & TruckUpdates
Baby Update
Unit 25 from Red Deer Hospital finally got a hold of me today (we were playing phone tag) to do my pre-registering for when I go into labor. I think it’s a really neat thing that you can get the paperwork out of the way so that you can just go straight to the right unit when baby comes. In addition to that I finally got to register for Better Beginnings, the maternity orientation that I was interested in. Unfortunately they only run Tuesday & Thursday nights, so I booked for a Thursday (Aug 20) and hope that Tyler can make it. He is often home Thursday nights but not until about 1 ½ hours after this orientation starts so hopefully he can leave early (or already be working a local job!).
The baby has been moving, but the movements feel different, I guess because baby is a different size now, every growing. It’s just weird.
Truck Hunt Update
Although we are excited about baby, I’d say we are a little bit stressed about finances right now. Although we are getting some money from the insurance company for Tyler’s truck (about $3700), it isn’t enough to really replace it with another functional truck especially with the few upgrades we’d like to get (and we’re not even going crazy with upgrades). Tyler’s understandable nervous about taking on any kind of truck payment right now as I want him to change jobs to something local in the very near future (before baby comes) and I will be contributing even less financially to the household once baby comes (and we’ll have more expenses). I’m trying to stay positive and hope that the right opportunities come our way in the next 6 weeks! I’m also trying to think of some ways I can streamline our expenses and tighten my budget belt even more.
Tyler has decided to officially try to sell her 1964 Pontiac Parisienne Sport that is just sitting behind our house. It ran really well when he used it all the time, but he parked it about 3 years ago when he bought the truck and hasn’t moved in that time. He bought it (yep bought it) from his dad for $2500 and then put at least $2500 into it to get it road worthy and pass the inspection. Since then he put money into it fairly regularly to keep it up to speed as it was a primary vehicle for us for quite a while. It’s a good old car but it needs some love (aka time) and money. To supe it up to mint condition would take about $30,000 which we don’t have now nor will we have for quite a while so I’ve finally convinced him to sell it. It’s just such a shame to leave it to depreciate and it can’t be a priority for us for quite a long time. So far we put it on Kijiji.ca and listed it for $6,000 so if we got that for it, plus our insurance money then buying a truck wouldn’t be such a hardship.
One of the sucky things is that we can’t do any more RV camping now until we get a new truck and the hitch installed for it. I was really looking forward to go camping last week to celebrate our Anniversary (which is this Thursday, the 23rd) but the deer changed our plans for us. It costs money to camp so that’s holding us back now too depending how the truck situation works out.
Tyler’s dad offered to ‘lend’ Tyler some money to buy a truck with no interest. However, Tyler very correctly pointed out that although the interest is free, the STRINGS are expensive so that’s not really an option for us. Robert & Willie and other people keep trying to tell Tyler what he ‘has’ to buy now and he’s getting pissy about it. It’s fine to give some suggestions but ultimately we have to buy for the truck and use the truck so I think we’ll decide as a couple what we get (with Tyler getting the majority of the decision since it’ll be his primary vehicle, I’ll probably just have veto power if it’s ridiculous). All I care is that it is an extended cab (so baby can ride in it) and in good condition. It would be nice to get a V8 instead of a V6 but I guess it’s not necessary. And his last truck was a work truck before so he’d like to avoid work trucks this time.
Friday, July 17, 2009
No Doubt Concert review
We lined up for the concert shortly after 6:00pm and the line was nice and short at that point. Doors opened around 6:30pm and we were able to get right up close for the souvenir booth. There was one long sleeve No Doubt shirt I would liked but it only came in small, medium & large, then there was a super cute Paramore hoodie but it only came in small & medium. Concert shirts tend to fit small so I like to get the 2XL. There was a cute black No Doubt hoodie that came in 2XL but it was $85 and I thought I probably don’t need to buy that. So I told Mel that I wasn’t going to get any. She was like “well I’ll buy you one cuz I owe you like three birthday presents”. I put up a little tiny bit of a fight but not much so she got me the black hoodie. It’s super cute looking I think and soft and comfy. Melody got a hilarious T-shirt that has the tuxedo on the front, No Doubt branding and tour cities on the back. After the concert I took a picture of us in our clothes (took a few practice shots but eventually got a good pose).
The first opening band was Bedouin Soundclash and they started at 7:30pm. I had seen their name but didn’t think I knew any of their songs. They had a ska sound and it turned out that I did know one song, I think it’s the one called “When the Night Feels My Song”. They performed well for an opening band, its just hard to get into them when you are not familiar with the music.
The second opening band was Paramore who I was really looking forward to. I had pre-downloaded some of their songs (so I could be a little more familiar with them), so though I couldn’t sing, along most of them rang a bell. Their first song was “Misery Business” which I love and their last song was one of the two from the “Twilight” soundtrack that I also knew. I was pretty happy with their performance but disappointed with our nosebleed seats (Section 208 Row 30) because we couldn’t really see them. I’ve been pretty spoiled with good seats for so many concerts:
Black Eyed Peas 1st Time – 100 Level
Black Eyed Peas 2nd Time – Seated Floor
Nickelback both times – General Admin Floor
Justin Timberlake – 100 Level
Offspring (this June) – 100 Level right by stage
So You Think You Can Dance Canada – Seated Floor
The experience is very different on the floor to 100 level to 200 level and my fav is seated floor followed by 100 Level (as I’m too old to enjoy sweaty general admin floor anymore).
As a quick side note, the girl seated next to me wasn’t there during the openers but showed up for No Doubt. She was probably late teens or early 20s and her and her 2 friends had clearly been drinking for a while. As she started to dance around her giant backpack purse kept hitting me which was uber annoying. Then they knew the 2 girls seated directly in front of us so they kept leaning around me to talk to each other. Though we were in the 200s we spent almost the entire No Doubt portion on our feet. I probably would have had an aneurysm from annoyance if she hadn’t suddenly noticed my baby belly. She is my first official “stranger sighting” that knew it was a baby belly rather than just being overweight so I forgave her for all her annoyingness LOL She told me “congrats” told me he/she would like No Doubt (to which I said it’s a boy), and then asked me if I had a name picked out. Then she told her friend who said I should name him something that ended in “N”. Too funny.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
5 New Posts!
Unable to Understand JW Religion
I’m bringing this up because another one of Tyler’s cousins, who is the same age as Tyler, just told me she is pregnant (due Dec 21) and is going to be a single mom. Tyler’s mom has 11 siblings and I guess they were brought up somewhat JW but not everyone stayed in the JW religion. In fact I think maybe only 2 or 3 of the siblings are the only ones that are JW’s. Others are Catholic, or non-religious, or exploring alternate spirituality (like Mary). Anyway, Cousin Amanda, is unfortunately from one of the siblings that are JW and very strongly so. In fact when Tyler’s Grandpa passed away it was Amanda’s parents who got into a big fight about religion with Tyler’s Auntie Jenny (who is a Catholic one) and her parents went home very shortly after the argument. Tyler’s family reinforces my believes about the JW’s because they have a family get together at Christmas every other year and the JW’s never attend. I’m not sure why the family doesn’t make an executive decision to do it at a different time of year so that everyone comes but yeah…
Back to Amanda, as I predicted, her very strongly JW parents are basically ostracizing her because she is having a baby out of wedlock and therefore they cannot and will not associate with her. I am totally for the whole “not enabling bad behavior” but completely cutting someone out of your life because they are having a baby seems very drastic. Babies are essentially innocent beings who are being punished by a lack of family support and relationships because of their religious beliefs. Single mom’s would especially need the support of loved ones to get them through the stress and chaos of an unexpected pregnancy. I don’t know the details, but Amanda shared with me that she thought she was unable to get pregnant so was quite surprised when she did.
The whole situation is contrasted with the fact that Tyler’s cousin Jennifer, who is almost 10 years younger than Amanda is also pregnant and her mom (who would be sister to the Amanda’s mom) is being as supportive as she can as she lives in Ontario while Jennifer resides in Medicine Hat. Jennifer’s dad is a less than thrilled but I am sure he will still be there for Jennifer as he has been her primary caregiver for the last five years.
I guess in my opinion, unexpected pregnancies are something you need to deal with on a pro-active preventative basis and isn’t something you should punish after the fact. I think it’s important that the parents of the new baby need to struggle a bit and learn that there is sacrifice involved (like you shouldn’t baby sit for them so they can continue their partying lifestyle) but I think you should at the very least be a strong emotional support for them. I am going to try to contribute what I can to the support network of both of these newly pregnant ladies - and they both naively asked for my advice ha ha. I might just send them copies of some of my blog posts!
Brother's Baby Mama Update
Tyler's Truck Update
Tyler’s dad wants him to get a NEW truck and offered Tyler a “interest free” loan to help him get one. Tyler said “sure interest free, but the strings are expensive” LOL I’m so glad he thought of that on his own. Considering Tyler has always paid for everything we’ve gotten from his parents it would be nice if they could offer him a gift of money. Tyrone had his first two vehicles paid for (not to mention the free hand me down of Mary’s car) and Tyler paid for his’64 Pontiac from his dad so yeah… Speaking of the Pontiac, Tyler is going to officially try selling it now as the extra cash could help him buy a better truck. I think it’s a bit sad for him to sell the car as his dad has had it since like 1966 but it needs a lot of money and work and that just can’t be a priority for us right now. It’s been sitting in our back yard for like 3 years and depreciating so for the car’s sake we need to sell it.
The major things I’d like in a truck now are for an extended cab (as we would like to take our baby camping and wouldn’t have been able to with Tyler’s ’98 Chevy), an 8 cyclinder motor I think (his Chevy had a 6 and could do the job of towing the RV but was struggling) and for it to be in good condition. Tyler has never had a new vehicle so I’d like it to be as nice as possible. He’s worried about having payments as we are just staying afloat right now but I’ll be done paying for my car in January so that is $333.58/month that will come back into our budget. I think I’d like to continue temping this fall if I can swing it somehow, but we’ll see how that goes. I’d also like to do more “Home & Gift/Everyday Style” parties this winter season as everyone does get exited about our Christmas catalogue and that can be evenings and weekends.
Concert Plans
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Hijacked Taste Buds
Food that you have always loved can suddenly make you nauseous at one whiff or one bite. Or a more subtle problem is when food you have always loved or liked doesn’t taste the same as it did before you were pregnant. In addition to that, you are subjected to the introduction of “cravings”. Personally I have always been a person who had cravings and food phases, so it wasn’t surprising that it continued through my pregnancy. Tyler teases me because at the suggestion of a certain food that I may not have thought of in a while, I’ll go out and buy it to eat. I don’t see what the big deal is, I like to encourage good advertising ha ha
An example, pre-pregnancy, occurred when we watched the movie “Pineapple Express” (an otherwise disappointing movie by the way). One of the main characters was eating a Fruit Roll-up and I was like “yum, I haven’t had one of those in forever.” Then the next time I got groceries I bought a box of Fruit Roll-ups. The thing is, I still have most of that box in my pantry so I don’t think it’s a problem I need to worry about. Whereas Tyler has this terrible habit of seeing something in the pantry and he has to eat it right then & there (whether he is hungry or not). I think that’s a worse problem (and if he has any argument about that I have three words for him “My Coffee Crisp” LOL).
My first aversion that I can remember having was with garlic. I had just found out that my iron count was low so I decided to look up iron rich foods. Looking through the list I thought I’d make a lasagna with spinach as a good iron booster. I went to all the trouble of making the lasagna from scratch & Tyler made his garlic loaf only to find that I could not stomach the food nor be near Tyler when he was eating it!
My second major aversion seems to be meat products. I’m just not the hugest fan of cooking them or eating them right now. If they are included in what I’m eating I don’t pick it out or anything, but I just feel like loading up on carbs instead. Not really cool!
My first major food phase was for eggs and it lasted for quite a while. It was handy because eggs are very versatile and very quick to make. So at say 11pm when I decided that I’m hungry for an egg it was easy to whip one up! Then, one morning I was making my eggs, I looked at them and thought “I don’t want this.” Bizarre. Since then I have just had a healthy relationship with eggs.
I’ve had a fruit food phase for pretty much the whole pregnancy, though specifically I have liked watermelon. I’m thankful to be pregnant into the summer so that it is in season! I’m very particular about how I like the watermelon though (texture, color, flavor) and sometimes its difficult to pick the right piece. I’ve been a bit wasteful when it doesn’t meet my standards.
One night, all of a sudden I wanted peach juice. You know the kind you can sometimes get out of one of those juice fountain machines in a Mom & Pop restaurant? I haven’t really been able to satisfy this craving though as it is hard to find. I’ve been eating nectarines and drinking Snapple Peach Iced Tea which is keeping it at bay, but not satisfied. I just remembered that Sammies in Grimshaw has peach juice and that Melody is meeting me tomorrow so she might be able to hook me up. Oooh, now I’m extra excited!
For probably a month now I have been craving wieners n’ beans (beans in molasses to be specific). Again a nice simple craving that is easy to satisfy…and works in with some of the camping we’ve been doing!
Most of my cravings have been on the positive side however I have not been able to avoid my sweet tooth though I would have liked to. In my early pregnancy when I was experiencing nausea and morning sickness sweet stuff seemed to be safe. In addition to that, I have also been craving Pepsi (in cans) which is not something I was super into pre-pregnancy. I was mostly a non-cola girl. I’ve been trying to limit the Pepsi as pop isn’t that great for baby and the addition of caffeine makes me a little weary but I’ve still had some.
A word of warning for future pregnancy people: sometimes the cravings are satisfied in one sitting and sometimes they take longer. Be conservative and don’t “stock up” on any craving foods too much. An author of one book had a craving for beans and bought 18 cans (not sure why) and after one can was good so now she is stuck with 17 cans of beans LOL
Monday, July 13, 2009
Circumcision Decision
There was a period of time when baby boy parts went untouched, then there was a period of time when the majority were circumcised. Now, there seems to be mixed medical opinions on whether it is in the best interest of the boy to do it or not, so much so that the circumcising surgery is available to the public but its considered optional so you have to pay out of pocket (in Canada at least). Statistically I think it’s still accurate to say that its about 50/50 for newborns now to have it done or not.
First of all, I think the majority of the decision should get weight from the father of baby (if he’s involved in baby’s life) as he would have personal experience that the mother just doesn’t have access to. Of course every decision should be a joint decision made by both parents having say. Both Tyler & I are pro-circumcising and here are some of the whys…
Tyler is circumcised and hasn’t suffered any consequences. I think its simpler for baby to look like daddy as much as possible.
I personally find it more visually appealing to be ‘cut’.
One of the arguments against it suggests that men have LESS sensitivity if they have been cut and really ladies are we worried about men having less sexual sensitivity?
Some are concerned about possible infections, etc that can result from the surgery. However, if you are in a proper medical facility with trained medical professionals, those instances are rare (bearing in mind that I have read “Born a Boy, Raised a Girl” and know of an EXTREME consequence).
I have heard 2nd hand accounts (so not a “friend of a friend of mine” per say, a little more accurate) of kids having problems with hygiene when they are uncut and then getting court ordered circumcising by Child & Family Services at the age of like 12. I think the experience would be much more traumatic at that age then newborn so I’d like to be preventive.
Some say that boys are born with it for a reason so it should stay…however I argue with that – tonsils, appendix, wisdom teeth. We have a few “spare” body parts that don’t seem to serve a purpose anymore in the lives we lead now and actually seem to cause problems.
Um, I think that’s all I got on this topic? Ladies...the floor is now yours :-)
Tuesday Morning Randoms
Since I decided to have my baby shower post-baby and I want to give people as many options as possible for what they could get us (if they so choose), I have been limited my purchases for baby to what I feel we need within the first two weeks of him being around. So my plan had been, once we found out gender, to get maybe half a dozen onesies/sleepers for the 0-3 months size. The first weekend after we found out we bought two onesies that came with pants and then Tyler found a sale rack at Sears so we picked out a couple more outfits. Then we got a few hand-me-downs from Kyla and Shelley.
THEN, my friend Brandy, who had a baby boy last summer asked me if I’d be interested in some clothes she was done with. I was all like, bring ‘em on (as its very similar to shopping). Well Ms. Brandy drops off 3 garbage bags full of stuff! She told me to take what I liked and then pass the rest on to a second hand place. Well there were some really great items in there…including but not limited to a backpack diaper bag (which is exactly what I was thinking I wanted), blankets, couple bibs, and pretty much every clothing item I need for 0-3 months. I wrote it down somewhere but in that size range I got something like 20 t-shirt style onesies, 6 long sleeve style onesies, 8 sleepers, 14 t-shirts, 4 pairs of overalls…its crazy, and great! The majority of the items I kept were in that size and then I have a few items for 6 months and on. I had the haul spread out on our coffee table so I could sort it into item type and size (as I want to have 0-3 months in the dresser and the rest put aside sorted by size). Tyler looked at it all and was like “So we don’t need any clothes!” to which I responded “Actually this is only until 3 months” LOL Good times. Super thanks to Brandy for her generosity!!
I had a dental check up yesterday to see if my teeth had moved enough to get my braces off. Basically I’ve been waiting for my top & bottom jaw to move together now that my front teeth are in position. The evil dentist that is my orthodontist said that my teeth are finally ready. Now what I didn’t understand is that I had to make another appointment for August to get fit for my retainer. Why couldn’t I get it done right then & there? Probably cuz they only scheduled me for a 15 minute appointment! Plus my orthodontist is moving to BC (darn) and is only working part time now so there are even less appointments to go around. Grrr! Oh, and I was very insistent that if they were coming off that I wanted them off before baby comes. They asked my due date and I told them Sept 20 (I should have lied) so they booked my braces off day for Sept 9th. Why does everyone think that the due date means baby is coming then? It’s only an estimation people! On average, babies can arrive anywhere from 2 weeks prior to 2 weeks post with no health issues. Of course this made me curious for some statistics and I was able to find this graph. Due dates are based on a 40 week term from the date of your last period:
Tornado Charlie's Mass Destruction on my Bathroom...
Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday Morning Randoms
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Underestimating the Creepiness
The documentary was about home births and whether they were a good option. I started watching it just in time to view several home births that I did not enjoy. First off, all but one of the women being filmed were completely nude & uncensored - which disturbs me since I am a prude. I just find it creepy to be completely naked when there are several people around who still have their clothes on. Second, the noises women in labor make are super disturbing. They just seem unnatural. Third, the main midwife of the film had footage from her own home birth and she had a very creepy hairdo that made her look very manly and almost alien. It was this crazy elaborate braid made into like a horn on the top of her head. Anyhoo, creepy. Fourth, they had lots of shots of the baby emerging and I am not good at medical things, let alone gross fluids and large items coming out of what should be a small hole -especially when I might find myself doing the same in a few months! So I did what any good wife would do, I PVR’ed it for Tyler to suffer through when he gets home ha ha
I’m not completely masochistic so there were interesting things in the film that I was getting out of it. The midwife featured actually talked about how she was the “midwife who begged for a c-section” during her labor. She had a really tough time with the pain management and described the one point in labor as being stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. The rock, she said is that it hurts but it hurts more to push. The hard place is that if you don’t push you’ll be in pain forever since you’ll be pregnant forever.
Also, I found out that when you go through the pain your brain releases this hormone called oxytocin (I think) that helps create the mother-baby bond and instills the protector vibe into you, the scientist/doctor went so far as to say it creates Love. There is a synthetic version of the hormone that mimics the physical properties but the scientist said that they can’t replicated it’s affect on the brain. An observation of other mammals shows that when the animals don’t go through labor and/or have medical interventions that they don’t have a bond with their babies and they abandon them. So the theory goes that if a woman has pain medication &/or a c-section that she’ll be less bonded to baby. Not sure if that’s true, but interesting none the less.
A few more points about home births were that they are less expensive (one-third to half the cost of a hospital delivery) and that according to other countries statistics, possibly safer. The US only has about 0.5% home births but it also has one of the higher death rates. Swedan, I think it was, does about 1/3 of births at home and has a much better birth rate. So that was all interesting to hear but I still want to have baby in a hospital, at least for this one.
The second show, focused on three women who are “morbidly obese” and pregnant. I believe all three women were over 300 lbs at the point of the taping. One of the ladies had actual lost 20lbs with being pregnant whereas one of the others had gained 90lbs. The one who had gained had type 2 diabetes before becoming pregnant (with baby #3) so her baby was at risk and they c-sectioned her at 37 weeks. The surgery was really gross as she had many layers of fat they had to cut through and even lots of layers to go through in her back for an epidural. They also mentioned at one of her ultrasounds, that since she has 5x has much fat layers to go through, that getting a good reading of baby was difficult. Though far as I could tell, her screen still had better images then mine ever did!
The one women who lost weight was getting induced with the drip and after 48 hours didn’t have any success so they c-sectioned. They also mentioned that since she was larger she required more of the drip to be administered. Despite some of these complications, all three women gave birth to healthy babies.
Crazy Times
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Another Piece of the Puzzle: Our Bassinette!
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Megan's Painting...
Savouring...
Monday, July 06, 2009
More Baby Preperations...
Vanessa drove down on July 1st so Tyler & I had to make our final paint decisions by then so the work could be done. Despite saying that he thought brown looked like poop, Tyler eventually agreed to doing three walls in a turquoise color from the bedding (called “Happy Talk” from Debbie Travis) and one feature wall in “dark chocolate”. I’m really glad we did the one wall in the brown as I LOVE it and I think the two colors balance each other very well. The turquoise on all four walls would have been too much for me as I added a chocolate shelf and the brown glider to anchor the room as well and it just right now. So Vanessa & Tyler did that on Thursday & did a wonderful job. They are both much more attentive to detail about that kind of thing then I have the patience for - I say surround yourself with people who possess the skills you don't!
Our crib came in on Thursday also, but we didn’t open the box until Friday night. As soon as he did, Tyler noticed a crack in one of the main joints of the back frame. Not only was it not pretty, but it was possibly structure affecting so I thought it best to return it to Sears and re-order it then have it crack get worse over its use. The crib will either be converted to a toddler bed for this baby or re-used as a crib for a second baby & then converted so it needs to last. Luckily, the new crib will be here on July 10, less than a week away now rather then the long 3 weeks I waited for it the first time! It was a bit disappointing not to be able to set it up & see the room more complete but I’m getting used to having to wait for things now.
On Saturday, Vanessa wanted to go to Calgary to see Twylia & Kyla’s new babies. I was unable to get a hold of Twylia to make arrangements so I took advantage of the extra time to check out a few baby stores in Calgary: Echildren, Once Upon a Child & Babies R Us. Echildren is fun to check out but most of the items are more pricey than I’d be able to convince Tyler is worth it (or even myself). Realistically, you are paying for an image there more than great things for your baby. Once Upon a Child was like 90% clothes, which I was avoiding with Vanessa in tow. Plus I only want to purchase a few sleepers/onesies for baby’s first week or two and leave the rest until after my shower (which will be post baby). Then onwards to Babies R Us where we continued the “Travel System” (stroller/car seat combo) hunt that we started at Echildren. We narrowed down our choices to items by “Evenflo” as we liked the ergonomically correct handle on the carseat. Babies R Us only had one model so we thought we might as well shop a few more stores back in Red Deer before committing (especially as neither of us loved the puke yellow color of the the set). Though I didn't like the color I decided that I wouldn't let it get in the way of my buying decision as it was the least important factor for this item.
This is the set from Sears Catalogue that is coming in on Friday:
This is the "puke yellow" one, the color is very different in-store: This is the "separate" on that has a matching chair:
I accidently came across this one on the US Toys R Us site when I was looking up the other ones...I love the color so I may have to do some digging to see if I could get it delivered here. Does anyone know how the US safety standards compare to Canada?
My Ultrasound and deciding that my baby will be a Virgo
I passed my Gestational Diabetes screening which means I’m in the clear. I was a wee bit worried as I am overweight & do partake in lots of sweets, but am VERY happy to hear that it is not affecting baby!
My doctor, Dr. Phillpot, is officially part of a clinic now. I had originally transferred to seeing Dr. Phillpot for my pregnancy as my previous doctor, Dr. Radomsky, no longer performs deliveries, which is becoming a very common problem. For this reason, Dr. Phillpot and I think 6 other doctors, have gotten together to form a “clinic”. Essentially to me, this means that I don’t have one doctor so much as I’ll now see a group of doctors. Each doctor will have a slot of time that they dedicate to baby deliveries so that it doesn’t interview with their regular appointments. So when you go in to deliver your baby, whoever is schedule to work is who will deliver you. I am 29 weeks now and have only seen Dr. Phillpot, so for the remaining prenatal appointments I will be scheduling in with the other doctors in the group/clinic so that I have a chance to meet as many of them as possible. From the way Dr. Phillpot was talking, she is not scheduled for deliveries anywhere near my due date so its very unlikely she’ll be doing my delivery. However, when she listed the other doctors in her clinic, they are all names I am familiar with that are known to be good doctors so I’m not overly worried. It seems so often that people don’t have their actual doctor around when they deliver anyway that this makes as much sense as anything else. I’m looking forward to meeting the other doctors and I’m sure I’ll be posting my reviews of them as I meet them LOL
As for the placenta previa, if the placenta is still in a position of concern, then I am meeting with Dr. Marais on July 21. I have never met with or heard of Dr. Marais, but he (?) is an actual OB-GYN meaning he specializes in pregnancies and deliveries rather than Dr. Phillpot and her clinic which are all GPs (General Practioners). Dr. Marais will then do his own assessment of my ultrasound and determine my options, such as if I’ll be having a pre-planned caesarean. So if that’s the case, I may be only meeting with Dr. Marais in the future. However, if the placenta has moved as the uterus has grown and is no longer blocking the cervix, then I will continue as normal with the Dr. Phillpot clinic. Stay tuned for updates on that.
Possibly related to the placenta previa: early this morning, at about 4am, I turned to my side in bed and felt a terrible sensation in my uterus. It was kind of like a cramp but very intense…it lasted about 10 seconds and then went away but it really concerned me. I haven’t noticed anything since but it definitely has me worried. Often women will experience bleeding when they have placenta previa and if that happens they are suppose to take it easy, avoiding things that are more strenuous such as vacuuming etc. I’ve been lucky so far to have had no symptoms and am only aware of it because of the ultrasound so have gone about my life in a normal fashion. Hopefully it was just a random pain and won’t have any consequences! I’ve been watching this morning and haven’t noticed any bleeding so that is positive. If I get the pain again I’ll definitely call my doctor…
Now for the fun stuff…the tech who did my ultrasound was younger, probably still older than me, but definitely more youthful and with a better bedside manner than the previous tech I had in April. After I laid on the bed & determined that she would be doing the scan, I said “I was told that if we are interested in finding out gender, we should let you know at the beginning, and we are VERY interested in knowing if you can tell. Oh & that I have someone waiting for me in the waiting room.” So she said no problem and then did the exam for about maybe 4 minutes. Then she let me go to the bathroom which is such an amazingly simple pleasure that you take for granted before being pregnant LOL
When I came back she continued the exam, which seemed to involve measurements and anatomy again. I jokingly told her that my husband is known for having a large head & if she could tell me if my baby’s head was normal sized or not. She smiled and said she’d let me know at the end of the measurements. I also asked if she’d be able to tell me about my placenta previa that day & she said no because the doctor would want to do a comparison from last time before giving me any info. After a bit, she asked me if I had someone waiting for me, which I said yes. She asked if I wanted to wait until he was in the room before I found out gender, so I said “it doesn’t matter”. So she moved the screen so I could see & said “from this I’d say about 70% boy”. I couldn’t really make out anything on the screen, so she moved the probe some more and then said “oh see here it is” and moved the cursor along my boy’s part. I didn’t experience an instantaneous bond like I thought I might, but it was very relieving to have any idea of gender. Then she did more of the exam. After a while, she said I could wipe off the gel and that she was going to see the doctor while I could go get Tyler. So I went to grab him and on the walk back said “she told me what we’re having!” but then I told him I’d wait to see if the tech showed him instead of just blurting it out. While we were waiting Tyler noticed that there were pictures printed off but they didn’t show gender and really they didn’t show much! I seem to have terrible luck with getting a decent ultrasound picture.
The tech came back and put gel on my belly for a third time and motioned for Tyler to stand by the bed. She tried to show us pictures of the profile, feet, spine, etc but we couldn’t make out much. I’m not sure if it was an older machine or what, but it was very blurry and difficult to make out. She then switched wands and tried to do a 3D scan of the profile which was fun but apparently the placenta was in the way so she couldn’t really get a decent one. We didn’t ask, which maybe we should have, but she didn’t show Tyler or say anything about gender. So as we were about to leave the room I said “So you figure out 70% for the gender? Cuz I didn’t tell him yet.” And she responded with “Well it was pretty obvious.” Which I heard, and then I didn’t hear this but Tyler said she then said “More like 100%.” Thus, why I feel confident telling people it’s a boy with certainty!
It felt a little anti-climatic on Friday finally knowing boy or girl as I’ve been waiting for sooo long it seems. I think I was in a shock for a bit and it took a while to sink it. It didn’t help that Vanessa was up this week and she very strongly didn’t want to know if it was a boy or girl so we were still trying to say it & baby versus gender pronouns. Eventually, when she was going to leave on Sunday, I pointed out that she was probably going to find out since it’ll end up on facebook and everyone else will know & someone will mention it without realizing she doesn’t want to know. Not to mention that anytime I was even near a color specific item she’s say “oh obviously it’s a boy” etc. I know I didn’t slip up in her presence but she seemed set on telling me it was a boy, which was really annoying me. If you don’t want to know, quit focusing on it! So anyhoo, I said “Would you rather find out from me now or find out randomly over the next 2 -3 months?” She opted to hear it from me right as she left.
I’ve decided that I am having a Virgo baby, which means he’ll be born between August 23 and September 22. I have two reasons for thinking I’m having a Virgo, 1) I am a Libra and it can get ugly when I relate to other Libras & 2) I’d prefer to have baby in the first half of September as I know SO many people with birthdays after the 15th and I want my baby to have his own birthday. I am not 100% familiar with the common qualities of Virgos, so I decided to google it.
Here are common Virgo qualities/traits:
-Modest and shy
-Meticulous and reliable
-Practical and diligent
-Intelligent and analytical
-Fussy and a worrier
-Overcritical and harsh
-Perfectionist and conservative
Definitely sounds like a combination of Tyler & I, lol.
Just in case I am wrong, here are the Libra qualities/traits per the same site:
-Diplomatic and urbane
-Romantic and charming
-Easygoing and sociable
-Idealistic and peaceable
-Indecisive and changeable
-Gullible and easily influenced
-Flirtatious and self-indulgent
I think that’s a pretty accurate description of me, especially the self-indulgent ha ha.
This turned out to be pretty lengthy, so I will write a different blog about my last week of baby preparations, announcing gender to people, etc. I'm also at my temp job so don't have my u/s pics to post here (though i think most of you have access to facebook).
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Pregnancy Math