39 weeks

Okay, so I'm not sure where the last 9 months have gone, but they sure went by really fast... We have 4 days until our due date (January 4th). Today is the last day of the year 2009 and we are planning on staying in and just watching movies all night. Not very exciting, but due to my ready-to-pop condition, it sounds like just what the doctor ordered - comfortable, no drinking, no dancing, no yelling, just sitting back under a warm blanket with Doug, sipping hot chocolate... Yes, this is definitely the way to go into 2010!

We had one of our usual prenatal visits yesterday. Everything seems to be going according to schedule and everything seems to be just fine. Heart rate for both me and the baby - good, my blood pressure - good, even my weight drop (2kg's in a week and a half) didn't seem to concern my doctor. She says this late in the pregnancy it won't affect anything. I guess I'll just trust her on it... We scheduled me one last prenatal visit but it will be after my due date, so I only go if the baby has not been born, yet. My due date is this upcoming Monday, the prenatal visit is the following Friday, and if the baby is still not born the following Monday (the 11th), the doc says they will induce me. Exciting!!! That means that I will be a mom for real the latest on the 11th!!!!:) Doug is just starting to panic a little bit, but he is holding it together very well, I am definitely impressed.

The nursery is complete now, we just have to put away some of the extra stuff that's laying around, such as empty boxes and extra cloths that I decided not to put to use. Hopefully we will finish the last few little things this weekend and then I will post some pictures of the finished room. Doug has been working long hours, so I try not to make him do too much extra stuff during the week, but today they are shutting down an hour and a half early, and he has a long weekend, so we should be able to let him rest and recharge AND get some stuff done this weekend. We shall see. With my luck I'll plan everything for tomorrow morning and have the baby tonight! LOL It's all good, I think I'm ready. Well, as ready as I'm ever going to be... My bag is packed, the nursery - although cluttered at this point - is functional, and we can't wait to meet our first child! So yeah, BRING IT ON!!!:)

37 weeks

Here's a video not for the faint of heart...:)

Yes, that is a mixture of baby moving and Braxton-Hicks kicking in...

Baby likes to play with Doug...

Finally - picture update!!!

Okay, so I've been slacking AND I had technical difficulties... but the pictures have finally arrived! It's a bit of a chronological mess, so watch for dates and labels!!!

32 weeks and counting...

37 weeks - almost Christmas!
36 weeks and a bit...

More pictures and maybe even videos to come!

33 weeks

33 weeks and counting! I have been slacking with the blog posting lately, but I am trying to catch up now! Hopefully I will finally get my pictures downloaded and sorted out this weekend, then I can go back and add a bunch of pictures to my newest entries. I figured I'll try to get caught up on the writing part until then.

Let's see, status report for 33 weeks:

- Had my usual bi-weekly doctor's visit - gained 7 lbs, everything else is okay. Due to my little episode at the prenatal class, doc sent me for some blood work and to check up on my heart, just in case. Turns out I need iron. Weird. I've always had tons of iron in my blood. Well, I guess baby decided to take it all!:) I will pick up the prescription at my next appointment on the 5th.

- Baby moves around all day now, with short breaks! It doesn't hurt, but it definitely catches my attention when he turns sideways or decides to test how far he can stretch a certain way! I can sit slouched down on the couch for hours, watching my belly move. I'm going to miss this, I think. Doug loves to rub my belly and "play" with the baby:) I'm so glad he is this involved/excited!

- We had Doug's parents over for a fondue dinner. It turned out great! We had good food with good conversation. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed it. I hope we'll get to do it again!

It's almost time to put up the Christmas tree!!! We decided to wait until December this year:)

Also this week, we babysat for Cassie and Kyle!!! They went to a hockey game so we got to watch Ryker alone for the first time between about 5:30pm and 11pm! I know, I know, it doesn't sound like a big achievement, but it was a first, so I am very excited about it!:) We had a great time playing with him and I even got to change his diaper and feed him some baby food. He goes nuts for Finding Nemo!!! He thinks clown fish are the greatest thing, ever!!!:) The babysitting experience went great, even though around 10pm-ish he started fussing a little bit since he has never been put to bed without his parents before. He got pretty upset because he got really tired but refused to sleep because he missed mommy and daddy. It was really sad! You know that sad babble only babies can do, the kind that would make a happy, well-balanced person kill for them, just to make them feel better?!? But the afternoon/evening was an overall success and we hope to follow it up with many more! The first time is always the hardest!

Baby shower!!!!:)

So when Doug and I arrived to Cassie and Kyle's last night to babysit for them while they went out to the movies for Kyle's birthday, I got the biggest surprise ever!!! Turned out that Doug was stalling because everyone knew that they were throwing me a surprise baby shower!!!:) Cassie and Courtney did the hosting, with Amanda, Crystal and myself as the guests. We had a great time! There was tons of food and snacks and non-alcoholic drinks. There was even a bunch of Hungarian foods!!! The girls really went out of their way to make me happy! They made paprikas csirke, husos palacsinta and dios bejgli! Everything turned out awesome! Apparently they got the recipes online and just sort of guessed what everything was supposed to look like and taste like, which makes the feat that much more impressive, because everything ended up being PERFECT!!! We played games and chatted all afternoon. Turns out I can change a diaper! Good to know, never tried it before! Well, okay, so I can put a diaper on a teddy bear blindfolded. Same thing, right?:) I also learned that drinking from a baby bottle is hard work! At least now I know why some babies are always pissed off! I would be, too, if I had to work that hard for that little food! I got cool cards and presents, and got to spend the entire afternoon and evening with my closest girl friends!!! It was great!:) It was the perfect baby shower!!! Thanks, girls!!!!:)

32 weeks

Much has happened in the last week or so! First of all I went and got my H1N1 shot. It took me a while to decide to get it, but once I have made up my mind, I was going to stick with it no matter what! The reason it took me so long to decide was all the conflicting and incomplete information I was getting everywhere. If one official website/news article says get it, the other says, don't get it and there's also two different serums out there, one with additives and one without, well, that's a lot of ifs and buts! If it was just me, I wouldn't have gotten the shot to start out with. I haven't gotten the flu shot for like 10 years and some years I catch it, some years I don't. The year I got the shot, I did get it, pretty badly, too. So anyways, this was for the baby. But I wanted to know what I was getting before I got to the clinic. My doctor carefully avoided the topic of which serum to get, the news said get it without additives, while the government told me to get it with additives, because I am over 20 weeks pregnant. Now this would have made a way better long term impression on me if the same government didn't give me the one without additives when I showed up at the clinic... Anyway...

Just for the future, so I will remember - H1N1 (or swine flu) has everyone panicking, there's tons of issues with Canada running out of the serum and people getting really sick and dieing, and now with the priority groups being served with the available serum while they wait on more to arrive... The news is full of people who are pointing fingers at members of the "general public" who jumped the immunization lines. It's pretty crazy actually! The media hype is so powerful that it's hard to tell how bad the situation really is.

We also had our Prenatal class today... Well, let's just say today was a weird, weird day and I am not proud of myself...

The class started at 9 am. By the time we were standing around the door, waiting to be let in, I was feeling weak and slightly light headed. I kid you not, by 10 am, I was not feeling well to the point where I put my head on Doug's shoulder and the next thing I remember is that I am in a strange room where a bunch of people are looking at me funny. I guess I fainted and I had no clue where I was when I came to. I was still in the same class room, but took me a good 5 minutes to puzzle that together. Good times. Then I just couldn't get any better, for the next half an hour I kept drifting in and out and then made a bee-line for the garbage can and there went my breakfast. I spent the next 20 minutes in a hallway throwing up. Yup. Then we watched some birthing story videos and I found them so sweet and emotional that I kept crying (and trying to hide it). So yes, by noon (lunch break) I was that girl who kept fainting, throwing up and crying. Great story to tell my kid. Doug's only comment (after making sure I was okay, of course) was that the kid will be grounded for this one.

I guess this is all I have to share for now, but I am sure there will be more. Hopefully I will get some less horrific and humiliating experiences to write about. Cause this was WEIRD. Doug thinks it was the heat inside the classroom and the instructor kept telling me that there's always one person who faints due to the heat, too, but that just doesn't make me feel better at this point. Again, this was not one of the highlights of my pregnancy!!! (But it will sure make a great story to tell my kid!... Some day...)

31 weeks

31 weeks and counting...

Had my usual bi-weekly check-up and everything is going great. The baby is about 3 lbs now (I haven't gained any since the last check-up) and his/her heart rate is strong. I am a bit sore and have issues sleeping, but other than that I feel very lucky so far, I really don't have much to complain about.

This is my last week at work and I am spending it training my replacement. I love training people! Maybe I should consider that when deciding on my next career path...

Doug's been really great so far, I don't think I mention this often enough. He really goes out of his way to make sure I am comfortable and happy (and well-fed...:P), even drives me downtown to my bi-weekly doctor's appointments. We talk a lot - discuss stuff and come up with plans of all sorts. He is THE AWESOME.

I have a new picture to add to the belly-collection:

30 weeks

Let's see, what do I want to say about being 30 weeks pregnant...

1. My belly is definitely getting big! It's getting very uncomfortable to sleep (yes, already! I can't even imagine how it is going to be around my due date!)

2. The unthinkable happened - I hardly sleep. I love sleeping! It's my only hobby/passion!

3. I weigh 76 kg (167 lbs) now

4. Starting to not like stairs

5. I eat a LOT of grapes, red peppers and bagels with different flavored cream cheeses

6. I can eat candy and chocolate now but I still don't crave them and they make me feel nauseous even after a very small amount. But hey, at least I can have them for the taste and they will stay down! Gotta appreciate the little things.

7. I am taking clumsiness to a whole new level. I haven't fallen, yet (*knocks on wood*), but I tend to walk into things (lucky me, usually shoulder first), close doors on my fingers, drop keys (I mean like 2-4 times within minutes... Like the funny drunk people videos! I don't seem to be able to hang onto anything.) I also get food and drink all over my cloths, which is something I thought I grew out of a looong time ago...

8. My memory didn't get any better since I got pregnant, it even got worse if that's possible, but it stopped bothering me. I'm going to miss being oblivious and all around just happy-go-lucky when my brain cells start regenerating!

After long consideration I have decided to go on maternity leave as early as possible, so I have given my notice for November 7th as my last day at work. I had my last day of volunteering at Red Claw Gaming on October 30th. I am really excited to take some time off and get myself some me-time, maybe do some cleaning/reorganization at home!

Here are a few current pictures (mental note - Next time clean mirror before taking pictures):

Week 27 day 4

MAJOR UPDATE. (I've been lazy and didn't blog for a few weeks)

It's been very busy around here the last few weeks! I will try to write about everything that has happened and some more, hopefully I won't forget anything really important...

We went on a crazy IKEA shopping spree to celebrate my birthday and ended up with a bunch of stuff we weren't planning on buying... Got some lamps for the living room, some for the office, some for the bedroom and we were finally able to pick up the green beetle shaped ones for the nursery! We also got some curtains for the baby's room as well as for our living room (not from IKEA, Thank you for the birthday present, Mom!!!:)

We also got a cool elephant blanket and an awesome mobile for the baby. Baby shopping is so much fun!!! A couple days before we also found a great blender on sale and now we are drinking smoothies every night, courtesy of Doug!:)

The nursery is finally starting to look like a real nursery. The crib needs to be cleaned good and we still need a crib mattress, but we finally have all the baby's stuff brought into one room, the crib assembled, the beetle lights and curtains put up and some of the baby's cloths hung up in the closet. We still need dresser type things for storage of not only cloths but also toys. We already have it picked out, just gotta go and pick it up. It will be perfect.

I had my first prenatal appointment with a specialist (Dr. Wang) on my birthday. The first appointment Doug missed! But it's okay, the whole thing didn't take 10 minutes. Basically it was the usual - she took my weight (up 2 kg), my blood pressure, listened to the baby's heart, asked me a few questions about my family's medical history, just to make sure she had the right info now that she is my primary doctor until the baby is born, and that was it. Apparently I will probably not get another ultrasound because the baby is the right size and we both seem to be in perfect health. That's great news! And we are actually very excited about the sex of the baby staying a surprise! Yes, we changed our minds:)

So Doug was out on a Friday night playing in a Magic Tournament and that's when the "Pepsi incident" happened... I decided to stay in and order pizza for myself, just because why not. I ordered Pepsi with it, which I have ordered before when we ate at a fast food place. But what I didn't consider, is that those places water their pop down! So anyways, after two glasses of pop the baby decided to come out through my stomach, alien style... It was NOT fun! And I felt really bad for giving him/her a sugar/caffeine rush! I swear it just didn't occur to me... Smart, huh?!? Anyways, at 2:30am Doug was still playing "Push the baby's limbs back where they belong" with the baby and having a great time...:)

October 10th, I attended Kathryn's baby shower in Wetaskiwin. It was the first traditional (2nd in total) baby shower I have been to, and it was pretty cool! It was a women only event and we played baby related games, which were all totally new to me. Now I am painfully aware of how little I know of diapers, baby foods and other baby related products... Time to start reading I guess... But I had a great time!

For Thanksgiving we drove down to Doug's parents for turkey dinner. Doug's brother and sister both turned up and we had a great talk, it was a very pleasant evening! Neither of us celebrates the traditional Thanksgiving but it was nice to get together for a nice dinner. Plus we both feel like we have had a very good year and have tons to be thankful for!

25 weeks

Not much has happened recently on the pregnancy front, so I haven't really had anything to write about, but here's a very short recap:

- I had to go back for the detailed gestational diabetes test. It was not pleasant. I had to fast for 10 hours, which is like 3 years without food in pregnant-time. Then they took blood. Then I had to drink this gross orange liquid, a full (small) bottle in 3 minutes. Very sweet and I can't handle sweet since I got pregnant. Ewwww. But at least I kept it down... Then I had to wait an hour. They took blood. Wait another hour. Took blood again. Now I realize that to those of you who don't mind needles this probably doesn't sound too bad... well... good for you! But this is my story and I hate them!

- Results came back negative. Sweet, I don't have diabetes! Baby just doesn't have a sweet-tooth I guess! Works for me!

- I got to hang out with Cassie and Ryker for most of the day on Monday and it was great! Ryker can take off and eat his socks now! He also eats anything that he can reach or throws them away. I will upload a picture of the boys playing a board game with Ryker! It's adorable!!!

- We finally registered for the November 14th Prenatal class at Royal Alex. Very exciting!!!

- I am waiting for a phone call from the obi-gyno my family doctor referred me to. It's time to set up our first appointment! I have been officially "passed on" to a specialist now!!!

- Baby moves a lot now. It feels very relaxing and nice! It's good to be able to feel the movement, not just watch my belly grow. Knowing that there's a little baby in there makes me smile every time:)

I also realized that I need to start taking more pictures! Or need to start making Doug take more pictures...:) Time flies by so fast! I blinked and I'm already 25 weeks!!!

I guess that's it for now. We are trying to decide on what type of stroller we want/need. I (of course) like the idea of buying the best stroller we can find, but it seems that one is also very inconvenient - for us, anyways. It looks comfortable and solid, great for any terrain... It is pretty heavy, however, and I will need to carry it up and down a lot of stairs with no option of an escalator or elevator at my house. It also seems like this particular model doesn't fold up as nice as some of the less expensive ones, which might mean that we will have to choose between having the stroller with us or doing major grocery shopping. Gwen is spacious (for those who don't know us, Gwen is our car - a bright yellow Mazda Protege 5) but with a baby seat in the back we will not be able to put down all the back seats for extra space and the stroller we've been considering might take up most of the room in there by itself! I'd like to leave room for other stuff, too, we might go on trips and such, after all!

Comments are welcome on our stroller-debate! Let me know what you think! Any suggestions?

I will post more as more stuff happens. Life sort of slowed down a little bit now, for pregnancy related news, anyways. I've been a busy busy bee, but this blog is about the baby and not my social life:)

23 weeks

Not that much to report this week...

The doctor's appointment went well, as usual. According to the nurse I am still 2 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight, which seems crazy, since my belly got so big already!!!

We got to listen to the baby's heart beat, again. Except this time the little troublemaker kept kicking the handheld device! It sounded really funny because last time it was just a steady heart beat, but this time, the baby was going nuts! He/she kept turning, kicking, making funny noises. Baby is very active!:) Yay!!!:)

When the doctor saw the ultrasound results he said everything looks great, the baby is strong and active. He also asked if we had the chance to find out the baby's gender and we told him, unfortunately no... So he said we can go for a 32 week ultrasound if we want to, by that time it will be obvious. Although we got very excited about that at the time, now we are not 100% sure we want to find out at all! Why the sudden change of heart? Well, first of all we have a few friends who are also expecting, who are leaving it up to surprise. No, it's not peer pressure!:) It's more like the idea has grown on us. Plus, we didn't expect to have another regular ultrasound so we sort of accepted the fact that the baby might keep his/her gender a surprise. First we were very disappointed but then the more we thought about it, it's kind of exciting!:)

This Wednesday I will be 24 weeks and that morning I am going for my gestational diabetes testing. Oh fun! More bloodwork! Double the fun this time, they will take blood twice in one morning!

I hope everything will be clean on that test because I sure have been reacting weird to eating or drinking sugary stuff... But for now I am sticking to my theory of 'Baby just doesn't like sweets. Baby is very health conscious already!".

That's about all that have happened. I am starting to get very clumsy and I find my center of gravity is really off. But I feel energetic and happy, so it's all good. As long as I only eat what baby wants, I don't get sick, so that's one worry off my list!

22 weeks

Wow, time flies! 22 weeks!

My belly is definitely getting bigger!

On the other hand I still feel good, so aside from sleeping a lot, I don't have anything to complain about. So far so good!

We have officially started preparing for the arrival of our kid now!!! (I really wish I could say son or daughter instead of kid or child or whatever else gender neutral word I come up with at the time...) We now have a play pen, a crib, a change table and also got a lot of clothing and other small items. Thanks Cassie and Kyle!!!:) We are so lucky with the timing...

I guess seeing the baby stuff in the house makes us realize how close my due date really is. January 7 or 8 is just a couple of months away!!! Our next big purchase has to be a stroller, complete with a baby seat, so we can actually legally leave the hospital when the time comes. We were considering picking it up yesterday, but then of course Murphy had a problem with that... so we blew one of our tires on the car. It's been way overdue to replace all 4 anyways, I guess, but we're just so excited about getting baby stuff that it's hard to keep our shopping priorities straight!

We have window shopped at IKEA the other day and now we have a bunch of stuff picked out there, too... Most things are not relevant until the kid will be like 2-3-4 years old, though. Little chairs and dressers and bunk beds... Exciting nontheless!!!:)

I also saw the lights I want for the kid's room, they are like big bright green beetles (cute, not gross or scary!) but they were all out of them... I figured we'd put up a couple of them on the walls, they only cost like $7-8 each... It's going to look so cool!!!!:)

So much happened this last week, I will probably end up just listing things...

- Doug's brother, Chris was here visiting for a couple of days

- We have visited Doug's parents in Edson

- Craig's birthday BBQ - which turned out awesome! (The BBQ chicken was soooo good...)

Doug playing with Ryker - Cassie and Kyle's son - It's so cute, I just had to add it:)

And of course work at the rental office and volunteering at Red Claw Gaming... Busy busy!

Usual monthly doctor's appointment tonight, I will write more after if there will be anything interesting to write about.

21 weeks 4 days

We had our ultrasound today!

It was very cool, although I did come away a bit disappointed. The baby is healthy and strong, but he/she kept the secret of his/her sex for now! No matter what the technician did, baby would turn and cross his/her legs. Our baby is being difficult already!!! :) That's not a good sign!!!! :)

Unfortunately the clinic doesn't do videos or dvd's, so all we got was 3 pictures... Craig offered to scan them in for us, so thanks to him we should be able to post them soon! Thanks Craig!!!!:)

20 weeks 6 days

Wow, I'm half-way done!!!

Okay, so I am going to take this opportunity to do a half-time recap:

First trimester:

- Nausea, tiredness, sour cream, bread, messy house, more nausea, more sour cream... Cannot even look at/smell milk, eggs, apple juice, ... (the list is actually REALLY long...)

- The horrible smell in our hallway and downstairs bathroom that made me throw up every time I walked by and forgot to hold my breath. The smell that only I could smell and no amounts of cleaning and air freshners could not supress, and trust me, Doug tried!

- Crazy dreams, mostly nightmares. Confusing reality and stuff that only happened in my dream... Fun times!

First trimester = one uncomfortable big blur. Lost weight. Felt like it was going to last forever, and still, I feel like it was gone in a blink of an eye! Yes, I realize that makes no sense. But it's true.

Second trimester so far:

- Tons of energy, feeling great, happy feelings, hot dogs, cold cuts with some more cold cuts, everything tastes and smells awesome. No more sour cream and bread! I do drink tons of apple juice and milk, though...

- Started to gain weight now, I am curious to see what the doctor's scale says! Belly is definitely growing at an incredible rate!

- Very occasionally I can feel the baby move now! Five bucks says that our baby will be a trained kickboxer by the time he/she is born! Also, less than a week and I should be able to drop half of the "he/she" and just use the appropriate one!

- Oh yes, and for the first time in my life I feel dumb. And no, I don't mean I had a blonde moment, I mean I just went back to grade 3. Maybe further back. But hey, at least I'm happy all the time!!! LOL

Second trimester = happyness + fun + death of millions of braincells

Let's see what else...

Doug felt the baby kick (move?) last night!!! Very exciting! Huge life-altering moment!

I guess this is it for now. I will add more stuff as I remember it. (Ha! ME remembering stuff...)

I will be posting pictures and hopefully a short video from the ultrasound sometime next week!

19 weeks ...

Okay, so I got really busy there for a bit...

I have been working part-time in the evenings and on Saturdays at the office and volunteering at the Fringe in the mornings. In between I have been going to see shows and tried to keep the house in a semi-presentable condition. (I think in this I have failed miserably, BTW...)

Here are a few pictures to sum up the week (or two):

Volunteering with Craig:

At the Cabaret - watching Douche//Awesome

(note his beer vs. my pop :p)

Before watching Grimmer than Grimm

(why do I look sad?!?!)

I also saw Raunch, twice, but I have no pictures from that one... Unfortunate, because that was my favorite play!

I guess that's it for this entry. Not much else happened, I have been too busy to do anything else. I also slept and ate a LOT. But there really isn't that much to say about that.

18 weeks 5 days

 

Wow, busy busy week…

First of all Doug figured out how to post the baby’s heartbeat, so scroll down and check it out in the 14 week entry!  (What would I do without my in-house computer genius?!?)

I had an interview for a government job (well, actually for a pool) which went great I thought.  I should hear back end of September or sometime in October.  At that point I will find out if I am in the pool from which 9-10 different divisions hire.  So that will take some more time, which, hopefully, will put the actual hiring date into next year, when I will be ready to go back to work!:)  Yay for the government and the amazing speed at which they get things accomplished!

I also got offered a part-time job as a leasing agent for Hillcrest Place, the apartment complex we live in.  It’s not a career move, but it’s perfect for me right now!  I pretty much pick the days I work as long as I can go in for 4 hours every Saturday and on the 1st of each month.  I don’t have to commute, it’s a 30 second walk across the courtyard.  The job is comfy with lots of quiet time behind a desk.   And even when it’s busy, all I have to do is show suites, stick notices on door handles and answer the phone!  A little stair climbing is actually good for me, and if you know this complex, you know that we got TONS of stairs!

I started my job last Tuesday, just a couple days after my last blog entry.  So far, so good! 

I also went to the volunteer orientation for the Fringe theatre festival with Craig.  We are volunteering together, doing mobile patrol.  First shift is this Friday morning!  Very exciting!  I’ve never been to this festival before!

We also had a prenatal appointment tonight, just the usual monthly check-up.  Everything seems great, the baby’s heartbeat is strong and all my blood work results came back negative.  I have gained a pound and a bit.

We have made our next appointment for September 8th, after which apparently I will need to go for more blood work for the gestational diabetes test.  The doctor said that after that we will only see him once more when he reviews the test results with us and refers us to an obi-gyno.   Time is flying by so fast!!!  Almost 19 weeks!!!

Our ultrasound appointment is on September 1st, we should have more pictures/videos to post after that.

17 weeks 1 day

Finally, it's Heritage weekend in Edmonton!!! (I am not actually sure why we are both so psyched about Heritage Days every year... Really, it's not THAT special...)

So although the weather network promised 29 celsius (feels like 32) and severe thunderstorms, we decided to brave the crazy Albertan summer anyway. Craig, Doug and myself walked about 15 minutes to Meadowlark, since catching the Park'N'Ride bus seemed like a great way of getting there. We watched two buses go by, not even slowing down, and then decided that maybe trying to get on once it filled up at the West Edmonton Mall might not be the best idea. So Craig figured out where we could catch a bus that is on it's way back from the festival, figuring that that should be nearly empty... So after another 20 minutes of walking in the scorching heat we did end up on the right bus, yay! I even got a sitting spot! (The guys did originally, too, but then they gave theirs up once the bus filled up.) We made it to Hawrelak Park by about 2 pm. Did the full tour of the entire festival and watched a few shows (the breakdancing was my favorite!). By about 4 pm we got hungry, so we got some tickets and hit the Hungarian tent. We got 'langos' and ice cream, both of which were delicious! Craig revolutionized the consumption of 'langos' by putting the ice cream ON IT. We tried it, too, and it was actually really good!

I am soooo glad we put on TONS of sunscreen and brought like 6 full ice cold water bottles with us!!! I have the feeling we would not have survived the day without those!

So after eating we caught the bus back home, got off where we got on, so we still had about 35-40 minutes of walking to do. We invented the game 'shade-hopping'. Yes, it is pretty much exactly as it sounds - We slowed down once we found some shade and then pretty much ran to the next one... It was actually pretty fun, considering that I was pretty much zombified by this time!

It was HOT. That's all I can say. HOTTER than HOT.

When we got home the first thing I wanted was a luke-warm shower to wash off all the sunscreen and the dust that somehow built up on my legs and covered me as if I just got home from a 3 day camping trip. Yes indeed, the problem seemed to be that the sunscreen made my skin sticky which in turn collected sand/dust like a white cat in an attic.

The main reason I had to mention the shower is that I took probably not more than 10 minutes but by the time I got back downstairs, it was dark outside! At 5:30pm-ish! In the middle of summer! The storm hit out of nowhere. The wind was so strong that Craig brought in the camping chairs from our balcony because they seemed to be taking off! (Mostly problematic because they were trying to fly towards our GLASS balcony door.) Good timing on getting home, that's all I can say!

16 weeks 5 days

Yesterday was definitely the highlight of this week so far!

Okay, so it started with me not being able to sleep and not having the opportunity to go back to sleep after 8:30am, plus, I dropped my cell phone in a container of pineapple flavoured cream cheese, but after that the day got way better!

The weather was perfect, about 17-19 celsius, which seems to be my ideal temperature since I got pregnant, no direct sun, but also no strong wind or rain. I walked about 15-20 minutes to the Meadowlark mall - walking is good exercise afterall. I had my career counselling meeting, which gave me tons of great ideas for future jobs and volunteer opportunities. Then I headed to the Lab, where I was going to get my triple testing bloodwork done, when I ran into Doug!!! Turns out work was very slow and he ended up being able to go home early! So lucky! I guess I didn't even realise it was him first, only once he got really close, I must have been daydreaming or something... Anyways, afterwards the lucky streak continued - the walk-in lab where I normally wait between 30-50 minutes had pretty much no one else waiting, so I was in and out within about 10 minutes! So we were done and free at about 12:30! Together! On a weekday! It was great! We did some groceries, hang out, watched movies, played videogames, Doug even made his special layered puding desert for us while I tidied up the kitchen a bit.

It was a great day overall. The rest of the week was pretty routine, I will write more when there will be stuff to write about!

Oh and there should be tons of pictures coming up, it is Heritage Day Festival in Edmonton this upcoming weekend!!!

15 weeks 5 days

Let's see what happened this week...

I have made my ultrasound appointment for September 1st, at 11 am. Hopefully we will be able to find out the sex of the baby then!

I have gone to Service Canada to ask a bunch of questions about my mat/parental leave options and also made an appointment with a career counsellor for next Tuesday. I figured I have to go and get bloodwork ("Triple Testing" - it's three routine tests) done in the same mall on that day, anyways. I'm very excited about the career counselling! Not so excited about the bloodwork. Although I am getting used to being poked with needles by now...

Doug's friend - Justin - from Arnprior visited us on Thursday night and Friday. It was a great time! Todd and Craig came over and we played D&D for old times sake! Oh, and we got to meet Justin's girlfriend, Megg, she is great! We hang out at the West Ed Saturday afternoon and looked at everything worth looking at. Once they took off we ran some errands and got home just in time to see how grim the weather was looking. So we decided to go out and see a movie instead of sitting at home.

There was a storm that night, apparently the worst storm in Edmonton in 20 years. We missed it due to our West Edmonton Mall date. We bought tickets to the 6th Harry Potter movie but due to the popularity of the movie we had 2 hours to kill before start time. By the time we got out of the theatre (after 12:30am), all we had to deal with was puddles everywhere. Found out about the storm in the morning from concerned friends... (With those trees right in front of our windows and all...)

Nothing much else happened this last week. Just for the record, I have random good and bad days nowadays. The good days I am full of energy: I clean and cook and go for long walks. The bad days I can't sleep or eat, whatever I do eat I throw up right away, and I feel extremely weak and sick all day. So yeah. Just in case I forget this later. Yes, it was bad. And random. But eventually it shall end. Or so they say:)

14 weeks 3 days

I had a scheduled prenatal visit today... Gotta go once every 4 weeks.

So what did we learn today?

- I lost 2.5 lbs since my last appointment

- Baby is doing great, doc says he/she sounds strong and healthy. Yay!

- We got to listen to the baby's heartbeat

- It's time to make my 18 week ultrasound appointment

- I gotta go to the "Triple Testing" which is some routine test for 3 things, one of them being Down Syndrome

- I have to pick a hospital so the doc can refer me to a Gyno (I'm thinking Royal Alex downtown, their Women's Health Centre is famous for their top-of-the-line baby intensive care)

I have no pictures from today but if we can ever figure out how to transfer an iPhone voice memo file onto the pc, I will post the baby's heart beat!

I guess that's all for today. I put all my dates in my phone calendar, hopefully I will remember to book/do everything when it has to be done. The doc was very specific about what needs to be done when, and normally I would be all over this, but my organizational (and general thinking) skills are non-existent nowadays. At least I found out today that a little nausea is good, it means my hormone levels are high... Good! :)

The Early Weeks

I decided to start off my blog with a couple of pictures from the last few weeks...

10 weeks:

12 weeks:

13 weeks: