Frustrated

I need to sleep.


I hate heartburn....

Sleep and Heart Burn

Well last night it took forever before I could fall asleep I kept on waking up and tossing and turning (as much as you can when you have this big belly). Once I finally crawled out of bed to do a few stretches I figured out what was the matter I HAD HEART BURN. That's hat I get for eating fried rice for supper. So I made my way to my kitchen and took some Genestra Cal Mag Liquid it works wonders for heart burn and its all natural. If anyone is interested you ca get it in Toronto at the big carrot dispensary. It tastes minty. Crawled back upstairs did a couple child poses (this is a yoga pose) and a few squats to stretch out my legs and arms that were also tight and hurting; drowned my ankles, left knee in Absorbina Jr. (pain killer for joint pain) and crawled back into bed to snuggle with snoogle. I think it probably took 5 mins after that for me to pass out. It's amazing how heart burn can be so annoying.

Baby says hello this morning as he is tumbling around as I am writing this.

Prenatal Classes

We went to some prenatal classes put on by our naturopath this weekend; they were good. Informative, and some experience-sharing, in a relatively small/intimate setting so that it was more of a discussion than a 'class', which was nice.

Deanna (naturopath) is opinionated (pro-breast-feeding, anti-vaccination, anti-formula, anti-circumcision), which has its moments, although she's mostly pretty good at differentiating between 'general information' and 'my opinion', which is important.

I haven't read up on vaccination, I know it's controversial for some, so I don't really have an opinion on the subject, but I mostly agree on the other points, at a high level. I'm pro-breastfeeding, but I also know from some of the experiences that others have had, it doesn't always work out the way one might like, so it obviously depends on your experience. That said, there's an argument to be made that some of the problems that can occur are brought on by the way the birth experience goes for the baby.

Babies who are medicated (e.g. mother gets epidural, which gets into baby's blood) and who are separated from the mother right after birth seem to have a harder time triggering the instincts, which can lead to some early formula-feeding, which leads to nipple confusion, etc.

It seems that like the epidural cascade, the farther you head from a simple natural birth, the more other kinds of intervention you're likely to be forced into employing, so I'm hoping we can stick to the former as much as possible.

Visitation
By the way, just to get some of y'all prepared now, we're planning on doing a little of the babymooning approach - spending a fair amount of the first days and weeks in close quarters with the baby without too much outside influence, and bringing family and friends in for short visits independently of each other to keep the stress on everyone low.

That means that many of you can expect you're not going to see the baby in the first week, and that when you see the baby, it may be a short visit at our convenience, and could even get rescheduled a few times. I know you're all busy, but the first few weeks at least will be all on our schedule.

So if you were thinking otherwise, now's a good time to start readjusting expectations. Doesn't mean we don't want to see you, doesn't mean we won't try and make it happen, just means that we're not going to be pushing to get everyone in quickly, we're not going to throw a big bash with all friends and family, and we'll play it by ear a lot.

Speaking of babies, I hear Shawn's in Mtl until the twins arrive. Good luck, Shawn!

Dreamming about the big day

I started having the prenatal dreams that you hear about were you go over the birth or getting ready for the birth at night in your dreams. Last night I dreamt that we were getting ready by grocery shopping. We were making sure the fridge was stocked with all sorts of great foods and that the house had enough junk food to feed an army. Our shopping list was a bit like this: cookies, cookies, cookies, juice, strawberries, raspberries, cookies, chocolate, ice cream, pancake, more strawberries and cookies and for some strange reason quiche. This list is not 100% accurate but does include many of the items we will actually by to have in the house during the birth. i think I was also in labour while we were shopping I think we will make sure that in real life the groceries are done well in advance.

I also dreamt that the baby was here and Geoff, the baby and me were all on our bed resting and celebrating with a glass of champagne. That one I want to do right after baby's born I would like to pop open the bottle of champagne our friends Stacey and Brendan gave us for our wedding that we were going to open on our first anniversary but did not because I was pregnant. It's seems to be a meaningful bottle to share with people at the birth.

Mom's shared items

I added to the right hand side of the blog a shared items list from my Google Reader. I figured since these days I then to read a lot about babies, kids and parenting that some of you may be interested in the tidbits I found most fascinating or useful. Hope some of you enjoy this...

Yoga, sleep, birthing info night

Last night I started yoga again. I had stopped for a few weeks because I found it too difficult to get to class on time. I found a different class that starts 30 mins latter. This gives me enough time for a bit to eat. The instructor is this sweet lady for scotland, it's her own business so it's also nice to be supporting a independent teacher rather then a huge studio. The classes are held in the basement of a church near Queen and Carlaw, so I can get home fast afterwards.

That said because I yoga'ed last night I actually slept the entire night :-) It's amazing what a little exercise and stretching can do for one.

On wen. we when to a home birthing information session. I am seriously starting to think about doing a home birth. Alot of the myths and worries I have about home birthing are gone now. I am planning to do a drug free labour so why not do it in the comfort of my own home. My grandmother did it? Some of the things I was worried about was the cats - they said most of the times animals just hide or watch and you can always lock them up somewheres. I was also scared I would not have enough space but my midwives seem to be convinced that there is tones of room. All you need is a bed, shower/bath, long dresser and small table. Christie (my midwife) also mentioned that it would probably be much easier to try alternative methods if I was not dilating fast enough or wanted pain relief at home because there would be no medical staff to interfere.

Got to go I have a dentist appointment.

THE NURSERY

After spending the day fixing all the gaps in the moulding in the nursery Geoff discovered there are 2 kinds of caulking one that is paintable and one that is not - the hard way. He had to remove all the caulking today and clean everything up to accept new caulking. :-(

We did some testing with the furniture in the room and it looks like the room is too small for the change table dresser crib chair and shelf. So we will most likely get one of those change pads you can place on top of a dresser and pass on the change table.

I will try to take some pictures of the progress and post to the blog this week...

The registry

Some of our family members have already started purchasing presents for baby. To ensure that we minimize the chance of getting duplicates or if some of you are wondering what to get for baby please check out our registry:

http://www.findgift.com/cgi-local/Registry.cgi?m=View&rid=31911224163438437293029


You can also get to the registry by clicking on the registry button on the right had side of this blog.

here is the quick tour as to how the registry works.

1. The item description is in black bold
2. The store were we saw it at is in black
3. The blue lettering is additional information that you may find helpful
4. In red to the left hand side you can see the quantity we want of an item
5. If you click the buy online button this will bring you to a link with an image of the item you do not need to buy it from this place this is mostly to make things easier by helping you out with a visual picture
6. The price you see indicated in brackets after the store is an estimate only
7. THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART ONCE YOU DECIDE TO SPOIL OUR BABY AND BUY SOMETHING PLEASE COME BACK TO THE WEBSITE AND CLICK ON THE SMALL SQUARE TO THE LEFT HAND SIDE OF THE ITEM. THIS WILL BRING YOU TO ANOTHER PAGE WERE IT WILL ASK YOU TO ENTER THE QUANTITY YOU PURCHASED AND A CODE WORK THE CODE WORD CAN BE ANYTHING THIS IS JUST SO YOU CAN COME BACK AND UNDO WHAT YOU JUST DID. ONCE ALL IS FILLED UP CLICK ON SHOW GIFT AS PURCHASED BUTTON. DOING THIS WILL UPDATE THE REGISTRY AND ENSURE OTHER DON'T GET TEMPTED TO BUY THE SAME ITEM AS YOU.

I would like to point out that we don't expect anything for anyone we just want to make life a bit easier for those of you who want to spoil baby.

Feel free to pass the registry info along to anyone that you know that is inquiring about baby gifts.

Thank you in advance if you plan to spoil our little one.

Love Pierrette, Geoff and baby.

last day with no daddy

So we survided 1 week without Geoff. I was amazing at how well I slept I was sure I would be up all night as in the past when Geoff was gone for a night. I think snoogle help a lot. I used to sleep cuddled with Geoff but since I have been pregnant he has been replaced with snoogle. He does not blame when I am not in bed I often find him snoogling too. I also think keeping busy helped a lot, it's weird how when you spend all your time with someone that you don't know what to do with yourself when they are not there. For example I could not sleep friday night so I when to do the groceries at 11:30pm just so I did not have to watch TV alone.

Yesterday Brenda and I went to the Baby and Toddler show downtown. It was interesting I was able to learn a lot about products I was interested in like breast pumps, diapers, strollers. I think i figured out the diapers we are going to use. I am going to order a sample from them so Geoff can take a look at them but other then that I think I am sold. Its the All in One by BayBee. I really like the fact that these are cotton or cotton/hemp or cotton/bamboo blends on the inside which is the important part because that is what will touch baby's skin. The fact that they come in a variety of fun colors is nice too.

Brenda picked up a few presents for baby. Thank you grandma. Same as for me. But we were all very good and did not spend too much money.

Today I am to Brampton for lunch with Roy, we are planning on going to look at a few baby (oh there goes baby he is kicking around) stores before I have to go pick up Geoff at the airport.

weird dreams

They say being pregnant often means you will get strange dreams. Well last night I had this dream that I received a carved decorative cucumber for Xmas from Jen (an old friend I have not seen in ages) The artist was her husband and this was his new form of art. I also had another ream that geoff was away on business (he sorta is right now) and that his boss I think witch was a mobster decided to pay for us our 10 children and the wives and children of his other employees all to fly down to see there husbands. It seemed that he had been away for 5 years or so. I hope this is not a sign of how many kids we are going to have I don't think I can handle 10 :-)

I find I have been dreaming more and more I have always been a vivid dreamer but now it seams like every night I have 5 or 6 different stories in my head and all of them are crazy.

21 weeks

I think I hit this great easy stretch in the pregnancy. I am sleeping well, eating well, my joints don't hurt as much.... However I am starting to feel fat. According to the scale I am not really that fat I only gained a few pounds from my conception date weight. This is probably due to the fact I exercise and cut down on the amount of junk I eat. However I still feel fat. It's probably because bending down is getting more complicated ( spread your legs then bend need to make room fro baby ) The other day I was vacuuming our vents; what was normally and easy thing to do, turn into this acrobatic feat. (Thanks Lisa for helping) First you sit down because crouching over for that long doesn't happen; then you do the semi splits with the vent in front of you then you can start doing the work. Another thing I have realized is carrying large things get odd you need to make sure it hangs below your belly. Which I find strains my little arms.

On another note I am eating more and more I think I need to be fed at every hour on the hour or I start getting nasty. I am just like a newborn baby don't get fed start crying. No it's not that bad but get what I mean.

Tomorrow I have my next midwife appointment it will be the first one that Geoff misses he is San Fran this week at a tech conference. It will weird not having him there as he has been to every doctors visit with me so far. Last night I called him to say good night to me and the baby. He is going to be such a great dad I held the phone to my belly and he talked to baby.

Oh and I have my car back yippy - it only took 2 weeks.