Camerons' Jellyfish

We've got a surprise...

2011-03-01T23:09:00.003-05:00

Seem's the bloom/swarm/smack is expanding!

That's right, the belly's quickly filling with another Jellyfish!

And I'm sick as a dog to prove it.

It's still early and I've already been to the hospital once for fluid loss. Whoop-dee-do. That was a fun 11 hour process I'd like never to repeat again... Mmmmkay little one?!

Even as I write I am working on a bedtime snack in the hopes that it will hold my sugars level until morning so that maybe, just maybe, I won't be sick. (right)

I'm on maximum doses of diclectin and zantac, taking gravol as needed in the middle and pounding back liquid meal replacements just to keep the nausea at bay during the day.

It's familiar, but totally different from the last time. The only thing that's truly the same is the 24 hour nausea. I remember now... I didn't like that.

Anyhoo, since it's still really early we have yet to see an OB... it is hoped we'll be returning to the same one that the previous jelly led us to. Aaand, here's hoping the sugars keep quiet for a few more months - just until I get the hang of the nausea thing. Then I'll be more than happy to start on the diet and the insulin again. As for now, I'm eating what I can - when I can.

Whine, whine moan, complain.

Check back for updates!

-HLC

Woah... how time does fly...

2008-07-27T14:51:00.003-05:00

Let's see... the kid was something like 5 almost 6 months the last time I got around to posting.

Now he's nigh on a year old.

That's right, the wee lad turns ONE YEAR OLD in a little over one month! Plans are already underway for his big birthday bash - not that he'll really understand anything that's going on, but we'll have lots of good photo ops!

Here's a brief run-down of milestones he's reached since the last posting:

1. crawling

2. standing

3. "walking" along furniture and walls - as long as he has something to hold onto, he's good.

4. babbling continues with more and more consonant sounds every day.

5. Screaming for no reason whatsoever

6. 8 teeth

Baby boy went on his first camping trip in early July. July 5 - 12 we were tenting it at Algonquin's Pog Lake. The lad enjoyed the trip but his screaming was somehow twice as loud as normal in the great Outdoors.

After the week at Algonquin we spent a week at Grandpa and Nanny's cottage in South River. This was a slightly more enjoyable experience as we had some walls to protect the neighbours from his continual yelling. Also, mid-way through the week The babe's cousin and aunt and uncle joined us.

A great time was had by all and everyone enjoyed their time splashing in the water and playing in Grandpa's boat.

And now the great vacation known as "Maternity Leave" comes to an end. Yes, I start work again in a couple of weeks and my baby gets to spend the next few years growing up with family - which is nicer than daycare, mostly because it's free. Also it's nice to know that when he learns to walk the people in charge of him might have the wherewithal to take a picture of it.

And that's basically it for now.

Check this spot in the next couple of months for stories about the big birthday celebration!

Ciao fer now!

-HLC

Five Months Later...

2008-02-17T16:03:00.004-05:00

Who knew life with a newborn could be so, um, busy?

Okay, apparently everybody but me knew that it could be that busy.

So here's what we've been up to:

We came home from the hospital. For what it's worth, breastfeeding did not go well. Due to physical shortcomings on my part, exclusive pumping was necessary. The resulted in severe frustration on both sides of the, um, "food truck" and an exacerbation of my depression symptoms. So I gave it up after a few weeks and got myself medicated once again.

Things are happy now.

My Mommy came to live with us for the first three weeks and was a TREMENDOUS help. I honestly don't think we could have done it without her. Thank you Mommy!

*BLATANT SARCASM ALERT*
Baby boy has had two sets of shots (the 2 month and 4 month) and is just SOOO good about having needles.

Here's how a typical appointment goes:

1. Get to doctor's office and check in.

2. Wait altogether too long to see doctor because he is terribly overbooked.

3. Baby boy gets restless.

4. See doctor. Doctor roughly pokes Baby boy in unmentionable places and looks in his eyes and ears (to date, light has NOT shone through one ear and out the other, this is a good thing I understand).

5. We take Baby Boy back out to waiting room to await nurse.

6. We wait altogether too long because nurse is horribly overbooked.

7. Baby boy SCREAMS

8. We get called back and Baby Boy gets stabbed - more, unbelievably louder screaming ensues.

9. We stuff Baby boy back in his clothes and run like stink to get out of there.

And a fun time is had by all.

And we get to do it again next month. Actually, at the time of this writing we get to do it in 2 weeks.

Yeah, that's right. It's been almost 6 months since my last post. I've been busy!

So, what else...

Baby boy grows steadily with every passing day. He's currently just shy of 20lbs and is somewhere around 24" long.

He eats like a horse.

He's still eating formula. We've started cereal but the progression is slow. Seems Baby Boy prefers the taste of the awful smelling formula to the sweet tasting cereal.

Oh well, we'll keep at it. There are lots of things I'm not, but stubborn isn't one of them.

His favourite toys at the moment are his bear puppet, exersaucer, jollyjumper, squeaky sensory elephant thing, and Baby Einstein "stereo" (handheld plastic device, plays seven songs and has flashing lights). - Not in any particular order.

His favourite games include staring at people, laughing at people, playing with his feet (which sometimes make it into his mouth), chewing on or licking anything he can get his hands on, and cracking Mommy up when it's time to go to bed so he can stay up longer. Little poop.

His teeth have been moving around for a month or so now, but none are poking through. Consequently he drools like a fiend and occasionally gets nice rosy cheeks and drives everyone around him crazy with crying. Teething rings and Tylenol are wonderful things. He likes the grape flavour, Life Brand.

He's had his first cold. He got over it much better and faster than Mommy and Dad did.

The poor cat has learned that the baby is not going anywhere. The two of them are learning to share toys as well as Mommy and Dad time.

At the moment, Baby Boy is trying very hard to learn to crawl. He can roll from his back to his stomach. He used to be able to roll back to his back, but has recently decided this is a useless skill. While on his stomach he pushes up on his arms, looks around, then cries because he can't figure out how to work his lower half. Poor wee bear. We try to show him the ropes, but he just doesn't get it yet.

Language acquisition appears to be right on schedule. Syllable repetition is beginning and the d- sound is emerging. B- sounds occurred with a lovely farting noise (so classy, I'm so proud), followed by something that resembled an m- sound but didn't last long. The gutturals came next. "Goo" exists, but he prefers grunts (charming sounds, really - sounds like he's trying to make us change a diaper but he's not).

Ah, my little Language Acquisition Device is growing so nicely.

We've had two major holidays: Thanksgiving and Christmas (Hallowe'en doesn't count when your kid sleeps through everything).

Actually, he slept through Thanksgiving too... And he didn't even get Turkey Coma. He just slept.

He slept through a lot of Christmas as well. He had been sleeping through the night, but that got severely messed up with the holiday hours and he hasn't gone back to it. Ah well, it was nice well it lasted.

He has received Valentine's Day greetings, not that we really celebrate the day. Sometimes we accidentally go to a movie or out for dinner, but it's not on purpose. I've got a bit of a chip on my shoulder about that particular holiday, but I promise to be good about it when my kid is big enough to celebrate it actively.

Anyhoo, that's about it for now. There's really nothing of any real importance to report at the moment. With any luck I'll get around to posting more often - don't wait forever though, desk chairs aren't as comfortable as companies like to make you think.

Ciao fer now!

-HLC

Wow... Who knew it could take that long? Part III

2007-09-29T16:34:00.000-05:00

Monday, September 3, 2007 - Labour Day, 10:25pm

Pushing begins.

And somewhere before pushing began, I was catheterized to empty my bladder. That was a joyous process. Well really, the epidural hid most of the sensation - I felt it but not much.

For the uneducated - when pushing in a bed, someone holds your feet up and legs out for you.

I had two things wrong with my legs. My right leg had gone completely numb from the epidural and I had no control of it. Whoever was holding my right leg had to let it down gently or risk being kicked in the hip/thigh/stomach/lower nether regions.
Also I developed a massive nasty pain in my left hip at some point just before pushing started and it was only relieved when my left leg was held up. So, someone had to hold it up during rest periods when I was on my back - where I did my best pushing. During this time it occured to me that my mother-in-law had now seen parts of me that I had never seen... and that in an alternate reality that might bug me. Today however, she was responsible for keeping me supplied in cold cloths for my forehead and ice chips for my mouth and that was wonderful.

Somewhere between this time and what was deemed too long, the OB and the rest of the victory team were called in. They brought with them the vacuum. Not because they wanted to do some light housework while I was in labour. No, this little toy was to help extract the Jelly from its not quite so watery anymore world.

This would have been fine but I had informed the OB of what kind of patient I was earlier when I told her I didn't want to discuss the fetal electrode monitor thingy and she remembered that as the only information I got about the vacuum was that it could be scary if it popped off the head as it would be quite loud. I had to lie on my back while they prepared it and my left leg had to be left down which hurt like, hurt like... hurt a LOT. I was catheterized again during this period without being told and I felt it this time much more strongly than the last. So what I'm sayin' is, I was in some discomfort. I started flailing and crying and the victory team was firmly telling me I needed to stay still and cooperate (which I knew, but the bitch-slapping was appreciated) but I felt it necessary to tell them they were hurting me. My nurse told them that my left hip was causing me quite a bit of discomfort and that having my leg down wasn't helping matters and suddenly everyone was nice and calm again. We tried to increase the epidural but realized that really wasn't helping. Another bright person realized that there was no order for a top-up on it so we really should get moving. The vacuum now attached, we began pushing again and in just a few pushes from my end and pulls from the other end, the Jellyfish made its grand appearance at 1:42am Tuesday, September 4, 2007.

Probably one minute but what felt like more passed before someone told me the sex. All I got to see was the top of the baby's head where the vacuum had been. All I heard was "Oh, he's beautiful!" My brain would not register the sex until a nonchalant voice said in a nonchalant way, "Oh it's a boy by the way." That was when I looked down. The baby was already across the room being weighed and whatnot. No I looked more towards my knees (both down at this point - the pain went away with the Jellyfish) and saw a large green scrub towel soaked in what was presumably my blood. I knew what was coming next. I knew I needed to push the placenta out and I could see by the OB's face that we should do that now. I allowed myself a prolonged blink and when I looked back, she was looking at the baby across the room too. There was a ton of madness at this point while we discussed the baby's name. I asked Dad if the name we had picked looked like a good one. Then the OB said, "let's get the placenta out. You need to push again." So she coached me through pushing that out. Fun. I never got to see it. I had wanted to a little bit. Oh well, I know what they look like. Squishy and bloody and veiny. And gross. So you can see why I was interested in seeing it. Remember, I have a twisted sense of fun.

Then the OB and one of the victory nurses set about stitching me. It took them about an hour. So for this process you lie on your back with your feet in the stirrups and the crabby little victory nurse tells you to let your legs fall like jelly. I rolled my eyes behind closed lids (which conveniently had a cold facecloth over them) and held my legs apart for them with my hands. I still couldn't control the right leg and if I let it go on its own it would be out of the stirrup and on the floor - a position that wouldn't help anybody.

The nurse from the pushing helped me explain that the right leg needed to be supported because of the epidural. I said something like, "I need to hold on to this leg. You're not hurting me, but I will tense my leg muscles because that's what I do. If my right leg slides to close to you, smack my hand and I'll move it
again. Sorry." This worked well.

TMI ALERT

I found out later (discharge day) that the vacuum had required an episiotomy - no surprise and that baby boy had torn me internally. Rather than a tear along the vaginal wall, he had ripped me through the wall. So they had to find the end of the tear first and then do a nice happy stitch back out. So that's why it took so long

So, the details:

Baby Boy: Matthew William
Born: 1:42am, Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Weight: 8lb, 6.2oz
Length: 20 1/2"
Apgar scores: 9 and 9 (honestly, no one passes colour - I didn't).

3 and a bit hours pushing.
Baby boy had low blood sugars - not a full crash, but low. I had high sugars for the first half day, but then both of us stabalized. Woo-hoo!

No count on stitches, but one tear and a standard episiotomy.

A few more details, including the most entertaining which occured Tuesday night/Wednesday morning:

Company came on Tuesday evening and there were so many of us we took over the whole waiting room. Grandpa and Nanny were able to see the kid and Dad's Mommy and Dad and Dad's brother and sister-in-law and their kid (Jelly's cousin) were able to see the baby.

Baby boy's blood sugars were checked a lot during the day on Tuesday - always from the foot. Poor thing.

All day Tuesday we struggled with breastfeeding. I have some physical barriers that are complicating things, and baby boy had low blood sugars making him tired. We were able to pump enough to get him fed using a cup during the day - the nurses were very helpful with that. At night we fed him again and the evening nurse was good enough to come back at midnight to feed him again. Then she left us and told us to make sure he ate again within 4 hours.

It started with the poo. at 2:00. We both changed the pooey, end of meconium diaper and wrapped him back up to put him to bed. At 2:15 he cried. I offered him a boob but no. We gave him some formula while I pumped. By the time we got the colostrum out, he wasn't interested in it anymore. Somewhere between 2:20 and 3:00, during which time Dad told me to sleep, he was still fussy. I woke up and said, "have you slept?" Dad said, "No." I said, "give him to me. Sleep." So we changed another diaper and gave him the colostrum he hadn't been interested in before and I wandered around with him for a bit.

I pumped again during this period - 15 minutes on each side and lost it all down my side - didn't get any of it into the cup. I cursed and cried and did my best not to break into all out sobs.

It took us until 6:15 to realize just how sleep-deprived we were. This was when we looked at the table and realized we had three sealed bottles of formula in the room.

4 hours struggling to feed our infant son and not knowing how to do it before we realized there were THREE bottles of READY TO EAT formula AND three nipples in the room with us. So we topped up his usual 5 mL feeding with the formula and went to bed. I fell asleep with the bairn on my chest and woke up around 7:00.

I looked at the clock and figured I should stay awake because any moment someone would come through the door wanting to look at my bum. The staff really is fascinated by your bum after you give birth. As it was the first person to poke their head in the door was someone from housing services. She just wanted to empty the garbage and announced that breakfast would be showing up soon. It did. I figured it had been 24 hours, I didn't need to have my sugars checked. I was about to eat when one of the lab rats came and smiled. I asked her which one of us she wanted. She said she wanted me. The two of us reasoned together that I probably didn't need my sugars checked so I could go ahead and eat. She left. I started eating. The daytime nurse showed up to check my sugars. Dangit. They were good. Baby boy had his done too and they were low. So the lab was called to check them in their fancy whirly machines. Where they were deemed okay - for the second time -woo-hoo!

I ate. The OB came and told us if we wanted to leave that day we could. Again, we expressed our love for her. Discharge was all organized through the nurse. Baby Boy fell asleep during his PKU (nasty blood test done with the heel). He screamed for a bit, but eventually fell asleep. I told the nurse that I would continue to try breastfeeding and that I had every intention of pumping it for him until we figured something out and that we had formula at home for him to supplement. She was happy with that. So we were allowed to go home when my Mommy showed up to help us pack.

And home we went.

That's it for now.

More details will follow at semi-IRregular intervals.

Ciao!
-HLC

Wow... Who knew it could take that long? Part II

2007-09-29T15:41:00.001-05:00

Monday, September 3, 2007 - Labour Day. No really, Labour Day.

So, at 8:45 we were transferred to the Birthing Unit. I was hooked up to a fetal monitor.

Again.

But it wasn't a non-stress test this time. No clicker. I presume you're not given a clicker to minimize clicker damage when the contractions come.
(please note the joke here)

At 9:00am the attending OB came in and removed the Cervidil. We love Dr. W.

Next, she broke my waters, leaving us unsure about our feelings for Dr. W. This was a more horrible experience than the cervidil. I suddenly realized if I couldn't handle this, I REALLY needed the epidural for later. There was headboard punching involved. In a nutshell, water breaking was a "Bad Touch".

At 9:30 the Saline IV was started. Dad called his parents to update them and came back around 9:50

At 10:15, the pitocin drip was begun - 2mL/hour not a ton. I said, "okay, let's talk epidural." The OB said, "no you're not dilated enough. We need you to be at 3cm before we even think about it. You can manage the pain by walking around." I said, "okay" meaning "so you're gonna' check me regularly right?"

10:45 - the pitocin was increased.

At 11:00 my learning curve steepened as I said, "Oh no nurse, I can't talk through my contractions." But even the student nurse saw through that. Darn. Foiled again.

At 11:15 when the pitocin was increased to 6mL/hour we began to refer to it as a frenemy. It was a self-induced pain but it would lead to something wonderful.

At 11:30 we all remembered the 2 hour PC sugar test had not been done. Oh well. Not that big a deal today right? I mean, the kid can't possibly grow too much larger today right? It was somewhere around here that the student nurse took pity on me and asked if I was hungry. I said I could eat if she'd let me. I was under the assumption that I was allowed no food by mouth all day and I was willing to follow those instructions but if anyone else wanted to eat they would have to leave the room to do it. She told me she would track down some cheese and crackers. She came back at 11:55 with a full lunch tray! With restrictions. I wasn't allowed to eat the main entree - they called it Shepherd's Pie, I called it "Hamburger with mashed potatoes on top and a side order of green beans." Dad was allowed to eat the entree. I was allowed to eat the cheese and crackers, drink the milk... the small stuff. I was allowed to eat the small stuff. Not for carb restriction but for food intake restriction. Again, I'm perfectly fine with the whole "you're not allowed to have food" thing. I don't want to aspirate during surgery anymore than they want me to.

At around 12:15 the pitocin was increased again. Now we're in the double digits. 10 mL/hour. I was rewarded with an after lunch nap. Actually it was more of an after lunch veg-out.

At 12:45 my Mommy arrived with a laptop and music. The Jelly always liked Little Feat before, we thought it would be good to play it during labour.

The next pitocin increase came at 1:20 and with it another examination of the cervix. This was done by the student nurse who was very talented at hitting all of the nerves and making them hurt. I grabbed a hold of the rails on the bed for that one. She apologized profusely and I assured her it was okay - she had to learn how to do it. Of course, her exam was then checked by the nurse that was working with her. So I got two of those little gems back to back.

It was decided at this point that my waters were still in tact and needed to be broken again. Sometimes when breaking waters they only get an outer membrane, not the full bag. It didn't hurt as much this time and it worked MUCH better for them. We're talkin' Niagara Falls here.

This time we remembered to to do a glucose test at the 2 hour mark. And they were good thank you.

At 2:20 my Mommy helped me inform them that I REALLY wanted something for the pain. We also learned that I was not allowed to walk around because I needed to remain attached to the fetal monitors (that weren't doing anything anyway because the squirt was moving too much). After ascertaining that I would be allowed to get the epidural later and that I understood it wouldn't make the pain go away altogether, I was given an injection of morphine and gravol. I didn't even get drowsy from it.

A few minutes later we talked to the sister in law and let her know what was happening. Not much.

At 2:30 I got my next bag of salt.

Dad's Mommy came around 3:00 to take part in the festivities. It took us a minute to explain to the the Gestapo guards in the birthing unit that she belonged there - she was one of my support people and we wanted her in the room with us but they eventually got the hint.

At 4:00pm after fighting the good fight and with the pitocin at 14mL/hour and having endured double and triple contractions at 2:00 minute intervals (which seems to mean two minutes from the start of the first group to the start of the second group, NOT two minute rests between them) I asked, no BEGGED for the epidural.

At 4:20 someone had the brilliant idea to let me out of bed (I'm allowed out of bed? You said I wasn't!) to go sit on the birthing ball - most people call these "exercise balls." It's true. They're wonderful. They open EVERYTHING. The whole pelvis opens up and all the pressure you've been feeling goes away.

Around 5:45 or so I was told the anesthesiologist was on his way and I needed to walk back over to the bed so I would be in the right position for him when he got there. This took all of about 5 seconds to achieve so I went to the bathroom for a bit. Then I came back to the bed and waited for what seemed like HOURS as the contractions got stronger and stronger. At 6:15 the new nurse in charge decided it might be a good idea to turn the pitocin down. We dropped to 8 mL/hour and 5 minutes later the Epidural Man arrived. We're going to call him that because it's easier to spell. During this period only Dad was allowed to stay in the room. So his Mommy and his Dad went out to get some dinner. My Mommy went somewhere to get food and sretch her legs. Dad was allowed to stay but was pushed aside. I was sitting on the edge of the bed with the useless nurse in front of me and the Epidural Man behind me. I was told to tell them if I was having a contraction and I was told to stay still. I figured I was meant to inform them of contractions so I could flail like crazy while they waited to stick a needle in my spine. Instead I got "you have to stay still." Finally useless nurse grabbed my shoulders and held me still, scolding me most of the time. Epidural Man took three tries to get the line in and apologized continually. It was a good cop/bad cop scenario. I briefly entertained the idea that the epidural may not work and then pushed that thought out of my head. When the line was in and taped securely to my lower back, middle back, and shoulders (that puppy wasn't going anywhere) the Epidural Man sat at a desk and filled out his charts and stuff and we chatted for a bit, "do you know what sex the baby is? This is your first, are you excited?" stuff like that. Somewhere in there I said "I love you" and he said, "well let's see if it works first" and I said, "I love you for trying!" Seemingly seconds later someone asked me if my legs felt any different. I said, "yeah, they're a little - no a LOT warm." Everyone said in unison, "oh good, it's working." I said, "you rock!" as the Epidural Man left the room. I must remember to send him flowers.

We had a slight problem with the bolus cable for the epidural. It seems the cable was a bit wonky so every time they hooked it up to the pump, an alarm would go off. We went through three pumps before we figured out what the problem was. Oh well, learning curves and all. At some point in here my cervix was checked again and I was at 6cm. Wow... 6. How did that happen? When did that happen? And oh dear, the epidural could slow this down. Well maybe it won't.

The next hour and a half was a fun time for all as we steadily re-increased the pitocin drip - which finished at 16mL/hour at 10:25pm. The OB also came in to attach a fetal heart monitor to the Jelly's head - which was apparently visible to those who were looking at the right angle. These are lovely things that attach to the baby's head via a small corkscrew like thingy. I told the OB that I knew what it was and what it was for and that it kind of creeped me out and I didn't want to talk about it so she said, "okay" and attached the device.

At 8:00ish, the evening staff nurse came in and checked my cervix again. 9cm. I said, "excuse me? 9? When did that happen?" She laughed. Good sense of humour that one. From this time 'til about 9:00 we got to rest. I honestly can't remember what everyone else was doing but I had a lovely nap which was interrupted only a little bit by vitals checks.

At 9:00pm my cervix was checked one more time.

The nurse said, "so, you're 10cm. Can you feel contractions still?"

I said something along the lines of, "Huh?! Yes. I can feel a bit of pressure." She said, "okay, well when you can feel the next one, let's do a push to see how you do.

I said, "okay."

The practice pushes went really well.

I was thrilled - the epidural was not turned down. I was to have full epidural for the whole delivery!

See Part III for delivery and postpartum

Wow... who knew it could take that long? Part I

2007-09-12T15:16:00.000-05:00

(this one's gonna' be long. sorry.)

Nine months officially came to an end last Monday.

We went to the hospital Sunday, September 2 at 5:30pm. We went to the birthing unit as directed by the OB, confused the people at the desk and were sent over to Postpartum where they apparently do inductions. Oh well, I did manage to make people laugh by saying, "I'm not in labout but my doctor would like me to be."

I was admitted and subjected to and yet another non-stress test. I comforted myself by remembering that there wouldn't be many more of them left. The Jelly wasn't moving so we decided to go the popsicle route to see if the cold and sweet combo would get it moving. About three minutes after I finished the popsicle (grape - double) dinner showed up.

We tried not to lose faith in the hospital's general intelligence.

I mean, if you're going to serve carbs, maybe we don't need the popsicle to get squirt moving.

Anyhoo, at 7:00pm that night I became a patient and my modesty was tossed neatly out the window with the first in a series of internal exams. The exam showed the cervix was still firmly planted somewhere around my tonsils and wasn't showing any signs of coming down any time soon on its own. So in went the cervidil.
(for the uneducated, cervidil is a gel that aids in softening the cervix)
This was an altogether horrible experience.

TMI ALERT!

Cervidil comes in a very small suppository format. It looks like a teeny tiny tampon attached to a REALLY LONG ribbon where the string would ordinarily be. This makes sense. The suppository needs to be taken out (like a tampon) and since it's WAY higher up than the usual temporary stuff you put in that particular location, the pull-string needs to be longer.

WAY LONGER.

And it's not a thin string like one would hope. It's actually quite a wide net-like ribbon. The end of which needs to be tucked in to avoid being accidentally pulled out. Unfortunately the end often gets "stuck" on the glove of whoever is placing it - so it takes a few tries.

So fun was had by all. I was also informed that the primary negative side effect (that doesn't usually happen) that my medical team was worried about is that cervidil can cause extreme uterine contractions which in my case meant that the baby would be unable to handle it and I'd be having a C-Section. I said, "okay." Which meant, "well, I'm at the hospital, I can't think of a better place to have that happen."

Anyhoo, after that greatly enjoyable experience I was hooked back up to the monitors for a 2 hour non-stress test.

At 9:00ish a lovely woman came in and took all the monitors off. We love her.

20 minutes later Dad went home to sleep in a real bed (grr) and I had a snack, took some inuslin (under a nurse's written guidance, not visual - I love her.) tried to prepare for sleep in an actually very comfy bed. But I woke up every hour to go to the bathroom because I was still pregnant.

Dad was back by the next morning at 7:30.

Before that I was up at 6:00 to growl about the turkey tv dinner I'd been given the night before (Jelly still wouldn't let me properly digest things).

At 6:30 my vitals were checked. Temperature normal, BP elevated - oh really? I can't imagine why my blood pressure might be elevated... Certainly nothing to be excited about.

I was able to squeeze in a shower before breakfast and a glucose test (their machine) were ordered. I also took some insulin before breakfast - the last injection I would take in the hospital. I explained to the new nurse that I was on a slide scale and would need to decide how much of breakfast I would be able to eat before I knew how much insulin to take. So while I was trying very hard to count carbs on this VERY exciting morning I had to contend with an impatient nurse (who was probably very overworked, I don't blame her) saying, "how much are you going to take? How much are you going to take?" I finally said, "I have to count the carbs first. I don't know how much I'm going to use until I know how much I'm going to eat. Give me just a second." And she promptly shut up and let me do some basic addition. I went with the usual 18 units knowing that this wouldn't be a problem later in the day. I figured I might go a little low but not terribly and later in the day my sugars would only rise so it wasn't a huge issue. Besides, if all else failed, someone would be able to get me some dextrose - provided they all remembered I was diabetic. Yes, once again I had to explain to EVERY new face that I was gestational diabetic and that my Endocrinologist had said I would have my sugars checked every two hours during labour but if they had new instructions then I wasn't worried.

At 8:45 we were transferred to the birthing unit.

See Part II for the labour section.

Baby's home! Baby's home!

2007-09-09T09:05:00.000-05:00

It's Dad again.

OK, so he's been home since Wednesday evening.

We managed to update Facebook, but we haven't gotten around to this yet. We named our son Matthew William Cameron. He was born at 1:42AM on Tuesday September 4th 2007. He weighed 3800 grams, or 8 lbs. 6.2 oz. in real numbers. :) Wednesday morning he weighed 8 lbs. 2 Oz. Friday morning was his first outing - to Alliston! Poor guy. He was very easy to deal with the whole time. We went to Alliston to see Mommy's family doctor, which incidentally is now his doctor too. He weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. there, apparently we are doing something right. He has oral thrush - not really a shock since most newborns get that. We have some drugs to give him, we're pretty sure he doesn't like it much but he doesn't fight about it either.

Well thats about as much as I can think to write at the moment. We'll be back to add to this later.

almost-Dad.... first post in a LONG time

2007-09-02T21:02:00.000-05:00

Hey all, it's Mike. Mom is in the hospital she has been given cervadil (sp). They are keeping her overnight in case labour starts on it's own.

Things started with getting her admitted, and they started a non-stress test. Mommy got her dinner served in bed, on a tray. Turkey, mashed potato, and carrots or squash or something for veggie. Cream of Asparagus soup - which was salty like the Dead Sea. She drank the milk, and the Grape Juice. I ate her date square - she wasn't sure how to count the carbs, and shoot the insulin for that.

When the cervadil was inserted, they hooked Mom up to the no-stress test system again. For 2 hrs. the straps were itchy, and she needy to use the potty... Well after that was done, she got up, and went to the washroom, and walked around enjoying the freedom of not needing to lie in bed.

I'm sleeping at home to get a good nights sleep. I worked Saturday night, but that's another story. I'll be heading back to the hospital bright and early - around 7:30AM

Well I hope my grammer, and sentence structure weren't too awful... I'd hate to permanently ruin her blog. :)

Okay, one more post

2007-09-02T08:24:00.001-05:00

Oooh.

Big day. We go to the hospital at 5:30 today and let the doctor on duty do her thing (yes it is a woman, I've been told) which I am sooooo looking forward to, let me tell you. No sarcasm.

really.

I've also apparently lost the ability to type accurately so if there are any glaring typos... deal with it.

I'm really quite scattered today. I hope the day will go by relatively quickly and not like Christmas Eve generally does. You know the feeling. The way time seems to truly sloooooowwww dooowwwwwnnn when you're really excited about something. Kind of like when you're sitting in class - elementary, high school, college, university, detention, drivers' ed... whatever - and you swear the hands on the clock are actually moving backwards... That's what today is going to be like. We live about 20 minutes from the hospital so we'll be leaving around 5:00. Really it's just the time of one regular work day - shorter for most people. But time is already crawling. It's 9:30 right now. Only 7 1/2 hours left.

SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS?!

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO FOR SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS?

The day's fairly anxiety-ridden. I'm still not worried or nervous about the birth itself. I'm not thinking that far ahead. I'm more worried about the results of the initial check at the hospital. Will we be allowed to stay or will we be sent home? The doctor didn't tell me to call first which I find interesting. Generally when you're going for an induction you're supposed to call ahead to make sure they've got room for you. If they're really busy with walk-ins they send you home. Will I have started to dilate on my own and be sent home for that reason? I don't feel any different. No increase in the braxton hicks contractions. Jelly on the other hand is frog-kicking me to death. Seriously... anyone familiar with the breast stroke's leg movements will get a good idea of this. Imagine it happening in your rib cage. This is what Jelly is doing right now. Like while I'm typing. It's worse when I try to do something so innocent as go to sleep.

well that went a little off topic eh?

Right... will I be kept there? Will I get the gel? Will it work? Will I need to have my waters broken? Will I be on pitocin - dear God not pitocin. Don't get me wrong, I want this baby out as badly as my OB does (not that she'll be there, she's on vacation) and I'm not going to argue with them if they want to use pitocin but if they do I want the epidural IMMEDIATELY.

Will labour start tonight when I'm trying to get in the ever important sleep or will I be delivering sometime on Tuesday or - yipe - Wednesday? How long will we let this go?

If they do keep me will Dad be allowed to stay or will he be sent home? We'd prefer he stayed but can live with it if they want him to leave. I'll be asleep anyway. Will the idiot nurses let me take my insulin the way I say I'm supposed to take it?

But enough about me, specifically.

We have plans to chunk up the day a bit. For example, I'm not even ready for my day yet. I'm still in pyjamas and in need of a shower - gotta' be beautiful before the big event.

We're only mostly packed. I plan on re-packing once or twice and Dad still needs a change of clothes in the bag. Bag. Heh. Suitcase. We have no less than three bags packed and no pillows currently ready to go. So, re-packing sounds like a good way to kill 20 or 30 seconds.

The house is clean. There is nothing I could do to make it better except maybe reaarange the basement and I get the feeling the more rest I have now, the better.

I just want to make sure the kitchen is clean and the garbages are emptied before we leave.

Everything is taken care of.

So we're going out to brunch. Well the restaurant calls it brunch. The Gestational Diabetic Diet does not allow me to have "brunch." So what I'm really having is breakfast food for lunch. And they've got a really good looking menu too. I plan on taking an extra cartridge of insulin with me.

So that should get us through to about 1:30. Then we can come back here and ... rest? What are we supposed to do for three and half hours? Watch a Lord of the Rings movie? We don't have the first one and I don't think my attention span would last that long anyway. It's Sunday. There's nothing on television today. I could try a foot spa. And we could read I guess. Maybe a few last trial runs so we don't look like complete idiots with the car seat? I wonder if the cat would like to help...

Doubt it.

So anyway, that's the plan for today. Hurry up and wait. Patience is a virtue I possess only when teaching. I do not possess it for big events like this.

Of course, it's almost 10:00 now and I still haven't felt the munchies come on yet. Maybe this afternoon.

Maybe it's time to sign off and try that reading thing. Maybe I could clean the kitchen again. It's easy to clean when it's already clean. Maybe I could start the packing again.

Maybe I could write a book all about fretting. The nervous type - not the kind you do when playing a stringed instrument. That's different.

Maybe if I sign off now I'll stop babbling.

Oh... for those who are interested... here's how labour works with Gestational Diabetes. Labour is spent with the usual infusion fluids (nothing by mouth except clear fluids at my hospital) and no insulin. Labour sucks enough energy - 700 calories per hour. Afterwards I get to eat normal food for 24 hours an monitor my sugars. Presuming they look okay, I get to to another glucose tolerance test in 6 weeks. Yippee. Lookin' forward to that. So here's hopin' that the diabetes goes away with the placenta. Keep your fingers crossed!

Ciao!

-HLC

Eviction notice signed!

2007-08-28T13:16:00.002-05:00

Righto.

It's official.

Jelly is lazy (just like Mommy) and does not want to come out - so we're going to tear the walls down. One by one. Beginning this Sunday.

This Sunday at 5:30pm we go to the hospital. After a quick cervix check, and providing I haven't started to dilate on my own, we send me off to a room where I will be given some nice prostaglandin gel to try to get the cervix to ripen properly. Then I get to spend the night at the hospital.

Step 2 - if nothing happens on its own. We break the waters (woo-hoo. I am so looking foward to that).

Step 3 - the pitocin drip.

Step 4 - call all relatives and have a baby.

At least that's how it's done when everything follows a type A personality plan.

Which would be really nice. I don't think I'm a true type A, but I do enjoy a good schedule. Please note that any of the above mentioned steps are subject to change. The medical team can insert a "send me home" anywhere they like up to and including "call all relatives and have a baby."

So that's the current update. I really want to get this over with soon because I continue to have REALLY weird dreams and I don't think I can handle much more of that.

So with any luck this will be the last post before the Jelly makes its appearance and we can finally give it a real name.

Symptoms at the moment:

Insomnia. Thank the hairy gods for Diclectin. It's not working 100%, but it's helping.

Nesting. I'm gonna' go vacuum now.

Braxton Hicks. Slowed to a crawl.

Dancing Jellyfish. I wonder if Jelly is aware of Mommy's innate lack of rhythm?

Hip soreness. Only when I try to sleep.

Weird dreams. Expected to get worse.

Fatigue. In between bouts of nesting.

Yup, that's it.

Ciao!

-HLC

Just another random Friday

2007-08-24T15:55:00.001-05:00

Too bad it wasn't Thursday.

Just like a beloved Douglas Adams character I never could get the hang of Thursdays. It looks like Fridays are headed that way as well.

I'll bet by now you're thinking, "Where are you going with this?"

Here's where I'm going...

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
It started out as a normal week. Non-stress test on Monday. Boring. Needed sugar and a change in positions to wake Jellyfish up, but other than that it was the usual boring Non-stress test.

Tuesday - Trip to the OB's office. I took my mother along. There are nine obstetricians at the hospital where I'll be delivering. I figure the odds of my doctor actually being there when I go into labour are pretty slim. So I thought my mother should meet her in the office. I also thought the doctor should meet my mother so she would have a better idea of where I get it from. It all went well. With no screaming symptoms of labour we have stuck with our original plan - we'll talk inductions at the next appointment (Aug 28th) and see how unpregnant my body is ready to be.

Wednesday - Ultrasound. Took the mommy to that too. Again, not much new there. Jelly's gettin' bigger and looking more like a baby/less like a skeletal Asgard

Thursday - Trip to the Diabetes Clinic. Met with a nurse, she was happy with what I was doing. Saw the endocrinologist, he was happy with what I was doing. It's kind of fun leaving there now. At the end of each appoinment we say to each other, "nothing personal but I hope I don't see you again."

So that brings us around to today...

Slow start to the morning. Really slow. Got a couple loads of laundry done (dark and light towels). Ate too much for breakfast, didn't take enough insulin for it. Talked to the Jelly's Auntie for, like, an hour. Just as I started to do the lunch thing the phone rang (wonder how long they were trying to call?). We have call display (I'm not medicated, I couldn't live without call display). I saw my OB's name. So, I was told that the OB had received the results from the last ultrasound and that she was on duty at the hospital today and that I should go to the Birthing Unit as soon as possible to do another Non stress test and another ultrasound. The girl on the phone did not sound too upset so I didn't ask what the problem was.

Then I was supposed to eat lunch.

Right.

I ate half the eggs I had been cooking when the office called. Drank a glass of milk. Ate the rest of the cookies we bought yesterday and hopped in the shower.

Then I drove to the hospital.

I was admitted to triage at 2:00 (I get the feeling you're always 'admitted' to triage when you have to spend any amount of time there so if you're worrying about that word, please don't.)

I told the woman at the desk that I didn't know why I was there just that my doctor had told me to go for a non-stress test and probably an ultrasound. She took my healthcard and name and said, "oh yes. I have a note somewhere."

So into the non-stress test I went. The nurse and I deduced that either I was MUCH closer to meeting Jelly than my physiological symptoms showed or there was something amiss at the last ultrasound.

We figured it was the latter.

So we sat through the non-stress test. Boring. Really boring. Oh well, at least Jelly was awake for this one.

After the non-stress test I was bundled up with another girl (who was placed in a wheel chair) and an orderly and we all went down to Diagnostic Imaging together. We were in-patients. The really nice thing about being an in-patient is that we don't have to wait for anything. So 20 minutes/half an hour later I was back up in triage waiting patiently for someone - ANYone to come in and tell me what was up.

Luckily enough I got to see my obstetrician. She told me what I had assumed - the last ultrasound showed a decrease in amniotic fluid. This is an anomoly of ultrasounds. Because of where the baby was sometimes the amniotic fluid isn't as visible as it can be. Anyway, today's ultrasound showed everything was fine. The OB sent me home and said, "see ya' Tuesday."

So, that was three hours at the hospital hoping that I was actually much closer to labour than I had imagined but sadly that was not the case. In fact, nothing was amiss. So that's certainly one way to kill an afternoon. Not one I recommend, but it works.

So that's it for now.

3 days 'til induction talks begin.

Symptoms remain the same.

Ciao!

-HLC

Wow! 37 Weeks!

2007-08-15T12:00:00.001-05:00

As of this past Monday, we officially hit the full term mark!

We've had an ultrasound, another non-stress test, weight gain is going smoothly.

I've officially signed the squirt's eviction notice. The doctor will sign it in two weeks. That's right, if the wee bairn doesn't see fit to come out on its own in two weeks (that'll be 39 weeks and 2 days), we're booking an induction.

Current weight is about 7.5 pounds. This is significantly less huge than I expected it to be at this stage. The women in my family have child-bearing hips and high blood sugars. We don't give birth to tiny infants. So we're actually doing quite well with the growth.

We had the second-last scheduled ultrasound. Jelly was kind enough to turn its face directly to the monitor. Looks quite a bit like I did at birth - puffy, squinty, and sleepy. Jelly has proper feet now that, on an ultrasound screen, actually look like feet - not talons. Oh, and yes, Jelly is head down. Can't remember where the face is right now, but that doesn't mattter. I understand that the full acrobatic flips are over now, but pirouettes still happen.

So, here we are... 37 weeks. Week 38. Let's turn to the incredibly awesome week-by-week description of what's happening now in this pregnancy, shall we?

... Not much.

Right now the kid's just packin' on the pounds - approximately 1% of its body weight each day. Of course, that is a staggering amount. Get out your calculators and do the math.

Along with the freaky weight gain, Jelly has also learned some new form of Celtic step dancing that it enjoys practicing in the evenings - especially when I'm trying to fall asleep (thank the hairy gods for Diclectin). I'm sure the Riverdance people would love a lesson.

At the time of this posting, I am in FULL nesting mode. Today saw most of the house vacuumed and dusted, all the bathrooms cleaned, and the kitchen scrubbed so hard it was begging for mercy. To put it in perspective, the top of the fridge was so disgusting, it was hit with Vim (excellent product, I recommend their oxygel formula) and a scouring pad. Honestly, it was naaaasty.

The cat hasn't spoken to me on purpose all day.

Tomorrow's projects include getting the car seat anchor (base) into the car so we don't have to worry about that at the hospital and a couple of our closets need some cleaning. Don't worry about me overexerting myself... one of them is a walk-in closet so I'll be sitting for most of it. The other closet is behind a large pile of unsorted important stuff that will have to be taken care of first - again, sitting on the floor.

Oh - the final appointment of the week was at the Diabetes Clinic where all of my caregivers seem to be perfectly happy with my numbers and what I'm doing. I was able to stop the endocrinologist from sending me off for another fasting blood test. See, they sent me for one earlier this week. Fasting blood tests are REALLY not fun when you have morning sickness. I told the endocrinologist that I already had a fasting test this week and I wasn't looking forward to another one and the one he wanted to send me for had already been done 6 weeks ago and I would be happy to do all the fasting tests he wanted AFTER the baby was born. So he flipped back through the chart (an amazing feat really. I didn't know they were capable) and determined that I did not need to go for this test right now.

*whew* That was wordy, eh?

Moving on...

The earlier test this week was a Hemoglobin A1c. Which I had 6 weeks ago. I tried to tell them that, but they wanted me to go to another one anyway. An HA1c tests your average blood sugars over a 3-4 month period. So, thank you taxpayers for sending me for another test. That bruised the hell out of my arm. I have troublesome veins. I'm probably too dehydrated. I should work on that before the delivery.

That's about it for this week...

So we'll do a brief symptoms check (brief... heh) and I'll leave you all alone for a while.

Morning Sickness: yes

Leg Cramps: not so much

Swelling: feet, yes. hands, no.

Blood Sugars: under control

Braxton Hicks Contractions: yep. And they're changing their style too.

Heartburn: oh yes.

Fatigue: yep. In between nesting spurts

Nesting: yep. In between fatigue jags

Hormonal emotional nastiness: yep

...

Yep, that's it for now.

Ciao!

-HLC

Heeeeyyy... it's only been a week!

2007-08-08T19:50:00.001-05:00

But don't expect this trend to continue or anything.

So, here we are. 36 weeks and counting. That's 8 full months complete. We are into the ninth month now. 4 weeks to go.

Once again I am forced to look around myself and think,

OH MY GOD! WE ARE SO NOT READY FOR THIS!!!!

But then the calmer voice in my head reassures me that plenty of babies spent their first nights in laundry baskets and ended up okay. Hey, at least we have a bassinet.

We even have clothes now. The wee squirt may not have to go home naked from the hospital. We've got adorable little onesies, hand knitted sweaters, diapers, receiving blankets, a due date, toys, travel cribs...

Basically we have everything we need.

The problem is, I'm nesting. Nothing will be properly prepared to my liking - ever. I see myself packing and repacking the hospital bag(s) every day or so until we actually need to take them to the hospital. The house will not be clean enough. Of course, my dear sweet mother is coming to shampoo the carpet in the Jelly's room. I think this action alone will make me feel better about the state of the second floor of our house. My mother can also be counted on to vacuum the house within an inch of its life and I can dust it until there isn't a speck of dust left anywhere.

We're both a little touched.

Really the only difference is she is currently medicated, I am not. I am not currently medicated because it's not ideal for small Jellyfish to ingest the drug that keeps me from caring this much about the state of my house.

Ah well, when the Jelly is out and in its formative years I will be back on the happy pills and Jelly won't have to know me as that crazy woman who gave birth to it.

But enough about my varying levels of sanity...

Last weekend - the long weekend. Well at least they tell me it was a long weekend. I'm officially on mat leave now so I officially don't notice stat holidays anymore.

We had Grampa and Nanny over for dinner. They also brought us Jelly's car (a Graco travel system), a chair for Jelly when the neck muscles are stronger, and a portable bassinet so I can put the kid in something when I join the legion of mothers who live in their garages all day or so the kid has somewhere to sleep when it is lovingly taken for a night at the grandparents. :)

On Monday (which they tell me was the stat holiday) we picked up my last pay cheque and my Record of Employment so I could get this Mat Leave thing in the works. We grabbed the carpet shampooer from my Nana and Grampa's, and we went to see my Mommy for dinner (and so we could attempt to fix her computer).

Tuesday brought about another Non Stress Test. I figure I should get the hang of these things sometime before I don't need to do them anymore. The first one, I brought a book because I figured it would be boring. I was right. It was boring. The only problem is, if I bring a book, I don't pay attention to Jelly's movements and I don't do what I'm supposed to do with the clicker. So this time I figured I would leave the book at home. I detected waaaay more movement than the last time, but I was bored to tears.

So I did what I always do when I'm bored... I listened to other conversations.

There are 4 beds in the room where they do the non stress tests. It's semi-private, we're all separated by curtains but we can hear each other clearly.

The woman across from me for example, was one day past her due date. The doctor came in at the end of her test and I heard them set up what I presumed was an ultrasound. Turns out I was right. I heard the doctor say, "that's the head. That's the chest, you can see the heart beating. And that... is the feet... down there." There was a pause and the doctor said, "so it's not bum breech. It's feet first... you know what that means?" She mumbled an affirmative. I suddenly realized that, as exciting as this was, I was not doing my job so I focused on my own abdomen for a moment. But I couldn't keep at it for long. I tuned back in and heard the words, "smiley face." I thought, "oh my... they're scheduling this woman for a C-Section." Then the doctor went out. A nurse came in, asked her a few questions, left and was replaced by another nurse. Then she got on the phone. She uttered the words I don't think any father figure to be ever wants to hear,

"Hi. It's me. You need to come home now. [pause] yes it's breech. They've got the section scheduled for noon. [pause] so you've got time. Don't drive stupid. Go home, have your shower, get the bag. [pause] Are you all right? Breathe. It's okay. Everything is all right."

And with that I stopped paying attention. And felt just a twinge of jealousy. It was going to be all over for her sometime that afternoon. I actually thought to myself, "I want it to be all over this afternoon too!" But... Jelly is still a bit underdone so we've got some time to go. The next ultrasound is scheduled for this Monday so we can see how cooked it is and how the oven is doing.

So today marked and yet another trip to the DEC and the OB. (life is a series of acronyms and initialisms when you get pregnant). The endocrinologist says I'm doing just fine. the nurse and the dietician were happy. I get to go for another A1C - woo-hoo. I'll do my best to get to that on Friday morning. The OB was happy with the way everything is progressing and we got the results back on the Strep B test.

NEGATIVE!!!!!

Finally! Something I don't have to worry about! Provided this pregnancy ends in a somewhat normal labour, I don't have to run to the hospital the second I think labour has started because I don't need antibiotics! Woo-hoo! I'd do a happy dance if it wasn't 38 degrees and humid and nasty outside.

So, that's really about all that's happened over the past week.

For those of you who are wondering, yes we have come up with names and no we are not going to tell you what they are. You can find out as soon as I can get near a computer when we come home with the squirt.

Symptom check:

Heartburn: yeah, still taking the Zantac and loving every minute of it.

Morning sickness: Diclectin is my drug of choice. I believe it also the only thing that helps me get any sleep at all at night.

Leg cramps: had at least two last night. Hoping this doesn't stick around.

Fatigue: The last time I felt this sleepy all the time I had just started on Celexa. When will it end?

Perineal ache: more like punches. Owies.

Swollen feet: Sometimes it's difficult to feel them.

Braxton Hicks: Sometimes it's difficult not to feel them. But they don't hurt. Pressure, not pain.

No swelling of the face or hands and my blood pressure is good. Still able to get household chores done. Walking is restricted to the house or malls for now (tooooo freakin' hot outside). Sugars good.

That's about it for now...

Stay tuned for adventures with Mommy! and Mom!

Ciao!

-HLC

35 Weeks and Counting...

2007-08-01T20:36:00.000-05:00

So here we are...

35 weeks.

Week 36 has begun.

That's somewhere around the eight month mark (or beginning of month nine) for those of you who would rather count in months.

It's amazing really. Your whole life you count pregnancy milestones in months. Then you get pregnant and everything changes. Milestones happen daily but to save everyone the aggravation we prefer to discuss weeks.

According to my baby development bible, this is the week that the baby's lungs are hard at work producing surfactant. Surfactant is the slippery stuff that allows the baby's lungs to inflate properly at birth. What the bible is really telling us is that nothing much is happening this week as the lungs began producing surfactant MONTHS ago.

In my life, this week has started off slowly... and yet it's Wednesday night already. Garbage night. Have to remember that. Mundane things are becoming increasingly difficult to remember. I think we'll be lucky if we get the kitchen garbage out, never mind the bathrooms.

Yeah, so the week began with a generally sleepy-tired day on Monday. Trip to the OB on Tuesday. Had the test done for Group B Streptococcus. That's a fancy word for, "if you are a carrier of Strep B it means nothing to you, but it could potentially, in a worst-case scenario, kill your baby during a vaginal delivery. So we like to check you for it ahead of time so we can get some nice antibiotics into you during labour via IV to prevent any nasty things happening."

For those who are interested, Group B Strep is tested via a vaginal and rectal swab. As my OB put it, "you don't make a lot of friends doing this test." That about sums it up. Of course, it's not as bad as an internal or a colonoscopy so I'm really not complaining.

For those of you who aren't interested, too late.

So, now you're probably wondering what else we've been up to. I think it's been a week or so...

We had a nice big baby shower where we acquired all kinds of good loot from waaaay too generous people. I said this at the wedding shower but it bears repeating, "having that many people dote on you is a touch on the embarrassing side." Of course, they weren't really doting on me, so I suppose it was nice of them to teach Jelly some humility at this stage of the game.

The one problem with all the stuff Jelly has acquired is that we still haven't finished the nursery. The paint needs to be touched up (probably happening this weekend), the carpet is in desparate need of a good shampooing (hopefully next week), and as of tonight we only have half the furninture. Fortunately the dresser showed up first so we can file most of Jelly's belongings away before Jelly gets here. The dresser is being built and will remain in our room for a while until we're ready to move Jelly out of the bassinet and into a big baby crib in the other room... which I imagine will have never felt as far away as it will that first night... Not looking forward to that moment.

Ooh- we have finished our prenatal classes. They were a bit helpful in that we have a slightly more realistic approach to what labour is actually going to be like. The new plan is, "I want this done as quickly and painlessly as possible. I would like to spend as much time as possible at home where we're all out of each other's way." Provided they don't need to strap me to 47 different monitors from the get go. Which I am also prepared for. In that case, I want my epidural NOW. If I can't move around, I want drugs.

We have also had a tour of the birthing unit. Very nice rooms. Love that pink and white decor. Southlake is a clear fluids only hospital. This means, Mommy is not allowed to eat real food while in labour. Daddy on the other hand can eat whatever he wants. I have told him that it would be in his best interest to avoid eating timbits in front of Mommy during labour. As tasty as I'm sure my dextrose drip will be, I'm not above having people with real food removed from my room.

That's about all that's happened in the preparing of the nest so far so let's return to an old component of this blog (and personal favourite)...

The Symptom Check!

Morning Sickness and heartburn - back in full force as Jelly's home expands ever upwards and Jelly has nowhere else to put its feet.

Sciatic pain - blissfully gone. Disappeared as quickly as it started and I am so not complaining about that!

Mysterious itchy rash on hand - still there, but only drives me nuts the day before and the day after my OB appointments so I keep forgetting to tell her about it...

Braxton Hicks Contractions - stronger and more frequent now, but no real pattern established.

Jelly's kicks, flutters, and general movements - Kicks, punches, and rolls are better terms. Often causing Mommy to bend suddenly at the waist while saying things like, "oof!" or "is there a reason you need to focus all of your energy on that one spot beside my bellybutton?"

Back pain - none. Still.

Pillow count - we moved up to 4 last night. Three King size pillows and one standard.

Sudden attacks of the all-out sobbings - yep. Still there. Getting harder to control. Had one at work last week. That was pleasant, let me tell you. No embarrassment there. *note sarcasam*

Dog nose - back stronger than ever. Point: At work today, I was standing in front of the pharmacist's coffee. She said, "do you smell weed?" I pointed at the coffee. She said, "That's what I'm smelling?" I said, "that's what it smells like to me, but I have dog nose, so..." she offered to throw it out so it wouldn't bother me. I told her she needed the coffee and I didn't have to stand right in front of it so it was all hers.

Anyhoo, that's about it for now. Mat leave starts next week! Woo-hoo! Grandma and I will be spending more time together making things clean and pretty for Jelly's arrival. There will also be tons more doctor's appointments as things draw to a close so look for details on upcoming non-stress tests and ultrasounds!

Ciao!

-HLC

Road Trip and Doctor's Visits

2007-07-14T10:23:00.000-05:00

It's been a while... again... and there's tons to report so let's cut to the chase, eh?

ROAD TRIP!!!

Well Road Trip and a half actually.

We began the first weekend of July with a trip to Hamilton for a wedding. Dad was in the wedding party. It was a long, warm day but really no one could have asked for nicer weather. The Bride was beautiful, no one in the party melted from the heat, and the flower girl did extremely well putting up with all that stuff during the day. Well behaved children at weddings always fascinate me... but the ones who are actually in the wedding are brilliant.

We left Hamilton around 1:00ish... getting home for 2:30am. We managed to get a little sleep before packing up and heading out to the Nation's Capital.

A slightly more than scenic route (dang the 400 extension) got us to Ottawa at a relatively decent hour... only about an hour later than we had planned (dang those backroads that look like they'll take you some place useful). I started the day off with puffy feet and high sugars that only got worse as we drove, but the stops we made were good for keeping the rise to a minimum. The Jellyfish seemed to enjoy the ride. Fairly quiet most of the way there.

We stayed at a friend's place in Ottawa. There were four of us sharing a bachelor apartment for all of about three days. The poor resident cat. He was a little put out - mostly with me. I will track down a cat as soon as I see one just to pet it and love it and call it George and never ever let it go... really they love it, they just don't understand that at the time. Anyhoo, it was nice catching up again. We don't get to see our friend in Ottawa very much. The gestational diabetic diet was thrown completely out the window while we were there and the swelling in my feet went down just as we were ready to get in the car to come home.

We went to the War Museum. I haven't been there since Grade 8. It's in a new building now. It's in a very nice new building now. Stunning really. We went to the National Gallery mostly so I could see the Renoir Landscapes exhibit. In a fashion true only to me, I bought the souvenir book... of the Portraits exhibit. I'm really quite talented at going to an exhibit and buying something that will remind me of it in a roundabout way. I was first introduced to Impressionism in High School. We went on a tour of the Barnes Exhibit when it made its tour stop in Toronto. We went there to see a visual art form from a foundation that ordinarily doesn't tour. It was stunning to see. Because we were students we got to see an instructional video before we went in. I bought the soundtrack.

Yep. That's me.

Our last day in Ottawa we made one final stop at the coolest toy store ever, Mrs. Tiggy Winkles. Bought a few things we didn't really need. Then we went to Moe’s World Famous Newport Restaurant for lunch. This is the self-declared official world headquarters for the Elvis Sighting Society. Apparently, Elvis didn't die. He moved to some small town outside of Ottawa. Anyway, good food, good times.

As we left the Newport for our car (parked a few blocks away), the Heavens opened. It absolutely poured rain on us as we ran back to the car. Now, I understand the Mythbusters have shown us that running or walking in the rain gets you equally wet. However, when it's pouring all you really want to do is get to your destination faster. So we weren't trying to prove anything by running. We just wanted to get out of the wet. As we were then piling in the car to head home, we dried off somewhere on the far side of Algonquin Park. It was pleasant.

The drive home was significantly less scenic than the drive up. No confusing highways on that route. :)

So...

We made it home the Wednesday night of that week. There was an appointment at the Diabetes Education Clinc/Centre (herein known as DEC). This was the day I was FINALLY put on insulin. I was given my own brand new pens and my own starter cartridge of both N (long-acting) and Humalog (fast acting).

So, after a fair bit of tweaking we have managed to bring the sugars into line. For the most part. I may have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: We need to keep my sugars at a strict level to prevent the baby from being too big. A big baby that has been exposed to high sugars for too long has a bunch of things that could go wrong with it: Shoulder dystocia - Head is delivered fine, but shoulders are too big and break during delivery. It could also have troubles regulating its own sugars at birth - they would be too low. The baby would crash. Really we are trying very hard to keep the infant out of the NICU as best we can. I would like to be able to hold the Jelly when it's born, not look at it through a window or hear about it from Dad.

The day following the trip to the DEC we went to an Ultrasound. Mostly to check on the development of the placenta, which I presume isn't a huge issue because nobody's telling me about it. We did learn the Jelly is measuring a week and a half large for its gestational age. The Jelly's head is huge now... taking up most of the monitor.

The next day (a Saturday) we got to go the hospital for a non-stress test. These are fun. For the uneducated, they monitor the Jelly's heart rate reactions to movement. The Mommy is strapped to a couple of monitors that detect wee jellyfish's heart rate and Mommy's contractions. Whenever Mommy feels movement, she has a clicker to play with. This helps the very educated doctor and nurse type people see how reactive the wee jelly is. Meaning, the heart rate should go up when movement occurs. Just like when we exercsie. This fun continues for 40 minutes to an hour. Now, the problem with my and my Jellyfish is that neither of us is a morning person. The appointment was scheduled for 8:45am. We both fell asleep... those beds are really comfy. Nice pillows. So the first nurse asked if there had been any movement. I said, "no. But if we wait 'til 8:45pm, we won't be able to get the kid to sit still." We agreed to give it time. The second nurse wanted to give me orange juice to get the Jelly moving. Sometimes this works for them. The first nurse looked at me, then looked at Nursie #2 and said, "she's here for gestational diabetes, so maybe a popsicle or juice isn't a good idea..." Nursie #2 said to me, "oh. What works for you?" Nurse 1 and I both said, "evening." So nursie #2 performed some abdominal pressing and kneading... really I'm sure Jelly felt like a loaf of bread by the time we were done. This worked. Jelly kicked and fussed and turned and made the doctor types happy so we could leave.

I get to go for more ultrasounds (two more) before Jelly's expected arrival date. To keep an eye on how Jelly's doin' health wise. I'll be sure to keep you informed of that.

Sooooo...

In other news:

We have ordered the bedroom furniture for the Jelly's room. But it's on backorder 'til about the middle of September. Fortunately we have a dresser and a bassinet, so Jelly'll have a place to sleep. Of course, if the middle of September gets here and the stuff still isn't available, we'll have to come up with a plan B. However, at the moment I have my heart set on the stuff we ordered.
We'll see how that goes.

Some of the Jelly's toys are being broken in by its older cousin. He loves them to pieces. It's good to know they'll work.

Mat leave starts in two weeks! I can hardly wait... It's getting harder to make it through the day at work now. I'm hitting that third trimester fatigue. Nothing a little caffeine can't help, but by the time I get home I'm even more exhausted than I remember being in the first trimester. Ah well, I'll give it my all for the last two weeks - gotta' get as much money as possible. Of course there will be more appointments, but they shouldn't interfere too much. I just hope I can stay healthy enough to make it through. Yeah, the morning sickness is still there. Tossed up just before the last appointment with the OB. That was fun. Heartburn is getting worse (I'll probably live).

Prenatal classes have begun. There are only two classes. The first one dealt with what to expect during labour and some breathing/pain coping exercises. These were ... well ... goofy. From what I've been hearing, they're always goofy. It's really hard to fake sincerity at the best of times. Especially when you need to be sincere about relaxing and you find the whole thing funny. I still don't think the background music was necessary - relaxation music. complete with flutes and crashing waves.

Ah well, at the next one we'll get to learn about interventions in delivery - drugs, tools, and surgery.

That's about it for now. The shower is next week after the last prenatal class so there'll be lots to talk about then too.

Until next time!

Ciao!

-HLC

Been a while, eh?

2007-07-05T17:52:00.001-05:00

Where has the time gone?

I find myself asking this question a lot lately. I've also learned from people who know a thing or two about these things that I'm not going to stop asking it any time soon.

When you plan a pregnancy you know your life is going to change forever. As soon as you consciously stop taking that little pill or using that patch or whatever it is you do, you know things are going to be different from now on. The thing is, you don't really notice the change all that quickly. Especially if you, like me, have been blessed with the longest pregnancy in history - meaning you saw that pretty little positive sign waaaaaaaay early. Like two weeks in. Then you're forced to tell everyone you see on a daily basis that you're pregnant because the morning sickness is so bad you can't use the "traffic was bad" excuse every single day. So, when you've got to tell people at 6 weeks that you're pregnant instead of the usual recommended 3 months, it really does seem like you've been pregnant FOREVER.

So you take each day as it comes and you try not to count weeks in the beginning because they're moving sooooo slowly.

Then before you know it, it's July and your waist line has FINALLY decided to disappear so all of a sudden your clothes don't fit, and you're diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and there's something kind of weird with the shape of the placenta (nothing that any of the professionals seem to be too worried about) and you're seeing specialists pretty much once a week and it's only going to get more crazy and you suddenly realize...

WE HAVEN'T STARTED THE NURSERY YET!
(fixed recently - the room is painted a lovely shade of gender-neutral green)

THE HOUSE IS A MESS! HOW ARE WE EVER GOING TO BRING A CHILD INTO THIS FILTHY EXCUSE FOR A DWELLING?! DON'T THEY TAKE CHILDRE AWAY FROM PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THIS KIND OF SQUALOR?!
(it's not really that bad. This is a totally hormonal reaction to an otherwise normal situation)

Speaking of hormonal reactions... we're suffering from a new symptom... Sudden fits of tears. Not the kind where you get a little weepy at the end of a movie. Not the type you get during a cute commercial (that Pampers Sensitive Wipes kid is ADORABLE!). No no, these are the type where one minute you're calmly minding your own business and the next, for no reason whatsoever, you burst into an all-out noisy sob. Crying so hard you couldn't possibly explain to anyone what's wrong with you. Thank the hairy gods that I've been alone during all of these attacks. As much as I have faith in him, I don't believe Dad could handle it. This isn't meant as a dig. Guys as a rule just don't understand this kind of hormonal crying. Even the sensitive ones. I don't expect them to understand. They don't have estrogen overload. Lucky them? poor them? Who knows. But again, things could be a lot worse.

More interesting things: I'm still not on insulin. I've got one of those pregnancy induced rashes on my hand. Itchy as ... itchy as ... At times I've tried to rip the skin off my hand. But again, it could be a lot worse. It's only on my hand.

We've had a prenatal class. That was exciting. The purpose of this class was to give us some pointers for dealing with the first three weeks after bringing baby home... with a slight glossing over of how to breastfeed. ... details on that after.

All of the Dads in the group got to diaper, dress, and swaddle a baby doll ... Cabbage Patch Kids all 'round! The Mommies were supposed to sit with their feet up and watch. So, once again I got out of diaper details. Dad's changed a few of the nephew's diapers while I remain firmly at ... none.

We learned about what newborns really look like (puffy, sometimes squashed, little lizards). We learned about practices that are no longer cool to follow. Things that were fine when we were babies but have since fallen out of style. Things like rectal thermometers (good, wasn't trying to do that) and nasal aspirators... Of course, the item our instructor held up as an example of a nasal aspirator was actually a bulb syringe. Totally different beast. Bulb syringes are for putting things in generally, not taking them out. Of course, generally babies don't like the pressure change from a nasal aspirator and quite frankly, I don't blame them. I kept my mouth shut at this point because most of the people in the room were ready to pop any day now and probably already knew what they should do about baby snot. (this class is an adjunct to regular classes, so people due in July, August, and September were there) I did open my mouth when we got to the types of thermometers. Forehead strip - not all that accurate. Especially on infants. Yeah, I know, but they are fun to play with. Rectal - no. Glass - never. Digital - use them under the arm. Fine by me. Ear - pretty good but be careful. Forehead that function like an ear... not accurate on infants, public health doesn't recommend them. The woman beside me went first. She said, "those work fine." I said, "yes they do. There are different instructions for infants. You have to read these carefully." So in a moment of what is this woman on about? we shot her down. We let her tell us that baby powder has fallen out of style. We let her tell us that if we really want to use powder then use cornstarch. We let her tell us that baby powder is made out of wood chips (ordinarily baby powder is made from talc. Talc is a mineral not terribly unlike the chalk used on blackboards that doesn't often grow on trees. Also if they use wood chips it doesn't mean there are chunks of wood in the powder). But the forehead thing, we couldn't let that go. Hey, sometimes you have to draw a line.

Now on to the breastfeeding bit.

GRATUITOUS CREEPINESS ALERT!

This was instructed via a video... well, half a video. The class ended before the video did. It was an old video. The quality of video tape deteriorates after a few years. This one had deteriorated. It was narrated by a doctor of something, presumably obstetrics. He was an elderly man. He clearly knew what he was talking about. I mean, he had a "Dr." in front of his name, he wore glasses, had a plaid dishcloth like shirt and he may or may not have been wearing a lab coat. Obviously he was an expert. Anyhoo, we saw many images of what babies should look like when they're latching on. We saw many closeups of women's engorged ready to feed breasts. We saw altogether too many of these shots with the old man's hands in them. We saw his hand, hand-expressing some milk from a nipple. Hand expressing itself is not that creepy. It would have been less creepy if a woman's hand had been doing it. Unfortunately we got to see a slightly (okay very) wrinkled hand on a deteriorated video doing it. Due to the state of the video the hand looked dirty. I know I wasn't the only woman in the room with a horrified look on my face. Most of the guys were laughing - hey, what else do you do when you're nervous in a room full of pregnant women? There was just something inherently skeazy about the whole video. In fact, it was so creepy I'm not sure if any of us came out of it with any useful information.

GRATUITOUS CREEPINESS ENDED!

In other news, we did have our first baby shower. The Jellyfish has many good friends already. We got some clothes and layette stuff that will be most useful. I love those little no-scratch mitts. We got some very nice onesies and a lovely penguin outfit. It's a shirt with a penguin on it. Not a costume. But that would be good too. I get the feeling Jelly will hate penguins. We got a sampler of Dr. Seuss stories. We'll start reading those very soon. We have our very own infant-to-toddler rocker. Excellent little chairs brought to you by the people at Fisher-Price. We also received a lovely gift... A studio size, upright piano. The Jelly will have music in its life and this piano is a lovely way to begin. Pianos are a great place to start. They're the perfect combination of string and percussion instrument. As soon as the kid can reach the keyboard, we'll start plunkin'.

That's about it for now. The Morning Sickness Monster hasn't left entirely yet, but I have so many other things to worry about I'm not giving it that much thought lately.

So we'll leave for now. We have a wedding this weekend and another road trip on Sunday so there'll be lots to talk about. Must go get some exercise now.

Ciao!

-HLC

Trips to the Lab and Other Fun Outings

2007-06-19T13:56:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been another week(ish) and as usual, there's lots to report. More than you're probably interested in reading, but I'm gonna' write about it anyway...

Last time we left off with the Glucose test and Mother's Day.

This time we begin with another Glucose test and Father's Day. With some other events in the middle.

So let's get crackin' shall we?

Last Thursday I had a lovely chat with one of the girls at my OB's office. They got the results back on my glucose test... I was high. My blood sugars were high... I wasn't 'high'... well you get the idea. Anyhoo, that meant I got to go do the intensive screen. For the uneducated, here's what's involved in this little adventure...

Step 1: Eat as many carbs as you can force into yourself for three days (so this would be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for me).

Step 2: Fast for twelve hours (Sunday night - fun)

Step 3: Show up at the doctor's first thing in the morning, grab the requisition for the lab, run down to the lab, and do another test. This time, 75mg with blood letting (they call it taking...) at fasting, one hour, and two hour intervals.

Those were simple enough instructions - even for me. So, armed with the knowledge of what I had to do, I set off for my weekend.

Friday - hungry? Eat something with way too much sugar in it.

Saturday - still hungry? Tired of eating your carbs? Drink them instead.

Saturday night - off to a Jack and Jill (Stag and Doe - whatever) for "Dad's" friends. In Hamilton. Forgot to take the happy drugs with me... Dreaded Sunday... owies.

Got home at 2:00 am Sunday morning. Took one Diclectin instead of the usual two as I knew I would have to get up early(ish) and didn't want to sleep through the whole day. It seemed to work.

Sunday - Jay's Game with the inlaws and the nephew. Baby Boy enjoyed his first game immensely. That kid is so great in crowds. Nothing at all like his Auntie.

Dinner was had at one of the greatest restaurants in Toronto... Shopsy's. If you're not into meat, don't go there. If you like Delis, give it a shot. The place makes the best corned beef EVER!

Knowing I was counting down the hours to the 12 hour fast, I made night of it. I had the "Heart Attack on a plate." - they call it the "Hot Dog Surprise." It sounds better for you with that name. They also make a fantastic milkshake... I don't believe I knew that, but for future reference... Very creamy.

After dinner we headed back up to the In Laws house and had Ice Cream Cake from Baskin Robbins. Now ordinarily I don't like Ice Cream Cake... Ice Cream Cake is not cake - it's hard, rectangular ice cream. If I wanted ice cream, I'd get ice cream. However, this cake had some actual chocolate cake in the bottom layer... this made it quite edible. In my opinion. Not in everyone else's. But hey, when you're pregnant, you don't care if the day isn't intended to be about you - it's still all about you.

So, with the tummy settled, we chatted for a bit longer then went home so those people could go to bed.

Monday morning: Slept in as late as possible (Doctor's office didn't open 'til 9:00), had nothing better to do so checked the sugars... 6.8 Not good, not horrible, not surprising.

Got to the OB's office, grabbed the requisition, ran down to the lab. Dad went back into town in search of the tux for the wedding.

So, about the test...

I found the beverage to be quite delightful for first thing in the morning. In fact I would have gladly consumed a second bottle. But I'm a little weird like that and the Jelly has a wicked sweet tooth.

This time we used the left arm at my request as the bruise from the previous test had not yet healed.

Hour #1 - not terribly boring. Read for most of it, then Dad came back.

Second blood letting at 1st hour mark - went fairly smoothly.

Hour #2 - boring as crap, way longer than it needed to be.

Third blood letting - I experienced an altogether new sensation - I was looking forward to it. It mean I could go home and get something to eat. Yeah I was hungry. What?

So we stopped at Casey's in the mall. They make an excellent salad - The Asian Chicken Salad. It's got a ton of lettuce, some mandarin orange slices, honey lime dressing (the stuff rocks!), and some beautiful strips of teriyaki chicken.

Why oh why can I never remember that the Jelly doesn't like chicken?

Well we particularly don't like teriyaki chicken. I was able to keep it down just long enough to digest it in order to figure out the problem was. Apparently we're also not big fans of the black olives stolen from Dad's taco salad. Jells, you've got a lot to learn about good food.

Casey's also make a very good fruit smoothie. Check it out next time you're there. Multiple flavours.

Tuesday - second trip to the OB. I mentioned the nasty morning sickness that during the night. Monday night's dinner was rejected at 3:00 Tuesday morning. Took long enough... I told the OB that the nasty sickness comes in three week cycles, assured her that I am able to eat during these times and that the baby is still plenty active with no sign of bleeding.

So we took my various measurements, listened to the heart beat and waited for the glucose test results to show up (one day service? Specialists are really lucky people...)

Sooo... guess what?!

We've got gestational diabetes! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Okay, so most people don't cheer about it. I'm just glad we caught it. The OB and I are not at all surprised by this diagnosis.

So the referral was to be made on Tuesday and I was told that eventually I would hear from the new team of specialists (hopefully by the end of the week).

Yeah, more like ten minutes after we go home. Dad answered the phone. I got on the phone and said, "wow... that was really fast." The woman on the phone laughed and said, "did you just leave the office?" I said, "no, but we did just get home about ten minutes ago."

So, we scheduled the appointment for Thursday morning at 8:30. Woo-hoo! Gads that's early.

But I know some of you are asking... "What is Gestational Diabetes? What does it mean? Are you on insulin?"

Basically at the moment, all it means is, I probably won't need 'newborn sized' diapers. I'm gonna' give birth to a giant Jellyfish that may have some troubles regulating its own blood sugars after birth (this is not necessarily diabetes - just some birth related problems). Step one is to develop a proper eating plan to (fingers crossed) keep my sugars in check. If this doesn't work, then we get to move to insulin. Yippee. That would suck. I've got no problem closely monitoring my sugars. I've got no problem eating food that doesn't have a ton of 'sweet' in it. Jelly might not like it, but I'm sure we'll survive. It is coming up on the end of June so there isn't a ton of time left anyway. And now it's time to do something with that monitor instead of carrying it around to add weight to my purse.

...

So, some time has passed. It is now Thursday evening. We've been to the Diabetes Education Centre. Very helpful people there. I personally know some Diabetes Educators and Dieticians... they really are a wacky bunch. I mean, these people can look at a plate of food and altogether way too quickly tell you the nutritional value of the entire plate. They are handy to have around when you go out for dinner though. So we suffered from the small world thing that happens to a person who works in health care in a small town (me)... The first woman we talked to has actually worked with a friend of mine at a different hospital... We have mutual friends. I'll stop there before this gets even more silly.

So the basics:

I get to eat more food than I have been eating. It turns out my problem was only partially quality of food. The real problem was timing and not eating snacks... so I'd be starving mid-afternoon and that was when the chocolate bars would come out. I'm gonna' miss those. They were really good for the nausea. Jellyfish has a wicked sweet tooth after all. On the bright side, I seem to like yogurt again so that could be good for both of us.

Right. Basics. Sorry. Got babbling again.

I get to become a human pin cushion. See when you've got Gestational and it's not controlled by insulin, you basically have to continually poke yourself in the finger(s). At the moment it's a touch overwhelming... my life is ruled by two questions: 1) what time is it? and 2) how many grams am I supposed to have right now?

I'm exercising again... I suppose it was about time. I'd whine more about that but it seems a little senseless. After all, it is good for us.

I get to go to a ton more appointments! And tomorrow I get to have a nice little battery of tests done at the local MDS lab. Including a Thyroid function test. Great. Could that not wait until after I deliver? I mean, honestly. I went off the Celexa so I wouldn't have to worry about harming the baby in the third trimester. I'm coping but I don't have to like it. Then I get an abnormal placenta - not 100% sure what that means, but I'm coping and I don't have to like it. Then I get gestational diabetes (and it turns out it has nothing to do with my eating habits, I was destined to get it and couldn't really control it). I'm coping but I don't have to like it. If there's something wrong with my thyroid, I want my SSRIs back! So here's hoping that turns out okay. We'll fill you in as soon as we know.

...

I think I'm done ranting for now.

We'll keep you posted on any new developments. There's a baby shower this weekend so that should prove to be a nice distraction from recent developments.

Gotta' go watch the series finale of Stargate! :(

Ciao!
-HLC

Road Trips and Doctor Visits

2007-06-08T19:42:00.001-05:00

'Kay...

Tons of stuff to report.

First, we went on a road trip. Carted the Jellyfish all the way to sunny London, Ontario for a bridal shower. The Jelly greatly enjoyed it. The long drive was good. Jelly kicked and danced and shivered pretty much the whole way, but was good about staying off my bladder for most of the trip. We got there about half an hour late but I was still greeted with immediate directions to the bathroom and the most comfy chair in the room to sit in. Sometimes I truly enjoy this being pregnant thing.

sidenote: All this sympathy and special treatment is a touch embarrassing but hey, I'll take it where I can get it 'cause I imagine if there's a future Jellyfish the treatment won't be the same.

But a fun day was had by all and we enjoyed the trip home too. We even found some food at a Kelsey's somewhere along the way that may or may not have been somewhere near Kitchener.

How sad is that? Don't care where the restaurant was exactly. As long as they have that cracked peppercorn burger, we're good. In fact, we eat at Kelsey's so much we really need to start keeping a diary of it. As soon as we figure out where we were, we'll get started on that. There are many trips to the eastern end of Ontario in our future and there are many restuarants on the 401.

...

...

Guess what?! We met the poor woman who is charged with the all-encompassing task of being my obstetrician for the remainder of the pregnancy! Honestly, I feel terribly sorry for her and her staff. They're going to get sick of me. I tried to tell them that, but I don't think they believe me. They'll learn.

So, the details: The OB/GYN herself is maybe two years older than me if that. I wish I could ask her. I mean, she knows how old I am, isn't it only fair? Ah, propriety.

Right, bonus number 2 - she's as crazy as I am. Her staff is great too. The girl who had to suffer the horror of telling me how much I weighed set the scales WAY low. I told her to start a bit higher than that and she'd spend less time fighting with them. Then she subtracted a whole pound for my shoes. I love her.

So, after the weighing, into the office we went. The doctor made it in and after the intros said, "So you're pregnant." I said, "That's what they tell me." She said, "There's a lot of that going around my office." Yep. She wins the prize for dang funny joke related to one's profession.

She kindly reassured me that though she may not be the OB on call the day I go into labour, all of her colleagues have the same methods for making a woman unpregnant. She said if she was on call that day, I was stuck with her. I corrected her and told her she would be stuck with me... and my mother. Poor thing really doesn't get it yet.

Oh - and we finally got to hear the heartbeat. It's about freakin' time. Sounds like the Jelly is happy and enjoying the free room and food.

I got to do the glucose tolerance test. I've heard that people get sick on the stuff. I guess they're not blessed with a Jellyfish with a monstrous sweet tooth like me. Yeah, it was a snap. I was lucky enough to get the stuff cold. I thought that was really nice of them. I thought it tasted like orange crush, but not as sweet. Apparently I have an odd sense of sweet.

The woman that took my blood after decided not to listen to me when I told her my veins were useless and she should draw from the left arm, inside vein. She said, "no, we'll use the right arm." She pumped the sucker dry. And it hurt like a sonofa&*$! the whole time. Later that day when my arm hurt and I figured I was reacting to the tape (again) I pulled tape off to find nothing but a slightly swollen inside of the elbow. So we went out to see a movie and I thought little of it. At the end of the movie I looked down and was pleased to see a giant purple (more lilac and mauve) bruise forming. Oh yeah, the next day it was bluish black with purple spots. It's great. See I figure if you're gonna' be hurt like that, you deserve a battle wound. I didn't bruise at all the last time I had blood drawn and it took them 8 tries (no exaggeration, honest) to find a vein. All I ended up with was the general feeling of being a human pincushion - but no physical evidence.

Anyhoo...

So, the updates - we get to have two more ultrasounds. One at 30 weeks and one at 36 weeks. We're at an increased risk of growing a rather large Jellyfish so we need to keep an eye on the squirt to make sure it doesn't run out of room.

Jelly's still keeping me sick pretty much all the time (yeah Jelly!). I've decided the only way I can feel generally okay is if I can wake up whenever I feel like it (after 8 preferably), then fall into the kitchen, have something resembling breakfast and then sit on my butt all day. That seems to keep the nausea and heartburn at bay. If I need to function in society at all, in any way, I'm gonna' be exhausted and generally feel like a big bag of poo. So it goes. With any luck I'll feel better sometime after I give birth. I can handle being tired all the time, I just wish it wasn't accompanied by a churning stomach.

*whine*

Right, so other symptoms:

Sciatic nerve pain: Not nearly as bad as it was. Either 'the contents' have shifted, or I've gotten used to it. I prefer the first explanation.

Intermittent hand tinglies: yeah, but not as freaky as it was.

Heartburn: getting worse.

Nausea/vomiting: Strong as it ever was. Stayin' on the Diclectin. Diclectin is my friend. It's a better friend than Tim Horton's Iced Capps. They work well, but Diclectin has fewer calories.

Headaches: nope.

Waistline: still have one. Sort of. I can still completely hide the fact I'm pregnant if I feel like it.

Weird craving of the week: Italian bread and peanut butter. Or any reasonable facsimile of Italian bread and peanut butter. Or M&Ms - peanuts. Basically there's a whole peanut thing going on here. Interesting really 'cause it was sometime in Feburary I believe when peanuts were the only thing that would calm the queasies. They worked a helluva lot better than crackers I'll tell ya' that. So we're back to the peanuts.

Perineal ache: starting. I've detected it and I'm not enjoying it. So the totally random couple of times it's happened, we'll just ignore them.

Clumsiness: Oh yes.

Swelling: Not really. The rings still fit, so that's good. They're a bit tighter, especially on humid days, but that used to happen to me anyway. Gotta' drink more water...

Interesting kicks: Jelly can tell when I'm nervous. I think it's kind of cute. I don't like thunderstorms. If I have a wave of 'freaked outedness', Jelly kicks. I've checked it with a couple of storms now. We seem to be tuned.

Absentminde... where was I going with that?

Yeah, that's about it. Coming up: we have a Stage and Doe to look forward too. I think I'll harass the couple with having planned their whole wedding badly for a few years... I can't drink at the Stag and Doe. I can't drink at the wedding. I can't dance unless I've been drinking. I mean really drinking. I'm too uptight. And now I'm not even on celexa... I'm not sure how this is gonna' work.
Also, the trip to Ottawa in July has been approved - with a gentle reminder to get out the car and stretch often.

So that's it for now. It's Grandma's birthday next week so I'm hoping the Jelly lets me eat some cake. That would be nice. Hopefully we'll have a bunch more stories next week. The kind that come with humour.

In the meantime, Jelly's telling me it's time to get up and wander around a bit. Kid's been sleeping all day, so it's about time really.

Ciao!

-HLC

Quick note...

2007-06-03T20:34:00.001-05:00

So it's been a week.

There's currently nothing to report except that I know better than to try going off the Diclectin again. We'll just stick with it right 'til the end.

'Nuff said.

Stay tuned for an update sometime after this Wednesday when (fingers crossed) we meet the OB/GYN!

Woo-hoo!

-HLC

'Nother Road Trip!

2007-05-25T21:21:00.001-05:00

So here we are again, another weekend has passed and with it, another trip to the big city (I'm feeling more like someone who just fell off the turnip truck every day...)

Right, so this past weekend was Toronto's turn to take part in Doors Open Ontario 2007.

For those of you have been living under the same rock that I have apparently been calling home for the past, oh, EIGHT years... Doors Open is a city-wide event that allows the general public free admission and/or tours to/of select buildings that are otherwise not open to the public and generally have some kind of architectural/aesthetic interest.

Or something like that.

I'm really over-simplifying it, but it is really neat. You get access to all kinds of places you wouldn't ordinarily think of trying to see.

This year (don't know if it's new or not so please don't write me too many letters) there was a big focus on green buildings. Not buildings that had been painted green (though that would have been interesting in itself) but buildings that were environmentally friendly. Some of the stuff that can be done to make nasty concrete jungles just a little less hard on the environment... it's not that difficult people, let's do it!

Anyhoo, an event like this means - lots and lots of walking.

Which means lots and lots of potty breaks for the pregnant lady.

Which means lots and lots of jokes about the potty breaks for the pregnant lady.

Which isn't too difficult in Toronto's downtown core. Plenty of decent buildings intended for public use - like the Eaton Centre. I think we made it there about three times in all.

Jelly likes the bathroom at the Queen St end, across from the ugly shoe store.

Seriously. Ugly shoes. No idea what the place was called, just remember they had ugly shoes.

I've noticed that intense walking like that tends to keep Jelly asleep. Right on top of my bladder, but asleep nonetheless. It was kind of like when the cat wakes you up in the morning by jumping on your bladder, but instead of being able to pick the offender up and toss it across the room, I got to keep the Jelly right where it was.

All day.

Comfy. Yes.

Jelly did shift a little when we went to the book store next to the World's Biggest Bookstore so to reward it, I bought it a present. Jelly now has its own copy of Goodnight Moon in board book. Excellent for chewing on I belive. I almost bought a hard cover copy of Le Petit Prince - in French - when I remembered I have a paperback copy at home and we probably didn't need another copy of it. No matter how pretty it was. I also left behind a copy of Hamlet - in the original Klingon. Funny. But ultimately a waste of money I suppose.

...

In other news, my appointment with the OB has been changed - surprise surprise (it's so hard to be sarcastic in writing). Anyhoo, they called me, left a message, I called them and the conversation went something like this:

ring, ring.

(spoken in a VERY young sounding voice)

"Dr. OB's* office, can you hold please?"

"Sure"

wait, wait

"Sorry to keep you, how can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm 'Mommy!'*, I understand you wanted to change my appointment?

"Oh! Yes we did, let me just get your profile up." tappity tappity, shuffle shuffle, "Oh, you're pregnant."

"So that's why I threw up this morning!"

exchange of nervous laughter

There followed a general discussion of when my due date was because they seemed to want to go with the first determined date. She used technical terms like LMP. I used "it's Friday morning and I don't want to think" terms like "wheely date finder." I finally made her understand that the last two ultrasounds changed the date from September 15th to the first week of September so maybe we should work on that timeline. So we're all good now.

The appointment is set for June 6 which happens to be my Dad's birthday. So I told him I wouldn't see him at work that day and that I hoped he had a great day.

Ah well, I'm gonna' miss the festivities. There'll probably be cake. But Jelly seems to know that cake isn't technically food and wouldn't enjoy it anyway.

Anyhoo, that about wraps it up for this week, so we'll round out with a quick symptom check:

Nasuea - oh yeah

Sleep deprivation - even with the drugs - oh yeah

Swelling - a bit, particularly when walking long distances in Toronto to look at neat buildings

Concentration difficulties (i.e. absentmindedness) - what?

Typing difficulties - yep

More frequent potty runs - brb

Hand tinglies - a little

Heartburn - Please for the love of God make it stop!

Occasional vomiting - mm-hmm.

Expanding abdominal cavity - yes. But the waistline still seems to be there. Unfortunately my hips have morphed beyond all reason and we are now wearing maternity and drawstring only bottoms.

Sciatic nerve pain - yeppers. Dealing with it. It's not that bad. It could be real sciatica and it could be a ton worse, so I'm good.

I think I'm whining now. So I'll stop the symptoms and leave on a happy note:

15 WEEKS TO GO!!!

Bye fer now!

-HLC

*names changed to protect the innocent

Road Trip!

2007-05-21T18:37:00.001-05:00

Ah, another Victoria Day weekend has come and gone.

With it, another weekend of craziness, binge drinking, partying 'til all hours of the morning and all sorts of best left unnamed activities.

Unless you're five months pregnant.

And have a sister in law with a six month old.

(no we didn't plan it that way)

Oh - an there will be none of that kind of hillarity if you are part of our group of friends. We simply don't have the stamina to party like that anymore. It's sad really, 'cause our parents don't seem to have any problems out-partying us.

Actually, it's kind of embarrassing.

But back to the weekend. Victoria Day weekend has involved a tradition for us for a few years now.

Every year, generally on the Saturday, we pack ourselves into the car and head down to the lovely region of Queen St. W. in Toronto to get a better view of the life we would be leading could we afford the rent in the downtown core. It's far cheaper to buy a house. Anyhoo, this year we (that'd be me and the sister in law) packed ourselves and the nephew into the van and headed down to the joy that is Queen St. Gads that's a fun place. I miss it. Terribly. I figure Queen St. is the way we will know when we've completely lost our hipness. Our groove. Our cool. Our groovitude. When the Quintessential Queen Street Dweller begins to unnerve us, it's time to move back to the haystack and never show our faces again. And what better way to keep it interesting than to introduce the kids to that place!

After a good dose of alternative culture on Queen, we head north to Kensington Market - mainly for the cheese and the chocolate. Don't know how to get to Kensington? Go to Queen West. Hang a right on Spadina. Walk a short jaunt (or at least what country kids consider short) and then hang a left at the lions in the middle of Chinatown. Ask for Tom. The man knows suits.

This year we went on Sunday 'cause I had to work on Saturday. Sunday appears to be better. Less crowded.

So the nephew and the Jelly had their first rides on a subway. We'll save the streetcars for when they're both old enough to enjoy it. Around 3. That's when they'll both get a big kick out of a southbound train leaving Eglinton Station as well. I still get freaked out when it looks like the train is actually going to hit that centre wall. Don't know what I'm on about? Sit in the front car. At the front. You may have to push kids out of the way to see it, but it's worth it!

Anyhoo, the nephew was confused on the subway (what is this horrible noisy place you've brought me to and why are we here?!), the Jelly was asleep (what else is new?) and I was falling asleep too. Subways began to have that affect on me a few years ago. I never understood how people do it, but you really do wake up just before your station.

I have maneuvered the TTC with a wheelchair before and I know what an incredible nightmare that is (write to everyone it takes to get proper accessibility!) but I naively thought a stroller - a lightweight umbrella stroller at that - would be easier.

The only way it's easier is when there isn't a child in it. But we managed.

So on to Queen St we headed. Took some tourist shots in front of the tourist spots. Found a few bathrooms along the way (Jelly likes to put full weight on the bladder when we're walking), some of which weren't completely scary, bought some cheese, chocolate, and pastries (Kensington rocks!), and had lunch at our happy place. McD's. Which appeared to still have the heat on. Which wasn't necessary that day.

The nephew slept through the craziness that was lunch.

Only to wake up as we passed the Second Cup at Queen and John. So he got to eat as well. Jelly likes white hot chocolate. And doesn't mind the smell of Second Cup coffee. That's two coffee smells Jelly enjoys. Tim's and Second Cup. Woo-hoo! Whatever the addictive agent is these people put in their coffees, Jelly likes the smell.

We're still not a fan of Coffee Time, Country Style, Kirkland, Folgers, or any of the usual brand people drink, but I believe I'm going off topic again.

A little scattered again.

Anyhoo, it was a fun, tiring day for all of us and the walk appears to have done good work stretching out the leg muscles. The sciatic pain is not totally gone, but felt much better this morning.

Oooohh... forgot the sympton check!

Nausea - yes
Sleepiness - a little
Absentmindedness - what? Oh. Yes. Lots.
Hand tinglies - yes
Sciatic nerve pain - yeppers
Ankle swelling - only a little
Hand swelling - hardly ever
Mood swings - no more than before
Overly emotional reactions to cute things - yeah

So how am I feeling? Pregnant, thank you.

Is Jelly still kicking? Oh yes. It seems Jelly is wide awake sometime between 11:30 and midnight. I'm usually well into a Diclectin induced narcosis by that point so I don't really notice it, but if I make the mistake of staying awake... ooooohhh... I'm not sleeping for a while. They tell me I won't be sleeping properly for about 20 years. Yeah, if the kid turns out anything like me, I'll be sleeping properly again in about 8 years. Ask my mother. We sleep. We sleep really well.

Sooo... until next time!

-HLC

Of Braxton Hicks and Fetal Karate

2007-05-10T19:05:00.001-05:00

Hey!

It's been a while, eh? Occasionally I get sidetracked easily.

For instance, this post was started last Wednesday but I left it alone for the evening and then I was distracted by something shiny and then Mother's Day happened and then I really don't know what happened and before I knew it it was Wednesday again.

But enough excuses. Let's move on to new developments and whatnot, okay?

Stuff that's happened.

First a quick symptom check...

Let's see...

Nausea? Yep

Constant running to the bathroom? Yep

General feeling of "my skin doesn't fit" and "when did all of my clothes shrink?" Yep.

Braxton Hicks contractions? Yep. Those are fun. In the twisted sense of the word. Not really painful enough to make you scream in terror/agony or anything, but strong enough to mildly disconcerting. Of course, as I've mentioned before, I'm a bit of a nerd and all of the books/articles I've read have done plenty to prepare me for such things. Also, I'm REALLY hypersensitive to anything that my body is doing right now, so I'm probably more acutely aware of these things than I need to be. I understand this is normal in first pregnancies. Gads, aren't we all nuts?

So how am I feeling? Still pregnant.

In fact, the Jelly is kicking a hello at this very moment. So, all together now,

"HI JELLY!"

What else is new?

I've graduated from my family doctor's care (well, they guy that works with my family doctor - my actual doctor doesn't do the baby thing - and when I'm the patient, who can blame him?) and will be moving up to that weird and wacky world run by obstetricians and gynecologists. But I won't be starting with her for another four and a half weeks.

The last ultrasound revealed an estimated due date of September 6th. I'm doing my best to convince the Jellyfish to ignore what the experts are telling us and come on the 3rd anyway. Labour Day is a good day to be born Jelly! A good day!

Blood sugar and protein levels are still peachy keen. Actually, as I was standing behind the nurse staring over her shoulder, waiting for the dip stick (why does that make me feel like a car?) results, she uttered a phrase that has been haunting me my whole life.

"You're so normal it's nauseating."

Little did she know that my mother has been saying the same thing about my blood sugar and ketone levels since I was quite wee.

Okay, I was never 'wee' but that's beside the point.

So yeah, everything appears nominal.

In other news, I have finally stepped over the threshold and bought real live maternity wear.

Okay, it's not really 'alive'. But with the price of the stuff, it should be!

It's insane really. The technology isn't all that special. And women get pregnant all the time. Does it have to cost that much? Honestly! With those prices the clothes should come equipped with someone to dress you in them.

Speaking of things that are alive...

Jelly's been kicking and shivering and dancing for quite a while now. Every now and then there's a decent kick that I can see from the outside, but no one is ever around to see it at the time and I don't want to run into a Polkaroo/Snuffleupagus think where I'm the only one who can see it...

*note - if you're from Canada or the US and didn't understand that last reference, you're not allowed to have any part in my child's education until you figure it out.*

Anyhoo, last night. May 15th 2007 sometime between 9 and 10 (it was during House). Daddy felt Jelly kick.

We got a very solid punch. I just hope when the kid gets old enough it'll teach Mommy some of those moves.

Right, so Jelly kicked, and Daddy looked at me with that "was that it?" look and I said, "yeah, that was it!" And he said something along the lines of "Oh that is so cool!"

And I couldn't help but think, "yeah, imagine that all day!" Actually it kind of reminds me of the Alien from the movies. It's a little creepy when it punches that hard. But I'd be okay with it if it was the parody Alien from the end of Spaceballs

If you haven't seen Spaceballs you're still allowed to be a part of my child's life, but you really should seet the movie yourself, 'cause it's just sooooooo funny!

Well, that about wraps it up for this episode. I hope everyone had a decent day on Mother's Day. If you weren't observing Mother's Day, I hope you had a decent Sunday. If you did observe Mother's Day and didn't have a decent day, I hope you feel better soon.

'Til next time!

-HLC

Hurry up and wait!

2007-05-05T22:14:00.001-05:00

So another week has come and gone and there isn't a lot to report.

Jelly's still dancing. The waistline is still expanding (I have yet to truly pop though). And I have one whole month before I even meet the OB/GYN.

It's pretty much run of the mill right now.

Interesting symptoms at the moment? Oh yes!

Morning Sickness? Actually all day nausea. But I refuse to let the digestive tract win. Purely from a cosmetic angle. I don't like the broken capillaries all over my face after a particularly difficult bout. So I fight the nausea. I breathe deeply and eat s-l-o-w-l-y. So far this tactic seems to be working.

Jelly seems to be on a frozen food kick right now. We are greatly enjoying our Tim Horton's Iced Capp (yes, two ps) Supreme - Mint Chocolate - and we REALLY love frozen girl guide cookies as well as frozen Mini Eggs.

We're still not a fan of 'healthy' food. And garlic is, and shall always be, a very tough thing to digest properly. Thank the gods for Zantac and thank the lab rats and human guinea pigs who proved it to be safe for use in pregnancy.

Swelling? Yeppers

Every evening, when I should be going for a walk or getting in some other kind of low action activity, I usually veg on the couch. I make a point of putting my feet up because I know this is good for my ankles and feet which I am sure are swollen but I'm too darn lazy to lift up a pant leg to look. Well, we've most definitely had a really nice swollen ankle occurence. Feet were fine, hands were fine, the face was fine. But the ankles - yeah, I'm gonna' go with one of the books I read and agree that that's a little creepy! We've all seen the ring left around an ankle too small for the sock that was on it but this is beyond weird. So I threw my feet up, drank a nice big glass of water, check to see if the hands were swollen (they weren't) and chalked it up to having been standing for 8 hours straight today and eating fries for lunch (cooked, not frozen).

I presume the swelling has gone away but I'm too lazy to bend over and look.

Other miscellaneous symptoms? Yes

One day early in the week my hands became spontaneously tingly. REALLY tingly. I've suffered from something akin to carpal tunnel syndrome before (it miraculously went away - no idea what caused it or what cured it) and I remember the tinglies from that. I've had pins and needles before. This was like pins and needles but twice as bad. I had troubles holding things. I continously wrung my hands to make sure they still had some feeling under the tinglies (they did). I checked my rings again to see how swollen my hands might be (not at all - rings were looser than usual). I drove home and told myself not to panic. I could check my blood pressure when I got home (forgot). I stressed so much about it, I'm not sure if my arms were aching because that was the next step after the tingling or if my stressing caused it.

Anyhoo, I got home and grabbed the most alarmist book I could find (What to Expect When You're Expecting - that book is evil) and was pleasantly surprised.

Apparently this intermittent (it's since gone away) pins and needles in your hands is PERFECTLY NORMAL. AND it has NOTHING to do with your circulation or blood pressure. Yeah, it's a pregnancy related form of carpal tunnel syndrome that usually goes away when you deliver. Always good to know.

Well, that's about it for now. Jelly continues to wiggle and dance (interesting really as I have no sense of rhythm) so we're going to sign off for a bit and see if we can get some exercise to calm the Jelly down (hey, it can't hurt either of us right?).

Ciao fer now!

HLC

Wow! It's Been a Whole Week!

2007-04-27T11:25:00.001-05:00

...And I like exclamation marks!

Right.

I figured I'd make a stab at keeping the updates for this mostly weekly.

So I missed Wednesday this week. I have a good excuse. We were at a concert and by the time I got home it was happy antinauseant time and I was in no condition to type.

I missed Thursday too.

My only excuse there is that I really really really needed to see the last episode of House MD from Season 2. Now that we're caught up, life can return to semi-normal.

Now that the excuses are out of the way, let's move on to what we've been up to this week.

...

Not a lot.

Mostly we've been showing people the blog and basking in the glory of the fame awarded someone who has a blog. Or we've been watching House. Or we've been playing on the computer - virtual people quest games or updating our facebook pages. Gads that thing gets addicitive REAL fast when you're not paying attention.

Jelly's been good. Keeping the movement to a minimum and only making its tiny presence known once in the whole past week. Yeah. The morning sickness seems to be back in full force. I now firmly refuse to believe it's ever going away. Whine, whine, moan, complain.

As I mentioned earlier, we took the Jelly to a concert. Actually we took the Jelly to a couple of concerts.

The first was last Saturday. Yep, it's April again. That means time for the annual Drug Trading Show. The show takes place over an entire weekend in April. On the Saturday of the special weekend there is a fancy shmancy dinner with way too much food, good quantities of alcohol, and some generally pretty awesome live entertainment.

This year's entertainment was Blue Rodeo. Jelly had a good time at Blue Rodeo but the bass was a little to strong and shook that amniotic fluid more than Jelly would have liked. I only know this because I've suddenly become hypersensitive to strong bass and not because of any feedback from the Jelly itself. So we backed away from the action on the dance floor and watched from afar.

This past Wednesday Jelly got to experience the comedic and vocal stylings of Jann Arden.

Massey Hall. Toronto. I had forgotten that the floor seats (at least near the front of the room) slide forward when you sit in them. This puts people in a slightly reclined position. A nice feature if you're sitting very close to the stage. This allows you to look up without having to stretch your neck in an unnatural way.

It also stretches out the uterus and surrounding area very nicely, allowing small Jellyfish LOADS of wiggle room.

Shortly after the opening act (SHeDAISY) began their first notes, Jelly began dancing a small jig around my bellbutton.

The jig didn't really end until we went home.

I've mentioned before that I've read lots of studies and books and articles and that I'm a nerd. Anyhoo, all the major sources say that it is too soon for Jelly to properly react to sound. So I'm gonna' go with coincidence on this one.

Fortunately for me though, the Jellyfish was kind enough to stay on the far side, away from the bladder allowing me to sit relatively comfortably for the show. Jelly also didn't protest much during fits of extreme laughter. Jann Arden has quite the sense of humour.

Well, that's about it for now. Sorry this isn't going to be a great ending this week, but if I keep babbling just to try to squeeze out a better one, it's gonna' get silly.

Sooo... until next week! With any luck, we'll have something really great to talk about!

Ciao fer now!

-HLC

2007-04-24T07:04:00.000-05:00

Like she said... oh wow!

It's been a pretty exciting past few months, since we found out we were having a baby. Becoming a Dad is a really cool thing I think. At the same time it is scary too. Mommy and I are semi-addicted to the TV show House; only semi-addicted because when we finish the last DVD of season 2 (probably tonight) there wont be anymore left to watch, and the addiction will fade. :) Some of the episodes deal with babies, and young kids; these episodes have now become much harder to watch.

Right, so parenthood... We found out VERY EARLY, and that has made the pregnancy seem long. Does that make any sense? I don't even have to deal with the morning sickness that Mom has had. I'm sure it feels much worse for her.

We've had 2 ultrasounds now, and we even have a video tape of the second ultrasound. To date, that has been the coolest part of the pregnancy - sort of a window into my wife's belly! :)
And an opportunity to see our growing baby. I can't wait until I get to hold our child.

Holy Cats! We're gonna' have a puppy!

2007-04-18T22:55:00.002-05:00

Okay,

So pretty much EVERYone already knows this... but we're actually going to be parents in September! How scary is that?! Nature has actually entrusted us with the growth and care of another human being! It's madness I tell you!

Okay okay... it's not gonna' be that bad. We're responsible, mature adults. We can handle this. We managed a year without doing serious, irreversible harm to each other and we kept the cat alive, so how bad could it be, really?

Moving on,

I'm a little scattered today

The details (for those of you who don't know already)

Current due date: 3 September 2007

How far along am I right now?: 20 weeks, 2 days (4 1/2 months)

How many Jellyfish are there in there?: 1

Do we know the gender?: No

Do we want to know the gender?: No

Do we like green and yellow clothes?: Yes. There is also a wide variety of gender nonspecific
reds, blues, and a light lilac colour that really isn't too feminine when smashed together with greens and yellows

How is Mommy feeling?: Apart from not really all that overwhelmed anymore, sick as a dog thank you. That's right, 24 hour 7 days a week morning sickness. The drugs are helping a bit, the wrist bands really aren't helping at all but I feel stylish when I wear them, and I've grown attached to them. Apart from the constant yecch, I feel fine. My energy levels are right about where they should be for now and I know from all the online message boards, and the studies I've been reading (I'm such a nerd) that things could be SOOOO much worse.

Why do I call the baby 'the Jellyfish'?: Peanut and Jujube were taken. My mother called me 'the parasite' (I believe this is not unique to our case), and I got the marine theme from a journal over at Babycenter.com where a couple called theirs the 'Guppy'. Though in their case, the marine theme had a much longer and more sentimental background. I just thought "Jellyfish" sounded funny. I've already started shortening the name to Jelly, so I'm hoping sometime before the child can be humiliated by its little friends, I will have stopped calling it Jellyfish to its face.

Anyhoo, there really isn't much to report at the moment. The critter only just started moving with any amount of regularity and I'm not even showing properly yet - really I just look like I've gained some weight.

Okay, a lot of weight.

In truth as of the last prenatal (last Friday) I'd only gained 5 lbs from the first prenatal.

Also, I haven't met my OB/GYN yet. Though I understand she's very nice and a good doctor. I'll have more details on her sometime in June.

So, whenever we get around to it, we'll try to post. If something really awesome happens, we'll post about it as soon as we get around to it... get the idea? I'm not very good at journal keeping. I never was. Usually I start off well and can keep it going for a couple of weeks but then I get distracted by something shiny and forget all about it and before long it's been three years and I'm just never really going to update that website ever again and....

Sorry. I ramble too.

Well it's late and I'm late for my happy drugs. I'd best toddle off to sleep now before I get more incoherent.

Ciao fer now all!

-HLC