Christmas and a general update

It has been a few years since I actually felt excited about Christmas.  Last year was fun, but Fiona was too young to do anything other than lay there and be adorable. This year she still didn't GET it....but she enjoyed ripping paper and playing with some new toys.  It made Christmas a bit more fun for me, and I look forward to the years to come with her.

It was our turn to head to Swift Current for Christmas this year.  We were excited to get away and spend time with Jay's family.  We hadn't been to Swift Current as a family since Fiona was 7 weeks old at Thanksgiving of 2014!  Fiona traveled well both ways and slept like a rock star while we were there.  She even cut her 4th molar while we were there.

Fiona is now 16.5 months old.  She has 12 teeth and only has 4 eye teeth and 4 more molars until she has her full set of baby teeth.  It felt like she teethed forever before all of her first molars showed up, but once she cut that last one, we got a few days of happy Fiona.  Happy Fiona is such a joy, and sleeps 14 hours each night and naps 3 hours each afternoon and never whines.  Haha....honestly, I think she went through a growth spurt right after Christmas because she WAS sleeping 14+ hours/night and napping 3+ hours each afternoon.  It was nice, but kind of strange!

When Fiona was teething for her molars, each time she would be working on a tooth she would get a runny nose.  This past week I thought maybe she was starting to teethe for her eye teeth, but after a couple of days I realized that, no, she has a cold.  She has a really runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes and has not been going to bed very well at night.  It is unusual for her to cry when I put her to bed but the last few night she has.  Hopefully, it will clear up soon!

Fiona's grandpa built her a toy box for Christmas!  We weren't able to bring it home as our van was already packed to the brim with gifts and food to bring home, but next time grandma and grandpa come to visit they will bring it up for her.  It will be nice to have a place to store her toys!

As always, it was such a joy to watch Fiona interacting with her grandparents. They adore her and she had so much fun at their house. Grandma kept us well fed and we sure enjoyed the lovely turkey dinner she cooked on Christmas day! Because Fiona was teething while we were there her appetite was a bit iffy, but she loved grandma's cabbage rolls!

Fiona is definitely transitioning into toddlerhood.  Even though she will always be my baby, she is growing and changing and turning into a little person more and more.  She has quite the little personality.  She loves to dance.  I am not sure where that comes from....maybe her grandma Clara? Or her cousin Will? Haha...certainly not her parents!  She can certainly throw a good tantrum when she doesn't want to do something....usually when she has a tantrum it means she is tired or hungry. And they don't typically last very long.

She got a play kitchen and some play food for Christmas....and so far she mostly just likes to throw things on the floor and suck on the food....but I am sure it will be well loved by the time she outgrows it in a few years.

I am not sure if I could list all of the words that Fiona can now say.  But she is trying to say words more and more.  She knows the word 'more', and calls her self 'Na-no' when we ask if she can say Fiona.  She is usually generous with 'hi-you' and 'buh-bye' once she gets comfortable with someone.  She has started calling Kiwi 'Key'.  When she sees pants or pajamas she says 'pa' over and over again until I say 'yes, Fiona it's pants/pajamas' She likes to give da-da a 'pu' (push) around the house. When she gets her hands on something new, or something she shouldn't have, or gets really excited about something you get a very big 'oo-ooo-oooo' from her, which Jay and I find absolutely adorable!

More than the words she can say, or tries to say, she understands so much. Usually in the evening, after bath time, and after a bit of play time (usually a pre-bedtime dance party) she will say 'na-na' which means night-night and will reach for my hand and hold my hand and lead me to the top of the stairs to head downstairs for bed time.  She doesn't always initiate it, but if I say, "Fiona, should we go downstairs?" she will usually grab my hand and head for the stairs.  She can now go downstairs.  I don't think I would trust her on the stairs on her own yet, but she has climbed down without any help from me.

She still enjoys her bath time.  I have been surprised recently when she likes to lay back with her head/ears in the water and just 'float' in the tub.  She is not so much about the splashing anymore.  We are registered for swimming lessons that start tomorrow, and though I am looking forward to them, unless her cold resolves by then, I think we might have to skip this week's lesson.

15 months

My baby is 15 months old today!

She is growing and changing almost daily.  She is walking like a pro and learning new words all the time.  I have not spent much time with babies/toddlers in my life, so it is amazing to me how much she understands.  Even though she doesn't have a lot of words, she knows what I am saying most of the time.

I believe she still has 8 teeth.  She is definitely working on cutting molars and possibly eye teeth, but whenever I try to get my finger in there to feel what is going on she bites me.  Haha.  So until I have visual proof, I am not quite sure what is going on in there. 

I think she is starting to tantrum a bit.  If there is something she doesn't want to do, or if I go to pick her up to say put her in her high chair and she doesn't want to....she arches her back, or goes limp and cries.  Sometimes when she arches her back and goes to the floor she will hit her head....I suppose that is just part of being a toddler. 

She likes going out.  She gets excited when I grab the diaper bag and take it to the front door.  Whether it is to grandma and grandpa's house, or to the mall, or wherever, she likes getting out of the house.  We have been quite amazed at how well she does when we go out for a meal somewhere.  On Monday, Karen, Arleen, Fiona, Felix and I went for brunch.  I would guess whe were there for about 90 minutes and both Fiona and Felix hardly made a peep.  They were just happy to eat and watch the people around them. 

In a few weeks my cousin is getting married, and Fiona will get to go to her first wedding.  I hope she is happy and not too disruptive during the ceremony.  It is kind of a low key wedding, with coffee/dessert time afterward and no formal reception.  I am just looking forward to dressing her up in a fancy Christmas dress for the occasion.  

Still Processing

I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that our family is complete. After almost 5 years of waiting for treatments, and going through treatments, and waiting to see if I would get pregnant from said treatments, we are done. There is definitely a sense of relief coming through. I still feel sadness about the what ifs, and wondering what our other child might have looked like/acted like/etc. I do realize, that most miscarriages that happen early on, often happen because of chromasomal issues, so, it is all kind of a moot point.

The first cycle of IVF we did, I was so excited. Everything, seemingly went well. I was so sure during the two week wait that I was pregnant. Then I was blindsided and devistated to find out I was not. After that cycle, I went into all the other ones with a good amount of caution, and even some pessimism. 

Before we did the embryo transfer in September I had mentally prepared myself more for a negative outcome, than a positive one. I did not think that I would possibly get pregnant and miscarry, I just did not expect to get pregnant at all. In my mind I made a list of the positive sides of only having one child. I knew the postivies of having another baby....but I wanted to prepare myself for the possibility that Fiona would be our only child.  I am starting to look ahead and trying to appreciate the list of positives I made.

After I miscarried I had all these thoughts about things I wanted to do.  Things that I felt like I had been putting on hold because I might get pregnant.  Get back into an exercise routine, cut my hair, buy some clothes (maybe once I lose some weight...), sell Fiona's baby stuff that she has outgrown....and I think I will pursue some of these things, but last week it felt like I needed to do all of it RIGHT NOW.  I think it was maybe just a way to distract from my sad feelings.  I think I will do all of those things....but I know there is no rush.  

 I have been savoring my time with Fiona. She is at a really fun age. She started walking a week or so ago! It is amazing how quickly she picked it up once she started. She is still pretty wobbly and falls down a lot, but I would say she walks the majority of the time now. She is becoming more expressive and loves to giggle. The other morning when I was getting her dressed in the morning, I had her laid across my lap.  She reached up and touched my armpit and said 'tookatooka' which is her way of saying 'tickle tickle' and giggled.  It was so sweet!

What a difference a year makes!  Top photo is her at 1 month, bottom is her at 13 months!

Where has my baby gone?

Now that Fiona is one year old, I just can't believe how quickly she is changing, and learning new things. I didn't realize that one year olds typically could say a few words. I would say Fiona's most used word is 'no'. But she also knows dada, mama, pee (puppy), baba (byebye), hey/hi. I also think she tries to say 'tickle tickle' which sounds kind of like 'tookatooka'. Oh yeah, and she also says 'ta' when she wants you to take something from her.

She likes to make faces and mimic your faces.  The picture above is one of her faces.  Looking down her nose.  Haha.  She also does one where she tucks her chin down and looks up and looks shy.  Sometimes she will stand on our bed and look in the mirror on our headboard and practice making her faces.

It felt like it was going to be a long time before she started walking.  She just was not really that interested in walking.  She would scoot along furniture a bit, but wasn't a fan of holding my hands and walking.  Then suddenly she started standing unassisted more, and is now happy to walk along holding my fingers.  She has even taken a couple of steps on her own.  But has never done more than one or two before either losing or balance, or just realizing she wasn't holding onto something and sitting down.  I think we will have a walker within the next few weeks!

 

Fiona is up to 7 and possibly 8 teeth (she is not too keen to let me poke around in her mouth).  I can also see some bumps further back in her mouth, and I think she might be working on some molars or i-teeth.  She has been more whiney lately, and her sleep hasn't been as good.  Also she has been drooling up a storm!  Hopefully, they will stop bothering her and she will go back to having her loooong naps and looooooong night time sleep.

I decided this fall to sign Fiona up for toddler time through our community association.  I thought about swimming lessons, but decided it might be good for her to socialize with some more kids her age.  It starts in a couple of weeks.  It is on Monday mornings, and I think it is just a free play time for the little ones in the toddler room at Circle Dr. Alliance Church's toddler room.  I think it will be a good opportunity to get out of the house.  Hopefully, it isn't just a place for kids to spread around their germs....haha.

Almost ONE!

Man, I sure have dropped the ball on blogging about Fiona!

Life has been busy, and I suppose there are just different priorities.  I am quite active on Facebook and Instagram with updated information about my little girl....so I guess the blog has been neglected.

I don't know how in the world Fiona is going to be ONE this week.  The last year has been quite the whirlwind of a rollercoaster.  So many good things, and with that some challenges as well.  Becoming a mom has been such an adventure.

I feel so blessed that Fiona is such a content and easy going girl.  She went through a period between 7 and 9 months where she was teething and her sleep was not the best.  But for the last couple of months her sleep has been AMAZING!  She typically sleeps about 12-13.5 hours a night and then usually has 2 naps, but some days only one, and between her naps she usually sleeps another 3-4 hours a day.  I am not sure how long this will continue, or if it is part of a growth spurt that she is going through.  She is currently wearing mostly 12 month, and some 18 month clothing.  She has even been wearing a pair of jeans that are 18-24 month size.  She is a very tall, skinny girl, and I am curious to see how tall she is at her next checkup at the end of this month.  When I weigh her on our bathroom scale, it says she is about 22lbs.

Her appetite has been up and down in the last few months.  It seems that when she is actively teething, all she wants to eat is fruit, bready things (toast, cheerios, crackers, etc) and cheese.  But when she isn't she is quite open to trying vegetables and meat as well.  I think her favorite foods right now are grapes, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, bananas, watermelon, steak, chili, beans, Cheerios, cheddar cheese and yogurt.

She is very active.  She started crawling right around 8 months old.  By 9 months she was starting to pull herself up to standing and just after 10 months she started walking along furniture and walking behind anything that she could push.  I still think it will be a while before she is walking independantly.  She doesn't even really like to stand without support yet, so she has a ways to go, and I am okay with that.

Her favorite toys are things that aren't really toys.  She loves to play with Kiwi's toys and loves to pull things out of the couple of drawers that I have given her to play with.  She loves the flashlight that Jason keeps in the pouch of his wheelchair.  She is starting to enjoy being read to, as long as they are short without too many words.  Right now her favorites are Goodnight Moon, Snuggle Puppy and Mommy Hugs. 

She is quite chatty.  She doesn't really have any real words, but does say dada, mama, nana, papa, nonono, tookatooka, dootdoot...and more.  I just love listening to her babble, and I look forward to hearing what she has to say when she has real words.  She has the sweetest little voice.  She also has quite the belly laugh.

 

She got her bottom middle teeth when she was between six and seven months old.  Then she got her top ones next to the middle ones when she was between seven and eight months old.  Then she teethed off and on for the last four months and FINALLY a week or so ago she cut tooth number five (top middle) and is working on the other top middle one but it hasn't quite come through yet.  It looks like there are some getting close to the surface on the bottom as well.  I hope the rest of her teeth don't take four months of teething for each tooth!

I have enjoyed the summer with Fiona.  We have made a few trips to the park and she has enjoyed swinging on the swings.  We have gone for plenty of walks with Kiwi and just enjoyed some time out on the back deck and lawn.  I am not looking forward to winter, as Fiona becomes more mobile, but I am sure we will have some fun times playing in the snow and will maybe find some indoor play options to check out if we get too much cabin fever.

I have spent the last few weeks working on a digital photo book for Fiona's first year.  Once we have her birthday party next weekend, I will add a spread for her birthday and will get it printed.  It has been fun to do, and I can see making more photo books in the future.  In the photo book I have included each of the monthly photos we have done of Fiona over the last year.  When we started doing those photos for her first month, I assumed that we would just do as most people do, and photograph her in the same spot each month so we could see the growth that she had each month.  However, as time passed we ended up doing a unique photo each month that sometimes was related to a specific skill she had mastered that month, or sometimes just something Jason or I had envisioned for the photos.  I am pretty excited to do her twelve month photo this week.  It is going to be a lot of fun, and be quite meaningful to us. 

Seven Months Old

Fiona is seven months old!  I am not sure where the last few months have gone.  It has been quite amazing to watch her grow and change.  Some days I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that I am a mom.

At seven months, Fiona is sitting up quite well.  She is rolling with purpose.  She is trying to crawl, but hasn't quite gotten the coordination to get on her hands and knees at the same time.

After a few weeks of crankiness and poor sleep, she has two little teeth that have come through the gums and are growing.  I hope it is a couple more months or so until she starts working on some more teeth.  It is nice to have my happy girl back!

She is full of babbles.  I love to hear her little 'ba ba ba'.  I look forward to hearing mama and dada from her.  I am sure it will be a little while before that happens.  She has also gotten quite proficient at blowing raspberries and smacking her lips.  I am glad that she does not seem to be as shrieky.  That was a difficult period.  A lot of evening headaches after listening to those ear piercing shrieks all day long.

She has decided that spoon feeding is not so bad, so we have done a combination of spoon feeding and baby led weaning.  She does really well with soft cooked chunks of veggies, fruit and meat.  I think she prefers soft chunks to chew over purees.  I hope in the next month or so that she will figure out her pincer grasp then she can start enoying more finger foods.

She enjoys her bath time and loves to splash in the tub.  She sometimes even tries to drink the bath water, haha.  We have registered for swimming lessons during the months of April and May and I think she will enjoy time in the pool.

She has started to 'make strange' a bit and has been a bit more clingy to me.  It is sad to see her cry, but I know that when she is well looked after, it probably isn't the worst thing for her to cry a bit.  I just feel bad for the people who are looking after her. 

It has been so fun to see bits of her personality start to come through.  I look forward to seeing more and more of it as time goes on.

Baby Led Weaning

I don't really like the term 'baby led weaning'.  It feels misleading to me.  I would call it 'self feeding' or 'baby led eating'. 

We are starting to dabble in feeding our baby solids!  I know she is just over 5 months old, but our attempts at giving her some food has been successful so far, so I think we will continue on. 

Baby led weaning is a different approach to feeding a baby, than what is typically used.  You skip the purees and go right to feeding your baby finger foods.  So far, Fiona has tried broccoli, apple and carrot.  I think for supper tonight we will let her try some sweet potato and probably some more broccoli.

I read/skimmed through the book "Baby-Led Weaning" by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett.  It reassured me about the fact that babies don't need to eat a whole lot in the first few months, as they are still getting most of their nutrition from formula or breast milk.  So, when you watch a baby eating finger foods early on, probably very little will actually go down their throats, but that is okay.

I was a bit concerned about choking, but after reading the book I have a better understanding of the physiology of eating.  Basically, babies who eat purees learn to swallow before they learn to chew.  And with BLW, babies learn to chew before they swallow.  So early on, they will chew food and most of it will get drooled/gagged back out. Also, the gag reflex of a baby is a lot further forward than an child/adult.  So a bigger piece of food doesn't need to get very far back on their tongue before their gag reflex kicks in and should move it forward.  It is unpleasant to watch a baby gagging, but gagging actually helps them not choke.

Also, it is not necessary for a baby to have teeth to do this.  You start out giving them vegetables/fruits that have been steamed so they are soft enough to gum.  As for meat, they will probably mostly just suck on it intially but will figure out how gum pieces off.

This appeals to me because it will allow Fiona to eat what we are eating.  Intially we may need to leave out unseasoned pieces of food for her, but she should be able to eat pieces of meat  and vegetables that we are having for supper.  Once she develops the ability to use a pincer grasp (thumb and pointer finger) it will make the options a lot more varied.  In the beginning you have to start out with food that a baby can hold with a fist and still eat, so food that can be cut in to strips or sticks.     



 

Four months old!

I had to share this amazing photo that Jay took of our little girl!  She is so lucky to have such a talented daddy :)

Even though she had a lousy night, and short naps today, she broke out this heart melting smile for the camera tonight. 

I love the two little outfits I got for her for Christmas.  The other one was in the Santa photo, and our family photo, however it is a bit small, as she is growing like a weed.  This one still fits quite well, and I think she will wear it to grandma and grandpa's house on Christmas day.

Fiona got to meet Santa!

We braved the mall on this very crazy busy Friday before Christmas to get a photo of Fiona with Santa!  At the Lawson Heights Mall you bring your own camera and take your own free photo with Santa.  I was impressed with the Santa there.  I thought the Midtown was the only Santa with a real beard....but this was a top notch Santa too!  I have this issue with Santas with fake beards....they seem creepy to me.  But this guy was really great!

I didn't know how Fiona would do, being handed to a complete stranger, especially one in a crazy outfit....and I had to wake her up to take her out of the car seat, so she was still a bit sleepy.  She did really well though.  No smiles, but at least there weren't any tears or pouts.  Though, I do find something really funny about photos of children freaking out on Santa's knee.  Haha!

We've been busy!

I had kind of hoped to keep up on this blog a bit.  But life with a newborn has been so busy!  When baby is sleeping I am trying to get something productive done, or sleeping myself.

I can't believe Fiona is a few days away from 4 months old!  What a whirlwind these last few months have been.  I would say that after the first month passed, that I finally felt like my head resurfaced and I could breathe a little bit again.

Fiona started sleeping through the night fairly consistently around 2 months old.  That has made all the difference, getting good sleep.  I also have slept so much better since we got the baby monitor and I moved back upstairs.  There have still been a couple of times when I have stayed downstairs after getting up to feed Fiona during the night...but those feedings are becoming fewer and further between.

She is such a content, sweet baby.  My heart just swells with love when I think about her.  So full of smiles and giggles and coos.  I am loving the more interactive side of her, and I imagine she will only get more and more interactive as time passes.  She is rolling over quite well from back to front and front to back.  She hasn't really figured out that she can use rolling to get places...but once she does, I am sure I will have to watch her like a hawk!

I decided this week that is time to try and get her on a bit of a schedule.  Her bedtime was varying anywhere from 930-1130pm.  I really wanted some evening time to myself, and to spend with Jay!  I had been feeding her 5 times per day, and decided to try 4 feeds per day and she seems to be doing well with that.  So, for the last couple of days she has eating at 8am, 12pm, 4pm and 8pm then to bed.  It usually takes her a while to settle to sleep.  Some days I almost wish she took a soother, because I think it would be easier to settle her back down by plugging her cry hole, haha...but once she settles in, she sleeps really well.  I just feel like I pick her up to settle her more than I would like, but it seems to work. 

She has been doing really well in the Woombie, but with all of her rolling, I feel like it is probably getting to be time to get rid of it.  I am thinking I will wait until after Christmas to start working on putting her to bed without it.  I am sure it won't be the disaster that I am picturing, but she has just been sleeping so well in it, I am a little scared to see what she will do without it.  I will probably start with putting her down for naps without it....then move to night times.  Maybe she will be able to self soothe better if she can suck her fingers at night....I guess we will see!

I am getting excited for Christmas!  I know that Fiona won't have the first clue about what is going on, but I think it will be a fun day.  I am thankful that we get to spend the day with Jay's family and my family.  I am sure Fiona will enjoy the excitement, and hopefully we can get a good nap or two in, so she isn't too fussy!

Merry Christmas from our little family! :)

30 Weeks!

I can't believe there are only 10 weeks left until my due date!  I don't feel terribly overwhelmed with things to do....as there is still lots of time, and I don't feel that we have a ton of stuff left to prepare.  Once I am done work, and have a better grasp on what we need to get, I will do some shopping, wash some clothes, make some meals to freeze and take lots of nice naps. 

If our baby was to be born now, there is a very high likelihood that she would survive, and probably not have long term health issues, so 30 weeks feels like a pretty exciting milestone!  I have been feeling lots of kicks and rolls and flops (sometimes I wish I could see inside there and know what baby is up to!).  In the last week I started to feel hiccups.  I wasn't sure when a person might start feeling them, and wondered maybe if I just didn't have a hiccuppy baby.  I was wrong!  Today I have felt hiccups three times, haha. 

Jason and I are about 99% settled on a girl's name and middle name, as well as a boy's name (just in case!).  We really didn't have a tough time finding a name we liked.  But, there is part of me that wonders if I stopped looking prematurely.  However, I did read at least two baby name books from cover to cover and read through a lot of name lists online.  I seemed to keep coming back to the same names, so I feel pretty comfortable with our choices.  They are names that suit a child and will grow up well to be good adult names as well.

Jay has been keeping up on my biweekly belly photos and put together another composite to compare the progress.  It is definitely eye opening when you see yourself every day, and people keep telling me how small my belly is....to see a photo like this.  Baby is definitely growing! :)

 

Are we there yet?

I am by no means ready for the baby to arrive, but I am starting to feel slightly anxious to meet this little person that seems to enjoy using my bladder as a punching bag :)  Of course I want the baby to stay put until much closer to the estimated due date and I have a feeling that I will probably go overdue anyway.  I think I read somewhere that it is pretty common for a first time parent to deliver around 41 weeks.  I guess we will see!

Things seem to be coming together in the baby's room.  We have a few projects that we would like to work on to decorate the room a bit.  I ordered a crib mattress from Costco.ca and it arrived on Friday.  I was a bit nervous about ordering a crib from Ikea as I had heard that they are an off size, and that you need to buy a mattress from them.  I had read on a lot of online forums, and it seems that years ago that was the case, but in recent years they had changed their cribs that are sold in North America to be the standard size, and fit a standard size crib mattress.  The mattress that I ordered from Costco fits perfectly!

I have still been feeling pretty good.  I know that the most growth has yet to come, but there are a few things I expected to be a problem, which haven't been.  I expected to have more back pain and to be constipated.  Thankfully, neither of those have been much of a problem.  My back is usually achy when I wake up in the morning, but usually resolves once I am up and moving around.  I have had more heartburn than I expected, but it is still not awful.  Usually one or two Tums takes care of it.  I have had some food cravings, but nothing so urgent that I had to send Jason out at 10pm to get it for me.  I also haven't really had any food aversions.

(Me at 28 weeks pregnant)

We will start our prenatal classes through the health region in a couple of weeks.  I am not entirely sure what to expect, but I hope that they are interesting and relavent.  We also have our first official meeting the our doula next week.  We have 3 meetings booked with her, over the next couple of months, and I am also not entirely sure what they will entail.  I think sort of figuring out a birth 'plan' (I say 'plan' because I know that no matter what you plan for, birth is completely unpredictable....so it is good to be educated on your options, and know what you would like, if things go smoothly, but I am also prepared to throw it all out the window and do what needs to be done to ensure a healthy baby and healthy mom) so she knows how to best support us.  I also imagine she will go over some pain management techniques with us.

 

My work has been a bit slow in the last few weeks.  I am not sure if people are not calling because they don't want to make the pregnant lady work....or what.  But hopefully things will pick up a bit before I am ready to go off work because it is good to make money!  I am planning for my last day to be either June 27 or July 11.  I will decide once it gets a bit closer and I get a feel for how I am feeling, and how well I am able to cope with giving treatments.  Hard to believe that is only 6-8 weeks away!!   

It's growing!

Sometimes when you look at yourself in the mirror every day, it is difficult to see the growth that is taking place.  However, this composite deffinitely shows that the baby is growing!  The first photo was taken on my birthday January 4th, and the last was this past Saturday, April 5th.  Lots of change in three months.  However, I imagine the next three months will be much more dramatic!

Half way there!

This baby is half way done!  I can't believe we are at 20 weeks already.  I realize that the first 20 weeks are 'shorter' than the second 20 weeks because you don't even know you are pregnant until you are 4-5 weeks along....but still.

I would say overall I am feeling pretty good.  I definitely am still more tired than usual, but not like I was in the first trimester.  I have noticed that my gums are quite swollen and bleed easily when I brush/floss them.  I am going to the dentist for a cleaning near the end of May, I can only imagine how bloody that experience will be.  Ugh!  Seems like one of those things that no one ever told me about pregnancy.  Not that it's a huge deal, it's just unpleasant when I am in the middle of doing something and can suddenly taste blood.  Blech!

My belly is continuing to grow some.  I have to say that I expected my belly would be a bit bigger by 20 weeks.  I am not concerned that it's too small, because every woman is different, but I just would have expected it to be a bit bigger by this point.

This baby has been a lot more noticeably active in the last week.  Most often in the evenings, if I am sitting our lounging on the couch I can feel a lot of little jabs in there.  In fact the other evening they felt stronger than they had to this point, and I put my hand on my tummy and I could feel it from the outside.  Pretty neat :)

Someone was asking me the other day if I had any major cravings or food aversions.  I haven't really had either.  In the first trimester, the whole thought of food in general was a turn off.  I could eat pretty much anything, and it tasted fine, but just don't ask me to think about what I want to eat for the next meal, because the thought of food made me queasy.  Since then, I haven't really had an unusual aversions.  As for cravings, I would say in general I have craved salty things more than sweet.  I did have some cravings for dill pickles, and have eaten a couple of jars.  I feel like I have eaten a lot of cheese.  I feel like I get excited for certain types of food, and enjoy them when we have them, but there hasn't been any cravings that had to be satisfied immediately.  There was a day when I wanted a cinnamon bun, so a few days later, when I went out, I went and had a cinnamon bun.  I have craved fruit a lot.  Unfortunately, being the time of year it is, our choices are a bit limited.  However, I did enjoy some awesome oranges, apples, bananas, grapes and last week we had a really tasty mini watermelon.  I can't wait until we can get more delicious watermelon! 

I have been noticing a bit more achiness in my back.  I don't know what it is, but since I have been pregnant, I only seem to want to sleep on my back.  So far, it feels okay, I haven't had any numbness or shortness of breath, but I expect as my belly grows it will get less comfortable.  I have noticed in the last few days that if I do sleep on my back all night that I wake up with a really achy lower back.  I do try to sleep on my side, and put a pillow between my knees, but 9 times out of 10 I wake up in the night, or in the morning on my back and the pillow is on the floor.  I have also had a bit of SI joint pain, and I expect at some point I might have some chiropractic treatment for that to hopefully keep it from getting too painful.  I do also feel my lower back a bit more when I am working.  I am curious how long I will be able to work. I am hoping to work until mid-July, but we will play it by ear.  If everything goes according to plan, I have been telling my clients that I should be able to work until the end of June for sure, and hopefully into July as well. 

16 Weeks Pregnant!

Not so long ago, I used to think of pregnancy in months instead of weeks.  But since I have had a number of close friends/clients/etc who are pregnant, I have a slightly better grasp on the weeks of pregnancy.  I am just over 16 weeks.  For those that like to think in months, that would be between 3.5 and 4 months.  I can't believe that I am this far already.  I still have a long ways to go, and for most people who look at me, they wouldn't know anything is different.  My tummy has grown a bit, but it is still pretty small.  I took this photo about a week ago. 

The nausea and fatigue of the first trimester have eased off.  These days I mostly feel hungry, a lot.  I try to make good choices, but my weight gain so far is around 2-3lbs, so not bad.  I really don't want to gain more than I should, because then it will just be extra weight to lose once the baby is here.

I have my anatomy scan scheduled for the 10th of March.  That is the ultrasound where they check to make sure all of the baby's organs are present and functioning as they should.  Because I have hyperthyroidism, they also plan to take a look on the ultrasound at baby's thryoid (amazing that they can see that as the baby is still pretty tiny at this point!).  We are also hoping to find out the sex of our baby.  I feel pretty strongly that it is a boy, and Jay has mentioned that he is thinking it is a girl.

I don't know if it's normal for most newly pregnant women, or maybe stronger for those who have struggled to get, or stay pregnant.  I feel like I am starting to feel anxious.  It has been almost two months since our last ultrasound, and almost a month since I heard the baby's heartbeat at my doctor's appointment, and I sometimes worry that something is wrong.  I still have pregnancy symptoms, and I am not bleeding, but when you are not growing noticeably on a daily basis an you can't feel regular movements inside, it can be hard to trust that things are going okay in there.  I think I might be starting to feel some light flutters in there, but I am never quite sure if it is the baby, or my imagination.  Hopefully soon I will start to feel some more noticeable movements and that will give me some reassurance until our ultrasound in a couple of weeks.     

West Coast Vacation - The drive home

When we started planning our trip, I was really concerned about all the driving.  I thought it would feel like a huge burden, and that Jay would be in really rough shape by the time we were done.  I think he was pretty sore after driving from Hinton to Vancouver, Vancouver to Seattle then from Seattle home, but not as bad as I had anticipated. 

We decided to break up the drive home into smaller portions so we weren't spending ten hours driving each day.  The first day we drove from Seattle to Spokane which was just over four hours.  The drive was probably the most boring stretch of driving we had.  Just outside of Seattle we were in the mountains, then within an hour we were out of the mountains and into sort of hilly, barren, boring driving (though we did have a laugh when we passed by a town called George, in Washington....It took me a moment to think George, Washington, in my mind, and then I started cracking up and finally Jay got it too, haha).   

When we got to Spokane we decided to check into our hotel right away, then go do a bit of shopping.  We stayed at a Quality Inn.  The staff was very friendly, and again, we had to get them to remove the bed frame but it was manageable for a night.  The hotel was quite noisy, with lots of people running and yelling in the hallways, but thankfully we just spent one night there.

In Spokane we checked out a Home Depot, Target, and Walmart.  Jay wanted to poke his nose into an American Home Depot store.  He was a little disappointed to see how much more stuff is available in their American stores, and similar products seemed to be a fair bit less expensive.  Neither of us had ever been in a Target store, so we wanted to see one of those down there.  I think it's kind of funny that we went into a Target, just weeks before we have two locations opening in Saskatoon.  I would say I was underwhelmed.  We did not spend a ton of time looking through all of the departments, but it really felt similar to Walmart or Zellers (though it was a lot less junky feeling than Zellers).  We ended up picking up a number of food items that we are unable to get in Canada. 

(Our American food stash including mint chocolate M and Ms, Reese and Cinnamon Toast Crunch muffin mixes, Andes mint chocolate baking chips, flavored almonds, mint and peanut butter Oreos, Red Vines licorice, Rotel tomatoes with green chilis, peanut butter and cookies n cream Pop Tarts, liquid stevia (natural sweetener), Baileys, vodka and Kahlua)

When we were done, we opted to go to the Olive Garden for supper.  They had a promotion on where you could get two entrees and either an appetizer or a dessert (from a set list of choices) for $25.  Not a bad deal.  We both really enjoyed our meals (especially the great salad and fresh bread sticks to start!).

The next day we drove from Spokane to Great Falls.  It was about a six hour drive, and most of it was through the mountains and it was really beautiful.  I especially enjoyed the area around Coeur D'alene.  Really beautiful mountains and a nice big lake.  And parts of Montana were really nice too.  At one point, I believe we were still in Idaho (I was surprised by the lack of signs indicating State lines), I needed to use the bathroom.  It seemed that each town would have signs along the highway indicating whether they had gas, restaurants, etc, so we pulled into the next town that indicated that it had a gas station.  When we pulled in, we drove down the main drag, it was a tiny litte dump of a town, and the gas station was closed.  And there didn't seem to be any other businesses at all.  So we carried on to the next down and the only business we saw was a dumpy little motel/convenience store with a sign on the door saying the bathroom was for customers only.  I went in and said 'I promise I will buy something, but I really need to use your bathroom.'  She let me do that, and I kept my promise and bought a package of MnMs :P

We stopped for lunch in Missoula, then carried on to Great Falls.  We got there shortly before supper time, and checked into our hotel.  It was not an ideal setup, but we only had one night to spend there, and at least the bed was a good height, so Jay could get in.  We decided to grab a quick supper at Applebee's, which was near the hotel and it was pretty lousy.  We went back to the hotel and just decided to go to bed fairly early.  The hotel was SO noisy!  With dogs barking, people yelling and doors slamming until all hours of the night, we were pretty cranky when we woke up. 

The next day we had another approximately six hour drive to get to Lac Pelletier, SK.  We felt like we had been spoiled with the better part of our trip being driven on divided highway.  Some of the highways we drove on from Missoula to Lac Pelletier were pretty narrow, and once we were back in Saskatchewan, some of them were in pretty sad shape.  We were again surprised at the lack of signage indicating the distance or direction to the border.  We kept coming over hills expecting to see the border crossing, and finally we got to the crossing.  It was such a tiny crossing, and the customs officer was much kinder than the one in BC was.  She asked us a few questions and we were on our way. 

 (I was really impressed with the quality of the highways in BC as well as in the States.  This was the first road in Saskatchewan once we crossed the border, not impressed.)

We got to Lac Pelletier by about one in the afternoon, and left by noon the next day.  The last three and a half hours home, went by surprisingly quickly.  It was nice to get home, but I had anticipated that we would be much more anxious to get home than we were.  It was good to see Kiwi, and she was so happy to see us!

 (Nice to see some familiar faces and drink some ice cold water.)

 (Nice relaxing time at the cabin.)

(If I am not mistaken, that is one big dog smile!)

West Coast Vacation - Seattle Day 4

Our last day in Seattle was the one that Jay was looking forward to the most, out of our whole holiday, I believe.  Initially, we had planned our holiday so that we could be in Seattle so we could attend Chase Jarvis Live.  It is an online broadcast that takes place about once/month, put on by one of Jay's favorite photographers, Chase Jarvis.  We were disappointed to learn that the broadcast had to be rescheduled, and would not take place while we were in Seattle.  We found this out before we left for our holiday.  However, the staff at the studio still invited us to come and meet them, and see the studio and even offered to feed us lunch.  On Tuesday we headed over there just before lunch time.

Everyone at the studio was so friendly, and they had this awesome barbecue lunch for us.  Jay was so thrilled to see the studio, and to meet the people he had seen on Chase Jarvis Live.  We also got to meet Chase's wife, Kate, who was really nice.  We spent a very nice hour and a half at the studio, and both really enjoyed ourselves.

 (The studio had lots of nice natural light.  And they opened up the big garage door and it was such a lovely day.  And they don't have to worry about bugs coming in.  It was so nice!)

 (Waiting for the sausages to be bbqed for lunch.)

 (Chase Jarvis staff with one happy Jason)

 (A couple of shots of the studio.  It was a nice place!)

 After we were done we headed down to Seattle Center to check out Chihuly Garden and Glass.  Seattle Centre is a large area downtown where the Space Needle is.  It has a number of museums and other sights to see as well.  We didn't wander around too much, but we did check out the glass museum and really enjoyed it.  It is a number of displays of hand made glass sculptures made by Dale Chihuly.  There are indoor galleries that are beautifully lit, to really accentuate the detailed glass, and there is an outdoor, garden portion, which was neat as well.

 (Unique sculpture next to where we parked.)

 (Amazing hand made glass sculpture.  It musth ave been at least 10-15 feet tall.)

 (This room was so pretty.  The colourful glass in the ceiling, with lights shone through made the prettiest colourful light in that room.)

 (Such intricate detail.)

 (I stood next to this one to give some perspective on how large these chandeliers are.)

 (These bowls had such neat, swirled colour that almost looked like glowing lava.  Initially I thought that the light was inside the bowl, shining through, but in fact it was a spot light on the ceiling that made it glow.)

 (Got a shot of a bee!)

 (Such a nice contrast of colours.  The black part was all these little plants with black leaves.)

 (I photobombed Jay when he was taking a picture, haha)

 (The green thing was also a glass sculpture!  Almost looked like a plant.)

 (This sculpture made me think of rock candy.)

 (This building was the EMP museum.  I believe it is a music and pop culture museum.  Very unique looking.  We didn't go inside.)

After we were done here, we headed back toward our hotel.  We decided to try one more restaurant on the quaint little street in Kirkland where we had eaten at Cactus, Cafe Rococo, and this evening we went to a Thai restaurant called Lai Thai.  Jay enjoyed a nice curry and I had some pad thai.  It was a delicious way to bring an end to our time in Seattle/Kirkland.  

 (We noticed this condo building on Lake Washington on our way to supper and thought it was neat.)

(Supper at Lai Thai in Kirkland.)