2 hours of quiet.....

Emma (Meaghan & Luke's little lady) is down for her daily two-hour nap and I have a couple of quiet hours ahead of me - ahhhhhhhhh..so nice! Winston is snuggled into my side and the living room floor is visible because Dora and all her Dora like accessories have gone into a bag for the next couple of hours.

We've had a really fun couple of days - a walk to the park, playtime at Jess, Kylie & Allie's, a bath, a delicious dinner that Emma LOVED, a trip to Dollarama for some crafts, a poop in the Superstore, both of us trying on the pregnant belly at Thyme Maternity (wish I had a camera), lunch at a McDonald's with a Playland (a big deal apparently); and oh - enough Dora the Explorer to last me a lifetime. She is OBSESSED with that show and anything else that has to do with it. If I never see Boots, the Map or the Backpack again I'll be more than ok with it.

Lastnight after I put Emma to bed, Alex and I took a quick break and laid down in our room before we went back downstairs for the rest of the night. We noticed that my belly has actually popped! Before when I was laying down my belly would retreat behind my ribs but not anymore!! Even when I tried to suck it in it wasn't going anywhere. WAHOO!! Super exciting - the belly has begun!

Still feeling great - no kicks or anything from the wee one but man my gas is BRUUUUUTAL!! You'd think I'd been eating a diet that strictly contained soft cheeses. LOL. Mmmm....

Thursday morning rant..

So this morning I am really annoyed that I am not showing really. I am damn sick of this "thick in the middle" stage (this is what all the preggo books and websites call it) and am SO ready for a little basketball belly.

Do you know how much it sucks just looking like you've gained a bunch of weight for no reason?

Granted, as soon as people find out I'm pregnant it'll be a different storey but I am so wondering what my co-workers think when they see how big my midsection has gotten. I went and got a haircut yesterday and my hairdresser said it would be obvious to anyone who had been pregnant before what was going on because my boobs are huge and she said you can see by the way that my stomach is expanding that it's for a baby and not filled with fat.

When I look down the center of my belly (through the center of my ginormous chesticles) I can blatantly see my belly protruding from my ribs down to my pubic bone about 2 inches out from either side of my belly button. It's not by a ton but it's definitely not what I would normally see when I look down. So I guess it's starting. I hope I'm not one of those people who carry evenly in the center because you don't look pregnant for quite a while if that's the case (apparently you can carry high, mid or low then center or wide). Centre and mid is the worst for showing early but is great later on.

Anywho...next thing. My dreams. My dreams are NUTS! Not last night but the night before I had a dream that I gave birth to the baby but that it was so small that instead of putting it in one of those warm incubation beds they put the baby in a water bottle (with a small amount of water in it like it was in the womb) and then they had screwed off the top of the bottle almost fully (just one little notch left holding the lid on) and every time the baby took a breath the lid would open and close. Alex was holding the bottle baby in his hand like "no big deal" and I was absolutely freaking out in the hospital bed. "Why is my baby in a bottle" "Why is their water in the bottle" "How did you get my baby in that bottle!?!?". FKUCED.

Oh ya! Then last night I had a dream that one day I woke up and overnight all my hip stretch marks from puberty had turned purple again and climbed up my belly to meet in the center. Sounds beautiful eh?

As you can see I'm not getting much sleep lately. To top it all off Winston is like a leech on me lately and he's been creeping up onto the bed and sleeping in whatever crevice I have available at the time so I can't really move for the rest of the night. I don't want to kick him out though because he's obviously chilly on the floor and that's why he wants to snuggle.

Ok, rant complete. Have a nice day!

PS - if you're bored check out this lady's blog, hilarious: http://www.pregnantchicken.com/pregnant-chicken-blog/2010/12/10/awkward-pregnancy-photos.html

The cool stuff is happening!!

I am so EXCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITED!!

On Thursday December 2 I had my first midwife appointment. My uterus is up over the pubic bone (a good thing) and she used this doppler thing to see if she could find the heartbeat. She told me to not get my hopes up because it's still early and as soon as she put the thingy on my belly we heard the bebe!! Her/his rate is 155 bpm (which is somewhat fast).
There are old wives tales that say if the heart rate is over 140 bpm then you're having a girl, if under, then a boy.

This seems like a good time to say I would love to have a little Miss Olivia Powell or a little mister Keaton Powell or William Powell - Alex likes both but isn't 100% sure. Olivia is a done deal because that's been my fav. name for a good 5 years. Middle names will likely be family members, I'm thinking either Elizabeth or Vivian for girls and Thomas for a boy.
WAHOOO!

Lastly, I had my 12 week ultrasound on December 6th and I've attached pictures. The wee one was about 5.5 cm long (head to rump - so not including arms and legs). It was so cool. The in person pictures are much better but I'm sure up top you saw the scanned copies which don't do the originals justice.

3 months!

I'm almost 3 months (will be on Friday) and I'm eagerly awaiting posting my "held" blogs now that I'll be out of the woods in terms of miscarriage likelihood.

I'm still pretty tired but not half as much as I was in the super early stages of pregnancy. Friday's are my worst nights - I have a hard time staying up past 8 p.m. This past Friday we had Jo and Rob over for dinner (Alex's idea) and my eyes were literally burning they were so sleepy by 9:00 p.m.

Still no morning sickness which is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G however, it's allowing me to be one hungry girl!

The last time I went to the doctors (Nov. 18) I'd only gained 3 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight (133 lbs) but I definitely felt thicker in the middle and I 100% was because I can't do my top button up on my jeans anymore. I bought a white bella band and Tara gave me a black one so I've been wearing those over my pants with the top button and some of the fly undone so it's more comfy. My favourite foods are: anything that isn't healthy. This includes: pizza, ice cream, chocolate, fries, chicken fingers etc. Can you say gross? I am guessing I'm probably up about 5 lbs since my last appointment. Last night my Mom and I stopped at Baskin Robbins for some ice cream...I highly recommend the feature flavour "Gingerbread" MMMmmmm....

I have to admit it's really hard at this stage when you just look fatter than normal and definitely do not look pregnant. The worst part is that you are just fatter and it's not the baby since the baby is only the size of a thumb right now. It's got EVERY single part of it's body that it needs right now at this size and really is only getting stronger bones, growing and putting on meat until birth. Isn't that crazy!??! My whole life I've been small-ish to normal size and now I'm packing it on. Even though I know it's pregnancy related it's still hard to bear when you can't do your pants up!

My dreams are 1) insane and 2) extremely vivid. So far, I've dated the counsellor from Newlywed Nearly Dead, fought a warthog for my picnic items, lost my wedding rings and found them again and umm...I can't remember the others but they're ridiculous (I wake up Alex to tell him about them so if you would like to know more I'd suggest talking to him since my preggo brain is in full effect).

On Saturday afternoon (11 weeks, 1 day pregnant) after being out all afternoon I came home and laid in bed for a couple of hours and couldn't fall asleep. I laid their with my hands on my lower abdomen just above my pubic bone and slightly pushed into my tummy. After about 1/2 an hour I felt a little "thump" which I think was a body roll or something. It definetly wasn't gas because I could feel that for most of the half hour and it was bubbly and grumbly (as gas usually is!) It was SO exciting and totally made my day.

What else? Mom & Dad have been doting on me which is really nice! My Dad calls every couple of days to see how I'm feeling and my Mom, well she's being the awesome Mom that she always is. Alex has been a dream for the most part. I did get in trouble for spazzing and then not apologizing which I promised to work on and other than that's he's been great. He is definetly taking advantage of my bad food cravings though and I'm afraid he might end up looking 9 months pregnant at the end of my pregnancy too. LOL.

Ok, that's all for now!

xo Jenn

sleepy and moody

Holla!

I have been ever so blessed not having any sickness during the first 6 weeks of my pregnancy (fingers crossed that continues). I think I would have a melt down if I felt nauseous constantly - you all know this girl loves to eat!

What I have been dealt is EXTREME tiredness and I'm a little moodier than normal.
The extreme tiredness probably has something to do with teaching Pilates and working, but the tough part is Pilates gives me energy after I'm doing it, just not inbetween.
I've been so pooped that I've been getting into bed as soon as I get home (usually between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m.) and reading until I pass out. I then sleep through my alarm and wake up at 7:45 a.m. and have 30 minutes to get out of the house. GOOD TIMES!! LOL. I also left work early one day to go home and nap. I just couldn't bare another 5 hours at work! It also helped that Alex had that day off and we'd gone to get an ultrasound that morning (we saw the heart beat and a bunch of weird sacks like the yolk sac - creepy).

The moodiness thankfully has mostly been aimed at my co-workers and more specifically in team meetings when everyone is bantering back and forth about something that is easily fixed. Let me tell you - pregnant women do not like nonsense - get to the point and get to it NOW!!!!!

I had a bit of an outburst at my last team meeting where after 10 minutes of people yacking I finally said something along the lines of "So to get back to the point of the conversation, wouldn't everything be fixed if we just all did this (no need to explain the issue) rather than complaining about it for 10 minute and not getting anywhere?" my boss then said "is everyone ok with that?" and everyone else said "umm..ya, that would work" and shut-up.
HA!

I felt great as soon as I released the beast that had been boiling up inside me but when I looked up I could see some hurt/puzzled faces amongst the group.

Did I care at the time? Not at all.
Did I care a little later on? Yes.
Did I apologize? Hell, no.

I figure once I tell people that I'm expecting they'll all go "ohhhhhh" about my recent behaviour.
I hope so anyways..or they're going to think I turned into so bia-tch.

xo
Jenn

It's official....we're pregnant!

Creepy picture eh? I sure hope the teeth don't look like that - all knarled and what not.
But mostly, YAY!

So here's how it went down:

For about a two weeks I'd been getting cramps but no period. I thought I was getting my period and it was late. No one ever told me that your uterus hurts and that the first signs of pregnancy are pretty much the same as the ones that you get just before your period i.e. - sore boobs, hungry, cramps, sleepy.

My Gramma Viv gave me a dollar store pregnancy test that her girlfriends bought her as a gag for her 75th birthday. On Thursday, October 14 in the a.m. before I left for my school visits Alex and I pulled out that test and followed the directions. It was supposed to take 1-3 minutes for the second line to show up on the test if it was "positive". After about 5 minutes it showed up, so Alex and I took it as a maybe and decided to try again on Monday, October 18 before work.
Alex was convinced I was pregnant but I just thought I'd know and that I'd be able to feel it somehow because I'd heard that people who are in tune with their bodies "just know" when they are and I thought I'd be one of those people.

Anywho, on Saturday we had an engagement party for Scotty and Jenna in London, ON and while the boys were in picking up beer Jolene and I decided that when we went into Loblaws to get their congratulations on your engagement cards, that we should also pick up an official test so that if it was negative I could still participate in the party and if it was positive I wouldn't be torn on how to behave that night.

So long storey short after a quick pee in the London Loblaws washroom it was official! When Jo and I got back into the car I pulled the test out and passed it to Alex in the back of the car acting like it was the card for him to sign - he got a huge grin on his face and was super excited and so was I.

Note: In the future I will not be peeing on sticks in Loblaws...I will do it at home with Alex because it wasn't very nice that he found out after Jo.

So now it's Monday, October 18 and I've called and made an appointment to have the first blood work done and then I guess I'll find out what happens next. I think the first day of my last period was September 9 so that would mean I'll be due at the end of June 2011. Anything born before June 19 is a Gemini and anything after a Cancer. So that means I'm about 5 weeks pregnant (or in my 6th week)!

I've also been hunting on the internet and know the following about the baby:

• It is the size of an orange seed and mostly resembles a tad pole (including a tail)


• There are "buds" where the arms and legs will be;


• The major organs are being developed;


• Facial features could already be forming;


• The heart will start to beat this week but won't be detectable for another 2 or so;


• It is 75% likely the baby will have green eyes and 25% likely it'll have blue ones;


• The next 5 weeks are the most critical in the babies development; and


• I can't do too many of my Pilates moves and I'm going to have to start cueing and walking around rather than demonstrating.

Lastly, Alex and I talked about it and we're not finding out what we're having until he or she pops out it's way more fun to have a surprise!!

Don't worry - I won't be having a shower until after the baby is born so everything won't be yellow and green. :-)

xo Jenn

17 days til Christmas!

Can you believe it?

On Sunday morning we got most of our Chirstmas shopping done and only have a few straggling gifts to buy.

We put our tree up on Saturday afternoon and I decorated for a couple of hours and it looked (yes, past tense) FABULOUS! Luckily my side of the family came over for dinner and they got to see it in all it's beautiful, full & twinkling glory. On Monday afternoon that all came to a "crashing" halt.

Sir Winston Stanley Powell was left out for 1 hour (TOPS) while Alex and I went to an appointment. As we were walking back home I mentioned something about wondering the stauts of the tree and Alex doubled his pace and I had to basically run to keep up with him. When we walked up to the house Alex said "the tree is down" I said "Noooooooooooo....." and sure enough, we walked into see a tree on the ground, smashed glass ornaments, a few chewed non-glass ones & a big bright red stain in the middle of the carpet right on top of a white flower and a very, very shameful looking puppy who was cowering and shaking knowing that he was dead meat.

Let's just say I didn't look at him or talk to him for the rest of the night. BRAT!! I do get it though - why play with his boring toys when he can attack a big sparkling stick?

So the tree is a little more bare than I'd like (Alex likes it better) and it's back to the best it can be without starting over from scratch which I was tempted to do. I'm going to try to pick up the last few prezzies this week and start wrapping this weekend and then we're alllll ready!! I think this is a record for me.

1,2,3,4,5,6 - SWITCH!

I'm not going to bore anyone with the details of why I've been bored at work the last couple of weeks (the obvious is lack of work).

My question is, what can I do?

In terms of real work, I've made up projects for myself at work that I've already completed. I've packed for a building move that is 3 weeks away, I've emailed my co-workers to see if anyone has any work they'd like me to do for them and NOTHING.

I can't check my emails when they're already checked, I can't spend my day on Facebook or I'll get fired (I assume), I don't feel like researching anything imparticular on the internet.

I just emailed my boss to see if I could take some lieu time this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon because I'm so bored. What a waste but I honestly can't sit here for much longer twiddling my thumbs.

HELP! Ideas? Anything?!?!?!?!