30 weeks 1 day...

Lets start this post off with a picture. Here I am at 30 weeks 1 day (today- apparently the date is off on my camera). I'm feeling a little bloated and swollen... not sure if its because I didnt' get my usual amount of water in, or if its the Chinese Food we had tonight!! LOL...

I really over did it on Sunday with the cleaning of the loft. I actually had to call into work because I couldn't move Monday morning. I spent the entire morning in bed, which felt good because nobody was home, but my back and right leg were killing me. Things have finally gotten better, and the pain level is bareable. I see Dr. Pat the Chiropractor tomorrow.... which should get me feeling pretty good for the long weekend.

My sister Jennifer asked if I'd come and clean her place... I had to laugh. I started my loft job, and haven't quite finished it. I'm nearly there, however this has turned into me wanting to buy a nice little bookcase and a new desk for in here. Its all about organization. Today I went to Home Depot and picked up the bookcase for Anika's room along with a closet organizer for her closet. If it works in there then we will put one in the baby's room. I can't wait to get it together... maybe this weekend.

My Mom, Anika and I are going shopping on Saturday to pick out the fabric for the baby's duvet cover, glider rock cushion cover, bumper pad, and if we can find something nice, maybe a crib skirt and a panel curtain in a nice crepe material.

Today I made it official in writing... my last day at work is October 5th, I will then have 2 weeks of holidays, then start my Mat leave October 22nd. I can't wait....

25 days of work left!!! ;)

Hello.... NESTING!

On Tuesday I will hit 30 weeks.... This past Friday it hit me like a ton of bricks that this little baby girl could be here in 8 weeks!!! 8 WEEKS!!! Holy Crap! I am not ready for this at all. At the same time that this bag of bricks hit me, I had the sudden urge to start cleaning and organizing things. For those that know me well... I HATE TO CLEAN. This must have come from all the cleaning I had to do as a child. Maybe I should rephrase that before my Mother calls me wondering which world I'm living in... or lived in when I was a child. I enjoyed cleaning when I was a kid. Aside from being a Christmas Wrapper at the mall, I though being a cleaning lady would be a great job when I got older. Hah! LOL

Well.. I started my organizing frenzie in our ensuite bathroom. We don't have any drawers in the cabinet under the sink, so rather than buying a new cabinet (which would have turned into new flooring, sink, light fixture etc), I bought a nice whicker 4 drawer unit at Jysk! I love it. I have everything in there that I use on a regular basis. This will free up my little bit of counter that I have, and give me room to put my towels under the sink.... rather than in the linen closet... which I'm going to organize for something else! Don'tcha love the way this little project is leading to another, then another, then another. Today I started cleaning the loft. This is where our computer is... and it has become a dumping ground for every piece of paper that enters this house, from Bills, to receipts, to appointment reminders, to books etc. Adrian went out today and bought me a paper shredder to start going through 4 boxes of crap.... we were living in a paper mess... huge amount of clutter. I have been shredding most of the afternoon. Once we get this space organized, we are going to move everything that is in the spare bedroom out, which includes... a single bed, dresser, night stand, 5 rubbermaid containers of clothes that don't fit Anika (Nic, if you read this let me know when I can get some clothes to you to take to the agency... ). Adrian started this room today, but we have storage issues in our house, and right now, until we paint will have to move all this stuff into the loft (once cleaned and organized), so that we can paint. Once the bedroom is painted, we can move the crib, change table, dresser etc into the baby's room, and move the single bed, dresser and night stand down into the basement.

Then comes Anika's room. We need to get her a closet organizer and bookcase. We found both at Home Depot, so that will happen once we get the baby's room done, as one of the dressers from her room is going into the baby's room, which will make room for the bookcase.

I also have to go through crates of clothes. Being the pack rats that we are, I have kept almost everything of Anika's in terms of clothing. I'm going to go through and pick out 4-5 outfits that we really like, the rest will go on consignment, or if they won't take them, hopefully to the adoption agency that our good friends Paul and Nic are using, to be sent to the kids in the Ukraine, or neighboring countries.

Have I mentioned that I only have
29 more days of work left??
LOL...

Anyways.. I must run. I'd like to get a little more shredding done... tomorrow is garbage day!!!

I have a Dr's appointment with my OB on Friday... August 31st. I will be discussing with him my sciatica problems and see what he recommends. I have been seening Dr. Pat the Chiropractor (if you live in Winnipeg and need a really good Chiro, see him.. he's at Chenier Chiropractic). I do feel much better after seeing him, but it only last about 2 days... then I'm back in pain... which makes it hard to sit, stand or walk... then my next Fetal Assessment is September 10th.

28 weeks 4 days...

Here I am at 28 weeks 4 days...

Pain in the ass...

Ok.. I have never felt pain like I have the past 12 hours.... this damn nerve...

I slept terrible last night.. couldn't find a position that was comfortable that would give me some relief I tossed and turned all night, only to fall asleep just before 4:30am... my alarm goes off at 5:45. AGHHHH...

I made it through work until 3pm when I called it quits... I couldn't stand the pain anymore. I can't sit for more than 5 minutes... can't stand without leaning up against something... and can't walk without a limp. I came home and snuggled up into bed...slept until 6:00, then hobbled down for dinner. I don't have much of an appetite which could be why I've lost 3-4lbs this past week and a half... or it could be stress. I don't know.

I think tomorrow I'm going to call the Dr and see what he suggests. I will try anything at this point. I'm going for a long hot shower and then going to bed with the heating pad.... something has to give.

Long Over Due Update

I haven't updated in a while... bad bad me!!! LOL

Lets see...

We went to Edmonton and had a really great time! The weather was great, spent 4 nights with my sister and her family and 3 nights with my Aunt. Anika was spoiled rotten, but really who couldn't spoil her?? LOL... I think that was her goal when she went out there. We celebrated her birthday about 3 times while we were out there.

I'll post some pics when I get a moment to upload them to the site....

Good friends of ours, Chris and Wendy Strachan had a beautiful baby boy about a week and a half ago... Liam Christopher Strachan is the sweetest little thing you have ever seen...
Here's a picture of him with his older brother Connor... Sweet eh??

I hope Anika is as proud of her little sister.... (yes ~ I said sister)... as Connor is of Liam. He really love's his little brother :)

It seems weird telling everyone that we are having a girl. Most people know but there are a few people who didn't want to know what we were having. Chris and Wendy didn't want to know but accidently found out from a friend who let it slip. No biggie... its not like we weren't telling people.

My sciatica has been quite bad lately. I seem to have 1 good day then progressivly 2-3 really bad days where I have really fight to get through the day. I'm not sure at what point I should call my Dr to see what he suggests but I'm almost at the point that its unbearable.

I did meet my OB... Dr. Awadalla, and love him. I can't remember if I posted about him so I apologize in advance if I have. He isn't too concerned about my placenta issue at the moment. He said that I have to take it easy and lead as stress-free of a life as possible. LOL... Oh - Ok... I am trying my hardest to keep things stress free, and Adrian and Anika have been wonderful in helping me achieve that. My next OB appointment is August 31st, then my next fetal assessment is Sept 10th... then I see Dr. Awa on Sept 14th (or somewhere in around there). Please keep us in your thoughts and hope that my placenta has moved up and that my sciatic nerve eases up.

I had my Gestational Diabetes Test today. If you don't know what this is about... you have to drink this orange drink that tastes like McDonald's Orange Drink that is all hopped up with EXTRA SUGAR... then you wait an hour and they take your blood and test it to see what your body does with that sugar. I felt like hell after I had the test.... 15 minutes after finishing the drink the baby was on a wild high. She was moving around, punching and kicking up a storm. After my blood was taken, I felt like I could take a week long nap... must have been coming down from the sugar high. I guess I will know if I passed when I have my Dr's appointment... another thing to pray for....
Otherwise.. our babygirl is very active and is a night owl. She loves to play at night. Once I get my camera charged I will see if I can get video of my belly when I lay down.... She goes absolutely nuts!! LOL

Oh.. and I forgot the most important thing of all... As of 5pm today... I have

37 days of work left

(I think)... LOL

26 weeks 4 days...

Today was my nephew Micah's 5th Birthday. When we arrived to pick Anika up, Danielle my sister was painting the kids faces... so she asked if she could do my belly!! So here I am at 26 week 4 days...

And a close up of the design Danielle did...

One step forward... a few steps back...

I am 24 weeks today. Time is flying by... 6 months already!

I had my 2nd fetal assessment today. Things aren't looking any better with my placenta. It is still very low. Hasn't moved up like they had hoped. The nurse who did my fetal assessment was amazing. I wish I knew her name. She showed me the baby's head, face, spine, belly, heart, bladder, legs, hands and feet. We even went to take a peek at the baby's sex to make sure nothing had changed LOL... its still the same. Then she went down towards my pelvic bone with the wand and wasn't happy with what she saw. At the angle she was looking at, she couldn't tell if the placenta was over the cervix or just up next to it. The baby's head was resting on it, covering it up a wee bit. She said it definately was low, and by looking at my chart from the last fetal assessment it hadn't moved up. We got talking about holidays, and family and I told her that we were leaving on Thursday for Edmonton to visit my family. She asked if my Dr. knew that I was going out of town. To be honest... I'm not even sure that it came up when I saw Dr. Visch last, and I don't see Dr. Awadalla until July 30th, so probably not. Besides, I booked this trip back at the beginning of May. She said with where my placenta was sitting, she would say no travelling out of the city for me... for fear of a hemorhage. WHAT??????????????????????? You've got to be kidding me. I was sooo sad. Sad that I was going to miss Anika's 5th birthday ~ her party in Edmonton was something she has been talking about for weeks. How could this be happening??? By this time I had tears running down my face. My baby was fine ~ she reassured me the baby was fine, even showed me a 4D photo of the baby's face (very cool I might add), it was just that my body wasn't cooperating.... figures! She decided to call Dr. Reid, to have him come and do a vaginal u/s to see if he could get a better angle on it. I had to wait in the waiting area so they could get the room ready and wait for Dr. Reid. I'm sure it was obvious that I had been in tears. There were 3 other couples and me... I'm sure they were all wondering what was going on. Dr. Reid came in and soon I was back in the room having another u/s done. A few minutes seemed like forever. Nobody said a word. All that raced through my mind was "this can't be good". The tears started again. I tried really hard to hold everything back. Dr. Reid then said "get yourself cleaned up and dressed and I'll be back in to talk to you." All that was racing through my mind was... why didn't I get Adrian to come with me. He would have, but I figured everything was going to be ok, so I told him not to bother missing work for this. CRAP CRAP CRAP... not a time when I wanted to be alone. A few minutes more and Dr. Reid was back in the room with his pad of paper and pen. He drew me a picture of my uterus, with the baby in it, and the placenta. He said he didn't think it was covering the cervix but he did say it was less than a centimeter away. They prefer it to be 2 cm or more away from the cervix. He said that they are going to monitor me and that if I have any spotting or bleeding to come straight to the hospital. He then said he didn't thinkI'd be in any great danger to travel, so I could go on my holiday. OMG OMG OMG... I get to be with my baby when she turns 5!!!!! I go back to have another fetal assessment done in 8 weeks.. September 10th to be exact. My holiday is going to be very special. This will be the last one for quite a while. We are going to relax and really enjoy ourselves... isn't that what holidays are for??

Now... the baby is nearly 12" long and 1 3/4lbs. If the baby continues on this path, it will be much bigger than Anika was at birth... 5lbs 4oz!!

21 Week Dr's Appointment

I had my last Dr's appointment with my GP this past Monday. I was very sad to see the scale move in the upward motion of SEVEN POUNDS!!!! Jesus Murphy! That is way too much to gain in a 4-5 week period! sigh... Must be the chocolate that I was addicted to... Anika now thinks that my Dr. has said NO MORE CHOCOLATE!! lol

However everything is looking really good. The heartbeat is 149 beats per minute.. my blood pressure was good, and again the only concern is the placent being small and low.

My next appointment is when we get back from holidays with Dr. Awadalla, who will be my OB and hopefully deliver the baby.

Our Fetal Assessment - 20 weeks 1 day...

We had our fetal assessment last week, Wednesday.

Everything seems to be going really good. The baby was quite active again during the assessment. We were able to take a good look at the baby's face, especially the lips and they look good. We also took a look at the brain and the heart. Both look really good too. The only problem that they are going to monitor is that my placenta is small and low. This could cause a problem down the road called placenta previa. If in fact that is what this is, I maybe put on bed rest for the balance of my pregnancy. The technician asked if I have had any spotting or bleeding and I haven't so she said this is good. I have another Fetal Assessment on July 17th to see if the placenta has moved up.

Oh.. and for those of you who are wondering if we found out what we are having... yes we did... however most people don't want to know so we are going to keep it a secret as long as we can!

Here is a picture of me just before we left for the fetal assessement... I'm definately not thick any more.. I'm definately pregnant!

Hello.... Time for a big update...

Life has been hectic!

Between Anika's dance recital, and soccer finishing up... we now have time to live :)

Anika's dance recital was awesome. They did so well! We are such proud parents. Since September, Anika has been taking a dance class called "Little Ballerina's" at the Royal Dance Conservatory. They started out with 5 little girls and ended the season with only 3 of them. At the recital I found out that the 2 other girls in Anika's group were both just turning 7 years old! My poor Anika isn't even 5 yet! Considering this was her first year in dance, she did well. Many of you have heard the story of Anika not having any grace, and that we thought she'd probably stick to sports. But now we are second guessing ourselves. She was the ugly duckling that turned into the swan. It was awesome to watch!!

Here are a couple of pictures from the night of her recital...

Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen??

The big thing after the dance recital was that Anika wanted to get her hair cut!! We have talked lots about this, but her hair is so thick and is such a rats nest when she gets up in the morning that we usually end up leaving the house in the morning with her in tears because it hurts when we brush it. So after soccer last Tuesday we head to the hairdresser and off came about 6 inches. When she was getting it cut, I asked her "What's Grandma going to say??" her response... "Noooooooooo!!!!!" LOL!!

Here she is...

Soccer is now finished. We had our wind-up picnic at St.Vital Park tonight. It was great! The kids had a lot of fun. 2 of the boys on her team are going to be in her kindergarden class. Tuesdays game was the best game Anika played. Most nights that she played she lost interest half way through and complained that her belly was hurting. After the game she got a team picture and a medal. She is so proud of her first medal.. and its even engraved with her team name and HER name!!! I'll post a picture as soon as I get it moved over from my work computer to my home computer.

On the fence...

Well.. we are 8 sleeps away from the possiblilty of finding out the sex of the baby.

I am soooo on the fence about this. Deep down I think I want to know... but there are only so many "true" surprises in life and this is one of them.

Adrian really wants to know. Anika doesn't want to know. I'm 50/50. We asked if she'd like to come with us to the appointment to "see" the baby on the computer screen and she said no. This kids got will power.

Please leave us a comment or email us at anika1@mts.net, and let us know what you think. Should we find out... should we wait....

Time is ticking away... I don't know what to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Me... Yesterday :)

THIRTY - FIVE!!!! EEEEEEEKKKKK

Deep breath. Yes. This one was hard. Not sure why, but maybe because my lovely "much older" sister, reminded me that I'm closer to 40 than I am to 30. That sucks!!

I had a pretty good day. Woke up early - about 5:45 and got ready for work... had some breakfast, and slipped out the door at 7:15 without waking Adrian and Anika.... WOOOOHOOOO!! I then met Adrian, Anika and my Mom for lunch at this little Vietnamese Restaurant called Vietnamese Garden. It was nice to get away from the office... I rarely have time to take a good hour out of my day.... so I did it without feeling guilty. I opened a few presents and cards then headed back to chaos. Adrian and Anika picked me up from work about 4:20 only to fly home get Anika suited up in her dance costume and get her to her mini dress rehersal for 5:30. Adrian and I ran a few errands then headed back to see how things were going at 6:30 and found out that she was done so we were going to go to Earls for some snacks and maybe watch a little bit of the hockey game, but it was packed, so we headed to Safeway and picked up some cake... YUMMMMMM CAKE FOR DINNER!!!

We each had a piece (Anika had Carrot Cake, I had German Chocolate Cake, and Adrian had a little slice of both), then tried to get Anika into bed. We all know how well she does on sugar... so our normal 15 minute bed time routine lasted about 1 1/2 hours!!!

So here I am... 35 and 1 day old.... and pregnant. When I turned 30 I was pregnant with Anika. I told Adrian there was no way I was planning on being pregnant when I turned 40. I want a big party... one far far away, so he had better start planning and saving now. Maybe a holiday in Europe or the Carribbean. I think I might deserve that???

Thank you to everyone who called, sent a card and bought me a little gift. You are wonderful friends and family :)

Hugs to you all!

18 weeks - Baby Facts...

Our little one is nearly half a pound now and very human looking. Pads are forming on the fingertips and toes, and the eyes are looking forward rather than out the sides of the head. Meconium, the baby's first bowel movement, is accumulating within the bowel. If your baby is a boy, his prostate gland is beginning to develop.
If you notice your belly making jerky movements in sync, don't panic; your baby may have the hiccups!

4 Month Appointment

I had my 4 month appointment yesterday (Monday) and all went well. Anika was with me and she chatted up my Dr. like she had know her all her life. She was even excited to hear the baby's heartbeat. My blood pressure was good (not sure of the numbers), as was the baby's heartbeat. My Dr. said something about it being very strong and something about 33. I'm wondering if that was 33 beats in 15 seconds.. if so that would make the heart rate at 132 bpm.... which in theory says boy! I am on the fence at which gender I would prefer. It would be nice to have a boy here, perhaps with a little less attitude than my first child. When we were in Grand Forks a few weeks ago, Anika and I were watching the Cosby Show. When I told her that I used to watch this when I was little, she asked me if it was in black and white!!! Ok.. I'm old.. but not that old. Adrian had a good laugh until I gave him the evil eye to shut up!! LOL. Ok.. back to my appointment. I had to give a urine sample at the end, and Anika thought that was pretty funny.. that I had to pee in a little jar. Because it was just the 2 of us, I had to take her into the bathroom with me, so of course she had to be in the front row and watch... I'm sure she told everyone at daycare today all about Mommy pee'n in a jar! I have blood work to be done tomorrow, then my next appointment is my fetal assessment on June 20th... its at that appointment we might find out what we are having. Its still a big debate in our house. Please leave us a comment on whether or not we should find out what we are having.

I gotta run... I'm pooped tired from working on the site bringing it up to date.

I hope you all enjoy reading.... Here is a picture of me last week...

Oh.. Kim - thanks for the name suggestions... I'm going to post them once I get a free moment at work ;)

Teddy Bear's Picnic....

We went to the Teddy Bear's Picnic in support of the Children's Hospital on Sunday, May 27th. Anika had a blast. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, blue sky and sunny all afternoon.

We got to the shuttle drop off point at 12:30 and got to the park about 12:45... enough time to get ourselves settled in to see the Little Bear show. For those of you who don't know who Little Bear is, this is a program Anika watches faithfully on Treehouse. This was or I think Anika thought would be the highlight of the day... little did she know what would come after...

Here is a little video of our day at the park...

Alexandra's 3rd Birthday....

Oh man did Anika have a good time at this birthday party... how could a child that loves pets as much as Anika not enjoy a PETTING FARM????

Grand Forks.. May Long Weekend

We had a great time in Grand Forks. Did some shopping, bought Anika her summer wardrobe, Adrian some clothes, and myself.. I found a cute pair of jeans at Old Navy and 4 tank tops. I tell ya, finding nice clothes when you are pregnant is next to impossible unless you want to spend an arm and a leg. What I'd really like to find is a nice linen A-line skirt... is that too much to ask... maybe in a nice chocolate brown color but nothing... grrrrrrr.

Anika had a blast at the new hotel... Canada Inns Grand Forks. She swam and did the water slides all afternoon on Saturday. After Mommy gave her a little "push" down the slides, so that she'd go on her own, there was no turning back. She must have gone up and down the slides 50 times on her own.... oh.. it wasn't just Mommy pushing her down... it was the $20 she would get if she started to go up and down the slides on her own! She enjoyed them so much that when she was supposed to be playing in the little kiddie pool under the watchful eye of Angela, with Amber and Alexandra, she decided that those slides weren't good enough for her so she wandered off to the big slides... which gave us all a heart attack because we couldn't find her. With the help of one of the life guards, we found her... when I asked her where she was ~ "I was sliding Mommy... all by myself!"

Lesson learned... my child is now going to wear the ugliest bathing suit out there.... no more cute pink and purple tankini's. When the life guard asked me to describe her ~ she is 5 years old... blonde hair in a braid, wearing a pink and purple bikini.... He then proceeded to ask me if 20 other 5 year old little girls were her!

Anyways... we had a good weekend, even tho the hotel service kinda sucked... we will be back, probably September long weekend :)

Here are a couple pics from the waterpark. I didn't have my camera at the waterpark to much... so there are only a few pictures...

At the top of this picture you can see a big bucket

that is being filled with water....

This picture is from the front of the above picture.

You can see people waiting to see what is going to happen....

This picture is when that big bucket at the top dumps

gallons of water on the people below.

We saw one little girl lose her bathing suit bottoms,

and a couple other smaller kids get washed up like a tidal wave had hit...

Everytime it dumped Anika nearly pooped her pants.

We all know how much Anika likes getting water on her face!!!

As promised...

I promised a few people that I would post a picture of Anika and her husband... Garrett. She claims that they aren't married but they sure act like they are... arguing and telling each other they don't want to play with one another but the next minute can't wait to get outside and play together at the park.

Ironically... Anika's first soccer game was agains Garrett's team....

Friends and Family... meet Garrett! I love the fact that in both pictures he is grabbing his crotch... do you think Ted and Lil's first picture was like this???

A little behind...

I apologize.. I'm a little behind in my updates....

I'm going to seperate the events that have been going on over the past couple of weeks in a few different posts...

15 weeks 1 day....

Well... we are almost 4 months along. I have been feeling pretty good. Nausea for the most part is done, but still have a few adversions. One in particular is fish. A few weeks ago Adrian made salmon and it looked really good, and I'm sure it tasted really good, but could only do a couple of tastes... that was it. The other thing is when we roast a chicken. Can't touch the meat, nor cut it off the bone. YUCK. Still loving all the fresh fruit I can get my hands on... Watermelon, Pineapple, Apples, Bananas, Oranges, Cantaloupe, Honeydew..... yummmmmmmm, and salad. Anything cold and fresh.

Not much is new around here. We are busy with soccer 2 nights during the week and ballet on Saturday. With that and the yard work that we need to accomplish, there isn't much time for anything else.

Baby seems to be doing fine. I am growing each week. No hiding it now. Someone at work told me that I popped over the weekend.... not sure if that is good or not - is he saying I'm fat?? My weight gain each weight gain fluctuates from 0lbs to 3lbs gained.

Here is a picture of me this morning before going to work.... definately have a belly started!!

Can't wait for the long weekend to get here. I am off Friday and don't go back to work until Tuesday :) We are heading down to Grand Forks for the weekend. The dogs are going to love being at home with the sitter rather than going to the kennel. Between going to Grand Forks and seeing her friend Maddy (from Calgary)... Anika is soooo excited. I can't wait to meet Maddy's new brother Rowan, and to see Lori :)

Thanks about it. Will update after our long weekend.... Hugs to you all :)