A Tea Party

Craig and I really enjoy tea. Various kinds, it doesn't really matter, we just like tea. Not as much as coffee, mind you, nonono, but we like tea.

The other day (the same day I was in such a funk) I was doing dishes and Shaun was hanging around like he usually does. Occasionally I'll let him climb up on a chair beside me while I'm washing and he'll play in the water for a while. Lately since my belly has been getting so big, oh you didn't notice??, he hasn't been able to do dishes with mummy. So this day I set him up at his own little table with a small container of water and a few smaller mugs and cups and scoops so he could do his own dishes. He ended up having a tea party - my boy! I've never had a tea party with him and neither has Craig. Is this just one of those intrinsic things that kids do but don't know why they do it? I was dumbfounded. He knows we drink tea but we drink far more coffee. Why didn't he have a coffee party or do the dishes, which was my original plan for the water-play? Childhood and more relevently, parenthood, is such a mystery to me so much of the time. It's a wonder I'm not circling around in a daze all day long trying to figure out why things happen the way they do!

38 Weeks

I'm really late in posting this photo but you get the idea: I'm still pregnant. I'm also in a gigantic grump today but have a cute story and picture of Shaun. I'll get to that when I'm feeling more positive and blessed to me a mum.

For now I need ice cream and a nap!

ACK! Full Term!

Okay, 37 weeks. So that means full term... baby can come anytime and should be okay. Know what that also means? It's time to panic. Yep, I'm panicking. I don't feel ready to be a mum of 2! It's funny because we tried for 19 months for this baby and suffered 2 losses in that time and when we finally got to see the first ultrasound of this baby I felt nothing but relief that we'd finally be expanding our family. But now that we're so close to becoming a family of 4 I'm not convinced I'm ready.

I know once I see this baby and we bring it home that I'll try to remember what it was like as a family of only 3 but for now I try to imagine what it will be like as 4 and I get this flip-flop in my stomach. What have we done?!

A Childhood Obsession

Every once in a while Craig will come up with these bizarre ideas. I've learned over our 5 1/2 years of marriage to just laugh them off and let him go at them with all his gusto and enthusiasm. Monday night at 11:30 Craig started working on one of these bizarre ideas and I didn't even ask him what he was up to; I didn't want to know. By 1AM his project was completed. It was a whipper snipper for Shaun!

Using an old cut down hockey stick for the shaft, Craig added the motor from a tape player and a switch box from a remote control boat. A couple of wires and a 9V battery, and everything held together with hockey tape and it was complete. Shaun spent over an hour outside this morning trimming all the weeds and grass in our humble little backyard. For a free toy, made in about an hour by a very creative daddy, I'm really impressed first that it works, and second that Shaun is so enamoured by it.

Maybe Craig can make me a food processor next???

36 Weeks, Nearly There

Craig asked me this morning if I'm feeling like this baby may come earlier than its due date. Being still 4 weeks away from that due date, I can honestly say I don't know. The pressure that I remember from the end of my pregnancy with Shaun hasn't appeared yet but I've read that often second babies don't actually completely engage in the pelvis until labor begins. Shaun wasn't even completely engaged when I went in to be induced at 41+1 weeks. I have noticed that the baby has dropped a little in the last week: it's easier to breathe, I'm able to eat a little more before feeling stuffed-full, and I'm peeing like I'm back in the first trimester. It's actually quite annoying; the whole pee thing. As if sleeping isn't difficult enough with the heat and humidity of a southern Ontario summer, I have to get up to pee at least twice a night. And if I happen to wake while I'm stirring I can't get back to sleep until I pee. I'd be okay with getting up to pee if it was a decent pee but it's trickles. Truly annoying.

At my midwife appointment earlier this week we talked a little bit about ways to prepare my body for labor in hope that I don't go overdue. I certainly will not medically induce this time unless it's necessary for me or the baby but I'm not opposed to natural ways to get my body ready. Pooja mentioned evening primrose oil - which I'm familiar with, and red raspberry leaf tea - which can be more effective but I have to drink about 6 cups a day. :O I've done research on both of them and Pooja recommended I choose only one since this is my second baby, so I'm going to start on the EPO early this coming week. Hopefully it will remind my body that labor and delivery are approaching soon and to start to 'prepare the path' as it were. We'll see it if ends up doing anything. I've opted out of any internal checks before I'm in labor because I don't feel they're necessary so I won't know if the EPO does anything, but it can't hurt to try.

Just Foolin' Around

I found this website that lets you make comic strips out of any photos you'd like. I thought that a visual of what my belly's been doing would be pretty cool. I have yet to take a 36 week photo (I'll do that tomorrow morning) but when I do I'll update the comic strip. Pretty cool if you ask me! I still have to figure out how to label each photo with the gestation. The first photo is at 12 weeks. The last one is at 35 weeks.

One Month From Today

I can't believe it - I'm due to deliver our second baby a month from today. Even through all the recent heat, the swelling in my hands and feet, the breathlessness while climbing stairs (or just talking, these days!) and not being able to be the mum I want to be for Shaun, I'm not ready to give up carrying this baby yet.

The baby is beginning to get a more predictable schedule: I know that between 9:30 and 10:00 PM is its most active time and I look forward to that time of day. Lately I've been turning off the TV or pausing my time on the computer just to embrace my belly with my hands and enjoy the movement from the little life within. Part of me wants to keep it inside me forever so I never have to try and remember what it feels like to have another being living in my body.

I really am so blessed to be able to carry healthy babies, even though this road was long and we suffered from heartache on the way. I don't take for granted how lucky I truly am for even a second and I wish that everyone who wanted to could experience the joy of pregnancy.

35 Weeks

The settings on the camera were messed up and I couldn't figure out how to get the timer to work so Craig took this picture of me. The settings must have been really messed up because it's SO grainy!!

Tell It Like It Is

Shaun's always been a child who says what he's thinking without any regard for how it may make another person feel. We're trying to teach him empathy and compassion so that he doesn't hurt someone's feelings by accident but I have to admire his honesty and innocence.

We went to the park after dinner tonight and there were a mess of other children there; most were under the age of 5. Shaun and another little boy were chasing each other on the playground; up the stairs and then down the slide and back to the stairs. This other little boy has just turned 2 1/2 but is pretty small for his age and isn't talking very much yet. Halfway up the stairs on their way to the slide Shaun stopped, turned to the little boy behind him and announced, "My name is Shaun, I have big eyes and your head is small."

I nearly fell off the park bench I was sitting on. Partly because it was true - this little guys head is small - but mostly because after that Shaun and this little boy continued playing with one another like nothing had just happened. I probably laughed louder and longer than I should have because afterall, that could be quite an insult for his mum but it was so innocent and neither boy thought much about the comment at all.

I wish the whole world was like that. I'd love to tell the obese woman in a motorized scooter to get up and walk and not fear being slugged if I tell someone their kid is a terror. People are too sensitive these days and it's pathetic. I have pretty thick skin I'd like to think. I'll admit that I defend a lot of statements that are made to me that are probably true but that's human nature. As long as you're honest, how can I argue with that? Really people!