Adventures in Pregnancy - 25 weeks 5 days

In the past few months, I've often thought back to my Health classes in high school and what was covered about pregnancy in those classes. I remember drawing a picture of a uterus and fallopian tubes and coloring them in with my snazzy colored pencils. I remember a public health nurse rolling a condom on a broomstick. I am pretty sure we covered the medical aspects of how an egg is fertilized, but we never actually talked about what really happens after that egg implants. I'm am certain that if pregnancy was covered with a bit more details, less teens would allow that to happen to them.

Noone ever told me that I could develop skin tags. Now this hasn't been horrific... two tiny skin tags the size of a freckle but it was something I didn't know happened during pregnancy.

I knew that I couldn't take medications other than Tylenol during pregnancy but I generally have a kick ass immune system so this wasn't a great concern. Noone told me that my immune system would dial back during pregnancy to protect the baby. I have gotten EVERYTHING going this year. I've had chest colds, head colds, stomach flu, intestinal flu, just the regular old every day flu...

This week was the topper for me... (TMI about to happen). I have had diarrhea for 4 days. Generally, I would have taken some Imodium on the first day and this would have been a distant memory. Unfortunately, Imodium and pregnancy are a no no. Yesterday, I ended up in the emergency room for dehydration as a result of the untreated diarrhea. 4 hours and IV fluids later, I was set free with instructions to drink, drink, drink... and to check in with the prenatal clinic in the morning.

So this afternoon, I have an appt with the prenatal clinic. They will probably do a non stress test. I honestly just want the root cause of the dehydration resolved.

I have my monthly check up on Monday and my glucose challenge to check for gestational diabetes.

93 days until I start Mat Leave!!!

Adventures in Pregnancy - 24 weeks, 6 days

I now have a full description of hell... Hell is... 6 months pregnant, with a head cold, unable to take any cold medications due to pregnancy and thyroid condition... this alone is pretty dreadful... now add an 8 hour plane ride with a 2 hour lay over.

In my life, I have had some pretty serious migraines. Migraines that have taken me to the emergency room for IV medications... yet I had still not encountered the pain of descending from 35,000 feet before in my life. Fortunately with the layover, I got to do it twice! It felt like someone was stabbing my face with a hot ice pick. I will not be flying for the rest of my pregnancy and I will not fly again during a pregnancy just for the fear of the sinus pain again.

I now sit and reminisce about the good ol'days when I could breathe through my nose...

Another valuable life lesson learned this week... Never EVER sneeze while peeing...

Adventures in Pregnancy - 23 weeks, 2 days

Ahhh Prenatal classes...

Tonight we had the tour of the hospital. I was really looking forward to this for the comfort factor of knowing the environment. Feeling warm and fuzzy about the road I was wandering down...

Unfortunately, human nature is human... when you get a professional somewhere when they have to speak, they start telling anecdotal stories. With a delivery nurse, this means that we hear stories about CRAZY women who don't want drugs who end up screaming, crying and begging for drugs... very comforting, I can assure you.

She also made a point to remind us that birthing is dirty business. At this point of my pregnancy, I wish to be in denial. I want to imagine the birthing experience as buttercups and dragon flies... I know it is unrealistic but I'm passed the point of no return. I know it's not a realistic attitude but denial is a wonderful place!! Next time it happens I'm putting my fingers in my ears and going to go to my happy place...

I also have to admit that Cory was right and I was wrong.. he wanted to leave half way through class and I told him that something important might be taught... he was right, I was wrong... we should have run for the hills when the door was open.

Anyway... enough of prenatal classes... we replaced the camera today and here's my latest belly shot...

Adventures in Pregnancy - 22 weeks 5 days

This is actually the post that should have happened on April 8 (19 weeks , 4 days) but my co-worker who has the scanner decided to go on vacation (very rude) and I just got them scanned today.

Adventures in Pregnancy - 22 weeks 2 days

Had my latest prenatal appointment today. I was sooo scared about climbing onto that scale. My diet has been... frivolous at best... if I wanted it... I had it... My son is going to be born looking for a Big Mac and a chocolate soft serve ice cream. I have never been a pop (soda) drinker but I have consumed more pop in the past month than I usually do over an entire year. I was sure I was DOOMED.

I am up another 3 lbs... total of 21 lbs over 22 weeks... I'm very proud... we celebrated with a Big Mac Combo.

Overall I'm doing well... my TSH (thyroid) is 2.41 (perfect). My blood pressure is 116/74. My uterus should be measuring to my belly button... and it is. My serum testing (for genetic disorders) came back negative. My ultrasound shows my due date as my original due date. The baby's heart beat is 148. All is good...

I'm waiting anxiously for 2 more weeks when the baby is at 24 weeks. At 24 weeks, the baby is "viable" which means if something really horrible happens, he could survive outside of me. We don't want that but it's a nice safety net.

Adventures in Pregnancy - 21 weeks, 4 days - The Naming Game

I apparently have no understanding of the intricacies of naming a new person. Every name that I have presented has been shot down for various reasons too common, too weird, too apt to have the child beaten up, can be shortened to an unfortunate nickname.

I have decided I will not be naming our son. Cory must come up with the name. I have reserved the power of Veto.

Cory and his co-worker, Dave have spent literally days searching the Internet and compiling lists of potential boy names... I wish I could find the list... but here are few of the highlights...

• Ace
• Gage
• Sage
• Grayden
• Conor
• Brock
• Blaze
• Moon
• Shadow
• many many more...

I really like Grayden but Cory has removed it from the list as it will be shortening to Gray and that would make the child too old...

I like Conor but it is a touch too common...

I like Brock but Cory has decided he is uncertain about that one...

I have Veto'd the rest... Cory has decided that looking at names is no longer fun and has given up (for the time being anyways)

At this point our son will be named "Baby Boy"... this might give him a hard time once he becomes an adult but it is original. I don't know anyone named Baby Boy...

Adventures in Pregnancy - 21 weeks 1 day

I have never been a person who remembers dreams. Pregnancy seems to have changed that for me... last night I dreamed that my teeth were rotting out of my head. I could even feel the tooth fragments in my mouth when I woke up. Horrifying!! In my dream, I went to the dentist who seemed unconcerned about my situation. Even more horrifying!!

With the fresh memory, I did a little research on the possible meaning of this nightmare... apparently dreaming that your teeth are rotting and falling out is one of the most common nightmares.

As a common nightmare, it has a ton of possible meanings...

1. Feeling insecure about your physical appearance and how others perceive you.
2. Feeling fear of being embarrassed (seems the same as #1)
3. Feeling powerless... teeth are used to tear and chew... without teeth, you lose your primal weapon.
4. Biblically it means that you are putting more faith in the word of man instead of the word of God.
5. Greek culture says it is an indication that a family member is sick or dying.
6. Chinese culture says it is a sign that you are telling lies.

And my favorite.

Loosing your teeth is a sign of money coming. This is root of the tooth fairy fable.

I'm sure that I am feeling insecure about my appearance... I weigh more than I have ever weighed in my life. I love my pregnant belly. It's smooth, all one color (no dark line, no stretch marks) but I check every day for those nasty stretch marks that I will ruin my perfectly smooth and uniform belly.

I've quickly discovered that being pregnant is all about being powerless. My list of "Don't" is longer than my "Do's" list. I eat, not out of hunger, but out of responsibility. I need others to complete little tasks for fear of injury. I found trimming my toe nails an almost impossible task... next time, I won't be able to do it myself. The list goes on....

I'm not a religious person so I always put more faith in the word of man over the word of God.

I don't think anyone in the family is sick or dying... but my family does have a history of exceptional secret keeping...

I tend to be honest but I will keep my personal opinions to myself if I determine they would be unnecessarily hurtful... that means I need to tell "white lies" from time to time to spare feelings.

Money coming... well I haven't done my taxes yet... it could go either way on that front. Maybe the dream is an indication that I will be lucky in the Revenue Canada Lottery. This is the one I'm hoping for...

Adventures in Pregnancy - 21 weeks, 0 days

Today was Super Saturday Puppy Walk. We took Theo to the NB Trail and ran the shine off of him... We brought the camera and took some shots... then we dropped the camera on the ground and now have a "Lens Error" when we power it on... On the bright side it let me offload the pictures... I realised it has been a while since I've offloaded it when I found this picture...

There was a smart ass picture I took of my belly a couple of weeks ago...

And here I am today....

Adventures in Pregnancy - 19 weeks, 4 days

Ultrasound Day!!

Unlike my Ultrasound at 12 weeks, this one required a full bladder. One hour prior to my appointment, I was instructed to drink one liter of water in a 10 minute span. I like drinking water when I am thirsty but once the thirst is quenched... water loses its appeal... FAST. I still managed to choke it back in 9 minutes. By the time we got to the hospital, I needed to pee!

So, we got to our appointment and promptly waited... did I mention I needed to Pee?? While I did my pee pee dance, I read some wall signs. For some reason this hospital does not allow dad's to come in while the actual measurements are being taken but after the tech is done, Dad's can come in and have a quick overview. The hospital also does not allow video cameras.... BOO!

There was one sign that said they will not discuss gender but directly underneath that was a letter dated April 8, 2008 that says that they will now reveal gender provided that determining gender does not lengthen the time of the appointment. Local rumor on this decision was that all their ultrasound patients were requesting to go to the next available hospital that would reveal gender. Guess it was a business decision... got to love capitalism.

So, I finally got to go in and have my full bladder pressed on repeatedly. I asked why this ultrasound needed a full bladder while the last one didn't... He told me that the 12 week ultrasound was for the doctor to see the baby... he needed to see the cervix and placenta, that needs the bladder to be full to push it towards the front. That makes sense... So he took his pictures and eventually said that Cory could come in and he would tell us the gender. YAY!

All the time that he was taking his pictures, the baby laid still.... soon as Cory walked into the room and spoke, the baby started to bounce! "Daddy's Here!!"

The tech said that he had a hard time confirming the gender as the baby was on its back but then he showed us the umbilical cord and just below that was a... protuberance... like a penis. Pretty sure it's a boy! He gave himself a margin of error of 20% as the baby was laying on his back. but it pretty much falls in line with what everyone was guessing.

Now we have to come up with a boys name that falls under the following criteria according to Cory...

1. Cannot rhyme with a dirty word or a word that could become dirty
2. Cannot result in initials that makes a bad word.
3. Will not result in the child being beaten up for having it as their name.
4. Cannot be common yet cannot be so obscure that they are picked on for having it.

He has rejected Kieran, Declan and Slayter for one of the many reasons above. I don't think I understand the rules...

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PS... I have an update on the vaginal speculum story. Cory's aunt asked her doctor and came back with an answer. Apparently the size of the speculum is determined by your physical size. The doctor revealed that she had a patient who was in excess of 500 lbs and she required an XL speculum... (HOW BIG DO THEY COME??)

Adventures in Pregnancy - 19 weeks 2 days

I'm a little slack this week with my weekend blog entry. BUT I have some exciting news! I have now officially felt the baby move. It's been happening for a while but I was undetermined what it was for sure, now I'm positive. Everyone tried to describe it as little gas bubbles or a flutter but the best description I can give is someone tickling me with their nails but on the inside. Add the little voice saying "let me out" and it is down right creepy. Now that I've identified the feeling, it is happening almost all the time. Doesn't this lil'un sleep?

We had our first prenatal class. We are joined by 14 other couples who are ranging from 6 weeks pregnant to 32 weeks. It's the last series of classes until the fall so everyone is jammed in there.

The class... well, I feel that should preface these next statements with... Cory and I are cut the fluff learners. We don't want to spread out the joy of sitting in uncomfortable chairs learning redundant or irrelevant material. Give us the facts, answer a few questions and send us on our merry way. We do not require games to learn or *shudder* role playing. We can absorb a lot of information very quickly. Basically, Git'R'Done!

Back to the class. For the 8 week course, it is a bargain low price of $35. No complaints on the price. So one could say, each class is valued at $4.38 for 2 hour session. On the way home, we tried to determine what new items we had learned... We had a introduction game... I remember absolutely no names, so I didn't learn anything there... We learned how to tell if a baby was born to a smoker by appearance... kinda cool but no application in my life.... Most of the other stuff was long learned via the internet... but we came out with one gem... one useful item that neither of us knew... something that will impact our purchasing decisions...

Tums are better for the baby than Rolaids... Ta Da... 2 hours and $4.38 later... and to think I'm giving this away for free!!