I am a bad blogger

So now that we no longer have an internet connection at home while we are moving I have been severely neglecting the blog.

Things are pretty crazy at work so I never really have a chance to update here either...

Everything is going A-OK, the baby is turned already (at week 31) so it looks like it will not be a c-section for me, and I promise an update early next week. In the meantime, here are a few photos to chew on...and a big congrats to CM and Natalie who found out today that they are having a boy!

Photos are of what I have taken to calling "the pink room"....1/3 of it is finished, the other 2/3 is full of shelves full of carpenter shit like drill bits, paint cans, etc....you can see some of it in the third photo.

Me at 26 weeks

So, for those of you who have been pestereing me for photos, this one will have to do for now.

It is from this morning, day 1 of my 26th week, so at the end of the second trimester.

My hair is still wet, no makup, still kinda sleepy and you can see that our place is kind of in disarray due to the upcoming move. I'll work on getting some better ones soon!

Although I noticed when I looked at the photo that I am actually bigger than I thought I was!

Oh yeah.....

Something else I don't like is not being able to see your bikini line anymore! And seeing the inside of your belly button is weird....

Do I like being pregnant?

People keep asking me if I "like" being pregnant....like I have a choice now huh?
For the record, I don't mind it, but am in the "good" phase now...not sick, and not too big! Although I can't really say that I enjoy getting my skin all stretched out and being tired all the time. But I guess it is the first of a long list of sacrifices that we make for our children, huh? If my mom did it for me, and her mom for her, then I guess it is my turn!

So, here is my list of things I like, and do not like, about being pregnant

Things I like:
- When people give me seats on the bus or metro. Even though I am not really tired, or don't need a seat, it's nice to have one. Sometimes I try to stick out my belly a little more so it is more evident that I am pregnant so they will give me their seat. Sometimes it works...more on this later.

-Ice cream. I can eat it and not feel too bad. I did not even really like ice cream until a few months ago. This weekend I actually bought a whole Dairy Queen ice cream cake and attack it with a fork every night. Yum.

- When people won't let you carry stuff or do stuff that you know you could do if you wanted to. Like put paper in the printer, carry boxes or bags.

- People are generally nicer to you and smile at you more.

-Shopping for baby stuff is actually kinda fun.

Things I don't like
-Heartburn. Really really don't like this one.

-Being stuck having to buy ugly maternity clothes at Thym because there are not enough nice maternity shops, or the nice ones are too expensive to buy since I won't wear them long enough.
The tops are boring and and are all the same, the jeans and pants look cheap, the dress cuts are bad...they stock colours, prints, fabrics and styles of clothes that I would never wear if I was not pregnant, things that old people wear...has anyone ever found anything remotely "chic" or stylish in that store???

- Answering the same questions all the time. "August 4th", "a girl", "no, no more morning sickness", "no, no weird cravings", "my last day at work will probably be July 15th", "no the nursery is not ready yet", 'No I don't need help with this, thanks"

- Can't eat chocolate or shrimp

- Having everyone give you advice...I don't give a shit about your sister in law's breastfeedng habits and that your cousin's baby slept through the night at 6 weeks old.

- When assholes cut in front of you and steal your seat on the bus, or "pretend" not to notice that you are pregnant so they don't have to give you their seat. It's no so bad now, but when I satrt to get "cankles" I think I will mind more.

- Crazy people who do exactly what the other crazy peope on the internet tell you that you can't do, and then tell you that you are not allowed to get any sunlight, sleep on your stomach, go to the dentist, reach for stuff on shelves above your head, eat hot dogs, turkey sandwiches, sushi, peanut butter, honey, feta cheese, french fries, caffeine, diet stuff with Splenda.........moderation, people!

I'm back!

Dear Blog,
I am very sorry for having neglected you these days, I am spending way tooo much time on Facebook!

So, last night was the hospital visit and I am officially freaked out. CATHETERS? IVs? Those heart monitor pads like you see in soap operas? I was not aware of all the medical devices that would be used in labour.....you see, I have never spent any time in a hospital. Never an overnight stay, never a broken bone (ok, I broke my big toe when I fell off my bike in grade 6 but I did not even go to the clinic for that), never even a trip to emergency...heck, I have only had three blood tests in my life and 2 of them have been in the past 4 months! So the prospect of getting hooked up to all that stuff is pretty scary to me...I actually set my PVR last night to record "A Baby Story" every day so I can do some "research".

Question of the week: Did you choose to have an epidural? If not, why not? Maybe it's me, but why would someone want to experience the birthing process in pain? Other than hippie, "earth mother" types (and there are quite a few of them in my Prenatal yoga class), is there any reason why you would not want to get one? I know, a needle in the spine is not very pleasant, or maybe you didn't have time, the anesthesiologist was busy, etc, but did anyone out ther consciously decide not to have an epidural?

Question of the week # 2: To breastfeed or not to breastfeed? Actually, let me rephrase...to try to breastfeed until your nipples rae purple and bleeding or to give up and bottle feed? I have heard horror stories about evil nurses saying, "try one more time, it's better for the baby" as your nipples are sprouting blood...is this true? When do you give up and move to a bottle? HOW much better is breatfeeding?

Tum...tum tum tum TUMS!

I did not even know what heartburn was until about three weeks ago...now I eat Rolaids and Tums like candy! So gross, I hate heartburn...and it seems like everything I like gives it to me!
So unpleasant to burp your lunch at 3:30 in the afternoon.....

9 months of gestation in 20 seconds

Check this out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU6ojtBW0Qo

Workin 9 to 5...

Or more like 8:30 to 6 I guess!

So, for those of you wondering what exactly I do for a living, or at least for the next three months until I have a year off (and I am sure note even my mother knows exactly), here's the deal.

I used to work for the Dairy Farmers of Canada in Marketing, so all those butter and cheese TV commercials, print ads, brochures in grocery stores, etc, that was what I did. I also ran the Olympic sponsorship program, which was really cool, since we established a fund for Olympic athletes who were in the top 6-15 in their field, to help give them the $$ they needed to get to the top of the podium. The fund really worked, actually: some of the recipients became world champions, such as Clara Hughes, Emilie Heymans, Jeff Pain, Sara Renner, Erik Guay, Joannie Rochette, Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon, etc, etc. I had a chance to meet some great athletes "before they were stars". You should have seen some of the applications, some of the athletes were practically starving, living on Kraft Dinner, and now they are on top of the world.

Now, I work for the Canadian Medical Association, which is the professional organization that represents doctors across Canada. I was promoted a few months ago from Director of Marketing of what I guess you could call the "web" division (three different properties in this division) to Product Manager of the website: http://www.cma.ca

Layman's terms: I manage the website cma.ca.

The website is more than just a site, it is actually more like a portal, a place for doctors to look up information on disease conditions to make more informed diagnoses, drug interactions to ensure that the medication they are prescribing do not conflict with one another, along with research textbooks and journals, neat tools such as a wizard to make their own websites, practice management advice, etc, etc.

Our "vision" is to have every doctors' office in Canada connected to the internet, and looking things up on our site during the clinical encounter (ie, when you visit the doctor) to enhance the patient care that doctors deliver to patients across Canada.

I have a feeling it is going to be tough for me to "let go" of the corporate world for a whole year, although everyone tells me that it is actually tough to go back once you leave!

Girls, girls, girls!!

Red lips...fingertips...

So it is official, it's a GIRL!

Although with the "family curse" I should have known! When I started thinking about it, how could I NOT have a girl?

- My grandfather Hickey had 1 brother, 6 sisters

- My grandfather Boulay had 3 brothers, 11 sisters

- Out of all my generation (cousins), there are 10 girls and 3 boys

- Of all the cousins that had or are having babies, there are 6 girls, no boys!

Alas....the next generation of family reunions will also be "pink lettuce" parties!

My sister's twins (due three days before me) are also girls.

Let the princess parade begin!!!

Although, being in the ultrasound clinic made me realise that I am just a bit smaller than the rest of the 19-week ladies, probably about 2 weeks of growth behind....but I am sure I will catch up very soon!

Also a note to all you ladies in NB, you are very lucky, since my hospital does not warm up the ultrasoud gel! They said it might foster bacteria growth....rrrrr.....

Here is the ultrasound, it pretty much looks the same as the 13 week one so I wasn't going to pay the $10 for the pics but they gave them to me. I like the foot one.

I have been practicing my mothering skills with my new buddy, Babo. He is an "uglydoll" that I bought a few months ago for my friend's baby and decided to keep. Here is his photo. Matt does not like him, but between you and me, I think he is jealous.

A long me-kend

So, Mathieu is gone out west on a ski trip until Monday morning. I thought about going to Ottawa or Toronto but decided to have a me-kend! So me and my munchkin will be doing some bonding!

We will be doing great mother-offspring activities, such as...

- Eating Chunky Monkey ice cream and Kettle Creek Salt and Vinegar chips for supper. Every day.
- Reading obscene amounts of internet celebrity gossip
- Renting neat documentaries that Matt would not like, like Jesus Camp and Stupidity
- Finally installing the PVR, and watching back-to-back-to-back Law and Order episodes. And Law and Order: SUV. But not the Criminal Intent version, that curly grey-haired guy freaks me out.
- Watching Grey's Anatomy Season 1
- Watching nerd tv shows about Pyramids and Mummies
- NOT watching Dog the Bounty Hunter or King of Cars
- Watching TV is the dark! Matt freaks and says it is bad for your eyes. It is going to be so dark that I am going to go blind.

I should probably vacuum, but my friend Nathalie told me that pregnant ladies should not vacuum. But then, I think of those ladies in Africa who have to carry water on their heads for miles and are 8 months pregnant. And what about ladies who work as janitors and HAVE to vacuum? So this is somewhat of a moral dilemma for me....

Photos Part 2

In mah belly!

The moment you've all been waiting for...the belly!

Here I am, at 17 weeks, 1 day.

Party in the city where the heat is on

Our destination for the yearly voyage to the south is finalized...Bienvenido a Miami!

We will be flying in to Fort fuckin' Lauderdale (Point Break reference.."all I wanna know is how these guys could be robbin' Tarzana City National on August 2nd when they were in Fort fuckin' Lauderdale") on the 29th of March at night, an overnight at an airport hotel and then we pick up the lovely "Ford Mustang or equivalent" at the car rental counter and head down to the Florida Keys for 2 days (Jamaica/off the Florida Keys/there's a place called Kokomo.....did you know that I attended a Beach Boys concert in grade 5, and John Stamos was their drummer? It was pouring rain but me, Jill and Errol danced the day away wearing garbage bags anyway!).

I might even go a little crazy and order a non-virgin Margarita in Margaritaville (Key West)! Par-tay!!!

Then back to the "greater Miami area" where we trade in the "Ford Mustang or equivalent" for a "Ford Taurus or equivlent" (too expensive to keep the convertible for a week), and check in to the condo we rented on Hollywood Beach, just north of the city, for a week

Here's the condo: http://www.vrbo.com/32233

Hollywood, according to the guide book I purchased (Lonely Planet's "South Florida and the Keys") , is known for its Boardwalk, Trump tower and 'sunburned French Canadians'. I heard you can even buy "La Presse" newspaper there!

Me hate snow

I should be in San Francisco right now with Meghan and Christine.....instead, I missed my flight yesterday morning, the only direct to San Francisco from Montreal, and since there was a big storm here and a bunch of flights to Toronto got cancelled, they could not get me to Toronto to catch a flight from YYZ to SFO. So, I am home.

Yet again, our plans for the three of us to actually be in the same time zone since 1999 are foiled by Canadian winters....Meghan missed the wedding because of the big storm, which would have been the first time since Mount A that the three of us would be together.

So, instead, I have recreated a pictoral of my trip!

The three of us with a view on the city

Me at the Golden Gate Bridge

What a trip!

The five-dollar peanut butter cup

Soo....not really been able to eat chocolate since I got pregnant, but I was running errands downtown last night and walked by the Godiva chololate counter downstairs at Ogilvy's, when it caught my eye.......the lovely, luscious peanut butter cup. The first time in nearly 4 months I have had an urge to eat chocolate....the sign next to it said $5, but hey, since I haven't had any in the past month, investing $5 in one cup would be ok, right? Plus, it's nearly Valentine's day: so I picked up 2 bags of chocolate, one with the peanut butter cup, the other with a bunch of other stuff for Matt for Valentine's Day. Got home, and at one point decided not to wait until tomorrow to eat it, so I left the 2 bags on the coffee table, went to get a glass of milk and then said, "do you think we can eat our treats tonight instead of waiting"? He had an odd look on his face and said, yes. So, I gave him his bag, and went to open mine.....which was EMPTY! He ATE the FIVE DOLLAR PEANUT BUTTER CUP when I went to get a glass of milk!!!!! Then had the nerve to say I was crazy for spending $5 on a piece of chocloate that tasted like a Reese's peanut butter cup anyway!!!!!!!

Lesson # 1: never buy $5 pieces of chocolate
Lesson # 2: NEVER leave treats unattended

Update

Just heard from some new mothers this weekend that they often make mistakes when they predict the gender of the baby at 13 weeks...so it may not be a girl after all!!! I will know in 4 more weeks.

What to call it?

So I am struggling with what to call this "thing" in my stomach...it's not really a baby yet, and fetus sounds too scientific....I was reading my sister's blog (if you don't know, she is three days more pregnant than I am...with identical twins! How cool is that? FYI, her blog is at: http://jillianhickey.blogspot.com). Since she has twins, they are called "baby A" and "baby B", and they are most likely gong to be born before mine, then mine will now become "baby C". Particuarly fitting, since the ultrasound technician said she thinks it is going to be a girl, and no matter which names we find, we often come back to "Claire". So, "baby C" it is!

Anyway, don't always expect 3 posts a day, I just figured out how to get photos from our new digital camera to the computer, and how to work the scanner, so thought I would share some images.

1) Ultrasound scan

The nuchal folds (fancy way of saying the neck) are normal size, so the chances that the baby has Down's Sydrome or other chromosomal abnormalities is very low. I'll find out for sure in about 5 days.

2) My gut

Since this is what I looked like this summer:


you will obviously see that I have somewhat of a larger stomach at 14 weeks. The pics did not come out well, so I will take more later this week.

Foods that make me sick

Oh yes, for those of you who are asking, chocolate is about the only thing that really turns me off these days. And no, I have not had any weird cravings, although I did drink some pickle juice for the first time in about 7 years about 2 weeks ago! We had grilled cheeses and, as some of you know, your sense of smell is much more developed when you are pregnant. So about an hour later the pickle jar was sitting there on the coffee table with the lid open....I could smell it and it was making my mouth water...so I drank some! Yum yum yum!

But those of you who know me know that drinking pickle juice is something that I have been known to do in the past, my sister and I used to eat so many pickles that our aunt Marian used to tell us we smelled like garlic all the time! And we would drink the juice....so I guess it is not all that weird if you did it before....and it's not like I poured it over ice cream, now THAT would be weird!

Welcome!

Well, this is easier than I thought! Picked out my font and here I go: unfortunately my favourite fonts are not there, I will try to find a way to import them....if I get around to it!

Unfortunately, I wanted "bethhickey.blogspot.com", but there is another "me" who claimed it a few years ago....she hasn't updated her blog in more than 2 years, and I highly doubt that her life is even as remotely interesting as mine....but I digress. Oh well, at least I got bethhickey@hotmail.com!

So, as some of you know, and many of you will discover when I send you this link, I am now 14 weeks pregnant. So that means my first trimester is over. It's funny, one morning (at 13 weeks, 3 days) the smell of coffee made me sick, and literally the next day it smelled soooooo good!
So I am still taking my anti-nausea pills, I probably would not get sick in the mornings anymore since it usually only lasts the first trimester, but what if I stop taking them and I start to feel like shit again? So I think I will test it out next weekend, not during the week!

It is unfortunate that many people (mostly in the US since Diclectin is not approved there) have to suffer through morning sickiness..and it really is suffering! I didn't know, for about a week, that Diclectin even existed, and it was a rough week. (Thanks to Melissa and Josée for telling me about this wonderdrug!) Subsisted on applesauce, crackers and McNugget Happy Meals for about a week! Since I started taking it, I can eat anything, anytime, anywhere...

Not much of a belly yet, I just look kinda chunky, not really pregnant. Some of my stuff still fits, but less and less, so I ventured down to Thyme maternity the other day.....NOT impressed! Their casual stuff is OK, but I think they forget that pregnant people atually might have to DRESS UP for work....I mean really, there are than 2-3 basic skirts and a few black, brown and grey pants, but there is nothing that is remotely stylish. Nothing that I would consider buying in the "real world", so why would I buy shit like that because I am pregnant?? So anyway, a few people have told me about some other stores, so I think I will check them out. I am trying to hold off on buying this stuff until next month, since the summer stuff will be out by then and I am sure it will be much nicer.

Next post: I'll figure out how our scanner works and scan the ultrasound pictures, and post a picture of me with my fat-lady belly!