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!