Dear Diary: Week 39

Wednesday February 26th 2014

How far along? 39 weeks

Baby G is the size of a Watermelon!

Due Date: March 5^th 2014

Total weight gain/loss: 158  + 37lbs, but probably back up there again, whenever I have a good weigh in it's like a free pass to pig out again! 

Maternity clothes? YES! Anything & everything cotton & stretchy...Feel like a bum living in joggers, t-shirts, compression socks & granny undies! (Hot I know!)

Stretch marks? No...(Fingers crossed)

Sleep: Sleep okay at night (often wide awake between 4-6:30 am, usually I need a snack, then sleep again until 8 / 8:30) 

Best moment this week: Taking the time to relax! 

Have you told family and friends: YES

Miss Anything? Wine, which apparently I may not even like once babe is evicted due to taste changes... Oh No!

Movement: Yes.... limited by lack of room but after months of the butt being in my left lung and feet in my right, the little bub switched sides... Thankfully while keeping the head down!

Food cravings: I had the most amazing "brownie"! Carrots n Dates makes yummy gluten free vegan treats, hence "brownie" being in quotations, it was delish and has become my new sweet treat craving!

Anything making you queasy or sick: No

Have you started to show yet: Oh yes!

Gender prediction: Clueless!

Labour Signs: Nothing yet!

Belly Button in or out? Out, it took 38.5 weeks to get there but it is more or less out now all the time.

Wedding rings on or off? Off and on... Somedays just too uncomfortable to be on.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Pretty happy this week!

Weekly Wisdom: With an unknown amount of time left I am just taking the time to relax and wait for baby to come! Went to a La Leche league meeting, very educational! Nice to know there is support out there for moms hoping to breastfeed.

Looking forward to: Meeting Baby Goulding!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Showering of Baby G with love!

Early January we (Baby G & I) had a wonderful afternoon with family and friends as they showered us with love and kindness as they helped hubs and I get ready for the arrival of our bundle of joy!

In preparation for the shower I knew I  didn't want a big to do at restaurant, so we had an open house at our place and this allowed our guests to see the nursery completed (may have encouraged us to 'get 'er done' as well!)

Maybe my nesting phase was really early (because it hasn't happened yet this late in the pregnancy!) but I had so many little DIY ideas to do for the shower. Just wanted to add some cute little personal touches. I also spend my 'midnight laying in bed wide awake time' on Pinterest and Etsy... So the ideas were flowing!

My moms and sisters helped provide all of the wonderful food and beverages for the shower and the spread was delicious! 

Since it was an open house it would be difficult for some shower games to be done with guests coming and going, so we had a few other activities for guests to be involved in. The first was a guess the date game.

Guests picked a day and wether they felt Baby G is a boy or girl. The due date is March 5th with lots of guesses centred around that date! We will have to see who the winner will be!

The next activity was to help create an Alphabet book for Baby G's library. 

Family and friends selected a letter and drew a picture to complete the page. We are blessed with some incredibly talented ladies who created beautiful pages for the book. I can't wait to start reading it once he / she arrives!

I also wanted to be able to capture some photo memories of the day and set up a photobooth so myself and guests could strike a pose! 

It was such a wonderful day! Shawn, myself and Baby G are so incredibly blessed and can't express with words alone how grateful we are for all the love and kindness everyone has shown to us and the upcoming arrival of our bundle of joy!

3 Months in a nutshell... Part 2!

Meet with our Doula

     Early on in our pregnancy I realized that I would like to have a Doula to assist us during the delivery as labour and delivery is something that Shawn and I have zero experience with. 

   When I began researching, I learned that doulas help shorten labour and delivery times and also help to have less medical interventions during the labour and delivery.... For someone who hates hospitals this is great news!

     We have met with our doula Gillian twice now to go over our birth plan, techniques/positions to help labour progress and various pain management options. She will come to our house or meet us at the hospital once labour begins and will stay with us throughout the delivery and for a short period after to ensure mom and baby are doing well and off to a good start with feeding. She also comes for a visit or two once we are home again to follow up with feeding.

      So for now her number has been programmed into my phone and she's on call for d-day! 

Baby Shower

    This will be it's own post!

30th Birthdays x 2

     January always hosts a big birthday bender in our house! I am the older lady for one whole week until my lovely husband has his birthday exactly one week (to the day) after mine.

     Since we had big birthdays this year hubs had the day off to celebrate mine, we started off with an appt at the OB then went and looked at a newly listed house in our neighbourhood. It was love at first sight for me...he liked it too! Mind you it was dated, light fixtures, faucets, carpets and cupboards etc, but the layout was my dream house! And the house was super clean... Unlike another house we once looked at...and bought 4 years ago!

    We put in an offer, and another and walked away for a few days, finally we came back meeting what the seller wanted and they accepted another offer that night! (Which I think later got beat by another offer). Oh well we have a good idea what we are looking for and it would of been fun listing and trying to sell our house while 8+months pregnant! Our eyes are open for one down the road!

     Between our birthdays our family pulled a little fast one on us and our "birthday dinner" turned into a surprise party... They are lucky it didn't induce labour (my bags weren't packed at that point!) The first surprise was a visit from Shawn's sister from the sunny south, unfortunately for her it was during the second polar vortex of the month! After we had a nice family dinner people started to show up, and over the night it was more and more family and friends! Shawn and I are very grateful for everyone who helped us celebrate 30! (Stay tuned for Kyrstin 30.5 where I can actually "celebrate")

Maternity Photos x 2

     This will be it's own post!

Last day of WORK!

    As of Monday February 17th I am officially on Maternity Leave! Now I get the joys of organizing the 'paper'work of my two jobs with Service Canada... I am already not a fan of their customer service phone support... 35 mins on hold and I didn't even get to speak to a voice.... Not just a person, but a voice to give me some direction.

     So now I sit with my feet up eating bonbons waiting for BabyG to come...jk (kinda...not really!)

3 Months in a nutshell!

What we've been up to for the last 3 Months!

  

Bathroom: Finally got worked on & FINISHED! 

     With Shawn having to work out of a town basically an entire month after he had decided to tear apart our main bath November allowed him a little more free time to work on and finish the work and I couldn't be happier with the results! 

     A recap from the last time I posted about the bathroom...for this project we plan on:

• Remove old floor tile & replace with new tile
• Remove tub & surround, replace with tile & new tub
• New tub & shower faucet
• New counter top
• Paint cabinets & straighten drawers
• Frame around the basic builder's mirror (as seen on pinterest)
• Paint walls
• New light fixture - with more light

We were able to complete everything on the list. Nothing overly crazy went into this reno just some nice clean updated materials. We planned for a very conservative $1500 for the budget and although we went over slightly I feel the money was well spent and puts a little more value into our house!

Nursery was started & FINISHED!

     Once the bathroom was completed we moved onto the nursery! 

• Replaced the old window (ourselves)
• New counter for the built in desk / change table (DIY concrete counter?). (Opted not to do)
• New Closet Doors? (Opted not to do)
• Paint
• Light Fixture
• Window Covering
• Furniture & Decor
• Relocate "office" stuff into the guest room

The nursery went rather quickly. We started with the window while the weather was decent then it was basically painting and trim. All the rest was more decor details. We did not change out the counter tops or replace the closet doors. The functionality of them is still in perfect working condition and it didn't seem worth the work or cost to make a change.

Prenatal Classes & Hospital Tour

     We took a weekender prenatal class in November offered from Rhea Eady at The Family Wellness Centre. As far as prenatal classes go this one was AMAZING! Exactly the style I was looking for and not strictly giving the hospitals medical views and opinion like a few other courses in Windsor that I have heard of. It was encouraging and educational. Highly recommend it for any parents to be!

The next month we met up with Rhea again at Met hospital for a tour. Gave us a good idea what to do the day of, what the hospital has to offer us and the baby and we got an idea what we needed to bring for our labour & delivery. We were very lucky we opted to do the tour in December because the hospital went into a flu outbreak and they have cut all visitors and tours since.

Christmas & A Little Getaway

    We started off the holidays with an early morning ice skating at Commerica Park on the ice set up for the events for the winter classic.  This also was during the kick off of our streak of sub zero temperatures. It was an awesome experience though! 

     I unfortunately had to work every holiday over the holidays. It made our busy Christmas visiting schedule even more crammed but the holidays fell on my days to work and with being off the following year I figured it was something I just had to do (and the holiday pay didn't hurt).

     We had originally planned a little getaway up to Traverse City for a few days between Christmas and New Years, but Shawn had some issues at work and didn't want to risk cutting the trip short so we stayed more local.

     Our night away actually worked out better for us. I was in desperate need for some maternity clothing and found the only Gap in Michigan that carries Maternity was at Partridge Creek Mall. The day we went was sunny and mild and a perfect day for walking this outdoor mall. It was still decorated for the holidays and had great post holiday sales! The mall is also pet friendly and it was funny to be shopping with dogs actually in the stores and change rooms. Tons of cute pooches out for a stroll & some shopping!

     I shopped til I dropped that day, but got some great deals to get me through the rest of my pregnancy.  We stayed at the Hilton in Auburn Hills, it was beautiful! We had a suite with separate living room and the room itself was another great deal! I will stay there again! (Nicely located between Somerset and GreatLakes if you are planning a shopping weekend!)

Dear Diary: Week 38

Wednesday February 19th 2014

How far along? 38 weeks

Baby G is the size of a Pumpkin!

Due Date: March 5^th 2014

Total weight gain/loss: 159 (YIKES!!!)   + 38lbs :(

Maternity clothes? YES! Anything & everything cotton & stretchy...Feel like a bum living in joggers, t-shirts, compression socks & granny undies! (Hot I know!)

Stretch marks? No... hopefully I made it all the way through without! (Fingers crossed)

Sleep: Tired throughout of the day...Sleep okay at night (usually wide awake between 4-6:30 am, then sleep again until 8 / 8:30)

Best moment this week: Being off of work!

Have you told family and friends: YES

Miss Anything? Wine

Movement: Yes.... limited by lack or room

Food cravings: Cupcakes and Gummy Candy... Thankfully both have been cured!

Anything making you queasy or sick: No

Have you started to show yet: Oh yes!

Gender prediction: Clueless!

Labour Signs: Not yet?!

Belly Button in or out? Outish..Under my shirt is looks out but still tucked under (I must have a super innie)

Wedding rings on or off? On (but bothersome at times)

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy / Tired / Moody…Changes like the weather

Weekly Wisdom: With a short time left I am just taking the time to relax and wait for baby to come!

Looking forward to: Meeting Baby Goulding!

My Apologies to Baby G!

To Baby G...

   

I had such great intentions to document our pregnancy journey together with this little journal, doing weekly updates and something you would be able to look back when you are older....Well I am sorry but this mama took a 3 MONTH vacation right in the middle of doing that!  I wish it was just posting on the blog that I had cut out and that I still continued with the copy of the weekly updates hardcopy in Word... but no, due to technical difficulties it got to the point where the computer was just too full I couldn't even type a single word and have room to save it! (Thankfully your Uncle Jeff hooked us up with a new hard drive for Christmas and we have room again! - much needed room for all those pictures and videos that you will be starring in soon!)

Ummm so... Time Flies!

Apparently so much so that my pregnancy went from 23 weeks with a little teeny tiny "grapefruit" bump to being 38+ weeks along officially smuggling a pumpkin...

And it felt like that all went down in a blink of an eye!

  

What we've been up to for the last 3 Months!

  

- Bathroom: Finally got worked on & FINISHED! 

- Nursery was started & FINISHED!

- Prenatal Classes

- Hospital Tour

- Christmas Holidays

- A Little Getaway

- Meet with our Doula

- Baby Shower

- 30th Birthdays x 2

- Maternity Photos x 2

- Last day of WORK!

 

More detailed update to come!

September & October

November

December

January

Dear Diary: Week 23

Wednesday November  6th 2013

How far along? 23 weeks

Baby G is the size of a Grapefruit!

Due Date: March 5^th 2014

Total weight gain/loss: 139  + 18lbs

Maternity clothes? H&M Jeans, Belly Band & Maternity T-shirts

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: Sleep well at night

Best moment this week: Tiling began in the bathroom!  I had a sinus cold this past week so not much exciting!

Have you told family and friends: YES

Miss Anything? Wine & Sushi (the real stuff with smoked salmon & raw tuna!)

Movement: Yes, more and more!

Food cravings: Nothing really

Anything making you queasy or sick: No

Have you started to show yet: Oh yes!

Gender prediction: Boy

Labour Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy…feel more pregnant now that I actually look pregnant

Weekly Wisdom: Take my vitamins!!! I just started to see a naturopath as Shawn doesn’t want the baby being exposed to the flu shot and go figure I start coming down with a cold that night. Luckily I followed everything she suggested and aside from vitamins and saline nasal rinses and sprays I didn’t need to take anything over the counter. Lemon and Ginger were my best friends!

Looking forward to: Prenatal Yoga being back in action! Bathroom Progress. Celebrating my cousins wedding. Seeing Baby again at the Ultra sound!  Not looking forward to finishing the registry! Apparently I am really picky and stores don’t have stock of the things I want! 

5 Month Bump on Halloween

Lola is not a happy cow!

Let the tiling begin!