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We had a week that was relatively uneventful, but enjoyable. Work is work, and the next month to month and a half will be fairly packed for me in terms of stuff I have to get done, so I've been working on making a list and setting arbitrary dates for finishing things. But by mid August or so, I expect to be all done with major work things, and getting ready for baby full-time.
On Friday evening we had a new colleague and his partner over for dinner, and we intended to barbecue but there was an unexpected thunderstorm. It wasn't major, but just in case there was giant hail like the previous Friday, we ordered pizza instead. On Saturday during the day we did some baby shopping, and although going out shopping did not result in any purchases, we did make some purchases online. Then on Saturday evening we had friends over for dinner.
Today we drove about an hour and fifteen minutes to a provincial park that has a big sandy beach on a lake. We spent the afternoon swimming and reading on the beach. This is something we could never really do in Oregon, since all the lakes there are either mountain lakes and extremely cold or dammed rivers and extremely cold or muddy-bottomed and full of salamanders. Before moving here I have not really had the pleasure of really good lake swimming, and it turns out that it's tons of fun :-)
We are doing our best to enjoy summer now as much as we can, since I'm not sure how I will feel by late summer, and this is our last summer just the two of us. Most of the people at the lake today were families with children, and I'm sure that we will continue to do lots of the same things that we do now, but it will definitely be different. So it makes sense to enjoy what we have now, and look forward to what is to come!
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Many things
1. Our only shower is in a state of disrepair. I have two grab bars in the shower to help with balance, and a little over a week ago Jeff was washing his feet off and used one of the bars to help stabilize himself as he swung his feet out of the shower. As he pulled on the bar, the bar, the tile, and the wall behind it started to pull away. At first he was concerned that he had done something to break it, but right away it was clear that there was something serious wrong – he shouldn't have been able to break it even if he tried. There was definitely water that had gotten behind the tile, possibly a long time ago, possibly beginning before we even moved into the house, and in order for it to be even minimally safe for me to use the grab bar it needs to be fixed. We had one guy come in and take a look, and his "estimate" of how much it would cost to fix (which he said was not really an estimate, and don't hold him to any of it, because it could end up being quite a bit more) seemed outrageously high.
We had another company come take a look, and they gave us an exact price (assuming they do not find any additional damage) which was less than half of what the first guy said was "just a ballpark." They were very professional, and gave us a number of options for what we would like done and how, and we generally like them, so this is who we are going to go with. However, they have a backlog and so it could be 10 to 12 weeks before the shower gets fixed, and it is only thirteen weeks until my due date. Meanwhile, I have a grab bar that allows me to get in and out of the shower but not to move around once I am in, so I have to use a bath chair temporarily (which I already had for using in certain circumstances). The timing of this is not great, since my balance will just get worse and worse as I get bigger and bigger, but I suppose with all of that I might have needed to use the bath chair anyway.
2. Sleep is a constantly changing struggle, but we are adapting. Probably almost immediately after writing the blog post about sleeping on my back, it became uncomfortable to be on my back for very long. The baby has just gotten too heavy. I was lamenting that I might have to figure out how to sleep on my side after all, but my doctor suggested getting a wedge pillow to put under my right hip so that when I am lying on my back I am at a slight angle, which changes how the weight is distributed. There was not a single store in town that had wedge pillows in stock, so I had to order from Amazon and wait (I ended up ordering two different kinds because they were each less than fifteen dollars and I had to get up to twenty-five for free shipping, so I figured it couldn't hurt). It turns out these pillows are currently amazing for me. I put one under my right hip as suggested, and one next to my belly on the left side. The one under my hip changes the weight distribution just enough that it is comfortable to mostly be on my back again, and the one next to my belly makes it more comfortable to roll onto my side if I need to change positions. They are small, don't get in Jeff's way too much, and for the time being make it so that I can sleep. So I currently have five pillows either in bed with me or right next to the bed so I can access them easily if needed – one for my head, the two wedge pillows, one to go between my knees and ankles if I do roll onto my side, and another one to hug with my arms if I end up rolling onto my side. It is working for the time being, but it seems that things constantly change related to this!
3. On Friday we had the biggest hail I have ever seen:
You can't really tell from the video, but the diameter of each hailstone is about half an inch, maybe more. There was damage in the garden, but it seems like most of the plants will recover.
4. Koshka may be wary of how things are changing, but Maddy appears to like the new size and shape of my belly:
5. Yesterday we went to Regina's pride parade. It was bigger than Jeff thought it would be, much less crowded than I thought it would be, but a good time. I am a big fan of parades :-)
6. Yesterday evening we went for a walk at a park that is about a ten minute drive from our house. I had never been there before, and Jeff had only run/biked past it. It turned out to be a very lovely park and a nice walk.
I was reminded that when the conditions are right (the ground is reasonably level, there are no huge obstacles, the sidewalks are not deteriorating) going for a walk can be very nice in the summer (always while holding Jeff's hand for stability). The winter is always rough because it is so icy, and our neighborhood has patchwork sidewalks that mostly slant toward the road and change materials (concrete, asphalt, deteriorating concrete, gravel, concrete with big rocks in it, etc.) about every 10 feet. Going for walks can be something of an ordeal, so I had forgotten how nice it can be. With this reminder, I'm going to try to get out on walks as often as possible!
We had another company come take a look, and they gave us an exact price (assuming they do not find any additional damage) which was less than half of what the first guy said was "just a ballpark." They were very professional, and gave us a number of options for what we would like done and how, and we generally like them, so this is who we are going to go with. However, they have a backlog and so it could be 10 to 12 weeks before the shower gets fixed, and it is only thirteen weeks until my due date. Meanwhile, I have a grab bar that allows me to get in and out of the shower but not to move around once I am in, so I have to use a bath chair temporarily (which I already had for using in certain circumstances). The timing of this is not great, since my balance will just get worse and worse as I get bigger and bigger, but I suppose with all of that I might have needed to use the bath chair anyway.
2. Sleep is a constantly changing struggle, but we are adapting. Probably almost immediately after writing the blog post about sleeping on my back, it became uncomfortable to be on my back for very long. The baby has just gotten too heavy. I was lamenting that I might have to figure out how to sleep on my side after all, but my doctor suggested getting a wedge pillow to put under my right hip so that when I am lying on my back I am at a slight angle, which changes how the weight is distributed. There was not a single store in town that had wedge pillows in stock, so I had to order from Amazon and wait (I ended up ordering two different kinds because they were each less than fifteen dollars and I had to get up to twenty-five for free shipping, so I figured it couldn't hurt). It turns out these pillows are currently amazing for me. I put one under my right hip as suggested, and one next to my belly on the left side. The one under my hip changes the weight distribution just enough that it is comfortable to mostly be on my back again, and the one next to my belly makes it more comfortable to roll onto my side if I need to change positions. They are small, don't get in Jeff's way too much, and for the time being make it so that I can sleep. So I currently have five pillows either in bed with me or right next to the bed so I can access them easily if needed – one for my head, the two wedge pillows, one to go between my knees and ankles if I do roll onto my side, and another one to hug with my arms if I end up rolling onto my side. It is working for the time being, but it seems that things constantly change related to this!
3. On Friday we had the biggest hail I have ever seen:
4. Koshka may be wary of how things are changing, but Maddy appears to like the new size and shape of my belly:
5. Yesterday we went to Regina's pride parade. It was bigger than Jeff thought it would be, much less crowded than I thought it would be, but a good time. I am a big fan of parades :-)
6. Yesterday evening we went for a walk at a park that is about a ten minute drive from our house. I had never been there before, and Jeff had only run/biked past it. It turned out to be a very lovely park and a nice walk.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Ottawa was fun, scary heavy doll filled with rocks
We had an excellent visit to Ottawa. First we visited with Brandon, Krista, and Eric, then we went to our respective conferences (Canadian Psychological Association for me and Canadian Society for Brain, Behavior, and Behavioral Science for Jeff), and then visited Scott, Amica, and Rowan. We had lots of toddler time,
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| Reading to Eric |
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| Teaching Rowan about old Nintendo |
saw the sites,
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| At the Ottawa river with Brandon |
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| On Parliament Hill |
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| Video gaming at House of Targ |
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| Last day in Ottawa with Rowan and Scott |
I think I may have mentioned that I have had a couple of sessions with an occupational therapist, specifically related to figuring out what kinds of adaptations I may need in order to be as independent as possible in taking care of the baby. One of the things that she mentioned was possibly trying certain things out with a weighted doll, which of course is nothing like a real baby that wriggles and such, but for certain things might be better than no preparation. For example, figuring out how I need to distribute weight for safe carrying – whether I can carry the baby in a car seat, whether I can wear the baby in a carrier, whether I can lift the baby out of the crib, etc. The problem was that we could not find a doll that was realistically weighted.
But on Friday I went to a baby store in search of a wedge pillow to help with positioning while sleeping (an ongoing issue which I will surely blog about again soon), and although they didn't have the pillow the woman at the store mentioned that they have weighted dolls that they use for letting people try out different baby carriers. I asked where they got them, and the woman explained that they make them from dolls they buy at Walmart which they fill with aquarium rocks. I was super excited by this, and armed with the knowledge that there are instructions online for how to do this, this morning I went to Walmart and bought a doll and some aquarium rocks. It took the better part of an afternoon, but now I have a doll that weighs a little over 9 pounds, which I can use for the purposes of occupational therapy. The doll is not perfectly realistic in terms of shape or distribution of weight, but it will absolutely serve my purposes.
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| Koshka is concerned about the doll |
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Baby updates
I have already said this before but I have to keep relearning it – the Internet propagates half-truths, oversimplifications, and fear, when it comes to pregnancy and babies.
I was not sleeping well for a while because I was desperately trying to sleep on my side all night as the Internet (and baby books) would have you believe is the only right thing to do after the twentieth week of pregnancy. There is suggestion that sleeping on your back is always bad for you, and bad for the baby, and increases the risk of stillbirth. So of course I was doing what I was told (by the Internet) and trying to sleep exclusively on my side. But it wasn't working, and was just leading to bad sleep as I was anxiously trying to control my behavior while unconscious.
So I decided to look up some of the actual studies on the matter. There are very few, but what is suggested is that back sleeping is an additional risk factor for stillbirth when other risk factors are already present. What is also suggested is that this risk comes in "late pregnancy," and I am clearly still somewhere in the middle. I do find being on my back to be uncomfortable sometimes, and will roll onto my side, but the majority of the night I am on my back no matter what I do. So at this point I am going to once again ignore the advice of the Internet in favor of what my doctor says (which is that if I need to roll over onto my side I will just do it, but she said this a while ago and I thought maybe that particular advice had expired), and try not to stress about it. Since making this decision I have had two reasonably good nights of sleep.
On Thursday evening we went to a garage sale that advertised having tons of baby stuff, and indeed they did. We ended up making our first furniture-type baby purchase – a bassinet on a frame with wheels that I can wheel around the house. I expect that this is where the baby will have naps for the first few months, and since I won't be able to carry the baby as easily as some parents can, the wheels (which do lock so that the bassinet can't roll away) will be a big help. We thoroughly cleaned it yesterday, and now it is ready to go. It's sort of exciting and at the same time terrifying starting to think about how real this is, and really how soon the baby will be here!
Also very exciting is that Jeff got to feel the baby kick for the first time yesterday. I was sitting on the couch yesterday morning feeling lots of baby movement, and noticed that I actually saw my belly move from the outside. I had Jeff put his hand on my belly and sure enough he felt a kick. Also, as of this afternoon I am feeling the movement/kicks on both sides of my belly when before I was only feeling it on the left. My right is the side of my body that has numbness and reduced sensation and I wasn't sure whether I would ever feel anything on the right. But the baby is definitely getting stronger, as I am starting to feel it a little bit on the right as well.
On Tuesday we are leaving for a week in Ottawa, where we will each attend a conference and also have a good bit of time to visit friends. So if I don't post next week, it is because we are having a good time visiting with two of Jeff's best friends, their partners, and their toddlers :-)
I was not sleeping well for a while because I was desperately trying to sleep on my side all night as the Internet (and baby books) would have you believe is the only right thing to do after the twentieth week of pregnancy. There is suggestion that sleeping on your back is always bad for you, and bad for the baby, and increases the risk of stillbirth. So of course I was doing what I was told (by the Internet) and trying to sleep exclusively on my side. But it wasn't working, and was just leading to bad sleep as I was anxiously trying to control my behavior while unconscious.
So I decided to look up some of the actual studies on the matter. There are very few, but what is suggested is that back sleeping is an additional risk factor for stillbirth when other risk factors are already present. What is also suggested is that this risk comes in "late pregnancy," and I am clearly still somewhere in the middle. I do find being on my back to be uncomfortable sometimes, and will roll onto my side, but the majority of the night I am on my back no matter what I do. So at this point I am going to once again ignore the advice of the Internet in favor of what my doctor says (which is that if I need to roll over onto my side I will just do it, but she said this a while ago and I thought maybe that particular advice had expired), and try not to stress about it. Since making this decision I have had two reasonably good nights of sleep.
On Thursday evening we went to a garage sale that advertised having tons of baby stuff, and indeed they did. We ended up making our first furniture-type baby purchase – a bassinet on a frame with wheels that I can wheel around the house. I expect that this is where the baby will have naps for the first few months, and since I won't be able to carry the baby as easily as some parents can, the wheels (which do lock so that the bassinet can't roll away) will be a big help. We thoroughly cleaned it yesterday, and now it is ready to go. It's sort of exciting and at the same time terrifying starting to think about how real this is, and really how soon the baby will be here!
Also very exciting is that Jeff got to feel the baby kick for the first time yesterday. I was sitting on the couch yesterday morning feeling lots of baby movement, and noticed that I actually saw my belly move from the outside. I had Jeff put his hand on my belly and sure enough he felt a kick. Also, as of this afternoon I am feeling the movement/kicks on both sides of my belly when before I was only feeling it on the left. My right is the side of my body that has numbness and reduced sensation and I wasn't sure whether I would ever feel anything on the right. But the baby is definitely getting stronger, as I am starting to feel it a little bit on the right as well.
On Tuesday we are leaving for a week in Ottawa, where we will each attend a conference and also have a good bit of time to visit friends. So if I don't post next week, it is because we are having a good time visiting with two of Jeff's best friends, their partners, and their toddlers :-)
Sunday, May 24, 2015
I am not totally sure what to write about today, so I will just write down some things that I am thinking.
1. For some reason I am suddenly really into smoothies. I wasn't just indifferent before, I really didn't like them very much, because in general I would rather just eat the things that go into them as opposed to having all of those things blended up together. But something about being pregnant has made me really crave smoothies, I think because it is a very efficient way to get a lot of nutrition. It became such an obsession that we ended up buying a special single-serve blender just for making smoothies. I still don't like bananas, but there are some very delicious non-banana smoothie recipes out there (like this one, which I made without the banana, using cashews instead of walnuts, ginger instead of nutmeg, and regular milk instead of almond milk), and I like being a little bit creative.
2. Things are starting to grow in the garden. There are little sprouts of lettuce and chard, today some of the potatoes started to pop up, and little pea shoots are shooting out of the ground. The rhubarb has at least twelve stalks, and they are getting close to being a foot long (rhubarb dies back completely in the winter here, so this is all growth that has happened in the last few weeks). I also bought some herbs at the garden center and planted them today. Gardening was much harder work today than it normally is I think, and I had to take a long break afterward, but it was satisfying.
3. I got a haircut yesterday, and it is shorter than my hair has been in several years. I sort of have mixed feelings about it, because it is a bit shorter than what I asked for (just barely below shoulders), but a summer haircut is good.
4. Today I am 23 weeks pregnant, and apparently this means that if the baby were born today it would have some chance of surviving. It seems a little crazy to think that some babies are born that tiny, and I hope this one stays put for a good while longer!
5. I am feeling the baby move around more and more. It is still inconsistent, but I am definitely getting kicked and punched sometimes – it is no longer a mistakable for a rumbly stomach or gas. I am loving it :-)
6. There are some things about being pregnant that are not as great. First, my feet keep turning dark red or purple from blood pooling, so I have to sit with my feet up a lot. I am not sleeping all that well (okay, but not as well as usual) because I am finding it harder and harder to get comfortable. I am normally a back sleeper and it is becoming less and less comfortable to sleep on my back for any period of time, and when I sleep on my side my hip and shoulder hurt. There are several extra pillows in bed of various shapes and sizes that help, but I fear that the days of good sleep might be done for quite some time. Also, I am hot all the time, and at night even though we are keeping the house cool enough that Jeff has to wear his winter socks to bed, I often find myself throwing off all of the covers and waking up a little sweaty. I can only imagine what things will be like when it is super hot in August and I am super pregnant.
7. The weather here has been unbelievably good. Highs around 25°C/77°F, sunny, sometimes a few clouds to block the sun from being too direct, and no mosquitoes yet. It is great to be outside. Everyone here has completely forgotten that winter exists, and we are enjoying one of the nicest parts of the year :-)
1. For some reason I am suddenly really into smoothies. I wasn't just indifferent before, I really didn't like them very much, because in general I would rather just eat the things that go into them as opposed to having all of those things blended up together. But something about being pregnant has made me really crave smoothies, I think because it is a very efficient way to get a lot of nutrition. It became such an obsession that we ended up buying a special single-serve blender just for making smoothies. I still don't like bananas, but there are some very delicious non-banana smoothie recipes out there (like this one, which I made without the banana, using cashews instead of walnuts, ginger instead of nutmeg, and regular milk instead of almond milk), and I like being a little bit creative.
2. Things are starting to grow in the garden. There are little sprouts of lettuce and chard, today some of the potatoes started to pop up, and little pea shoots are shooting out of the ground. The rhubarb has at least twelve stalks, and they are getting close to being a foot long (rhubarb dies back completely in the winter here, so this is all growth that has happened in the last few weeks). I also bought some herbs at the garden center and planted them today. Gardening was much harder work today than it normally is I think, and I had to take a long break afterward, but it was satisfying.
3. I got a haircut yesterday, and it is shorter than my hair has been in several years. I sort of have mixed feelings about it, because it is a bit shorter than what I asked for (just barely below shoulders), but a summer haircut is good.
4. Today I am 23 weeks pregnant, and apparently this means that if the baby were born today it would have some chance of surviving. It seems a little crazy to think that some babies are born that tiny, and I hope this one stays put for a good while longer!
5. I am feeling the baby move around more and more. It is still inconsistent, but I am definitely getting kicked and punched sometimes – it is no longer a mistakable for a rumbly stomach or gas. I am loving it :-)
6. There are some things about being pregnant that are not as great. First, my feet keep turning dark red or purple from blood pooling, so I have to sit with my feet up a lot. I am not sleeping all that well (okay, but not as well as usual) because I am finding it harder and harder to get comfortable. I am normally a back sleeper and it is becoming less and less comfortable to sleep on my back for any period of time, and when I sleep on my side my hip and shoulder hurt. There are several extra pillows in bed of various shapes and sizes that help, but I fear that the days of good sleep might be done for quite some time. Also, I am hot all the time, and at night even though we are keeping the house cool enough that Jeff has to wear his winter socks to bed, I often find myself throwing off all of the covers and waking up a little sweaty. I can only imagine what things will be like when it is super hot in August and I am super pregnant.
7. The weather here has been unbelievably good. Highs around 25°C/77°F, sunny, sometimes a few clouds to block the sun from being too direct, and no mosquitoes yet. It is great to be outside. Everyone here has completely forgotten that winter exists, and we are enjoying one of the nicest parts of the year :-)
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