Jul 03 2009

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Amy

20 weeks.

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Filed under Baby, Graham, Pregnancy

These last couple of days have been pretty chock-full ‘o baby. Yesterday Graham and I went over to pick up the load of baby gear we’d been given. When we brought the new things into the house, the cats were not impressed. Well, Rudy was. Rudy thought the basinette was for him. Farley wanted nothing to do with the new stuff and in fact seemed quite put out that “his room” was becoming cluttered with all these cute things. I had to inform him that it was no longer his room.

One of the things we were given was an Evenflo backpack baby carrier, which Graham seems pretty jazzed about. I’m pretty sure I can think of someone who might be able to give us some advice about using it!

This morning Graham came with me to my doctor’s appointment. I thought he would enjoy hearing the baby’s heartbeat (I’ve heard it twice but he hadn’t yet had the pleasure). That was an exciting moment, hearing that sound together for the first time. We also found out that the odds the baby has Down’s Syndrome or Spina Bifida are about 1 in a million. Okay, they’re not exactly 1 in a million but they’re about 1 in 7,000 and 1 in 9,000 respectively, which is less chance than the general population, which is great in my books. Two worries down, a lifetime of worries to go. Oh, and apparently my uterus measures closer to 21 weeks at this point. See for yourself.

Almost 20 Weeks Pregnant

Sadly, not my beer on Canada Day.

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Jul 01 2009

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Amy

We stand on guard for thee.

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Filed under O Canada

CANADA

This morning I’m thinking about the 120 Canadian soldiers who have been killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan. It is especially to their families and loved ones that I wish today, a happy and peaceful Canada Day.

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Jun 26 2009

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Amy

19 weeks.

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Filed under Baby, Friends, Gratitude, Kindness

The woman who owns the restaurant where I work recently offered Graham and I a whole whackload of baby gear.  She has two baby grandchildren and they aren’t using these things anymore, so she asked if we’d like them.  Would we!

Among the baby items we’ll be having handed down to us are:

  • a bassinette
  • an infant car seat
  • a jolly jumper
  • a playpen
  • a baby carrier
  • a mobile
  • an exersaucer
  • a vibrating baby seat
  • a baby swing

Holy smokes, right?  This will save us so much money and we are so grateful for the kindness of good people like Barb.  Even if we can’t use everything here in our house, they’ll be useful to keep at the grandparents’ homes for when we visit.  Adusting to having them around is going to take some time, I think, but I can’t wait to get them here in the house.

6 responses so far

Jun 23 2009

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Amy

Rules for surviving pregnancy message boards.

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I recently spent a few weeks participating on a rather well-known pregnancy message board. Then one day I read a post a woman had written about how, at 22 weeks she had found out that her baby had a very rare genetic condition which meant that her baby would either be stillborn or would probably not survive longer than a couple of days. I think she used the phrase, “This totally sucks.”  Now there’s an understatement.  Her post was followed by a lot of messages from fellow board members who wrote things like, “You will be in my prayers,” “I’m so sorry you’re going through this,” and various other canned messages of condolence.  After I read that message I began to worry that there would be something wrong with our baby. Then I realized how irrational a thought that was, closed my laptop and walked away from the message board for good.

Although I enjoyed some of the discussion threads about silly things like food cravings and bizarre dreams, I found that the overall tone of the site was a lot more negative than I had originally hoped. There seemed to be a lot of unwritten rules that I had to follow, and I felt as though I was constantly censoring myself in this rather conservative community of pregnant woman. It was clear that this wasn’t the case for everyone there…some very close friendships had developed between some of the women. In general though, if members didn’t conform to the accepted set of practices, they were ostracized by the existing members of the forum.  I found this to be very ironic, since presumably everyone came to the board for a sense of community and support.  I know a lot of women get a lot of positivity from sites like the one I tried out.  It just wasn’t for me.  I get a lot more out of my day-to-day experience with my blog friends, women I know from the internet who are already moms, who have shown more care and support to one another and to me, than I believe I could ever find in a somewhat anonymous forum.  Cheers to you, ladies.

So if you’re pregnant, and considering joining one of the many pregnancy-related communities that are out there on the web, you might want to consider the following before stepping in.

1. Don’t discuss your weight. You should neither complain about gaining too much weight or, conversely, voice any concerns over not yet having gained enough weight.  It just “bums out everyone” else on the forum.

2. Flaming is to be expected, and in many cases, is even encouraged.

3. It’s cool to talk about your cervical mucus. (I personally could have lived my whole life quite happily having never been acquainted with the phrase, “snail trail.”)

4. It’s okay to talk about food. A lot. Daily threads about what’s being eaten for lunch are to be expected.

5. There are an alarming number of acronyms to learn, including DH, DD, DS, AW, AE, NBR, PSA, just to name a few. Don’t ask anyone what these stand for, though. You’ll have to figure them out for yourself.

6. It’s cool to admit you drink coffee, pop, enjoy an occasional sip/glass of wine and/or beer, sit in a hot tub, go four-wheeling, eat deli meats and all other manner of activities considered generally inadvisable for pregnant women.

7. Don’t ask a question that’s already been asked by some other pregnant woman at some point in time in the history of the site. See number two, above.

8. Expect to see a lot of web “bling” at the bottom of every post within a thread.  Bring your glasses.

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Lilypie

Ultrasound-2

Pregnancy ticker

(On that note, Eden and Alice have launched their new site, “Let’s Panic about Babies!“  It couldn’t have come at a better time.)

19 responses so far

Jun 19 2009

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Amy

18 weeks.

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Filed under Graham, Pregnancy

Last night I was in bed getting ready to read for awhile before falling asleep. Graham was checking out my belly, which sticks out a bit now, even when I’m lying down.

“The baby can hear you now, you know,” I told him.

He put his lips really close to where he imagined the baby to be and said in a loud, low voice, “HELLOOOO…This is your father speaking!”

I giggled.

“Knock three times if you can hear me!” he continued.

Then he gave my belly a zerbert.

Having a baby with Graham is going to bring lots of laughter into our house.

7 responses so far

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