No More Complaints From Me!

Lately I have been feeling really ready to have this baby, even though I'm not due until November. I guess with all the chaos of moving, working, chasing after a now 3 year old, I was feeling just plain done.

Especially last weekend. I was so tired, and on Thursday night started having these uncomfortable Braxton Hicks, which made me want to be done even more! Then the Braxton Hicks just kept coming. And getting more uncomfortable. And weren't stopping. By Sunday morning, I paged my midwife (LOVE midwives, by the way) and told her that something just wasn't right. By this time I was sure they were contractions, and they were coming every 5-10 minutes or so. She told me to meet her at the hospital in about 2 hours. In case your wondering why 2 hours and not immediately, we had time since there wasn't any other signs of pre-term labour. My midwife also ran through the possible scenarios of what could be happening, right from nothing to worry about, to ending up in a Toronto hospital that specializes in pre-term labour. I was a bit freaked out.

When we got to the hospital, they hooked me up to the machines to monitor the baby and uterine activity. Baby was fine and moving around lots. But it also showed that I was definitely having contractions every 3 minutes that were lasting about 60 seconds each. I started to panic just a bit more with that. They were going to do a test to see if I had a certain chemical present that would indicate I was going to go into labour within the next 7-14 days. About an hour later the results came back and were negative! We breathed a huge sigh of relief.

So what was causing my contractions?

Mild dehydration. Who knew? My midwife practically stuck a garden hose down my throat. Well not really, but I was drinking a swimming pool full of water as soon when she saw I was somewhat dehydrated. After drinking my weight in water, by Monday afternoon the contractions had completely stopped, and I was feeling a whole lot better.

And as for complaining about how I'm feeling and wanting this baby out NOW? Um, no thank you. The scary possibility that presented itself this weekend cured me of that. This kid can chill out for about 2 more months and that will be just dandy with me.

But if he's past my due date, I reserve every right to whine and complain after that.

The Big Catch-Up

Although I'm fairly certain that by this time no one is reading this thing, I figure I should try to post to catch up from the last few months. A LOT has happened.

First of all, we found out from our ultrasound that we are having another boy! We're very excited about having another boy, especially as we are so cheap and will not have to buy a bunch of girls clothing. Yes, we're that cheap. Either way, baby is healthy and fine and now I have to try to find a name. Since this is probably our last child, if anyone wants to take my girls name of Lauren, please feel free.

Backing up about 6 months now, the first two sentences that came out of Ash's mouth when I told him we were having another baby was "Really? Guess we need to get a bigger house." I didn't realize how serious he was about that. Well, he was serious. We ended up selling our house at the end of June, and have bought a new home in Holland Landing (just 10 minutes north of our current home). We move on August 28. It's a detached raised bungalow, with 3 bedrooms upstairs, and 2 rooms downstairs. We're really excited about it and now the fun of packing begins. I can't elaborate enough on how much I detest moving. Especially since I've calculated that this is our 7th move in 8 years of marriage. We will have been at this house for just a month shy of 3 years, which is the longest we've been in one place. I think this new home will have enough room to feel settled for awhile, even though the kitchen will be smaller than our current one. Guess it's a good thing I don't do much cooking.

We also went home for a visit to Alberta at the end of June and beginning of July. It was wonderful and we had a great time. I would post pictures, but we have changed computers and I haven't set up anything yet with this one. I think when we move we are planning some fancy thing with both of our computers, so I should hopefully post new pics of our home when we get it all settled.

Um, Happy Father's Day?

When I was younger, we bought my mom a toaster for Mother's Day (at least I think it was for Mother's Day). I was at that age where my dad and older brother had to explicitly tell me not to tell Mom that we got her a toaster. Of course, when it was time to give it to her I asked her "do you think it's a toaster?". Technically, I didn't tell her what we bought, I just wondered if she thought that's what it might be.

So today Cameron and I were out in the morning and I stopped at a place to have Cameron make a Father's Day gift. Early in the month, I know, but we had some time to get it done today. Cameron chose to paint a motorbike (surprise, surprise). While he was painting, I reminded him this was a gift for Dad, and that we had to keep it a surprise and not tell him until it was Father's Day.

Of course what was the first thing he did when we got home? He yells up to Ash from the bottom of the stairs at the top of his little lungs "I PAINTED YOU A MOTORBIKE, DADDY!!! IT'S A SURPRISE FOR YOU!!" I could have gotten away with just pretending to not understand what he was talking about, or to make some alternative story up, but I had missed some paint on his elbow which pretty much substantiated his tale. So I told Ash to act surprised when the day comes next month. And yes, Cameron again had to remind Dad at the table during lunch about painting him a motorbike.

There are no secrets among 2 year olds.

2nd Time's Not Quite the Charm

I've only been pregnant for 3 months, but there are some interesting differences the second time around that I've noticed.

1. I'm not as excited to get into maternity clothes as I was the first time around. That's probably due to the fact that I had to get into them a whole lot sooner than before, and not for cute baby-belly reasons.

2. I'm also not excited about buying maternity clothes. I think this will probably be our last one, and I keep thinking about the money I'll spend on clothes I will only wear for half a year.

3. First time around, I was signing up left, right, and centre for prenatal yoga, prenatal massage, aquafit, buying every book, and surfing every baby website there was. This time around, after coming home from a job that is a lot busier and stressful than the job I had when I was pregnant with Cameron, making dinner for the family, and getting Cameron ready for bed, I am done for the night. I have no energy this time around.

4. At this point in my first pregnancy, we had bought our stroller system, pack & play, and had lists galore of items to buy. I don't want to look at baby clothes, but I have done some preliminary investigation into a sit 'n stand stroller. And there are no lists floating around my house.

5. I can't believe there are only 6 months left. This pregnancy is flying by. I should be as uber-anxious to get baby stuff done as I was the first time around, since we have to make our office into the baby's room.

And on the cute-stories-about-Cameron note, he is now at that wonderful stage where he's saying most of his own prayers, or at least what he wants to say 'thank you' for. The other night's prayer went something like this:

"Thank you for cars. Thank you for church. Thank you for bread and water. (then started the looking around the room for things to be thankful for) Thank you for blankies. Thank you for pillows. Thank you for toys. Thank you for Giraffe and Duck (stuffed animals)." Tonight at least he said "thank you for Mommy & Daddy". And there's me kneeling beside him, heart slowly melting.

I love that kid.

The Pregnant Post

Yes. I'm pregnant. We are taking the daring dip in the gene pool once more. I had my first midwife appointment today, and we were able to briefly hear the heartbeat before the little guy/gal moved away. I'm due around Nov. 27.

We will find out the sex of the baby when it's time (not for about another month and a half), because I thought to myself do I really want to drag a newborn and 3 year old shopping in the winter for girls clothing, just in case? I'm sort of leaning towards it being another boy, but Cameron is certain he's going to have a little sister. Her name at this point according to him is either Peach Yogurt, or Cici. Neither of those names have made the shortlist at this point.

It's Potty Time

Cameron is over 2 and a half years old now. He has shown some of those signs that apparently mean he's ready for potty training. So we've been having discussions about pull ups, underwear, and how diapers are for babies, not big kids. But what kind of a come back can I give when my kid tells me that "diapers are cool, Mom."?

So today we've decided to really start giving it a shot. This morning Cameron and I went to the dollar store to buy some stickers (fishes and cars) and Smarties. When we got home he asked for them, and I reminded him of the rules. 1 sticker for at least sitting on the potty, and 1 Smartie if he actually goes in the potty. He immediately said "I want to go pee in the potty". So up the stairs we marched, me somewhat skeptical. Lo and behold, he actually went pee in the potty!

After his nap we're going to make an aquarium for his fish stickers, and a road for his car stickers to hang on the wall behind his potty.

Anyone have any other tips on how to make this work?

How Canadian of us.

This past weekend we went to the Maple Syrup Festival at Bruce's Mill. Having grown up in Southern Alberta where we don't have maple trees, it was quite an interesting event. I had the idea I would be seeing a bunch of trees being tapped with buckets hanging underneath.

Apparently, maple syrup technology has come a long way. They tap into the trees and run lines out of it that connects to one large main line. The forest looked like a spider web of tubing running through it.

Plus, I found out maple syrup tastes a lot better when it's fresh. A whole lot better.

Tree being tapped.

If you look above Cameron, you can see some of the lines running through the forest.

Cameron was also interested in watching the fire they had going to demonstrate the way maple syrup was made by the Natives.




Cameron with his stick.

They also had a petting zoo, which Cameron liked watching, but was a little wary of the animals when they got too close.

And of course his absolute favourite....

PONY RIDES!!!

First go at the pony rides. He absolutely loved it. It was so cute. If I could keep a pony in our backyard for him to ride every day, I would.

He was not a happy camper getting off the pony when it was done.

So of course we had to have another ride before we left for the day.