Wednesday, September 30, 2009

30 Weeks!



Wow, I honestly can't believe I'm 30 weeks! I seriously need to take a belly pic, I'm not sure if I've taken one since... the spring?? This is just going by too fast!

My midwife appointment yesterday was good. I was a little late, so we had to go through things a little quicker than usual and didn't get to just hang out for a while, but that's ok I guess. The kids seemed a little extra crazy anyway. I've only gained 1 pound in the last 4 weeks, which is ok since the month before I gained like, 12 pounds... I told them about how I was sick, and they said I should have called them, so they could check me and the baby. But honestly I wasn't too worried, the baby doesn't stop moving long enough for me to ever worry about her. This baby is seriously so much like Judith. I hope she doesn't have reflux too! If she does end up being just like Judith, I probably will not sleep AT ALL for the first 3 or 4 months. But at least I will be better prepared and more equipped to handle it this time. I will need to learn the fine art of wearing her in the wrap all day. At least until my hernia surgery, that might throw a wrench in things... But what would life be without constant, new challenges? By the time I have baby #6, I will probably have figured out a way to fly...

I didn't get to hear the heart beat though. The midwives tried for quite a while to get it, but the baby wouldn't stay still long enough to get a good, loud reading. Obviously, I wasn't worried about it. They caught it faintly a couple times, enough to get the heart rate anyway. Both kids were up on the bed with me when they were trying, it was so cute!

I love that the kids are so involved with this pregnancy. Judith especially is so interested. She got to hold the doppler thing, and the blood pressure machine, and kept pointing out the baby's movements. Often Judith and I will sit on the couch and she will put her hand on my belly and feel the baby kicking and moving around. She also rubs body butter on my belly at night, which I don't really look forward to because she always seems to push hard on my hernias, but I like that she's bonding with her sister. She talks and sings to the baby all the time too. I hope they end up having a good relationship, especially since their personalities might be quite similar, they're both girls, and they both seem kind of firey... So I could see them clashing a lot. Poor Gideon will have to be the peace-maker. At least he's the type that would probably be good at it. But who knows, maybe they will all get along wonderfully.

My appointments from now on will be every TWO weeks, I can't believe it! I will have another baby in 7-12 weeks!

I can't believe how busy the next 3 months will be. We are moving, then it's Judith's birthday (she has already told me she wants a party with cake and presents and games with all her friends, but at least we will have the space to do it!), then my mom comes out, then the baby is due, then it's Christmas! Wow! I should like, start planning and getting things ready or something!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

We Got a House!

Here is our new place!



I'm SO excited! I so desperately wanted a home for the winter. Now the kids can expend their energy at home and in the back yard, so I won't have to go out every single day with them just to keep everyone's sanity. Wow, an actual home! It's our first 'real' home as a family (all we've ever had were apartments or communal living arrangements). It will be a little surreal for a while, I think.

We sign the lease tomorrow night, and then can move in Oct 15 - 31. We are getting the last 2 weeks of Oct for free, which is great, we won't have to move everything all in one day.

It's a really nice neighbourhood too. It's close to everything we need, but not very busy at all. The house is on a nice, quiet street with a couple big parks, grocery stores, busses and a mini-mall near-by. Our living expenses will go up quite a bit, but we still got a really good deal on the place. It's such a relief to get a place, you have no idea.

Maybe I will even get to have my home birth now!

Monday, September 21, 2009

The Cottage!

We had a great time at my parents' cottage this summer, here are some photos of our adventures.



Fun at the lake! Gideon preferred to play at the beach with the toys.



He loved to dig!



Judith just loved to swim!



She mastered the doggy paddle.



She would swim right until dark...



Gideon's other favourite place was the sand pile up at the driveway.



There was lots of space to run and play!



Judith even got to work a little, clearing brush away. She had her own little work gloves and everything!



This was mine when I was little like him!



Judith gets her love of the water from her father (I like to swim too, but they take it to a whole other level).



She also gets her fearlessness from him. She was out in the boat with Grandma, and wanted to go see Daddy on the raft. But as soon as she got out of the boat, she ran and jumped off the other side! It caught us all by surprise! Luckily, I had my camera up and ready and caught this memorable moment. It's about 12 feet deep out there. She ended up jumping off the raft may times, every day we were there!



Look, I actually swam out to the raft for the first time in YEARS (my cousin was there visiting).



That would be my dad doing a flip.



Gideon loves being all wrapped up in a towel. He would go in the lake for a couple minutes and splash around, just enough to warrant being toweled after.



There were lots of sugary treats to be had...



And ice cream from Uncle Chris' store!





Time to relax...



And time for Timbits!



Paddleboating.



A ride on the motor boat!



Here is a picture of ME when I was 3 in the same motor boat on the same lake!



The boys hanging out on the dock. Look at Gideon's face compared to mine above!



Grandpa's fishing buddy.



Grandpa's other fishing buddy.



Gideon preferred to just eat the worms anyway...



We had bonfires with marshmallows and s'mores!





My brother came to visit.





There were lots of great memories made during the 10 days we were at the cottage.

Friday, September 18, 2009

House Hunting

Sorry that I haven't been posting as usual! I do have SO much to share about our trip to Ontario. But I have been a little distracted since we got home. Lately my life has been consumed with the possibility of moving to a new house. It has been difficult, as everything in our price range hasn't quite been able to meet our needs. Although we really do need to find something, we are quickly outgrowing this tiny apartment. I have an overwhelming urge to nest, but I have been resisting because I don't know whether to start organizing everything here, or packing things away in boxes. This limbo phase is killing me! If we can't move somewhere by November 1, then we will have to wait until the spring (I'm not moving with a newborn, just can't do it!). We will also have to have a place secured by the end of the month so we can give our landlord adequate notice. So we only have a couple weeks to find something. We went and looked at a home last night that is perfect, and that we should be able to afford. I filled out the application, and will find out Tuesday if we got the house or not. There are several applicants. I'm hoping and praying that the landlords choose us! It would make our lives so much better.

Hopefully I will be back to my regular posting soon!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

WHAT?!

So I'm 27 weeks, and I just realized that means I am in my THIRD FREAKING TRIMESTER! Seriously?! Didn't I just get pregnant??? I suddenly feel so unprepared. Well, just mentally I guess. I've done it twice before and I know I can do it again, but I haven't put any thought or prep into this birth yet, whoops. I guess it's the plight of the third-born? I haven't decided yet if I want to have the baby at home or in the hospital. I've been leaning towards hospital, just so I don't have to care what my house looks like in those last few weeks, and so I don't have to worry about getting all the supplies (Oh wait, we still have those from last time...). And to save the possible annoyance of transferring to the hospital during labour like the last two times. But there is a part in my heart that still wants to try for home. Third time's a charm, right? Plus, labour was SO much easier at home vs. in the hospital. Hospitals also kind of make me nervous these days, with all of the sicknesses floating around, if all goes well I know that it would be much safer to have the baby at home. Ah, so much to suddenly think about!



Here is some info on the baby at week 27 - http://www.baby2see.com/development/week27.html Isn't it amazing how babies develop?

Also, here is a link to an interview with Cindy Crawford about her home birth experience - http://www.mybestbirth.com/page/cindy-crawford-parts-1-2 and http://www.mybestbirth.com/page/cindy-crawford-parts-3-4.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

My Big Little Man!


I have so much to catch up on, I know. But one thing I want to say is that Gideon has grown up SO much lately! He is such a handsome, smart little man! It breaks my heart, just a little. With Judith I always enjoyed her more as she grew and entered new stages. And it's not like I'm enjoying Gideon less as he grows, because I LOVE this stage and he is so cute and fun, but I do miss the baby-ness about him (am I actually saying this?).

I thought he was going to wean just before, and the first few days of, our trip. He only nursed 3 times in 7 days. But then he picked back up again, and has been nursing every day since then (just before bed though). I don't think he's getting much, if any, milk, but he still seems too young to me to wean, and he seems to agree. Some nights when I am tired and he settles in for a long nursing session (it hurts quite a bit now that I am pregnant, plus I have developed 2 hernias so I'm really protective of my belly and nursing can hurt that too), I wonder if I should have just jumped at the opportunity to wean him. I think about if I do end up tandem nursing, will it be a good or bad thing for me? Will I regret encouraging him to stay nursing? But I'm just taking one day at a time and seeing what happens. He's becoming a big boy, but he's still my baby!

Also, Gideon really bonded with Dave on our trip. It makes me so happy, he loves Daddy now and will go to him for comfort, not just me anymore. Even on the plane on the way home, Gideon ONLY wanted to be held by Daddy, and when Dave got up to go to the washroom, Gideon cried the entire time I had to hold him. It's quite the relief for me, with the new baby coming. It's special for Dave too, since before the trip he felt like Gideon never really wanted anything to do with him.

Anyways, I want to share a great series of photos with you. These are from the first day of our trip, when we spent the day at Dave's parents' house before setting out for the cottage. Gideon had a blast making faces in the mirror.











He has a great sense of humour already, and he knows it.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Back Home

We arrived back home from our vacation Tuesday night. We had a great time away, and I am very excited to know that my kids are fantastic travelers. They were awesome on the plane even though it was a red-eye, were happy despite getting very little sleep, and were excited to experience new things and meet new people every day. We drove over 3000 kms while on our trip, and the kids were great then too. We drove from London (ON) to Ottawa to Algonquin Park to Manitoulin Island to Tobermory (we took the ferry!) to Strathroy and then flew back out of London. So basically it was just a huge loop around the southern half of Ontario. Our longest drive in one day was 7.5 hours, but we had a lot of fun so it wasn't stressful at all. We also did some camping, and the kids loved that too! I will hopefully get around to posting some photos soon.

I still have a lot of unpacking to do, and we have been busy since we got home! We arrived back home at 11pm Tuesday night (the kids were awesome on the plane again), and then Dave had to work early and I had a midwife appointment Wednesday morning. The kids have been a little cranky since getting back, as they don't have any space to run around anymore or new people to play with all the time. I really hope that we can move this fall to a house that has a backyard, but we will see. We may not be able to afford to, but honestly this place is killing my mental health.

Anyways, hopefully I will be able to get back to my regular posting next week!