18/40 weeks

Well I think my belly is starting to look like a baby belly! At least in shots like this. I think if you didn't know I was prego you might not clue in it's a baby belly. Shrugs it's starting to get big though! None of my original jeans fit anymore :( Be nice to eventually get back into them after little cashew is born. That is a long way off though. lol.

I'm due for week 19 pics today as well. We took these week 18's last friday but didn't have a chance to post them till now. I believe according to my baby book that baby will double in size for a bunch of weeks now. So I think one day I will wake up with this huuuge baby belly and wonder where it came from lol. :) I'm still awaiting the first time I feel the baby move! I might have already but not really to sure? It wasn't fluttering like before so I have no idea. But soon hopefully!

bad dreams...

I think I had my first horrible baby dream last night/early this morning. One of those dreams where nothing goes right and you can't get to where you are going and just end up running around in a circle!

It was one of those I lost the baby dream. It was horrid actually. In the dream we just had the baby, and for some reason the baby was able to walk already. We were at some sort of family gathering and we were mostly outside. Where it was I have no idea because this house, or what I remember of it resembles nothing I have ever seen before. The baby was with me and we were chatting to people, then the baby was with someone else (my sister at first maybe?) and they were I guess circling around so the baby was farther and farther away from us. But you know it's family and figured who ever had the baby would watch the baby. 

Well when I went to look for the baby, nobody had seen baby cashew, nor did they seem to really care! They were all indifferent and just didn't get why I was freaking out. I was thinking "Great you just had the baby and you already lost cashew!!" Finally my Aunt Barb finally mentioned that the baby was in such and such a bedroom taking a nap. I was somewhat relieved and went in search of the room. I think I orginally found it but the baby was not in there. So then I was trying to find my aunt again to get more info since she was the only one that said anything about where the baby was. This house was crazy! I was wandering around in circles. I kept finding rooms but could never get back to the room the baby was supposed to be in. At one point I was following this kid with some sort of electrical thing in his hand. A gizmo I guess, he said he could bring me to the room, but was more interested in whatever he had in his hand. He was trying to make it work or something. We ended up going down some stairs into a hallway that on one side had like all these contraptions on it. When, if they were on and extended would make this one big hallway of death, or like a dangerous obstacle course. The ceiling was way above us as well. It was semi dark down here and really creeped me out. I was like ummm I'm going back, getting a sense of whatever he had in his hand was the controls to this hallway! The kid turned around and we headed back up the stairs. I have no idea who this kid was either! It seems this family gather was full of strangers. The only two I regonized was my aunt and my sister. The kid to was like unconcerned and really didn't care. I really don't even know if anyone actually saw me, they did a good job of ignoring me and only saying as little as possible to me when I was asking them questions about cashew.

At one point I think someone was going down the road in this really bizzare costume, he may have been on stilts and in a big plastic bubble (dressed like a tall skinny clown, his costume was bright anywas). I got a sense that we were gathered for a parade or something that was supposed to be going on soon and we were watching it? But why a parade would be going down a semi back road out in the country is beyond me. The whole thing was frustrating! No one was willing to help and they all let the baby dissappear!

I woke up finally and was relieved that it was just a dream and that baby cashew was still safe in my belly lol.

sleeping hands and other strange prego things that I never knew..

I woke up again with half asleep hands again. Before it seemed to switch between the nerve in my wrist, which doc told me was common for pregnant women and that if it really got to be bothersome I could get a wrist brace to stop it and the nerve in my elbow which put the opposite side of my hand asleep. I only ever have to shift slightly and it will wake up but then I will fall asleep and then wake up again and the process will be repeated. It's just not one hand it's both! The weird things you learn about pregnacy! I didn't know it was so complicated. Like those "practice contractions!" Braxton something or other! gee that sounds fun. lol. oh and cravings. Well I knew that some pregnant women have really strange food cravings (not me as of yet - i'm sort of dissappointed I want to see the strange combo's my brain will crave), but not about Pica. Some women crave bad things for you like coal, clay, ice, chalk, burnt matches!!, and toothpaste. Weird! Obviously giving into these cravings would be a bad thing! Although I don't see how ice would be bad for you, unless you break your teeth or choke on ice pieces? I love chewing on ice? Seriously though it's pretty rare but does happen. No doubt that would be my luck and I would develop those food fetishes. lol

So I *think* my cold is getting better. At least my nose isn't plugged up right now and I've been up for awhile now. Still feel headachy and just sore? I guess sickish feeling is a better way to describe it. Ugh not looking forward to work tonight but I shouldn't whine I have four shifts this week then a glorious three day weekend!! Then another four day work week. Yeah I called in sick yesterday. I just didn't like the thought of half freezing to death, feeling sickish, having to blow my nose a lot (and depending on what job he put me on that would have probably meant me getting behind a lot to do so) and sneezing, wearing saftey glasses with a headache and using all my will power not to collapse of exhaustion because I'm standing so long. God I'm such a whiner lol. Less then three months really before mat leave. I can't freaking wait!! I am totally taking the 8 weeks before I'm due off, that is the min. they let you start on mat leave unless of course you get a note from your doc. So I can't imagine what I am going to be like in a few months if I'm freaking exhausted at work now. Standing sucks I have to tell you! It really does. :(

Diaper service..

So I just emailed the diaper service here in town. I always knew I was seriously going to consider using cloth diapers. I don't like the cost of the plastic store bought ones, nor the fact that they just end up in our landfills stinking it up :) I'm not totally against using those, I'm sure they can be handy when we travel or go home for the weekend, but in general I really want to use cloth diapers. I wasn't to excited about having to clean and wash them myself however. BUT thanks to my friend Marie, when her and her little guy came to visit and told me about her diaper service she used I was like "OMG that is perfect!" So I researched here in town and thankfully there is one company that does this!. The give you what you need for a week, you don't have to pre wash or preclean them, store them in the handy seal tight bin they rent or sell to you and each week exchange them for new clean ones. I am excited about that. So much better for the environment! So now I just have to wait to hear back from them on their pricing. I'm assuming its going to be roughly around the same price that my friends is. $25ish a week? I totally love saving money :)

Speaking of saving money. I have recently refound the website smartcanucks.ca which is all about store deals, freebies and coupons! They have a list of tried and true places that are reliable so I am starting with them. I just ordered a few coupons from save.ca which totals $6.50 in savings when I use them and a freebie trial sized sample of the new pantene hair shampoo/conditioner from pgbrandsampler.ca :) haha I'm such a geek but you know what people save lots of money by searching and using coupons! I'm shocked by some of there posts on smartcanucks! It's even better when you can use the coupon on things that are already on sale.

I'm also happy by the number of coupons offered for baby related food/diapers/wipes. Something I will be looking at more closely when the little cashew is born! :) Chris was laughing at me last night when I was reading the smartcanucks forums but hey 'a penny saved is a penny earned!'

:)

Colds suck! and baby room plans

So Chris gave me his blasted cold!! The worst part is I can't take anything for it so I am suffering. It really sucks. I don't know whats worse, the gagging from flem going down my throat (and I tell you that sucked especially yesterday morning just after I got up when it made me sick - awesome to burst some blood vessels around my eyes again!! well at least I can hide them ), stuffy runny nose, headachy feeling, just a feeling of generally unwell, or the sore throat which causes me to have no urge to drink water. Oh and my eyes seem to be slightly runny at times. I can't wait for it to be gone. All I can say is this week is going to he HELL at work. On a good day I am just about ready to collapse by the time each of my breaks come along, so I don't know what it's going to be like tonight being that way plus super headachy due to the lights and the saftey glasses on my face. I really wish I could stay home today. I almost want to tell them I'm not coming in, but at the same time I hate losing a days pay, especially when we have to buy stuff for the house and appliances etc. But I dont want to feel like crap. Then I think even if I did stay home today, wouldn't tommarrow be the same? I can't miss more than one day this week! AHHHHH I can't wait for it to go away.

I almost thought I wasn't going to get it considering he had it for over a week but last thrus I was sneezing like there is no tommarrow and that's how his started. Sucky for me :( I guess I will wait and see what Chris thinks. Another thing is I have been waking up at the crack of dawn the last few days as well. Seriously I thought you slept when you were sick :( not get little sleep and then be wide awake. Geeez I should be doubly waiting to drop by the time midnight rolls around! I can't wait till the end of the year!!

On a happier note. I have been thinking about how we are going to paint and decorate the babys room. I originally thought I wanted to paint it a semi dark/nice green colour and have white silouettes of trees and baby deer and other baby animals. Maybe like birds flying around or something. But I started looking at wall decals on etsy and seen on that had a dark brown (chocolate brown) wall with white tree silouette and had leaves or round circles that were a nice green and a nice orange blowing off the tree. So now I think I want to do that. I wish I could find the link to that store again but I can't. They positioned the baby's crib under the blowing tree and it looked sharp!

Here's a link to a similar idea. I love this idea of using your wall as a canvas! Never thought of that before so now I am excited to get into the house and start. I think I will just be painting them on with paint using that idea instead of purchasing the wall decals since they are like 80ish bucks. I think it will still turn out really nice regardless! Who knows though we will see how I feel when we get to that point. hahaha

Actually here is the link to the tree section of this store. You will get the idea :)
Wall decals for babys room < - clicky

Anyways I am off to find something to eat and possibly drink since I'm thirsty but my throat hurts alot :(

17/40 weeks - Baby Belly

I've been trying to take baby belly shots every week but the most I seem to manage is every few weeks. Hopefully now that I started this I will do it every week :) I am definately starting to show now that's for sure! I can't really hide it anymore. Most of my jeans etc are to uncomfortable to wear anymore and it's like impossible to find maternity pants anywhere! I guess it's back to wally world to get at least a few more pairs of those elastic topped jeans! Other than that I just plan on wearing, yoga pants/jogging pants or whatever. :) Anyways here is the baby belly shot! I think my baby belly and boobs in some clothes are starting to just look like one round butter ball :( You can't tell where one starts and the other begins!! :( lol

Ultrasound!

The ultrasound went great. Chris got up and went to work for an hour and since I worked till midnight I got up shortly after so I could shower and get the plastic smell off of me and then sit and prepare to drink 5 glasses of water in less than an hour. I was told when I booked the appointment to bring my form, health card and drink 5 glasses of water. Now I like water, but that early in the morning to sit and make myself down it was not fun. Then of course after the first couple I had to resist the urge to go to the bathroom. I mean it's pretty automatic, you feel like you need to use the bathroom you get up and go! I had to stop myself a few times from doing just that. It was sort of horrible lol.

So Chris came back and picked me up about 9:15 and we went on our way to the hospital. It was really chilly outside to which didn't help. Of course the parking lot is like a mile away from the hospital as well. We got in there and found the right floor fairly easily even though I think it's strange that the floor we walked onto was floor 4?. Anyways, so we get to the ultrasound department and I get in fairly quickly which was nice. We only had to sit in the waiting room for a few mins. It's a good thing cause there was a bathroom right across from us that was like taunting me! LOL.

So the ultrasound person came and got us and we went in. I layed down on the bed thing and Chris pulled a chair up. She said it's nice now that the gelly stuff they have to put on your belly is heated. So she did her few things she has to look at at first then turned the monitor so I could see better. She still had lots of measurements etc to take but it was really neat seeing our little cashew for the first time. I am relieved that baby has two arms, legs, hands and feet and that there is only ONE of them. lol. I don't know if I could handle twins!

Anyways baby was pretty active, jumping and moving around. She had to keep chasing cashew around to do whatever she needed to do. She showed us his/her heart. It was neat you could actually see it beating! She said the beat was about 140 which is good.

At one point she stopped and asked if I wanted to go to the bathroom. I was like can I? She was like yep your far enough along that you didn't need to drink water. It was such a relief I tell you. When I got back I mentioned how it was hard to down 5 glasses of water. She was like I don't know why they still tell people that, really only a few is enough. So she continued taking shots etc. I asked if we are able to get printouts, to which she said unfortunately because they are all digital they don't. There are a few clinics/places that do their's in digital but still back up the old way so they are able to. I was really dissappointed, I wanted something to show off to people, and really look at now and then and of course have something to add to my scrap book. The only thing I have from that day now are memories and our ticket stub thing that we had to pay to get out of the parking lot lol.

After a bit I also asked her if she was able to tell us what sex the baby was. She again said they don't do that here, and there is one clinic and one doctor who does his own ultrasounds that will tell you. She said it might still be a bit early anyways. It was still dissappointed though. We both want to know if it's a boy or girl. Maybe when I am farther along we can find out or my doctor will tell us what he thinks. I just don't get that, they don't tell anyone anymore? I can understand maybe the hospital  because they don't want to get sued etc but still. I want to know lol. All in good time I guess. Regardles though it was really amazing seeing the baby. We could see cashew's eyes and nose and the little head and spine, legs and arms etc. It was really amazing and really neat that you can see the baby move as he/she moves! She mentioned to Chris while I was in the bathroom that there appears to be lots of fluid around the baby which is good. She also mentioned at the end that baby is about 7oz. I don't know if that is big or not. According to our baby bible around this time baby is around 3.5 - 4 oz. I know that is a guideline so I guess baby is progressing okay. It will be nice to hear what my doctor thinks of the results the next time we see him. Hopefully everything is okay.

It sucked when it was done though. It was to amazing seeing the little tyke floating around in there. I had to go to the washroom twice more before we left though. We had a few min wait will she was sending the images to someone else to check before we left to make sure everything was clear and she got everything. We got the a-okay to leave and that was that. We were there for over and hour! It's crazy for me to think I am carrying baby around with me everywhere I go. That's another human with me now for another fiveish months. Pretty soon I should be able to feel baby kicking and punching :) lol