Categories
- BLAT (2)
- Book Reviews (9)
- brothels (1)
- Creativity (4)
- decluttering (5)
- goals (4)
- home birth (3)
- Life (136)
- Maker's Diet (5)
- Missions (7)
- Money (1)
- Natural Living (2)
- Neighbours (2)
- NFP (1)
- Nicaragua 2014 (14)
- Parenthood (8)
- poetry (3)
- Prayer (10)
- pregnancy (18)
- Project 333 (1)
- psalm 40 (3)
- Reviews (2)
- Scripture (22)
- suffering (6)
- Thoughts (97)
- Three Things Thursday (16)
- Torre (1)
- Uncategorized (44)
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
Well, as you can see, watermelon week is over. Okay, maybe you can't really see. The midwife says at this point the baby will continue to drop, and the amniotic fluid is depleting, so even though the baby is growing I might not get much bigger, and that was the case this week - my weight and belly measurement were the same as last week. The Truck is still active and strong, rolling around lots and occasionally sticking a foot out my side or up into my ribs.
Here is a proper belly shot without props. Also, looking pregnant instead of looking like a skinny girl holding a watermelon. Yes I am wearing pre-pregnancy jeans, but no they are not done up, my long tank top just covers up the rubber band bridging the gap.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
Thankfully, pumpkin week is over, and I can now enjoy up to 7 days of imagining my baby as a watermelon. Watermelons are way better than pumpkins because they are oblong and don't come with brutal stems.
I'm still having lots of braxton-hicks, but I don't think the Truck is in any hurry to make an appearance. I am GRATEFUL to have chiropractic benefits through my work because I can't imagine how uncomfortable I would be by this point if I wasn't getting fixed up twice a week. It's not in this picture, but I'm now wearing a scarf tied around my hips to help stabilize my pelvis and keep my lower back a little happier. A few people have asked me if it's for fashion, but it's actually a recommendation from my chiropractor that has been a big help the last few days.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
Daylight finally came and I got Kristen to take a bump picture for me.
And then I applied x-ray vision technology and found out that the Bump is actually right!
I had a very lazy day altogether, stayed in bed with a sore back, threw up my lunch, watched a movie, napped with Nimoy and edited that picture. Oh, plus I made Shepherd's Pie for the first time! That was tasty. When Matt gets home I plan to see if he will take me on a date for ice cream :)
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
It seems that my days of sleeping at night may already be over. I'm 38 weeks now, technically (because it's 1 in the morning), and for the third night in a row I am up up up. Two nights ago I blamed the nap I'd taken around dinnertime for the fact I couldn't fall asleep until 7am, although it was okay because then I got the bed to myself ;) Last night I managed to fall asleep on the futon after making myself warm milk around 2 and again moved back to bed once Matt left for work. Tonight I felt sleepy when I went to bed, but no matter how much I let my mind drift, it just never shut down. So I tried the futon again, and now I am working on another favourite strategy when I can't sleep - eat something.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
I'm still three weeks shy of my due date (so don't get too excited :P), but today marks the milestone that the Truck will not be born pre-term. From this point forward (up to 42 weeks), the baby will be considered full-term, so we are in a new phase of waiting, knowing that we could officially be parents any time but I could also still be posting pregnancy updates a month from now.
A man at our church offered the use of his timeshare to Matt and I for a few days this week since he only comes to it over a weekend, so we have enjoyed two nights away as not-yet-parents in a really nice timeshare for free! Matt spent yesterday snowboarding on the hill next door while I took it easy in the room and got some writing done.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
In one month today, my parents will be arriving to visit Matt and me for a few weeks. 31 days! I know the time will fly by with all the appointments, nesting projects and outings we are hoping to enjoy in the meantime in our final weeks as people-without-kids. There is also a little bit of suspense whether my parents will arrive before or after the Truck, since Feb 7 (the day they arrive) is my due date. Personally, I'm hoping they'll beat the Truck by a couple days, but it's not really up to me, and I trust that the Truck will come when (s)he is ready.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
I have the house to myself for the next two nights and am on a cleaning binge, but I wanted to get a quick post up because 35 weeks is a great big milestone and I hit it today :) The Truck's hearing, lungs and kidneys are all fully developed, and it might be about as long as it's going to get! Over the next few weeks (s)he still needs to get chubbier in preparation for life outside the womb, but developmentally there isn't a whole lot that still needs to happen, just gaining weight and strength and courage (that's true for both of us lol).
No bump picture this week, but I don't think there's a noticeable difference from last week. If you were to see me in action, especially on stairs and in the snow I'm developing a pretty tough waddle, although it depends how stiff my hips are and how sore my back - sometimes I really make the effort to walk like a human being instead of a duck ;)
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
Matt and I had a wonderful mini-vacation this week - after (delicious!) Christmas dinner with family in Newmarket we spent three nights with my dad's side of the family up in Orillia. I think it is the longest stay we have had since getting married, and it was so nice to have so much downtime, to chat and watch movies and eat leftovers :)
My Grandma was kind enough to handle taking a bump picture for me on Thursday when the Truck and I marked 34 weeks. It was so funny reading my weekly prego email this week because it was right on the mark about how I've been uncomfortable the last few days - achy pelvis, tired eyes, rolling over in bed is getting to be a huge production. Word is the Truck is the size of a butternut squash and is producing about a pint of pee per day.
Matt and I had a wonderful moment on Boxing Day when we took a $50 gift card to Toys R Us to see if there were any great sales to take advantage of, and we ended up walking out of the store empty handed. There was a lot of really cute stuff, and some pretty cool stuff, as well as some obvious over-marketing to new parents BUT none of it was anything we need before the baby actually arrives, and we would rather have the gift card for things we need down the road. For our real baby! It's still hard to believe that all these months of waiting and preparing are actually such a small portion of how our lives will change. There are still preparations to be made (I borrowed a sewing machine and a steamer to help with my ongoing nesting, and our apartment is definitely set up for Christmas, not a home birth), but it keeps hitting me more and more often that all of this momentous anticipation is part of my life that the Truck won't be able to fathom - parents before they were parents! Growing up, when I looked at photo albums from my baby years I couldn't be bothered with too many pictures before I came on the scene in all my chubby-cheeked, grey-eyed glory, and it is strange to now be living in that era of irrelevance for my own child.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
Oh yes, I almost forgot to share this picture of me and the Truck at 33 weeks! The day after my last picture, the baby flipped so that its head is down and it can finish growing in the proper position to be born. I was very proud to have such a smart baby :) and I am glad to know there is such a small, small chance of things changing and the baby being born breech.
At my last midwife appointment my weight was down just over a pound, but the baby's growth was consistent and its heartbeat was good, so nobody is too concerned. I had that horrible cold for about 10 of the 14 days between appointments, so although I was eating and resting we figure my body still had to dip into its reserves. I also found out that I have been really anemic, and taking Iron and B12 supplements has been helping me to sleep better and have a bit more energy. Not being sick and not being (as) anemic, plus with Christmas coming, I am hoping to pull off a great big weight gain in time for our first appointment of the new year :)
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
I am sick, and this is by far the schleppiest I have felt for a bump picture. But I am not vain enough to dress up just for a picture, and I wouldn't want to falsely glamorize pregnancy lest my 16 year old readers think its all fun and games. No young ones, sometimes it's schleppy and stuffed up and achy, and the futon is the only place you can fall asleep, next to a Walmart bag filled with used Kleenex, and you alternate sleeping in the shirt you wore all day with wearing the shirt you slept in. Saves laundry.