It's a.....

So I know I am late for this but the past four weeks have been hectic to say the least. I guess I was supposed to update as of 40 weeks but I never made it there! I would have been 40 weeks pregnant as of Monday November 10th but someone decided to show up early. Not that I minded one bit, I was really for it!


So I have a lot to say about our experience and how labor and delivery went, I have even more to say about how the past four weeks went but I am currently sitting with a baby strapped to me just waiting to start crying because its almost time to eat. So I am just gonna say that its a boy!!!! We are overjoyed!

Say hi to our little man:  Miles Francis Marcil Peer, born at 2:06 am on November 7th!

more to come soon!!

( i don't know how all those other blogging moms do it!!)

38 weeks... still pregnant!

I guess I should not be surprise as this baby is my first but I am so done being pregnant.

I never thought I would say this but i'm so uncomfortable. I just want to sleep on my back and not be in pain all night long. Everyone says I should take the time I have left to catch up on sleep but sleeping is too painful. In the morning after Aaron is gone to work, I do manage to get a bit more sleep but it never lasts very long.

Baby has been having a lot of hiccoughs and it is super annoying because my entire belly will shake and i'll feel it in my hip bones. The heartburn is an all day event too! I have a routine of Gaviscon and Pepcid!

I have almost all together given up putting my own socks on because when I bend over it feels like i'm gonna pass out from the lack of air! Thank goodness Aaron is a good sport and helps me with clothes!

So this week is Halloween, this might be the first year in many years that I did not spend an incredible amount of time on crafting myself a costume... my costume this year is "Incredibly pregnant girl!" and I could not care less... I'm happy to sit here and do nothing, but hey, if you feel like bringing me some of your kids' candy I will not oppose!

So this week me got our Stroller!!! I'm so excited, I just got the call that it's in store and I hope Aaron got my text to go pick it up after work!!! Here's the stroller we chose.

And thank goodness for credit card point and gift cards. We managed to pay almost all of it with gift cards I ordered with my credit card point and gift cards we got from my coworkers! I was a splurge but we really fell in love with it.

So last week I was all about getting stuff done and ready for the baby's arrival. I scrubbed the house and got our bags ready. I made myself nursing tanks and did some reorganization. But this week, so far, I haven't done much. I don't feel very motivated because I'm just to lazy and the couch beckons me. I think it might also have to do with the fact that i'm just about done getting ready. I also never thought I would say this but at some point, you have to stop and just realize that there is only so much you can do! I mean I do have normal house chores to do... like the vacuum right now is screaming that it needs out, but again, laziness wins! And I need to sanitize my bottles, but I was told to wait a bit since that only lasts for a little bit and this baby is showing no signs of coming in the next few days. That might end up being a job for a helper!

My next big project is creating our thank you cards /birth announcement cards for everyone who attended the baby shower!

But not today... updating this blog is my project for today! So here's the 37 and 38 week picture updates!

Yes I know I look like i'm wearing the same thing but I swear the pants are the not the same and I totally did laundry in between the pictures... I just don't have too many shirts left that actually cover the entire bump! 

The final stretch... and i'm not talking about my belly!

I have finally reached 36 weeks, technically next week as of Monday I will be full term. And it could not come soon enough!

I've been trying to be all brave and like this pregnancy is a piece of cake, but pregnancy is no joke! I've been getting a lot of ''aren't you sick of it yet'' comments and i'm all like ''NO this is my precious baby growing inside my belly and I care for it and love it so I want it to stay in there to get as healthy as possible and blah blah blah'' Bleuh! Now i'm like ''Come out already!!!!!!!!!''

These past few weeks have been so hard on my body. Yes I want baby to be healthy and full grown and all, but as of Monday baby is good to go... i'm okay with that! The pain and pressure on my body is just so much to take. Between the constant heartburn/acid reflux, the back pain and the freaking butt pain, I don't know what to do with myself anymore. You would think sleeping would be my reprieve, but don't fool yourself, it's the worst! Laying down brings acid up my esophagus, laying on my back is a big no-no because it pulls on my belly muscles and laying on my sides causes butt muscles pain after about an hour, then I switch sides and it's the other side that hurts until both side are so sore that I have to get up or sleep sitting up which in turn gives me a sore neck upon waking.... hmm yeah! I'm complaining, i'm allowed! 

By far, everyone was right in saying that the second trimester is the best. Yes you kinda just look fat and people aren't sure if you are indeed pregnant, as opposed to now where I feel stared at EVERYWHERE I go, but you are so much more comfortable, no morning sickness and no all over body pain, just the joy of the first few kicks and the overall feeling of delight!  Oh second trimester, how i miss thee! But... I figure, i'm much closer to having my baby now than I am from the second trimester, so I just have to keep forging ahead! Baby will be here in no time, I try to tell myself! And I absolutely can not wait for that! Except.... now i'm starting to get scared shitless of actually giving birth! 

So enough of that, I bet you are all dying to know what I do with my time, right?!! Well this past two weeks we have managed to finish setting up the baby's room. The only remaining bit is making the crib skirt. I was debating making one, since now I will have time on my hands, because yes, I only have work until the 17th of October, I decided to take on this project. I don't want to start until i'm actually off work because, what else am I going to do right?! So I washed some clothes, still have more to wash because I keep buying more. We set up all the art in the room and it looks fantastic!! I also went and bought about 3/4 of our needed cloth diapers. They are so freaking cute!!! I then spent three evenings doing load after load of laundry to get them ready for baby! They are now stored and ready for use. We will be going to purchase the remainder this weekend. There was a sale last week that I just could not pass up but that was a whole lot of money, so we split the purchase into two trips. I also ordered a bunch of gift cards for Toys R Us with my points from my credit card. We will use those to offset the cost of our stroller, which I am uber excited to go buy, if those cards can just arrive already! 

Just look at those cute diapers!!! 

I was going to wait until the crib skirt was done to do a room reveal but I really want to post these pictures so i'll let you imagine there is one... and after looking at these pictures, i'm not hating the look without the skirt. We'll see.... So here is baby's room! I am soooo happy with how it turned out! It is not too masculine or feminine and so so cute! A lot of DIY went into making this room an I am so proud!

As you enter the room...

So without a skirt it still looks nice... and no bumpers to prevent SIDS and yes that Sleep Sheep is coming out of there for the same reason, but baby will sleep in the little bassinet in our room to begin with.

Our gliding chair with the Ikea cushion and the foot stool that Aaron so brilliantly recovered!

We had to flip it upside down, used like 5 medical books to weigh down the cushion and i sat on that pile to smooch everything down to make sure the fabric was all tight! 

More Ikea stuff obviously!

I made this little tassel garland.

I made this mobile too!

The elephant lamp has been my lamp since i was a child, so happy baby can enjoy it too!

My stuffed animals from my younger days that I get to pass on to my child! 

A large portion of  our diapers, all clean and ready to go!

Baby already has a closet full of clothes! and room to grow! 

So anyway, here's me at 35 and 36 weeks. Yes this is why I get stared at all the time. I'm huge!

So Aaron and I wanted some nice pictures of us during this pregnancy but we did not want to spend money on a professional shoot as we are already spending so much on baby gear and we want professional newborn shots.. which reminds me, I must contact the photographer!!! So instead we went off in Gatineau Park, camera in hand... half charged, not smart... and took a few shots. Yes just a few because the camera died. We still managed to get a few good ones... We really just wanted the two of us in at least one or two pictures, that's what we got.

Showered with love!

Only 6 more weeks to go! Crazy I know!

So in the past two weeks a lot has happened. We have finally gotten ourselves into gear and started buying things and getting things going for the baby's room.

This past weekend Robear was moved to the living room to her new bunny condo. She seems quite happy with it and cleaning it up is a breeze. She spends a lot of time roaming around and so far has been a good bunny!

This has allowed us to set up the baby's room and I am so excited about it!  Last night Aaron and I set up the crib and the bookshelf and decide where each piece of furniture is going to go. It looks quite adorable! Now we have to set up the art work, find a few more items like a laundry pail, a garbage and a few accent pieces. We also need to arrange the closet so that the room is used efficiently. We have to wash all of the clothes and put away all the wonderful presents we got from our baby shower and the other items we bought. We still have a fair amount of items to buy, like all of our diapers but I am starting to feel more prepared!

Talking about the baby shower... it was a whole lot of fun! We got so many wonderful presents! Baby is so loved! Just for fun, yesterday after setting up the crib, I arranged the items we got in our baby shower and the items we bought with gift cards we received and it was overwhelming the amount of stuff that we got! I could not fit everything in the crib! Have a look! Oh and that's not all, with the gifts we also go the baby's car seat, which is already in the car and a few more things that did not make it into the pictures!

Look at this proud papa to be! 

So aside from presents, here is what is happening with the belly! Baby is still upside down and kicking my ribs like crazy! I'm feeling a lot of rolling around and sudden jabs and kicks; and a whole lot more hiccoughing. We had our final prenatal class, the birthing class and although questions were answered, I still don't feel prepared. I am finally starting to realize the reality of giving birth and yeah, that stuff is scary! Thankfully, we had an ultrasound to check where the placenta is and it is out of the way and great news, for all of you who thought I had a huge baby... baby is right in the appropriate percentile at around 5 pounds. Which means that so far, baby will be average weight since at this point baby gains about half a pound a week. In 6 weeks that would make baby around 8 pounds, I can live with that! Aaron got to be at the ultrasound and he was very happy about it. It was his first time attending the ultrasound and although we could not see much because baby is so squished in there, we did see a profile, big strong bones, the heart beating and we even saw baby breathing! How cool! Everything looked good!

Here is my belly at 33 and 34 weeks.

Our little house is coming together to greet this new member of our family. Just when we think we have thought of everything more things pop into mind, so even thought it's getting there, I still feel that we have a ways to go. But I'm not worried, I know baby will have everything he or she needs, Aaron and I... and Robear!

Someone flipped!

So i don't know when it happened, but the midwife says the baby is head down! Yay!

And at 32 weeks, i now realize that we are getting so close to having a cute little one at home. I stop once in a while and just have to say it out loud, it seems surreal. I've been feeling very heavy! My back is killing me lately, most likely because I'm sleeping in a weird position. The Braxton Hicks contractions are happening more often. It's hard to describe the feeling but one thing is for sure, that belly gets rock hard! The baby's movements are turning more into rolls than kicks. I still get kicks once in a while but i see and feel a whole lot more belly shifting from one side to the next. It can get uncomfortable. And since the baby is now head down, my bladder has been turned into a punching bag!

The appointment with the midwife this past sunday was great! I got my gestational diabetes results and they were all great. The heartbeat was good at 142 and Aaron got to feel the baby's bum and head! The midwife thinks the baby's back is facing my left side, which would make sense since i mostly get kicks on my right side.

Also, ice cream... that is all!!!

Here's the 31 and 32 weeks picture:

Bunny wanted to be part of this one... not really, we made her be part of it but i'm sure she is happy about it now!

We now have a dresser and a book shelf for the room, which means we have all of our furniture. We decided to wait on getting that cart i liked so much. We'll get all the furniture set-up the way we like it and if we feel we need it, we'll go back for it. We got lucky, once again, at Ikea. We managed to find the dresser we wanted in the as-is section. We got 20$ off on it. It was completely fine, the packaging was too broken for them to sell it so they had to build it and sell it as-is. Great for us! We had to take it a bit apart in the store to get it home, but it was a breeze getting it built up again. Aaron is almost done with the bunny's new house so she will be moved soon. Crafting is coming along nicely as well. I finished making the mobile today!!! I'm keeping it a secret until the room is all ready.

It's our baby shower this weekend and we are getting super excited so see all of our friends and family... and i'm so excited for the food!

The countdown begins...

I can not believe I have 10 weeks left!

Next week I fall in the single digit week countdown and it seems like this pregnancy has gone by in a flash. People keep asking me if I'm sick of being pregnant yet or if it seems like I have been pregnant forever and honestly no! I love being pregnant and it's like I haven't seen the time go by. I am told it will feel like that but times ten when this baby is born, like time will just escape me and I will try to hold on to all the little moments before baby grows up!

So in the past two weeks I have kept on growing. Baby is making it harder and harder for me to sleep, that is probably the only real big issue I have been getting, alongside heartburn but I'm learning to deal with that. The sleeping issues are just unsolvable in my opinion.  Yes there are things I can do to ease it but honestly I wake up feeling tired and achy everyday. The issue is my hips. I sleep on my side since on the back is not recommended and at this stage is basically way to uncomfortable to even consider. Whenever I do sleep a little bit on my back baby kicks me like crazy, I think it's not comfortable in there either. So I sleep on my side, with my sh**y pregnancy pillow between my knees, try to tuck some more pillow under my belly for support and prop another one behind my back for more support. So basically Aaron couldn't even touch me if he tried! You can imagine when the time comes to turn from one side to the next, a lot of work is involved. So I usually wake up, get up and go to the washroom, get back to the bedroom, look at my sleeping arrangements, sigh deeply and try to navigate myself back into bed with some sort of organisation or comfort. Little success is achieved. At some point, probably around an hour into my slumber, I wake up in horrible hip pain. It could be either one, the one under me or the one on top, for no apparent reason. And then if I don't have hip pain until morning like today (thanks to Aaron for massaging my poor hips and butt last night) I wake up with back pain, which continues on into my work day, like today! So stretching, walking, massaging, you name it, it helps but only briefly. My next recourse is prenatal yoga, even thought I'm not a big fan of yoga and swimming. If only the city would keep it's damn pools open!

So before I scare you all away from ever getting pregnant in fear of never sleeping again, here is a little bit of fun, my 29 and 30 week pictures:

And yes these are my PJs... I think I have earned not having to get dressed for all my pictures. It was late and I forgot to take the picture ok!

Oh and before I forget, I "think" I have gotten my first few Braxton Hicks... but emphasis on the word think, I basically have no idea since I have no base to compare it to, but from descriptions I have gotten, seems likely. I mean, it's getting around to that time so.. yeah maybe!

So we bought the crib and crib mattress! It's not set up yet since we still need to relocate the bunny to the living room (which I hope to have done this weekend... this mama can't wait to nest any longer!). We also got the cushion for the rocking chair and go the chair moved to our place. We are currently waiting to install the cushion on the chair since we need to bring it to the fabric store to find matching fabric to recover the foot rest of the chair. We will also soon go back to Ikea to get the rest of the furniture. Since I am not able to have most big things set up in the baby's room, I have started crafting for the decorations. I am currently working on a mobile and three different wall hangings. Two of them are simply printing nice art that I found online and another is Pinterest inspired (of course). I'll keep it a surprise until I'm ready to unveil the final room.

Aside from baby things, we are still slowly, but surely, getting settled into our new place. We now have a dishwasher! Thanks to Aaron and his hard work! Picture me smiling from ear to ear!!! We are still looking for an appropriate desk for Aaron's computer. Our art has finally started to make it to the walls which makes it feel even more like home. I can't say for sure how many boxes we have left to unpack but they all contain stuff that will find a room once we have Aaron's computer situation figured out. Some things we will have to throw away. We have a plan to design the bunny's new hutch but are still looking around to see if we can find a nice piece of furniture at little cost that we could revamp. But bunny is definitely moving to the living room soon so we can start setting up the baby's room.

Hello third trimester!

OMG! I can't believe it!

It seems like after I passed that first milestone of being able to tell everyone our great news, the time has just flown by. I am in my last stretch of this pregnancy and that means soon, like real soon, there will be three of us in our home (4 if you count Robear!). And that thought is crazy... and a bit scary.

I'll admit, I am a bit apprehensive. Not because I have doubts, no way! But I do have jitters. I've never even held a newborn before! I think all new moms get this feeling when the time to give birth approaches. So far I'm not worrying about the actual birth itself, it hasn't hit me yet, but it's what comes after that i'm worried about. Will I be able to do it all? Will I know what my baby needs?! I think a lot of it is also due to the fact that we have NOTHING prepared for baby at home. Because we had to move and ended up going on a trip, we postponed buying the things that we would need. We figured there was no point buying a bunch of furniture that we would end up having to move shortly thereafter. So now starts my mad dash to get my home all baby ready. I assure you I have had the urge to nest for quite some time already but I've had to refrain. The one thing I did do is make a nice long list of everything I need and all the furniture I want. So now I just have to go buy it all. Shopping spree!!!

I do have to put it off for just a little bit longer because we just moved and I need to finish emptying boxes and setting up the furniture we already have. And believe me, this move was not pain free! From problems with getting access to my parking spot because of workers on a nearby building, to misplacing our bed frame rails, we worked hard! Aaron did so much work, I'm so thankful, and to his brother for the muscles and his sister for helping us set stuff up! I have some great ideas for accessories here and there. I'll post pictures when it's mostly done. Check out this before and after of our living room! And there's still boxes in that picture. It's coming along nicely though. Don't you think?

The pictures are not that great but you can still see a big difference. And yes that is a reading/breastfeeding nook in the back there overlooking the outside. So excited!

The great things with this apartment, beside the fact that it's wayyyy nicer than the one we had before, is that we don't have to paint. The previous tenants put up some really nice soothing colours that go well with just about everything. It's a nice neutral canvas that we can accessorize and put our touch in. I'm so excited! Aaron does have to go and paint our old place to that boring old apartment beige that it was before we moved in but at least we don't have to live in the paint mess. Once we have the furniture we can start setting it all up. I hope to put a lot of personal touches in the nursery. I already have great plans for art work! Yay crafting! So here are some ideas that I have.

I want one of these two dressers from Ikea. We want to make it the changing table as well.

We are looking at one of these two cribs:

And as I mentioned in a previous post, we will use a Poang chair cushion to put on the glider that Aaron's mom has.

And finally we need a bit of storage so we will use the Ikea Kallax unit for shelving with it's accessories to punch in some colour. And we are debating the following cart. I love it and think the colour is fun. Aaron is not so sure. I think it could be nice as a table next to the chair for a lamp and accessories for breastfeeding.

Okay so now that I've said all that, I feel like I should update on my pregnancy. So 28 weeks, 3rd trimester. I feel so much movement! Well during the move I didn't feel that much because I was constantly running around, rocking baby to sleep most likely, but now that I get to settle down, whoa does baby move! A few weeks ago I thought baby was active, there is no comparing it now. It's gymnastics all day everyday in there! I actually had to rock my body back in forth in bed last week because baby was kicking me too much and I could not fall asleep; I figured I would try rocking to put baby to sleep. It kind of worked! But of course, whenever I try to video it or whenever I try to let someone feel it, baby stops kicking! I am sad to say that my swollen feet have not gone away. I get them on the daily now. Oh well, I guess it's just one of those things us preggos have to deal with. But by far the most annoying symptom I get, beside all day acid re-flux and heartburn, is my inability to sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night with he worst hip pain. It's my butt muscles that get strained. I tried wedging a pillow between my knees but it still does not help. I do stretches, those help a bit but I just need a full night sleep on my back or something to catch up on the fatigue. Still I would not trade it for the world!

So enough complaining, here's my bellay at 28 weeks pregnant! Oh and last week I forgot to upload my 27 weeks shot so here it is.

Oh and a little video... not the best but you can kind of see it!

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In other news, I don't know what is going on with our little furry friend Robear but she has developed this escape artist personality. Since we got back from our trip and she got back from her visit at grandma's place, she has been trying to escape her very roomy bunny proofed area. In the old apartment she had the entire  living room to run free in. Now that we have moved she is currently in the baby's room until we are set-up enough to bring her out in the living room. But for some reason she just can't stay there. She needs to come into the bedroom and investigate what is going on. She knows she is not allowed because as soon as she hears me get up she runs back to her bunny palace. This morning we had to move her to the kitchen because workers where coming to measure the bedroom windows, so we put her in her play pen in the kitchen, not more than 5 minutes in, she had escaped. This means we have to crack down on her big time! We will have to do some bunny play pen remodeling to make sure she is locked in properly at night. It's sad that she won't be free at night and maybe even during the day when we are away but at least she will be okay to run around when we are home. And my mat leave is coming up, I'll be there to let her run free all day everyday! That little rascal!

Oh and I am currently going through the process of getting my car ready for sale. Again if you know of someone who would like a nice little but roomy car that does not guzzle gas, let me know.