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.

Baby's back!

So you might have thought I was not going to update this blog anymore... wrong! I just got super busy with the final stages of planning our honeymoon and actually going on our honeymoon! Yes we just got back!

So in the last few weeks we have done a lot. First of all baby has grown a lot and many things are happening, but also we traveled and found an apartment and are moving soon!

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So first things first, I am now 27 weeks, almost 28 weeks pregnant. Baby is doing wonderful and all the test results so far are coming back very good. I had a midwife appointment yesterday and it looks like I will get one more ultrasound to make sure the placenta is not in the way. Hopefully Aaron will get to attend. I was lucky enough to get a weekend appointment for my next midwife visit, Aaron will finally be able to be there and we can discuss the birth plan and his level of involvement in the delivery, which he wants to do all on his own... we'll see about that!

Healthy baby is happy and kicking away in there. Kicking so much so that we are definitely seeing it on my belly. It is sometimes so strong that it takes me by surprise and stops me dead in my tracks. I am so happy to say I can feel baby throughout the day. The down side to that is when baby takes a nap, I sometimes get nervous that something is wrong. And then I sit down to rest and get a massive kick! Symptoms are starting to get annoying though. My sleep is awful, I wake up with crazy back pains and  I can't seem to find a good position to sleep in. Heartburn is definitely up there in the list of most annoying as well. It seems like it's a constant feeling that I just can't shake off. I'll get a half hour here or there of no heartburn and that is like paradise! Also, swollen feet! My oh my! The plane rides are what kick started it I think. My issue seems to be with sitting down for long periods of time, which is mainly what I do at work, so working around that will be a challenge. Of course I have other issues that I will keep to myself for I don't think you need to know all the details! I gotta say thought, I wondered if I was going to be one of those women who hate being pregnant or just love it. It seems like it's either one or the other and so far, I LOVE it! The little inconveniences of symptoms is so very worth it to me that I tend to forget about them. The baby kicks are enough to get me to completely forget about the pain of heartburn or the sight of my ugly puffy feet!

So since I didn't update with pictures in a while, here are all the weekly pictures I have missed so far.

Taking pictures of a belly is hard when you're wearing your secret money belt. Yes I am that traveller who needs a money belt because I'm so scared of pickpockets. 

The 26 weeks board should say "as big as a head of lettuce". We forgot to check on the iPhone App before leaving our wifi access. We realized once at the Eiffel that we had no idea what it was for the week so we guessed. We guessed wrong! 

As you can see, we kept up with the picture taking during our trip. We thought it would be fun for baby to one day see that he/she traveled in-utero!

I have been trying to get a good video of the crazy kicks i have been getting. It's hard to record it since most of the time I get a big kick out of nowhere and decide to record and nothing happens for a while until I finally look away!

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So our trip was actually Spain and France. We had a great time and saw a lot of pretty things. We enjoyed ourselves and I am proud to say I did a tremendous amount of walking and climbing towers. Something that I doubted I was going to be able to do. The Spain part was with a tour operator and so we did a lot of busing to different regions of Spain. The bus absolutely killed my feet though, all the sitting made my feet swell up like crazy! After Spain we went on our own to southern France and up to Paris. We decided to relax while in France since the Spain part of the trip had been so rushed. We got a few upgrades since it was our honeymoon and we took great advantage of that. All in all we had a great time but were happy to finally be back home. Obviously with our new arrival in November, future trips will be more local and within Canada to visit family, and we aren't complaining about that!

Here are a few pictures of our trip for your enjoyment.

I wanted to post more but this website is not cooperating. I'll have them on Facebook for you soon.

We got baby a few souvenirs, baby got a onesie from Marseille and Paris. We saw a onesie in Madrid that we loved and since it was our first Spanish city we thought for sure we would see more during our tour of Spain but we never did, so we don't have our Spanish onesie :(

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On the home front, just before we left, we signed our new lease and advised our current landlords of our imminent move. Our new place is actually a condo so the sound proofing is better, the place looks much nicer and we don't have to share a staircase with smelly neighbors. It's a two bedroom, no balcony (i'm still having a hard time dealing with that) and it's nicely painted already so no need to repaint. We will finally have a dishwasher and I am overjoyed! The crazy part is that we just got back from a trip and we are moving in just a few days. Thankfully we will have the old apartment for a few days after our move so we can take our time with the move.

On a different note, I will soon be putting my car up for sale so if anyone is interested let me know!!

I don't remember how this life came to be...

I was working at a ski hill. And I met a man that also worked there. And slowly but surely, I fell in love.

Fast forward to the summer, he left to go work three hours away. We started dating in March, by June he was leaving and only returned at the end of August. I thought waiting for him was going to be so hard, I had no idea what waiting was. In the few months that preceded his leaving, we talked about traveling upon his return. We talked briefly about moving to a different city to pursue a job at a bigger, better ski hill in the west. I decide that was not a good plan for me. I told him I could not wait all summer for him to come home for a month to leave again for the winter. I had no idea just how much waiting I was actually willing to do for him. In the end we traveled and he stayed home. We moved in together.

He worked the entire winter in town. Odd jobs that he didn't like so much.

At some point, I can't remember when this all happened, papers started to get filled out to join the Navy. I know we must have talked about it, but we never sat down and decided together if it was a good plan for our life. I was simply fully on board with the idea. I encouraged him. I made sure he had his papers all done in time and I nagged him for news.

The summer came and he got his acceptance letter. He would officially join the military and be trained to become a medic. And I was proud of him. We soon learnt that he would have to go away to study. The selected town was Moncton. His initial training was to be 11 months. He would be 1174 kilometers away. 11hours and 45 minutes. In a different time zone. And I had no idea what waiting was.

He was enrolled at the end of August. He left 3 days later. He packed all of his things and we had a tearful goodbye. One of too many to count.

We tried to speak to each other everyday. I was afraid we would drift apart. He studied hard into long nights and made time to talk on the phone, via text message, by email, over Skype...

I moved, with the rest of his belongings, into our apartment two months after he left. We would have a place to call home when he would visit. I was the first to go see him. I flew out and spent a long weekend. He greeted me with flowers. Over the next few months, we started trying to have a baby. He visited when he could.

At Christmas time, he came home for about two weeks. He proposed to me. Over the next few months, we went back and forth visiting each other.

His 11 months of training ended in July. My 11 months of waiting ended. I went to his graduation. We drove home together and had three weeks to spend together before he would leave for Basic Training. We got married at the court house. And had another tearful goodbye.

His 4 months of training started, and my 4 months of waiting started. We spoke when we could, which was not nearly enough. I was the proudest woman that ever existed the day I saw my husband graduate from basic military training.

After his training he was put on waiting and he got to come home for 3 weeks for Christmas. He started his next training in January. In February I finally got pregnant! We celebrated our wedding on March 1st. He arrived home on February 28th and left on March 2nd to go back to training.

Since then he has been training and visiting as much as possible. Most weekends after the wedding we got to see each other.

And now, almost two years after he left, my husband is coming home... for good! For now... I now know what waiting is.

I am beyond excited. There are no words to describe the feeling. I am overjoyed to be able to finally share this pregnancy with him. I am fearful of the adjustment period. I am happy to finally have my partner back. But most of all I am proud of us, of myself. I am proud of us for sticking it out during the hard times, during the interrupted phone calls, during the weeks away in the field. I used to think I was a strong willed, independent woman who could accomplish what she set her mind to, without a man to guide her along. I now know that I am.

I have learnt about the struggles of being a military wife. And I am proud to know that I am one.
I didn't choose this life, I simply fell in love and I let this love guide me through it. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.


Welcome home my love! I have missed you more than I ever thought I could miss someone.



Now... would you please take the trash out?