Ambushed!

I was called into a meeting at 2pm today to discuss a work-relevant topic. About 5 minutes in, the meeting room door opened, and a bunch of other co-workers from my team streamed in with a cake and gift basket - a little surprise baby shower! I'm not used to so much attention, so my face went BRIGHT RED.

I can't even begin to say how touched I was by what my co-workers did. It certainly brightened my Friday. That they would actually put all this time into planning things - organizing a fake meeting, buying a cake, and buying a gift basket - certainly makes me feel like a valued member of the team. I don't think I've ever felt this way at any of my previous workplaces. WOW!

Baby Sounds

Today we FINALLY made it to Babies R Us for our baby registry (in spite of the fact that the a-holes from the TTC decided to strike with NO NOTICE WHATSOEVER). While we were there, we picked up a device called the Summer Heart-to-Heart Prenatal Listening System. This neat little device straps onto your belly and lets you attach two sets of headphones to listen to your baby's heartbeat and movement. For $30, I figured, what the heck. Worst-case, the thing ends up not working. I figured it was a small price to pay for the ability to hear PK's movements.

When we got home, I anxiously hooked it up, and lo and behold, the darn thing actually works! I even managed to record the sounds directly to my computer. Disclaimer: the recording doesn't really do it justice, but still, a souvenir is a souvenir. I took two recordings. The first one is of PK's heartbeat. It's faint and you'll have to jack up the volume on your computer, but it's there. The second one I managed to take while PK was kicking like mad. You can make out the heartbeat too, but the kicks are the highlight. You'll know that you're listening to the kicks when you hear a staticky thump. Enjoy!

PK Heartbeat
PK Kicking

Week 24

The nice thing about having a summer baby is being pregnant in the spring and summer. I don't really notice it during the wintertime, but as soon as the perma-gray skies give way to nice sunny blue skies, I swear my mood changes. It probably helps that I've been able to wear skirts and sandals for the last week or so. Yay! Of course, on the downside, it adds fuel to the climate change fire. Having 20C weather in the middle of April is NOT normal. But that's a rant left for my other blog.

Anyway, nice weather = me in a happier mood. So Week 24 has been very pleasant overall. Well, EXCEPT for the fact that trees are sprouting leaves, which means ALLERGY SEASON. I've developed allergies to tree and grass pollen in the last 10-15 years, and it gets worse every season. Basically, I'm severely allergic to EVERY BLOODY NORTH-AMERICAN TREE, and minorly allergic to grass. This means that I spend anywhere between 1 to 1.5 months sneezing, coughing, difficulty breathing, and stuffy nose. Allergy medication helps somewhat, but this time around, with PK in utero, I've avoided the allergy meds. I'm told that anti-histamines are perfectly safe during pregnancy, and I'd like to believe that, but: a) anti-histamines seldom ever work for me anyway, and b) I'm sure a study will come out down the road that says that taking anti-histamines during pregnancy causes Scaly Dragon Tail Syndrome. Bottom line: no meds if I can help it.

I've noticed that my symptoms have gotten progressively worse over the past few weeks (I think that the oak trees are sprouting leaves, and they really mess w/ my allergies), which really sucks, but I'm hanging int there. I think my office mates are freaked out by it though, because my sneezes are loud enough to wake the dead, and I really do sound like I'm sick rather than having an allergic reaction to tree pollen. Oh well. Hopefully the trees will be done with their mating rituals soon so that I can have my nose back.

One highlight of my 24th week was going bra shopping. Well, if you call that a highlight. I decided to go bra shopping after a rep from one of the local bra/lingerie shops did a talk about maternity and nursing bras last week at my Tuesday night swimming class. I figured I've never been properly fitted for a bra, so now's as good a time as any to go.

I dragged the hubby to the store on Saturday, and walked out with 2 maternity bras and a nursing bra. I feel really bad though, because he didn't even get to see me try them on. I was with the fitting lady the entire time while he sat in that estrogen-filled store along with all the other males who were dragged there by their respective partners. On the bright side, I treated him to a date that night, so hopefully that made up for things.

Anyway, back to bras. Apparently you're not supposed to wear underwire when you're pregnant because the wire squishes your milk ducts and could possibly lead to clogs and/or infections (not sure which). Sucky. Then again, I had small boobs before (an A or B cup - not really sure which, to be honest), and now I wear a friggin' D cup - oy! - so I guess the push-up underwire bra isn't really needed. The only thing I wanted was front padding. Don't want to be telling the world when I'm feeling cold, thank-you very much.

Same deal with the nursing bra. No underwire...but no padding either. I did, however, get a pair of Lily Padz, which are like nursing pads but instead of being cotton, they're silicone. That means they're re-usable and supposedly I won't leak milk all over the place when the milk finally does come in. More importantly, they serve as nipple shields. Besides that, I can wear them post-nursing with halter tops and tank tops with an undershelf bra. Yay! The nursing bra itself is nothing super-special except for the fact that you can peel the front off, Janet Jackson style, which the hubby found very amusing. :P

So there you have it. More than you ever wanted to read about bras and boobs. Just wait until I talk about the Great Breastfeeding Conspiracy. That will be a topic for another day. Enough on boobs for now.

A Sign of the Times

How's this for modernity: my friend's wife delivered a baby girl yesterday afternoon, and he sent out a text message to share the news. Ah, we sure have come a long way, haven't we? Back in the day, a phone call was the way to share the news. Convenient, but time-consuming nonetheless, since you can't really broadcast news live like this over the phone. I can only imagine what it was like before phones were invented. Did people just hop on their horses and tell their friends and neighbors? Did they send out letters to friends and family who lived far away? Most likely, I'm sure.

Anyway, I think broadcasting great news like this over text message is a great idea. Short, sweet, and to-the-point! :)