Week 29

This past week has been quite exciting. First, our baby furniture was delivered last Saturday. I'm really pleased with the way that the nursery looks, and I totally loooooooooooove my new glider. I did one of the HypnoBirthing relaxation exercises on the glider the other day, and it felt like I was floating on air when I had my eyes closed. Very nice!

Our kitchen renos started on Monday, which means that the bottom half of our house looks like a war zone. We moved all of our kitchen stuff down to the basement (pots, pans, non-perishables, plates, glass, cutlery, and alcohol) last Saturday and Sunday. The hubby wouldn't let me carry any of the heavy stuff, which is just as well, because I was huffing and puffing from carrying the little wee things down to the basement. Our cabinets have been pulled out, along with our old backsplash. All that remain are the fridge and stove, which I managed to donate to a friend, though we're keeping the fridge around just a bit longer until the new fridge arrives, so we can actually eat real food once in a while.

I had my second doctor's appointment with the new doctor on Monday. It took us longer to get there than the amount of time that we actually spent in there seeing him, but that's to be expected. He DID tell us that subsequent appointments would be pretty quick, so I'm neither surprised nor disappointed. We saw PK in an ultrasound again (I guess he uses that in lieu of a Doppler) - see the baby AND hear it - and it now looks like PK is no longer in breech. I am not holding my breath just yet, since babies do tend to move at the last-minute, but it does fill me with hope. The different anti-breech (for lack of a better term) positions that I learned in my pre-natal classes, along with the hubby's gentle coaxing to PK to "Just do a little hand-stand" seemed to have worked. We've also added a PK Bed-Time Story into our daily routine, whereby the hubby tells PK a bed-time story every night. He has VERY EAGERLY accepted his mission as storyteller, which makes me happy. :) He's far more imaginative than I am, plus I really enjoy watching him as he lies down next to my lower abdomen to tell stories. It's really really cute!

Although the weather has been nicer in recent days (we hit 27C on Monday!), it has been cold-ish (high of 15C or 16C on most days). Normally, I wouldn't care so much, EXCEPT that I have been wearing pants rather than skirts on most days, and I'm starting to wonder just how long the Bella Band will last me. I really really don't want to cave and buy maternity pants because we're so close to summer! As long as my butt doesn't decide to undergo a growth spurt, I should be fine. *knock on wood!*

The only damper to the week was this whole measles scare, but I'm glad that was resolved.

Next up is my baby shower on Saturday, organized by my dear younger sister. I'm not into the frilly girly-girl baby showers, so we're keeping unconventional. Guys and girls allowed, and no stupid baby shower games. We're getting together with all of our closest friends at a restaurant on Saturday night, and then whoever wants to tag along can join us to see the new "Indiana Jones" flick. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law wanted to organize one for me and I dashed their hopes and dreams when I said that it was for family only, co-ed, and no baby shower games. It's just not me...seriously. They went along with the plan until I canned that idea after we were having trouble making everyone's schedules work, especially for out-of-town family (on the hubby's side). We may still do something smaller with just parents, siblings + spouses, and the hubby's grandmother. I have a feeling that my mom would be really really disappointed if I didn't have anything on the family side, so that'll probably happen at some point. Plus I know that the hubby was looking forward to it too.

Week 26

Week 26 has by far been the worst week for allergies. Although the difficulty breathing subsided somewhat this week (it popped up on and off at night), the coughing was incredibly intense! My coughing fits were so bad that people at work thought I was some inconsiderate diseased employee, spreading my germs around the office. I took every opportunity I could to tell them that it was "just allergies" and that I wasn't contagious. Because I would wake up coughing 1-2 times during the night for an hour, sometimes, sleep had become somewhat of a luxury. The only thing that comforts me is the fact that the trees will stop pollinating and my nose will once again be happy.

Although my allergies didn't keep me from attending my aqua-fitness classes, I did opt to work out at home on Yoga day. I figured at a) I was really tired and could use the rest, and b) my coughing fits would probably not be too welcome at a Yoga class. :P Fortunately, I am happy to report that this week, the coughing has subsided significantly! Yay! Unfortunately, I am still sneezing and blowing my nose like crazy. That's okay, because I can at least sleep on a stuffy nose.

In other news, we found out that our baby furniture has arrived. The crib and the dressers had arrived a couple of weeks earlier, but we were still waiting on the glider. Well, the wait is finally over! Now we're expecting a call from the delivery company to arrange a date and time for delivery. It'll be nice to have the room all set up. I will post pictures as soon as the furniture comes in!

I mentioned earlier this week that I got referred to a new OB (somewhat closer to town). As I've said, it's not the perfect location, but at least it's accessible by subway. Beggars can't be choosers!

To continue on the news front, we finally got word that work will be starting on our kitchen. It's scheduled to begin on the last week of May. I sincerely hope that it's finished by late July, and that PK hangs in until the work is done. HA! :P I'm just happy that the work will be starting!

Last Saturday we attended an "Infant/Child Choking and First Aid" course. Like the "Journey into Childbirth" course that we'd taken one week earlier, it was held through Baby and Me Fitness. As I'd said before, we were extremely happy with the Journey into Childbirth course overall. I can't say the same about the first aid course. It was supposed to last for 2 hours, and only lasted 1.5 hours. On top of that, the guy who taught the course was clueless, and showed us outdated VHS (!) videos from the 80s (!) featuring industrial safety and first aid, with next to no focus on infant safety and first aid. The only useful things he taught us were what to do when an infant is choking (conscious choking only), and how to perform infant CPR. The highlight of the class was the fact that it was a mix of expectant parents and parents with babies (<1 year). Both the hubby and I were quite amused by the babies to either side of us. :)

Anyway, everyone was pretty pissed about the outcome of the course, and one girl actually complained to one of the owners of Baby & Me, Trish (who also teaches the Tuesday night aqua fitness class). Needless to say, Trish was pretty pissed by what happened, and is taking action to ensure that everyone who attended is properly compensated for this cluster-flub. Apparently they've been running this workshop for years, and have never had this happen before. From the sounds of it, the guy who came in last Saturday was a substitute (and a bad one, at that). I'm really glad that something is being done about this, because we've been very happy with the services provided by Baby & Me overall. I think that this shows a lot of class and integrity on their part, so kudos to them! And yes, I still definitely 100% recommend this program for anyone who wants to do pre-natal or post-partum fitness in the GTA.

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.

The Baby Room

This past weekend, we finally decided to tidy up the mess of boxes in PK's room. When we moved into our house, we knew that our spare bedroom would be used for our potential kid (PK :D), so we left it empty until just after my first trimester. That was when we slowly started filling the room with clothes, stuffed animals, and books. In the last few weeks, we've added on a playpen, our beloved Bugaboo Bee stroller, and the car seat, all sitting pretty in their boxes. That is, until yesterday.

It all began on Saturday, when we ventured out to Ikea to look for a mirror and light fixture for our downstairs washroom (which is being re-done as part of our kitchen renovations). Finding the mirror and light fixture was a dud (though we've discovered a lot of tacky crap out there), but we did come out of the store with area rug and a bookcase for PK's room.

We decided to put the bookcase together on Sunday because after spending a couple of hours at Ikea, we were spent. Ikea is always a zoo, especially on weekends, and always sucks the life out of me.

Putting together the bookcase is a one-person job, so I let the hubby take care of that while I worked on the Bugaboo. The only assembly required for the Bugaboo was to pop in the 2 front wheels and that was that. The real tough part was in trying to figure out how to collapse and un-collapse the Bugaboo. It took me a while (and nearly hurling the damned thing out the window), but now I've got it all figured out. PK will be a very mobile city baby. :P

Even though we still don't have our glider and the rest of our furniture in the room (hopefully in the next month or 2), the room is looking more like a baby's room now that the bookcase is up.

A few people have asked me if we're going to go with a themed baby room. The answer is no. Themed rooms don't tickle my fancy. Babies are too young to care either way, so I figure I might as well save Future Me and Future Hubby some time by going with a non-themed white-walled room. Even our furniture was picked under the premise that most of it will stay with PK until she goes off to university. I guess some people dig the themed room and view it as part of being part of the whole experience. Hey, if that tickles their fancy, then so be it. If we were all the same, life would be mighty boring, wouldn't it?

And now, without further ado, here are some pictures of PK's room (a work in progress). More pictures to follow as our furniture comes in. :)


The Hubby hard at work


The Bugaboo Bee!


Pile 'o Stuff


The Finished Product 1


The Finished Product 2

A Clarification or Two

One day, somewhere around the time just before becoming pregnant, the hubby and I were at his parents' place for a visit. I don't remember the specifics of the visit, except for one thing. During the course of the visit, my mother-in-law pulled out a journal that she'd kept while pregnant with the hubby. I remember thinking at the time how that was such a cool idea, and thought that when I became pregnant, I'd keep a journal as well. When I found out that I was pregnant with PK, I remembered my journal idea, but I didn't put it into action until my first trimester was almost done. The main reason behind my inaction was that I was petrified of starting a journal, only to have something go terribly wrong with the pregnancy so early on. So I waited until I was at 10 weeks or so to start writing.

My original intention was to keep a paper journal, but I type far faster than I write. I'd considered keeping a Word version of my journal, but that just seems so impersonal. And then I thought of the blog. I already had a blog, and I didn't really want to mix the baby stuff in with that blog, so I decided to create a brand-new blog. One dedicated solely to PK. And so, PK on the Way was born.

I was talking to a friend yesterday about the blog, and she asked me who my intended audience was, stating that what you write is largely influenced by who you write it for. So very true. I guess the answer to that question is that I'm writing for myself, mostly. I enjoy writing, especially when it's done on a whim. I seldom ever sit down with the intention of writing. It just happens. I don't claim to be a great writer, but I still enjoy it. If writing were my destiny, I would not be in IT, would I? The second person I write for is the hubby. I didn't realize it at the time, but after talking to him about it yesterday, I really do. Even though communication is not a barrier in our relationship, he finds that he doesn't always know what I'm thinking/feeling with regards to the pregnancy, and that this is a great way to let him in on my thoughts. Cool! Of course, I also write for PK. I still do think that when PK grows up, she will be terribly embarrassed by this blog, but hopefully she'll reach a point in her life (maybe in her mid-20s) where she'll look upon this blog as something neat. Only time will tell.

I am rather pleasantly surprised by this blog's readership. I've given the URL to a few friends whom I thought might be interested in tracking PK's progress in the womb, but I seem to have acquired some readers outside of that select circle, which I think is awesome. I don't think that my other blog gets nearly that much attention, which is fine too. I just like to rant. :) One of my favorite things is reading the reader comments, even if I disagree with them. As the hubby puts it, the fact that people comment means that I've written something provocative enough to make them want to comment. How neat is that? So thanks to everyone who reads the blog and who enjoys commenting. I'm glad that you find it entertaining in some form or another.

Now, for another clarification on this whole pregnancy thing. I probably sound like a bitter bitter bitch sometimes on my blog. I think the tone is somewhat set on purpose. I just tend to find that the most interesting things to write about are the ones that get me all riled up. I'm just not the "la la la...pregnant life is perfect and awesome" type. And before anybody fires off a bitter angry comment, bear with me for a bit.

First off, I am happy to be pregnant. That being said, I don't enjoy BEING pregnant. Weight gain, constipation, frequent trips to the washroom, trouble sleeping, and cutting back on exercise to me aren't exactly selling points. At the same time, I KNOW that there are tons of women out there who can't get pregnant and would look at me as an ungrateful bitch. I hear you. I've read the literature. I know how bloody hard it is to get pregnant. There are a number of factors that have to line up in just the right way to make this happen. I know that it is a PRIVILEGE to carry a new life form inside of you. I also know how fragile a pregnancy really is (believe me, I know). I don't take my pregnancy for granted, but don't expect me to enjoy every minute of my pregnancy out of guilt. Now you may comment. :)

And one final thing regarding my feeling uncomfortable with the special treatment I get while being pregnant, because I don't think that I got the right point across. The reason why it bothers me when people open doors and keep asking how I'm feeling and all that is BECAUSE I'm pregnant. I know that under normal circumstances, these same people wouldn't give a flying pig about how I'm doing. That's just fact. So I'm bothered by this because I know that it's somewhat hard-wired into us by society and is not an act of genuine concern. The other thing is that at this point in my pregnancy, I stick out like a sore thumb. There's no way you can look at me and tell me that you didn't know I was pregnant. Standing out like that makes me feel uncomfortable. I even felt uncomfortable at my own wedding, where all eyes were on me. I stuck out. I was the lady with the big white dress. Hard to miss. :P

So hopefully this clarifies some things about this blog and about my personality. I hope that my readers continue reading and commenting, that I continue entertaining them in some form or another.

PK FAQ

I've gotten enough of the same PK questions that it warrants an FAQ. So here I go...

1. Why do you refer to your baby as PK?
When the hubby and I first got married, we were completely adverse to having kids. As the years went on, our aversion faded, especially with the birth of our niece. We began talking about when we'd someday have a kid. It became a bit cumbersome to say, "If we have a kid someday", so we started talking about the Potential Kid, or PK. That made family planning conversations a bit easier, for example, "If PK comes along..." :)

Nowadays, friends and family keep asking us why we still refer to it as PK instead of AK (actual kid). Sorry, we're not changing it. Sure, it makes no logical sense - I'll give them that. We've always referred to it as PK, so it would just be weird to refer to it as anything else. That is, until PK is born. I think our kid will already have a bit of a complex knowing that PK sounds like an insult/swear in Cantonese. I wouldn't want the kid further having a complex because we call it PK after birth. Never fear. we'll be sure to refer to PK by its actual name when the time comes. So no, we're not changing it from PK to AK or KOW (kid on the way) or whatever other witty acronym you can think of. That's not the way it works. :)

2. When are you due?
I'm due early August, though my mom is convinced that PK will pop out on July 31st. She has a 6th sense, so who knows - she may be right on this one.

3. Was it planned?
If you knew me in high school or even university or shortly after getting married, you'd know that I never wanted kids, and neither did the hubby. But it all changed after the hubby's sister had a daughter. The idea of a kid grew on us, and after almost 5 years of marriage, we decided to take the plunge into parenthood. Basically, if you are a close friend and you asked that question, I'd totally get it. I think we shocked many friends when we told them that I was pregnant, and rightfully so.

Now, if you're a perfect stranger and you ask me this question, I find it both weird and rude. What business is it of yours if my pregnancy is planned? And for the record, in case it wasn't clear the first time, it most certainly was planned.

4. Are you going to find out the sex?
I know this is a common question, but it really really annoys me for some reason. Maybe because I've gotten it SO MANY TIMES! To answer the question, yes, we are going to find out the sex. It's really annoying to try to buy baby clothes without knowing the sex. There's only so far that green, yellow, and off-white will go. Besides, most of the really cute stuff has boy or girl prints on it. We will find out the sex on March 13th. Hopefully I'll get a new photo from the ultrasound to post on this site.

5. So you're taking a year off, right?
For more details on that one, check out my maternity leave post. In a nutshell, I'm not taking a full year off, and if I hear one more person with their opinion on why this is a bad idea, I will scream.

6. You drive a Civic. Surely you're buying a new car?
I never understood why having one kid justifies the purchase of a minivan or an SUV. Are you carrying the kid's entire bedroom with you? Sheesh. It's not like you're taking a bloody roadtrip with the kid every time you go out. If we were to take PK on a roadtrip, we would rent a minivan in that case. But for day-to-day city living, I hardly see how we could possibly justify a gas-guzzling monster car. The most we'd do would be to get a Volvo station wagon, as long as a) it didn't look tacky and b) didn't guzzle too much gas. I've had friends try to convince me to buy a crossover SUV. I love how car manufacturers are now prefixing SUV with "crossover" to dupe the gullible masses into thinking that somehow a crossover is better. Total horse pucky. Save the Earth and stop buying bigger cars than you need!

Okay, so I'm just a tad annoyed by a few things. I am pregnant and hormonal after all...I'm allowed. :)

Eating for Two

I would like to dispel a pregnancy untruth once and for all - this whole "you're eating for two" business. Let's think about that for a second. I'm 16 weeks pregnant. One quick note on that. I lost track of how many weeks pregnant I was, and my "Week 16" post was actually still my 15th week. I signed up to BabyCenter.ca and now I get weekly e-mails to tell me how far along I am. No more confusion!

Anyway, I digress. As I said, I'm 16 weeks pregnant. According to literature, this means that little PK is about the size of an avocado. Hardly the size of a full person. In fact, when PK is born, he or she will weigh 3.2kg (7 pounds, for you non-metric people - shame shame!). Again, hardly a full person. This begs the question: if the wee little person currently taking up residence in my innards is about the size of an avocado and will weigh ~3kg by the time it comes out, HOW EXACTLY AM I EATING FOR TWO? More like 1.15, if you ask me.

For those of you who are misinformed, the only additional food you eat on top of your regular pre-pregnancy diet (assuming you're not hugely overweight) is the equivalent of a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk. I would hardly equate that to being a license to pig out. Besides, the more crap I eat while I'm pregnant, the harder it will be to lose after the baby pops out. That alone is incentive for me not to feast on chocolates and candies, thank you very much.