Week 37

I was totally convinced that PK would be making her world début partway into my 37th week. On the opening night for "The Dark Night", I was sitting in the theater watching the movie like everyone else, when all of a sudden I started getting some major cramping. I dismissed the cramps as Braxton-Hicks initially, but started worrying when they wouldn't stop. Finally, they did. I guess PK wasn't ready to come out just yet. On a similar note, one girl in my aqua-fitness class who was due the same day as me (August 7th) ended up having her baby at 37 weeks on the nose.

As with the past few weekends leading up to PK's due date, we've spent most of our time scrambling around buying odds and ends. One of the things I still had to do was buy some disposable undies for the hospital, seeing as I've read (and have been told) that there is some crazy bleeding that happens post-partum. I was all ready to buy myself a pack of Depends, when I suddenly started feeling all self-conscious and abandoned my mission. That was probably not the smartest thing to do, but as I've said before, I've never claimed to be rational at all times.

On the Monday, I had my usual weekly doctor's appointment. Nothing terribly exciting happened there. PK's head is still in the right spot. Hurray! He told me that the following week, he'd do an internal exam to see if PK's "landing gear" had deployed. That totally cracked me up. It was a nice euphemism for saying he'd check if my cervix was dilated. My sister tells me that when they do these types of exams, it can sometimes trigger the onset of labor, and that if labor does start, it's usually within 24 hours of the exam. I'd considered waiving that exam after she told me this, because my last day at the office was July 25th, and I wanted at least one week to myself before PK arrived. Seeing as my next doctor's appointment is on July 27th, there's a possibility that checking under the hood might trigger labor on the 28th and therefore nix any of my plans for actual time off before PK arrives. After giving it some thought, I think I'll still go ahead with the exam. PK will come out when she's ready. If I go into labor on the 28th, then so be it.

Speaking of mat-leave, I did decide that July 25th would be my last day at the office after all. As I'd mentioned in my last post, I'd tinkered with the idea of working part-time after the 25th, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a hair-brained idea. Who am I kidding. I need some "me time" before PK arrives. Besides, my attention span during meetings has gotten worse, and I am increasingly more tired overall. I've been so tired lately that I skipped out on my pre-natal Yoga class this week. I really wasn't up for the torture workout that I usually get. That being said, I went home and worked out all the same - arm-toning with the TheraBands and leg toning with some fabulous squats. Believe me, that was still a lot less intense than the Yoga class.

On a final note, here's the latest on the kitchen. Counters were installed on Monday (July 21st), so our kitchen finally looks like a kitchen! The plumber also came by that week, to install the sinks and the toilet. As of today, we have a working toilet, but the sinks are half-done. The faucet for the kitchen sink has been installed, and the sink has been mounted (it's an under-mount sink), but the drain for the sink and the dishwasher hasn't been set up yet. I'm a little miffed because the drain was never set up because the sink needed to be glued in place. The plumber didn't come until Wednesday, so they could've mounted the sink before then. Oh well...c'est la vie. The bathroom sink has been put in place, but the faucet wasn't installed because they couldn't remember if the faucet was going to be to the left or right of the sink, so they hadn't drilled the hole for the faucet when the counters were installed. Our cell #s are posted in the front hall, so a simple phone call to ask would've sufficed. Arrrrrrrrrrrgh! We were told that the final plumbing work would be done on Monday, July 28th, at the latest, so hopefully we'll have a working kitchen by then. On the bright side, everything has been cleaned up in the kitchen area, so we were at least able to move our kitchen paraphernalia into the kitchen. Yay!

I just hope that I get to enjoy my working kitchen for a day or two - I've been itching to bake cookies :D - before PK arrives. I guess I'm getting pretty demanding. Enjoying time off, being able to do some baking...all before PK arrives! Will it happen? Only PK knows the answer to that question!

Me at 37 Weeks

All Walks of Life

Everyone in my pre-natal exercise classes has a "story". We may all be pregnant at the same time, but path we took to get to this point and the paths we'll take thereafter are vastly different. It's interesting to see such diversity.

There are lawyers, teachers, engineers (including Yours Truly), and doctors. There are gals who got pregnant shortly after getting married, and others who got pregnant shortly before getting married. Some aren't married at all, but are in committed relationships. Some have an OB, and some have a mid-wife. Some have opted for some added support by hiring a doula. Some want the epidural and some want a natural birth, hoping to somehow bear through the pain when the times comes for the kid to pop out. Some will be surrounded by family after their babies are born, and some are a long way from home and have to brave it by themselves.

One girl was telling me that she's going to have her baby back home in Halifax, where her parents and her in-laws live, because they can (and are willing to) help her out. Her husband is a corporate lawyer and therefore spends most of his time working. She doesn't even know if he'll be at the birth, because he has X days off, and the time he's taking off is based on that farcical 40-weeks-of-pregnancy mark that doctors like to give as due dates.

Another girl's partner is working in the US. Meanwhile, she's stuck in Toronto trying to sell their condo so that she can join him in the States later. She won't be joining him until after the baby is born, because she will be staying with her parents at their cottage for the entire summer, to have and raise the baby during its first few months of life.

Look at me, even. I got married at 23, and am having a kid at 28. By the time PK pops out, I will have been married for 5 whole years. By today's standards, that's an awfully long time to be married sans kids. Not to mention the fact that I got married at a relatively young age by today's standards. Most people probably just assume that we had trouble conceiving. The truth of the matter is, we weren't ready to be parents when we got married (even though the hubby is 5 years my senior), so there was no rush for us.

It just goes to show that there is no such thing as a "typical" pregnancy. We're all different, and that's just fine by me. Can you imagine how boring the world would be if every birth were the same?

Pre-Natal Class Adventures

Last week I had had my 2nd week of pre-natal classes - Yoga and aqua-aerobics. As I've mentioned before, I'm really enjoying my time in these classes, especially since the first 30 minutes are devoted to pregnancy-related topics. That being said, I do feel like a bit of an outsider. To be honest, I've always felt like an outsider around other women. I could always relate better to guys than to girls. Guys are very WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). Girls aren't. There are mind-games. There are subliminal messages. There's competition. There's sizing up. I don't give a snoot about makeup. I could care less about the crap you read on Cosmo. I think sachets are dumb and useless, and I think that getting smelly soaps from The Body Shop has got to be one of the most useless and annoying gifts EVER.

Having spent 4 years in engineering school followed by almost 7 years of work in IT, I've hung around my fair share of guys. I'm used to it. Most of my close friends are guys. I can talk about computers, and I can be totally silly around them and crack dirty jokes without the disapproving look that most girls would give me. Now, being pregnant, I seek refuge with those of the same sex, since, after all, guys have NO IDEA what I'm going through.

So anyway, back to the main topic.

Monday's topic in my Yoga class was breast-feeding. The instructor had us go around the room, saying how far along we were, and how long we wanted to breastfeed. Everyone around me said that they wanted to breastfeed for as long as possible (which actually translated to 1-2 years). Then it was my turn, and I said, "for as little as possible" - i.e. between 1 and 4 months. Dead silence. Clearly I'd committed some crime in preggers-land. To each his own, is what I say. My personal preference is to not have a kid with teeth and who can walk on its own sucking on my boob, thank-you very much. I know some mothers breast-feed for that long, but it's just my personal preference. Who knows...I may change my mind and do it for as long as 6 months, but that's as far as I'll go.

I definitely appreciate the importance of breast-feeding, and certainly the importance of breast milk. That's why even when I stop breats-feeding, I'll probably still feed PK some breast milk for a little while longer. The session was definitely very enlightening, and I learned a lot (probably more than I ever wanted to know but still had to know). For example, milk ducts can clog, and the best way to unclog them is to have the baby suck on your boob (disturbing, I know). Boobs can get hard if there's too much milk in them, so the best way to relieve the pressure is to just manually squirt some out. There's the right and wrong way for a baby to latch onto your boob. Breast milk digests more quickly than formula, and is therefore better to give to a kid over formula in the early days, in order to prevent SIDS. Kids get confused by boob nipples and bottle nipples, so you have to ease them into things. So ...much...information...brain...exploding...

Thursday's aqua-aerobics class was equally-enlightening. We were asked to go around the room and say how far along we were, and list some of our good and bad experiences with pregnancy. When it came around to me, I started going on about how I was nauseous for 3 months. Then when that was all over and I finally got my energy back, I got 3 colds in a row, in the span of 1.5 months. Then I went on to say that the weight gain was a real shock to me, and that I found it really disturbing at first. Finally, I ended off with, "But I guess it's all getting better now, so I guess that's a good thing..." Awkward silence. I'm sure that if anyone was in both the Yoga and swimming classes this week, they'd start referring to me as "crazy anti-breast-feeding pregnancy-hater girl". Hey, I tell it like it is.

I will re-iterate, however, that PK is very much a wanted child. I just happen to be a creature of comfort. What can I say? I like the status-quo. This whole pregnancy thing is totally new to me and it has its ups and downs. In hindsight re: the swimming class though, I should've said that the best thing about being pregnant was PK itself. It's true. I might have a funny way of showing it, but I am glad that PK is on its way.

Pre-Natal Classes - SUCCESS!

This week I finally made it out to my pre-natal fitness classes. Overall, it has definitely been a positive experience. I've probably mentioned this before, but I'm currently signed up for pre-natal Yoga and pre-natal aqua-aerobics. For both classes, the instructors spend about 30 minutes talking about pregnancy-related things.

For the Yoga class this week, the instructor brought in an Osteopath to talk about the different therapies available for women during pregnancy, post-partum, and even for their little ones once they're born. If you don't know what an Osteopath does (and I certainly didn't until this past week), I guess they're a bit of a cross between RMTs and chiropractors. She mentioned that she treats anything from constipation to headaches to indigestions for pregnant women, to misshapen baby heads resulting from vacuum extraction or from babies spending too much time on their backs. Pretty neat. Definitely something I'd look into.

The Yoga class itself was interesting. I'd taken Yoga before, so there were no surprises. Obviously the curriculum was modified to better suit pregnant women, especially since some of the ladies in the class looked like they were going to give birth at any moment. Given that I do tend to overreact and stress easily, I think that the Yoga will help to calm my nerves. And I'm sure that Junior will thank me for it. :P

The aqua-aerobics discussion topic was also quite interesting. Again, a few of the ladies looked like they were about to burst, so the focus of the discussion was on natural labor induction. Apparently "artificial" induction happens by giving the woman a synthetic version of the substance that naturally induces labor. Sorry, I forget the name. At any rate, this artificial induction can be quite painful, which is why so many women need epidurals. Honestly, the thought of sticking a big-ass needle in my spine freaks me out, so I'd like to avoid having an epidural if I can, so this is definitely welcome news. At any rate the other fun fact was that womens' due dates are calculated at 40 weeks, but the human gestation period is somewhere between 38(?) and 42 weeks (don't know if I have the exact #s). So technically women can to into labor after their due date, and that's perfectly fine, as long as your placenta and your amniotic fluid are both fine. Basically inducing labor artificially if you don't need to results in pain. :P

So on to naturally-induced labor. Some of the things that people mentioned were:
1. Castor oil
2. Walking
3. Going upstairs sideways
4. Jumping jacks
5. Warm baths
6. Acupuncture
7. Acupressure

While apparently none of these have been scientifically-proven to work, some people swear by them. Definitely food for thought.

And as for the class itself, it was LOADS OF FUN! The instructor I had yesterday was a sub, which is too bad, because she was really peppy. Hopefully the regular instructor is just as peppy. I'd never taken an aqua-aerobics class before, so I didn't really know what to expect. The instructor stayed out of the pool showing us the moves, and we had to mimic them (same as a regular aerobics class). Of course, being in the water made it a thousand times more difficult to do some of the things she wanted us to do. It was insane. I was so tired, but I felt so energized! I was initially worried about attire since I was wearing a bikini and thought I'd be the only one. Fortunately, it was about a 50/50 mix. There were some VERY pregnant women in bikinis, so I felt relieved. I'm definitely psyched for the next class!

So overall, the classes were a very positive experience. It's really nice to be in an environment where I'm the only pregnant woman around. That being said, it was still weird, because I guess I'm still not quite used to the idea of being pregnant. The other thing is that of all the people there, I was the least pregnant-looking of them all. I'm around 3.5 to 4 months pregnant, and most women were between 6 and 8 months pregnant. It was to the point where I didn't really feel all that pregnant, because I had a heck of a lot more mobility than they did. I'm probably just over-analyzing. :P The other thing is that I'm pretty shy, so I don't go out of my way to talk to people. Most of these women already knew each other, probably from starting together (you can join whenever, but the classes do run on 10-week cycles), so I totally felt out of the loop. I'm sure that given some time things will change. At any rate, I'm glad that I did sign up for these classes. It's sure nice to be able to stay fit during this time and to know what exercises I can and can't do.

Pre-Natal Class Dud #2

Today was supposed to be my first aqua-aerobics class. I was totally stoked. I packed my bikini and my towel in with my things this morning so that I could go to the class straight after work. The problem is, I never made it there.

You see, I've got this pesky cold. I think I mentioned it earlier. It started on Saturday night, and it has been getting progressively worse. I was okay with it couple of days ago. Sure, my left nostril was perma-plugged, but that was just a small nuisance. I could deal with that. Then, today, all hell broke loose. I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. I'm coughing intermittently (no nasty gooey phlegm like last time, but that could change). Wost of all, my nose is so badly stuffed up that it causes me to gag. Vicks VapoRub isn't doing the trick. I can blow my nose vigorously for a few seconds to let the air flow in, but that only gives me a few seconds of relief. In short, I am a health wreck.

As I left work today, I was still pretty determined to get to that class. In spite of the fact that my nose was all stuffed up and I was getting the chills. I think that the chills were caused by the Arctic air that's pumped through my office building all winter. Nonetheless, it certainly didn't make me feel any better.

Given all of these lovely things, I went with my instinct and decided to forgo today's class. I figure that I don't want to risk getting any worse from sitting in a pool for 2 hours, and I am optimistically hoping that I'll be well enough next week to finally be able to attend my classes. So keep your fingers crossed and knock on wood!

Pre-Natal Class Dud

I was totally ready to write about my first pre-natal yoga class today. I was really looking forward to it. It would be the first time I'd be interacting with other moms-to-be. My family has been greatly supportive this entire time, but there is nothing like being around others in the same situation as you.

My pre-natal classes are done through a program here called Baby and Me Fitness. I purchased a package last week for 6 months of unlimited classes. Basically, I could attend any number of their classes for the next 6 months. I think I mentioned last week that I'm signed up for yoga and aqua-aerobics (PS: I've been having a hell of a time finding a maternity swimsuit, so I settled on wearing a bikini instead - hopefully I don't wind up looking like a hoochie when I go to my first class on Thursday). The lady on the phone said that I could start the yoga class on Monday, February 18th. Great. Well, one wee little detail. Today ist the Family Day holiday in Ontario. Not only that, it's the first EVER Family Day holiday in Ontario (don't get me started on this). Anyway, the thought did cross my mind that there was a chance of there not being a class today, but thought to myself, "Nah. The lady on the phone would've told me." Well, if she's like everyone else, she probably forgot that there was an upcoming holiday. Hell, I almost went to work today!

So dismissing that little voice in my head telling me that there may not be a class today after all, I headed to my class. And when I got there, the doors to the building were closed. Now the little voice was loud and clear (if you got the Magnum PI reference, you're an old geek :P): "It's closed because of the holiday!" Well, that and the sign on the door saying that the center was open from 7:30am to 5:30pm due to the Family Day holiday was also a big hint.

Oh well...at least I got a good walk in! Hopefully I'll be able to report on the aqua-aerobics class!