Visits & outings

Looks like I never got around to really finishing my post the other day, but we've been doing lots of stuff & I needed to put my feet up for a while to take some of the swelling down. Looks like I missed National Talk Like a Pirate Day as well so ya'll just have to wait until next year mateys. I've also missed a ladies night out due to complete forgetfulness & 3 belly dancing classes due to tiredness / laziness / sore feetedness. To top it all off we almost missed out on an entire Sigur Ros concert on Sunday night due to lack of moving air at the Bronson Centre. I think this would normally be a great venue for a show / concert as the hall itself was quite nice & the seats reasonably comfy, however, the fact that the place was at capacity without the air conditioning being on pretty much ensured that one felt like they were walking into a solid wall of hot, damp, stank air. You could see the moisture just floating around waiting to silently loft its way down to your unsuspecting lungs. ( I think my hair knew the gig was up..... as my niece Sophie says, my hair isn't so much curly as it is frizzy!) I lasted 2 songs of the opening act Amina before I had to bail out of our balcony seats to get some fresh air. We sat in the lobby for a bit before deciding that the bun was hungry & then made our way to Shanghai for some yummy tidbits. Eventually we made our way back to the show just in time to hear my favorite song & managed to stick it out in the back of the hall for the last 3 or 4 songs. Its too bad we couldn't have seen the entire thing, because what little we saw was fantastic. Calvin figures we paid about $10 a song, but I still think it was totally worth it. Takk takk Sigur Ros & the wonderful birds.

Monday night we went to Sears (and the online wishlist thing) & registered for some stuff since people have been bugging us (nicely!) about getting something for the bun. We really don't need much since our friends & family have already donated so generously to the cause, but if you must I've added links on the side here to stuff we've come across that's awfully cute, but not awfully necessary. We're totally set up in most of the essentials (still trying to decide on a crib) & we've got toys & receiving blankets coming out the ying yang so everything else is just bonus from here on end. Who knows, there could still be a whole lot of crap we need, but I think we're running out of room in our little house & I'm still trying to wrap my head around how many freaking diapers (going the cloth route until the amount of laundry overwhelms me) I'm going to be going through.

Oh ya, we do NOT know the sex, even though Calvin's mom thinks we are conspiring against her & not telling because we are just evil that way. I've gone back & forth in my predictions, mostly favouring the girl side & I've heard all kinds of opinions & old wives tales on the subject. Pro on the female is that I'm carrying high, fetal heartrate is over 140, the ring test went in circles & I've craved sweet things & fruit. Pro on the boy side is that I've also craved sour salty things, my skin has been nice for the most part, my pillow(s) faces north & that I've been incredibly good looking during most of the pregnancy (ignoring of course the bags under my eyes, the water retention, the feeling like a total bag & hey those spider veins on my legs look great amid all the freckles). At first I spread out ass wise pretty good & felt round everywhere so apparently that goes towards girly girl, but now I seem to have lost some of that extra padding & gained a bit of a basketball so that points to boy. Take it as you will. You can speculate all you want, start a pool (we'll donate it to charity) or just decide to wait it out with us. All in good time folks.

Yesterday we went for our hospital tour at the Monfort. Pretty nice for a hospital & Calvin was totally impressed with the crazy contraption of a bed & the pictures of the woman in a unitard using it with her chinoed partner. I personally liked the humongous tub that could probably fit about 5 people. Nice! Our tour guide nurse was super sweet & I think she wants us to page her when we come in because we (I guess mostly Calvin) kept her laughing the whole time & she told the lactation consultant we were hillarious. Yay us! Hanging out in the hospital is not my idea of a good time (though hubby really thinks the laughing gas would be swell), but we probably wouldn't be spending a great deal of time there since I can labour at home for most part & leave 4 hours after the birth if I want to. If it comes down to the wire & I don't want to move I've also got the homebirth option. This is of course as long as things progress normally with no complications. I'm going in to this with as open a mind as I can have & we'll just take it all as it comes. Its about the safety & integrity of the bun that counts in the end no matter what the bunmaster's plans are right?

Today was midwife day with Josee & we chatted about going to the hospital, using the birthing balls (apparently disinfected & covered up with pads.... something I was a tad curious about), what to do & not do when membranes rupture, group B strep, umbilical cord stumps & the fact that the laughing gas tank at the hospital is still out for repair after several months (poor Calvin probably won't get his treat though that's probably a good thing according to this story). I did the Strep swab (kinda gross), had another great blood pressure reading (108/68) & actually measured 36 weeks. I'm finally on target! I knew it had popped out a bit more, even though I still haven't gained any more weight. Holding steady at 25 pounds which is just fine with me, thank you very much. I can only attribute this to the Body Flow & Yoga classes as well as the fact that I can only fit about 10 mouthfuls of whatever I'm eating at a time into my shrunken stomach located somewhere up near my throat at this point.

The bun is up in my ribs & there is one foot that really likes to jam itself in there furiously when I least expect it. I got a huge bump in the night around 3 am yesterday when it decided to kick me full force in what I think was my stomach, waking me almost puking. That was nice. Its still in the same position with head down, ass up (I'm not going there.....) but has not dropped yet. I can feel limbs moving around constantly on the right side of my body, which is cool, surreal & sometimes painful. I think I'm feeling Braxton Hicks when I walk the dog. Sometimes I have to stop & catch my breath they are so strong. I'm getting incredibly tired most of the time now & walking for any length of time just kills my feet... man I feel pathetic. At the end of the day my hands are feeling puffy now too, but hopefully I won't have to take off my ring until the end. Bun should be around 6 pounds now & is most likely developing all those cute baby fat rolls so everyone will have something to pinch. I know you can hardly wait. Me? I'm going for a nap to bide my time.....