28 Weeks (CLEAR LANDLINE PHONE) - 3.0: Jan 19-25

 

• If you're feeling confused by the size comparisons, remember it's an obscure list of 80's and 90's nostalgia haha.  
• I can't decide if I'm as big as I feel or not. Some days I feel totally ginormous (like when my maternity clothes don't fit already), but then I see a picture and I'm like, "Oh that's not so scary...). It will get scary though. I remember what I looked like at 40 weeks with Emilia... SCARY!
• I have started noticing more frequent Braxton hicks contractions. They're not painful, just feel like pressure and tightening. They occur most often if I'm sitting in one spot too long, walking too long, or if I have to pee. 
• Baby is big enough now that I can sometimes map its position (I think). It flips and flops and isn't always clear, but the other evening in bed Dave and I figured it out. Could feel the whole leg, butt, and foot. So crazy!
•  Lots of hiccups for baby, and heartburn for me. 
• Lots of SI Joint pain in my right hip/tailbone. This is more familiar with my previous pregnancies. I think I'll try to get to the chiropractor and see if she can fix me up and I can try to maintain it. It may just be my life now. Started later than with Dom & Emilia, so I'll be happy with that.  
• I'm starting to feel a bit nervous/anxious about this change of pace of life that is coming. I am really enjoying where things are at with work, preschool, home life, David's work, freedom, children and their independence, etc. I am anxious to start this whole process over again and put myself and most everything else on the backburner for months. 
• I think about labour and delivery often. I think we're getting a doula, but haven't been assigned one yet. In my head, labour will be just like Emilia's, but maybe even quicker. fantasize about it, and the pictures we may get at the hospital. I then switch over to being nervous about arranging childcare, getting to the hospital in time, or having a long/difficult/complicated labour. I've been lucky so far, and mostly I'm just visualizing the best, but I'm also a realist... 
• Glad I got my glucose testing out of the way... I've been eating a lot of mini eggs and chocolate caramel ice cream. Way more sweets than my norm. 

Now for some of Dom's precious belly photos, and some more bare belly shots of me! 

Thankful Thursday - 249

Feeling hopeful for the future of the world with the USA entering a new chapter this week. President Biden and Vice President Harris were sworn in with little drama this week, and already have started taking climate action and trying to set things right that have been challenging over the last 4 years. It's a long road, but it feels like there's some hope! 

Speaking of hope, let's all have TONS of hope for the BC COVID numbers to stay low/decrease further so maybe we can have something to look forward to at the February 5 update. 

This is what else I'm thankful for this week...

1. Tuesdays. I love and cherish my Tuesdays right now. This is the day that both kids are in preschool. I drop them off at 9, pick them up at 1, and then Dom is in quiet time until 2/2:30, while Emilia takes an extended nap until around 3:30 lately. So much freedom and me time!!! This Tuesday was gorgeous and sunny. I got some work done, did my workout, ate lunch with Dave, watched a show with a cup of hot tea, and started this blog post! Winning!

I even had time to put some makeup on before my belly photos this Tuesday. Dom was up, but kept himself occupied. 

The sweetest boy. He sat for 15 minutes on Tuesday and just felt the baby kick. He loves playing with baby - for now. We'll see how sentiments change when he/she is born! Haha. 

2. The energy that sunshine provides. Monday was beautiful! I did a new workout, and then took Sherlock for a 4.5 km walk. My body paid for it later, but I spent the evening sitting on the heating bag and stretching. I could think of worse things!

3. Intentional date nights. We just recently decided that Dave and I are going to start doing date nights on Sunday nights. It is just intentional time spent together. This past Sunday we got sushi after the kids went to bed, then went downstairs and watched a movie while I did a puzzle. I don't know why it took us so long to start doing this, but I just realized that we spend every. single. night. together at home... with just the two of us... Why are we not being intentional with at least one of these nights?! Maybe getting so large and really feeling third-trimester-y made me realize that our time of these nights all alone with all this freedom to do what we want are limited! Soon we'll have a noisy demanding little being to deal run our lives.

4. Hockey season is back. I could honestly not care less about the actual hockey season. But what it does mean, is that we can have guilt free evenings of sitting in the theatre and "watching hockey" which is really just David yelling at the wall while I puzzle, blog, work or crochet and eat mini eggs. Could be worse! The picture here is from an evening where Dave had to work, so it's a bad representation of the hockey season, but that's okay haha. 

Yes, I watch everything with subtitles. Ever since Dom was a screaming newborn I have switched to subtitles and have a hard time watching without!

5. Dom's smart brain. I was working on my Shutterfly book and he came down early from quiet time. He knows/tries not to bother me, so he grabbed his Lego X-Wing and asked me to get him the instructions (or "constructions" as he calls them). I gave them to him, and he proceeded to take the entire thing apart - every single piece - and re-build it following the steps in the instruction booklet. This has now become his thing, and he doesn't need any help, but it keeps him and his brain active for a long time. Hallelujah! Loving this Lego and Playmobil season of life already! 

The little playmobil corner

Also just caught Emilia playing Lego with the instructions out, too. Copying big brother <3

And here I leave you with some more pregnancy photos because this is my life now haha. 

This is me, at 6 months pregnant, outgrowing my maternity sweaters already... send help! Literally things that were baggy two weeks ago hardly zip up now. Ahhhh!

This is me living in my real life mess at 28 weeks, feeling stronger and in better shape than ever!

27 Weeks (JELLY SHOES) - 3.0: Jan 12-18

 

• Day 2 into this week I hit 6 months pregnant - 3 months to my due date - the THIRD TRIMESTER. No biggie. I remember thinking, "Wow, I still have so much energy! I don't think I'll need to move on to the 3rd trimester workouts for a while!" False. A couple days later it hit me. I started needing a nap every day again, I had a really hard time building up the motivation to work out, and everything just felt difficult. Here we go!
• I've been noticing my voice is sort of raspy. It's been going on forever so it's not like I'm sick, just like I constantly have a frog in my throat. Dave seems to think this happened with my other pregnancies too, but I don't recall such a thing. 
• I am still so excited about the little pain I'm in so far! This is the biggest difference/improvement from my last two pregnancies, and I 100% credit appropriate exercise and strengthening for it. We went to the zoo on Sunday and I was great most of the time! After coming home and sitting in one spot for a while to rest my body, my SI joins (right hip/tailbone) was quite sore, but it wasn't constant. Just random flare-ups so far. I notice it most if I'm stationary for a long time. Once I get loosened up things relax a bit. 
• As I mentioned above with my energy levels flopping, I couldn't muster up the will power to do the high energy LIT (Labour intensive Training) trimester 2 workouts later into this week. One day I took Sherlock for a good walk, one day I tried a prenatal yoga (which was nice, but I need to find a better one), and the next day I finally caved and moved on to the Beach Body Prenatal Barre Blend Trimester 3 Workout A. I don't know why I was hesitant. It was exactly what I needed! Still a workout, still a struggle, but lower energy and more appropriate for the size I am haha. I guess the program is designed this way for a reason... Duh. 
• It's funny how "suddenly" it happens when pregnancy is such a gradual, 9 month process, but it feels like I had a sudden growth spurt this week. Getting out of bed is harder, cleaning up toys is harder, putting on my socks is harder, etc. 
• Baby is alllllll over the place! My cousin is also pregnant and her baby finally flipped head down - she's due mid February, so this gives me hope! Baby does somersaults and flips and kicks and stretches all day long. 
• Dave gets weirded out by it, but my veins are SUPER visible on the sides of my belly right now. It is kind of weird, but I also find it fascinating. They're so visible because there's so much blood flow to that area feeding the baby right now! Magic. Pure magic. 
• My stretch marks around my belly button area are starting to appear more purple now, which means they're starting to stretch again and maybe getting new ones. I found a picture last week of my bare belly at this point with my first pregnancy and I couldn't believe how clean my stomach was! No stretch marks! I cannot even remember that time where my belly looked so... fresh haha. I haven't been overly self-conscious of the way it's looked since having kids, but it definitely makes me realize I had no idea how good I had it back then. 
  
  
  
  Here is said photo. 27 weeks pregnant with Dominic. 
  
  
  

  
  Here's 29 weeks with Emilia. You can sort of see what I mean. 
  
  
  And finally here is 24 weeks with this pregnancy. Battle scars! <3

Side note: In case you were wondering what Kids Jelly Shoes are...

 

Not sure how this measurement/comparison makes any sense, but oh well!

The Zoo

The kids ask quite frequently when we're going to the zoo again. It actually sounds more like Dom saying, "Mommy, we haven't gone to the zoo in a while..." I mean it's been winter, and this fair-weather Mom doesn't love the idea of lugging two toddlers around a cold/wet zoo. 

That being said, we were thinking about what to do for David's mom's birthday which is this Wednesday, and Dave suggested we see if they want to meet up at the zoo! We checked in with his family to see who'd be interested, and much to my surprise, Gramma, Grandpa, Rachel, Kyle, Rebecca, and the four of us could make it! We went on Sunday morning and it turned out to be a great way to spend time together while being COVID-safe. Some wore masks, the rest kept our distance, and really it was no different than walking amongst the other zoo-goers.

We bundled up and got there just after opening at 9am. We brought our single stroller and the wagon to lug all our stuff around (if you know me, you know I'm not one to under-pack) and I have no regrets! Dom rode his bike for a while and walked the rest of the way with very little complaining! Emilia spent most of the time in the stroller, until Dom took over 2 minutes before getting to the van and then it was meltdown time. It was past naptime and she was very tired. 

We all sort of moved at our own pace around the zoo, but stuck mainly in the same areas. We let the kids play a bit together because we're not monsters! I love seeing their love for each other, and regret they've missed out on so much relationship building the last 10 months. I grew up with tons of cousins and we spent much our childhoods together; school, weekends, summers, holidays, etc. I want that for my kids too! 

I don't have many pictures from the zoo because I had hands full and gloves on most of the time. It was chilly, but it didn't rain on us, so that's a win I'd say!

You KNOW I brought our picnic blanket just for this reason - eating lunch on the benches at the black bears. Also, my jacket will BARELY do up anymore... I still have 3 months to go in this pregnancy. Ruh roh.

Dom showing Emilia where to find Arun, the red panda. 

I'm so grateful we decided to do this yesterday. I'm not ashamed to admit my desire to not do things when it's cold and wet outside. I have a lot of strengths when it comes to parenting... being fun when it's cold and wet is NOT one of them. Sorry my west coast children! That's what cool dads, uncles/aunts, and grandparents are for!

Thankful Thursday - 248 & Lately

Such a beautiful sunshine-y day! I am so looking forward to Spring coming - my favorite season! So much hope, brightness, new life, longer days, etc. 

This week I am thankful for...

1. A visit with Bobo Moma! Elim is allowing window visits again! They weren't for a long time as they were in outbreak and/or had enhanced protocols, but my mom arranged one yesterday for the kids and I to go with her. Dom was receptive to the whole thing, and suggested we bring her a sign which he made himself. We go up to the window at Elim and an aide brought Oma out. She lit up right away seeing the kids and I (the kids especially). I guess she's more used to seeing her own children, but the little ones are way more fun haha. We called the phone in there and she sort of held the receiver and chatted away while we held up notes for her to read (she can't hear on the phone, so that's not an effective way to communicate). Dom engaged with her through the window and played some peekaboo; Emilia was a bit more shy which is totally fair. I had low expectations for them, but knew it would be fun for Oma to see them. 

I haven't seen her in person since last February, before her health took a downturn, so this was a big deal for me personally as well, and I'm so glad we could make it work!

Peekaboo!

"We should make Bobo Moma a sign!"
"Good idea, Dom! What do you want it to say?"
"Ummm.. I love you?" 

Too cute! Love this preschooler lettering.

2. Another outdoor visit. Some of my siblings at I "happened to bump into" my parents at the park by their house last Saturday. It was a dry day, so we grabbed a coffee and hung out more than 6ft apart while the kids played on a blanket and at the playground. Mom and Dad masked up and came and both got to feel the baby kicking (yay! It happened at least once before baby arrives haha!) I can't wait until we can do this without an invisible measuring stick between us all, and without yelling our personal life updates across the park at each other (a slight exaggeration). 

Hard to explain to them why we couldn't go to Opa and Oma's and continue playing with their toys after the park. Sorry guys... soon enough!

3. I didn't burn the house down. Let me paint a picture for you here... 
It's Saturday morning, and I've been prepping and baking loaves of sourdough for the past two days. I'm exhausted and life feels busy. I pop my second loaf of the morning in the oven, turn on some loud music for the kids, and go to move the car for David as he goes out to a shoot. I come back in to a smell of smoke. Hmm... strange... I open the oven briefly and it's billowing smoke. SMOKE DETECTOR!!!! The kids both run to the couch and plug their ears, pretty wary of the situation. I can't figure out why the oven is smoking so bad, so I get the smoke detector off and go to investigate again. I warn the kids it will beep again. Again, it's billowing smoke, SMOKE DETECTOR!!! Kids are starting to get more concerned and I take the lid off the pot and see that the bread is BLACK! I know I need to get it out of the oven, and get this smoke detector turned off, and get the smoke out of the house. Game plan. Turn off smoke detector again, open all the doors, and rush the bread out to the deck. Here we go. I turn off smoke detector (6 month pregnant woman precariously standing on stool waving a towel and trying to reach the button to turn off the beep). I open the doors and windows on the main floor. The kids are still on the couch plugging their ears. Moment of truth - I open the oven again and rush the pot outside. SMOKE DETECTOR!!! LOUD MUSIC!!! I go back in and just need to get this smoke cleared out. I try to use a towel to fan smoke away from the smoke detector but it is way too smoky so it won't even turn off. A fan! I run upstairs to get the fan, and the smoke detector upstairs is going off too and yelling, FIRE! FIRE! The kids don't like that I leave and they finally reach their breaking point and start bawling on the couch. So, now we have... SMOKE DETECTOR!!! LOUD MUSIC!!! FIRE! FIRE! SCREAMING CHILDREN! Okay, okay. I can do this! Nothing left to do but get back up on that stool and try to get the smoke detector to turn off. It's still too smoky and it won't go off when I press the button the first few times. We have pregnant lady on a stool waving a towel around, all the doors are open so the neighbours hear everything, black bread smoking on the deck, two kids crying on the couch, two smoke detectors beeping and yelling "FIRE", loud random kids music on. I've got this! Just then, a kids rendition of Sherlock's favourite song comes on the speaker (Uptown Funk - Bruno Mars). so NOW we have... SMOKE DETECTORS!!! LOUD MUSIC!!! FIRE! FIRE! SCREAMING CHILDREN!! and Sherlock runs into the living room, sits down, and starts HOWLING! At this point I, still on the stool, can do nothing more but laugh. Such a perfect picture of chaos. 

In the end, I got all the things taken care of and had a hilarious story come out of it. Yeesh!! I also successfully baked three more loaves of bread the next day with no traumatic incidents. 

I think the loaf was too big, and it touched the top of the hot pan and that was just too much for it to handle. Toasted!! Within less than 10 minutes. 

Phew! Still got it!

4. Another organization project. Aunty Sonya texted me about this free shelf in her neighbourhood, and I decided we could give it a try to maybe organize Emilia's closet a little bit better in preparation for the new baby! Success!

Before

After. We didn't take anything out I don't think other than the diaper genie, and actually added that basket of toys. It is just WAY better organized now! With room to spare! :)

5. Dom reconnecting with his playdate buddies. Henry & Sam got a couple Star Wars toys in their Kinder Surprises last week, so Katrina sent us a video asking if Dom could identify them. We did that, and then Dom wanted to do a video call with Henry & Sam to show them his ships. They spent like 45 minutes together on the video call just showing each other toys and giggling while Henry stuck things in his nose haha. It was great to see him remembering his friends and feeling connected again!

This show and tell business also reignited his joy for playing Paw Patrol which is an EXCELLENT quiet play activity. Woo hoo!

And here are a few other things we got up to in the last week that I could come up with "thankful" things for, but easier to just post the pictures haha. 

Dom spent some time chatting with the baby and telling it about his teddies

Sherlock the pillow whore. He loves the kids so much <3 This morning he ran upstairs ahead of me and went and got them each out of bed. He ran up into Dom's bunk and snuffled his ears, and then ran into Emilia's room and gave her kisses.

Bedtime stories with Aunty Sonya! I love this routine of occasionally having someone Zoom in to do bedtime stories. Best way to kill the half hour before bedtime, and a great excuse to get 90% of the bedtime routine (jammies, teeth, etc.) out of the way early!

David's on a clean eating kick (some fitness challenge with my brothers and dad), so this was one dinner this week. Caprese chicken (which was actually super easy and super yummy), beets and goat cheese balsamic spinach salad, and then some toasted sourdough for the kids and I. 

I have relaxed my strict-ish TV rules a little bit lately and am having zero regrets! It's still not every day, and mayyyybe one movie a week. Most days it's just a show or two before dinner if I don't have David's help, or before bed if I need to shower. This week though they started asking all these questions about Frozen and the plot and why things happened (we listen to the soundtrack a LOT), and I didn't know the answers. I was making dinner anyway, so I popped on the movie for them. Ahhhh yes. Such a great tool!! Emilia is a little afraid of the "snow monster" or "Wampa" as they call it. Every time she got the slightest bit nervous she pulled her blanket up to her face like this to keep her safe haha. Cuteness. 

For reference, here is the Frozen snow monster...

And here is a wampa from Star Wars...

Janine dropped off some clothes for Emilia from Jaia last week, and in it was this dress. It look sort of like an Elsa dress so I showed Emilia the other day and she put it on and ran around saying, "Me Elsa!!" 

Also, Dom in his Gryffindor sweater **swoon**

Big brother standing by. Why does he look like a teenager here? Sometimes I see flashes of what he may be like as a teenager. So weird to think about.