New Home

I decided it was time to merge my two blogs and move to a new home. I will now be posting (baby & life stuff) on Katastrofik Katacombs over on Wordpress.

My Beautiful Girl

I went for my 3D Ultrasound yesterday and it was one of the most amazing experiences ever. My mum and I drove down to Victoria where we met Heather and Molly who had come over from Vancouver for the ultrasound. The technician asked me strait away whether I wanted to know the sex ("yes!!!!!!!!") and told us right away that IT'S A GIRL!!! I was so excited that I burst into tears. I know I would have loved my baby no matter what but I just wanted a girl so much. I already have 2 boys and really wanted to even things out a bit.

She is a beautiful little girl and I fall in love with her more every minute. She was being shy for most of the ultrasound so most pictures have her arm right up by her head. The tech was still able to get some amazing images (including one of her smiling!).

My beautiful Lyric Maggie O'Callaghan:

Kicking Mum

Pretty Girl

Bendy Baby

My absolute favorite of her beautiful smiling face:

3D Ultrasound

Tomorrow is my 3D Ultrasound! I am just dying of excitement. Unfortunately James will be working (he & my dad are starting a new job tomorrow out of town) which sucks majorly. My mum and I are meeting my friend Heather and her 3-month old daughter Molly who will be coming with us! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! I'll have news and pix tomorrow. xo

Quick Update (25 w, 2 d)

Super quick update since our internet is only working on our patio and I am freezing my huge pregnant nipples off.

I have to say I am not entirely loving being pregnant lately. Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful and I wouldn't pass this up for the world. I wanted this more than I've ever wanted anything and I love my baby so much. That being said, I am miserable. Mostly it comes from standing on my feet for 8 hours a day and having an evil cat and hip pains that wake me up all night long. By the end of my shift I feel like my feet are bleeding and I want to cry. My ribs (specifically my sternum area) hurt so much. I limp at the end of the day. My mum bought me a body pillow which is helping support my tummy and helping with the sternum pain but is not doing anything for my hips. I have actually woken up crying a couple times. I was planning on working until the beginning of April but I just don't think I can. I really need the hours to go towards my maternity leave but I am so unhappy and sore right now that I really don't know what to do.

On a positive note, the Fledgling is kicking up a storm and I love it so much. The kicks have gone from flutters to definite karate-style super kicks (possibly some Tai Bo?). Every time she kicks I fall even more in love.

I was reading Dr Sear's Breastfeeding book the other day and I thought I would check out my boobs. I gave my nipples a little twirl and a tiny bit of fluid came out! It was the coolest. I wasn't expecting anything like that for quite a while so it was pretty damn awesome.

I entered a contest to win a free "Birthing From Within" childbirthing class and I won! It's six weeks long and is taught by a Birthing From Within Mentor. I can't wait!

Anyhoo, more later since my fingers are going numb. xo

Happy New Year (22 weeks, 6 days)

So far the year is good in the world of baby. I read her a story today (James' fave childhood book "Green Eyes" about a cute cat) while my cat Spike cuddled up on top of her. I'm hoping he gets it out of his system and doesn't think he can lay on her when she's outside of my body! I also keep waking up on my back with him on my tummy. I don't know how he manages to roll me over in the middle of the night because I'm not a back sleeper at all but he seems to want to cuddle with the baby.

I've started having to sleep with my army of pillows. My friend gave me her old breastfeeding pillow which is more crescent-shaped than u-shaped so I tuck the top under my belly and the rest between my legs. It's been helping with the weight of my growing belly as well as the soreness in my hips. I really need to start exercising so my body can handle the changes. There is a $5 prenatal yoga drop-in downtown which I'm going to check out.

The Fledgling has been kicking up a tiny little storm. She loves her daddy's voice (it's very deep) and gets excited whenever he talks to her. He was reciting poetry to her one night last week (not sure what it was exactly but it was totally not baby-appropriate) and when he pulled back she kicked so hard my belly moved! It was amazing. Due to my placenta being in the front it took forever to start feeling her kicks so I wasn't expecting anyone else to feel her kicks for another month or so. James put his hand on my tummy and she kicked again and he got to feel it. It is seriously the coolest thing ever! She was quiet for a couple days and I only felt a couple of kicks. Of course I started getting worried and paranoid. Apparently she was just saving up all of her energy to go dancing on New Year's Eve since that's what she did last night as I lay in bed with James.

James and I have spent the last few days going through all of our crap and purging. Anyone who reads this who knows me in 'real life' know what huge pack rats we are. It's disgusting. We are taking full advantage of the dumpsters located in our complex and have taken out about 10 bags of crap in the last few days. I feel bad for not taking it all to Salvation Army or the recycling depot but I know myself and that even if it is super-organized to be taken to be donated it will sit in my living room for weeks and then end up back in a closet. I keep finding things I was sure I threw out in our last move and I think random boxes I meant to donate just made their way in the moving truck and over here! We put in a request for a 3-bedroom in our complex. Since today is the first of the month and we didn't hear from our landlords I am assuming nothing is available this month. I'm ok with that though since it will give us another month to get rid of stuff.

Anyhoo, off to more cleaning now. And eating chocolate! Happy New Year to you all. xo

Kicks!!

I've been feeling the first kicks for a few days now (Dec 17th was the first time!). It is seriously the most awesome thing ever!!! I keep thinking my tummy is about to rumble but then I realize it's her saying "hey mama!". So cool. So very cool.

We've had a rough couple days. One of my wisdom teeth decided it needed to remind me who is boss so it pushed itself up and is pushing all of my other teeth out of the way. It is also infected. This is something I should have dealt with a long time ago, and certainly before I got pregnant but I am a huge procrastinator and was hoping it would behave for 9 months (stupid me!). I was in so much pain the other night that I laid in bed for an hour sobbing until James finally told me I needed to go to the hospital. The doctor couldn't really do much except tell me I couldn't take Advil (boo!) but that I could take Morphine for a couple days until I could get into a dentist. I only ended up needing the morphine that night and have been saving the rest in case it gets really bad again. I haven't been able to get a dentist appointment (yeah.... not a whole lot of options the week of Christmas) but I am hoping for the best. Hopefully the penicillin will do its job and I can deal with my evil teeth in the new year.

On better baby news, we have decided to definitely get the 3D ultrasound done. Our appointment is February 3 in Victoria. My friend and her baby are going to come over from Vancouver and my mum is going to come down with us as well. I can't wait!

Healthy but Shy (20 weeks, 5 days)

I went for my 20 week ultrasound on Friday, Dec 11. It was pretty damn awesome! The baby slept through most of the exam but then the technician poked her to wake her up and she went crazy!! It was the coolest thing ever -- head was shaking, fists were pumping, and legs were kicking. She was not impressed to be woken up at all! That's mama's baby for sure.

The great news is that everything is growing where it should be and at the right pace. Her heart has all of its chambers and valves and her other organs are all in place as well. I'm pretty sure I saw at least 30 toes but the technician was comfortable with what she saw so I'm assuming I'm wrong.

Yes, I am calling the Fledgling "her". We had hoped to be able to confirm the baby's sex at the ultrasound but she was being shy or just naughty. There was a foot in the way for most of the pictures (but a pretty little foot indeed). The technician tried numerous angles but the precious gems eluded us no matter what. There was definitely nothing dangling down in any of the pix however. James took this to mean that it is a girl to which the technician agreed was a fair assumption. So I am going to call the baby a girl until I find out otherwise. Long before I even got pregnant we referred to our eventual baby as a girl anyways so it's only been since I was actually pregnant that I even considered it would be a boy!

James and I agreed that we can't wait another 20 weeks to find out what the Fledgling is so we are going to shell out the $150 to get the 3D ultrasound done. I have an appointment for February 3rd which seems forever away, but it is sooner than May 1 (my due date) so I think I can hang in there. Besides getting the ultrasound done for my own satisfaction, I think it will be really cool for the Fledgling to see herself moving around inside my tummy when she gets older. I know that I would certainly love to have something like that of myself and my mum so I can only hope my baby will as well.