G’n'R Out West

We had a terrific time at folk fest.  Typical weather for this area - it was about 28 all morning and most of the afternoon, then suddenly just as we were saying we needed to get in the shade a cold wind came up and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees in 10 minutes.  It was quite refreshing although we all needed some warmer clothes.

By 6it was raining and by 8:30 we decided to pack it in.  It was an awesome day - and the rain, although it cut our day a bit short didn’t really bother me.  We’d had such a great day of listening to music and relaxing with friends, that you can’t really be disappointed.

It was wonderful to have had such a great time at folk fest this year as there is no telling how different next year will be with a baby on the loose!  Speaking of the baby he is doing just fine.  Greg and I recently noticed that the way I am showing is starting to change.  The baby used to just stick straight out in front of me.  But over the last week he is also starting to grow out the sides too (so now you can really tell I am pregnant from behind)!  Although, I have a nice little waddle, so it wasn’t like there was no way to tell I was pregnant from behind before!  When he would move he used to stick straight out in front of me and you could see little bumps from feet or elbows (or something).  But now he seems to be sticking out the sides of me instead of the front.  It is pretty funny.  I guess he’s gotten as far out the front as my body will allow so now he needs to expand his domain in a different direction.

Since there are so many pictures of me on this website, I thought I’d post a few of Greg both pre and post rain.  The rain was actually coming down so hard sometimes that all we could do was just laugh and laugh…I must admit we had to leave early, but we never would have laughed so hard if it wasn’t for that rain.

Friday was my last day of work.  It is a very weird feeling to be done work.  I have not completely realized yet that I don’t have to go back for a long time.  I keep finding myself thinking about getting up for work on Monday or about something I’d like to do at work….bizarre feeling.  I suppose it might take a while for the work thing to sink in, but I suspect once the baby comes I will forget all about work in an instant.

I am now 38 weeks and so I suppose we could have the baby any day.  But I feel quite strongly that the baby won’t be coming for a little while yet.  I haven’t decided if I know this because I am so in tune with our baby….or if I am completely delusional and we’ll have the baby tomorrow or something.  It is really hard for me to not know when the baby is coming.  Not so much because I am not ready, or because it is just killing me waiting…more because I don’t understand how to plan for something that could happen any time between now and in a month.  I’m not good at not having a dependable schedule.  For example: should I clean the house today so it is clean when the baby comes…or should I clean it in 5 days so it is clean when the baby comes…this is something I just don’t know.  I know cleaning will be the least of my concerns when the baby comes, but these are the type of thoughts that are nagging me today.

Of course, I’m not really ready for the baby to come yet either.  It really would be best for everybody involved if the baby just held out a few more weeks!  I tell our baby to stay put every night before bed…just in case he can understand.  The other night my friend Shan kind of scared me because a friend of hers (who was due 2 days before me) just had her baby last week.  I realized how unprepared I feel.  Not so much in terms of being a mom or having the nursery things ready….more that I don’t have the stuff I want for they day of the labour organized.  I was totally freaked out.  Of course, then I got off the phone and made a pie.  It made me feel much better.  That was Thursday….and today is Saturday and I still have’t organized my things.  Yes, it is official…I am in denial. 

This morning I did make a list of things I need and so hopefully by the end of the day I will get everything accomplished and then I can move onto something else….or perhaps I’ll busy myself with some more baking instead - hard to say what the day will bring.

In some ways it has been a bit of a blessing to have moved right before the baby comes.  It has been quite stressful, but before we moved I was going nuts just waiting around for the move and for the baby to come.  Since we’ve moved I’ve been so preoccupied with changes at work and getting settled in the house that I’ve not had time to sit around and wait for the baby.  Even for the next few weeks I know I will be grateful for every day we have to get things done.  Of course I am thrilled about meeting the baby, but at the moment I feel like that will be just as exciting in a few weeks so what is the rush…plus I still really love being pregnant!

As for the baby, he is doing well.  Still moving tons.  We had a third ultrasound last week to check on the placenta and things look great.  The ultrasound technician was doing measurements of the babies movements and the little bugger didn’t move a muscle for the entire 1/2 hour appointment.  It was hilarious.  She actually was poking my belly quite aggressively and the little dude wouldn’t react.  It made me laugh so hard because he won’t sit still about 80% of the day, but the second somebody wants to have a look at him he moves about as much as a bump on a log.  I didn’t bother getting pictures of the ultrasound because he is so huge now you can’t really see a thing - plus he was hiding his face behind his hands so I didn’t even get to see that.  What a bugger. 

Tomorrow we are at Folk Fest all day - it will be interesting to see how my pregnant body enjoys sitting down on our festival chairs all day.  I love Folk Fest so I am really looking forward to a great relaxing day with friends and good music.

Anyway that is about all the recent news, I will take another belly shot today or tomorrow and post it as well.  Things are getting rather large in the belly department so I’m really looking super pregnant now.

I was so excited about moving into the new house that I totally forgot to write about one of the most exciting thing that has happened since we moved.  WE GOT A MIDWIFE!

Our original plan was to have a doctor (partially a default option given that our small town offered no alternative).  But when we found out we were moving about 4 months ago I called to see if we could get a midwife - no luck…too late.  I figured it was a sign and decided that a doctor would be good.  We met our doctor here a month ago and I was less than pleased with him.  I knew he would do just fine - and I figured he probably wouldn’t even be the doctor that delivered the baby anyway, so no big deal.  I should have thought a bit harder about that - if I am excited about the prospect of having a different doctor deliver the baby - then am I really happy with my doctor??  However, I didn’t have much of a choice as there are few doctors in the city willing to take an 8 month pregnant woman, and we had enough problems trying to find him as it was.

Anyway, later I called the hospital where we would deliver so that I could understand what to expect.  We figured we’d be moving too late to do prenatal classes here so I thought maybe they’d let us come and have a hospital tour and see what to expect.  Boy was I wrong - hospitals here are too busy to do tours (even if you take a course apparently).  And their rules just felt so wrong to me.  I know that they have all these rules because they are crowded and because some woman prefer the rules.  But they just felt so wrong to me.  They felt so wrong in fact that while I was talking to the nurse on the phone I actually started sobbing I was so scared.  I quickly realized that I was in no position to learn anything more so I desperately just tried to get off the phone.  The nurse did not even appear phased by the fact that I was so upset. 

I later talked to my sister and she convinced me I should give it one more try with the midwives.  So I contacted them again, explaining my situation and asking their opinion of the rules at the hospital to find out if the hospitals were ever lenient.  Much to my dismay they told me that there were no deviations under any circumstances (which is what the nurse had told me…but I thought, surely that can’t be true!).  Anyway, after hearing my story the midwives reconsidered my case and have squished me into their practice.

I feel so lucky to have gotten in with them.  After 5 minutes of the 1 hour meeting with our midwife I went from petrified to excited about the labour.  I know it will be hard, but I have been reassured and have so much confidence now.  We’ve now had 2 meetings with the midwives and both have been 1 hour long.  Our first meeting was with our primary midwife, Marie, and the second visit was with our back up, Jane.  Both are fabulous.  The level of care is so different from that of the doctors I had seen.  They treat your birth as if it is the most exciting thing they’ve ever been involved with.  Especially our primary midwife, Marie.  I feel as though she is honoured to have the good fortune of being chosen by us to participate in our birth.  Whereas I find the doctors had treated my appointments more like they were evaluating and then diagnosing an infection rather then planning for a new life.  Not to say that there aren’t many doctors who have the time and make the choice to treat the pregnancy and birth differently then mine did, I just never had the good fortune to find a doctor who made me nearly as comfortable or excited as the midwives have.

The other great thing about the midwives is that they seem to involve Greg as much as possible. Asking him as many questions as they ask me, and making sure he feels confident about the birth as well.  It is really great since this is our first time around we both feel a bit uneasy about the labour.

We are still planning on having the baby in the hospital and so may have to deal with some of the rules still.  But at least it will feel like it is our choice to be there - instead of a requirement.  Plus the doctors and nurses do not enter the room unless the midwives ask for help or unless I get pain medication.  So the midwives run the show in their and then there are lots of exceptions to the rules.  Even if I get pain medication the doctor will just come in to consult and then leave again.  And, even if it turns into a higher risk birth and a doctor does need to take over then at least I still will have had the advantage of the midwives during early labour and they will still be there during the entire labour so that we can get their advice on what is going on.

The luckiest part of the whole deal is that the midwife we have has 12 years of expreience in England before moving to Canada.  While she was waiting to get certified here she worked at the hospital as the head of Labour and Delivery.  She only quit one week ago.  So I think she is the perfect midwife for us.  She offers us the type of care we want, but has strong ties to the hospital and so we feel even that much more comfortable with her.

So that is our baby update - things are great and we are really getting excited.  But we have a lot to do before the baby is born so I am encouraging him every day to take his time.

It has been a LONG time since we’ve been living in hotels, and we are so excited to be in our new house.  The movers were delayed a few days which I found very irritating (Greg described me to friends as ‘unfit to hang around’ the day the movers didn’t show up).  But after some frustrating conversations with the moving company we are finally in.  So far nothing is broken and only a few pieces of furniture have some minor damage - all in all I am pretty happy.

I took the day off yesterday and today while the movers came and then the unpackers were here.  We have our kitchen pretty much set up, as well as our bedroom…but then Greg got home from work and we set up the computer…and now all my productive unpacking energy has been sucked away by the Internet.  I am a bad person.  I have promised myself that once I’ve updated this blog I will get back down to business.

The last few weeks have been pretty good, although we are both pretty big home bodies so we are glad to be out of the hotel and be able to cook our own meals again.  Our 2 year anniversary was this past week.  We originally thought we’d be spending it unpacking, but since our stuff hadn’t been delivered we decided to spend the day in the mountains.  It actually ended up being nice that we had that time to spend together when we have both been so stressed out.

We had a nice lunch on a rooftop patio of some pub.  We then drove partway up a mountain, and hiked the final few kms to the top.  It was so great.  The hike was a bit of a challenge for me, but exactly what I wanted.  The weather was perfect on the way up the mountain, and then by the time we were at the top we could see an amazing storm making its way over to us.  It was quite windy and just beautiful.  On the way back down a few people passed us (running, trying to avoid the imminent rain).  I don’t run anymore so we just strolled down at a very relaxed pace and ended up getting a bit wet.  The rain was nice because it had been such a hot day it was great to feel cool.

After our hike we got some fudge in town and then headed back to the city.  Here are a few pictures of our hike