FINALLY! The nursery is 99.9% complete. Other than a few things for decorating purposes, we are READY!!

I’d like to share Marcus’ Nursery pictures with you.

This is me in the nursery at 33 weeks, 3 days.

I guess now all we have to do is wait. Although, it might be a good idea to get the rest of my house in order…lol. I’ve been quite negligent in that department lately.

*** I just posted this in the NS Board and thought to myself, “Self, that’s a good blog!” Soooo here we are…***

Holy Cow! Where is the time going? Today starts week 31 for me and I can’t believe it is here already! 63 days until my anticipated due-date! Good grief!

My house looks like a typhoon went through it. We hired a painter to come in and take care of papering and painting the two bedrooms for us. Mike and I don’t mind tackling any home renovation job, but we know enough NOT to tackle painting! It just would not be a pretty site, so it’s well worth my sanity at this point and time to have someone come in and do it for us. Plus, he’d take a whole lot less time than we would. I can’t wait until it’s done to be able to post some pictures! Everything from the two bedrooms has more or less been dumped in my living room, so we are living around a bunch of beds, boxes and bags at the moment. Oh well, soon enough it will all be back to normal…I hope!

Sunday night is my Baby Shower. At first I didn’t “want” to have one, even though I really do “need” to have one. I hate being the center of attention, and I’m sorry but showers drive me up a wall. It’s just not my cup of tea. However, I had no say in this. A shower was planned by my sister and my mother. One thing led to another and we now have about 90 people invited. I know that’s a lot, but you have to understand the size of our families. It would be absolutely impossible not to have that many invited. It’s almost like if you invite “this” one then “these” 10 have to be invited as well. In my community this will be the highlight of the winter (good grief! )

Anyway, I’ve been getting a wee little bit excited this week. Some of the girls at work have taken it upon themselves to provide and do the decorating, which I thought was so awesome! Everyone is really looking forward to it and they are helping to get me “in the mood” to have potentially 90 people rubbing at my belly (ugh!)

It will be good when this is all said and done because then I’ll be able to see exactly where we stand and what else we’ll need for Marcus. I can’t wait to have the nursery done and waiting! Hopefully it won’t be too much longer and the weather will break. I can’t wait for spring! It’ll be so different for me having an April baby. Matthew was an October baby, which made for a long winter being couped up in the house with a new born.

I suspect a great summer is just around the corner!

Ok, enough of my novel, but now you’re up-to-date!

Until next time…

Things are moving along, albeit at a snail’s pace. The last couple of weeks have allowed me to go through and do some major de-cluttering that I have been procrasinating about. I wish I was as organized as I was over Christmas!

Two weeks ago we had a huge rain storm and the water decided to make its way into our basement. Our workshop has been anything but a workshop and more of a dumping ground which meant instead of concentrating on stopping the water from coming in hubby first had to clear out all the junk. What a mess. He made endless trips to the dump and there was lots of bags on the curb the following week for garbage day! Things are settled back and we actually have a work shop that you can walk into and around now.

I tackled the kitchen and bathroom cupboards. Am I the only one who has “junk cupboards”? Good grief! Where does the stuff come from? And can you answer me another question? What happens with the plastics? There’s a cover and a missing bottom, or a bottom and a missing cover. What’s up with that??? Sets me crazy! I’m pleased that that is done and I actually managed to make lots of room and got things reorganized and it seems to be more “workable” now! That made me happy!

Mike has all of his work clothes and fire department stuff in the spare bedroom so he’s been working on going through all that. Matthew has decided that he wants to relocate to the spare room and give Marcus his room. Oh horray! That means I have 2 rooms to total dismantle, paint and reorganize. Oh well. I want Matthew to enjoy getting things ready for Marcus and we have been promising him for 2 years that we’d redo his bedroom. So now seems to be the time for that.

Over the weekend we went out and selected paint colours and border so we can get started. We’ll wait until the rooms are cleared out to go get the paint, but at least we all agreed on colour schemes.

We also purchased a few big ticket items over the weekend. I feel much better now knowing we have the crib, change table and a dresser. It’s a honey colour and although I had my heart set on white, I’m pleased with what we got. The dresser ended up being the biggest “success” as it was the only one left and it was a floor display. One of the drawers was not hinged properly and there were a few minor scratches on top of it. We ended up paying $50 for it instead of the already reduced price of $110 that was on the ticket!!! Once a runner is on top of the dresser, no one will ever know the difference! Mike already fixed the drawer and it’s as good as new! Yay!!!

We also got our travel system. I wasn’t really going to get the stroller/infant car seat combo originally but decided, “why not”. This way (as Cara so gracioulsy reminded me), I’ll have a good six months or so that I won’t have to take him in and out of the seat every time we get in and out of the car. My sister and BIL are getting us a Britax Marathon, but the closest place it’s available is Halifax, and now we have a little more time before we have to worry about getting that.

What else? I’m still feeling great. Starting to get tired easily though. My last appointment saw a 6 pound weight gain and I now weigh more than I did when I delivered Matthew (both pregnancies started out at the same weight). LOL I blame the French Vanilla Cappuccino from Timmies!! My tailbone and sciatic nerve are playing havoc with me, but we’ll survive that, too.

As I sit here this morning I just know I’m getting blasted with a major head cold … at least at this point I’m praying it’s a head cold and not the flu. I don’t like not being able to breath through my nose and I’m terribly agitated today. Hopefully this passes soon!!

Onward and forward we go.

Until next time…

Welcome to 2008!! Albeit 15 days late, better late than never. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and is getting through January without too much trouble. Hey! We’re almost halfway there!

So, what’s been new with me since Christmas? Hhmmm… all went well over the holidays, but I’m really glad to get things back to normal. Matthew really enjoyed his Christmas and was so thankful for everything he received. Every year he always says the same thing (to the point that when my sister phoned him this year she was waiting for it). He’ll come down and look at his stuff and then he starts: “This is the BEST Christmas ever!” and he continues to say this over and over and over again. It’s almost to the point of being a family joke now. It’s nice to know that he’s so appreciative!

On the pregnancy front, I am now 25 weeks, 4 days. Wow! Where does the time go? April is approaching faster than I care to admit. I am feeling absolutely wonderful and we are enjoying watching Marcus grow. He’s squirming and moving around like a flea on a hot shovel, which Matthew really gets a kick out of. Ever since before Christmas Matthew hasn’t made mention of the fact that he’s having a brother “instead of a sister”, so I’m hoping he’s adjusting to the idea. He gets up every morning asking how Marcus is and talks to my belly saying how much he loves Marcus. I’m just letting him do his thing and not making too much of a big deal about it. I think he has come to terms with it, though.

We have absolutely NOTHING done in the nursery yet. I have nothing bought. Remember how nice and organized I was at Christmas time? LOL, not even close. The spare room (soon to be nursery) looks like a typhoon went through it. It’s the junk room, literally. Everything tends to get thrown there and dealt with later, whenever that might be. We also have to paint Matthew’s room (before we start the nursery). We have been telling him for 2 years that he could have his room redone and I think if we do the baby’s room first, all heck would break loose! Sooooo, we have to muck out Matt’s room and get that done and then muck out the spare room and get rid of 90% of the junk that’s in there. Move a few pieces of furniture around and then we can start painting the nursery. Really, I don’t think it’ll take too long, it’s just to get started. And to get started we need a little bit of disposable income. Income tax can’t get here soon enough! Heehee!! Oh, it’s all good, it’ll get done!

We know everything we want; it’ll just be a matter of getting it when the time comes. The crib, change table and chest are coming from Sears and pretty much everything else is at WalMart. My sister and mother are having a baby shower for me on February 24. I didn’t have one for Matthew, because I didn’t need one. Between my 2 cousins they had 5 boys and they were 6 months to 8 years older than Matthew. I didn’t need anything. They had it all and gratefully passed it all along to me. What a switch this time. It’s been 11 years since there’s been a baby in the family, so it’s like we’re starting from scratch. What am I saying?? We are starting from scratch; it’s not like anything…lol. Good grief. Marcus is going to have everything brand new, while Matthew had 5x hand-me-down’s, in most cases. I think he understands — I hope he understands.

Mike and I went to WalMart Saturday night and did our registry. I’ve never done a registry before. It was so much FUN!!! I LOVED walking around the store scanning everything in site! And even if no one uses it, it will remind us of what we want. Registries aren’t a big thing around here. I’ve heard of them a few times for weddings, but never for babies. I guess we’re just behind in the times. My sister and BIL have already said that they’re buying us the car seat, Mike’s Mom is taking care of the play yard (it was a play pen when Mathew was a baby..lol), and Mom and Dad are getting us the monitor system.

There are about 90 people invited to the shower (that’s mostly extended family and close friends…yikes), so I dare say we’ll have everything we need when the time comes. We tried to scale things back with numbers, because I am so NOT a shower person, but with the size of our extended families, it’s impossible. If “this one” gets invited, then these 10 have to get invited, and if “that one” gets invited, then these 8 have to be invited as well. And on and on and on. See my problem? See what I’m not a lover of showers?? Oh well, this time I may be happy I have a big family!

I found something out last Thursday that was kinda neat. When I became pregnant with Marcus I was exactly the same weight as I was when I became pregnant with Matthew – 119 lbs. Now last Thursday and 24 weeks, 6 days I was 143 pounds. When I gave birth to Matthew I was 148 pounds!!!!! After 5 more pounds I will be heavier (with 15 weeks to go) than I was when I had Matt! I know, I know, every pregnancy is different, but I’m only little!!!!! If Marcus is going to be a lot bigger than Matthew, well I’m sorry, but these pelvic bones will only spread so far!! Matt was 6 lbs 13 ounces and that was quite enough, thank you very much. Mike says Marcus is going to have his metabolism. God help me! LOL Time will only tell. I feel good, and I guess that’s all that matters!

On or around February 1^st I get the gestational diabetes test done. Hopefully, there won’t be any issues with that, but diabetes does run in our family and they were quite surprised that I didn’t have it with Matthew. After that I’m back to my OB on the 7^th and I believe I’ll start every 2 weeks after that. Eeeeekkkk!!! I’m scaring myself again with these timelines!

Alright, I think we’re all caught up now. Maybe I’ll try to get a few more stories included to the pre-pregnancy blog. I think we left off just after Mike and I got married. Oh, there’s still so much to share. My New Year’s resolution ( a couple of weeks late) is to become diligent with my blog again.

Oh, here’s me and my belly at 25 weeks 2 days!

Until next time…

All right, so we are 13 days away from Christmas. I know I am constantly going on about how fast time is going by, but this is insane. Maybe it’s because my mind is so preoccupied, I don’t know. It just feels as though I wake up in the morning and then the next thing I know I’m waking up again and I got very little accomplished. Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels this way. I know I am getting things done; my tree has been up for 3 weeks, everything is bought, and we’re pretty much good to go – my question is this – when comes the time to enjoy everything? It’ll all be over and done with for another year and I think I’ll be wondering where it went.

I think part of the reason why things have been going so fast is that we had another appointment in Halifax for my 20-week ultrasound. That was on Monday. We decided to make a weekend out of it and took Matthew along with us. Other than having to relocate from our hotel we had a great time. The first place we booked looked great on the website. Let me tell you, when we got there I wouldn’t even take my coat off. We were there a total of 10 minutes and decided there was no way we could stay. I wouldn’t expect a stray cat to stay in there. So there we are, suppertime in Halifax with nowhere to stay. We drove closer to downtown and went in to the Cambridge Suites hoping and praying that they would have a room available for the 2 nights we were going to be there. Much to my delight, they were able to accommodate us! We got settled in no time and our weekend escape was able to begin. We went out and had a nice supper and by the time we returned to the hotel room, we were all pretty well beat. I think I was in bed before 10:00. What a snooze we all had, though. I was glad we were all well rested the next morning as we had a day of shopping planned.

Shortly before noontime we hit one of the malls. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m pregnant, but I couldn’t walk very far without having to sit for a break. My back was just throbbing and I must have been stretching or something because I had an awful pain in my side. So I’d sit and off Mike and Matthew would go exploring. Matthew loved seeing all the decorations and seeing the Santa Claus displays. I did manage to hobble into a few maternity stores and pick up a few things, which was fun. Shopping is shopping, maternity or not! We also had a pit stop at Toys R Us. LOL. Do you know how hard it is to shop for an 11 year old when he is there with you?? I ended up taking him to Old Navy with me and Mike did a marathon shopping session and managed to get the stuff out to the van and camouflaged. Hopefully we don’t get busted on the way home! We grabbed a bite to eat later in the afternoon and made our way back to the hotel room to drop off our loot before we headed out for a CPO gathering. It was great to see some of the girls and their kiddies again and I was really excited that Matthew seemed more comfortable and eager to play with the kids than he was during our summer picnic. Again, it wasn’t a late night, as we had to be to the hospital for our ultrasound at 9:00AM the next morning.

Only when we allow a ton of time for traffic will it happen that the mornings commute is relatively pain-free. We left the hotel at 8:15 and were sitting in the waiting room by 8:30, so we had a little wait. Matthew is not a good waiter. So he and Mike were making up stories to tell each other and before I knew it, they were calling me in for my ultrasound. The tech asked if Mike and Matthew were joining us, but I quickly and quietly explained to her that I wanted to make sure everything was okay before we took Matthew into the room. She was the same tech who went through everything with me with Emily 5 years ago, so once she realized whom I was she completely understood. We took no time to become reacquainted. After doing a quick scan she told me things looked great and the Dr. would be in shortly to go over the results of the Maternal Serum testing.

Two small issues resulted from the testing. The first being a 1 in 230 chance of spina bifida, which he immediately ruled out with the ultrasound. The second was a slightly about average chance of Down syndrome. He checked for markers in the ultrasound and was pleased to report there were none.

Before the tech went to get Matt and Mike she asked if I wanted to know the sex and I told her that we decided to find it out only because our son had his heart set on a girl and if this was a boy he would need time to get used to that idea. It was a boy. Oh wow, I was so sure it was a girl, but it didn’t matter to me at all. As long as he was healthy, I didn’t care one way or the other. Then Matthew and Michael came in. Matt was amazed. He could see the baby moving around and was so fascinated that he could pick out all the body parts that he was seeing. Then he asked the question. I told him it was a boy. Well, he crossed his arms across his chest, put on the lip, lowered his head and sat in the chair. Pretty much what I figured would happen, minus the meltdown. He now has 4 months to get used to the idea of a brother as opposed to a sister. And I don’t think it’s so much that he doesn’t “want” a brother, but he’s just convinced that if the baby was a boy, the baby would “copy” him and want to play with all his toys. Try telling a child with Asperger’s that that won’t happen. Trying to explain to him that by the time the baby is 2 years old he will be 13 and they will not want to “play” with the same things is like trying to talk to the wall. Actually I think I’d be able to reason with the wall better. However, now we have 4 months for him to get used to the idea and hopefully the feelings will subside over time. I am just very thankful that we didn’t wait and introduce him to his baby brother once he was born and have him be resentful or not accepting of a boy. I don’t know. Only time will tell if we did the “right” thing or not.

Anyway, everything was fantastic. I was given a clean bill of health (as was Marcus) and we don’t have to go back. I was told to come home and enjoy the rest of my pregnancy! Absolute music to my ears!!

So now I can concentrate on Christmas! My Dad had a knee replacement done yesterday and is getting along okay. Once we have him home next week, we’ll be good to go! Bring it on!! I am hoping for a wonderful holiday season and my plan is to give Matthew the best Christmas I can. This will be his last Christmas all to himself, so I want it to be special. Not that next year won’t be special, but it’s been all about him for the last 11 years. Next year we’ll have an 8 month old to join in our joy!

Here’s the latest picture. 20 weeks 5 days and counting!

Until next time…

Holy cow! Where is the time going? Days are turning into weeks and time is just flying by. I don’t mean to be negligent, and really I have no excuse other than I guess I’m just being too passive these days.

I can’t believe I am working my way towards week 18 with my pregnancy. We’re almost halfway there! Unbelievable! Do you realize there are only 35 days to Christmas?? Okay, let’s try no to hyperventilate!

First thing first – I am doing great! I had my second appointment with my OB on Thursday and all the test results came back wonderful! The IPS blood work was negative, my PAP was clear, the ultrasound reports were clear and it’s all clear sailing!

In the 4 weeks since my last appointment I gained 5 ½ pounds (for a total of 12 ½ pounds since finding out I was pregnant), my uterus measured at 13 cms and the baby’s heartbeat was 160. All in all a very good visit!

In 3 weeks (December 10) we will be heading back to Halifax for my 20-week ultrasound. I’m really excited about this because as it stands now we are going to take Matthew with us. I’d love for him to be able to see his baby brother or sister during the ultrasound.

He is so involved in this pregnancy. It’s totally different than when I was pregnant with Emily. He was 5 years old then and I don’t think he really understood what was going on but he certainly does now. (He was in my bedroom the other day while I was getting dressed and asked me if that was “extendable underwear” that I was wearing! Good grief!) I told him that I have been feeling movement and he is so excited about being able to feel the baby kick for himself. Hopefully by Christmas time his wish will come true!

Speaking of Christmas I had a busy weekend. I now have about 95% of my shopping done and the two trees are up and decorated. Two trees? Yes, I have my “pretty tree” upstairs in the living room and Matthew’s tree where Santa Claus leaves the presents is down in our rec room. This was the first year that I can remember Matthew being really involved in the decorating. I had the Christmas tunes blaring and him and I had a great time on Saturday decorating the tree upstairs. He amazed me with how many of the Christmas songs he remembered the words to. It was lots of fun.

On Sunday Matt and Mike took on the task of decorating the downstairs tree while I attended a Tea and Sale with my Mom and Mother-in-law. I arrived home to find supper cooked and sat to a wonderful meal. After supper hubby informed me that he was doing the dishes and I was to go have a nap. What a guy! How do I repay him? By being an absolute moron. Let me explain.

Got up from my nap and came downstairs to see how the tree looked. Matt decorated it with just a little help from Nanny. He was so proud. The tree looked fantastic! I was so proud of him. Then I turned into Jekyll and Hyde. I turned around and looked at the basement. It looked as though a bomb exploded in the rec room. There were Rubbermaid containers everywhere; there were strands of lights and empty boxes from one end of the room to the other. There was a bunch of Matt’s toys scattered everywhere. To say I lost my mind is an understatement. I yelled, I hollered, I went ballistic. All in the presence of my son, but 100% directed towards my husband. As I was screaming I knew way in the back of my head somewhere that there was no need of me going on like that. I couldn’t stop. I went on and on. Matthew became extremely upset and Mike got really mad at me. Finally, I snapped out of it. Matthew was crying and wanting to run away and Mike was blown away by what had happened. He got Matthew to bed as I sat in the rec room and cried myself silly. An hour later, Matthew was still awake. I went up and tried to tell him that everything was okay and to go to sleep. All he was worried about was that I hurt the baby. I told him that the baby was all right. I came back downstairs to find Mike cleaning everything up. He didn’t speak a word to me, nor I to him. I was listening to music on the TV and had tears running down my face the entire time. Finally at 10:30 I went upstairs and went to bed. I cried and I cried until I was sure I’d dehydrate. I didn’t sleep a whole lot.

When I got up this morning Matthew was his cheery, bubbly self and not a word was said about last night. Mike was talking to me but I could tell that it was only for Matt’s sake. I went to work feeling like crap. I didn’t hear from Mike until 1:15 pm, which is very unusual, but I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t want to call him because what I had to say couldn’t be said on the phone. I’d take care of this after work with my 2 boys.

I got home from work to find Matt having supper and Mike doing the dishes. I asked Mike to come sit and the table and once I knew that Matthew was done eating I told them both that I had something to say. I apologized for my behaviour. I told them both that there was absolutely no excuse for the way I acted last night and I wasn’t going to try to give them one. What I did was wrong. Period. I am very fortunate to have the wonderful family that I have and I treated them both like dirt last night. I told Matthew I was sorry for scaring him and promised him that he would never have to go to bed like that again. I would never go on that way in front of him ever ever again. I took advantage of them and again, that was wrong. I have a husband who would (and does) move heaven and earth for me. I’ll be the first to admit that I totally take his good nature for granted sometimes and that’s definitely something that I have to work on, big time.

Mike told me a little while later that he appreciated what I did by sitting them down at the kitchen table more than anything. It was just what had to be done. I was wrong. There’s no way around it. When I’m wrong I have to say I’m wrong. I have to accept responsibility for my actions. I have to teach my son by example, and show him that yes, even Mom can make mistakes. Everyone is human and everyone messes up from time to time. I hope he will someday realize that it’s okay to mess up. It’s how you handle yourself afterwards that’s the important part.

The lesson I learned? That my family loves me unconditionally; that I am human and I will have my moments and that when you’re wrong, it’s okay to be wrong and it’s better to admit that you were wrong and accept the consequences, be them good or bad.

I have a wonderful family. I am truly blessed.

Here I am last week at 16 weeks 2 days

The last two weeks have seen a very successful visit to Halifax with great news! The HD ultrasound was A-Okay! What a huge relief that was for Mike and me (and our family and friends). I’m telling you, the team they have working at The IWK Children’s Hospital in Halifax are amazing.

The doctor who performed my ultrasound was the same doctor I has 5 years ago when we were up there going through everything with Emily. He remembered us the moment he came through the door. He remembered Emily’s case as well. I was blown-away by that. He told me that he has never seen a case as severe as Emily’s nor does he ever expect to. So I guess after 5 years I now know that her life did mean something. She left her mark on the people who were fortunate enough to have met her.

Here’s a picture of our little darlin’ in the making.

He was extremely thorough when doing the ultrasound. I think he could tell we were more than anxious. He assured both Mike and I that everything was as it should be and that things couldn’t look any better. Music to our ears! I explained to him about the congenital heart defect Matthew has and he recommended that we return to Halifax for my 20-week ultrasound, which suits me just fine. I’d much rather everything be handled from the same location with the same doctor anyway. There’s less chance of something being missed that way.

I’m feeling pretty good for the most part. I get tired really easily and some days I really have to push myself to get things done. The nausea is gone and I’ll eat anything that’s within arm’s reach. I am definitely putting on weight. 7 ½ pounds to be exact. I almost had a stroke when I got on the scale and my OB weighed me. Pre pregnancy weight was 120, 13 weeks pregnant weight was 127 ½. Yikes! Oh well, it’s all good! The doctor was also able to get a good strong heartbeat with the Doppler. I was glad Mike was there to be able to hear it as well. He thought I was measuring bigger than my dates, but suspected it could be because I am so “slight” that he can feel things easier. He’ll have a better idea on our next visit.

That’s really about it for now. Nothing exciting, I know, but that’s not always a bad thing…lol. I’ll get Mike to do another picture as soon as he gets home.

Me at 14 weeks 2 days

I know, I know. I’ve been AWOL for a bit. Sorry. Between battling this darn cold/flu that hit me the end of last week and then trying to get caught up at work, I’ve been busy.

Things have been quiet on the baby scene, though (which is a good thing). I’m 12 weeks 2 days today and all is still going well. I think I may have popped a bit over the weekend. See for yourself…

I have my first appointment with my OB Thursday morning. This is the same Doctor who delivered Matthew. He’s nice and we got along well, so I am trusting this is just going to be a routine first appointment.

Following that we will jump in the car and make the 4 and a half hour drive to Halifax where I will have my HD ultrasound Friday morning. This is what I am really anxious about. Once I know that the newest addition has 10 fingers, 10 toes and everything in between is A-OK, that’s when I’ll let out a huge sigh of relief and we’ll be good to go. I’ll let you know as soon as I know. All the positive thoughts you can spare to send my way between now and Friday would be greatly appreciated.

On a different topic for a minute, we had a fantastic visit today from fellow CPOer, Lukes_mom (Ann) and her bf. It was awesome to meet Ann IRL. It’s kind of a whirlwind tour of NS and PEI for her, but I certainly hope she enjoyed her stay, liked what she saw, and will return again some day when we can go around and do some site seeing!

That’s about it for now. I’ll touch base the end of the week and let you know how the appointments went.

Until next time…

10 weeks, 3 days and counting!

All right, I know I am 5’10” and weighed only 120 pounds before I became pregnant but I must admit I love food. I have always loved food. Doesn’t matter what it is, I’ll eat it. No…wait, I must clarify. Liver. You could not pay me enough to eat liver. Other than that, I’m good to go. I’ll eat anything as long as it doesn’t eat me first! This certainly hasn’t changed now that I’m pregnant. In fact, I think it’s gotten worse. I can’t get enough food. Although I love food I was never much of a breakfast eater. I just didn’t make the time for it. Between getting through the morning routine of getting up and getting everyone ready for the day I’m lucky to get out of the door dressed and looking presentable, let alone eat. But I have had to make sure in the last few weeks that I go to work well stocked. I have no less than two granola bars and 2 packages of cinnamon raisin instant porridge with me, and that’s just to get me through to lunchtime. When I get home for lunch a sandwich is enough to take the edge off until suppertime. I have been eating more than hubby for supper and then by the time Matthew gets to bed at 8ish, I’m ready to go at it again. Nachos, chips, popcorn, all of the above, you name it, I’ll eat it. It’s no wonder I feel like I’m going to explode. I have taken a liking to pure orange juice. Three glasses of it at suppertime tonight. I never looked for it on a regular basis or craved it before, but holy smokes, that stuff is good! I always remember my grandfather drinking it and thought pure orange juice was for … ahem … “old people”. Good grief.

Friday night was a bad food night. Mike had a great supper cooked when I got home from work. Boneless pork done up in a nice gravy with carrots and mashed potatoes. It was wicked. At times I have been known to have issues with certain foods, including pork. For years I have had a touch of irritable bowel syndrome with certain foods affecting me sometimes but not the next. Pork has always been hit or miss but lately it’s been great. Normally I can tell by the time I’m half way through my meal if I’m going to be sorry or not, but Friday night all was well with the world (and my supper). Mike left for work and I was getting ready to spend a Friday night with Matt. Then it hit me. The cramps, the rumbling in my stomach, the hot sweats, the cold chills. Oh no. For the next hour I find myself unable to leave the bathroom. I’m so close to passing out while sitting on the toilet I don’t know what I’m going to do. I muster enough strength to holler to Matthew who is in his bedroom drawing. He is able to get me a cold face cloth and stands there rubbing my back for me. What a little man he is! He wants to get the phone to call my Mom but I decide to wait a bit. After just about an hour I manage to get to my bedroom and just flop on the bed in a lump. I’m there for about 10 minutes before round 2 starts. Back I go. I’m useless and beside myself. I call my Mom and of course, there is no answer. So here I am pretty much confined to the bathroom with my 10-year-old son sitting with me to make sure I’m ok. Finally, everything seems to subside and I’m exhausted. Matt tells me to go lie down for a bit and he’ll be in his bedroom drawing if I need him. I’m a lucky Mom.

By the time he was ready for bed I was feeling much better. I made a cup of tea and got about half of it into me. I’m sure I was in bed within the hour of when he went. I slept well and woke up feeling good on Saturday morning.

Okay, so I admit, not the most pleasant blog entry in the world, but hey, it can’t always be peaches and cream (oohhhh…. see, it’s almost snack time…lol). I don’t know how much the pregnancy contributed to my sudden inability to eat pork, but it’s something I’m certainly not willing to experiment with. I may have to remain pork-free for the next 6 and a half months or so.

Other than Friday night, the last week has been good. I suspect Matthew has told anyone and everyone who will listen and I’ve actually had some neighbours ask me if it’s true. Matt has been known to tell stories at times…lol. He keeps everyone on their feet, for sure. I could still fall asleep at the drop of a hat but I find if I try to keep busy and NOT have a nap after supper, my night’s sleep is much better. It’s so hard though. By the time I get home and eat, I just want to crash for a while. I guess I’ll just have to grin and bear it for the next little bit.

The nausea seems to be getting less and less as well, and thankfully, has nothing to do with food. When I eat, I normally feel better. Toast and peanut butter has been a lifesaver for me, although thinking back, it was while I was pregnant with Matthew as well.

I’m still waiting to hear about my trip to Halifax for the HD ultrasound and blood work. It will be a week tomorrow since I saw my Doctor who said he’d set everything up. This testing has to be done apparently between 11 and 14 weeks so we best get a move on. I’m anxious to make sure the development is A-OK!

Well, hubby just came in from a meeting. I best go see what we’re going to snack on!

Until next time…

Here’s my first picture of my belly (9 weeks 4 days). I show early!