22.5 weeks

Doing very well, no further ultrasounds until Thursday, but so far baby Emma is moving a lot and the uterus is behaving.  I am suffering from insomnia.  Two nights ago I have not slept one wink.  I was up at 3 am reorganizing the kitchen drawers, and I must say they do look nice, but I thought I would go crazy from tiredness the next day.  Despite being bone tired, I still could not sleep until the next night, when I had a broken fitful sleep.  It must be a progesterone effect. although it usually makes me sleepy.  Hard to tell.  Weight gain so far 14 lb, and the only consistent craving I have had for the past 2 weeks has been for chicken livers.  Which I finally got today and cooked in the pan with garlic.  Yum.  I also made a bread to go with them, but I forgot to put yeast in it (hahaha) so I got a flat brick instead.

For those who like to hear what other stuff I cook (I am sure there are not many of you out there, but it does not hurt to try :), I also made a casserole from beef tongue in the Dutch oven, with tomatoes, mushrooms and rice.  The beef tongue was so huge, I have never cooked tongue before, but a friend of mine gave it to me and I decided that it was not going to go to waste, hence tongue for everybody for one week.  With the next tongue instalment (she has four more I think) I am making a reduced sauce from tomatoes and olives, and a lot of onions.

I have finally got my sewing machine that I ordered on ebay a century ago.  It is a simple heavy duty Janome.  I have never used a sewing machine before, nor did I know the first thing about them.  It took me four hours to learn how to thread it and put the bobbin in, after which it still did not sew.  When MrH got home one night, he also spent two hours trying to figure out that I had threaded it wrongly, and put the bobbin in wrongly as well.  One day later and only one minor injury later (i.e. the needle confused my index finger with the cloth), the machine is sewing.  I have sewn four sets of curtains (two sheer and two coloured) for each room, and a cover for an old rubbermaid container in the bedroom, used as a flower pot support.  Also, in a heroic attempt, I have managed to sew a decorative pillow cover with a zipper!!!!! shocking.  The zipper is a hard one for a beginner.  However, nowadays youtube will teach you everything from how to pluck a chicken to how to sew a zipper, so thanks to youtube the zipper is in, crooked, but that is ok.  I will post the pictures shortly.

I cannot believe that I am so close to viability.  On Thursday I will be 23 weeks and then countdown to viability begins.  How very special!  I always thought that only other women can carry a pregnancy to 24 weeks, but hey, this cerclage was the best thing that has ever happened to me.  I love it.  I feel so much safer with it.

Lastly, because I have time, I have decided to germinate flowers from seeds this year.  I have one tray of marigolds, one of nasturtiums, and ten pots with herbs of all sorts.  (Again pictures coming).  The only things I have germinated so far with good success are wheatgrass for the cat and sprouts for our salad.  It will be a different experience this time.  The ground is still very frozen, and it has just snowed again, so I think it is safe to say no outdoors planting will happen for about 1-2 months at least, which gives me the perfect window to get the little plants going.

21 weeks

I had another ultrasound today and the cervix was 4.3 cm.  That is the good news.  The bad news is that I am developing gestational diabetes.  I checked my blood glucose a couple of times after meals and it is 7.7 to 7.9 mmol (don't know what that is in mg/L, sorry US people) but the upper limit for diagnosing diabetes is 7.7 one hour post prandial, or 6.6 two hours post prandial, or 5.2 fasting.  So I am screwed.  And I did not even have a lot of carbs this evening: we had beans with swiss chard, two tablespoons of steamed squash with garlic, and the juice of one orange with carrot and celery.  It could have been the juice, tomorrow I am only going to juice celery, cucumber, and a very small amount of carrot.  Bleah.  I can only hope that I won't need insulin.  I knew that it was going to happen, since I have a strong family history of gestational diabetes and gargantuan babies being born from both sides of the family. At least that won't be a problem, since I am having a C section, but I don't want to put Emma at risk, so that's it for carbs for me.

Pregnancy fashion

I feel like doing an "outfit of the day" every day or so to inspire me to wear all the clothes in my closet.

Mommy gave me a goodbye pedicure.

I hope one day I can have a table just like this one.

This is a picture I took in Gastown Vancovuer

haute couture and luxury

I have been obsessively absorbed by reading about haute couture and the world of luxury goods.  I found this great book called Deluxe: how luxury lost its luster and found it a most entertaining read.  Then I read a lot of posts on the Purse Forum (a site online where people write about purses and accessories in general) and read about half a dozen fashion books about the house of Chanel, Dior, and vintage purses and shoes.  I don't have any clue why I am doing it, just that I seem to pick a topic and then I dissect it to the bone until I am satisfied that I understand how it works.  At the moment I am trying to figure out for myself whether couture and luxury brands are an actual investment for people or whether they are an artificially inflated list of trinkets, albeit well made trinkets.

I have really enjoyed the sartorialist's book (by the way, I read all these books at Chapters on a hard chair, as I have decided a while ago not to buy anymore physical books lest they spill out of my house onto the street), and loved the variety in the fashion photographs.  Then I read Ines de la Fressange's book that just came out three days ago, for which I was waiting with trepidation.  I was disappointed.  She gives advice like it is the latest law.  "Don't wear leather suits"-- why not? My mother looks and feels fabulous in tailored leather suits.  Also, absolutely no mention of scarves.  Nada.  I am lately trying to incorporate my scarf into as many outfits as I can think of, as a game, and love to get some ideas, (although scarf as tank top when pregnant does not work very well).

Lastly, as a little treat, I allowed myself a brief 30 min outing to Holt Renfrew since I am still in Vancouver, to do some field research.  I have tried on (hahaha) a few Chanel jackets, the boucle style with weighted hems.  To the shop assistant's merit, they actually did not bat an eyelash when I asked to try on the jackets, perhaps they did not see that I was pregnant.  I loved the tailoring, and would absolutely love to have one someday (ebay is my only chance for that, as in real life they cost 5000 $ or so), and I am certain that Madame de la Fressange would not approve saying that it is too stuffy.  But paired with jeans and some fabulous shoes, a Chanel jacket would be a long lasting treasure.  Mmmm....someday.   I also found a Celine top that was knitted in garter stitch from chunky cotton, and that I swear I could make in one week.  It cost 1000 dollars.  As soon as I finish the alpaca baby blanket that I am working on, I will try my hand at the Celine top.  I just need a pattern somewhere.  Knitting when lying in bed for so long is a lifesaver.

Now, back to pregnancy stuff.  The MFM called to let me know that I would be eligible for amniocentesis, because of the IVF/ICSI associated 0.5% chance of chromosomal trisomy/aneuploidy.  I nearly laughed on the phone.  Like yeah, I will endanger this pregnancy for that particular chance, when my chances of other kinds of disasters are much higher.  Especially after my Nuchal screen and all labs were normal, including the anatomy ultrasound.  I am more worried about premature rupture of membranes or preterm labour or failure of the cerclage, you know, mundane stuff, not fancy rare stuff.  Although if we recall the rule of probabilities in my case, the more rare something bad is, the more likely it is to happen to me.  The more common something good is, the less likely.  Hm.  I just made it up, but hey, maybe the future will contradict this silly axiom.

I am now more pregnant than I have ever been, having past the point where I have lost Adrian.  Emma is moving a lot.  She is making herself very comfortable just under my bellybutton right now.  I can't wait to teach her everything I know about shoes and fashion.  I hope not to spoil her too much :)