24 weeks today!

We have reached viability today, although seeing as I am still so far up North, it is only theoretical viability at this point.  Once I will be in Vancouver, then chances are good for actual viability.  Anyway, hopefully we won't need any interventions until the scheduled C section at 37 weeks, but it makes me very happy to be here and so uneventfully to boot.  The cervix is holding well, and the baby is kicking very vigorously.  What more can I ask for?

I am very happy to be pregnant, I am feeling well, and finally am starting to imagine a little baby curled up in my arms.  In addition, guess who's nesting?  And I only have one week to nest, as I am flying out to Vancouver next week.  I got out the car seat, the Puj tub, the Stokke stroller attachment for the baby stage and for the car seat, I bought a jogging stroller for two (the Bob duallie) for 350$ used on Craigslist, and I washed the Baby Bjorn.  My husband and a helpful young man brought the change table from the basement, and I got the cloth diapers and the Aden and Anais swaddling blankets ready.  Most of the G-diapers are pink though, so I am thinking that I should buy some green and orange ones.  Will try Craigslist and Ebay, and I am going to be selling the pink ones via the same route.

Unfortunately most of the clothes are pink and purple, so I will have to buy almost everything for a boy.  I got the 0-6 months undergarments, as I initially bought them in white, and I also luckily have some red snow suits, but other than that, I have to repurchase almost everything.

In any case, I am shocked at how easy it was this time to get ready.  Everything was in labeled boxes, and sorting through the boxes took at most half a day total.  It took me a lot longer to nest with Emma!  Having the "hardware" ready (car seat, baby tub, bouncy seat, infant carrier, stroller, change table and mattress) made it all easy.  We sleep in the same bed, so no baby crib, but I did buy Emma a twin size bed with mattress, mattress cover, organic cotton linen, and a down duvet.

I will also have to get a new car seat, which should be the only large expense other than the double stroller.  For my car, I have to old car seat that Emma was in, a Graco Snugride, but I think for my hubby's car I am getting one of those that you can keep until booster stage, preferably up to 65 lb.

Here is my boring update.  All is going really smoothly, so I cannot write about anything exciting.  Which is just the way we like it (grin:).

22w3d

I am very thirsty lately, especially at night.  I tried to measure how much fluid I am drinking in one day, and gave up after four liters.  I don't know if it is normal, but I suppose it has to be since I am feeling healthy and have no other complaints.  My weight fluctuates +/- 5 lb from day to day, showing just how much water I am moving in and out.  I think that if I cut back on the salt it would probably stabilize more, and I am going to experiment with that tomorrow.  Today I got my Varoma cookbook for Thermomix and cooked some blue cheese soufflés in the steamer, and some deer meatloaf also in the steamer, with potatoes that had a creme fraiche/anchovies sauce.  Guess how much salt was in the whole shebang by the end?

I still don't like drinking plain water, but am not vomiting it anymore.  I prefer to add lemon juice, about one lemon per liter of water, that gives it a much improved taste.

The baby is moving a lot.  It turned breech two days ago and is kicking me in the bladder, which is a bit uncomfortable, but fortunately he is still so small that it does not matter too much.  We had another ultrasound yesterday, and the cervix is holding well, at 4 cm.  I don't think I will be having more ultrasounds until mid February or so.  My next OB appointment is for Feb 4, so I guess I am getting my ultrasound appointment after that.  However, now is when I have the most likelihood of problems, so I would very much like it if I could get an ultrasound every two weeks, to set my mind at ease.  Every ultrasound makes me feel safe for about a week or two, which is prefect.  By week three I am starting to get nightmares involving bleeding, preterm labour, and leaking amniotic fluid.

So far, enjoying the fact that everything is going well and the hope for a full term baby!

at home

I am feeing quite isolated at home the whole day.  It is too cold to go outside, -25 to -35 C this week, and my car wouldn't start for the past few days.  I have to replace the battery, I think that is what the problem is.

I am making new foods in the Thermomix.  Today I have tried gnocchi and they turned out fabulous, despite the fact that I undercooked the potatoes and got them really gluey when I was mashing them with the mechanical blades.  We had a good lunch.  I must be careful though, because every time I am experimenting with new foods, I gain a lot of weight, so I only put one serving out, and the rest I froze.  Oh, and I made creme brulee, but that does not freeze very well, so I had to eat it.  I found out it only has marginally less calories than mayonnaise, but fortunately I had already eaten it when I found that out, so it's all good.

This is how I freeze foods around here:  put them on a non stick mat and place them outside.  Watch for the ravens who are hungry.  They are so big that they could fly with the whole metal tray in their beaks...heck they could eat the whole metal tray if I don't watch it.  Five minutes later (unless I forget) the food is already frozen.

The baby is moving every day and Emma is happy.  That's all I really need.

Happy New Year everybody!!!

It is a glorious New Year day over here at our house:  beautiful white snow with great sunshine (still too cold to go outside though...).  We had a couple and their 3 year old girl come over last night and I got the pleasure of hearing Emma play her heart out for a few hours, before they both collapsed exhausted.  I also got to enjoy cooking a gourmet dinner (contents below), and today got to sleep next to Emma and MrH.  I woke up to the bread that I had put in the oven all done (MrH took it out) and had a slice with homemade strawberry jam from this summer, and passionfruit tea, and life is heavenly.  (Aside from the fact that the cat just puked on the floor, I wish she should stop eating palm leaves).

Four years ago, I was in the hospital with Adrian.  On January 1 at night I started contracting, and had him on January 2 in the morning.  We had such a crappy New Year, that for the rest of my life, that particular day will make any other celebration look glorious by comparison.  Here, let's put them side by side:  stuck in a very old hospital bed, in a tiny very old room, in absolute bedrest with my head lower than my body, suffering from diarrhea induced by the ultra high doses of clindamycin that were meant to prevent infection, hoping but knowing that my hope is probably foolish, and watching a baby move that I knew was doomed to die.  Oh, and let's not forget dinner:  I got an old stale tuna sandwich because the kitchen staff was off that night.  The highlight was a small trifle from Save On that MrH brought, and that we shared.  I can't bring myself to eat that kind of trifle since then...

By comparison, a New Year's where I am vertical, and have my whole family healthy and safe around me... well, it is just 100 to 1.

Now, onto my new resolutions for the year, I don't have that many:
- teach Emma Romanian language consistently every day.
- stick to healthy, wholesome eating habits (aka clean eating).
- learn German.

That's about it.  Let's see how far I get.

Addendum:  the dinner last night was as follows:
-cheese appetizers: blue cheese, aged cheddar, and Oka
-eggplant salad (finely chopped grilled eggplant with salt, oil, lemon juice, diced tomatoes and onion)
-shortcrust pastry "boats" (50g clean snow, 60g butter, 90 g flour, salt, parmesan) filled with goat cheese, smoked salmon and capers

Main course:  beef shoulder blade simmered for 4 h in red wine/broth with aromatics, diced sweet potatoes boiled and finished in the oven with a bit of parmesan on top, green beans stir fried with toasted hazelnuts and finely chopped maple bacon, risotto with saffron and parmesan, and broccoli steamed and topped off with a peanut sauce that I just made up.  In fact I pretty much made up most of this menu.  I had no idea if it was going to work together, but mmmm....

Desert: rum balls.  A little harder the second day after spending the night in the fridge than I would have liked.  Next time I am adding rum for sure.

Highlights:  Champagne (MrH got us Real Champagne...) and white/red organic wines (we had a pinot grigio and a merlot, both Italian), as well as Bailey to put in the coffee.  I definitely enjoyed the Champagne.  We still have some leftover, and I am thinking of how to use it, was looking at some recipes... Suggestions?

snow

This morning the roof of our tent garage broke because of the weight of the snow.  And I don't mean the tent material, I mean the metal beams that held it up bent and broke like greensticks.  The garage is apparently guaranteed to withstand hurricane weather.  Hahahaha.  MrH had to shovel snow all day long to unearth my car that was parked inside.  Luckily it was just the windshield that got scratched from the broken metal beams, but otherwise it seems ok.

Following this learning experience, I see that the neighbours across the street are cleaning their garage roofs.

I have never seen so much snow in my life, and I have not been living in Mexico so far either.

deja-vu

Four years ago, on Dec 27, I went into the hospital with amniotic fluid leak and was found to be dilated.  Five days later I lost Adrian.  It was at the exact same gestational age that I am now, and at the same time of the year, and even in similar circumstances (I had also just gotten off a flight from Vancouver, where I had spent Christmas with my parents).  I even had a similar pedicure.  Everything is so similar, that it is bizarre.

I had a dream today that I was fully effaced and one fingertip dilated.  I am obviously worried, at least subconsciously. Hopefully this pregnancy will go well.  It is just so weird to be experiencing sensations of deja-vu.

update 19w5d

Here is a quick update after my ultrasound and my OB appointment.  The cervix is holding well, but I do have a low lying placenta, which should not be a big deal given that I am having a scheduled C section.  So far, it is 1 cm from the internal os, but I think it will move upwards as the uterus is growing.  The length of the cervix is 3.6 cm, not much changed from the 16 week ultrasound.  The baby looks good as well, no problems with the anatomy, and he is growing according to the number of weeks (he was 4 days bigger than the actual date).

However, the OB asked me to simmer down with the lifting and activity level.  I have been carrying on so far as if I were not pregnant, not resting, and picking up Emma all the time, carrying groceries, and even shovelling snow.  Apparently all of that needs to stop, since I am putting too much pressure on the cerclage and he is worried it could tear.  I did have a tear into the uterine wall with the last pregnancy, so really, who am I to argue, hence we all decided that it is time for me to quit work and get benched for the duration of the pregnancy.  My work is very active, constantly sit/stand every 2-3 minutes, and in addition to that, getting to work means carrying Emma to the car as she hates walking in one foot of snow and tends to just sit down at -30C and start screaming that it is "too cold" (duh!).  So, I am retiring for the year.

It was quite a mental adjustment again.  My work is important to me, and I enjoy the social interactions, and the brain usage that comes with it.  I am very good at keeping busy though, and I have decided that this pregnancy I am learning German.  I have wanted to learn German before, but just never really applied myself, but my goal is to learn enough to perhaps understand some of the youtube videos in German, and then to maybe take a few classes with a live teacher while I am in Vancouver.  My other goal is to have enough time to teach Emma more Romanian.  I tend to speak English with her, as I can see how fast her vocabulary is advancing and I love teaching her new words, while as in Romanian I have to start from the basics again, but with more time on my hands spent with her I can switch more to Romanian without worrying that she is missing out on developing her English vocabulary.

I can only count my blessings and particularly be happy about not being on strict bed rest, because that is the hardest part of pregnancy for an active young (?) woman who likes to go go go.

If anybody with an abdominal cerclage could tell me how you handled work and lifting your toddler, that would be great!