J9's Property

Well, I guess you could say it's getting down to the nitty-gritty. Just a couple of weeks to go. I'm 38weeks today, and in some ways am SO ready for this all to be over, but in other ways keep thinking, "no, not yet!! I'm not ready for you yet!!"

We have moved! I'm absolutely loving my new house! The move went as smoothly as could be expected, we had some awesome people helping us, and some amazingly patient and understanding buyers of our old house. (I still can't believe how long it took to get all the old junk and garbage out of the old place!) (then again, maybe I can...)

Unfortunately, I haven't had much of a chance to really explore and get to know my new hometown yet. I've just been too tired! I finished work a week ago, but ever since then, any trips taken have been short, and I've been completely exhausted by the time we're half-way through what we wanted to accomplish.

Wee One is still growing exponentially, and still sticking feet/hands/bums out at every opportunity. People look at me and (a) can't believe I only have a couple of weeks to go, and (b) can't believe that (according to my O.B.) I'm actually on track to have an average-sized baby. (ie. 7-8 lbs) I guess they think I look small. I certainly don't feel small!

I think what's frustrating me the most right now, is that I feel like I can't be "myself". I'm so used to just going and doing things, getting them done, doing multiple errands on one trip out...but that's just not happening these days. There are still tonnes of boxes sitting around my house that need to be unpacked, or at least moved from their current location. Do you think I have the energy to actually take care of that? Add to that the fact that most of the boxes contain things like books, CD, or other equally heavy things - I'm not even going to attempt to lift them at this point. It's been very frustrating, as I've always viewed myself as a self-sufficient, physically strong person who doesn't need to rely on other people to do things for me. But, that's exactly what I'm having to do. I can't even drive somewhere to meet someone - they have to come pick me up, or Doug has to drive me. I actually haven't driven since my last day of work over a week ago.....

argh.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much. It's not like I've been restricted to bedrest, or holed up in a hospital room like some others I know/have heard of. But, still, when you're used to acting/living a certain way, it's frustrating to have to adjust everything.

Enough of this "invasion of the body-snatchers" - I'm ready to have my body back!!!

Warning: This post may contain disjointed thoughts, off-topic tangents, and incoherent ramblings.

Blame it on the preggo-brain....

It's really interesting what can run through one's mind when you're pregnant. It's also very interesting how reactions can change, and how out-of-control one can feel.

Man, I'm there!

This pregnancy has been progessing very well, I have to say. I'm 30 weeks as of today, only 10 to go! WOW, that's going by fast! Mind you, I only have to glance down at the size of my belly to know that...

But, I haven't had any complications at this point (knock on wood!!), aside from some, well, how do I say this.....digestive issues?....not morning sickness, never had any of that, but involving, well, the "other end"...('nuf said)...

This one VERY ACTIVE little one! There are days when Wee One just never seems to stop squirming, jumping, stretching...yes, we have discovered the joys of stretching out our little feet to see how much we can make mommy jump! Not so much a kick, as a foot suddenly pressing out on the belly so hard I have to use my hand to push it back in again. Not particularly comfortable, especially when it happens repeatedly in the same spot! Of course, Grandma is saying "Yes!!! Keep it up!!! Revenge is mine!!!!"

I've discovered that Baby Hiccups are very cute. At first. But when they go on for 10 minutes at 3:30 in the morning, they cease being cute. They become slightly annoying, and the predominant thought becomes, "can mommy go back to sleep now?....please?...."

I have become a total clutz. I drop things, knock things over, bump into things....and it's not the belly getting in the way, it's my hands! What in blazes is going on???? I've always considered myself to be graceful, well-coordinated, precise, etc. but now it seems I can't do anything the way I used to. I even get mixed up when I'm typing! It's like I've developed pregnancy-induced dyslexia or something, with the right letters getting typed, but in the totally wrong order...really slows me down at work, where my entire workday is spent in front of a computer. Argh.

It makes me realize that the upcoming Marked By Love engagements could be interesting. Donna's music is challenging at the best of times, but when I'm (a) out of practice, and (b) suffering from preggo-brain, I have NO idea how this is going to turn out. Guess I'd better start practicing...

I find it very interesting that everyone wants to know "how I'm feeling". Not that I don't appreciate their concern and interest, it's just interesting that the greeting has changed from "how are you" or "how are things" to "how are you feeling". Am I supposed to be polite and say "pretty good" or "not bad"? Be honest and say "sore, stretched, tired, and about to cry"? Or try to be funny with quips like "like an over-inflated balloon"?... Are people truly interested in how I'm actually feeling, or is it the replacement for the "how are you" greeting that doesn't actually expect a real answer and is only said to be polite? Are they being friendly, or nosey? Do they really care? Should I really care?

Ida know....

And just for the record, no, we haven't chosen names yet. The jury is still out. We have some names that we like, but none have really jumped out quite yet. We may end up waiting until Wee One makes his/her appearance, and say "what's your name? who do you look like?". And we could end up with a name that neither of us even considered. Who knows.....we'll find out in April, I guess.

I'm very interested to see how I will handle childbirth. I like to think I have a fairly high tolerance for pain, but I guess I won't truly know until I actually go into labour. Something tells me I will handle the actual birth much better than the after-math.

Speaking of which, I have NO CLUE how to care for a new-born.

This could be very interesting...

I guess a few of you may be wondering what's happening with the house...



We accepted a conditional offer 2 days before Christmas, and the offer went firm the day after New Years! What a way to start off the year!! The house was only on the market for 2 1/2 weeks before the offer came in, pretty amazing considering the time of year and state of the market these days...

The house-hunting then began in earnest. We were getting discouraged, because very few of the houses in our price range met all our criteria. Most of the ones with a nice-sized piece of property and adequate parking needed a lot of reno work (which I am NOT prepared to endure with a new-born!), while the new houses were on postage-stamp lots and only had room to park one car.

argh.

One very nice house did pop up on our radar, it was a 5-year-old house, on a bigger lot, and while the garage was only a single, the driveway had been widened to easily accomodate 2 vehicles, and the neighborhood was a really nice one. The problem? It was priced $10,000-$20,000 above what we had agreed our comfortable price-range was. But whenever I prayed about the house we were supposed to buy and move into, that was the house that kept popping into my head.

argh.

We did some checking around, and discovered that if we could talk the sellers down in price, we could probably do it, but we really didn't want to push ourselves to the limit in a financial sense. With Doug being self-employed, we really don't know what he's going to pull in month-to-month, so we really needed to be careful. It looked like it was "back to the drawing board"...

Then the price of the house dropped. As in, dropped $20,000!!!! If that wasn't a blazing message, I don't know what is!! We put in an offer immediately, since the sellers were having an open house only a few days later, and we didn't want to risk having someone else put in an offer before we had a chance to. And lo and behold, it was accepted!

The offer is conditional, so I'll wait for the conditions to be met before I REALLY start celebrating, but we are quite confident that there should not be any problems. I'll post pics when everything is firm!

As Doug has been heard to say lately, we're really being taken care of!

(BTW, if you ever need a GREAT real estate agent, I have a couple I can introduce you to!)

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks!

The suspense got the better of me, and I called my doctor to find out the ultrasound results...and lo and behold, everything is perfectly normal! All measurements were in the "average" range, fluid levels are normal, and the due date is unchanged. Yay! I feel MUCH better now! No, we do not know the gender of the baby, I don't want to know, and it wasn't even in the ultrasound report. (I know this, because my doctor's nurse read the report to me over the phone, word for word!)

The other VERY exciting development is that my house is finally on the market! We've had lots of interest so far, 5 showings in the first week, and more being booked. No offers yet, but that's not unexpected given the state of the market these days. We're having an open house on Sunday, so maybe that might spark some further interest!

I've been saying to a few people, at this point I really don't care if it sells or not. I would LOVE to move out of Toronto, and closer to my parents, but it's really not the end of the world if we stay put. I'm just glad we finally accomplished what we set out to do 3 years ago! The way I look at it, if The Lord wants us to move, the house will sell. If He doesn't, it wont'. I'm content to do what He wants, I know it will be for the best in the long run.

Has anyone told what a pain in the butt it can be, having your house up for sale??? I couldn't leave the house in the morning all week without making sure that every room was spotlessly clean. Who loves washing dishes at 8:00 in the morning? Not Me!!

That being said, I'm now done with work until after Christmas! Yay!!! Sleep-in time!!!

Although, not tomorrow morning....we have a showing at 10am....

Looks like another tummy-sleeper in the family!

We couldn't get that classic profile shot, because the poor little thing is spending it's days looking at my backside. But, we got awesome shots of the spine, you can see all the little vertebrae! If you look closely at the 2nd pic, you can actually see the baby has it's mouth wide open. (I'll leave it to the peanut gallery to make comments about that!) The bottom pic is actually a shot of one of the hands, right up beside the head.

Basically, the head is right down low, and the feet are sitting right up beside my belly button. I had a feeling that was the case - I've been getting some fairly strong kicks up top, and there's been some uncomfortable pressure lower down at times, so I was wondering if that might be the head hanging out down there. (speaking of which, I'm getting kicked like mad as I type! Soccer in utero??) While I have been feeling some kicks and bumps, I haven't felt a whole lot of the "flutterings" that other women talk about; this is probably because the placenta is located in the front - it's basically dampening all the smaller movements so I can't feel them. The kicks, on the other hand.....

I have to say, I left my ultrasound appointment this morning feeling a little apprehensive. It was great to see the little one, see the heart pumping away, see him/her squigle around...but at the end of the appointment, the tech said, "so, the baby looks fairly healthy"......what you mean, "fairly", Kemosabe?....it has me a little uptight. If he'd said "baby looks healthy", I would have gone away thinking, great! Baby is healthy! But, when you throw the "fairly" in there, it just gives it a whole different connotation...

...I'm seriously looking forward to my next appointment with my doctor now, to find out what "fairly" is supposed to mean....

...but that's another 2 weeks from now...

I'm on a rollercoaster right now. Not a literal one (although right now I feel like I am!), but it's been so crazy the last week or 2 that I can barely hold a coherent thought in my head.

Allow me to explain:

High: we signed the papers last night to list our house!
Low: the house is nowhere near ready for showing. We had very high hopes that we could list it and go on vacation, so they could show the house while we're not in it. Not gonna happen...

High: I've been promoted at work!
Low: I'm swamped with work, and the expectations are now higher than they were before...

High: I'm gonna be a mom!
Low: I can't get a referral to an OB, or call a midwife until I know where I'm going to be living by next spring....which brings us back to high/low #1....

Do I sound a little overwhelmed? Probably because I am! We are, as we speak, trying to do everything we can to clean up/finish up the house, while packing and preparing for a road trip...

I need a vacation....

I know, it's been forever since I posted. Again. But, let's face it, there's only been one thing I've actually wanted to write about, and I didn't want to let the secret out until now.

That's right, I'm having a baby; expecting; pregnant; preggers; preggo; in the family way; have a bun in the oven; (have I missed any?)

It's a bit scarey, really. I don't know a whole lot about wee ones! Anyone in my family will tell you, I HATED babysitting as a teenager, and would find any excuse to say "no" to anyone who asked me to. Didn't matter how much I would be paid, I just really didn't want to do it! Especially if they were asking me to babysit really little ones. Diapers and me don't mix too well! I also just didn't know how to relate to kids, how to converse with them, how to play with them, I just never really learned what to do with them.

So, here I am, wondering how I'm going to do this!

It's always been part of the "plan" to start a family. Someday. In the future. Eventually. When we're settled in a new house, in a new town, and we realize that we don't have any more excuses for delaying. But it was always one of those "someday" ideas in the backs of our minds. My attitude has always been, if The Lord wants us to have kids, we'll have them. If He doesn't, we won't.

...I guess He wants us to have kids.....(or at least, one, anyway! There's only one in there!)

Don't get me wrong, we're quite excited! Especially now that the oh-my-goodness-we're-having-a-baby shock has worn off. And the grandparents are Very excited. (yes, mom, I saw you go up to the cash desk in the children's store!) And I have to say, it's been fun seeing the reactions as we tell people. With everyone so excited for us, how can we not be excited ourselves?? Of course, we've had a few weeks to become accustomed to the idea, so we're not quite so giddy anymore. (well, I'm not anyway... I think Doug is another story...)

I guess what it all boils down to, is that we've started on a brand new journey, one that will take a lot of faith, a lot of patience, and will last the rest of our lives. Which isn't a bad thing! Like I read in an article about "40 reasons to be glad you're pregnant": we'll never be bored again!!