Amberism

I win the procrastinator award!

No baby.

Today we went out and played mini golf, rented some more movies, and had dairy queen.

I plan to have the baby tomorrow. We'll see if that pans out. heh.

More of the same

No baby.

Today we went out and shopped at Coombs, the market with the goats on the roof. Michelle and I love Coombs, so we can spend all day there buying all sorts of fun things! We also went out to Qualicum Beach and walked along the beach for a while, too. I love walking along the beach.

la la la la la

Not today

Sorry I didn't update and say that I didn't give birth today, in case you thought I had. I went to Nanaimo for lunch, visited the mid-wife (and we tried a possible induction technique called stripping the membrane) and shopped.

I was going to go back tomorrow and have my membranes stripped again, but I've changed my mind. I haven't found any information that indicates that its a proven technique, and the response to it varies widely. A bit to wishy-washy for me. She also suggested some herbal induction techniques. Some I'm trying, some I'm holding off on. I mean, there is only so much I think you can do to your poor body at one time and since none of it is proven... well...

I might go in for a stress test tomorrow or Saturday just to double check that Callum's little home is still a-ok for the kid. After your due date, the uterus can become a stressful environment instead of a healthy environment.

It was another beautiful day here, today, though. Gotta like that.

Not yet...

in case you're checking in to see if Callum's made an appearance.

Michelle is coming today, though! She had booked her flight thinking that Callum would be here already. Actually, we were thinking that she would change her flight and be here earlier, but that didn't work out. Instead of paying a crazy amount of money to be here for the birth, we're taking a risk. Hopefully he'll be born in the next couple of days, but if not, we're just going to hang out and shop and enjoy the really beautiful weather. It'll be a mini vacation and a little re-energizing trip for Michelle. I hope!

At this rate, he'll be born when Fearthainn is here...

My dog is so cute. This morning he came in, as per usual, and was looking longingly at the couch. He is allowed on the couch on his blanket, which was folded and in the basket. So he gets on the couch and walks to the end to where the basket is, flops over the edge and grabs the blanket and drags it up onto the couch. How's that for a clever dog? Of course I set up a spot on the couch with his blanket so he could lie down!

Again, no baby

But not for lack of trying. We're walking, we're stair climbing*, we're eating spicy food. To no avail. I know, I know, Callum will appear when he's good and ready and nature doesn't abide by our schedules. That doesn't mean I have to like it.

Yesterday we went for a walk without the dog. I still feel guilty about it.

Today I am going shopping. I figure the best way to bring on labour is to go 40 minutes away from home to town. When its completely inconvenient, labour is bound to happen, right?

*I had this grand plan that I'd climb the stairs 10 times every hour. hahahahahahahaha. I can do 5 flights before my knees turn to jelly.

I'm really bored

Bored. Bored. Bored.

Even though I guessed Callum would be later than the anticipated due date(s), I didn't actually plan anything for me to do after the day came and went. I don't feel like I can take on a big project, although there are many around the house that need doing, but I can't really think of anything else to do. I almost want to paint the living room just to consume some time. I suppose I could go for a walk around the block, but I'm lazy and I hate walking alone, I prefer to go with Steve. Maybe I'll talk him into a walk tonight.

All the laundry in the house is clean. The bathrooms are clean. I vacuumed yesterday. I mopped the floor. I even swept the back porch and the garage. I'm considering sweeping the front porch next although that involves moving the mini wood pile so I'm procrastinating.

I suppose I could wash the windows.

It came, it went

My (second) due day came. My due day went. No child was born.

I did however mulch my garden, throw some manure on the vegetable beds and clean up the greenhouse, so it wasn't a completely unproductive day. And even though I planted the second batch of zucchini super late (the first batch died in the water crisis) it is thriving and producing zucchini! Good gardening news for a change! Steve managed to do a lot of work on the cradle (and at this rate, the cradle will most certainly be finished before spawn appears), as well as some work around the yard, too. Today we're going grocery shopping because all my pre-preparation of the last two weeks is no more. We ate all the groceries in that time, and to be honest, we're beginning to eat the dinners I squirreled away in the freezer, too. I think the baby is just a figment of my imagination now, anyway, so why prepare?!

Today we're also going to go for a nice walk since its glorious outside, hopefully with some friends of ours and their pups, too.

oh so very, very sick of being pregnant.

No Baby, Yet

My cervix is posterier and closed which is just a fancy way of saying that Callum has no plans to leave his cozy womb in the near future. Even though his due date is tomorrow. Lazy little bugger.

Perhaps my Mom is right and he won't appear until October 1st, but I think she's just trying to win the baby pool :).

We're now moving into Operation:Hello Callum. I'm sick of being pregnant, he's in the right position, he's dropped, he's big enough, his heart is strong and judging by the size of my belly, there's no need to get any bigger.

Ok, the size of my belly has no bearing on anything, but everyone else has their theories! ;)

The midwife attempted to rim my cervix, but couldn't really reach so that isn't going to get the little guy to get out here. We're trying a variety of other home remedies she recommended. Next week, if he still isn't here, the midwife will do some more tricks of the trade. If he's not here by October 3rd, then we'll do a full on induction, but I think he'll show up before that considering dates etc.

I think.

Behold. The belly. This is an incredibly bad picture of me, but I'm 40 weeks pregnant and at least I'm not in sweats! Also, in the last couple of weeks strange things happened to my face, it widened. I'm hoping it goes back to its normal state after birth.

And in other pictures, here's a little sweater I knit the spawn, and some Winnie the Pooh pillows I made (cross-stitched the characters and then made the pillows from receiving blankets and an old pillow I had laying around. I'm thrifty :) ).

Grey's Anatomy is tonight!

No baby, because he's obedient and doesn't want to fuck with my TV premiers :).

Tonight is Grey's Anatomy and we find out what happened on ER with the shooting and Abi's baby. Wheee. (Is CSI new tonight, too?).

In completely unrelated TV news, I've been trying to find ways to lower our monthly costs. As a result of this I highly encourage all Canadians to call Canadian Direct and get a quote on their house insurance. My savings was over $1000 a year. I kid you not. I was also considering switching my phone from Telus to Vonage - does anyone have an internet phone? What's it like? Do you think you need to have the best internet service of all time? Any problems?

If I could somehow kick Bell in the ass, I'd change my cellphone, too, but I'm locked in and they don't seem to have any affordable monthly plans. Bloody Bell.

Couch Potato

I hate to admit this, but I watch an awful lot of TV. In the spirit of TV watching I tuned into Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip last night and really enjoyed it. I think this is a show I'll watch every Sunday night this season and see if it'll hold my interest. Since they moved Gray's Anatomy to Thursday and I'm not a dedicated Desperate Housewives watcher anyway, I need something to keep me entertained on Sunday nights. Besides, I love Bradley Whitford from the days I used to love The West Wing (which I stopped watching well before the show was cancelled because I can't keep up with schedule changes).

Another gem we came upon accidently this week while Steve was at home recovering (read: vegging in front of the TV for a week) is Gene Simmon's Family Jewels. Candi recommended it some time ago (she too came by it accidently) but I didn't really think I'd check it out. I'm anti-reality TV of all kinds, as a general rule its banned in our house completely (including Survivor and Amazing Race - we refuse to watch any of it) but Family Jewels is hilarious and these people aren't the Osbournes. Check it out, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Doing a whole lotta nothing

Steve and I have just been taking it easy all week so there really isn't very much to blog about from Hickville. We did manage to leave the house yesterday and have our pictures taken with me all pregnant. I left it so late though, that earlier this week the baby dropped and my belly is actually smaller (and WAY lower!). We're suppose to get the proofs next week, with any luck, before spawn makes his appearance.

Last night we rented two really heavy movies - Capote and Munich. Both were very long. When did movies suddenly become half day events?! They were good movies, but heavy and long and intense.

I really want some chocolate cake.

Life Lesson #149 - Part 2

Shattering your glass stove top is a really, really bad idea. Really bad idea. Its going to cost upwards of $600 to fix. I think we paid $800 for the stove! Now its a decision, do you replace the glass top or do you buy a new stove. You can buy a new stove for $300. Perhaps not as fancy as this one (but to be honest, its really not that fancy!)

ugh.

Steve's surgery went well. His gallbladder was extremely inflamed, even still, but the surgery still went really well and because of the inflammation the gallbladder was definitely the cause of his liver abnormalities. So that meant that the surgeon didn't do a liver biopsy at all which is awesome. No worries about rare liver diseases or bleeding from the biopsy. Steve did have to have a drain in his abdomen for about a day because of the inflammation, but that isn't unusual. A lot of surgeries often require a drain afterwards and he had his taken out the next afternoon and was home last night. Now its just a matter of the incisions healing which should only take a couple of days according to the doctor. We still have to take off the gauze and for some reason, Steve can't stomach that. Honestly, the cut on my baby toe from when I stubbed it is more disgusting than the very clean, small incisions he's got going on. I'm beginning to wonder how he's going to manage the delivery of the spawn if he can't stomach little cuts that are clean, and already on the road to healing!

And no, the spawn hasn't appeared yet. Any day now, though!

Life Lesson #149

When you're making soup, do not place the soup pot lid face down on your glass top stove. The lid will suction itself to the glass top and the heat and suction will then shatter the glass.

The noise just about killed me. That was followed by utter despair when I realized what had happened to my stove top.

Not a good way to start* the week. The soup tastes good at least.

*end? I never really knew if Sunday was the end of the week or the beginning

Marley and Me

My labour day reading material this year was John Grogan's Marley and Me, about life and love with the world's worst dog. Marley is a huge, yellow lab so being a lab owner myself I obviously identified but I think anyone who has ever owned and loved a pet will identify with this story. I even cried, which is basically unheard of, so either the story is quite touching, or the hormones are getting to me!

It is yet another beautiful day here in my neck of the woods. I have my old boss and his buddy here (perhaps for the weekend, I'm not sure yet) so it should be a fun weekend. They were up north island kayaking and it sounded like an amazing vacation. They actually had a whale dive directly under their kayaks!

I wish I had something else to share with you. But I don't.

Goodbye Summer...

My labour day weekend was fantastic. Steve and I, and some of his coworkers with their wives, rented a houseboat on Sproat Lake and just relaxed. It was amazing. The weather was stunning, every day the sun was out, the lake was calm and we just boated and relaxed and swam all day long. No one irritated me or got on my nerves all weekend, either, which is shocking. Usually someone irritates me at some point! It was a nice way to say goodbye to summer and to my old life without a spawn to worry about. It was also nice that I wasn't sitting at home feeling sorry for myself because I couldn't go to the annual Labour Day camping trip with my high school friends. The group from Steve's work were talking about making the boat trip an annual event, I'm trying to convince them that they should do it the August long weekend instead since I already have a Labour day long weekend tradition. The world really should revolve around me.

The only downer of the entire weekend was coming home and finding out that Steve Irwin (the crocadile hunter) was killed in a freak accident. My heart broke. I adore Steve Irwin and support everything he stood for.

Yesterday Steve and I went for his pre-admittance appointment at the hospital which just made me nervous even though it was me that demanded the surgery finally get scheduled. Something about your husband going under local anesthetic and being cut open, even little cuts, that is just a little terrifying. Especially when you're basically days away from giving birth. Plus the hospital is attempting to reduce visitors at the moment because there has been some cases of the Norovirus. I also learned that the hospital has had cases of superbugs show up from time to time. Being very pregnant, having my husband cut open and sitting in an area known to have superbugs doesn't exactly put me at ease.

Speaking of the spawn, I'm seeing my mid-wife on a weekly basis now and everything is moving along nicely. I told the mid-wife that he's very obediant, like his daddy :). Yesterday Callum's little head was nice and low in my pelvis (a good sign) and his heartbeat is good and strong. Judging from the weight I'm putting on, I'm guessing the little bugger is just getting fatter and fatter (eh, I hope, otherwise I'm just getting fatter and fatter!). I also got the a-ok to have the-sex for the duration of the pregnancy. My mid-wife believes that its actually good for us because it releases all sorts of good hormones that relax and prepare the body for birth. I only mention it because I was under the impression from the books and our birthing class that you're not suppose to this late in the game. Or if you do, you're suppose to use a condom because there are hormones in the sperm that can cause contractions. I hate condoms. Its a deep-rooted hate and I'd rather not have the nookie if I have to use a condom. I've learned that false contractions are not a bad thing at all, contrary to the birthing class nurse's opinion, its just the body practicing for birth. I'm ok with practice and was quite pleased that it wasn't going to be 3 months before I got to enjoy the perks of being married. For the record, you also don't have to wait 6 weeks after birth, either. That is just an arbitrary number assigned by the medical community to standardized things. Assuming your body has healed, have at 'er!

I suppose that was probably too much information :).