Pregnancy Memoirs

I'm almost there. My due date is one week away, June 7th 2008. I'm very round, tired, sick of peeing all the time but so incredibly excited to meet this little thing! Being ready to go at any time has had me thinking back over the last nine months (or 39 weeks) about some of the things that have changed and some of the answers to the questions that everyone asks a pregnant lady, like, "have you had any cravings?" or "have you been sick?" and as this blog is a journal of sorts I've decided to just make a few notes on my pregnancy that maybe the little nipper will read some day. (I haven't bothered to read back over my posts for the last nine months so there will probably be some repeats.)

We found out I was pregnant in October. I don't remember the date but it was a Friday. Ryan had already left for work and my monthly was late and I'd been feeling poorly so I decided to take a pregnancy test. I already had one as I'd taken a few in the last year since we'd decided it was time to start a family. I wasn't expecting it to come back positive but it did. There was no rush of emotion, no tears, more of a do I have to find a really cool way to tell Ryan thought and my day continued as normal. I didn't have to worry about how to tell Ryan in the end as I'd left the pregnancy test by the sink and unusually he got home from work before me that day and saw it. I got home and he was playing his guitar in the basement. We both felt exactly the same, it was still early days, he'd already had an idea because I'd not been feeling to well, we were happy but at this point it was just a waiting game. It was what we both wanted and were trying for so there really was no big shock.

A week later I started being sick and I was sick for about 6-8 weeks. It was miserable. I threw up every day, more than once, regardless of the time of day. My only relief... I would take warm showers, often just sitting in the tub. Some days I would have three or four because it made me feel better for a while. The foods I wanted that didn't make me sick... hummus and fresh pineapple.

I've not really had any particular food cravings through my pregnancy but I've had times where I've eaten the same thing for weeks. For a time I was always making fruit salads. Another time all we ate for weeks were tacos or baked potatoes. For a time I was just making salads or bacon was added to everything. I also had a few weeks where all I wanted were pancakes! My cravings were normally from food associations, for example, on tv the other day they were talking about cake and ice cream, all of a sudden I really wanted it so I made a cake mix and had cake and ice cream!

Other than the sickness at the start I've had a really good pregnancy. There was a little bleeding one day but it turned out to be nothing. Once my sickness stopped other than being tired I've been lucky to have had a very healthy pregnancy. We had our ultrasound and the baby was fine but would not move to a position where we could tell the sex. We had two technicians come in and try to find out and in the end they both guessed that it was a girl. We took that as inconclusive and have planned accordingly, however I probably made a mistake that when people asked if we knew the sex instead of saying no I always said that they guessed it was a girl. I'm thinking selective hearing or just easiness means a lot of people missed the guessed part and only heard girl! I've had a lot of people look at me and say 'oh it's a boy' but really, can you tell just by looking at a person the sex of the baby inside?! We have a friend who just had a boy but her pregnancy shape was not the same as me... I guess this mystery will only be solved once the baby is born. Ryan and I have kept everything neutral and haven't bought any baby clothes ourselves so if it does turn out to be a boy really there's no harm done, we'll just pack up the girls clothes we were given and buy some boy clothes ourselves. The way I see it, with the baby being born in the summertime it'll spend most of it's time in a onsie or just a nappy anyway! If it is a girl though we do have some really cute clothes for her.

Ryan and I are both soooo excited to meet this baby. When looking at our family trees this baby could be blonde, brunette or a red head, it will most likely have blue eyes, but could be tall or short, skinny or a little rounder. We have no idea but can't wait to meet it and find out it's little personality. Ryan is gonna be a great dad, he is so good with kids and I love watching him with our little niece Jaime or when he relaxes around our friends babies and plays silly.

I first felt the baby move at the end of January. Ryan was never a big fan of touching my belly and feeling it move but at night time, more than once, when we've been lying next to each other he's been caught off guard by my squirming belly! This baby loves to move around and groove!

The baby's head has now been dropped into position for at least three weeks. At my last doctors appointment she told me that it's ready to come anytime but they won't let me go past June 17th so we have an end date if baby doesn't grace us with its presence before. I wake up at least three times every night, have to go to the bathroom every twenty minutes at least so when people tell me to get ready for sleepless nights I just look at them blankly and think to myself "Heavenly Father knows I don't do well with little sleep and has been getting me ready for sleepless nights for the last two months!".

We didn't take prenatal classes and don't regret the decision at all. We know our options, we've made our decisions. We both think the same thing... women have been having babies since forever, we're nothing new, what will happen will happen. This applies to everything in pregnancy, whether it's something as big as labour or as small as stretchmarks. We are so ready to meet this baby, to know whether or not we're having a boy or a girl and to finally be able to have our baby's room in use. We love this person so much even though we've never met! Our house has really become a home as we've prepared for our new addition.