Ramblings of a Stay-at-Home Mom

Seeing as the little guy is due for his eviction notice tomorrow morning, I figured it might be due time to do up a post on how I got ready for my upcoming C-Section and recovery. One of the biggest obstacles was setting up his room and getting meals ready. His room before was the girls' playroom, so it had all the toys and books in there. We managed to move all the toys (while doing a great big purge) into the girls' room and then start moving the baby stuff around his room. I still had the crib in the shed, so that was easy to put together, but I was missing a dresser for him, until Keith's step-brother and wife came to the rescue with a dresser  and a car seat! I also had my rocking chair and side table from before, so that helped as well. When it came to clothes, I didn't do any shopping until we knew what we were having. And then it didn't even matter because as soon as we announced that we were expecting a boy, my friends and sister came together and gave me ...

Let me start by saying Thank You for being patient with me while I figure out the new blog. I've been meaning to write, but I also need to get used to a new blogging platform and it's taken a little bit longer that I would have liked. You might be wondering about the Blog Title, and why it sounds a bit depressing. The main reason, is that it is depressing news. And that would be that I have suffered a miscarriage with this 3rd pregnancy. For those of you who like short answers, I had an Anembryonic Gestation . Basically meaning that I was pregnant and the gestational sac showed up, but there was no embryo yolk inside, even after 3 weeks of Ultrasounds. I'm currently on some medication to help "clean me out," and after that, we'll go from there. For those of you who like longer stories, this one takes place over a month. On September 24, in my 8th week of pregnancy (while Keith was out of town on business, of course), I started bleeding in the evening, just bef...

Guess what people??!! Yup. Baby Neufeld #3 is on his/her way! I'm approximately 5 weeks along and due early May. I'm feeling pretty good, just a little bloated in my favourite jeans. But no morning sickness (yeah!!), only craving Ice Caps from work and still not feeling too tired. Violet is excited and is already asking for a baby brother. Dominique is too young to understand, but I'm sure that she'll catch on as time progresses. So excited!!

Sigh.  Where to begin? I had my pre-natal appointment on Thursday (04/17/14) with my delivery doctor. She checked me over, checked to see if I was dilated (softening but no dilation) and then uttered some words that I didn't want to hear... "I'm not convinced that I'm feeling a head down there." Not Again..... She checked my stomach again and wasn't convinced that Baby was head down. Even though so far (until today), she's been convinced that he/she has been head down. And because according to my ultrasound, I'm due on Wednesday, she wanted to get me into a quick ultrasound to see where Baby was and then we'd have to determine from there about what to do. Luckily the hospital was able to get me in within the next half hour, so with Violet in hand, we went over to the hospital. On our way there, I was praying that Baby would be in the proper position and everything would be fine. Rather safe than sorry, right? They fit me in between patients and did...

What’s Happening: 2 weeks left to go! Yes, I’m a bit impatient. This little one has been taking it’s toll on me these last few weeks, so pardon the lack of posting. The Braxton’s have started up in full force, mostly in the evenings, and it’s just making it harder (pun intended) to do things. Never mind that Baby has taken up permanent residency in my pelvis and making me waddle like a penguin right now. Oh, and water retention has set in, although I’m doing my best to combat it by drinking lots of water and staying hydrated. And trying to get as much sleep as possible, but when the bathroom calls your name every 2-3 hours, or your pelvis is hurting like a SOB, you don’t get that much restful sleep. But I still try, hence why I go down for a nap when Violet has her afternoon nap.  And after seeing my delivery doctor a couple times in the last few weeks, she says that we are still on track for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean)!! Yes! The only reason that Violet was a C-Sect...

What's Happening: Right now, I'm getting a bit impatient. I'm already bigger with this kid than I was with Violet at the end of my pregnancy with her. And this one just keeps on growing. Staying on my feet for an entire 8 hour shift at work has me hurting for a good day after that. Never mind that it feels like Baby has dropped a bowling ball in my pelvis, so standing for long periods of time make it worse. Luckily I only work weekends, so I have the rest of the week to relax a bit. Yes, the feet are swelling. I'm not much of a barefoot person in the house (ahem...thank you Violet for dropping food/crumbs/everything on the ground), but lately I've had to go barefoot as I've got indentations on my feet at the end of the day if I wear socks all day. Weight gain is still on the right track (only 25 lbs gained so far, with 9 weeks left), and no gestational diabetes! That drink still tastes HORRIBLE! Yuck! Cravings: Anything chocolate and fruit. Seriously. Although f...

Pregnancy at 25 weeks  - Jr (as that's what Baby is nicknamed) is more of an afternoon/evening/night baby for moving around. Mornings he/she is pretty quiet, but once Violet is down for her nap, Jr wakes up and gets to moving. - Craving lots of peanut butter and jam sandwiches, as well as chocolate and fruit. Also include pizza on the list. - What not to eat? Eggs and smokies. Both still taste disgusting. - My stats so far: 10lb gain from the beginning (boo yeah!!!), tummy circumference at 33 inches (feel bigger than I was with Violet at this stage), and fetal heart rate at 145bpm. So far so good! - Jr. also has lots of fun playing in my pelvis and making sure to cause some pain when I've been doing lots of walking. - Nesting has kicked in. Seriously. The amount of stuff I get done in a 4 hour period is crazy! Never mind the baking that I'm doing (Tuesday was 4 dozen peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and a dozen banana muffins). Now if the baking would last more than a w...

So now that all the family know, might as well let everyone else know too.... Ahem..... We will be welcoming a precious little one to our world in late April 2014. That's right people..... I'M PREGNANT!!! I'm about 6 weeks along. We had already guessed about 2 weeks ago that I was pregnant as I just exploded in acne, especially the back of my neck. I never get acne there and certainly not in the magnitude that it was.  Only recently the queasiness has started up a bit (thankfully nothing big) and that's all.  So now to start re-arranging the house and think of another girl name (still have our boy name from when Violet was born).  What I look like at 6 weeks Yup, that's definitely a positive Woot!

Got a sneak peek of our maternity photos! So excited to see them, especially since Baby will be joining us next week!

Another doctor appointment today and I finally get to see my delivery doctor. Only took forever to see her. Got there a couple minutes before my appointment and was told to leave a sample, yet again. Yuck. The one thing you can count on for pre-natal appointments is leaving a sample. Ick. After doing blood pressure (107/62) and being weighed (162 lbs), I had to get dressed into the gown thingy so that they could do a GBS swab to check for a certain infection. And then she checked for the baby’s heartbeat and felt as to where the baby was positioned. And that’s where my heart sank a bit. The intern couldn’t find how the baby was positioned. She was feeling down low and thought that she was feeling a bum instead of a head there. So she called in Dr. Trinh to double-check and Dr. Trinh thought the same. So she said to meet her at the hospital around 2 and she’d do a quick ultrasound to definitely see where the baby was. I was in tears when I left the clinic because if the baby is breec...

Finally, at 34 weeks pregnant, the Baby Room is ready! We finally decided on what colour to do the walls, which is Sunshine Orange. I'm not a big fan of pastel colours and wanted something gender neutral. So orange it was. Although it might get changed in a couple years. I was lucky enough to have my sister Natalie come down and do all the priming and then my Mom came down and did all the painting. Once the paint was dry, I got everything moved in and assembled. The futon will stay in there until we can get rid of it as it's broken. I stocked the closet and dresser with all the essentials and have a clothes bin off to the side with both genders of clothes on there. The plan is that once Baby is born, my sister will come down and pull out the appropriate clothing so that it's ready once we get home.  6 weeks to go!

Why is my body starting to hate me? Lately, it's just been a lot of pain due to my hips being out of place and then locking up in place while I'm standing at work. My work doesn't have me move around a lot, so then the hips lock up and start causing me a lot of pain and then trying to bend over or get into my car proves to be slightly difficult. Thankfully my chiropractor works his magic on me and can get my joints back into place. And I think the Braxton Hicks have started. Been feeling my belly get tight and then loosen up and repeat through the entire day. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it’s kind of annoying when I’m trying to work, or sleep for that matter.

I. Am. Hormonal. And. Emotional. Seriously. Especially last night. And there was a couple things that set me off. I was supposed to have girl's night at my place, but no one showed up. I knew that Sabrina had a 50/50 chance of showing up, mainly cause she has to be home with the kiddos while her hubby's on the field working. Which is understandable. And even when I talked to her earlier in the day, she wasn't sure if she could make it. No problem. My other girlfriend Lisa, didn't show up though. Which confounded me. I had messaged her earlier in the day and she said that she was coming and usually if she can't make it at the last minute, she lets me know. Not today. I was waiting around the house until 8:00 until I concluded that she wasn't coming. Not something to get really upset about, right? Wrong. I also was getting in the mood to do some serious scrapbooking. But had an issue. I have the free digital scrapbooking program from Scrapbook Flair, but it's ...

So far, so good.  1) Pre-natal appointment went pretty good. Weight gain is still good, blood pressure still good and so is Baby's heartbeat. Can't believe I've only got a couple months left until we meet the little one! 2) Craving fruit, chocolate and slurpees (in reverse order). 3) Had major heartburn for 1 evening. That sucked royally. 4) Starting work on the Baby Room. And found the cutest framed pic of Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger that has  to go in there. Still undecided on wall colours. 5) Bought my first pair of maternity pants from Value Village. Some of my regular jeans are starting to get a bit tight, so it's nice to have a back-up pair for when they don't fit anymore. 6) Did our Baby Registration at Babies 'R' Us. Not expecting to get everything on our list, but we figured, why not ? Hello tiny little bump :)

Yesterday was the ultrasound. Picked up Keith from work around noon, and he had brought me another water bottle just in case I needed more to drink. Really? My bladder was already almost ready to burst and he gives me more water!! We were at the hospital for 12:30, registered and waited to be called in. Got called into the Ultrasound room close to 1, but Keith had to stay out in the hallway until the initial ultrasound was done. My bladder was ready to burst as I climbed up on the table and the technician chuckled a little bit. Went through almost half the ultrasound and then he let me go to the bathroom. THANKFULLY!! Once I got back to the room, he finished up the ultrasound. The technician said he was having a little bit of a hard time getting a good head shot because the head was really down low in the pelvis and being really stubborn about showing his/her head.  Once the technician had gotten all the shots that he needed, then he went out in the hallway to get Keith so that he ...

So far at 18 weeks, I've had my first prenatal visit. Everything went swimmingly. On track for weight gain, blood pressure looks great and Baby's heartbeat is good and steady. Unfortunately, Keith wasn't able to make it to this appointment due to work. It sucked, but it's life. I also felt the Baby starting to move. I was actually thinking that I was having weird gas issues, but then felt Baby fluttering about in there. Mega-smiles. Now for this little one to start kicking hard enough for Keith to feel.

Pregnancy is going along GREAT! I'm at 12 weeks right now and haven't had a single day of morning sickness. I've had some days where I'm just queasy around certain foods, but that's it. Nothing major. Which is AWESOME!! :) Oh, and more awesome?? Turns out that I'm getting my sister's crib from one of her kids (my nephew has now advanced to a "big boys bed," hence me getting one of her cribs for free). Which saves us a ton of money right there. And along with that, I'm also getting her car seat/stroller combo for free (which go for $200-300 in store!). So I've already got some of the big purchases without spending a dime! Sweet! And the same goes for clothes. Natalie's given me a whole bunch of clothes from when my nephew was a baby (which includes a lot of blankets), so I'm happy about that. The only "big" thing to buy is a dresser/change table. I'll probably end up going to a thrift store or hitting up the garage sale...

OMG!!!! I'M PREGNANT!!!!!! Seeing as I haven't had my cycle yet this month, I decided to use the pregnancy test that we had bought last month. So just before I went to make supper, I went and took the test and then went to start supper. Well, the test showed positive, so I took the test to Keith (after cleaning it off) and told him that he broke the law about pro-creating. Lol. He was just looking at it and me a couple times and then tried to play it off as a “false-positive.” I told him nope, because it's near the end of the month and my cycle hasn't started yet. Lol. So I guess this means I'm gonna have to go to the doctor and see how far along I am. If my calculation is correct, I'd be due in October/November. Woot!! And it was confirmed today. Me and Keith went to the walk-in clinic to make sure that the home test was right and that I was indeed pregnant. Got there around 12 and had to wait until 1:30 to register. Luckily, I had brought my DS and a book with...