Month: August 2016

Bump Update

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Having a baby is full of little and large milestones that are so much fun to revel in, especially when you’re experiencing them as a first time mama. Even though they can’t all be ‘movie moments’ – our first ultrasound was not a special experience and finding out the sex of the baby was anti-climatic as well – they’re still memories that we’ll laugh about and cherish. Personally, I like the rites of passage that occur in our own homes rather than in a lab, like telling our families that we were expecting (even though no one was surprised), watching Tom assemble the crib we picked out for our daughter, and feeling her kick for the first time (she hasn’t stopped since).

 

For some reason though, I’ve always held the 30 week mark in my head as a major milestone – and it’s today! While I recognize that I still have a ways to go, these last 8-12 weeks feel like the home stretch. The baby has a lot more growing to do before she’s ready to be earth-side and we have some more preparations to make before we’re ready to have her here, but when we feel her little feet pressing against my belly it isn’t very hard to imagine how soon she’ll arrive. So hey, baby! Keep growin’ in there, we’ll see you soon!



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How Far Along: 30 weeks

How I’m Feeling: warm and muggy in this late-summer heat, but otherwise okay! I think I’m entering the “big” stage of pregnancy when moving around becomes more of a struggle, but I’m still getting my daily long walks in.

Sleep: hard to stay comfortable in any position, and poor Tom wakes most mornings to the sound of my grunting and groaning as I heave myself from our low bed. 

Movement: my belly sometimes gets contorted into some truly weird positions as she swims around in there, but it’s a pretty delightful feeling that I just don’t think I’ll grow tired of.

Reading: Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding – who knew there was so much to learn about boobs? This book covers a lot of interesting stuff, including a lot of anthropological background information about nursing in North America – the history, the stigmas, the movement towards formula, and the mainstream shift back to breastfeeding that we’ve experienced more recently.

Nesting: feeling nostalgic in general and enjoying hearing stories from family members about their own experiences being pregnant and birthing their babes! My dad also pulled the 34-year-old bassinet out of the attic and cleaned it and put it together again with Tom. My aunt hand-sewed the linens for it and we can’t wait to have it in our living room.

Enjoying: being pregnant. While I’ve always wanted kids and consider myself to be deeply maternal, I have never looked forward to being pregnant, and actually thought I would hate it! It’s been a nice surprise to find that I’m enjoying the process (especially considering it’s a long one!).

Looking Forward To: going for a run again next spring. This is the longest hiatus I’ve ever had from running!

Bump Update

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How Far Along: 29 weeks!

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Movement: this baby is as squirmy as Tom when he’s trying to sleep after a few beers! If she ends up being half as mobile on the outside as she is on the inside, we’re going to be running after her for many, many years to come. 

Appreciating: having a car (thanks, Mom!), and also restaurants that whip up booze-free mocktails for prego’s so we don’t have to drink yet another water or iced tea while out with friends on a hot summer patio. 

Craving: the arrival of September. Even though I love the summertime, I’ve always been an Autumn enthusiast. Ideally I would be going back to school every year at this time, with fresh notebooks and a new backpack and endless possibilities for learning new things (dork alert), but knowing I’ll be having a new baby before Christmas is a pretty good “consolation” prize.

Nesting: trying to keep the apartment as clean as possible with little jobs. My most recent projects have included alphabetizing the record collection, cleaning my makeup brushes, and wiping all of the individual slats of our wooden venetian blinds.

Enjoying: feeling nonstop kicks (even when they hurt my ribs a little) and movements. I feel like I have a constant companion wherever I go! The novelty of this may wear off as she starts to weigh more and more over the course of this last trimester.

Looking Forward to:  finishing Tom’s application for Permanent Residency, which will be a relief to finally submit and get off our hands. 

Having a Baby in a One Bedroom

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Welcome to our bedroom / nursery!

We thought our family across the world might like to see a few photos of where the baby will be living once she gets here – hopefully that’ll give some context to anyone who is planning to FaceTime our newborn!

Because real estate is crazy expensive and also because we love our apartment and neighborhood so much, we made the choice to stay in our one-bedroom flat indefinitely. Upgrading to a home with an extra bedroom would necessitate a significant financial sacrifice and we know quite a few young couples who are raising their baby (or multiple kids!) in the same amount of space that we have. The upside: we don’t have to waste our money on an expensive baby moniter since we’ll be able to hear if she’s crying from all corners of our cozy abode…and probably in the hallway, in the street outside our balcony, and in our neighbours’ apartments too, for that matter. #thinwalls

When I first started thinking about the best way to smoothly transition an extra human into our home, I was sure of only one thing: I didn’t want the nice adult space we had created to become Babysville. As a homebody, my bedroom has always been a sanctuary for reading and relaxing, and while I recognize that the baby is probably going to take over our hearts, schedules, and spaces, I figured that could happen without hanging pink bows and baby animals all over the place. Not really our style anyway.

What we ended up doing was dividing our room into grownup space and baby space (ish). Half of the room has retained an adult feel, with our bed under the watchful gaze of Lake Louise, while the other half of the room has the baby’s crib, changing table, and the storage units that already house the growing collection of little girl clothes from my own mama, who cannot seem to help herself. The trick now is figuring out how to keep the room this clean once there are three of us living in it!

Jess Writes: Locally Sourced Baby Names

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It’s no secret that we love the city of Vancouver, though Tom has only been here for three years. We’ve spent a lot of time together walking different neighbourhoods, cycling around the city, imbibing local brews, picnicking on the seawall, and revelling in the proximity to lakes, mountains, and trails. Our interest in doing local stuff eventually overlapped with our many conversations about finding a name for our upcoming firstborn, and we started seeing baby names everywhere, prompting Jess to write an article about it for (the kickass, women-focused) Loose Lips magazine, which you can read here, if you’d like to.