Me, The Last Two Days

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Lil Stressed out.... 

Now that I am on Mat Leave I have been out working at the house each day this week until today when I hit a lull... Couldn't due anything by myself until a few things get done or I have a helping hand to lift things...

But I learned when stressed out about not being in your house a week before the baby is due on a day you can't do much to finish the house:

-Eat chocolate chips

-Call your sister

-Have a good husband (helps a lot)

-Make lists(!!!!)

Seriously, making a couple of different list of things needed to be done/budget/other gave me a lil sense of control of the situation on a day that I really couldn't do much for the house. 

Talk to me on Monday. Things will be a lot better since we will have finished/cleaned/unpacked as much as we can on Saturday. 

38 Weeks... Slightly Stressed...

38 Weeks!

Still feeling great!

My center of gravity has begun to be a lil off and it's hard to climb up on counters and jump down (found that out when painting yesterday.... Almost biffed it off the counters just 3 or 6 times) but I am still feeling mostly great.

I am feeling pregnant though sometimes and will groan and grunt but all in all I think I am doing pretty good! No swelling, stretch marks or lil pee escaping with sneezing yet. Score!  I do miss sleeping on my back, Shawn is very good about waking me up and making me roll over if I do try and sneak sleeping on my back. Oh belly/back sleep, I do miss you! I feel like there is literally no more room in my stomach though so where this baby is gonna grow from here is beyond me.  Maybe stretch marks are just around the corner for me.

In Other News:

Shawn and I had our first sleep-over in our house! 

 We've owned the house for months and months and the baby is due in 10 days and we are just having our first sleep-over.  

Here's our car loaded up with stuff to stay the night in Taber... 

It was actually quite fun and it was nice to be able to work on the house and then just go to bed and 

wake up and walk to church....

My pregger friend Naomi...
She's 3 weeks behind me and
lives in Taber too!

But it did something else:

it made me realize how much more we have to do before we can move in.

So I begun to stress.

A lot.

Please oh please oh please let me have 3.5 more weeks to go. 

Repeat:

Baby, do NOT come in 1.5 weeks. 

Let me be a typical first time delivery statistic in that sense, a week and a half overdue.

The house is sooooooo not ready to move in yet. Maybe in a week. Maybe in 5 days. Maybe in 10 days. But not now. And being out there was fun and exciting (our own house!) but oh my goodness we have a freaking baby coming soon. That house is sooooo not ready to come home with a baby.

Bah! So last night when Shawn and I were having our second sleep over in the house I couldn't fall asleep till after midnight because all I could think was of the things we need to do and soon!

Oh dear.... This will be a busy week. 

It's a race. 

Us and the house vs. the baby.

Pray we win or I am gonna be one stressed out momma. 

Kitchen Update and A Lil Mystery...

The Kitchen

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Don't mind the plastic on the peninsula... I was touching up the wall paint.
Doncha just looooove the white panelling Shawn put up on the walls?
I just love what it adds to the kitchen... 

But, I am in LOVE with our new kitchen so far... There are still little things to add/fix like the hood fan (which I bought off kijiji.. love it!) and such but it's come a long way with a lot of work! 

THE MYSTERY

Two different times we have come to our house to work on it only to find our front yard or our back yard or both have been mowed. Say whaaaat?

The first time was just after we had raked the yard, and I'm pretty sure it was the first time that yard had been raked for at LEAST 5 years. Two days later we came and the front yard was mowed. I kinda thought that it was a neighbor that was so relieved that someone was finally doing something with the yard and they just did it when they did theirs.

But then today we came out to Taber and not only was the front yard mowed (after they picked up some left over tile from when Shawn was finishing the bathroom backsplash few days ago) but so was the back yard! What the?? Who is this mystery mower and why are they mowing our yard? 

Who knows if we ever will find out but thank-you! It's quite nice since we haven't bought a lawn mower yet: one thing at a time.

ONE LAST THING

Some of you might have read a post on cleaning our walls months and months ago with "Tough Job" which is a wonder product that is very helpful for getting out smoke from the walls. 

Well here is another product testimonial.

Our patio doors are white with gold door knobs, yellow border and gold crisscross things in the window. 

Or so I thought.... 

Um WHAT?? the border is WHITE??? Wow. Wow. Wow! Go 'Tough Job'! That stuff is a necessity for someone who buys a house that was previously smoked in (or just never ever cleaned... I believe that too). Nasty. 

Lil Secret...

I am not a shopaholic or a fashionista.

Admittedly I can wear the same 10 things over and over and over and over and over and not mind. My house can have very little in it and not really notice.

The secret? Not shopping. See, a funny thing happens when I go out shopping; All of a sudden I NEED everything I see. It hits me hard and very convincingly that my life will be so much better will a hand-pumped oil sprayer or the extendable bamboo utensil drawer organizer. How have I lived without them? I get sucked in, especially today since we are thisclose to moving into our house. I am the same with clothes, but since I don't go to the mall ever it helps and being pregnant REALLY helps.

Two things though. I have no idea what I actually have for the house. Shower curtain? Garbage can? Cutting boards? Can't remember! We only lived in Saskatoon with our stuff for 4 months and the last year everything has been in storage, out of sight and definitely out of mind. Second thing, as soon as I walk away and leave whatever tempting store I am in, 99% of the time I forget the item(s) I NEEDED... I just have to get myself out and I revert to being blissfully ignorant of what little things I lack. 

Today was a big fail.

Yep.... Costco suckered me into both... 

Maybe I can convince Shawn we already owned these in Saskatoon, he just forgot since they have been packed up... :D

Last Day of Work...

This week I had my last day of work before maternity leave!

For the next YEAR I am not expected to be at work and for the next 2 months I get paid to NOT be there fully and even after that I still get a bit even though I will be sitting at home with my lil baby. Love it! If you compare our maternity to Sweden's, France's or Australia's you might get bummed out but luckily we live due north to a country that doesn't believe in paid maternity leave and the only unpaid mat leave you get is 3 months! Yep, suddenly I am feeling even BETTER about our mat leave up here.

I may change my mind when our lil guy comes along but I still think I will miss work a lil bit. Yes, some days are crazy, frustrating, and exhausting but there is something about my job on 3C.

First off, I love our crew, they are fantastic, which is half of it. 

I have been lucky enough to have been in the float position for the last three months which means I float to both surgery floors and basically help out whomever with whatever. The good news is that I have met a lot of new, wonderful people on 4A. The bad news was half of my time wasn't on 3C. 

On my second to last day I was upstairs helping 4A with patient's morning care when 3C called up to see if I had a patient assignment. I took this to mean that they were crazy busy and I felt so guilty that I didn't call down first thing to see if they needed help so I called them right away and talked to Nicole, who was in charge. She said there was a few sick people and if I could come down early, "It might be good" so I quickly finished up morning care and went downstairs to 3C...

Turns out they just wanted me to come downstairs because they had all brought treats in honor of my last day. Our floor does this a lot for people's last day but still, I just loved it and it made me feel a wee bit special. And plus, I love food. Period. So it was a fantastic second-to-last day. I love those girls.

Second of all, I will miss the patients. Yes, even the frustrating, confused patients. Sometimes they make the most memorable stories. 
   - From the confused guy that decided rather then poop in the toilet, he would rather do it in his hand and then hand it to me.
   - The confused little lady who rubbed my belly the whole time she was on the commode (I had to stand by to make sure she didn't try to get up without help)
   - The lady I found in another (male) patients room, washing the bathroom walls semi-nude
   - The little lady who told me she couldn't eat her lunch because it was giving her Parkinson's
   - The confused man who was yelling, screaming, trying to crawl out of bed until he saw my belly and then he stopped, smiled and started rubbing my belly
 
Thirdly, I like to financially contribute. It makes sense. I lived on my own and supported myself for 7 years before getting married so it's slightly difficult to not work and contribute in that way. But this is something I have to get over. Thankfully having a bouncing baby boy will help distract me.

I do love my job and I wish miss the staff and the job but I am quite excited about the aspect of having a year off! A summer off! Last time I had a summer off was when I was 14. 

We celebrated my last day of work by playing "Settlers Of Catan". This is a picture of what is needed to bribe Shawn before he will consent to board games.

Pop and the world's largest chocolate bar. 

I will make him love board games and much as I do. That's my goal.


P.S.
I have tried to add another alternative to our two baby names.
A song came on the radio, "Canadian Girls" by Dean Brody and I couldn't help but think Dean Bevans would sound sooooo cute! It may be a name from 1950 but if anyone is slightly nerdy like me and watches Supernatural on TV, I think they will agree that it can work for a guy nowadays...
Sadly Shawn doesn't not like it.
At all.
So I tried to bring it up a few times more over the next two weeks.
Let's just say the name Dean is not gonna happen. 

37 Weeks!

So I hadn't thought the baby had dropped at all until I was comparing the picture from a week and a half ago and it looks like he has dropped just a bit. Still not enough to make me waddle or have any uncomfortable pressure so I don't mind at all. 

Only 2 (TWO!) more shifts until I am on maternity leave! It feels so weird because I am still feeling fabulous but I am excited because we are thisclose to finishing our house! My mum and her hubby helped clean up our yard so it no longer looks like an abandoned yard! Shawn put in a full day today putting some finishing touches in and I figure if I go each day for a few hours this week then by next weekend we can be putting finishing touches in the house and next week we can unpack. Cross your fingers for me!

Pregnancy symptoms this week:

Less heartburn

Little bit of cramping/baby moving so much so hard that it feels like cramping

No cravings (sorry Shawn)

Putting on some pants/jeans are now a lil too tight so I had to get pack up a few of them but luckily I still have 3 or 4 pair that I can sneak on

My belly button is so far out, it's a bubble

Trouble falling/staying asleep

Really bad leg cramps at night; Charley horses like you wouldn't believe

Fatigue

More difficulty doing simple things like painting my toenails, and getting into the drivers seat. 

22.4 extra pounds (not too bad, I thank the baby for burning lots of calories)

No stretch marks yet!

All in all, things are still going really wonderful! My favorite thing lately is when my belly literally bounces side to side and I just stare at my lil mexican jumping bean. The doctor says he is headed the right way so he must be doing some mad dance moves on his head. Some times he moves so hard so fast that it moves my whole body and almost makes me queasy like I am on a roller-coaster ride!

xoxo

P.S. Can I mention how glad I bought the stack of long sleeved shirts like this from Smart Set. They are literally the only shirts I wear lately. So comfy, long enough and cute in a simple way. Best $5/shirt I spent.

Starting To Get Real...

Yesterday my sister and I went to Costco and after I was done picking up groceries, I did something for the first time.

I bought diapers and wipes.

Eek.

How real is it getting? In 3 (THREE!) weeks it's my due date so this little guy could come any minute. Loading the diapers and wipes into my car made me realize how soon that really is. There is soooo much I still need to do/get. How has it been almost 9 months already? Are we ready for a baby? Will we be in the house by the time he comes? What is my labour gonna be like? How am I gonna handle being sleep deprived? What if I get postpartum depression? How will we do, once I am not working, financially?

But then I opened up the diaper box and saw the tiny, cute lil diaper that our lil guy is gonna be needing, dropped it off at our house in Taber that is looking sooo good, felt my lil sea monster move like he always does and finally Shawn came home from work all handsome and tired from working so hard for us and for now I am not worried; just happy. 

Shawn has been amazing; while I stress about this or that, not one feather of his is ruffled. How does he do that? Then again, he doesn't have pregnancy hormones running through his body.

35.5 Weeks

35.5 weeks pregnant! Wow. 

That means on Saturday my baby will be considered full-term.
That means this baby could come anytime from Saturday till 7 weeks from now.
That means that we're gonna be parents soon.
That means I have to actually experience labour soon. Ick.


I don't know how prepared I am. Can you ever actually be prepared for one of the biggest changes one can experience? But, I really think Shawn and I will be able to adapt to whatever our lil guy throws our way. 


Things continue to be absolutely wonderful with pregnancy. I consider myself so blessed to be feeling so fantastic. Our lil baby boy is super happy in there because he never stops moving. He is quite the squirmer and I love it, I get so distracted when he starts moving around in there. He hasn't even began to drop yet so he still carries high which makes me happy because I have hardly any discomfort, no waddling yet, and that means he won't be coming in the near future. Whew. I used to find it hard to believe that there is a baby in there but lately, it's quite obvious. My belly is just one giant solid belly that moves and squirms and you can literally see how he is sitting/laying sometimes. And if I had a nickel for every time a limb poked it's way waaaay out in my belly, I could furnish my house. 


In the complaints department, I don't have much. A little heartburn, a little back back, a little extra tiredness, a little trouble staying asleep but all in all I feel like I am basically pregnant without being pregnant. I have 22 lbs extra and the belly but not the problems. And I am appreciative. (I may have had two hormone-induced emotional overloads in the last 3 months but I figure that's pretty good if I have only had two.) Am the only one who will miss having a belly? It's just so adorable having this big, round belly that's alive and moves independent of me. 


I only have EIGHT more shifts until I am off. I might squeeze in a couple extra but in the end I will be off work May 21st. Now for me, this is slightly unsettling. I am not used to not working full time. The only times I have ever not worked full-time is when I was traveling or when I was recovering from my accident and not allowed to work. But luckily I have a good project to keep me occupied until our lil bundle of joy arrives: our house. 

My painting ensemble. Hair up, no make-up, my painting
yoga pants and what-ever t-shirt I can grab.
Slightly sick of painting but the cabinets and trim are
almost done! 

We haven't really felt a rush to complete the house, just slow and some-what steady. Now, I have a feeling it will be a race to finish the main level of the house before the baby comes but I know Shawn and I can do it (with a lil help from my family/friends...) Stay tuned for pictures of the kitchen! Shawn is gonna grout the backsplash this week, throw the appliances in and put on the cabinet doors hopefully this weekend!!!

Not-So Smooth Criminal

I was bored and Shawn was in the shower so I got the bright idea to play a prank on Shawn. He loves hot hot showers so I decided to cool him off a bit. 

I ran downstairs and grabbed a schooner glass full of cold water and ran back upstairs. Quietly, I jumped up on the toilet and was getting ready to dump it over on him when the shower turned off and the curtain opened. Quickly I tried to pour it on him and jump back at the same time. 

Not smart.

I ended up whacking myself in the eye with the heavy, solid glass schooner glass and collapsed on the ground in pain. Shawn's ideas of revenge were thankfully abandoned when he saw that I already got myself worse than he ever would have got me. 

Thankfully I didn't get a legit black eye.. Just a wanna-be bruised corner.

I really need to be more smooth in my pranks.