Wednesday, 26 October 2011

New arrival (not mine) and passing time

Last Tuesday my sister had her baby, and I have a niece. It sucks that I am living on the other side of the country and will have to wait a few months to meet my new family member! She looks adorable in the pictures though, and we have been able to skype a few times. It makes me so anxious to have my little one arrive!!!

I am officially starting maternity leave at the end of this week. I will only be 32 weeks, and still feel entirely capable of working, but I have gotten next to no hours (0 last week, half a day this week) and every week I go without working reduces the amount I will get in maternity leave pay. It sucks that when I feel like working (now!) there aren't any hours, but taking leave early means I will also have to go back to work early. I have been throwing myself a little pity party over this. I want to spend the whole first year with my child and not have to go back at 10 months! I am starting to feel ok about it though. I am very thankful that I live in Canada where a 12 month maternity leave with some pay is standard. When I was complaining to my Mom about it she reminded me that in the States it is 6 weeks or sometimes 12 weeks. When she had us almost 30 years ago it was only 3 months in Canada. So I guess I have to realize that 10 months with my baby is really fabulous considering what you get in some other countries.

Of course, with very little work and starting mat leave I am suffering from a bad case of cabin fever. Seriously, I feel like I never leave this house! I don't have the energy or motivation to be the perfect little housewife right now, so it's not like I am spending my days cleaning and cooking! lol! Everytime I leave the house to run errands I end up spending money, I mean financially we are fine, but I feel guilty spending money when I am not really bringing much in. My dog is pretty happy though as she is getting twice as mnay walks as usual!!! I have done a few crafts and even made homemade bread. Maybe in a few weeks once I am closer to the due date I will be content to sit on my ass at home lol!

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Hospital visits, the waiting game and hormones!

This weekend we had a somewhat uneventful trip to the hospital. I had a really busy day on Saturday running errands, cleaning the house and getting ready for dinner as we were having another couple over. (They cancelled last minute of course! Grrrrr! But that is another story!) So by around 4 pm I was having some sharp pains on the top right of my baby bump. Almost like I'd been punched there. After resting for a bit it started to feel better, and only hurt when I touched that area, kind of like a bruise. Around 8pm, once we knew we weren't having company for dinner we (Hubby and I) ran out to the mall to pick up a wedding shower gift for a friend and the pain got worse again. The pain was really not excrutiating by any means, but since it was pretty unusual it kinda freaked me out.

I googled the possible causes, and came up with some useless possibilities namely:
1. Gall bladder pain - had my gall bladder removed 2.5 years ago, so not the problem
2. Baby has been kicking that area - well I have a high and anterior placenta, so I can never feel baby kick in that spot

Of course, then I got to thinking that something was wrong with either my placenta or scar tissue in that area from my gall bladder surgery. I decided to call my doctor (the clinic I go always has a doctor on at the hospital and you can page them at any time and they will call you back and answer your questions). She was nice, told me not to worry but that I should come in to the hospital and she would give me a quick check to make sure everything was fine.

Around 10pm we get in the car and go to the hospital, turns out to be a way bigger production than expected. There is paperwork, hospital bands, I get given a bed. After waiting, fetal monitoring, checking my cervix, blood work and urine tests I finally am given an answer......you're right, that is weird, we don't know what it is. Seriously??? Basically they said I wasn't in preterm labor (I knew that, I wasn't have contractions!) and that if the pain got worse to come in the next morning and they would do an ultrasound. So we finally made it home around 3am. I was so tired! I am super happy that I got to hear my little one's heart beat and I know he is doing ok in there, so I guess the peace of mind was worth it, but seriously? 5 hours of waiting and tests just to hear 'we don't know'?? Ok, rant over! lol!

This past week or so I have also been very hormonal, it feels like this pregnancy is taking forever and I just want it to be December already! I have been crying at pretty much everything, tv shows, songs on the radio, just random events in life in general! The worst part is, I am still logical enough to know that I am crying at something that doesn't warrant tears, but I can't stop myself. I feel like a huge teary whale!!! Anyway, that's my news...thought I would share this cartoon as it pretty much sums up my emotional state right now.