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January 16, 2003
10 Weeks
I have to say that this week was pretty exciting for us both… or do I say us three now? I’m going to have to get used to the fact that our family is now going to be three sometime, right? Even though I must admit it’s rather early to be referring to the three of us yet. Just something that I should keep in mind from now on, isn’t it? Anyway, there were a couple of funny things that happened, and a couple of exciting things as well.
First of all, we had our first Prenatal Class on Wednesday night. For those of you who think that its really early to be going to prenatal class, keep in mind that there is a different structure and organization to them here. There are a total of eight classes, and they are broken into three ‘sections’. The first section is held fairly early in the pregnancy, and is all about what changes we can expect, diet, lifestyle changes like smoking, and some exercises. The second section will be on relaxation techniques, more changes, labour preview, what the hospital does in terms of labour and birth, and a hospital tour. The last section is just the last class, and is a reunion class for Mums and Babes.
So, we went to class on Wednesday night, and just had a ball. There were about 12 couples there in total I think, ranging from 20 weeks down to me as the youngest gestation of 10 weeks. The ‘instructor’ is a nurse at the hospital, and I don’t know if I’ve said it yet, but the hospital is just for Maternity, the children’s hospital is just next door (actually there is no break in the building structure, but you get what I mean I think) and the regular hospital is a few blocks down. It feels so indulgent to have a hospital for the sole purpose of maternity :-) So, the nurse, Susan, was really great, and I really enjoyed how she ran the class, as I was expecting a sort of seminar/lecture, and it turned out to be way more fun! We went around and introduced ourselves, and she asked us each something about our pregnancies. She then used our answers and replies to bring home a point about nutrition, or activities, or body changes etc. We played a game, had a break, she talked some more… It was just a really nice night. We’ll meet twice more and then break until May. That seems so very far away right now!
What else… Oh yes, we got our very first ‘Congratulations’ card this week too, from my Mum. It’s got 5 babies on the front, and the saying in the card is: 4 out of 5 babies agree that you’ll be great parents! My Mum had crossed out the 4 though and wrote in a 5 :-) How sweet is that? I have it saved in my nightstand, to potentially put in the baby book.
The second thing about my Mum was that she called me this week and during the course of the conversation asked if I was going to work after my degree what with the birth of the Little One. If she could only see my response in person: eyes rolling, smirk on my mouth. The funniest thing about it all is that my Mum is a Trust Fund Baby, meaning that she has had a Trust Fund since the day she turned 18, and essentially never had to work to bring in income. She never really has worked either. She had a business for a few years, but unfortunately, she has not one iota of business sense, and needless to say, it did not survive and she eventually sold it. Since then she has done weird alternative health stuff, like magnet healing and crystal therapy. So, in this context, for her to ask if I’m going to go back to work, or get work after the baby is born is a little ridiculous, but I gave her an answer all the same, albeit leading her on a bit. I said that after 6-8 months that I would do 2 days of work a week, most likely for the Municipality that I have already done 8 months of work for during the course of my degree. While that is somewhat true, it isn’t completely true. I will wait a minimum of 6-8 months before I consider doing any work, and I may decide at that time that I don’t want to do work yet. Anyway, it was just something I had to shake my head at.
I was at a Fondue Party on Saturday night at my neighbour’s (when I talk about my neighbour, just for future reference, it is highly likely that it is going to be the same one). I make a kick-ass traditional Swiss cheese fondue, and so I brought that to the party. I ate so much of the cheese fondue, it was just incredible. I mean, I ate for hours. Pieces of bread, heavily laden with cheese fondue. Oh my lord it was fabulous. Even as others were eating the meat, the other cheese fondue that was made and then the chocolate one, I was still there, eating my cheese fondue. I’m getting hungry now just thinking about it! LOL
Lastly, it appears that our puppy would like a career in interior decoration. We came home last week to find that she had chewed off the plug portion of a lamp cord. It was just sitting on the floor. Then, as we had not removed it yet from the living room, the next day she chewed about 5 inches of the electrical cord. Chewed as in ate and swallowed it. We weren’t too concerned at that point. It was just a tiny amount, and would most likely just pass through her system, and low and behold, the next morning instead of going pee when we let her out, she threw up the cord bitties. We moved our last remaining lamp over to where the first defunct one was and thought that that would be the end of it. Weeelll… it wasn’t.
We came home on Tuesday night to find that she had chewed and swallowed approximately 3 feet of cord of our last lamp in the living room. We phoned the vet, and were asked to bring her in for x-rays. This begins the saga. She had x-rays, and oh my, there was A LOT of wire in her. The problem was that a good portion of it was moving through her intestines, and it’s not like something that shows up next to each other is really going to be next to each other in reality. The other problem was that she wasn’t exhibiting ANY signs that she was affected by the fact that she had 3 feet of chewed up wire bitties in her. We were instructed to give her mineral oil in her food to help lubricate the movement out, and to bring her in again in the morning. She loved the mineral oil, thinking it was sort of like gravy, and the next morning’s x-ray showed that indeed, some had moved out. This morning’s x-ray showed more out, but there was still a considerable amount in her stomache. We have opted not to bring her in again until Monday, on account of the fact that she still has not exhibited any behaviour that could be taken as reactionary against eating all that cord… We shall see.
Symptoms, symptoms. It appears that they have arrived in full force! I have had the aching breasts, the off-kilter emotions and the morning sickness, and let’s not forget those dreams or my little nuclear reactor core! The exhaustion arrived last week and I have now gotten used to the little routine that I have to follow to make it through the days. I get up at 8, reluctantly, and either go to school for class or go downstairs and work in the office on something or other. Then, after lunch (if I even ate lunch), I would have a nap, for about 1.5 hours or so, and then continue work. At night, I would say goodnight to poor Simon, and go to bed. For a little while, he was going to bed with me, only for us to discover that he slept absolutely terribly and woke up the next morning feeling miserable. So, now while I slumber, he goes downstairs and works out on our fitness equipment, taking the puppy with him.
Onto the latest and greatest of pregnancy symptoms! Food cravings… I almost feel as if this is a sort of confession-like symptom, like, okay I admit that I have weird and obnoxious food cravings. Here is the biggie for me: sour pickles drizzled in honey mustard that I make. This is something that I would occasionally have the odd craving for prior to pregnancy, but the other day I opened up the fridge, spotted the two of them and it was like I was hit by a thunderbolt! I HAD to have them! It’s gotten so bad that one day after we had come home, I was to go upstairs and turn on the oven for Simon’s dinner, I opened up the fridge to put something inside, saw them and stood by the counter, eating and closing my eyes in pleasure. Simon took that moment to come up the stairs and spot me… He asked if I had turned on the oven and I replied that I was going to… AFTER I finished the pickles. Also, because of Prenatal Class, I will have to live down this craving because we were asked about any diet and food cravings, and Simon delightfully said, why, YES! Pickles! I had to explain. Still didn’t make the story any better :-)
The last thing with food cravings is my occupation with fast food right now. I don’t know what it is about it, but driving by fast food restaurants, my mind, or is it my stomache, or is it the Little One, goes into overdrive, thinking about something I could eat there. For example: McDonalds = chicken mcnuggets or French fries; Harvey’s = cheeseburgers; A&W = onion rings and cheeseburgers. It’s getting to be almost too much! I try not to mention it too much to Simon, because first of all, we both don’t need the temptation to feed on greasy high-cal food, and it also gets annoying! LOL
**Talk to Me**
Did you have any odd comments about what you were going to do about working or not working after the arrival of baby? Were you shocked or not?
What odd food craving did you have, and what did your poor partner think about it all? Was he bemused, annoyed, just laughed at you?
Namaste, Laura and the Little One
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