Sleep…less is more??

This back to school time coincided with starting to feel big in the belly.  In September I switched campuses, offices and am now on afternoons and evenings. My office is far far away from everything; water, a fridge, the bathroom and the classroom. I have been working on improving the office and finding ways to make everything work. It has been hectic, but is getting better.

On top of the school changes, it is harder to stay feeling comfortable during the night with the growing belly. I am hoping someone will invent a giant spatula that with the push of the button will flip me and all the pillows onto my opposite site. Until the giant spatula has been invented,   I have been experimenting with how early I go to bed. I am finding that if I push myself to stay up later, that I sleep deeper and wake up less. This means that  I wake up feeling more rested.  It is odd, but it seems to be working. I made it tonight until 9:30, but now I am heading to bed.

32 Weeks

Our clinic

At our first appointment,  while I was busy peeing on sticks, F met two of our care providers who asked if we were partners. When she said said yes, they both cheered and declared themselves gay too. At our first prenatal class we were taken aside with the other gay couple for a special gay meeting at break with the nurse. The nurse explained that if both partners wanted to breast feed that it was possible and explained how to go about doing it. No one jumped on that opportunity, but I appreciate the thought.

We are incredibly fortunate to be in this program. It is the only one in the city. It is a group health care community kind of a program. Our prenatal class at the clinic is really diverse and I feel very at home in it.  Aside from the gay meeting and cheering, we are treated like any other couple.

At first I was intimated that there is a team of 7 doctors and midwives and that anyone of them could be at the birth.  It seemed like a few too many.  Now that we have been in the program for a few months I am less worried about that. I have a better feel for the philosophy that they all work under and it feels like a good fit. I also will get a doula given to me by the doula match maker. I will get to meet her ahead of time and for sure she will be there with us the whole time. That takes away most of my concerns about having such a large team of doctors and midwives.

Last week we started on stages of labour. We had to watch the video. Yikes! It was weird sitting there and realizing that I was the one signed up for labour and F was going to be the superduper support person. It could have been either one of us in the hot seat and I don’t even know which seat is the hot seat.

September’s seriousness

I thought nesting instincts would naturally kick in at some point during pregnancy along with a surge in energy. I think about doing something to get ready sometimes, but then I go to bed or take a nap. Really since getting pregnant my primary focus has been on swimming and prenatal yoga. Everything else I figured I would do later. Then later came and there were tears. Somehow I thought when I came back from vacation in September I would get serious and get things done. The only problem is that I still want to swim and do yoga and I still have to go to work. I spent the majority of the time left sleeping.

This weekend I did go to a diaper workshop, washed 500 loads of baby laundry things, washed various other things that have been sitting in the basement and built a white frilly bassinet (Eek I am not a white frilly bassinet kind of  a person, but it is a very practical hand me down from F’s mom.)  My mom and a friend helped hugely with this and then F did more when she got home because my back said no more lifting of anything including Moumee. Luckily Moumee didn’t know that I could only catch her if she was up high and wasn’t able to take advantage of my no bending ability. I booked us an appointment with the law students to talk about Second Parent Adoption.  I also researched the car seat safety check program and emailed to  get the car seat instruction manual.

This was a good start (And I did on the day that I ran out of clean maternity panties) but it was not fueled by any kind of natural energy surge.  I was beyond tired by the end and was only able to splash around in the pool the next day.  My other attempts at doing errands have been only sort of successful. I forgot to put money in the parking meter and get a ticket, I left the thing that I just bought at the store, I just noticed that I haven’t opened any mail for at least a month (which means I didn’t pay the bills)  and I have to stop and eat snacks  all the time because I am constantly hungry. I feel so ineffective.

Now I am going swimming again! This is the last day of outdoor swimming and I just can’t miss it. I have had a great season at Kits. It is my favorite thing about the city and what I would miss most if I were to move. This pool is no ordinary pool. It is six times the size of a regular pool. It is 137.5 meters long (445 feet long.) This amazing pool was built right beside the beach. It is beautiful. How can I do laundry and organize things when there is something like this in my city? I also belief that all this swimming and yoga is what is keeping my body so healthy and strong and that when push comes to shove this is what will pull me through labour.

Moumee’s adventures

Here is Moumee at her Japanese homestay. She stayed there while we were away with F’s friend. She is supposed to be making friends with Hatsi the other cat and practicing Japanese. Unfortunately when Moumee arrived at her host parent’s home she behaved like a tiger and not like a cat at all. She was hissing and clawing and one day had soft poo! F’s other friend, also known as the cat master came to visit, and Moumee became a cat again.

Here is a link to Moumee’s host parent’s blog and the story of the Cat Master.

Honest Scrap

Those lovely girls at Journey Towards our Baby and Babybeans tagged me with the Honest Scrap Award before I left for the Rockies. I think most of my blog roll has been tagged so far, so I am not going to tag again but fess up kids. Smile.

Here  are 10 honest things about me!

1.I am big city girl. Small towns and suburbs scare me.  My favorite cities I have been to are: SF and NY. My other favorite city is not big at all, but I love it just as much,  Luang Prabang in Laos.

2. When I was 19 I legally changed my last name to that of a very famous well known girl dectective. Mysteries and adventures always seem to fall in her lap. Luckily she had two chums to help her out. I spent considerable time when I was young tapping on my bedroom walls searching for secret panels and hidden doorways.

3. I eat Nutella straight from the jar with a spoon.

4. I secretly watch the Duggers on TV.

5. I consider it essential to have a pedicure before giving birth. Not just any pedicure, but one from Bloom with nail art. I don’t like pants off appointments and I haven’t figured out a way to give birth with pants on. Having really rock’n nails gives me some dignity back.

6.  I like peeing in the bushes and would choose that anyday over some stinky outhouse.

7.  I love marmite and peanut butter toast. I have never met anyone else that does.

8. My life long dream is to be able to do the splits. I thought pregnancy might help because I had heard that you get more flexible. So far, no go. I still can’t do it. I did manage to do a flip on a trampoline before getting pregnant. That was cool.

9.  I am a McGrumpypants if I have to do anything when I am hungry. I have learned to bring food with me and that the repercussions of leaving what I am doing to go and eat is always less than trying to continue hungry.

10. I bug Moumee and she bugs me. We like bugging each other. I am bigger, but she has claws. Evensteven.

Rockie Mountain fun

A lot has happened since I last had time and internet access, starting with peeing my way through two provinces. That’s right, it’s vacation time. F and I have a week off with some weekends and hit the road and made our way through the Rockies to Edmonton, home of F’s family.

The Rockies kick ass. We stayed in rustic hostels for three nights and the Lake Louise hostel for one.  I have never stopped for so many bathroom breaks before in my life. The peeing highlights have to include the side of the Albertian highway, dodging tourists cameras at Lake Louise and the hostel with an outhouse, no running water and a bear that visits the area. F also kindly pointed out to me that I was making a lot of groaning noises while in the hostel bathroom.  The problem was trying to put on my shoes in the shower room, after a large meal with nothing to sit on.  Putting on shoes is one of the least fun things I have to do everyday. Luckily no one else was in the dorm at the time and heard me. After realizing what a ruckus I was making, I gave up putting on my shoes anywhere except the stairs at the  front of the hostel.

We did some fantastic hikes and I am feeling healthy and strong. While I sucked at trying to get pregnant, I am doing good  at being pregnant. I am slower and need way more sleep and rest, but am still active and feel pretty well.  I even made it up to the teahouse at Lake Louise with my husband’s help. F carried the pack, waited patiently for me, and even pushed me up a couple of hills and to help me defy the effects of gravity. What a girl. She does so much for us. After finally making it to the top, we spent two hours at the teahouse eating and resting.  The teahouse full filled all my romantic ideals about the Rockies. It was beautiful.

Now we have a couple more Edmonton days before we head back to our happy gay friendly city. We haven’t figured out if going home will take us one or two days. Long car rides are not the most comfortable for me and we have to stop so much. Either way we will get there and then head back into work and the beginning of another school year.