THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - August Edition
Updated: Jun 18, 2021
I am not totally okay that it’s already August. I still feel like summer just got started. But I’ve been having a bunch of summertime fun, which is what’s important!
There have been a bunch of events happening in Montreal; like First Fridays, Just For Laughs Festival, and Osheaga Festival and we have been doing them all!
Tim’s brother Jeff and his wife Mya came to Montreal to visit from London for the first time, so we had a ton of fun with them.
Other than their visit, the beginning of July was fairly quiet, which was nice. But it didn’t stay that way for long! I hopped on a plane and flew down to Toronto to spend a few days with my TO besties there!
Our first order of business was to take a mini photo shoot at the DVP rainbow tunnel that Colen and I have loved for our whole lives.
I love any time that I get to spend with these ladies, my oldest friends in life. ♥
**Sarah had her baby boy Brayden five days after I saw her, so I luckily made it there just in time!!!**
Then Tim and I drove from Toronto up to our family cottage on Lake of Bays in Muskoka. Our summertime visit to the cottage is always the best one because we spend the whole time on the dock and in the lake. The whole Golem crew was there, which is now 11 people and 3 more on the way!!
After the cottage we drove over to Ottawa and picked up Dustin from Vancouver and Sarah from Regina at the airport there. Then we had Ottawa funtimes! I have always wanted to do the yoga on Parliament Hill, which takes place every Wednesday in the summer. It was so awesome!
We also met up with Laura (who now lives in Ottawa) and it was so amazing to get to see her!
And of course Enobong was there too!
It has been so amazing to get to see all of you Ontario beauties this month. ♥
After Ottawa we drove back home to Montreal! We tried to show Sarah and Dustin as many of the Montreal sights as possible...
...But the main reason for their visit was to attend the three-day long Osheaga Festival with us! It was a ton of fun! Hot, dirty, incredible music fun!
I loved getting to see Passenger, Beirut, The Lumineers, HAIM, Death Cab for Cutie, Lana Del Rey, MØ, BØRNS, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and M83... But the absolute highlight for sure was Radiohead who closed out the final night. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my whole life. I still find myself questioning whether or not it actually happened.
That baby in my body sure has been to a lot of great concerts so far!!
BABY WATCH 2016:
I know that this is the only part of the blog that you guys care about. ;P But I demand that you care about the rest of my life as well!! Ha ha! I am still a human person! I am more than just the creature that I’m growing, damn it!
I have now reached 16 weeks of pregnancy, which means that I have been pregnant for four months! The second trimester really is the good one!
Month 4!
The baby bump is now a real thing and there’s less and less hiding it. Thankfully we announced the pregnancy publicly on Facebook and Instagram so now I can finally rock my new baby bod for all to see! :D
In fact, during my 16th week strangers have started to notice/acknowledge my pregnancy. People have given me seats on the metro and have congratulated me. So it’s safe to say that it is no secret anymore!
I now weigh 125 pounds, which means that I have gained 11 pounds since this all began. (But I’ve also been eating a lot of vacay food... So I’m pretty convinced that some of it might be a food baby...)
This is what happened inside of my body in the fourth month...
In month four I got sick with a cold/flu for about three days which was really annoying since I rarely get sick in usual life. I guess this is the result of having a lowered immune system thanks to pregnancy. I had a very sore throat and an achy body, and I also vomited twice. This brings my total pregnancy barf count up to four! Apart from that incident, I have actually been feeling especially excellent lately! I’m very energized, a lot less tired, and I feel like I’m up for just about anything! I do feel round ligament pains once in a while, but these are pretty minor. This is definitely the most “normal” that I have felt since everything started.
On July 5th I FINALLY(!!!) went for my first midwife appointment! To do this in Montreal, I had to go through the Service de Sages-Femmes du CSSS Jeanne-Mance. (“Sage-femme” is “midwife” in French.) You have your appointments at their own special clinic which is designated to you based on where you live in the city. They assign whichever midwife is available to you, so I was very anxious to finally meet her! And I liked her right away!! Her name is Kim, she seems to be in her mid-30s, and I loved what she was wearing. Ha ha! Tim came with me and it was great to finally lay the groundwork of this whole operation. Kim asked me a bunch of questions about my health and family history, and she told me that if I want to give birth at a hospital (which I do) that that will happen at l’Hôpital Saint-Luc. She took blood and urine samples from me and took my blood pressure and weighed me. She also discussed the various tests that I need to go for and gave me requisitions to go to get an ultrasound and blood test ASAP, and as well as for a 20 week ultrasound. The best part was when we got to listen to the baby’s heartbeat. It was so surreal. More real confirmation that someone is actually in there! Tim seemed to really love that moment, which was so nice because it was his first experience actually having contact with the baby. The appointment took about an hour and a half and Kim said that everything looks great so far! She scheduled to see me again in five weeks. It all feels a little bit more real now!!
The next day, on July 6th (at 13 weeks), I managed to get a day-of appointment to have my first trimester ultrasound scan done, as well as the nuchal translucency screening with blood test. (This was stressing me out. Because of the delays in getting in to see the midwife, I was right at the end of the possible time frame to have this screening done and most clinics were already booked up. I had to get myself into a private clinic to have it done, and thankfully found one with time to see me.) The absolute craziest part, of course, was seeing the ultrasound. My first time seeing the baby. Unfortunately, Tim could not come with me because it was all so last minute and he had meetings to attend at work. :(
The technician dated the pregnancy only one day ahead of what I had previously thought, which gives me a due date of January 10th, my exact birthday!!! The baby was 2.68 inches long. It was moving all around and rolling around so much - that was the most incredible part to see. It felt like what I was seeing couldn’t possibly be taking place inside of my body. The technician said that it was a very active baby... So it really must be mine! He/she has been doing headstands and handstands for all of its life so far!
The technician even did a 3D scan, even though I didn’t ask for it or pay extra for it. She was so nice! That was even more unbelievable to see. (They gave me printouts of nine different pictures, which I scanned at home.) She said that everything looked happy and healthy in there! I got a call about the results from the tests that I did and all of the results were very good. So that was good news! For the Down test I got 1:18,000, which is a very low risk and great result. (A “good” result is considered anything greater than 1:1500.) I believe that they had tested for other things as well, and everything was good. Great news all around!
We have begun to completely overhaul our house. For those of you who have been to our place (11 of you), you know that we have three bedrooms; our room, a guest room, and an office. And that ALL of those rooms are FULL of stuff and there is no room for a baby. We don’t have any form of storage area whatsoever, so we have now begun to rent a storage locker. The office is becoming the baby room and we have now almost completely emptied it out. The guest room has now had a small office area added to it. It’s amazing how much stuff that we have put into storage!
Random baby purchases keep happening here and there, but we haven’t bought anything major yet.
I also bought a special belly button ring called a “pregnancy piercing” which is made out of a soft plastic that you can wear all the way throughout pregnancy (which you can’t always do with the metal ones). The bar part allows a lot more space for your body to change and grow. So that’s my hot tip about how to deal with a belly button piercing during pregnancy, in case you didn’t already know!
Now you’re completely baby-up-to-date!
And now it’s August! Tim left for Vancouver for work and Dustin went back home at the same time. So now it’s just me and Sarah in Montreal for a couple of days.
Then the two of us are taking the train back to Ottawa to spend a few more days there. Following that, Sarah, Enobong and I are taking the train to Toronto and we’ve got more days there for fun activities and wedding dress shopping for Sarah!
Once I’m back at home things will be a bit calmer. My parents arrive on August 21st for a visit and my brother arrives on August 27th. So it will be cool to have my whole family in Montreal for the first time! Jamie hasn’t visited us here yet until now. I’m looking forward to all of the fun and eats!
THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:
August 3rd is Zena Domanski’s 65th birthday!
I love you Mom! I hope that it’s a nice day for you and we’ll celebrate properly when you get to Montreal! I’m super excited to be making you a grandmother soon! I feel confident about becoming a mother myself because of the wonderful example that you’ve always shown me. ♥
August 5th is Krystie Coutu’s 4th wedding anniversary!
Wishing you and Trevor the most wonderful day together! Make sure to celebrate the love that you share!
August 8th is Lacey Suttie’s 7th wedding anniversary!
You and Dallas always seem to have the most fun and I hope that your anniversary is no exception!
August 11th is Crystal Maffenbeier’s 9th wedding anniversary!
I remember you and Jared’s day like it was yesterday! I hope that you guys get the chance to do something special together.
August 15th is Enobong Antsey’s 1st wedding anniversary!
One year of wedded bliss for you and Ian! It flew by!!! I was so honoured to be involved in your day and I hope that you guys do some celebrating to mark the occasion!
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