THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - January Edition
Updated: Jun 18, 2021
I guess I’m going to have a baby this month??? That’s only slightly terrifying.
I hope that you all had incredibly wonderful Christmases and that your 2017s are off to an amazing start!! I was definitely thinking of all of you while I spent my quiet little Christmas at home. ♥ In case you didn’t catch it, I posted my annual 2016 Thoughts, Resolutions, Re-caps, Bests blog yesterday, which may be of interest. It’s basically just me yammering on about the things that I liked. Ha ha!
December was generally pretty hunker-down-like. We did holiday things but we also did lay-sideways things.
Our favourite Santa was back! He only comes out for one day a year and for only three hours!! I’m looking forward to tossing a baby at him next Christmas.
Even at nine months pregnant, I still filled my life with plenty of this...
I’m telling you, not only is yoga a fountain of youth, but it’s also a fountain of easy pregnancy!!
And of course we had Tim’s epic BioWare Christmas party to attend!! Always our biggest party of the year. We got all dressed up and this year’s party theme was “vintage traveling circus.” The party was full of incredible things to see and do and eat just like every year! Gonna need a babysitter for next year!!!
And then the holidays rolled on through. Tim had the week off between Christmas and New Years, which was really nice.
Just getting up to some Christmas morning shenanigans...
I wasn’t sure what Christmas at home with just the two of us was going to be like, but it was actually really nice. I can’t have imagined us traveling anywhere with my giant novelty-sized body and we had such a nice time just being together. We got to enjoy so much delicious Montreal Christmas food that we never usually get to have! Plus it gave us a chance to get things done around the house that needed to happen before the baby comes. Like cleaning up our complete house disaster.
BABY WATCH 2017:
As of last week, I have now reached 38 weeks of pregnancy, which means that I have been pregnant for over nine months! NINE MONTHS??? Are you kidding me??? Is this seriously where we’re at??? It’s crunch time!! I am also now aware of the pregnancy lies that we’ve come to accept; such as that “pregnancy lasts for nine months,” which is completely untrue. It’s more like ten months.
Month 9!
I often feel awkward and slow these days, but still pretty good!
I am now at 151 pounds, which means that I have now gained 37 pounds since this all began. I’ve cracked 30 pounds of weight gain! The problem is that most of this month’s weight is literally due to eating SO MUCH heavy holiday food. I’m certain that my actual weight is more around the 145 mark. Now that the holidays are over I’ll be able to eat more healthfully like I usually do, and I know that like 5 pounds are going to disappear. With my BMI, I’m supposed to gain somewhere around 25-35 pounds in total for pregnancy. So I should be roughly within the healthy range for my size.
Here is a comparison of month 1 VS month 3 VS month 6 VS month 9, which shows quite a difference.
This is what happened inside of my body in the ninth month...
I would say that around week 33 things definitely got more uncomfortable. But you know, if it took until month nine for me to start feeling that way, I certainly do not have much to complain about. My body generally feels a lot more sore and awkward. And the heartburn had gotten quite bad... To the point where one night I threw up all over our bed!! Poor Tim and the things that he has had to deal with... Like washing all of the bed sheets at 1am... This brought my pregnancy barf count up to five! We have now upgraded my TUMS to Zantac, and this seems to be making a major difference. The problem is under control! Otherwise, I am still sleeping quite contently straight through the night. Still no Braxton-Hicks contractions and no swelling either - my rings and shoes still fit! I can definitely tell a difference in the baby’s movements compared to earlier when it had a lot more space. It used to be so much more random and jabby! Now it feels more like large, hard, rolling bumps of baby body. And still lots of hiccups. My mood is still really good (I think I’ve only cried once or twice throughout the entire pregnancy), I’m just a lot more “aware” of the more difficult aspects of late pregnancy. It’s funny because some days I’ll feel totally great and full of energy and ready to run around and do things, while other days I’ll feel super sore and can barely convince myself to get out of bed. It’s hard to tell what kind of day each one will be.
Tim brought home a sore throat and sure enough I ended up with a bit of a cold for a few days. This mainly caused me to be coughing a lot, which tended to sometimes lead to more barfing. One morning I had just finished eating my breakfast and then I barfed the entire thing up. Another night I started coughing a lot in bed which caused me to throw up. So new total pregnancy barf count: SEVEN! I’ve also recently developed a little bit of melasma on my cheeks. This should go away after pregnancy but I’m finding it annoying that it decided to show up right at the last moment. No one wants patchy brown-face! And lastly, a couple of weeks ago I was walking home from yoga class and it was especially icy and snowy out and I slipped and fell down! Generally not what a pregnant person wants to do. I landed on my hands and knees and it wasn’t a big deal. (Although my knees did get scraped and bruised.) The people around me on the street seemed pretty concerned. Oh what a hilarious pregnant calamity I have become! On December 12th I had my 6th midwife appointment. Tim was back on board for this one. It was more of the same. It took about 45 minutes and I was weighed, urine was tested, blood pressure was taken, stomach was measured, and baby’s heartbeat was listened to. Again, everything was normal and happy. The baby was still head-down, so it seems like that’s his/her jam now. The only different thing that happened at this appointment is that I did the Group B Streptococcus screening. It would be nice for that to come back as negative. But not the end of the world if it doesn’t. My appointments are now going to start taking place every two weeks. On December 13th we had our third and final pre-baby meeting with our doula. Again, she came to our house and we chatted for about an hour and a half. This time was more focused on things that will happen after the baby has been born and what the first few weeks will be like. We covered things like breastfeeding and being zombies who no longer remember sleep. It was helpful to hear a bit more about what to expect, because I honestly have no idea whatsoever. I’m looking forward to having a couple of weeks with Tim to figure out what our new life is going to be, but also really looking forward to having our parents come visit soon after because I’m sure that we will really appreciate their help. Laurel stressed that having support around is really important, and living in Montreal, we don’t really have any. Grandparents to the rescue!!
On December 29th I had my 7th midwife appointment. This one was with Nathalie Bisson, a midwife who I hadn’t met before. Nathalie is my official “back-up” midwife, who will be delivering the baby if my primary midwife Marie-Ève is off or unavailable. I really liked Nathalie a lot! Maybe the most of all. So whoever is there on the day will be fine with me, since they’re all so awesome. This appointment was about an hour long and we did all of the usual stuff; I was weighed, urine was tested, blood pressure was taken, stomach was measured, and baby’s heartbeat was listened to. Nathalie said that the baby has a very strong and fast heartbeat which indicates strong neurological activity. She also said that the baby is in a very good position, still head-down. And my Group B Streptococcus results were negative, which is great news! This should mean that I may not need an IV at all during labour - which is awesome because I plan on doing handstands (kidding). My next appointment is scheduled to be in two weeks.
This is where we are going to have the baby! (This is also where we have been going for our midwife appointments this entire time.)
Should you require further info about where we’ll be, here it is:
Maison de Naissance Jeanne-Mance
1822 Rue Ontario Est
Montréal, Québec
H2K 1T7
If for any reason we are required to be transferred to the hospital, we’ll be here. Although I feel pretty strongly that this is not going to happen.
Hôpital Saint-Luc
1058 Rue Saint-Denis
Montréal, Québec
H2X 3J4
One last funny thing that I wanted to share is this cute thing that my pregnancy app does (I use Ovia Pregnancy Tracker and highly recommend it!!). You know how every week most trackers will tell you what size your baby is compared to a fruit or vegetable? Well this app tells me the baby’s size compared to animals. Which is so much better! The best part is that throughout the course of the pregnancy almost ALL of my old pets have come up as animal sizes! The baby was the same size as Chippy the hamster, Milly the mouse, Daisy the sugar glider, Truffles the guinea pig, Mr. Bojangles the chinchilla, and Twiggy the ferret. It’s the BEST. (Right now it’s the size of a Pomeranian.)
So I guess that we’re pretty much ready to go! The baby’s room is all finished except for a bit of wall decor that I want to buy once we find out if it’s a girl or a boy. Once the room is officially complete I’ll share photos! It’s totally the nicest room in our house. We also have a bassinet ready to go in our bedroom. I should pack a damn “hospital bag.”
Next month’s blog should include a BABY!!! Although I’m sure that I’ll write you guys one sooner then that to actually tell you all about how the birth went. And I will send you all texts when the baby arrives! (You won’t have to wait for Facebook/Instagram to tell you the news like everyone else.) Now you’re completely baby-up-to-date! Other than birthing a baby, January should be pretty low-key for obvious reasons!!
But I do still have my birthday on the 10th and I’m turning 35 which is mostly unbelievable to me! The baby is due right around the same time and I’m hoping that we don’t have to share a birthday. Everyone should have their own day! I don’t have any birthday plans, but heck, I’m still not against a fancy dinner. Ha ha! I’ll eat foie gras while in labour if I have to. Ha ha ha!
Once the baby is born Tim will begin his month of paternity leave off of work immediately, which will be so awesome. And then my parents are coming to Montreal at the end of the month for a week.
THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:
January 30th is Enobong Anstey’s 35th birthday!
I have loved getting to share pregnancy with you this past year and I can’t wait for our babies to finally get to meet! You’re doing so great as a new Mom and you’re absolutely inspiring me to be able to do the same. I hope that Ian spoils you a lot for your first birthday as a Mom!! I love you tons and can’t wait to make some plans to see you super soon! ♥
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