THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - November Edition
Updated: Jun 18, 2021
This blog entry has a lot of ground to cover!!! This may take a while...
First let’s begin with the crazy month that was October.
We went apple picking! That was a fun falltime activity. We spent the whole month making delicious things out of all the apples! (Correction: Tim did the picking and I did the shenanigans.)
Then we drove over to London for Emily and Matt’s wedding. It was such an awesome time. We stopped in Toronto on the way and I got to see Sarah and Colen and meet their newest little babies! Looking forward to joining the third little pal to this party...
My Sister-in-Law Mya was also about to blast out a baby at any second! She was at 38 weeks while we were in London.
The wedding was totally awesome and fun. They held it at a really beautiful venue and I tore up the dance floor in heels like it was NBD. Emily was so gorgeous and I’m so happy that Matt is officially locked in as my Brother-in-Law! He’s my favourite, ha ha. Now we’re all out of Golem weddings... And now it’s all about Golem babies. SO. MANY. BABIES.
We also celebrated Thanksgiving with the family while we were in London. Emily and Matt flew off to their honeymoon in Iceland the next day!
We attended yet another feast at the Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon, this time for their harvest season meal. It was ridiculously over-the-top as per usual. But so, so delicious! I keep telling the baby that this is what food is, and that it had better be preparing itself.
And then on October 17th, exactly on her due date...
IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!
I'm an AUNT (again)!
I have a NIECE!
My second niece or nephew EVER!
Her name is Madison Jacqueline Golem and she was born at 6:40pm!
Baby and Mya are doing great, and I can’t wait to meet our newest family member super soon!
Then Tim and I went off on our babymoon! Because that’s a thing!! Ha ha! (Any excuse for a vacay is okay by me.) I really wanted to go to New York City because I’d never been there and now that we live in the east it’s much more accessible as a weekend trip. So we went and it was a great time!! We saw all of the things and we celebrated Tim’s 33rd birthday while we were there! This preggo lady busted her ass allllllllll around that town in three days! :D
We had Tim’s birthday dinner at Le Bernardin, a 3-Michelin starred restaurant. It had a dress code. I was beyond excited. We did the Chef’s Tasting Menu and it was a meal from my foodie dreams. (Again, I reminded the baby that this is what food is, so it had better get used to it. Ha ha ha!)
So glad that we got to have one last child-free shebang before we’ve gotta dial things back for a little while. (But also, I’m still fairly convinced that we are going to have plenty of adventures with the baby as well. I insist!)
We went to Ottawa to see a concert and then it was Halloween! We carved pumpkins and I dressed up as Juno MacGuff. I wanted to capitalize on a good pregnant costume while I had the opportunity!
BABY WATCH 2016:
I can’t believe that I am now in the third trimester!!! As of last week, I have now reached 29 weeks of pregnancy, which means that I have been pregnant for seven months! Where did the time go??? Although when I think back to when we first found out that I was pregnant, that does seem like a long time ago. What on earth am I going to do with a human baby?!?
Month 7!
Getting bigger but still feeling great!
I am now at 141 pounds, which means that I have now gained 27 pounds since this all began. I feel heavier, but still strong and energized. It’s kind of shocking to see numbers like this on the scale. I have definitely never seen anything close to 140 before.
This is what happened inside of my body in the seventh month...
I’m considering myself pretty lucky so far because while I feel a lot bigger, things have still been generally easy. I don’t usually feel all that tired and tend to stay up until 11pm or later pretty regularly. That being said, I’m able to get plenty of rest and relaxation throughout the day. My sleeps at night are still really good and I’m able to stay comfortable thanks to my Snoogle, although I do notice myself switching from side to side during the night. But so far I don’t even have to get up during the night to pee! My appetite is still completely normal. I wouldn’t say that I find myself eating more or less than usual, and have still not experienced any specific cravings or aversions. No stretch marks, serious heartburn, or backaches yet, and my fingers are crossed that it stays that way! Really, the only thing that has been bothering me is continued pelvic and groin muscle soreness, which I believe is simply due to the added weight resting on top of that area (my midwife agreed). Some days are worse than others, but generally I’m still fully functional. I’ve also found that using a heated Magic Bag and taking warm baths has helped to soothe this problem quite a lot. So I’m good!!
I have started playing a lot of music for the baby, usually through my iPhone pointed at my stomach. I know that classical music is supposed to be good for babies... But I play Rockabye Baby! versions of Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, and The Pixies instead. :D Baby seems to totally love it because he/she always starts dancing as soon as it comes on! On top of this, the baby has already attended 25 different concerts (25 different bands) and 4 musical theater productions since being conceived... So I'm thinking that they'll be destined to have an affinity for music. ;)
I have begun to modify my yoga practice. This makes me a little bit sad, but has become necessary. I'm proud that I was able to keep up my regular intermediate/advanced yoga practice for the entire first six months of my pregnancy! As was recommended to me right at the very beginning, for my third trimester I am now only going to be attending Prenatal classes. I should be able to do these all the way until the end. My studio only offers Prenatal once a week on Fridays, so in addition to this class I have also signed up with OneOEight, an online yoga platform where I can take more prenatal classes online (at home) throughout the week. (These are taught by Rachel Brathen, my favourite also-pregnant celebrity yogini who I mentioned in an earlier blog. The timing of this is all really perfect.)
On October 13th I had my 4th midwife appointment. This one was with yet another midwife named Marie-Ève, and she is supposed to be my primary midwife now. I think that I like her the most of all out of the various midwives that I’ve met! They’ve all been pretty great though. At this appointment I did the one-hour Glucose Challenge Test (one blood draw) to screen for gestational diabetes. I was given the Glucodex (the juice) in advance and was told to drink it 15 minutes before my appointment. I DRANK THE JUICE!! It tasted like flat orange drank. I did not hate it! My blood was taken for this test about an hour later.
My whole appointment lasted for about an hour in total. As per usual, I was weighed, urine was tested, blood pressure was taken, stomach was measured, and baby’s heartbeat was listened to. Everything was healthy and great! Marie-Ève said that she believes that the baby is positioned head-down, and he/she kicked her a whole bunch. Tim’s blood test confirmed that he is in fact also O negative, same as me, which means that I won’t need the Rh immunoglobulin injection. My next midwife appointment was scheduled to be in four weeks.
All along we had been pretty set on delivering the baby in the hospital (Hôpital Saint-Luc)... But recently my midwife clinic opened a brand new (3rd in Montreal) maison de naissance AKA birthing centre. It’s literally located just upstairs from the clinic that I go to for my appointments. So I asked about it and Marie-Ève gave us a tour! It was quite beautiful and reminded me of a lovely B&B! (Except with some medical equipment around.) They have four different private birthing rooms, each with its own huge bathtub and separate bathroom with shower. They have a gorgeous kitchen where they cook for you. It’s like a cross between having a home birth and a hospital birth - the best of both worlds. So now we’re seriously considering this as an option. I still want to go and do the hospital tour in order to compare, but this place seems a lot more conducive to a relaxed, comfortable, natural and beautiful birthing experience (and less sterile and clinical). Which is what I would prefer.
In the birthing centre (AKA baby hotel) they also have big beautiful portraits up of all of the midwives in the common area. These are the two midwives that have been taking care of me the most! Marie-Ève and Kim! For anyone who imagines midwives as hippies or old European ladies who pull babies out... That is the wrong idea entirely. They’re beautiful, strong, capable, modern young women. The midwives in Montreal are glamour queens!
On this topic, some discussion came up in last month’s blog about what having a midwife VS other care providers means. I found this chart which breaks things down pretty clearly:
Like it says, midwives have low rates of medical interventions, which is one of the main areas of importance to me. Medical interventions during labour include the use of IV, vaginal examinations, induction, epidural, narcotics, directed pushing in a reclining position, episiotomy, vacuum extraction, forceps delivery, and C-section. Midwives commonly use little or none of these practices and they don’t even have most of them available. Since I am hoping to have a natural birth, I would like to try to avoid the use of all of these interventions as much as possible. This is why I chose a midwife as my care provider. That being said, giving birth to a healthy baby is the number one priority, of course! So I am open-minded enough to go with the flow of whatever the situation may require.
I feel pretty confident that with the help of my dreamteam midwife, doula, husband, and my own stubborn determination, that I’ll be able to do this. ;P
Unfortunately, I got a bit of annoying news. My Glucose Challenge Test came back positive and I was also informed that my iron levels were a bit low. So I had to go back to do the three-hour Glucose Tolerance Test (three blood draws) which gives a firm diagnosis as to whether one has gestational diabetes or not. I was feeling pretty bummed about this, but my midwife made me feel better by telling me that lots of women have a positive first test and a negative second test. I hoped that this would be the case for me. I certainly do not feel like I have diabetes. To deal with my iron issue I have begun taking an all-natural mineral iron supplement and also drinking nettle tea twice a day. So hopefully that will have fixed things when they test me again.
On October 19th I went back to the midwife clinic to do my Glucose Tolerance Test with Kim. You have to have fasted for at least eight hours prior to this one, and once again I had to drink more JUICE. This test took a lot longer because they took my blood three times, with an hour in between each of them. I’m really hoping to get back a negative result this time!!
On that same day I also went to see an Osteopath/Perinatal Massage Therapist named Bianca Thuot about my pelvic soreness. She was recommended to me by my doula. I was there for about an hour and she did a bunch of things to adjust my pelvis. It was very relaxing. She said that I did have some inflammation and that the problem is being caused by a combination of the extra weight and also because of the extra relaxin hormone in my system combined with already being a naturally flexible person. She gave me some suggestions of different things to try that should help. I’ve been feeling MUCH better ever since!
My midwife called me the next day to tell me that my Glucose Tolerance Test came back NEGATIVE!! So that was wonderful news! NO gestational diabetes for me! What a huge relief. Everything is back to smooth sailing.
In my 29th week of pregnancy I had my first dream about the baby. I have had a feeling that I am going to be having a boy pretty much throughout the entire pregnancy so far. I have no idea why! It just sort of feels “right” to me. But in the dream... The baby was a girl. So now I have no idea what to think!!
Now you’re completely baby-up-to-date!
What does November have in store? It’s fairly busy as well.
This coming weekend is our last Golem Muskoka cottage weekend of the year. I’m super looking forward to going and getting to meet my newest niece!
Then next week I’m off to Regina for a week! This will be my last visit out west before the baby is born. (And the last time that I’m allowed to fly as well.) I’m very much looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible before I blast a human out of my body! And of course I’m aware that my Baby Shower is happening while I’m there (you were all invited), so I’m pretty excited about that! I’m excited about my posh-hippy party - which is pretty much me in a nutshell. Ha ha!
The rest of the month is pretty much just various baby-related appointments. My life is being taken over by them.
THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:
November 9th is Erin Anderson’s 29th birthday!
It’s your last year in your 20s! Ahhh!! I feel like this means that you’re catching up to the rest of us old balls. ;) I miss you so much and I hope that you have a totally fabulous day, which I know that you will. I hope that everything in life is going so wonderfully for you right now, you deserve no less! Love you! ♥
November 10th is Sarah Swalm’s 34th birthday!
You have shown me so much about what it means to have strength through adversity in recent years, and I admire you so much. I value having you in my life always. I hope that Adam spoils you a ton because you really truly do deserve it!! Have a day for YOU! Love you always! ♥
November 20th is Carrie Schill’s 28th birthday!
We have had so many adventures together and I have loved every single one!!! You have always been such a giving friend and I couldn’t be more thankful for you. Andy will surely spoil you a ton on your day! You’re such a special and wonderful friend to have. I can’t wait to see you super soon!! Love you! ♥
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