Need Your Opinion

Need your opinion on this “pregnancy announcement” video I made. Our friends and family  are scattered across the globe in different time zones, so we were thinking how to best break the news. And thought of sending a video link – first to the closest family (e.g parents), then to further relatives and friends. I am not sure about facebook announcements, but that is unimportant at the moment.

Could you please watch the video and share your feedback? I still have the time to edit it.

PS I promise I won’t be posting 3 posts a day very often – sorry for over-messaging )

Sweet Tooth Gone?

I realized: since I got pregnant, I lost interest in sweets. I used to have the longest, biggest sweet tooth in the world. Chocolate? Pastries? Pies? Bring it on – no matter how full I am, I will always find a place in my stomach for desert. And now I realized that lately I just don’t crave desert.

To be sure, there is no aversion – give me a pastry and I’ll eat it. But I don’t get that mad light in my eyes, with a sole thought flashing at the back of my head “chocolate croissant, chocolate croissant, chocolate croissant”.

I don’t crave sweets any longer. I crave smoked salmon. Or babaganoush (sp?). Or sandwich thickly layered with mayo. Or even (urh) burgers. But not sweets. I lost my interest in them.

It is indescribably weird for me. No more crazy runs to convenience store to buy a jar of nutella. And even no baking!

Weird. As it is, I cooked a huge pot of soup to last a few days, and right away ate a bowl – and got myself a second helping. Such are my preferences these days…

Maternity Benefits

I called Service Canada today to find out the situation with maternity benefits. It’s pretty straightforward for most people: you get 50 weeks of paid matleave, the employer holds you place for you in the meanwhile. If you earned more than 22K in the 26 weeks preceding your mat leave, and worked for more than 600 hours in the previous 52 weeks, then you get $468 per week (minus taxes) for those 50 weeks. Or about $1700/month – net.

But for me, it’s very complicated. I was on unemployment insurance in April and May this year. Because of that, they calculate my insurable hours not for the whole 52 weeks prior to matleave – but only from the day I got off the unemployment. So I will have 7-8 months. Now, I work 3 days a week – that’s 22.5 hours a week. It looks like – if I don’t skip any days – I will have about 630 hours to claim. I can barely make it there! But I probably will. I will try and negotiate shuffling my workdays around to accommodate for the planned vacation (instead of taking days off, move them to week before/after vacation).

Also, since I am on contract, my employer won’t have to hold my job for me – so I won’t have anywhere to go back to once my 50 weeks of matleave are up. And – great news! – it looks like I will be able to then convert my matleave into regular unemployment benefits for another 18 weeks at same $1700 per month. This should give me enough time to look for a job – while still feeling financially secure.

So now my focus is on accumulating enough hours. I just hope they won’t fire me once they find out I am pregnant. If I were full-time, I wouldn’t worry (it’s illegal to fire someone for being pregnant), but since I’m on contract and have been there for less than 2 months… I don’t feel too secure. Oh well. I’ll have to wait and see.

At least it looks like everything should be fine.

And anyhow, the main thing is I am pregnant and we will have a baby. We can figure out whatever else might happen.

Random musings 1/4 into pregnancy

Just realized that AF is not gonna be visiting me for a while. Since her visits were so scarce during last year’s TTC (um… 3 times in a year? or something like that) – that until now I didn’t even notice her absence.

I have my first ob-gyn appointment in a month – what should I expect? Overall, what is it like – once you are out of the fertility clinic? How often do you need to see a doc? How often do you get ultrasounds?

I tried on maternity jeans yesterday. They were HEAVENLY comfy, but still too big. And normal jeans really cut into my belly when I sit – I can only wear dresses and skirts now. Can’t wait to be big enough for maternity pants.

My best friend asked me yesterday how we’re going to announce – call everyone who matters and email the others and facebook the rest of the world? I dunno. Haven’t decided yet.

I need to start looking into money matters. I need to understand what baby needs in its first year – what will we need to buy, how to choose it, how much will it all cost us. Lots of stuff you can find cheaper in the States – we will be visiting my SIL in the fall (she lives in NJ) – we should probably buy something online and get it shipped to her place and bring it back with us (we plan on driving).

Only 30 weeks left!!!

Ultrasound #3

Today we had our 3rd ultrasound – and said good-bye to our fertility clinic.

The baby was sooooo active today! She (the u/s tech) was showing it to me on the screen and it all of a sudden flipped! She said he sneezed, LOL – she actually saw how his fingers fanned He moved a lot, wiggled all the time. So cute. I saw the spine core, the heart (beating at 160) – and she said it looks like it’s a boy! Of course, it’s still very early, but she showed us something between his legs that looked like the turtle tale Well, it looked like it to her = we didn’t really see what she saw

I still haven’t heard the heartbeat. Their u/s machines’ sound isn’t working.

The baby measured at 10w (3 cm 6 mm) – while I am 10w3d, so I am a bit concerned.

Major disappointment: I thought I will be off progesterone in 1.5 weeks, but no. First of all, it’s until 12 weeks according to baby measures – and since the baby measures at 10 weeks and not 10w3d, I am still to take 3 pills a day for 14 more days. THEN for ANOTHER week – 2 pills a day. And THEN FOR ANOTHER WEEK  – 1 pill a day. Jeez. 4 more weeks of this! And it means I will still be shoving those up my ass when we’re camping in 3 weeks :/

I have my first Ob/Gyn appointment on Aug. 15.

They also are setting an appointment for the nuchal u/s in week 12 – to check for down syndrome. But that will be in a hospital. We’re done with the clinic. They wished me luck and asked to bring and show them the baby once it’s born

I don’t have ANY idea what to expect from the ob-gyn appointment and what happens after than 0 how often will we be seeing the doc, how often will there be tests, ultrasounds, etc.

And I probably should start looking into prenatal courses, labour plans, car seats, strollers… A whole world I know nothing of. While all I want to do is sleep…

Alcohol and Pregnancy

I am working for an alcohol company. I accepted an offer from them, and then I found out I was pregnant. Of course, for now I am keeping my pregnancy quiet. But today it was very hard to hide: we had tasting, samplings, and then a bartending corporate event.

I managed to dodge all the liquors without attracting attention to the fact (I think).

Tomorrow is another u/s. In a week and a half, I will be 12 weeks. I wonder when I should tell. I will have to tell sooner rather than later – for my belly keeps growing. Yeah, for now they don’t notice because they don’t know any better. But I think soon it will be fairly obvious.

Getting Fat

I think I should be a bit more cautious about my diet. I already gained 5-6 pounds. Thanks to not having morning sickness, Iameating more than ever.

I used to have salads for dinner. Now I have more substantial dinners: I am hungry when I get home. And I am eating cereals with milk for breakfast. For me, cereals are very fattening. But I can’t just drink plain milk – I can’t stand the taste. Will have to figure something out. Milkshakes, perhaps? I also have snacks in-between my meals now (I didn’t need them before).

I am planning on going shopping on Wednesday (my day off) – I need roomier t-shirts. Neither my boobs, nor my belly fit in mine. I never realized my whole wardrobe is so skin-tight :/

Overall, although I unpacked all of my sandals and shoes when warm weather finally arrived – I can just pack’em all back. They are all high-heeled and uncomfortable. I am wearing birks and crocs mostly now. Thank god we don’t have a dressing code

Most of my summer clothes can go on top shelve, too. The t-shirts, the fitted dresses, most pants…

I feel like I am wearing almost the same clothes all the time now. Like when I was fresh out of university and very poor.

And I am pretty sure most of the weight gain is due to my over-eating. Not simple pregnancy gain.

But – bonus – I am feeling better. Less tired, less bloated, more alive. And still not totally understanding the fact that there is a human being growing inside me.

Still cannot process this fact. I try to talk to my belly and my hubby even played and sang lullabies to my belly yesterday evening. But it still feels real only during those short times when there is a magic wand in my vagina and my baby on the screen. I wish I had my own u/s machine

10 Weeks is a Fetus!

10 weeks today – can hardly believe it. It marks the end of embryonic phase and the beginning of the fetal phase! Whatever that means It also marks us reaching double-digits: 10 weeks. We’re half way there!

According to various sources, my baby is the size of a prune – a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce.

Cute new developments: tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing), peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin, and limbs can bend now!

And my womb is the size of a grapefruit. Wow, that’s big.

And according to what I see in the mirror, my breasts are huuuuuge, covered with a vein roadmap.  I took a summer dress with me to Chicago to wear on day 2 – and I barely squeezed by breasts in!!! Thank god it’s cold in the office so I put a cardigan on top of it. It really didn’t look office-appropriate

I googled “10 weeks pregnant” and was happy to see that I am not the only one who has a really noticeable bump at 10 weeks

I also leafed through my pregnancy book – apparently, the pains I am experiencing in my lower abdomen are the round ligament pains. They usually don’t start until week 14 – but my round ligaments were weak to begin with (I often experienced such pains before pregnancy – they just never did last). So here I am, already experiencing more discomfort than I should because I never set foot in the gym. Lazy me.

Now – waiting for this Wednesday’s u/s.