23 Weeks. This Is Starting To Sink In.

An update of sorts, because I've been semi-absent of late. Life has just been extremely busy and I'm so tired by the end of the day, I can barely think, let alone sit down to write a coherent post! I'm such a bad blogger. Shame on me!

My parents arrive this evening at about 7 p.m. to spend a week with us. Hubby and I are REALLY looking forward to their visit; it's been awhile since my folks have visited at the same time. Anyway, in preparation for their arrival, we've been working like dogs to get the house "up to snuff" in some sort of decent order. We've done everything from pressure-wash the front of the house, to clean the minivan, to washing walls and curtains. I tell you, my house has never been so clean! Now if I can just maintain it til August and Petit's arrival. Cause honestly, I don't wanna have to clean all that again when I'm in my last month! Eeek!

As of next week, all four of us are going to pile in the van and head down to see my sister and her husband in West Virginia. Along the way, we intend to stop in Watertown and Waterloo (upstate NY) to do some shopping. I confess, I'm hoping to pick up a few more pieces of clothing, but more to the point, I have a few items in particular I'm looking for in order to prepare for Petit's arrival. Things like a safety gate with a cutout for my cats to pass through to get to their litterbox. Or a particular diaper bag that has caught my eye and isn't available up here. Stuff like that.

We're going to celebrate my brother-in-law's graduation while we're in West Virginia. He is just finished his Bachelor of Nursing and if I'm not mistaken, just accepted a position with a Trauma unit at the hospital in the city near them. We're so thrilled for him! Additionally, he and my sister just bought a new house and moved in on Saturday past. So the four of us will be their first houseguests. I hope they're ready! As well, we get to celebrate Mother's Day with our own mom and my BIL's mom. That'll be nice. I know how that particular day is reviled by infertiles but it's never been extremely hard for me. I think that's because I focus on my own mom and how wonderful she is and what an influence she's been in our lives.

My sis hopes to have a little gathering (aka "baby shower") for me as well. Nothing huge, just with the family on Mother's Day as well. It's not needed of course but I did miss her terribly while I was at home a few weeks ago and when Mom held a shower for me there. No, more to the point, I'm REALLY looking forward to shopping with my mom and my sister for Petit. That'll be amazing. It's my one and only chance to do that too because the next time I see my sister, Petit will (hopefully!) made his or her début.

After our time in West Virginia, we say goodbye to my sis, my BIL and his family, and my own parents and hubby and I head east for Virginia. We'll be just south of DC, in Woodbridge, visiting my best friend and his family. We'll stick there for a few days and indulge in some fun with them before hubby and I head for home on the Victoria Day weekend. So it's going to be a busy few weeks.

I have another ultrasound and doctor's appointment on Friday, May 1. This time, I extended to Mom the invitation to go with me so she can see Petit up close and in person. I hope she chooses to come. Ultrasounds are something she's never had the pleasure of experiencing while pregnant and it would be amazing to let her see the baby and hear the heartbeat live, so to speak. I think she'd enjoy it. Besides, I would like someone to come with me to the appointment and hubby can't make it this time around.

You see, hubby is finishing up his current contract and his last day of work will be Tuesday, May 5. He's continuing to look for other employement, but there isn't much out there. I expect that he'll resort to collecting Employment Insurance for awhile but with luck, something will come up soon. In the meantime, he passed the RPAT (RCMP Police Aptitude Test) and is now in the process of filling out the recruitment forms. Between the polygraph stuff, the physical tests, the vision tests, and the security clearance documents, he's got paperwork up the wazoo! He's excited beyond belief and I'm thrilled for him! Hopefully he can clear the next set of hurdles. I've got my fingers crossed for you honey!

I'm sitting at 23 weeks today. Tomorrow is our last prenatal class. My tummy continues to expand but at my last appointment, I'd only gained a total of 4 pounds. So I'm really pleased. Of course, given that I had a lot of weight to work with to begin, I'm likely right on track. Next week I go for the fasting glucose testing to check sugar levels. I guess gorging myself on gummy bears isn't the way to go then huh? Damn. And here I've been balancing out the gummy bears and Wen.dy's Frosties with the salt and vinegar chips!
Kidding! Kidding!
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Mostly. :)

Our very own Stirrup Queen's book is on the bookshelves. I hope to pick up a copy in my travels south of the 49th parallel. If you haven't already, go check it out. Navigating in the Land of IF is a must-have for those of us in this boat. Pick up your copy in a local store or online today! And congrats Mel on the publication. Job well done! *claps and cheers*

Another Event: Baby Steps

As a follow-up to my last post advertisting the Pram Push of 2009 as organized by Conceivable Dreams, I recently heard about the Ottawa event, scheduled to take place on May 23, 2009.

This event is organized by Dr. Vause of the Ottawa Infertility Centre and on the 23rd, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., there will be a walk to increase fertility awareness. I am going to do my darndest to get to this one! For sure!

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Baby Steps

A Walk to increase infertility awareness, one step at a time.
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Starting at the Ottawa Fertility Centre (955 Green Valley Crescent)

Register by mail:
Ottawa Fertility Centre
955 Green Valley Crescent
Ottawa, ON
K2C 3V4

Register by fax:
613-225-9736

Register in person:
May 23rd at the walk site from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
(Please visit www.conceive.ca to download registration form [PDF])

There is no registration fee, but donations will be accepted on behalf of the Infertility Awareness Association of Canada (IAAC).

For more information please call Dr. Vause at 613-686-3378.

Wear your pink or blue t-shirt to show your support!

Conceivable Dreams

To my readers who might be Canadian, and/or any who happen to be in or near the Toronto area for Mother's Day on Sunday, May 10, 2009, this is an event that I believe would be of great benefit.

At 10 a.m. on Mother's Day, the group Conceivable Dreams (the Ontario Health Insurance Plan for IVF Coalition) is holding a march and rally to raise awareness about infertility in Ontario. The event is called "Pram Push for IVF Funding" and makes for a great lead-in event to kick off Canadian Infertilty Awareness Week. They'll be marching from Nathan Phillips Square (Toronto City Hall) to Queen's Park and there they'll hold a rally and hear guest speakers.

If I weren't going to be in West Virginia at that time, I'd be making the drive to Toronto specifically to join with them... pregnant or not. This issue deserves attention by the Ontario and Canadian governments and I would imagine that with enough support, it would personalize the issue of infertility for a number of people who might be watching the event unfold.

I encourage you to peek at their website: http://www.conceivabledreams.org/. You can sign up for the march and rally on the website. They have a Facebook group too apparently. Or maybe you can post the link to the printable PDF on your own blog (http://www.conceivabledreams.org/cd/prampush2009.pdf). Anything to help!

I contacted one of the organizers, Kerri Stanford (info@conceivabledreams.org) and she said, "Please publicize our event as much as you would like. You can link the website, facebook event, our poster or anything that you would like. [...] Please have your blogger friends pass along the information to anyone who they feel would be interested in attending. Please feel free to use all your connections to help us!" She also said if anyone has questions or concerns, or needs further information to get in touch with her via the e-mail address above.

So I implore you, join in if you can. And thank you in advance. From all of the infertiles in Ontario, thank you for your help! Thank you! THANK YOU!!!! *hugs*

Pics for Your Viewing Pleasure

Shower (Saturday, April 4. 2009)

The cake; thanks Sis!

A friend gave me a lovely book to record my memories of the entire journey.

The first of many cute outfits that I foresee!

A snazzy handmade snowsuit for next year! And all with VELCRO! So easy to put the baby in and just wrap and go!

Pooh outfits and a bear! I see a theme here...

The quilt that Aunt B (pictured with me) made. All hand embroidered. It's going on the wall; it's far too beautiful to be covered in baby poo!
















20-week scans (Thursday, April 9, 2009)

Head and belly













Legs and toes! So what do you think... is Petit going to be dressed in pink or blue? Taking your opinions!

20 Week Scan

In about one hour I leave for the doc's for the 20 week morphology/anatomy scan. Yes, I know much of that was done a few weeks ago with the amnio, but hey, any opportunity to see Petit is good by me at this point! I'll take it.

After the ultrasound, I have an OB appointment as well and I have a few questions and issues that I want to bring up with them. I want to discuss alternatives to the OGTT crap test that I'm supposed to do in a few weeks. I want to indicate that I was less than impressed with the way I was told that my IPS came back "Positive for Down Syndrome." I want to let them know it's time for me to start meeting the other eight doctors at the practice, cause I ain't gonna let just anyone deliver Petit! Whoever is on shift when Petit is set to be delivered better take the time to shake my hand and stop for a few minutes to say hello first! And yet again, I'm going to insist that they take my blood pressure twice; once at the beginning of the appointment and once at the end. At the moment, I guarantee my blood pressure will be high. Depending on what they say during this appointment, it may go higher or lower!! We'll see.

I had a lovely vacation back home in Newfoundland for a week. It was perfect. Okay, perfect except for the weather; we had the traditional rain, drizzle and fog for much of the week. But whaddya expect in April folks?! Anyway, I got to see family and friends. We had a chance to talk about what my family would like to do in August when Petit is due and when they would like to come to Ontario to see the new addition. We had family all around the table for dinner most evenings. My aunt hemmed a pair of my new maternity pants and offered to make new curtains for Petit's room. And I asked her to make me a moby wrap to; that's a piece of cake for her though.

One piece of difficult news while I was home; my uncle has been diagnosed with kidney cancer and at the moment, surgery is scheduled for May. We can only hope that everything goes well. It bowled us all over I think; it was totally unexpected and was diagnosed after he saw the doctor the other day because of a prolonged bad back. An MRI found the tumor and the outlook is very good. So we keep our fingers crossed in the hopes that this turns out for the best possible result.

Yes, I know I've yet to show you pics of the lovely items from the shower my mom held for me last weekend. I promise I'll do that later. You'll all get a grand kick out of the cake! I promise! Kudos to my sis for having thought of what to write on it!

And I'm happy for Max and Vee! Vee is my due date buddy and they just found out that Doudou is a boy! I'm sure they're thrilled! Congrats to them both on such wonderful news.

Petit's Shower!

A quick update:

I'm at home visiting my family and loving every moment of it. I was thrilled yesterday to go to my regular hairdresser and finally get a decent cut (thank you Cathy!) and then off we went to have a 'feed' of proper fish and chips, and I personally topped that off with a slice of partridgeberry tart that my aunt made. I LOVE being at home with my family, but I do miss hubby very much. I wish he could have come but right now, we both understand that it's not really feasible.

Anyway, today is the day that Petit gets showered! I'm nervous about that, yanno, being infertile and all. But it's the only chance we'll get to get together as a family and with good friends from home to just enjoy the time together and as my mom says, "It isn't about the gifts. It's about being happy for Gil and her hubby, and celebrating this with her!"

I'll post more details later. For now, I look forward to tonight. Wish me luck!

Thoughts go out to...
Mary and Marc (about whom I made the previous post). Three days after Mary left that lovely card in my mailbox, she and Marc lost their beautiful Newfoundland dog, Hugger. My condolences to them. I know Hugger was a wonderful companion and truly a member of the family. He will be sorely missed.