Archive for April, 2008
April 12, 2008 at 9:54 am · Filed under baby bean
So today, I officially reach the 3rd trimester. Wow. I can’t believe it went by so fast. The first few months seemed to have gone so slowly and now all of a sudden, I’m 27 weeks along! Only 13 weeks to go before my due date. That’s a little over 3 more months and Baby Bean will be here.
Last week I had my regular prenatal doctor’s visit, and again we heard the heartbeat. The doctor was also able to see the position Bean was in at the time, by feeling my belly and stuff from the outside. She was upside down, with her head pointing downwards and her legs and feet kicking up towards my ribs. I felt the kicks as she was so rudely disturbed by all that probing. Hehe. Poor girl. And then afterwards, she settled down and went back to sleep. That’s my girl!
I’ve come to sort of compensate for my inability to sleep at night. It appears that I can only sleep really restfully starting at around 4 or 5am. So now I don’t make any appointments (if I can help it) for work until at least 10am. That gives me a longer morning to just sleep it through so I can get my hours. It makes for very tired, and confused, grumpy mornings, but it appears to be getting just a tad better.
As for you ladies out there who warned me about the chest area during pregnancy, all I can say is: I believe you now. I’ve gone from a 32A to a 36B. Somehow I got wider. I’ve gained a total of 20 pounds so far, and now it’s around a pound a week extra. Yo boy!
April 10, 2008 at 10:56 am · Filed under daily
Wow. So I woke up today at the latest I’ve ever woken up in a long time. 10am. Yeah that’s pretty late for me. I’m having a tough time sleeping at night. Or rather, falling asleep at night. I didn’t really start to fall asleep and get into a good, restful state until around 2am. But then I woke up again at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep until 6am. By then, I was just so exhausted that I slept until 10am. Oi. Good thing I didn’t have any early morning appointments today. I’m going to try to spend the rest of the day just hanging out and doing some paperwork for work. I have one late evening appointment, but that’s about it. At this point, I want to just have roller shades all around our house so that it looks “dark” even in the daytime so I can get some darn sleep!
Our rocking chair for Bean came in a couple of days ago. Dave put it together yesterday, and I gotta say — it is sch-weeet. It’s mighty comfortable. Dave tried to say it was the “Daddy and Bean Chair – No Mommies Allowed.” I don’t think that’s going to hold very well. 
We also got a really awesome reclining high chair for Bean, from our sister in law. It’s very cute. Only down side is that it’s plastic, but I guess we can’t avoid that 100% through. As long as her toys aren’t plastic, and her bottles and eating stuff aren’t plastic, I think we’ll do fine.
Okay I’m going to make breakfast. Bean’s getting antsy. She wants to eat. Okay okay. I do too. I’m starving.
April 7, 2008 at 8:47 pm · Filed under daily
I’ve started making Bean’s baby blanket. She’s been getting lots and lots of gifts from family and friends (thanks, guys!!), but of course she has to have a special blanket made from Mommy, right? I’m making it fuzzy white and yellow. A tinge of white to start with, and the rest will be yellow. 
Reminds me of sunshine and summer, exactly like her. This is my first time making a baby blanket (or anything outside of a scarf, really), so it will be interesting how it turns out. Maybe it will force me to venture out more. I haven’t knitted in a long time.
This is my last week on the 2nd trimester. Next week, starting this Saturday, I’ll be officially into the 3rd trimester. Time sure flies very, very fast. Only 13 more weeks to go. Wow. Before we know it, Bean will be here and I can finally hold her and kiss her squishy face all over. Hehe.
I’m starting to sleep a little better at night, though still uncomfortably so. The weird, vivid dreams have gone. However, I tend to sleep better towards morning time, for whatever reason. Not sure why. Which means… it’s very hard for me to get up in the mornings because I want more sleep and I am oh so very tired. I can’t make appointments any earlier than 9am. Crazy.
The Bean says hi. She’s kicking up a storm. G’Tuesday to you guys tomorrow.
April 6, 2008 at 5:04 pm · Filed under thoughts
I just finished reading a really good book, called “Infidel” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It really puts things into perspective, when reading memoirs about how other people in different parts of the world grow and live. I always thought I was a feminist of the fiercest kind, and thought I knew most, if not all, of the biggest feminist leaders past and present. However, this was the first time I’ve heard of Ayaan, and she just fascinates me. While I don’t really agree with some of her views and plans, I find that I have the utmost respect for her as a woman, a politician, and a progressive. I didn’t know much, and still don’t know much, about Islam and the Muslim world. I’ve heard rumors and stories and speculations, but I haven’t really heard much from anyone who has actually been born and raised Muslim. Her memoir told of how she grew and live in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopa. She spoke of how she witnessed little girls being flogged by their fathers and brothers for being raped. She spoke of how she herself was bought and sold by her father into a marriage she didn’t want to be part of. She talked of excision and little girls as young as 7 years old having the parts between their thighs sewn up so as to be “purified” in the eyes of Allah. I was absolutely appalled at the extreme ways of Islam. I was horrified.
I think, though, to put things in perspective, there are many extremes in every religion. Any extremist, no matter from what religion, can be led to become very violent and take away basic human rights from others who don’t believe in the same things they do. From the Crusade to the Holocaust to today’s crisis with Islam, the message as a whole is clear: when you put yourself in a little box called religion, with little room to move, grow, and question, it becomes very, very dangerous. It’s when you find that excuse to do harm to others because you’re so dead set that you’re right and they’re wrong. From killing millions of Jews to persecuting women for being raped to having girls cover themselves up from head to toe in blackness in order to avoid having men “lust” over them for showing an ankle or heaven forbid, a wrist. It’s so extreme to me.
Religion is such a touchy subject. This is what I mean when I say, “I am spiritual, but I am not religious.” I don’t need doctrines to tell me I’m a good person. I don’t need to pray and recite scripture to know my morals. I don’t need someone else’s authored book to tell me what is right and what is wrong. I intend to do no harm, to myself and to others.
How are we going to move on as a world culture if we can’t learn to accept each other? These are things that need to be discussed, debated, taught. Every so often, instead of worrying about the latest bathroom vanities to install, we need to really sit down with our fellow human friends and discuss how we’re all different yet the same.
April 6, 2008 at 4:50 pm · Filed under interests
Boy oh boy, I can’t wait until we have maternity/paternity leave. Dave and I will be spending a good few months not working after Bean is born. And since thats towards the middle of summer to autumn, I think we’re going to have lots of choices on what we want to do with our newborn baby. Right now, I’m perusing through some vacation deals to see what we’ve got out there. I hope this summer is really, really sunny too, so that we can spend a lot of time outdoors, with the sun on our faces. I’m tired of all this rain and cloud over here. We’ve had a few days of sunshine, but that was about it. You gotta really learn to appreciate the rain when you’re living in lower mainland B.C., I think. Otherwise, it wouldn’t work out so well.
I can’t wait till Bean is here. I can’t wait to kiss her all over and hold her near and sing her lullabies. I just can’t wait.
We’re going to have so much fun together, all four of us (with Tink, of course — can’t forget the spoiled kitty who’s a part of our family!). It will be so much fun.
April 5, 2008 at 10:35 am · Filed under daily
I’m 26 weeks along today. If you haven’t figured it out by now, all my other sites are currently down because I’m changing servers. It’s very headachy. Ciana’s helping me with it, but she’s having difficulty because of database stuff. I miss updating Bean’s site. Boooo. So hopefully it will be up relatively soon, but who knows!
Another week has come and gone. I’m getting better sleep at night, but not as much as I’d like. It appears like I’m gaining about a pound a week, which is absolutely CRAZY for me. I’ve never been able to gain weight, so this is pretty darn healthy for me. Bean is moving like a jelly bean, jumping and rolling and shifting her position every so often. It’s really cool. She seems to respond when I play music too. I would put in a really soft CD of Azure Ray or Alison Krauss, and the girl seems to be tapping her foot to the beat. Hehe. If I could reach my mouth to my belly, I’d give her a kiss every chance I get.
We got the crib now, but haven’t put it together yet, since the room isn’t done. It’s in pieces in Bean’s room. It’s such a dark wood that I think it’s actually black. That will be easy to match. We also got the rocking chair and I’m waiting for it to come in the mail. Last weekend I also bought a wall projector so Dave can draw Bean’s mural on the wall and get the room finished so we can start decorating and putting furniture in. We still need drawers, a bookcase, and a changing table. All in due time. It’s looking manageable right now. I was a bit overwhelmed before, but now that we have a good list going on, it’s not too bad looking.
I’m also saving up my vacation and sick leave times so that I can take those off before I go on maternity. Since I don’t get any paid maternity, any extra money will definitely help. I’m so glad we’re doing one thing at a time. I mean, if we were actually needing movers New York-style, this would be tons more stressful. Glad we’re just staying put and getting ready for a baby. Moving will come in a couple years’ time.
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