The one where Ladybird is showered with love and delicious barbecue (pt.I)

Some of my wonderful friends here in Winnipeg threw me my first ever baby shower yesterday afternoon. It was so nice to have everyone together and I am so grateful to have such an awesome group of girls here who care so much about me and my family. We played some games (an awesome word scramble that gave us a possible new name for the baby: Abby Timoron [baby monitor, haha]), ate lots of yummy food, guessed when Ladybird is coming and how big she'll be (the biggest guess was 7lbs 5oz - I love you guys!), and I got a lot of great advice and gifts for the little lady. A huge thank you to Amber and Laura for hostessing the shower and to everyone who came! It meant a lot to me. You guys are just the best!















The yummy spread!




















Cheese!






































































(Click on any of the photos to make them larger)

Thank you!!

My lovely coworkers are planning a baby shower/goodbye party for me on the 10th of July and my mom and mother-in-law will be throwing us showers once we move back home to Nova Scotia. We are so lucky to have so many people who care about us! It's so sweet. Apparently, though, I better start making a registry. Eek!

Auntie Rochelle requested a photo of our crib set. We don't have a crib set (bedding) picked out yet, but here are photos of the crib and dresser that my mom was so wonderful to have purchased for us earlier in the pregnancy:































The crib is the Graco "Blakely" 3-in-1 convertible crib and the dresser is the Graco "Kimberly" combo unit. I think. Right, Mom? It's honestly been so long since I'd been looking at cribs and stuff. These were bought for us when I was probably about six weeks pregnant :) We'll be getting a change pad to put on top of the dresser to use it as a changing station rather than getting an entirely separate change table.

As far as the pregnancy goes, everything is still going really well. I'm 25 weeks today and I'm in the last week of my fifth month. Starting next week, I'll be six months pregnant. Yikes! I'm starting to get a touch more uncomfortable but that's to be expected. It's really nothing major but I'm definitely feeling everything start to weigh on my internal organs. I can no longer bend forward comfortably and if every seat I ever had to sit in would recline, I'd be a happy camper. I painted my own toenails yesterday because I didn't want to bother going all the way to the south end of the city to my usual pedicure place. Ha! I won't be doing that again! I was able to do it, but holy uncomfortable! I had to keep taking breaks and sit up because everything was squishing up into my stomach and lungs. It was actually kind of funny. So, Nova Scotian friends and family, I'll need some pedicure partners for the rest of the summer when I get home! I've also noticed that pregnancy has increased my TMJ issues. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I have to knock my jaw back into place at least a dozen times a day. Seriously, any given time during the day you'll see me pushing against the right side of my face to unlock my jaw and get it back where it's supposed to be. I'm assuming it's because of the hormones that are relaxing my ligaments and whatnot, but man ... it's really annoying!

And how is Miss Ladybird doing? Let's find out with a baby update!

















Ladybird is the size of an eggplant for the next few weeks! Woah! That is big! Now, I know this says "month 6" but I won't be six months until the 4th of July, so whatever. We'll go with it. She's soaking up my antibodies so her immune system is getting ready for the outside world. I don't know how helpful I am right now, kiddo, since I've had this cold for three weeks. Tiny capillaries are forming and are giving her a pinkish hue. Studies show that fetuses at this stage can respond to touch and if I were to shine a light on my belly, she'd turn her head which means that her optic nerve is working. And, speaking of eyes, her eyelashes are forming!

The one where Ladybird knows she's upside-down

24 weeks today!

























This was actually taken yesterday at 23 weeks, 6 days. I was too barfy today to take any pictures of myself. I'm pretty sure the one day hasn't made much of a difference!

It's been a pretty uneventful week, really. I still feel really good and nothing has been happening that really makes me go "wha?!" I have, however, had to crack and buy some maternity bras. I still don't think my boobs themselves have gotten much bigger, but my ribcage is definitely expanding and my belly is moving right up under there, so the bands on my bras just weren't fitting anymore. In fact, one bra that I wore semi-comfortably on Wednesday would no longer do up on Saturday. Crazy! Luckily, Thyme Maternity is having a "buy one, get one 50% off" so I bought two convertible maternity bras. Yippee! I'm shocked at the size I had to buy but it's nice to be comfortable again ... for now.

Ladybird is definitely making herself known to the outside world these days! My belly is getting bigger and bigger and my belly button is getting shallower and shallower, haha. I wonder if it'll end up popping or just going flat. No stretch marks anywhere yet, but yet is the operative word here. I know I'm going to get them, I'm just waiting for them to show up. In the meantime, though, I'm trying to combat the itchiness and the uncomfortable stretchy feeling with some St. Ives collagen-elastin lotion after I get out of the shower. It helps, for sure.

I'm trying to figure out her patterns now. Apparently, at this point, I should be able to discern between her wake times and sleep times. I'm probably just not really paying enough attention, but I only really notice her consistently moving around in the evening (usually after 6ish and up until bedtime). She definitely moves around a lot during the day as well, but I haven't paid attention to the times. I'm going to start doing that now. I also sometimes notice that she's moving when I wake up in the mornings. I'm not sure if she moves around a lot at night when I'm sleeping - if she is, she's not bothering me!

What else is she up to? Let's have a look at the baby update and see!

















This is the last week that Ladybird is comparable to a papaya. Woo! One website said she's about the length of an ear of corn, so let's go with that. She's about 11.8 inches long and weighs about 1.3lbs. Her inner ears have developed and she's now aware of her position - so I better start doing some handstands to see if she likes being upside-down! Her lungs have started to produce surfactant to keep her air sacs from collapsing. She's starting to practice breathing so she should be an expert by the time she arrives.

Oh, and just to let you all know - my uterus is now the size of a soccer ball. Insert raised eyebrows here!

And, lastly, a very happy early/first Father's Day to my wonderful hubby :)

The one where Lisa forgets how far along she is and has to look it up

I blame this ridiculous cold that I have. Seriously. Will someone please come and drain all the gunk out of my head and chest please? I haven't had a good night's sleep since Friday. I really really REALLY miss my Buckley's today. Ladybird, you better be one awesome kid.

After having looked it up (even though I was JUST at the doctor's), I've reached the 23 week mark. Yeehaw! I had a doctor's appointment today that I was looking forward to since we would have been (should have been) discussing the ultrasound and all that jazz. I got nothin'. Here's my appointment:

Doctor: So, ultrasound on May 27th?
Me: Yep!
Doctor: There's one baby. We had you at October 11th ... *fiddles with something* Yep, that's close enough. (doesn't tell me what the baby is measuring - good thing I saw it myself) Hop up on the table. Blood pressure's good. Let's see your belly ... *listens to heartbeat for a nanosecond* ... Any questions?
Me: Uh. Yeah, I had a question about my iron supplements. The bottle says adult dosage 1-6 tablets a day. I'm only taking one. How many should I be taking?
Doctor: Here's a sample of a different kind of iron supplement.
Me: Uh... okay (did that answer my question?).
Doctor: Anything else? *as she's walking out the door*
Me: Uh, no...?
Doctor: See you in a month.

What a grand waste of my time. It took me longer to drive there, park, and wait. And apparently she's on holidays next month so I'm on a waiting list for a different doctor for my next appointment. Well, my next appointment is my LAST appointment before I move home. Goody. So, uh, I guess the other doctor will have to work with me about getting my file sent home. Oy. I look forward to seeing my real doctor.

But at least Ladybird is doing okay, I guess, since we discussed essentially NOTHING about my ultrasound other than the fact that there's one baby in there. Thanks doc, I saw that for myself.

I have no idea how to segue from that into the fact that I bought Ladybird some more clothes, so just LOOK HOW CUTE:




















I can totally picture her in this outfit, her big ol' cloth-diaper bum plunked down at the beach, shoving sand into her mouth, then looking at me with furrowed eyebrows as if to say "dude, why'd you let me eat this stuff?!"

I can't wait.

And while we're on the subject of pictures (seriously, pregnancy brain + crazy horrible head/chest cold does NOT = seamless writing ability), here's one I snapped today of me at 23 weeks. 23 right? I honestly had to scroll back up to make sure.




















Hello belly! Oh, and I only gained 2lbs since my last appointment, so I'm now up 13lbs total. Not bad. I'm still feeling great (aside from the cold) and I'm really lucky that this pregnancy has been so smooth and uneventful so far. Yes, there was the miserable nausea/pukey extravaganza early on, but even that wasn't as bad as it could have been. I belong to a few pregnancy-related message boards and whatnot, and some of those poor girls ... geez. Heartburn, round ligament pain, various other pains, Braxton Hicks contractions, more heartburn, reappearance of morning sickness, pain pain pain, discomfort discomfort discomfort. I've honestly been pretty symptom-free overall and I'm happy about that.

And on that note, and since the cursor has disappeared in this text box for whatever reason, I'll leave you all with a baby update to see what Ladybird is up to this week!



















Ladybird is still relatively the same size (11ish inches, roughly a papaya) and now weighs a little over a pound. Her hearing is well-established and she can make out distorted versions of voices, my heartbeat, and my tummy rumbling. Loud noises that she hears now shouldn't bother her once she's out of the womb. She's putting on more fat now, but she's still all red and wrinkly. She's moving around a lot and I might be able to start feeling hiccups from her swallowing. Her lungs are developing more now and are preparing to breathe. If she were born now, she has about an 85% chance of survival. Cool! But stay in there, Ladybird, we're not ready for ya.

The one where Lisa feels like a house

We're now at the 22 week mark which means I'm 5 months pregnant. Woo. It also apparently means that I've gotten gigantic. Now, I know that's not true and I'm still all belly but I just feel really really big. I've always been very skinny and my weight never fluctuated more than five or so pounds here and there (except for the weight I put on during university, but even then that was a gradual four-year "filling out", if you will). So the fact that I've probably put on a good 15lbs in the last three(ish) months is insane to me! I'll find out exactly what I weigh at my next doctor's appointment a week from today, but I'm assuming it's around 15lbs total. Everything I read says that that's pretty much on track, but still ... yeesh! My body really isn't used to this. Everything feels cramped and stretchy and my back issues are coming back. And I'm only going to get bigger!!

Here are a couple of pictures from today. Yes, I'm in my pyjamas. It was Pyjama Day at work. It would be silly and kind of backwards to change out of pyjamas and into regular clothes after coming home from work, now wouldn't it?




















Zoinks! Belly, where did you come from?
(I need to stop putting my hands behind my back for these pictures because it makes me look thicker than I am. I still have a waist, so really, I shouldn't be complaining...)




















Hellooooo Ladybird!

Besides my all-of-the-sudden feeling gigantic, I've also been torturing myself by reading horrors online. I'm not really afraid of giving birth. The idea of contractions doesn't bother me. I feel like I'll be able to manage the pain. However, I decided to read up on tears and then I found a website that showed diagrams of the various degrees of tears. And now, I've decided that this baby is NOT coming out of me. So, if there are any moms out there who would like to share their tearing (or non-tearing) experiences from their first delivery, please do! I'd rather not have a twenty-year-old living in my uterus, but good lord do I ever not want to go through a fourth-degree tear. *cries* Someone just tell me it'll be okay and that life goes on...

In other news, I've slowly been collecting a few more things for Ladybird. We got a huge donation of clothes at work and, once we found out we're having a girl, me and the girls from work went through the clothes and chose to "save" a few things that were just WAY too cute to be ruined by writing "daycare" on them in black Sharpie. Most of them are bigger sizes, but Ladybird will need some clothes when she's a toddler, so it all works out. Here are a couple of my favourites:




















Love it!














Detail on the sweater. It's super cute.




















Little white sweatsuit ... it's adorable as well!














Little pink bird detail on the pants. Apparently, I like clothes with birds on 'em.

I've been putting some thought into the nursery and how I'd like it to look. Granted, I have a ton of time and we don't even know where we'll be living when Ladybird is born, so it's hard to have a vision but I still like to think about these things. This brought me great frustration when I realized that there is very little airplane-related out there for girls. Seriously. Try searching for a non-boy airplane crib set. They don't exist!! Annoying! I'm going to check out the big fabric warehouse here in the city over the weekend to see if they have any girl(ish) airplane fabric so maybe someone can at least make her a blanket or something. I did, however, order this for her (in pink and brown argyle) and I'm SUPER excited for it to arrive!

Anyhow ... that's about all that's been going on over here! Let's see what the baby update has to say about Ladybird this week!


















As noted last week, we don't get a new food item to compare to! She's still a papaya this week. So, I just took this diagram off BabyCenter.ca to show what's going on in there. Ladybird is about 11 inches long from crown to heel (about the size of a Barbie doll!) and weighs in at just about a pound. Her facial features are distinct and her eyes are fully formed, but they have no colour yet. Her little tooth buds are forming beneath the gum line and, apparently, nipples have started to sprout! Hmm, teeth and nipples should not be in the same sentence, ever. She's definitely aware of sounds outside the womb. She's showing either a strong like or dislike (can't figure out which) to certain music and certain baby cries at work.