A month gone... how'd that happen?

Woops. Looks like it's been a while. I'll try to be better! Wanna hear my great excuse? During Ray's football season I used his practice time as my online time, but since his season ended my habit has been broken. I need to make a new one and make sure I get on here more often. In the meantime I'll spoil you with a long post today - lucky you!


Well, just past 20 weeks along now, we're at the halfway point ladies and gents! We had an ultrasound a little while ago, that was interesting. I'd had one before so I knew what to expect about the general process and of course remembered the bladder issue very well. But it turned out that the baby wasn't cooperating so the technician couldn't get the snapshots needed, so I had some unexpected changes during my visit. First of all, she had me rolling on to one side to try for a better view, then on to the other side, then back on my back again, and over and over again several times. I never considered moving around might help, I just always pictured myself on my back. Wait, let me take that back... that was not good at all. Moving on... baby still wasn't cooperating so I had to go empty only part of my bladder (I was given a cup - fill it, no more, no less... sure thing) and try again. Good times. There's nothing quite like having to pee in a cup, am I right ladies? Anyhow baby still wasn't cooperating but the technician called Ray in to get the fun visual shots for us and said if she still didn't have any luck with the required ones after that we might have to reschedule. Fortunately she did end up getting what she needed, so no second appointment needed. It was very, very cool when she showed us the baby and pointed out all of its adorable yet alien-like parts. The printed snapshots make so much more sense after having seen them in action and with the pointers from the technician. At one point, the baby was "facing us" so you could see the two eye sockets and nose, and its little jaw was moving up and down like it was jabbering away at us (that's the bottom left picture). So cool. At another point one hand went flailing about as though it was waving at us. Hello little baby! We see you!

I've also been feeling some of baby's movements over the last 2 weeks. Surreal. Just like everything I've read and heard, it is unlike anything else I've experienced and I totally misted the first time. Ray was actually in the air on his way to Toronto at the time, so I called Lori right away and got excited with her. I left a voice mail for Ray and he called me that night so I got excited with him all over again. A time or two I thought that Ray might be able to feel it on my tummy, but it's hard to tell if I was actually feeling it with my hand or if I was just feeling it on the inside. He's tried a couple of times patiently waiting with his hand on my belly but no luck yet. Ah well, it's very early for that.


I recently realized that I had totally forgotten about a little goal I had always wanted to do while pregnant and now I'm wondering if I can actually do it. I used to cross stitch a bit and found all sorts of cute babyish patterns, even stitched a few. I thought I could put them together into a quilt for baby. But then I decided I didn't want to do the work ahead of time, I wanted to do it while pregnant, so that I could tell the little one that mama made this blanky just for you while growing you in my tummy (I could say in my uterus but it doesn't have the same ring to it and I think it'd be lost on the child). Now all of a sudden I'm halfway through my pregnancy, very out of practice with the stitching, and I with no sewing or quilting experience I have no idea how I could actually put these things together into a blanket. Hmmm. Well, I'll start by pulling out the old stitching supplies and we'll see how it goes.

On a non-baby note... I feel a song coming on (when don't I?)... It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I actually have a love/hate relationship with snow. It's beautiful to look at, and sometimes a blast to play in. But it's also horrible to drive in, especially when you really should have new tires but don't. The first snowfall here was last Monday night. We went out to dinner and when we drove out the roads were bare but when we left there was at least an inch on the ground. Driving down the hills from point A to point B was extremely stressful, especially when at one corner we spotted about 4 vehicles off the road and others slip sliding around. It was among the longest drives of my life, though we were on the road for less than a half hour. Now we're limiting how much we take the truck out, or at least when nervous nelly me is around. But Ray has to drive a fair bit for work so I still worry. Ick. On the plus side, now that December has arrived it is officially acceptable to start decorating. I'm not usually that into the decorating (Mom's gene landed with Lori, me not so much), and we don't have much to put out, but this year I'm excited to. I think it's because Ray's going to be gone for a while this month plus we don't know how much of the family we're going to be able to see over the holidays with plans very much up in the air, so I could use a little cheer. I'll be hauling out the boxes in the next day or two and I'm sure I'll get it all finished up while Ray is away next weekend. Ooooh and another big plus to this time of year: I've loaded up my ipod with Anne Murray, Boney M, Barenaked Ladies, and a little Alvin and the Chipmunks and NKOTB Christmas tunes. OH YEAH!


Well... (I use that term a lot both when typing and verbally, and nearly every time I hear my Dad's voice pointing out what a deep subject that is) next up is my regular apointment on Wed Dec 12. I'll check in again after that, if not sooner. Ray leaves on a 10 day trip shortly after that, so the computer will be mine all mine and I'll have no excuses for forgetting to blog... maybe I shouldn't be saying that now just in case... no, no, I want to be doing this, no more excuses.

Boy this really was long. And a photo too. You are so spoiled.