Mangos Verdes

I have to make an effort to post more frequently than the once a month updates.  My problem is I don’t really do drafts well.  I lose my train of thought and my grammar turns into gobbedly gook as I amend things and it doesn’t make much sense.  I’m much more of a “post it all in once shot” blogger, and I don’t have big blocks of time to sit down and type out a post, so I end up with a lot of post ideas in my head, but they never get around to being published.

Hopefully, things are looking up, since we are getting close to a full nights sleep over here.  Gavin’s night routine is pretty close to perfect.  We feed at 9pm and waking at 6am at the earliest.  Usually he wakes at around 6:30am and one morning he slept all the way to 7:45am!

You’d think this would result in more sleep for us, but it doesn’t for me.  The engorgement is pretty bad now that he’s stretching out for so long, so I often can’t fall back asleep until after he’s fed.  I’ve tried staying up after his feed, but I’m not quite able to yet.

I thought after Gavin was sleeping through the night, we’d be set, but sleep is always changing – even in toddlers!  Aly has been resisting naps so we’ve mostly dropped it.  She does still fall asleep in the car around her old nap time, but if we’re at home, I don’t make her take a nap.  I’ve accepted that I don’t have time for myself during the day (it’ll be so nice to have 3 hrs on Tues and Thurs when Aly starts school in Sept!).  But lately, we’ve also been having trouble at night.  Aly is resisting bedtime by saying she’s scared of things.  I wasn’t sure if it really was fear or not for a while, so we indulged her a lot with soothing and lots of cuddles.  But I’m starting to think it’s just a ploy, because every night it’s something different.  Last month I reported that she was scared of spiders and webs and things, and this past week she’s been afraid of the lights on daddy’s modem (it’s in the corner of her room) and last night it was crocodiles.  So I’m pretty sure it’s just stalling.  We’ve also had a couple 3am visits and we’ve been so tired we just pull her into bed with us.  But I’ve been doing some reading and it can start bad habits, so our new game plan is to take her back to her bed and calm her down if she’s upset and leave, avoiding eye contact and not lingering too long.  We tried it this morning when she woke at 6:30 (probably after she heard us get Gavin ready for his feed) and she stayed in bed until 7:30am.  We’ve told her she has to stay in her room until we come and get her, so we’ll see how this works in the next couple weeks.

Aly

Aly has been much more active this month – if that’s even possible.  I don’t usually worry about her hurting herself because she’s usually fairly careful and so sturdy, but this month has been full of “owies”.  It’s partly due to it being summer and she’s wearing shorts all the time, but some of it is because she’s trying and mastering so many new skills.  This month we learned she can do a forward roll by herself, climb a rope ladder, and can do all the climbing apparatus’ at our favourite park under Cambie Bridge.  Also, she has fully mastered riding her runner bike and can balance quite well, so we’re thinking about getting her a real bike with pedals so she can learn how to pedal and brake.  Mike is looking forward to teaching her how to ski this winter!

We’ve also noticed more complete language skills from her.  She’s experimenting a lot more with questions and understanding jokes and cracking them herself.  It’s so cute hearing her have conversations with her little friends, I’ll have to try and get them on video (what do you say now?  digital?  Camera isn’t quite right since that is more for photos.).  Here’s an excerpt last week at the park:

Nora: “Aly have a blueberry.”

Aly: “No thank you.”

Nora: “Have it Aly, it’s yummy!”

Aly: “I don’t want it.”

Nora: “Here, have it.” (tries to put it in Aly’s hand.)

Maddy: “Give it to me!”

Aly also had her first nightmare last week.  She woke up in the middle of the night screaming and running into her room sobbing about spiders and webs.  She went back to sleep after snoozing some in our bed and then making Mike sleep with her in her room for 45 min until she was in a deep sleep, but this all happened at 2am and then Gavin woke up at 4am for a feeding, so that was a really tiring day.  She does remember the nightmare, but it hasn’t reoccurred since we’ve convinced her that spiders are nice (ie. eensy weensy spider) and her imaginary friend Bruce the shark and the animals on her Noah’s Ark wall hanging keep her safe.  Besides, spiders like being outside better! =)

Gavin

Gavin is smiling and cooing lots and recognizes us, turning his head when he hears our voices.  He’s much bigger than Aly was at the same age.  Unfortunately we missed out on wearing some of her old clothes because Aly wore them at 3-4 months and he’s already too big!  Feeding is still going well and he takes a bottle or the boob with no problem.  He’s stretching out his sleep at night to 5-6 hours so we’re getting a decent amount of sleep*.  But during the day he still is feeding every 3-4 hours.  He can hold up his head for about 5 seconds at a time and has found his fingers, but still needs to be swaddled and swung a little bit to help him fall asleep.

*Edit on Aug 10: Last night he went 7 hours (10:30-5:30am).  Woohoo!

Mike had a golf tournament for work in the Okanagan, so we decided to bring the kids and tack on a family vacation – and do we mean family!  My parents, Mike’s mom, and my brother and sister in law made the trip too.  Our plan was to drive to Osoyoos and make our way up Kelowna over a couple days before enjoying Kelowna while Mike golfed.

We left in the morning and had a lunch picnic in Manning Park at Lightning Lakes.  Gavin was crying on and off on the way.  He wasn’t used to being in the car seat for that long, but he adjusted pretty quickly and was great for the rest of the trip.  Lightning Lakes was the perfect place to stop.  It was sunny and calm and quiet, but there were other kids that Aly met and a ton of animals.  We couldn’t agree on whether they were – squirrels/chipmunks/prairie dogs but they were very forward since it was a popular place to eat.  Aly fascinated by them but when she had the chance wouldn’t touch one.  Gavin napped in the tent the whole time.

Once we got to Osoyoos we stayed at the Holiday Inn on Osoyoos Lake and Aly went swimming.   The next day, my parents took Aly and Gavin to see this exhibit of miniature trains while the rest of us went to Black Hills, the winery that Mike and I invested in, for a wine tasting.  We met up with them after the tasting and hit up a couple other wineries on the Black Sage Bench: Burrowing Owl and Stone Boat (featured in the NYT earlier this month).  We were planning on going to Oliver Twist as well, but Aly was really hot and hungry by the time we got to Stone Boat and had a bit of a meltdown.  Next time we need to plan better and bring more juice and snacks.

We headed up to Naramata where we stayed at Sandy Beach Lodge.  Aly was in heaven.  I had picked our hotels carefully, making sure they were on the lake so we didn’t have to travel elsewhere for her to have fun activities to do.  Sandy Beach had a pool, hot tub, tennis and volleyball courts, ping pong PLUS lake activities like kayaking, canoeing and sailing.  They had a playground on site as well as a huge lawn.  We spent a whole day just lazing about, swimming, reading, playing games and having fun.  The next day we checked out a lavender farm and the Naramata Bench, having lunch at Hillside Winery’s Bistro before doing tastings at La Frenz, Laughing Stock, Black Widow, and then a picnic dinner on Skaha Lake with Mike’s Penticton relatives.

The next day we visited Elephant Island and Dirty Laundry in Summerland en route to Kelowna.  The Browns headed up to Lake Country for another dinner with Mike’s Kelowna relatives.  They had quite a few kids and a huge yard, so Aly was in heaven playing with Dallas, Nevada, Rhys and ___.  Mike went off on his own to golf and stayed at the Okanagan Grand and the rest of our family stayed at Manteo Resort.  I spent the days at Manteo and after Aly went to bed took Gavin to Mike’s hotel so he could help me out with the nights.  Manteo was also really family friendly since they also had a park on site as well as a Clubhouse with a pool, waterslides and a water park.  Aly is pretty brown after all her time in the sun!

We didn’t do any wine tasting in Kelowna, all the wines are available at the liquor store.  But we did visit another lavender farm, a honey farm, and the farmer’s market and dropped by Mission Hill to try and do an architecture tour, but unfortunately it was all sold out.  We settled for having a picnic lunch in the amphitheatre.

All in all, it was a fun vacation and we are talking about going back next year since this is an annual golf trip Mike will have to go on.  Our family enjoyed it too – we actually came back with the least amount of wine out of everyone!

The last couple weeks have passed by like a hazy memory.  Life with 2 is certainly different.  We had heard that adding a 2nd kid results in more work – that 1+1 = more than double the work.  So far that hasn’t happened yet, but it’s still early days.  I have had a couple balancing acts to do – feeding and pottying at the same time, but nothing too insane.  Aly is fairly good at understanding that whatever she wants will have to wait until Gavin is done eating. We’ve been out and about with both kids in the bugaboo and board and with our double chariot.  I haven’t ventured out completely on my own but have met up with people at the park or other outings.  We’re learning slowly as we go.

out at Granville Island for Canada Day

Gavin’s 1 Month Update

Growth. Gavin is growing by leaps and bounds.  He’s well past his birth weight now at 7 lb 12.5 oz as of yesterday.  He gained about a pound in the 2 weeks since his last doctor appt.  He’s having more awake time now with a period in the morning and one in the evening, about 2-3 hours so he is almost consistently lasting from feed to feed.  Feeding is every 2-4 hours, but usually 2.5-3 hours.  He is stretching out his night feeds more often, which is a good thing for his tired parents.

Diapers. We’re also using disposables at night and g diapers in the day.  I saw on the g’s web site that the sizing for the diapers has changed a little and they’ve added a newborn size, which explains some of the fit issues we had with Aly the  first time around.  Now the little gs start at 8 lb.  He’s doing ok with them as long as we’re on top of diaper changes, but in the night Mike has no patience for leaks since he does the changing, so we’re using disposable at night until we run out our current pack.

Temperament. Other than that, no new milestones really.  We haven’t had any coos or smiles, just a lot of manly grunting.  He tends to cry a little more than his sister did and has a cute pout right before he lets out a big wail.  But he’s not a fussy baby and he’s doing really well.

Aly’s 29 Month Update

Back talk. Aly seems so grown up now by comparison.  She’s talking in complete sentences, using “the” and pronouns properly and it’s so funny hearing the things she has to say.  Often it’s not what she says, but how she says it.  Her intonations are spot on but overexaggerated and some times her attitude isn’t so great – she can already sound like a bratty teen.

Patience. She has learned some patience in waiting for me to finish feeding Gavin before she gets something.  She relishes in being a “big girl” and has learned how to dress herself (when she wants to) while I’m feeding.  That whole process involves taking off pyjamas and the diaper, getting me a wipe so I can wipe her bum, picking out her underwear and clothes and putting them all on correctly.  A great time waster – this whole process can take half an hour!  She’s also learned how to open the fridge and get the apple juice off the fridge door for me so I can pour it in a cup for her.

Role play. But most of the time she just wants to sit with me and watch Gavin eat.  She’ll kiss his head or sometimes hold on to my breast to “help him eat”.  2 days ago I went to wake her and she was lying on the bed with her doll on top of her and she looked up at me and said “Mommy, Abby is eating milk off the breast.”  I replied “Oh, that’s good” and then she angled the doll the other way and said “Time to change sides.” She’s also diapering, bathing and feeding her Abby doll (which was her present from the baby), so our doll strategy has paid off quite well.

Gentleness.  Aly is so gentle with Gavin, it’s very cute to see.  She loves to lie in the gymini and look at him and now that he’s sitting in the bouncy chair, she’ll share toys with him.

Sharing her trains with Gavin

Every time she hears him cry she sings to him “Old MacDonald” and gets progressively louder as his cries get louder.  She always wants to watch me change his diaper and goes to kiss him good morning and good night whether he’s awake or not.  Aly is also still very overprotective about who holds him unless they ask her permission first.

Pretend play. Aly has been using her imagination a lot more these days.  We play doctor to see if we are “sick or healthy” quite often.  Another favourite game is “choo choo train” where she’ll line up the chairs and then we’ll take a train ride somewhere.  She’s also developed an imaginary friend, Bruce, the shark from Finding Nemo.  She’ll say we have to hold the door open for Bruce or that he’s biting her toes.  This evolved out of her bedtime games with Mike so I’m not sure how it came about, but we regularly close the doors to keep the sharks out or let them in, so they seem to be friendly sharks and nothing that she’s scared of so far.

Life with 2 is never dull!

After Gavin was sent to Children’s I stayed at St. Paul’s for another day and a half.  My time basically consisted of eating, sleeping, reading (I started and finished our latest book club book), and pumping.  It was a very weird feeling to not have the baby to look after since he had never been in my room after I came out of surgery, almost like I hadn’t had a baby at all.  Every hour on the hour Mike would call with updates on Gavin and how he was doing.

The first update I got was that he had  been admitted no problem and they had gotten settled in.  Later on in the day I was told that the CPAP wasn’t enough so they had intubated him (put a breathing tube down  into his lungs) and given him a dose of surfactant (that last chemical layer on his lungs that he was missing).  Mike came back to St. Paul’s to stay with me that night since there weren’t any beds at Children’s for him.

The next morning I was discharged close to lunch time after having my transfusions during the night and all the IVs removed in the morning.  My dad drove me to Children’s so I could meet up with Mike and Gavin and I found Mike there with Gavin in his lap.  It was the first time either of us got to hold him since he had the incubator and so many wires and machines hooked up to him before this.  It was still an ordeal getting set up to hold him with the CPAP, so once you were holding him, you had to stay like that for half an hour or so before the RT (respiration therapist) would come back and move him for you.

Mike holding Gavin for the first time

Eventually Gavin was weaned off the CPAP to a breathing tube in his nose and a feeding tube and on our last day at Children’s his feeding tube was taken out as he was bottle fed and breast fed.  He was deemed well enough to not need the CPAP and transferred back to St. Paul’s. He was in Children’s for a total of 4 days.

Aly seeing Gavin for the first time

Back at St. Paul’s Gavin had a minor setback and had to be put back on breathing tube, but he had it out by the next day and the focus was more on him having enough energy to feed off the breast without his breathing getting too laboured.  So I had to spend more time at the hospital breastfeeding and stayed overnight the last 2 nights he was admitted so I could feed throughout the night as well.  Gavin came home on June 19 after spending an additional 6 days at St. Paul’s.

The vibe at Children’s was very different than at St. Paul’s.  While St. Paul’s was really laidback and all the babies were needing care, there was a sense of casualness and knowing that all the babies were going to be fine.  Children’s definitely had a higher stress level.  There were way more babies (6 at St. Paul’s and at least 20 in the NICU we were in), a lot more nurses (2:1 ratio at Children’s compared with 3:1 at St. Paul’s) and way more stressed out parents who were there 24/7.  I barely ever saw other parents at St. Paul’s.  At Children’s the parents were there a lot more since the babies were a lot sicker.  It was not unusual to see the drs perform surgery on the babies right in the NICU – we saw it several times when we were there.  And some of the babies were so very sick.  Each baby gets a white board and you write up your stats (name, parents, etc).  Some of the boards had the baby’s initial birth weight and current weight.  We saw several babies who’s original birthweight was less than 1 lb – one was even around 500g.  Also it was a particularly rough weekend when we were there, since 2 babies died while we were visiting with Gavin and it was hard to miss the crying parents and upset nurses.

While we were at Children’s, Gavin got a new neighbour the day before he was discharged.  It turned out the woman also had a complete placenta previa and had a C section at 37 weeks, but her son was much worse off and was one of the surgeries we witnessed (they did some sort of lung surgery through his belly button!) and she was in Langley while her husband was at Children’s, so they were separated just like we were.  She eventually got transferred so she could be closer to her baby.  Her baby will be fine eventually too, but will probably take a lot longer before he is discharged.  While we had it rough with this pregnancy/birth, I’m thankful that it wasn’t worse, because it could have been, and this new family reminded me of that.

All the doctors and nurses at both hospitals were great, we had really good care for Gavin and we’re so thankful for all their help.

We brought Gavin home yesterday after about a week and a half in the hospital.  A lot of it is a big blur, but Mike tried to keep track of what happened each day so we could write up Gavin’s birth story.  Our perspectives differ a little since we had to split up during the birth and in the following days.

The night before the scheduled surgery, Aly slept over at my parents’ place and Mike and I had one last night to ourselves to get ready for baby boy.  On June 9, we arrived at St. Paul’s at 6am like we were told to and reported to surgical day care to be prepped.  They did all the usual things like check vitals and we dressed in surgery gear – gown for me and scrubs for Mike.  Then they wheeled me away to be prepped and Mike was told to wait outside the room until they were ready to start the surgery.  We didn’t realize it would be quite a while before we saw each other again.  The prep took a good 2 hours at least.  The anaesthetist, Laine, gave me an epidural so I wouldn’t feel the C section and right away I could tell that it was completely different than my last experience.  Last time I was able to feel a lot and even able to move my legs during the surgery.  This time I couldn’t even wiggle one toe.  But the IV in my back was only 1 of many.  I had several really large IVs put in my arms.  There was a lot of talk about how tiny my veins were and doing all the blood donations in the weeks prior had scarred most of my biggers ones.  I had 3 IVs put into my arms and because of a lack of veins, they put one in my neck in the carotid artery.  That one hurt the most, it was the only time I cried since they couldn’t freeze the area beforehand.

The surgery went off without a hitch for me and was much less complicated than they expected which was good news.  I did have more bleeding than a usual c section, so I was black and blue around my incision and on the upper part of my legs for a long time, but it’s pretty much all gone now.  I was also pretty tired after the surgery so I ended up getting transfused with 2 of the 3 units of blood that I donated and that helped quite a bit.

For Gavin, unfortunately he was not quite ready to be born so his lungs weren’t ready to breath just yet.  We had done a lung maturity amnio on the Monday at Royal Columbian to test for surfactant the chemical that tells you the lungs are ready to expand and breath, but the hospital messed up and didn’t send the results to our doctors so I didn’t get 1 of the 2 steroid shots I was supposed to get if the lungs weren’t ready.  So I had 1 steroid shot on Tuesday and they decided to proceed as scheduled instead of postponing for another week.

When they took Gavin out he let out one big cry and was silent and didn’t take another breath.  It’s quite interesting to watch the video Mike shot because he didn’t notice right away how stressed the pediatricians all were and how none of them were talking because they were busy trying to ventilate him and he’s doing his happy commentary about how the baby looks, etc.  To make a long story short, they put a breathing mask on him and did some other things to him and he started breathing again and Mike went with them to NICU while I went to recovery.

After I finally got to my room and they let me know Gavin had been sent to NICU, I got to see him once that night in the incubator that was pumping super oxygenated air into his lungs.  The next morning we were told that he had stopped breathing a couple times in the night and besides having the special air, he also needed air that was higher pressure than normal to help keep his lungs expanded and make it less tiring for him to breath.  The machine that does this is called a CPAP and St. Paul’s didn’t have one, so someone was manually doing this for him until he was transferred to Children’s.  So Mike went with Gavin to Children’s while I stayed behind at St. Paul’s until I got discharged.

This last month has just flown by.  We went up to Campbell River for a quick visit to my in laws for little Mike’s first communion and confirmation.  Aly had a great time playing with her cousins and learned how to play hockey and say “I shoot, I score!”.  But this month has mainly been about transitions and getting her ready for baby brother.

reading in bed with Mairin and Mike

The first big transition is that Aly moved into her new bedroom into her big girl bed.  We started it many months ago when we set up the new bed and dresser and referred to it as her bed and asking her if she wanted to sleep there.  Then we involved her in picking new sheets and a bedspread.  Finally we put her in the bed to sleep over night.  Admittedly, Mike and I did almost nothing at this stage – Aly stays in her bed until she falls asleep and hasn’t gone wandering at night.  We were ready to sit at the door supernanny style and drag her back to bed every time she got out.  Naps are more hit or miss – I’ve given up counting on the nap, but she does stay in her room at least for “quiet time” and read for 1-2 hours before she opens the door and announces “I’m not tired.”  The last part of the transition has been moving all her stuff over – her books were first and then her clothes and diapers for nap and bedtime.  She has no reason to go into her old room anymore and has started calling it “baby’s room”.

Aly has been spending tons of time with Grandma and Grandpa to give us some time to rest and get organized.  Besides the sleepovers she’s gone to swimming with just Grandma and on Monday will do gymnastics without me too.  I used to have to sneak out the door when I left, but she’s getting more ok with it and will often wave and say “See you later mommy.”  It tends to work better with her leaving than when I’m leaving though.

We’ve been talking a lot about change.  I’ve been trying to give her lots of cuddles and one on one time that’s more fun.  I had her sitting in my lap giving hugs 2 days ago and I said to her “Aly, you know things are going to change really soon.” and she looked up at me and said “Baby brother’s coming.” And I said yes in a couple days, but she would always be our baby girl and we would love her and that no one else would be able to call him baby brother but her.  So I think she understands, but who knows how she will react when he gets here.  I do think it helps that she’s seen Maddy and Nora go through the same things recently.

Unfortunately, we’ve spent a lot of time at home lately since I’m so tired these days.  But Aly is a real social butterfly.  We had Nora and Lily over for the first time yesterday and she was quite excited the day before they came.  Over night, Maddy and Ethan decided to join us too.  So when I went to greet her in the morning I said “Guess what! Someone else is coming over to play today!” and her eyes lit up and she said “Baby brother??” and I said no, but Maddy and were.  She looked at me for a second and then said “I need one more.  Megan!”

She also like boys.  It’s so cute watching her play in the park.  She’ll try and join in their play even if they are way older than her.  And if a boy is sitting down she will go up to him and sit next time him so that her leg is touching his leg practically.  If he scoots over, she moves over too.  It’s hilarious to watch.  We’re going to be in big trouble.

Fear is the last new thing we have noticed.  She started to say “I’m scared” of different things even if she’s not really afraid (like of the window).  She ’s always having vivid nightmares/dreams.  In the process of waking she often talks in her sleep and I’ve heard her mention things like “No laundry” and “it’s mine!”.  I’m curious to know what her dreams are like.

This is our last update with Aly as an only child.  She’s turning into quite the little girl with her attitudes and bossiness (especially at the dinner table.  She directs where everyone gets to sit.).  She’s having a better time with controlling her temper and sharing, but it’s not quite perfect of course.  I love our ritual good night hug and kiss and seeing her greet me “good morning mama.”  And every time we leave my parents’ house she says “Thanks for dinner Grandma!”  It’s hard imagining returning to a world of night waking, sleep training, breastfeeding, teething, etc.  I know I’ll love it every step of the way but we had it pretty good with Aly in her babyhood.  Let’s hope baby boy doesn’t give us too much trouble either.

Swinging on the big swings with Sofia

Pregnancy # 1 above, Pregnancy # 2 below.  Both at 6 months exactly, in the same clothes

This pregnancy has definitely been different than my last one in terms of how I’ve been feeling.  All the medical issues aside, there are a couple things that I have noticed over the last 8 months:

1. Morning sickness.  With Aly I didn’t actually throw up, but felt really nauseous and  I do remember a couple nights of just falling asleep at 7pm.  I had a lot of food aversions too.  This time around, not as many food aversions, but I was sick a lot more, probably 6 or 7 episodes of throwing up.  Luckily both times around the nausea only lasted the first trimester.
2. Being tired.  This time around is definitely taking more of a toll on me and I have to rest a lot more.  I think a large part of this is due to the fact that I have to run around after Aly, pick her up, go to the park and for walks, etc.  instead of sitting in an office staring at a computer.  I also can’t nap when I want and I think Aly is starting to drop her nap since she’s been intermittently skipping her one nap a day.  I’m ambivalent about that – upset now because when she doesn’t nap, I don’t get to nap but that might turn out to be ok once the baby is here, I won’t have to juggle putting down 2 kids and trying to coordinate naps.
3. Hiccups. I remember with A ly I would sit for ages and watch my belly shake while she had the hiccups.  She had them all the time in utero and after she was born too.  This time around I haven’t noticed hiccups once.  Maybe that will translate into a less spit up-py baby?  Time will tell!
4. Rib pain.  With Aly I would constantly get tingly, painful sensation underneath my ribs and I’d try and push her down.  I definitely remember having the pain at least 2 months before having her, but I’m only starting to get that feeling now.  This very possibly has to do with the position of the baby since with all the placenta issues this time around, baby boy is breech since there is not enough room to turn around.  This might also affect…
5. Belly shape.  I had a nice classically round belly the first time around, but this time my belly is definitely pointy.  It’s flat from under my chest to my belly button and then crests and is flat the rest of the way down.
6. Weight gain. I haven’t gained much weight with either pregnancy – less than 20 pounds each time.  But I remember a slow and steady gain with Aly while this time, although I showed a lot sooner, I didn’t feel that my belly was all that big (that skin stretched to the max I could pop any minute feeling) until a lot later, maybe at 7 months.  In the last month my belly has really gotten much bigger all at once it seems.
7. Back pain.  There has been way less back pain this time around.  I actually feel pretty good most of the time, but there is the odd time where I’ve been in some pain, but it hasn’t been anything that going to the chiropractor hasn’t been able to fix.  I think there really is something to seeing one, and this time around, I had been consistently going every 2 weeks before I was pregnant and I’m still on the same schedule.  With Aly, being pregnant and having pain was the reason I started going and I was going 3 times a week.  Sleep wise, I’m a lot more comfortable too.  I was using 4 pillows when I was pregnant with Aly and I’m only using 2 now, one between my knees and one supporting my belly.
8. Midnight pee breaks.  Miraculously, I’m still sleeping all the way through the night and not getting up to go to the washroom.  I was definitely up more the first time around.  But this time around I’m only sleeping until 6am and then I’m up for the day.

All in all, I’m not one of those women that love being pregnant and is all glow-y inside.  I’m happy there’s only 3.5 weeks left!  In case you haven’t heard, my delivery date has moved around a couple times, but is now set for June 9.

My grandfather on my dad’s side hasn’t been well for the last month or so and we found out yesterday afternoon that  he passed away.  Since we moved to Vancouver when I was 8, we have not seen him as much, but I remember all the family get togethers before that and also his long visits to Vancouver when he was older.  My favourite memories are right after we moved here and he took care of us when my parents went on vacation.  He didn’t drive so he took us all to school in a taxi (so embarrassing back then as the new kids) and that same trip he caught my brother and sister hiding from him in the dryer and spanked them (probably not their favourite memory!).  But best of all was dancing with him at my wedding to that song “Rasputin”.

I’m happy that we went to visit him in ‘08 and he had the chance to meet his only great grand child.  I’m sorry that he won’t see the next one and won’t be here to give him a Chinese name.  But he was in good health for most of his life and lived to be 95 and died peacefully, so there isn’t much more you can ask for.  Since the funeral will be in Toronto I won’t be going, but we’re thinking of you Grandpa.

I guess we’re at the age where all this stuff starts happening.  Neither Mike or I have any grandparents that are still around.