Labour

So I thought this early signs of labour thing was going to be a lot more obvious, instead I'm left completely confused about what's going on. I believe I'm starting labour but how do I know?

They tell you all these signs to help you know and make it sound like it'll be so obvious but then things get all muddled so I have no idea what's going on with my body.

Here's what I do know:

1. I feel crappy
2. I've felt crappy since about 11:00 last night
3. I'm hoping to feel significantly more crappy as soon as some sort of signal as to what's going on

Hopefully this is the start of something big.
L

Full Weekend

I realize this post is almost a week late but it's better than nothing right?

Brad and I made the trip up to Calgary on the weekend and had an awesome time. We spent lots of time with family, made a visit to Red Lobster for Endless Shrimp, went swimming at Cardell, payed games and had a great time visiting.

We loved seeing family and Endless Shrimp is always worth the trip. It's nice to be home again though and I'm happy to stay put for a bit.
L

38 weeks

So I'm officially 1 week away from my due date and I'm ready any time!

It seems like in the last two days things have at least started to progress as they should so I'm feeling a little optimistic though I'm not getting my hopes up, I'm still preparing myself to be a week late.

My dreams lately are full of babies, like last night I dreamed we had a boy instead of a girl, it didn't matter though we were thrilled to see him.

So wish me luck and an early baby.
L

Ready

I've been trying really hard to not feel too finished with this pregnancy yet because I still have two weeks left but there are certainly some things I won't miss about pregnancy and some things I'm really looking forward to.

1. Being able to sleep normally (I'm not silly, I do expect some sleepless-ness when Catie comes but at least when I get to sleep I can sleep well. Right now there is not a whole lot that's restful about the sleep I've been getting)
2. I've never been the type of person that enjoys excessive heat but this last week has been pretty bad. Our house gets direct sunlight between 5 and 7 and I become whiny and miserable. Begging Brad to take me somewhere air conditioned. It takes that and a little ice cream to make me feel somewhat normal again.
3. I'm convinced that my wedding rings and shoes will never, ever fit again. Even my slippers are too small!
4. Our house has very few stairs, I think there's only 6 or 7 yet when I get to the top I'm often out of breath. This breathless-ness is annoying.
5. I figure getting up to pee a ridiculous amount of times a night can't be all that much worse than getting up to nurse.

The nursery is ready, her clothes are washed and folded. Diapers at the ready. The only thing left to do is pack a hospital bag and then we're ready. My prediction is that she'll come 3 days late but I sure wouldn't mind being wrong and having her come early.
L

Galt Gardens

Brad and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and we headed out for a picnic at Galt Gardens.

They have fountains there so we took the opportunity to get our feet wet and enjoy the spray from the wind..

We had a yummy lunch of croissonts, cheese, fruit and lemonade. It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon. Click below for a slide show of a few photos.

Lethbridge Picnic

L

Nesting

As a wedding gift we were given a bench.

At the time we were still in our tiny, tiny apartment with no space for a bench and honestly from the description of this bench I thought it sounded like it would be awful and sort of cheap so we took our time arranging the pickup of the bench. In fact we took so much time arranging that one day it was dropped off at Brad's parents house where we discovered that it's actually a really beautiful bench. We still had no room so we left the bench at his parents temporarily.

When we moved to our last apartment we had room so we brought the bench and put it at the end of our bed where it looked really nice. This whole time though this beautiful bench had only been primed in white, no actual painting had happened. I really wanted to paint it brown but we just didn't ever get around to it.

Well we have all this free time before Brad starts school and before Catie comes and the bench looked a bit rough from the move so this week we finally took the time to paint. It looks awesome and I'm excited about it. For now the cubbys are empty but I plan on getting some nice baskets to fill the space. Here's what it looks like at the end of our bed, so pretty!

L

DIY Gone Wrong

Since we've both recently quit our jobs we've tried to acquire as much for this baby as we could while not spending much money so we were thrilled when Mom said she had a crib for us.

We took a look at the crib and decided that it was in sort of rough shape, scratched up and a little battered so we figured we'd do just a little bit of sanding and then give it a fresh coat of paint. No big deal right?

Boy, we were wrong.

The sanding proved that the paint was chipped and flaking all over and a little sanding only led to more and more sanding. I sat on that deck with an electric sander for at least a couple hours. My hand vibrated for a long time after. Feeling pretty satisfied with my sanding job we proceeded to the painting portion. We'd decided spray paint was the way to go and Mom did the job. Turns out my sanding just wasn't quite as thorough as I would have liked so this crib is a bit of a disappointment.

We finally came to the decision that a new crib was in order. Both Brad's co-workers and mine had given us some gift cards to help us get set up in Lethbridge and we decided the best use of this money was a new crib. We picked it up today, assembled the crib and the changing table and they are so beautiful!

I have some awesome crib bedding to go with it but unfortunately it's still in Idaho so you'll have to use your imagination for now, it'll be here in a week-ish, I'll post new pictures then.

Until then here's a preview of Catie's room. Still a work in progress but I'm excited how it's shaping up.
L

DIY

It's been so nice to be in our house and to actually be able to do some of the projects I've been wanting to do. The first started on Wednesday. I've been wanting to recover our kitchen chairs for years and it was finally the right time.

I got this awesome red fabric and with some help from my Mom, some awesome stapling from Brad and the removal of a ridiculous amount of existing staples we now have what look like brand new chairs. The red looks so great in our new house and I found some throw pillos to match in the living room. You can see a before and after picture below but the picture really doesn't do the grossness of the fabric justice. It was all stained and dirty so the red is a nice change.

In the new house we have a ledge in the kitchen that would be perfect for bar stools and Mom just happened to have some lying around so we covered those in the same awesome red. Look how great they are under the cupboard.

We also did a bunch of painting on a bench that goes in our bedroom, it's going to look awesome when done.

Our next project, the babies room started today, pictures to follow but our new crib is beautiful.

L

Kicking Daddy

One of the things that's been really fun about pregnancy lately is watching my belly move in crazy ways. Catie sure tries to kick her way out occasionally and I love to watch the jerky movements.

Somehow Brad doesn't ever seem to catch these moments though. I'll tell him to look and without fail the movements instantly stop. Today though was an exception, we were lying together on the bed and he had his hand on my belly when Catie kicked in the perfect place and so violently that it startled Brad so he jumped and yelped. We both laughed ourselves to tears after, it was fun for Brad to finally see such a big movement.
L

(I'm still trying to look on the bright side here as I'm getting pretty sick of this pregnancy thing)

Last Day

Remember the count down chain?

Turns out it was very successful and now this is all that's left. That's right, today is my last day. My very last blog posted from work. It's a strange thing, leaving a job you've been at for 4 years, even stranger still knowing I’m not going on to a new job.

Here are a few things I won't necessarily miss about office life but they are things I've become accustomed to. I'll no longer:

1. Carry a key card to gain entry to a professional building
2. Regularly ride an elevator (this includes being annoyed when we stop on every floor and being unimpressed by the person who just put out their cigarette)
3. Wear business casual attire
4. Be excited for casual Friday
5. Ride a city bus
6. Stop by Starbucks / Tim Hortons to buy a yummy treat to pass the time
7. Be accessible through Google talk 8 hours of every day
8. Share awkward Betty stories

I think part of me will miss the structure of a work day but it's a really small part, the majority of me is just ridiculously excited to be finished!

Our internet doesn't get hooked up for a week so you can expect some on-line silence for a little while, wish us luck in the final leg of the move, Lethbridge here we come!
L