Enjoying the time off

I'm having a great week off. The time at the cottage was very relaxing. The weather was nice too. A little on the cool side, but sunny, so I can't complain.

Yesterday, we went shopping all day. We got our crib bedding (mom is getting that for me for my birthday). I know it's 3 months early, but she wanted us to have it before we go our nursery renovations, which is in October so that we can pick paint colours, etc. This is our crib bedding, although the picture doesn't really do it justice since it's way more colourful and has more animals than the picture shows. But, you get the idea. We also got the cutest lightswitch cover to match.

I also got some more maternity clothes for the fall. I got 6 tops, a pair of jeans, and a dress for the weddings I have coming up. And then of course, I had to get a shawl and shoes to match the dress ;) So, all in all, it was a very successful shopping day.

So today I have a busy morning of errands (getting my hair highlighted and cut, signing up for prenatal pilates class, registering for prenatal class for Carlos and I, etc).

Then tomorrow, we are headed back up to the cottage until Monday. I don't want my holidays to be over!

How time flies

I can’t believe it’s already nearing the end of August! I haven’t really felt like we’ve had summer yet since the weather has been so crappy. I’ve only been swimming in my parents pool 3 times so far this year since now it’s too cold to swim in since it has been getting so cold at night, and that’s even with a solar blanket on the pool!

As of 3pm tomorrow, I am on vacation until September 2nd, so that’s exciting! On Saturday, I am going to see Mamma Mia (movie) with my mom and then we’re going to a party for a co-worker of mine (who my mom is also friends with). Carlos will be gone at a bachelor party all day, so mom and I are doing a girls day.

Then on Sunday, Carlos and I are heading to the cottage until Wednesday. It will be just the 2 of us, so it will be nice to have some time alone out there. Looks like the weather should be nice! Yay! Thursday, we are going shopping in the GTA with my mom in the hunt for some more maternity clothes. And I need to find a dress to wear to the 2 weddings we are going to in the next couple of months.

Friday, we are heading back up to the cottage until Labour Day with the family and then the Monday evening we have a BBQ at my parents house to celebrate Alex and Raeh’s engagement.

So, it will be a nice, relaxing week off with lots of time at the cottage. Just the way I like it!

Oma’s diagnosis

Mom just called me and she's back from the appointment with Oma... they were there for 3 hours! And my uncle was there too, which was really good since now Oma can't accuse mom of making things up since there was another "witness" there.

Oma does NOT have Alzheimers, which is great! Her memory loss is likely related to the mini-strokes she's had in the last few years and restricted blood flow to the brain. They have prescribed medication that will help this and they are going to do more tests to confirm that this is what the problem is. The doctor is notifying the MTO that Oma can't drive, so that's official now, which is good. So, all in all, it was very positive, and we are relieved that she doesn't have Alzheimers!!!

Update

My weekend was great! On Saturday, we visited with Oma and she has really turned a corner, I think. She has really thought about things and has realized that mom only did what she thought was best because she cares. So, I don’t think she’s mad at mom anymore. In fact, Oma and mom went out to the cottage yesterday until today and mom said Oma is really coming to terms with things. Although, with her, every day is different, so she could wake up one morning and be totally mad again! But, we are thankful for the change in attitude. Her appointment with the gerontologist is tomorrow, so I am anxious to hear what happens there.

Also, in BIG news, my brother Alex is proposing to his girlfriend today! It is her birthday today, so he is planning on taking her on a picnic and proposing. He showed me the ring on the weekend and it’s gorgeous. I told him that he MUST get down on one knee when he proposes. I have always said, if there is no ring and no knee, it’s not a real proposal! Apparently, my mom also made a fuss saying he had to do the knee thing, so I think he got the message! I wouldn’t be surprised if they get married next summer. They are very young (she is 20 today and he is almost 23), but she has a good head on her shoulders and she’ll take good care of him (Alex is a real space cadet). So, that’s exciting!

Today, I have to go out of town for another meeting, so it’s a super long workday for me today… 8am to around midnight. But I am on holidays next week, so I don’t care! I will likely leave early on Friday since I’ll have the extra hours, but we’ll see. I may want to bank the overtime for all my medical appointments since I don’t think it’s fair to make the company compensate me for all my appointments, especially when they get more frequent as my pregnancy progresses.

I am at 16 weeks today! Yay!

EDIT 1:00pm

I am no longer going to the meeting tonight. My boss thinks he can handle this one on his own since he thinks it will be fairly straight forward. So, I'm happy! I don't have to work a 16 hour day today!

EDIT 3:00pm

It's official: my brother and Raeh are engaged! Very exciting!

Belly Pics

A couple of you have been asking, so here are a few pics of the belly progress so far.

This one was at 7 weeks. I'm not sure why my hubby didn't get my head in the pic!


This one is at 11 weeks.



And this one was at 15 weeks.

TGIF

This has been a stressful week. Work has been frustrating (there have been times this week I’ve wanted to pull my hair out and cry). And there has been lots of drama/stress with Oma. Not to mention the crazy migraine I had on Monday. It’s been a difficult week. I’m trying my best to stay mellow though!

So, I am quite relieved that it’s Friday today. This weekend will be a good one, I’m sure. Today, I am getting together with my friend Liz after work. She lives in Toronto, but her parents are about a half hour from me and she’s at her parents’ house for a week, so I thought I’d jump on that chance to visit with her since I haven’t seen her in months! The rest of the weekend will be spent relaxing, doing some errands, and a visit with Carlos’ parents.

Only 1 more week of work until my week off! I can’t wait! Next Friday at 3pm can’t come soon enough! Then I’m off work until September 2nd!

EDIT 11:05am

My mom just called me and I guess my aunt and uncle had a meeting with Oma and mom this morning. For the first time ever, my uncle stood up for my mom. I think before the meeting he thought mom was over-reacting, but when he spent some time with Oma, it didn't take him long to realize what's happening. He told Oma that he is behind my mom and if she's going to be mad at mom, she needs to be mad at him too. He also said that if Oma continues to treat our family like this, he will put her in a home. He won't see our family ripped apart by this. So, my mom is feeling MUCH better now. And I think it was good for Oma to see that it's not just my mom that is concerned. My uncle kept saying that this is only because we care about her... so hopefully she realizes that.

He could only handle an hour with Oma before he started to get annoyed with her saying the same things over and over again and being fixated on holding a grudge and not forgiving, so I think he's begining to see what mom has to go through day in and day out. For some reason, Oma seems to think that everything was done behind her back, which was not the case, she just doesn't remember. And she thinks my mom is lying. And she won't get past that. But this is the same woman who turned on her best friend 40 years ago because she didn't think she handled it well when Oma was widowed the first time and 40 years later, when this friend wanted to establish a connection with Oma again, she turned her down. So we already know Oma is not one to forgive. And I wouldn't be surprised if Oma loses all her friends now because she thinks they are all against her too since they talked to my mom saying that they were concerned about Oma because they care. Oma is really mad about that.

So, I think I'm going to stay out of this now that my uncle knows what is going on. I am thinking maybe I won't go to the appointment on Tuesday now since I know mom has backup in him. I don't want Oma to turn against me too, she needs someone who she can trust. Not to mention, I don't want to get caught in the middle since stress is not good for the baby.

We are all pretty blown away with the fact that my uncle has really stepped up to help. I am so thankful for that!!!! So, today is a good day!

Mom needs some back-up

Well, I decided that I’m going to go to Oma’s appointment on Tuesday morning. My mom really needs the support. My uncle will also be there, but he rarely spends time with Oma, so he doesn’t really know what’s been going on.

I stopped in for a few minutes yesterday after work and I walked in on Oma yelling at my mom. Apparently, Oma somehow is fixated on saying that mom took her car keys without telling her. Which is not the case. Mom took her car keys away over 6 weeks ago now, and of course she talked to Oma about it beforehand... and MANY times since. Well, Oma all of a sudden within the last 2 days decided that mom did this all behind her back. When mom says they talked about it many times, Oma just says mom is lying to her and that she can’t defend herself since she doesn’t remember what happened. And Oma has her key back now anyway, so I don’t know why she is so fixated on thinking mom is doing things behind her back and lying all the time.

It’s getting quite ugly. Oma stormed off and said to my mom “I hope someday your family treats you as badly as you’ve treated me!” And then she kept coming back with more hurtful things to say. So, I got my mom out of there for a bit. We went for dinner and then to the festival of lights where Kalan Porter was playing last night. So, we had a nice escape.

I feel so bad about this whole situation. I’m trying my best not to let it stress me out too much since stress isn’t good for the baby. I feel bad for Oma because I can imagine it must be hard on her to lose her mind and be in denial and I also feel bad for my mom because of the living hell Oma is putting her through. It would be so much different if their houses weren’t attached. But since mom works from home so much, she can’t get anything done since Oma comes over 30+ times a day to yell at her. It’s getting worse by the day. The appointment on Tuesday can’t come soon enough!

I’m hoping there is some medication Oma can take to help. But how do you get a forgetful woman to take medication when she insists there’s nothing wrong with her? Half the time she doesn’t know what month it is, much less day of the week. She insists she doesn’t need any help, so this could be tricky…

I think Oma should live half time at my aunt and uncles… it’s not fair that all the stress of this is put on my mom… time for my uncle to step up… but I doubt that’s going to happen.

Made it through migraine #2

Well, I had my 2nd pregnancy migraine yesterday – no fun. It lasted a full 24 hours – from Sunday evening until yesterday evening. I had to stay home yesterday; all I could do was lie flat with a cold compress on my head. If I tried to do anything else, my head pounded like crazy. And it didn’t help that we had 3 thunderstorms during the day so every crash of thunder and every car that drove by on the wet roads were torture! It was a difficult day for sure and Tylenol did nothing. But, luckily, it only lasted 24 hours and I am feeling MUCH better today. I hope I don’t have any more of those! Although, if I’ve already had 2 in the 3.5 months I’ve been pregnant, chances are there are more to come. I will definitely talk to my midwife about it at my next appointment to see if there is anything I can do. I felt bad about missing work, but that’s only the 2nd day I’ve called in sick since I became pregnant, so that’s not too bad. And there is no way I would have been able to function at the office, so it was for the best.

The Oma drama has continued. She found a car key somewhere and went out driving even though she technically doesn’t have a license. She did pass her MTO test, but never went to the office to get her license renewed. Her appointment with the gerontologist is next Tuesday, so we are anxious to hear what she has to say. It’s getting worse by the week. Now Oma is at the stage where she is lashing out at mom accusing mom of making this whole thing up and being against her. She’s saying mom has been telling lies to everyone and turning everyone against her. Nobody is against her! She’s saying things like “I can’t believe this is how you treat an old woman, especially your mother… after everything I’ve done for you!” And anytime my dad tries to stick up for my mom, Oma just yells at him to stay out of it. Oma insists that someone else needs to come to the appointment on the 19th so that there is a “witness” as to what the doctor says because Oma no longer trusts my mom. My mom already told my uncle that he needs to be there as well anyways since she can’t handle this on her own. What a mess. I wouldn’t be surprised if Oma has Alzheimers since it seems like that’s what this is. But, we’ll wait and see what the doctor says. My poor mom!

I’m at 15 weeks now – wow! I have been taking weekly pictures of how my body has been changing, so I will post a couple of those when I get a chance, likely on the weekend.

Oh, and our ultrasound is booked – September 16th at 9:10am! Yay!

We have a heartbeat!

:)

We went to see the midwife this afternoon and my mom came to this appointment, in addition to Carlos. We got to hear the heartbeat! It took the midwife a few minutes to find it since the baby was higher up than she was expecting. So, just as I was starting to get nervous, she found it! And it was the most amazing thing I've ever heard!!!!! Heart-rate was strong at 168 bpm. Midwife said that's perfect for this stage of pregnancy.

I am SOOOOOOOOO happy and relieved!!!!!!!!!!!!

So glad it’s already Thursday

Yay for short work weeks!

I have been really tired this week, so I am looking forward to a quiet weekend at home. We don’t have too much planned, which is nice. I really need to catch up on some sleep. And of course, watch some Olympics ;)

I’m a week into the second trimester, which is nice. It seems like a LONG time until my due date though… which I guess is a good thing since we have so much to do to get ready! Baby is the size of a lemon this week! Tomorrow is the big day: we finally get to hear the baby’s heartbeat! I’m so excited; only 1 more sleep!

Only 2 weeks left of work after this one until my week off! I am really looking forward to the break! Similar to our last week off, we’re going to be spending most of it at the cottage with a day of shopping in the GTA in the middle. I really need to find some maternity jeans and a couple more tops.

Sleeeeeeepy

I am feeling pretty tired this afternoon. And I don’t think it’s all pregnancy related, I think some of it is due to the fact that I slept on a mattress on the floor at our hotel in Montreal since the beds were so slanty ;) Despite the hotel misfortunes, I had a great time in Montreal with the girls. And we can laugh about our hotel room now, since it seems like we didn’t have it as bad as some other guests we were talking… at least our bathroom had a ceiling ;)

I reached 14 weeks yesterday – yay! I think my belly grew a lot while I was in Montreal because Carlos said I was showing a lot more when I got home after being away for 3 days. Now, how much of that is related to baby and how much is related to over-eating in Montreal is not known! Ha! I think he’s right though, I think I am starting to look pregnant. Maybe not to strangers yet, but I can definitely tell now… exciting!

Only 3 more days until we get to hear our baby’s heartbeat – I can’t wait until Friday afternoon at 3:30pm! It’s going to be such a special moment. I’m sure both mom and I will cry… but they are probably used to that in the midwife’s office; I’m sure it happens all the time.