and just like that....

*ding*

This...


became...

this.

Pretty cool, huh?

Welcome to Niamh Eileen! For those who don't read Irish out there - I'm assuming there may be a couple (ha) - Niamh is pronounced neev. Or as one name book said, "heaven spelled backwards."

ok, not really, but it sounds cute to say. The non-English-phoenetic spelling comes from Irish Gaelic, if anybody didn't yet know that was my thing. It is an Irish name so we went for the authentic/heritage type thing over the accessible-to-more-people thing.

She was 9lbs. 3 oz.

21 1/2 in. long

born May 29, at 9:39am

she is a total dear, a good sleeper so far (thank You, God! let it continue!!) We are all happy at home. So far Anna loves her too, thinking she is "sooo sweet!!!" but enjoys making a scene whenever I change her bum, as if it had any smell at all. She flees the scene covering her face in feigned terror. What a little actress.

Re: the photos, the nurse took the first one in my hospital room the morning of the c-section. You can see the morning hour on the wallclock. 2 1/2 hrs later, the 2nd pic was taken.

The section was routine and eventless, (thanks again to God!!) but of course no surgery is ever fun. I am now living off my tylenol, bet it gets me through. I'm quite sore but ok, and have good help between Chris and is mum who is next door. Oh, and of course Anna, who is also very helpful.

She is currently nursing and it is 5am and I am one-finger-pecking this whole post, so I'll wrap up for now, but I was anxious to share my news. : )

Beautifully, in closing, I find my house feels more like a home, and we feel more like a family, instead of a couple with a kid. Lovely.

3 days over news

I was informed yesterday that the medical community is considering it basically impossible for me to deliver the baby, so I am now scheduled for a c-section on Tuesday. That's when they could pencil me in. It's like trying to get a haircut appointment. Weird.

Apparently my pelvis just doesn't cut it. And the "good birthing hips" of which I boasted possessing all through high school don't count for anything either. Oh well.

So here I am. Hoping now to NOT go into labor and make it until Tuesday eventless.

Thanks for prayers and concern. I will let you know as soon as I can what they find next week... hehehe

the beached whale and other foibles

Some humour from this interesting time of life.

I'm more like a turtle on it's back, really. But this condition goes back a ways. In high school one time, a friend and I compared the relative difference in our body shapes. We both laid on the floor on our backs, and I could easily raise and lower my legs but had difficulty sitting my torso straight up, while her torso would almost automatically raise when she tried to lift her legs. Interesting.
I'm still like that, it's just worse. I can get out of bed on my own, but Chris' assistance is much appreciated. I'm sure the upswing heave-ho action of my legs trying to create some counterforce and get that ol' torso vertical must be humourous to watch. But I have no audience generally. Lucky for me.

Then I would like to compose a wee letter of thanks to whomever is responsible (or not responsible, as the case may be) for maintaining things in the women's washroom at my church.

The locks don't work, on any of the doors, as far as I know. Now, combine the following conditions and it just isn't pretty.
1) I am quite short. Thus, so are my legs.
2) The stall doors to not lock.
3) Whatever unbalanced angle the doors are hanging at, causes them to naturally swing open inwards.

So this leaves me, who frequents washrooms with some, well, frequency these days, stretching my little leg, pointing my little toes as far as they will go (while trying to remain in appropriate proximity to the loo itself) to hold the door at least mostly closed while I occupy the space. What can I say, but that it is nearly impossible, and at the very least, far from comfortable. But hey.

Then there were two sitcom-ready moments of maternity shame that I will here bare in my seeming disregard for my own self-image or dignity.

The first was a month-ish ago, after church. I was driving home alone, and had stopped to pick up a couple groceries. Well, there was a box of glazed donuts on the clearance rack of the bakery, which I snatched right up, for Chris, of course. Well, the salivation began shortly thereafter as "visions of sugar plums (and donuts) danced in my head, " while I was walking around the other aisles of the store.

What a horrid display I made of myself, loading the bags of groceries into the trunk, and tearing savagely into the box of donuts, and inhaling one while standing in the parking lot just outside the open trunk of my car. Had I not eaten in a week? I mean really.

I licked my fingers as clean as I could as I delivered the cart to the little cart corrall and walked back to my car pretending that there was no one sitting in their cars waiting for anyone inside to return and watching my little show. Lovely. Not to mention, impressive.

Then there was the other day... *sigh* this was truly shameful as well. I was like an alcoholic. But with sugar. I made these cookie/bark/brittle things that are truly sinful and delicious, very rich and pure cryptonite for me. I hid from Anna, because of course, that much sugar is no good for her!!! And I ate and I ate and I ate as gluttonously as I can actually EVER recall eating, literally, until I made myself sick. I don't know what came over me. I didn't lose anyting, but boy, was my stomach ever upset. Yowzers. And I felt drained and heavy and nauseous the whole rest of the day. Absolutely pitiful.

The bright side is that I have had basically NO desire for sugar since then. At all. I'll just eat some plain cauliflower, ok? Thanks. And water. LOTS of water. Please.

Precious Moments

Anna has become fascinated with 'the belly' and the baby in it. Sometimes she will just be looking at it and say, "Wow! it is so HUGE!" Her new hobby is pulling up my shirt and laying her head and hands on the belly and waiting for the baby to kick her. Then she jumps back and looks at me with big eyes and a smile to match and says, "Did you feel dat one???? Da baby kicked me!" And her patience for this routine has really grown. Earlier on she couldn't wait the couple moments it took to feel a kick or a roll. Now she will sit there just about as long as you will let her, enjoying as many as she can. I'm loving it!

The other night baby and I had a little 'moment'. We bonded. It gets quite active in the warmth of the tub, and lying there, it did this straight-leg knee-lock thing, and the bum was stuck out one side, quite pronounced, and a foot was pushing out the opposite side. Normally, when pressure is applied to a protrusion, it will retract fairly readily. But it didn't this time. It let me sit there and rub its little foot for the longest time!!! I couldn't believe it. I just rubbed and rubbed and rubbed, and it kept it stuck out as far as it could, almost as if enjoying it. I know I was. Just a sweet little moment.

I am thinking that it is a girl now, as of the last weekish or so. With no certainty of course, but just kinda thinking. And Anna has changed her tune! She had held, without wavering even once, that it was definitely a boy from the first mention of it until just a couple days ago, now she keeps saying it is a girl. So who knows. We will all know in a couple days or weeks, now won't we! The names she has selected for it have been quite... interesting. First was Daniel, then Zorret, the Fissy, then Soupy. Soupy is everybody's made-up silly name right now, however, not just the baby.

I finally settled on a paint colour. Pittsburgh Paint 311-4, Cress Green, if anyone is that very interested. Chris brought it home last night and I dove right in cutting in around window and doors within the hour. I simply could NOT wait to get some ON the wall, and see how it was going to look. I should have taken a before picture. I will have to find an old one of our very dark red room. This light green just almost glows compared to the darkness of the red.

Cress Green happens to be from the Scottish Highlands collection, and I swear that is a coincidence, as is our anniversary on St. Pat's. No one will believe I'm not the poser I appear to be. But those who are closest to me know full well that the whole rose-coloured-glasses thing on all things celtic has long since faded. I no longer get goosebumps crossing the Causeway to Cape Breton, for example, or talking to fill-in-the-blank famous celtic musician. They are just places and people: loved by God, but equal, and full of both and good and bad.

Hawaii or New Zealand, on the other hand... I think my glasses are pretty rosey about that right now... or maybe the winter is just getting long. What was that I said about 63 degrees? Ya, that was just that one day. It was great and all... but I've had the heaters on again with regualrity since then.

There's all the blather I can muster for today. I will likely keep you posted on any new humans or even much less exciting things, like sweeping my floor. Mmm... sweeping...

Look! A new post!

Ya, it's still about pregnancy, but at least it's new.

So here's the belly at 36 weeks, beginning of ninth month.

This is my living room, for those who haven't been to my house, which is... EVERYBODY, except maybe Dad and Denise, if she still checks this :P. A couple of my mom's paintings on the wall back there, our wood stove, our primary heat source. A little window into our life environment for ya. Oh, and Anna's tinkerbell dress, which I have mentioned before, as she more or less lives in it.

Ya, I know, my blush is too orange for my skin. I won't buy it again.

I've been working my tail off trying to get stuff done and ready for the new arrival. I've made 4 meals that I've frozen in order to offset work load post partum. I have rearranged furniture as we are transforming a dark red study/library into a nursery. I can't decide on a paint color. This is my new dilemma. :) I have discovered that sciatic nerve pain is not as fun as they make it out to be. ( ha.... ha..... ). It can wake you out of a dead sleep at 6 am and put tears in your eyes. Nice. That's about it for excitement. Meh, and a little false labor, but what's new. No biggie.

I will say that I am SO enjoying leading worship at my church! I have been the full-time worship leader there for a couple months now. It is tenderizing my heart, which is wonderfully welcome and ultimately enjoyed.

Another thing that is about the coolest thing for me is that we have had SUNSHINE and temperatures topping out at 63F this week, and let me tell you, I just about thought I was in heaven. I could open my windows! Wonder of wonders! I could go outside and not be in a hurry to be back inside! Awesomocity!

** See ya 'round **

Replace, Retrace, Retract, Repeat

I've made a diagram that is very impressive, I know.

It is of my large belly at present, and attempts to describe an interesting fetal movement from a couple nights ago.

It repeated this pattern probably 6-8 times. I was laughing out loud. But I was laughing alone. So here I am, trying to describe my experiences to a rapt audience, I'm confident.

It would push out top center, trace an arc around the side, withdraw the foot entirely, and replace an identical push/arc pattern, the 6-8 aforementioned times, nearly identical movements each time, to my sensation.

I know this isn't as fascinating to anyone else as it is to me, but here you are. I don't worry about boring you anymore, as it is very simple to close a browser window that no longer holds your attention. So there ya go.

Ooo... if that wasn't enough, now I want to tell you about Potty training! Better bring in the popcorn and jujubes! This post is gonna be a wild ride!

So... 2 Mondays ago we had our first potty chair success story as mentioned in the last post. There was a 10 day standstill of vehement opposition after that, but when she re-commenced, we have had almost exclusive potty chair use, at all waking hours. How cool is that??? If you don't think so, you mustn't have kids yet or have trained them, cause when it finally happens, it is it's own little nirvana, let me tell you.

Story #3 for today, a friend from high school suckered me into the worst April fools joke. Man. Oh. Man. I felt SOooooooooooo stuuupid when last night, a different friend pointed out to me that it probably was a joke, this buddy was likely not REALLY leaving her partner of 8-9 years and her entire life, selling her possessions to go be a Bollywood star. *sigh* I am so gullible sometimes. In my defense, my family never celebrated April fools, and having never participated in it, is not something that occurs to me in the first place. This does not help my total embarrassment at this moment, however. Oh well.

I'll have more interesting things to say later. Here's hopin'!

Ciao for now.

Family updates

updates replete with bodily functions, that is, just so ya know. Nothing deep here.

I had another OB appointment this morning. Anna went with mom-&-sis-in-law and I. She got to run around WalMart's toy section while I got weighed and measured. She has interesting taste in toys for a 3 year old girl, I think. At least, different than my preferences as I recall them. A few trips ago at the Dollar store she picked something interesting out too. At WalMart today she was looking through all the toys (something she never gets to do), and was having fun, but not starstruck by any particular thing...

Until...

She saw it. There it was. In all of its glory...

A geeby little lizard. Rubbery and totally creepy feeling to me. She saw it from quite a distance and ran to him, as if to say, OH! I've finally found you!!! I love you! And she had to have it. Same with the above-featured dinasaur from the Dollar Store, complete with screeching dinasaur-esque sound sample in his belly. She's such a girly girl otherwise. She more or less lives in the foofy netted Tinkerbell dress she got in the halloween costume clearances, princess crown, ballerina slippers, etc. Anytime we are just hanging out around the house, she is ALWAYS wearing dresses. Last time she was shopping with Nanny and they were looking at clothes, Nanny was looking at some pants for her, and she leaned over and whispered to her, "Uh, Nanny, I yike skirts... okay?" and went on her way. What a girl.

We are working on potty training right now, too, which is very ... *ahem* ... interesting as well. We had our first glorious tinkle in a potty chair last Monday, after which she was violently opposed to any more until yesterday. Now today she has done like 3 more. I am hoping and praying! Come ON, Girl!!! You can do it!!! She prefers a diaper, but hey. I'm ok with baby steps. At least we have had an encouraging first step or 2.

We have discovered a less fortunate development as of this weekend, however. Apparently Anna has started getting carsick. She vomited 3 times Saturday on our trip to town, and again today. Hmm. Dunno how we will get around this one. But hey, that's life. She is tough though, and not a whiner about it at all.

Here is the belly update as promised. This is from March 28, a month after the last one. I'm 32 weeks now (in 8th month). Anna put together her own very interesting outfit to go to town today.

I've only gained 1 1/2 lbs since February 28th, and am coming along nicely, so far.

And it just started blowing crazy snow outside as I reach over to click "publish blog". Not out of the wintry woods yet, at least not in Nova Scotia.

Just call me Flipper

If the resemblance is more toward a large aquatic mammal or a fast food meat pattie, I can't say, but it is a suiting name for me presently. The turning motion quite resembles the burger, but the round body shape may be more telling, as are the squeaky noises.

I have entered the stage of pregnancy where it is difficult to get comfortable at night. So I'm flipping, from one side to the other, back and forth, back and forth, most of the night. It's not too bad yet, I can still sleep mostly soundly, so I count that blessing. With Anna, in the last month, I would awake early in the morning (5 or 6) unable to lay any longer, the discomfort was too much.
Flipper is having a Karate Kid. I guess I'm into leasainm, nicknames.

My old house in Kansas City has jonquils in radiant bloom. As I write, I look out my window and it is snowing quite densely, and below freezing. All I can see is solid whiteness beyond the tree line at the edge of our lot. We don't generally get tulips and daffodils until June. BUT, on the upside, I have a very cozy crackling fire in my living room, keeping the family warmed.

We had our 4 year wedding anniversary this Saturday. Yes, St. Pat's. No, it wasn't an intentional coinciding of days. For those who are doing the math on the proximity of our child's 3rd birthday to our 4th anniversary, let me save you and say we were married 3 months when we found a surprise result on a little white stick.

I want to send a shout out to my Dad, who started a new job this Monday. Congrats, Daddu! Be blessed in this new vocation!

I had an insatiable appetite for sugar for the last month or 2, which was given the royal boot by a wee stomach bug. Now I am the queen of produce. Yeah! So nice to have my appetites agree with virtue. How valuable! I can't get enough vegetables at all now. Meat generally sounds really gross to me right now too. Weird.
A really nice thing has been that since that tummy bug, Karate Kid has really mellowed a lot. It is still in near constant motion, but not as violent or painful. While sick, it was more like an intestinal massage than a butt kicking. An agreeable development indeed!

I have accumulated some quotes for you.
Here are a number of them.
"Argue for your limitations and they are yours. Argue for your possibilities and they are yours as well." Various authors
"As long as you are going to be thinking anyway, think big!" Donald Trump
"Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream of things that never were and say why not." Robert F. Kennedy
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." Les Brown
"The most handicapped person in the world is a negative thinker." Heather Whitestone, former Miss America...she is deaf.

And while we're on the topic of positive thinking, I have a story for you as well. There is a Sri Lankan among us who will find this redundant as she was already in the Green Room. But for everyone else:

There was a beautiful woman with long, luxurious, chestnut hair. Upon waking one morning and examining her reflection, she found she had only 3 hairs left on her head.

"Oh," she said. "I guess I'll braid my hair today."
She did and she had a great day.

The next day, she awoke to find only 2 hairs on her head.
"Hmm.." said she, "I guess I'll part my hair in the middle."
This she did, and had a great day.

The next morning, she discovered only 1 hair left on her head.
"I see..." she observed, "I suppose I will wear my hair in a ponytail today!"
So she wore a ponytail and had a great day.

The next morning, as sure as the sun, what had she, but no hairs left on her head.
"Well well, it looks as if I don't have to do my hair today!"
She went her way, and had a great day.

That's it.

just blather

What was that I said about not looking fat? ya, scrap that. FATTY-oh-fatness. OH well.

All kinds of things to say til I sit here to type. How do other people do it? Lethologica. It's a nasty condition.

So my 4 month fetus is already auditioning for the remake of Karate Kid in 2025. Doing a lot of practicing as far as I can tell right now.
It's like, "can you feeeelll..... this? How about..... THIS! .... ooorrrr THIS! *WHAPOW*"
Uh YA, thanks, got that! I think I'm in for a bruised and sore last 4 months.. good grief! All good. Actually I love it. It fascinates me to no end and makes me want to have 10 kids, just because of the wonderment of this phase of pregnancy. There is the emotional rollercoaster side, where I'm really worried how I'm gonna divvy time between a needy newborn and my darling beloved Anna who is used to all my attention, AND a hubby... But, same as when I was having Anna in the first place, I just have to tell myself with repetition, nearly every other woman in all of time has done it before you, you can too.
This simple reminder/reassurance gets me through a lot of otherwise overwhelming panicky anxiety.

In other news, I have discovered I love sardines! I know, I know, I nearly had an identity crisis when I killed my first can. I will open a can and totally clean it out all by my lonesome for lunch. Hopefully the benefit of the omega 3's (sardines are an awesome source for those) outweighs the sodium I'm assuming is too high in anything that is canned.

I have ordered some maternity clothes I'm super excited waiting to receive.... yeah for Old Navy clearances ! Although I had to jump through ridiculous hoops since they will neither send to Canada, nor will they even accept a Canadian credit card online... yes, it amounted to no small amount of frustration at the time, but now that it is worked out (my dad is buying and sending them to me and we will reimburse him) I'm putting the past behind me and looking ahead to my hopefully semi-stylish pregnancy. Neither I nor my karate kid are appreciating my regular jeans ANYMORE.

I still have lots of Anna's presents to wrap, so I guess I should get to it... I just hate leaving this un-touched for TOOO long...

But the highlight happy thought is... Christmas decorations! I love them! The lights have got to be one of the cheeriest things in the natural world and I love love love giving gifts... I had some saved, so I'm actually able to give anna and chris some things... it feels SOOO good!!! Yeah!

kid update

In response to Katherine's inquiry.

I am 13 weeks, I have one more week 'til the 2nd trimester. The fetus has all its organs, fingernails, and even distinctive fingerprints! Nuts, seeing as how it is about 3 inches long and weighs about an ounce. Wow. I am starting to show, esp. if I wear a fitted shirt. Am looking a little more pregnant than just fat, which is cool.

Still enjoying food immensely and am ale to eat healthier stuff and drink water finally! Yeah. I would like to mention my jubilation that Anna is eating better now! She was going through this toddler picky period, although her picky period is more like some kids eating-everything period. But last night she totally CLEANED a bowl of chana masala I made for supper. OH ya! THAT's my Anna!!! Chana masala is a chick pea & tomatoe indian dish.

Yuckbug runnin' around

The unfortunate dilemma remains that nobody wants to hear the following goopy complaints. But as I made clear in my introductory post, I don't altogether care. I will write about what interests me, and hope for the best. And until I get through this next phase of life called the 'first trimester', there will probably be more posts like this one!

I'm sure no one would disagree with me that it is not fun to be nauseous all day long, and so superly high maintenance! By that I mean, I can't get too hungry or it gets worse, or too full, or too active, too tired or blah blah blah you name it. I have to snack about every 2 hours or so. A mere colour or turn of the head or anything really at all can potentially set me off. That's great! And I am turned off by anything healthy. All I really want (although I've not yet had it) is candy bars and french fries. They are not permitted in the house as I know they are no good for either of us, but I still want them. And it's not wanting like normal wanting, oh no, this is like get-out-of-my-way-and-don't-look-at-me-with-that-salad kind of savage desire. It's quite intersting really, especially after a year of diet/lifestyle changing that required a lot of self discipline, I almost feel helpless against this. Before I could talk myself out of stuff, take the craving-bull by the horns, as it were, but this is a seemingly overpowering desire. I cower in the face of it! The only thing keeping me from it is absence. We do not own a candy bar, so I'm not eating one. Interesting. And salt. I want salt salt salt. Cheese, olives, aforementioned fries, ranch dip (with a little carrot stick on the side). About all I can drink happily is orange juice or tonic water. Tonic water really helps.
Housework doesn't get done, Anna doesnt' get played with, dinners are VERY simple, I might have spoken one sentence to her today in Irish. When I'm focussing on functioning, I am finding very little mental evergy for using a different language, which is frustrating. Just one more thing to make you feel useless during a time when you are .... rather useless! Not to sound overly pitiful or depressed, cause I'm not, but let's say, I am really appreciating WELLNESS.

My mom had a hernia surgery this morning, and within 4 hours she was home! Crazy. She is recouping well so far, but will be moving on Monday! Luckily the church paid to hire some movers, or she would be quite stuck!

Anna is sick too, some kind of cold, her little voice is so rathspy and broken, the occasional cough, and a mild fever. Chris and all his family have had it by now, so I was surprised she made it this long, actually. This is really the first time she's had a little fever at all. She had a small one in response to one of her shots, but that is it. She has been a remarkably healthy child to date. No ear infections, no flu, cold, anything. Amazing, really! I think a 2 day runny nose is about the worst we've seen here, so I'm not complaining, but it's always sad to see your child unwell, even a little.

On a totally different note, I found out today that my interview dealy will be featured in the November issue of Celtic Heritage Magazine, and that copies can be ordered for $4.95 plus HST plus shipping, which I'm told is approx. $1 per copy. Isn't it exciting? I haven't seen it yet, so I don't know, but I'm looking forward to finding out!

Leaves are turning...

and so is my stomach....
Goosebumps appearing...
as are the multitudinous trips to the washroom...

I am probably 3-4 weeks along-ish... it is about the size of 2 molecules. You can't tell me that that is putting pressure on my bladder, or that my stomach muscles already need to relax to make spatial accomodation ?!?!?

But it is. I'm glad to learn that my subconscious mind is much more on the ball about being prepared and having things done ahead of time than my conscious mind is. Because if it were up to my conscious mind to make these decisions, I would be thinking, oh gosh, it will be ages (months) before we need to do much in the way of space accomodation, and the bladder could certainly not be too affected for another few months, no? I am interested to know also, what is actually happening in the body chemically to make you nauseous 24/7. Is it hormonal? I mean really.
But here I am, to quote a famous modern poet, "I'd like to take a minute just sit right down, tell how my life got flip turned upside down..."
And by 2 molecules, no less.

Played the last of the summer concerts this weekend to a completely sold out crowd. Standing room only. There were 12 people (I counted them) standing outside the door looking in, listening, peering through the windows. Very cool.

For an update on some of Anna's new developments, you can check my husband's blog, the most erratic poster ever, but still, this new one is great! http://www.courtjester45.blogspot.com

Here's a new one of her. This was taken at Nanny's house last week. She is so gorgeous, and continues to defend her title as "Best Kid Ever"! She has graduated to a 'big girl bed', and after 2 days, she is already set in her new routine, never gets out after we put her in, Chris and I are just amazed, and immensely thankful.

New life in the midst of autumn

The cycles continue.

One incidence of life came this morning. I discovered that the basil seeds I planted in a pot in my kitchen window, have SPROUTED!! I am very excited about this. In a matter of time, I will be able to cook with fresh basil! I cannot wait! What a difference this will make in Thai, French and Italian dinners!! Weehoo!

Secondly, if pee tests are as accurate as they say they are, I will be sprouting my own new life come next June! Well well well... one never knows what a day will bring. But new life in general today, huh? Wow. So, life will be a changin. Funny, the first thing I've been thinking about is where we will physically PUT it, will it get the guest bedroom and then we have no place to put guests? Or can it share a room with Anna? I have no idea. We have time to figure this all out though!

Other than that... hmm... I was nauseous this morning, but not bad. Nothing a piece of toast couldn't fix. I wasn't sure if I was going to tell everybody right off the bat like this, but since Katherine is apparently the only person who has ever read this (except you, Dad) , I feel it safe to share. I'm publishing this on my blog, and the news STILL isn't getting out! Hahahaha!!!! That is somewhat humourous. I really have the smallest readership on the web! That's great. :)
I'll have to get into some self-promoting. Hmm... maybe I can hire a publicist... or maybe I can chill out... I think that's the ticket!