Milestone!!!

Took this screenshot from my phone today. 5000 views!!! Thank you all for reading with me, caring (or at least pretending to care) when I yack on about myself, and putting up with my nonsense posts about nothing! I wouldn't have been blogging for this long if it wasn't for you!

THANK YOU!!! :) :) :)

Today is the Big Day...

I am officially coming out of the Pregnancy Closet today!

But, things haven't gone entirely according to plan...

Being that I wasn't hiding my pregnancy anymore I came out to a bunch of people at work. It got around not necessarily "quickly" but it did hit people that I wanted to personally tell before I had the opportunity. The girls that I told knew this... but... sometimes the excitement gets to everyone, and when you have a secret you just want to tell it, even if it's not your own.

But that's fine. If it was a big deal, I wouldn't have told anyone at work before my girls get together. I wanted to tell this whole group of friends together, but instead, one found out at work, so I had to tell the First-To-Know friend, I found out a good friend wouldn't be coming to the get together because she wasn't feeling well, so I told her last night, and now that I'm thinking about it, it's possible that another one of my friends might know because our moms work together and I think I told my mom it's not a secret anymore... So if I think it's likely that 4 of the 10ish girls know, how likely is it that all of them know from one another by today? I guess we will find out when I come out who actually knows and who doesn't. I have no idea if the girls that I do know know will tell the others before then or if they will have waited for me to tell everyone today.

This has really taken the pressure off though. If it doesn't come up, then I won't bother saying anything. I hate making an effort to find that perfect moment to jump into the conversation to change the topic to yourself. It was really easy at work, because I don't see everyone everyday, so I get a lot of "What's new with you?" and then I just have to say "I heard my baby's heartbeat the other day!" and it's out! No contrived conversation, it's an easy in. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy, that's how I like it.

Potty Training!

Ok, so this has been going on for a while now. We set up Rosalie's Potty up in my bathroom back in October because she was constantly in there with me anyway, so why not have a potty for her in there?

From October: When she is 16 and finds out I posted this picture on the internet, she will probably kill me, but I think it's cute.

She was always interested in sitting on it, and flushing the flusher (it doesn't actually do anything, just makes clicking noises), and playing with the toilet paper holder, but wouldn't actually go to the bathroom on it. I wouldn't say we pressured her or anything, she just sat on it when I needed to go, but when she didn't go it was fine.

Then YESTERDAY happened! We went into my bathroom for my morning potty break, and I sat her on her potty, but then she stood right up again, I sat her down again, but she started to cry,.. AND PEE! So I quickly sat her down again and she was mad, but then the potty started to sing (there are connectors in the bottom of the bowl so that when they are connected by liquid it sings!), and I clapped and said how good she was and handed her toilet paper so she could wipe (she already wipes herself after she pees in her diaper, it's her favourite part... and I wiped up the pee that got on the floor). She still wasn't enthused, but I think she gets the idea now. I'm hoping this is the start of her actually understanding what the potty is for and not that it's just another toy.

I'm hoping this is the start of a positive relationship, but Roland asked her if she needed a diaper change last night, to which she didn't respond, and then asked her if she needed to go to the potty, to which she vigorously shook her head. So maybe it's not so positive yet... but we'll get there! :)

This Could Take a While...

I'm reading the 5th (and currently last available) Song of Ice and Fire book right now and it's huge (of course), over 1000 pages. At the pace I am reading it right now, it may take me 4 weeks to read. I'm hoping it doesn't, but on days that I work I'm lucky if I can get a single chapter read. So bear with me while I chug through this book, there may be very few book reviews in January. But I figured that if I start off the year a little behind schedule for my Goal for 2014, I am likely to feel better about catching up earlier rather than having to play catch up for the rest of the year, like I did in 2013.

So to tide myself over and stop feeling guilty that my last post was about a week ago.... A bookfession!!

When spelling or grammatical errors show up in books, I always wonder what the heck this editor is getting paid for. Seriously, they should lose a day's pay for missing the "teh" in one of their books....

Cord Blood Banking

Today is one of those days where I wish Roland's sexual history wasn't so sketchy.

I mean, I'm never, like "Damn! I'm so glad you were a bar slut back in the day!", but I mean, I married the guy, so I got over it. But there are just some of those days where I wish he was the man that he is today back then.

When I was pregnant with Rosalie, I looked into Cord Blood Banking, but I found that I thought it was too expensive for something that she was very low risk for ever needing. I know... "what price can you put on the health of your child?" but we really don't have that much disposable income, so I am going to rely on the positive forward thinking that she will never need it. Plus, someone once told me that if she did get leukemia or something, her own cord blood wouldn't help her anyway, but a brother's or sister's is very likely to match and it wouldn't have contaminated cells. The other option we had, other than spending thousands of dollars was to see if we qualified for the Alberta Cord Blood Bank(ACBB), which is a donation based program, so it's totally free. It doesn't guarantee that the cord blood provided would be there when my family needed it, if someone else needed it first they would get it because the ACBB doesn't save it for you specifically, but it's better than nothing! They are non-government funded which means that they can set their standards as high as they want. Which I am telling you, is VERY high. The thing that definitely disqualified me with Rosalie was that I took Diclectin in my first trimester, and you cannot have taken any maternal medication (including Diclectin). It also says that you couldn't have ever had jaundice, but I was going to call and clarify that, because I had jaundice when I was born, but generally that doesn't count. My kidneys work fine now.  ANYWHOODLE, we didn't bank her Cord Blood.

This time around, I passed on the Diclectin in hopes of being able to donate this baby's cord blood. I was going to call once my first trimester was up to clarify the jaundice thing, and then I thought I was good to go. As far as I was concerned I was the perfect candidate, and I was really pumped to be able to do this this time. I mean, even if Rosalie or new baby don't need it, someone else might and that would be such a great thing to know that we provided to someone! BUT when I printed off the forms I found that there was a FATHER column of the same questions... and OH BOY did Roland ever disqualify us in the sketchy sexual history section... I got kinda mad at him when we went through the questions, and he retorted he wasn't thinking about banking his future children's cord blood at the time... which is clearly true, but still...

So if anyone else is having a baby and thinking about donating Cord Blood, give the ACBB a look! It doesn't cost you anything! And it is a great program and you know with their high standards if you ever need a donation their stock is high quality!

Coming Out, Part II

Now that we have heard our little one's heartbeat, I feel that we really can start telling people, but I'm not totally sure how to do that.

It won't be like last time, this time, I don't want to walk into a room of people I know and just be like "GUESS WHAT!..." But I don't really want to seem like I'm hiding it either. And I have a "first to know" pact with a friend that we created when we realized that we were always the last to know anything in our circle of friends. We always tell eachother the big stuff first, or at least not last. So I am hoping that I will have an opportunity to tell a big group of friends while she's there, because I have a feeling I won't get to tell people if I fire her a text telling her so. So... there's that... After I tell that group of friends is when all of these past preggo posts will be made available. So when you are reading this, you will know that I came out to that crew of friends...

A few people do already know. We did tell Brayden first and he didn't seem exactly excited, but he was very positive and we've included him in conversations about names and stuff and he has great inputs and contributes without prompts, so that's really good. If he's choked about it, he's hiding it really well. But I think he's just Roland's son and doesn't show tons of emotion, even if he is really happy.

Both sets of Grandparents and Great Grandparents know, of course.

My best buddy Erin was here for Xmas and I told her then, because more than likely she won't be able to stay with us the next time she is in town. Our spare bedroom is getting turned into Brayden's room, and Brayden's old room will become Rosalie's room before the baby comes. But that worked out OK because Erin's cousin was saying how she would like Erin to stay with her sometime, so we're not really leaving her high-and-dry.

Last night I went out with my Film Club (saw August: Osage County, total recommend!), and when people asked what's new I just told them "I got to hear my baby's heartbeat today!" and so that's how I came out to them. I'm hoping something similar happens with all of my groups of friends... otherwise it might be a while before I tell people. It may even get to the point of me having a huge preggo belly and that being the ice-breaker.

We'll see! There will be no big Facebook reveal, so people will just find out when they find out.

170 bpm!!!

AHHH! What a relief!

I know I kept telling myself that it would be OK if it wasn't there, it's still a little bit early and even if it is a blighted ovum, we would be ok. We would try again. It would be fine.

But the truth is that I would have been devastated. I would have picked my Rosalie up from my sister's, (while saying that I was fine and putting on a happy face), brought her home and hugged her while I cried... if she would let me. I would have tried to be OK with it. I would have reminded myself that it was not my fault, that these things happen and that it wasn't the end of the world... But I still would have been upset. Who wouldn't be?

But 170 BPM! (btw, that little heartbeat on the doppler is one of my favourite sounds in the whole world, right behind Rosalie's giggles and Brayden's full out belly laugh) That is faster than what Rosalie's was at 12 weeks. She was at about 160.  If the old wives tale is correct that means we are having another girl. I've been feeling like I've been cookin' a boy, but when the rate was so high, I couldn't help but be pleased if it is a girl. This just proves that either way, I will be happy.

So excited! Squeeeeeee!

I Just Want to TELL THE WORLD!!!

I am getting to that point where I really want to tell every person that I run into that I'm pregnant. Especially other pregnant women. There are at least 4 women at work right now that are preggers and I just want to tell them that I am part of the club too.

But no. Not yet.

I have my heartbeat appointment tomorrow, so assuming all goes well, I will stop "hiding it" after that.

With Rosalie, I remember that that little thrumping noise on the Doppler was my favourite sound in the whole wide world, and I am very much looking forward to hearing it again... but at the same time I am trepidatious. I have had far too many friends have miscarriages in order to assume that everything will be fine. Part of me half expects to be told that I have a blighted ovum tomorrow. And if that does happen, I will be fine. But at the same time, I don't feel like that will happen. I don't feel different than I did with Rosalie's pregnancy... so I feel like that should mean everything is OK, even though I know it might not be. I'm hoping that everything will be fine, and that is what is getting me through until tomorrow. Hope. It's a powerful thing.

The funny thing about telling people is that when I am not pregnant, I always have this great idea about not telling people. Like, wouldn't it be funny if I just didn't tell anyone, and then when they see me, all huge and round, they'd be like "Hey! Congratulations! I didn't know you were pregnant!" and then I could be like "What do you mean? Do I LOOK pregnant?!?!" and then it would get all awkward... But this would never work for one very big reason: I would not be able to keep a straight face for the life of me. I would have a big grin on my face or giggle like an idiot just thinking about saying that and it would all be ruined.

I do not, however, intend on doing a big social media announcement. I didn't really mean to last time, but I don't know how to be subtle, so I posted something like "To those whom I lied to, I am sorry for the ruse, but it was necessary. For those who know the truth, you are no longer sworn to secrecy" or something along those lines. Everyone knew what I meant anyway, so it became a big announcement. This time, I will post nothing. Not as a definite "coming out" post anyway. But I may eventually post an "I am an enormous cow" update and people might ask questions, and I will not lie. After tomorrow, either way of how things will go, if people ask "when are you guys gunna have another one?" I will respond "August!" if all goes well, or "I just had a miscarriage, so it will be a while yet" if it doesn't. I'm not a good liar and people that have asked me recently may suspect anyway, so the truth always works better for me.

Anyway, I just need to get through tomorrow! Wish me (hindsight) luck! :)

16 Books Becoming Movies in 2014

Good Ol' Facebook. I don't know how I would keep in the loop about certain bookish things without Facebook. Granted, it's not as "first hand" as it was when I was working at the bookstores, but it'll do.

A [facebook] friend from Education posted this article to her wall:
16 Books to Read Before They Become Movies in 2014

I did one for last year HERE if you are interested in re-reading that one. There are a few repeats, it seems common for production companies to pick a release date and then change it to WAY later. Actually, now that I count, there are SIX films on last years list that are also on this years'. That seems a little ludicrous. Creating anticipation perhaps?

Few good lookin' new ones though (DANI!! - The Giver with Jeff Bridges? How do you feel about that ;) ) We'll just have to wait and see though. I thought I might want to see Divergent until I saw a trailer for it, now I have no interest.

It's actually kinda funny that I look at these lists, and read these books assuming I will see them in the theatre, when in actuality I have seen so few movies this year it is actually unlikely I will get to see any of these before they come out on Blu ray anyway...

The First Trimester is the Toughest

I am so ready for it to be January 22nd.

That is, as long as this freakin' nausea leaves with my first trimester and doesn't linger into my second. If this pregnancy is similar to my last in that respect, I will be happy.

I have decided to go without Diclectin this time around because I would really like to donate this baby's cord blood to the Alberta Cord Blood Bank (ACBB), and they do not accept it if the mother has been on any medication at any point in her pregnancy. So... I am struggling through...

I know this will probably sound awful no matter how I phrase it, but other than the constant battle of trying not to throw up, the next worst part is that I can't even whine about it on Facebook. I know that sounds petty and it is totally a first world problem (it really is only a mild, constant discomfort), I feel like if people could be like "Hey! Only two and a half weeks to go!" or "Ugh, I hated that part of my pregnancy. You'll get through it!" I would feel so much better. But instead, I am sitting here, struggling in silence, eating saltine crackers, and drinking ginger ale.

Hopefully only 17 more days!!

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014

2014 Reading Challenge

Annie has read 0 books toward her goal of 26 books.

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Here we go again!

For the 2013 challenge I decided to go with 24 books which equated to 2 books a month. This year, I have made my goal slightly higher (I did, afterall, succeed in my goal last year, even if I did kinda cheat) and went with 26 books. Not a whole lot higher, but this makes it out to be a book every two weeks. I can't imagine myself having more time this year, but creating a slighly more difficult goal to challenge yourself is always a good thing, even if it's not THAT much higher. It was a close call in 2013! I don't want to get TOO ambitious. But with only one Song of Ice and Fire to go, and only on Harry Potter reread left... I think this is very attainable.

I'd love to see your reading challenges on Goodreads! If we aren't already friends, let me know so I can keep track of you! And if you are my friend, make a challenge! None of my friends have done so yet. SO... get on it! (I am a total book stalker...)