It's Not So Much The Heat, As The Humidity...

Is it normal for pregnant women to be sweating up a storm while sitting at their desks quieting working away? I swear, I've been sitting at my desk for over 2 hours now and I still can't cool down enough to feel comfortable. My arms are sticking to my desk so that I'm losing a layer of skin everytime I lift them up... my toes now have a slight pinkish hue to them and they are starting to resemble small sausages (I have my feet up on an overturned recycling bin under my desk, but that doesn't really seem to be doing much)... my watch is sitting here beside me because it's all of a sudden too tight around my wrist... I sure hope I don't spontaneously combust at my desk! :)

Up until now, I haven't had any problems with the heat, but this morning everything seems to have changed. For those of you not from the Toronto area, right now (at 10:30am) it's 28 outside with a humidex of 37. Yesterday I think it reached 32 with a humidex of 41. I wouldn't mind so much if the air conditioning in the office was on... but I swear it must be around 27 or 28 in the office and the air is just stagnant and gross. I just chatted with Marvin and his office was 63 this morning when he got to work (that's about 17 Canadian...). Maybe we should switch offices for the summer!

Not much new in Baby Bav land other than I went for my Gestational Diabetes test last week. For those of you not familiar with the test, it involves drinking a glass of disgustingly sweet orange pop like fluid (I know... who knew something could be too sweet?), sitting for an hour (while your baby does a series of gymnastic moves inside you) and then having a blood test. Depending on how your body breaks down the glucose within the hour will apparently tell them whether or not you're likely to have Gestational Diabetes. If you are likely to have it, then you have to do another test with an even more disgusting drink and more blood tests over 3 hours before they know for sure. I'm supposed to find out the results next week when we go for our 30 week appointment. I can't say I've noticed any typical diabetic symptoms, but neither did a friend of mine and she turned out to have it, which meant that she had to take four needles a day - one before each meal and then one again before bed - to regulate her sugar levels. Hopefully we hear good news next week. Stay tuned!

A Message from Baby Bav...

Today is my wonderful husband's birthday!!! So in addition to the ever-so-healthy breakfast we made him (ice cream cookie sandwiches and pancakes... what better breakfast could anyone ask for?), Baby Bav and I wanted to take this opportunity to wish him a special Happy Birthday! Hope you have a wonderful day baby!

PS - And yes, those are edible cake decorations stuck to my belly with icing! :) I'd like to say a quick "shout-out" (I'm so hip...) to Dalia and Lucy for helping me with that yesterday during an ever-so-convenient evacuation at work... :)

Belly Shots

Well folks, there you have them - shots of my ever expanding belly! The first shot was taken at 15 weeks or 3 1/2 months (Feb. 22); the second shot was taken at 22 weeks or 5 months (Apr. 8); and the third shot was taken today at 27 weeks or 6 months (May 15). Looking at the photos now, I can't believe how much I've grown in the past 5 weeks! And to think I have another 13 weeks of growth to come! Yikes!

So for Mother's Day (or Soon-to-be Mother's Day as I referred to it this year), I got a series of good hard kicks in the stomach from Baby Bav. What more could I ask for? :) Marvin and I also got to spend the day with our mothers. The day started out with us going to brunch with friends of the family on my parents' side. This is a tradition that started about 30 years ago with just the seven of us (four parents and three kids). Yesterday there were 16 of us there (four parents, four kids, three spouses, and five grandchildren). Add in Baby Bav and Auntie Sandra's Bean, and you have 18 in total, of which seven were grandchildren! As always, I ate too much (gotta love buffets), which I didn't really mind this year seeing as my skirt had an expandable waist! :)

After brunch, Marvin and I went to pick up his mom and bring her to our place for an afternoon of chatting, feeling the belly move and eating a yummy dinner (yes, even though I didn't think I could stand the thought of even looking at food after brunch, I was able to eat my way through a decent size dinner....). Even Teta Linda was able to join us for a while and squeeze in some belly movements. Baby Bav seemed to enjoy all the attention!

Overall, we had a great Mother's Day with our wonderful mothers!

Looks Like We're Back to August 19th!

Marvin and I went to see the OB this past Wednesday - my family doctor no longer delivers babies and so he has referred me to a doctor within "The Group" at Credit Valley Hospital (where I'll be delivering). I had heard horror stories of how long expectant mothers with full bladders have to wait before getting called in to see the doctor, so Marvin and I were prepared and brought along our books. We ended up waiting about an hour and 15 minutes (would have been just over an hour if I could hold it longer, but of course the moment I got up from the room to pee the doctor came in then ended up visiting the next person in line), which sucked but at least it was less than the 2 and a half hours I had been warned about.

As usual, the appointment consisted of the ever-so-fun weigh in, the taking of the blood pressure, the measuring of the belly (should be a cm for each week) and the listening of the wonderful heartbeat (after holding my bladder for what felt like forever before we arrived, I found out that I didn't need to this time.... would have been nice to know earlier, but I digress). And the results, the envelope please... total weight gain to date: 15 lbs, blood pressure: 120/85, belly size: 26 cms (aka: huge) and heartbeat: around 150-155 bpm (although the doctor was just estimating, she didn't actually look to see what it was).

Rumour has it that if the baby's heartbeat is lower than 140 bpm it's a boy and if it's higher than 140 bpm it's a girl... knowing that, Marvin and I are trying to guess what we're having. We figure we should take out the most recent one of 155 bpm because the doctor was really just guessing. So that leaves us with 144 bpm the first time we heard it, 136 bpm the second time and then 141 bpm the third time. Mysterious little baby, hovering around the 140 bpm mark! We're really no further ahead. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

At the appointment, the doctor also told us that the due date should be August 19th (which is based on my cycles) as opposed to August 15th (which is based on the ultrasounds). She said that the date based on cycles is more accurate than the ultrasound, so just like that I've gained back four days. That means that after today, I'll be a full 6 months.... yikes!

Some of you have been asking where the belly shots are and my answer is "still safe and sound in the camera". Maybe this weekend I'll try to gather the courage to post them. Maybe I'll do it on Mother's Day - I mean, what better Mother's Day gift to give my mom than posting my ever expanding bare belly on the Internet for all of her friends to see?!? A proud moment for Mom, I'm sure! :)

I know it's a few days early, but Happy Mother's Day to all Mom's out there! I hope you have a great and relaxing day!

A New Playmate for Baby Bav!

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you all to Emily! Very good friends of ours (Doug & Anna) are adopting from China and have just recently received pictures of their beautiful daughter, Emily You Le (pronounced Yo Luh)! Emily was born September 13, 2005 and this picture was taken sometime this past January, when Emily was about 4 months old. As I'm sure you'll agree, Emily looks like a little angel and I'm sure will make a great addition to Doug & Anna's family.

Doug & Anna will be travelling to China for two weeks near the middle of June to pick up their little bundle of joy and tour the country. They have set up a website to keep us informed of what's new with the adoption and their worldly travels once they're in China. I've linked their website to ours (along the right hand side), if you'd like to follow along in their journey.

Once again, congratulations to Doug & Anna - two people could not be more deserving and Marvin and I are thrilled to hear their news!!