"16 and Pregnant"

Yes, I’m admitting to watching this show.
At first glance I was shocked that MTV would be producing a show like this. Thinking of shows like “My Super Sweet 16” I was concerned that MTV would make teenage pregnancy look cool or an achievable means of having a reality show on the network. I’ve now seen the entire series (minus reunion) and I think they’ve done a pretty good job. There hasn’t been anything glorified (it’s actually quite depressing) and the filming of the birth seems a lot more realistic (and painful) than your typical “A Baby Story” on TLC. In fact there have been times when D has looked at me, horrified, and has asked if I’d like the TV turned off.
The episode we just saw hit very close to home. For the first time we saw a couple who chose adoption. It was so heartbreaking to watch the couple, who were very mature considering the situation they were in, support each other throughout the process. Giving up a baby is a hard, life altering decision. Even when you’re young….
I know that from my own family .When I was 6 years old my youngest Aunt was “16 and Pregnant” and chose adoption. I grew up with the knowledge of what had happened and I saw how much my Aunt loved her daughter even though she had never met her. She ended up marrying her high school boyfriend (the one who fathered her first child) and they had a second daughter together.
Over the years my Aunt obsessed over the adoption. I think it was extremely hard on her being with her husband and not knowing their first daughter. Eventually, after 20 years, they were re-united. I’m sure my “new” cousin would never have expected to find her birth mother, birth father and a full biological 8 year old sibling waiting for her after all of those years. She essentially found a fully intact family with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Grandparents. I feel for her adoptive family – they must have been equally as shocked. Overall it has been a “dream come true” for my Aunt and Uncle.
Anyway, when I saw the maturity of the two kids in this episode and how close they seemed I thought of what future they have together. Honestly, anything is possible and they could end up just like my Aunt and Uncle, married with children in the future. If they do it will be a rough road.. but they made the right decision.

Oops

I had to ask my friend for help with our car today. I bought him lunch in exchange for checking our oil and tire pressure. I’d tried to get help from my dad but I don’t think he fully understands how little I know about cars. My only driving experience has come from rental cars. Things like tire pressure, oil and wiper fluid has never been my responsibility. My expectation up until this point has been a clean, well maintained car.
The top 3 things I now know (from car ownership in the last 2 months):
1) Cars get dirty quickly and rain does not count as cleaning.
I’ve gone to car washes before but that has only been to clean off dead bugs from driving in the south. This dirt, however, is black smog like dust caked on my car and dripping down from my door handles. I now understand how people can end up with “wash me” written across their windows. Right about now, I’d deserve it.
2) If a tire looks squishy, it needs your attention.
Last Sunday, while unloading the car, I noticed that my tire looked funny. I squeezed it and it gave a little. That was when I decided to ask my friend for help. At the time I didn’t think that much about it because I’ve had a flat before and the car I was driving told me by way of a light on the dash. I figured that if there was something wrong I’d know. I didn’t realize that was a feature of that specific car and that not all cars have sensors. It ends up my tire pressure was dangerously low – in all 4 tires. The suspect squishy tire’s pressure was so low it did not even register. So, yeah, something like less than 10. Apparently that is very bad.
3) If you’re driving a subcompact and it’s sucking gas back like an SUV, see point #2, and check the tires.

The short ride back to work after lunch was amazing. The car feels like it is brand new (this really shouldn’t be an accomplishment for an ’08). I can’t believe I’ve been driving around on tires with such low pressure. It makes me wonder how this happened. Yes, I’m clueless but I had brought my dad with me to check the car both when I purchased it and picked it up. You’d think that the dealer would have checked the tire pressure before sending it off the lot as well. Apparently not considering ALL of the tires were much lower than they should have been! The only other explanation, for the squishy tire, could be a small leak. I’m going to check it again on Monday to see if the pressure has changed.
At least I now know how to check my own oil and tires. It’s a start.
And... yes... I did get in trouble for posting the below picture. In my defence, I do think that the room is in orderly chaos. No one will be calling TLC.... It's not THAT bad. There's clearly a path to the dresser and our crap is stored in crates. Oh well....

Before

I'm posting a "before" picture of Sadie's room in an effort to motivate myself towards there being an "after" picture. D will probably kill me when she sees our messy room posted on the internet... this is a drastic measure!

As you can see the room is a bit, well, full. We're getting rid of the dresser and couch and the scary pile of stuff is currently TBD. A lot of it is toys from taking care of our nephews and neice and stuff that we brought from our childhood. There is a fairly impressive pile of Disney VHS tapes in there somewhere. I'm not sure what we're going to do with those since we've donated our VCR to goodwill already!

You'll see that Sadie already has TWO Cabbage Patch kids.... however for the record... the American Girl in the upper left hand corner is MINE and I'm not sharing. Sadie will have to get her own!

SOS - we have A LOT of work to do!!

Just my luck...

I've been summoned to Jury duty!! For an 8 week MURDER trial! D is fairly positive they'll disqualify me based on the fact that I'm pregnant and will be 27 weeks at the start of Jury selection. We also highly doubt, if I do make it to the interview stage, that I'll be selected. We already know what the trial is for because they sent the witness list with the accused/deceased names. There isn't anything in writing saying I can't discuss what trial it is but I'm not comfortable blogging about it. .
Ironically D was ALSO called for duty in the spring for another high profile murder trial. The selection process here doesn't seem very "random" if we BOTH get called within 6 months and both for large, high profile trials! D ended up sitting at the courthouse for a week doing nothing and then being released. There were literally hundreds in her jury pool.
Honestly, if I wasn't pregnant, I think this would be pretty cool. There is an option where you can contact the courthouse in advance and ask for your duty to be "postponed" but I'm not going to do that. It would be worse to be called back during mat leave when I'm taking care of a newborn.
My plan is to show up, hope I have a really FAT baby belly, and enthusiastically hope they do not want me!

Ummm....

D thinks Sadie will look like this:

This adorable little girl is Nell Burton (Helana Bonham-Carter + Tim Burton).
We'll have to wait and see!!

Our Name!!!

So from now on I'll refer to our little girl as Sadie!
Middle names are in honour of our deceased Maternal Grandmothers.

I feel like I may be jumping the gun a bit announcing the name already but we're positive we're having a girl. On October 6th we'll confirm at our 3d/4d ultrasound (28 weeks).

Our family already knows but we're keeping it a secret from our friends. At first we weren't going to tell anyone but my cousin didn't find out the sex of her baby so we wanted to announce early and call dibs!!

Blogroll

I've finally added a Blogroll!! This seems like "no big deal" but I'd been putting off for so long and have been relying on S. (An Offering of Love) and her awesome blogroll (thank-you) to catch up on all of my favourite blogs!!
Now I'll have no excuse but to "come out" and post more often and let people know I'm reading their blogs on a regular basis.

Any lurkers want to post and share their blogs?

I hope I haven't missed anyone!

The Crib!

Our goal for our vacation week was to have the baby’s room completed and although that didn’t happen we DID buy the crib. At least that is a step in the right direction!?!
I’m very happy with our purchase but I have to admit I’m a bit disappointed that we did not stick to our original intention to “keep things simple and inexpensive”. We tried, honestly we did. We looked at several options such as not buying a full size crib and getting a mini-crib, buying a cradle, using my co-workers crib (free), or buying the Gulliver crib from Ikea ($159). In the end none of the above seemed to work due to the size of the two rooms we’re working with so we folded and bought the Stokke Sleepi System. We’d been eyeing it for a long time but thought it was excessive. After really thinking about those options we decided that although it was pricey, which it was, it did meet our needs perfectly as an urban family in a small living space.
We’ll start out with the Mini in our room (0-6 months) and then move it into her own room as the full size crib. It also converts to a Toddler and junior bed. The full size crib is MUCH smaller than your average crib. It will give us more space in the room and I can’t say enough how much we desperately need space! In fact, it is small enough to fit through our door frame and it has wheels. That means that when we have guests we could move the crib into our room for the night and they could use the baby’s room (we’re going to buy an inflatable bed). That is a nice touch. I wasn’t looking forward to having guests sleep on our living room floor and now that we do not have Frank (RIP), with his razor sharp nails, an inflatable bed could actually work.
All we have to do now is clear out the room! That will include returning our crib set and sheets we’ve already purchased since the Sleepi is round/oval. We’ll use that money to buy a few Sleepi sheets.
I hope having the crib will be our incentive to get moving because I can’t wait to see the room completed.

Pictures (we bought the crib in white without the canopy):

Reaction....

We've been away on vacation over the last few days (more on that later - too tired now). I need to catch up on reading and commenting!!
Thank you to everyone for your congratulations.... we're so excited to be having a little girl!! It's taken a few days to register after waiting so long and I'm still in a bit of a daze wondering "what's next"? We've made it through some significant pregnancy milestones but this seems like the biggest one. That said, I had a big OMG moment on Tuesday! It feels like all that's left is having the baby!!
We've decided we're going to book the 3D/4D ultrasound package that comes with 2 sessions. I'm aiming to book the first at 24 weeks and the second at 28 weeks. We're hoping this gives us smaller goals to work towards since our 20 week ultrasound may have been our last with our OB (I hope that is the case and everything is smooth sailing).
As for the reaction from our parents and family....
My mom sounded disappointed which surprised me! She said she was hoping for a boy because we only have girls in our family (which is true, I guess). Oh well, tough luck. My dad and my step-mom were both thrilled but it did take my brother a groan and a long pause before saying "cooooool". I guess he was hoping for a nephew! Overall I think my step-mom is the most excited. I bet she wanted a girl when they had my brother lol.... she's been with my dad since I was 3 years old but it's been a long time since she's been able to spoil a little one other than my brother!
D's mom is also very excited but I can honestly say that she's the most accepting person I've ever met. Boy/Girl she wouldn't care. Although this does balance out the grandchildren to 2 girls and 3 boys!
It's been an exciting week and to top it off we're finally enjoying what could be described as "summer". So far August has been very good to us!!

Drum roll Please....

Intelligender was right!! It's a Girl!! Or at least they are 80% positive (we'll get it re-confirmed at our 3D/4D).
Everything looked great and surprisingly we did not go shopping on the way home!

Time to call my parents to tell them!

anxious

The fun of finding out the sex has run its course. Yes, I want to and NEED to know now (I'm going crazy) but I'm now focusing on seeing a healthy baby. Our 12 week ultrasound was stress inducing because the baby wasn't moving and I didn't know this was normal (sleeping) until I came home and sought the advice of Dr. Google. This will also be the first time our OB will see our baby since our 12 week results went MIA.
So, I have my fingers crossed...
I'm excited...
I'm nervous...
Hopefully I'll be able to get some sleep tonight!

Yes, I like to plan things...

My parents are taking my 10 year old brother to Disney World for the first time in September and I offered to help them because we’ve been several times and know how things work with reservations, etc. Taking into consideration my brother’s age and interests I spent 2 hours yesterday making a schedule for them. Since they’ve booked during the free dining plan promotion I also suggested restaurants…. and that is where I’m done helping… I’ve told them numerous times in the past 2 months that during the Free Dining promotion restaurants are hard to book (obviously because it’s FREE) and that reservations are taken 90 days in advance. They refuse to listen because they do not want to be tied down to a specific park or time in case my brother wants to be somewhere else. Sorry, but our kids are not going to have that much control!!!! In my opinion the best things about Disney are the dining experiences, the parades, fireworks and shows. Those are all scheduled at certain times and days and if you do not plan ahead you will not be in the right place at the right time.
Oh well, it’s their loss because they are going to have 7 table service meals where they are going to have little to no choice (time or restaurant) and may not be able to use. They’re not going to be happy when they are stuck with counter service because (sorry Disney) it sucks! What’s so hard with understanding that the food is FREE therefore people are ravenous to book the BEST timeslots at the BEST restaurants?
Sigh. I don’t need to get my blood pressure up about this so I’m not helping anymore. If anyone needs a detailed “first timers” itinerary for an adult only vacation or adult with older child/teen let me know because I have a great one!! Disney vacation planning is a passionate hobby of mine!

Halo Sale

I got this link from BBC. Great prices! I know that in Canada the Halo Sleep Sacks sell for around $37 each. I just bought 4 for that price (which is probably more than we need)!! Plus it was FREE shipping.

https://www.halosleep.com/products/results/?product_category_id=16
Here's what I bought:

Anatomy Scan on August 11th!!

In less than a week we should know the sex of our baby and I can hardly wait. It’s all I can think about!!! I can’t wait to see “her” again so that I know everything is going to be ok…. because yes, I’m still nervous! I’m also nervous about finding out that “she” is actually a “he” which at this point I bet will happen! Ironically (I love irony), I went into this wanting a boy and when people kept saying “girl” and intelligender said “girl”, I started to buy into it. Clearly I’ve ignored the warning on the Intelligender box that said not to invest “emotionally or financially” in the results. Seriously, that’s a lot harder to do than you’d think! So this is a warning to those TTC and earlier in pregnancy: I think it is a big mistake to do what we’ve done. About a month ago we started referring to the baby by name. A non-gender neutral “girl” name. Therefore I have become extremely attached to a little girl that may not be in there!! Oh crap! Our little boy is going to have a girl’s name (just kidding)!
The good news is that we haven’t bought anything pink and all of the clothing we’ve bought has been gender neutral or for a boy. Even the bedding we’ve bought (I’ll post pictures once we have the room set-up) is very neutral.
The end of this ramble is that I can’t wait. I need to know right now! I hope the baby isn’t shy on the 11th because I’ll be frantic. We’ll be booking a 3D/4D ultrasound at the earliest available appointment to find out otherwise!!

10 year anniversary!!

We officially count our anniversary from the day we moved to Toronto together (we met 2 years earlier) which was August 1st, 1999. 10 years ago!! Holy cow!!
Next up will be our 2nd wedding anniversary in about a weeks time!
Time goes by too quickly!!!