www.everingham.ca

Last week, we decided to hire a photographer to get some photos of my pregnant belly at 35 weeks. I really wanted to capture this special time for us, and get proof that my skin can actually stretch that far (without stretch marks yet, fingers crossed)!

Lisa from Redfern Photography took these photos and we couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome. Her prices are very reasonable, and we get to keep the disc for printing! There are over 100 photos that we love, but here are a few of our favourites:

I can’t believe I haven’t posted a belly shot since 26 weeks. I thought we did one for 29 weeks, but I guess not…oops.

It’s been an interesting last 4 weeks or so. Here’s the full story (pics are at the bottom if you don’t feel like reading):

I had been having frequent “tightenings” in my belly since about 27 weeks ( early May). These are called “Braxton Hicks” contractions, and are often felt a bit closer to your due date. It feels like my whole lower abdomen tightens, lifts up, and gets hard. Not painful, just kind of uncomfortable. They had been happening at work frequently, like 4-5 times an hour. I was getting kind of nervous about it, so I discussed it with my nurse colleques. They suggested I go over to the Labour and Delivery unit in the hospital to get checked out. I thought this was probably a good idea, it’ll only take a minute. However, this was a way bigger deal than I thought it was. They needed to check me out thoroughly to ensure I wasn’t in preterm labour. Since I was only 27 weeks, our little guy might have survived if born so early, but definitely far from ideal, and they would try to stop labour if that’s what it was. I was hooked up to fetal and contraction monitor, did a urine sample, and lastly they did a wonderful internal exam. Ladies, you know what I’m talking about. But it’s way more uncomfortable when pregnant! I thought the doc was trying to remove my tonsils from below! Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point

They all left, and finally a nurse came and asked if I wanted a magazine…I asked why, can’t I get dressed? Turns out I had to stay there another 2 hours to get rechecked to make sure my cervix wasn’t shortening. Hmmm, I was supposed to be at work, I was very busy, and now I was all freaked out so I started to cry. I think they couldn’t figure out why I was upset, but they gave me a phone to call my hubs and my manager.

They checked me again later and everything was the same, but they wouldn’t let me go back to work. I got my stuff and went home, quite freaked out, and still having the tightenings.
I saw my OB early the following week and he said I needed to take it easy. He asked if he should put me off work and I said no, that would stress me out more.

However, over the next week I had so many contractions all the time that I knew when I saw him the following week he would not be pleased. He put me off work then and there.
It was May 19 (29 weeks pregnant), and I had to return to work that morning and tell everyone I couldn’t work anymore during this pregnancy. This after having less than one week to train a girl to my position, and another liver position was still empty. I was so stressed about my job and training someone, and leaving everyone short staffed, but what could I do?

The next couple weeks I actually did a bit of work from home, writing up documents to help the girl covering my position, and being available by phone and email for questions. Thankfully she’s a star and doing great!

Now, I’m completely over the fact that I can’t work, as I’m having enough trouble controlling these contractions as it is. I am not on ‘bedrest’ but I have to limit the number of times I go up and down the stairs, can’t stand in the kitchen or anywhere for that matter for more than 10 or 20 minutes, and can’t go for walks or attend my aquafit classes.

But I can sit in the sun and read a book…

I had an urgent ultrasound during all this to check the cervical length and the health of the baby…everything is fine I’m now at 33 weeks, and feeling much better about the health of our little guy should he decide to come early. But I’m confident I can keep this guy comfy until at least 37 or 38 weeks. Yikes, that’s 4 weeks from now. My OB joked and said after all this, I’ll probably be the person going to 41 weeks and needing to be induced! You never know.

Anyway, I’m feeling fine, just a little stressed about the persistent tightenings, and the fact that I can’t do what I want to do. Blaine is awesome and doing everything for me. And my Mom is awesome too for coming over and baking the wedding cakes I need for next month…that’s for another post.

Here’s a couple pics:

Blaine wanted to get in on the cat sling action…Macgyver is really starting to like this thing!

Finally, a new belly picture. And I thought I looked huge at 26 weeks

For the last couple weeks I have been certain that I’ve felt our little guy moving. Even more recently, Daddy was able to participate in the excitement when the little guy was rolling all around in the morning. That was so cool! And now, if I watch reeeeally close, I can see my belly move a bit when he gets going! It’s awesome!

I wanted to share a cute (and I mean drippingly sweet) song I came across while looking at a photographer’s website…I have come to learn that it was written by Elizabeth Mitchell, who is apparently a childrens’ song writer. Kinda folksy, nice voice.
I warn you though, it’s very cutesy wootsy. And I’m not even too ashamed to admit that (in my pregnancy hormone induced shape) it made me cry…

Here’s a link to the tune “Little Sack of Sugar” . On the left, click “Flower”, then “Listen”, then choose the last track “Little Sack of Sugar”

This past Thursday we had our second ultrasound. This one was looking at details of the anatomy, such as the heart, brain, kidneys, bladder, bones, and everything else. Everything is fine, and the tech even said the little one has long legs! The tech was great as she talked us through the whole thing. We got a CD of pics, but they’re not super quality, as the little one was busy moving around and then decided to snuggle face down in the placenta like a pillow! We even got to see the babe opening the mouth and drinking the fluid…looked like a little guppy!

Here are just a few pics:

Blaine took a quick pic of me while the tech was out of the room

This is a pic of the heart…you can see the 4 chambers on the right of the photo. It’s the dark spot that looks like it’s divided into four…

Hi Mommy and Daddy!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention…

I know it’s been a while again, but here are a few more photos of this little bean’s effect on me from the outside:

The 16 week pic is the day before we left for the Dominican…notice my fake bronzer (Dove Energy Glow) in action…

And of course I’m white as ever shortly after coming home to -25 celsius Calgary weather.

I have definitely been feeling kicks for the last week or so, probably everyday now. People describe it as a ‘fluttering’ or ‘butterflies’, but it doesn’t feel like that to me. It feels like tiny little ‘pulls’, like if someone were under your skin and giving a little pull from the inside. It’s really cool! I can’t feel it from the outside yet, but I am excited for Blaine to be able to experience this too.

I can’t get my jeans done up anymore, so I need to get out asap and pick some up. I plan to check out some maternity consignment stores, but it seems more of them are down in the south. I have a pair of black maternity pants that are super comfy, but I need more desperately! I’ve been feeling great, just a little uncomfortable sleeping on my side all the time.

…Pregnant! Actually, been pregs for a while now…14 weeks 5 days to be precise! Many of you knew quite a while ago, we just didn’t get around to posting it here until now!

We took the much anticipated test November 23 and were ecstatic to see 2 little pink lines (faint, but it still counts)!

I felt great for a couple weeks, even had to take another test just to check to see if it was for real.
Then, the dreaded morning sickness kicked in just after the 6 week mark. No biggie though…I never actually lost my cookies, just felt extremely queasy and rough , but mostly in the evenings. Crackers in the bedside table were my savior in the mornings!

Most of this rough feeling disappeared around the 10 week mark. I feel very lucky to have come through the first trimester so easily.
I got to hear the babe’s heartbeat at 10 weeks, and let me tell you, this was a day I’ll never forget! Beating away at 170bpm…healthy little sucker! This made it all seem real.

The 12 week ultrasound has definitely been the highlight so far! I was kind of hard to believe that this little being was inside me, growing and moving around, completely undetected by me so far.
Here is us waiting for the ultrasound:

And here’s some pics of the little one:

The movements might so far go undetected, but the stomach bloat cannot be missed!

We told our parents at Christmas, when I was about 10 weeks along. We didn’t announce to almost everyone else until around 13 weeks.

Here are the proud grandparents at Christmas time (Mine, then Blaine’s):

I’ll try to update as we go along, but we all know I’m not a very dedicated blogger. This post took about 1.5 hours to complete!

If you want to know any details about pregnancy or the physical characteristics of the baby on a weekly basis, just call my Mom. She is keeping herself (and me) well-informed. One day early on she called and recommended I enter “pregnancy” into Google…I’d be surprised at all the information I can learn! With my googling skills already down to a near science, I couldn’t help but giggle about this. But man, is my Mom ever learning lots!

Time for bed now. It’s my day off tomorrow, and it might be time to hem the maternity pants I just bought