Pregnancy Journal

Thursday was my last day at work. Friday morning opened up, sunny and clear, on the beginning of my maternity leave. Technically, it's sick days, then vacation days, and finally 'official' maternity leave in June, but that doesn't really matter. All I know if that I finished what I could over there and now I am allowed to 'play house' and rest, guilt free. It's surprisingly tricky business to go from a fairly intense full-time workplace into just...being. I think it's going to take awhile to wind down and settle into the new role. This morning, for example, I woke up just buzzing with "what about this? Did I remember that? I need to email him and call her and oh my I need to get stuff done! Go go go!!!" Once that's out of my system I'm really looking forward to just getting the house ready, getting ME ready, and enjoying these weeks before Baby makes his grand entrance.

In other news....
- Pictures and  'Pregnancy Reflections' for this month have been updated.
- Prenatal classes are done and were worth it.
- Last night Jer took me out to celebrate the beginning of my leave. We ate at Moxies and 3 different people were so excited about my belly! They were so chatty and interested and happy for me; it was really great. It wasn’t the typical ‘random stranger belly attack’, but just other women being really happy for this special time in my life. We ate, browsed Canadian Tire (and found great stuff!), then lingered at Starbucks over decaf’ sugar free drinks. We stayed up late and really made a date of it. Good celebration.
- My first Mothers Day is this weekend! Jeremy bought me a BEAUTIFUL little patio table with two little chairs. I'll post a pic once it's set up. It's pretty much what I've been day dreaming of for this summer; sitting in my little garden with my coffee in the morning, afternoons with baby, evenings with a glass of wine and my husband (over romanticized??). Maybe a cushy lounge/lawn chair would be more practical, but this is just gorgeous! I got it before Sunday since we were in the city last night and saw it and picked it up right then. It's got this cast iron look and is all 'scrolly' and old fashioned looking. It's going to become my new favorite spot :)
- Baby seems to be doing great. People are saying my belly looks bigger everyday and I’m finding it a lot more tricky to lug myself out of bed. He’s still super active and enjoys burrowing under the ribs on my right side. I’m starting to distinguish body parts kicking out, so that’s kinda neat.
- Just over a month ‘till he’s here!!! (hopefully…)

What a week!
This week was intense at work and weird at home, but now it's the weekend and that is just fantastic. Yay weekend! Yay last week of work!
I've been finding myself exceptionally cranky lately; short-tempered, annoyed, exhausted, etc., but i think I've finally figured out some of what's influencing me (beyond hormones). I think the limited carb intake has made me cranky! Weird hey? But it makes sense as I'm finding that I'm SO relieved and happy after any carb intake, especially if I'm pushing time  between snacks. Seriously, today I was way too hungry, walked in the door and inhaled some oatmeal (large flake, low carb, unsweetened) and then felt SO much better. Yummers. It's funny, I've become so much healthier in so many ways, yet at the same time I'm really looking forward to just chilling with some pancakes and other carby treats.

We started prenatal classes last night; good times! It's a little (a lot?) freaky and the videos are pretty intense, but I think it'll be helpful. Labour looks pretty brutal though, not sure how I'm going to do with it. These women do not look happy, and they sound really wacky too. It's going to be hard not to be self-conscious I think. We go back for more 'training' all day tomorrow, 9-4 (yikes!). One fun thing is that we've met another couple and they kinda seem to be looking for some friend connections or something, so we're having them over for lunch during the break tomorrow. Hopefully it's cool.

This past Tuesday was my special Blessingway shower from my incredible girlfriends. If you haven't seen the pics yet I'll try to post some this week. In summary: So crazy awesome. Refreshing, encouraging, inspiring, awesome. And the henna belly was just too gorgeous. What an awesome gift, what a night. Oh yeah, they threw in a years subscription to a sweet parenting magazine as well as a gift cert' to my favorite online baby store; amazing hey?

Wow. I'm tired.
I was SO tired at work today but then just soared once I got home; such a relief to be home. Incredible date night, great food, solid times with my husband. It was so good to just have an evening together before going into this busy weekend. Now the day is catching up to me again. It's an early morning tomorrow so I should go crash.

Alright friends, that's all for now. More pictures to come sometime...maybe not till next weekend (when i'm on mat' leave!!). Happy weekend!