Weeble Garage

On Sunday, November 6, under the guise of putting the good karma back into Cara and Tyler’s house after a break-in, we headed over to C and T’s for an afternoon of card-playing - both euchre and that silly game the guys like to play, Magic the Gathering.

In addition to our lovely hosts, also present were: Petra, (my friend and co-worker who had flown in from Toronto for the weekend) her adorable daughter, Kendra, Eddie and Manon, Mike and Angela and Shawn.

Round about 5:30pm people started to take their leave and shortly after Cara received a phone call from a friend asking for emergency fill-in babysitting. We left shortly and returned to find our house in darkness and the door unlocked…eek!

I reached into the hall and flipped on a light at which point hordes of people jumped out of various rooms yelling, “surprise!”.

In addition to the people we had just left, there was another large group of friends and family waiting to celebrate a surprise baby shower (perpetrated by my mum, Cara and Kim) with us.

It was a fantastic evening surrounded by warm, wonderful and generous family and friends. The food was awesome - Richard did one of his yummy smoked turkeys and Cara made a whole host of sinfully delicious desserts.

We even had a baby-themed pubquiz written and hosted by my mum and Kim. The prego lady’s team won…how fitting! Oh and there were even prizes, picked out by Cara - Toblerone and a mini bottle of ice cider!

Thank you all for such a special evening!

Wow, look at all the pressies!

Balloons!

Jabba the Hutt Me!

Food!

Richard carving the smoked turkey

Kendra liked the balloons!

Ellen, Shawn, Tyler, Eddie, Mike, Paul, Other Jen, Manon

Eddie, Mary, Mike, Angela, Other Ellen, Shawn, Other Jen, Paul, Kerry, John

Kendra, Petra, Angela, Ellen, Shawn

Stephan, Kim, Dad, Cara, Tyler

Aftermath

Kendra inspects Mark’s carseat assembly technique

Mark test-drives the Snugli

Yeah, seriously.

Less than a month to Jen’s due date and the weeble seems to be going stir crazy. Last night he tried to kick Jen’s dinner plate out of her hands. There’s a party in her belly and everyone’s invited!

Jen stops working in less than two weeks, and I stop working when she starts contracting. Sadly I only stop for a month, but Jen gets a whole year off. She deserves it though after carrying around a sack of potatoes for months.

We still don’t have all the stuff we need for routine maintenance of a miniature human so we’ll probably be going on a spending spree in the next couple of weeks, before Jen is completely unable to move.

The baby’s bag is packed. Mummy’s bag is packed. Dad’s sleeping bag is ready. The car is fuelled and the winter tyres are going on next week. The birth plan is done. I think we’re almost ready!

Yesterday I hit the big 35/35. That is 35 weeks with 35 days left to go. This is what I look like. I can’t wait to be able to tie my own shoes again.

35 weeks

As soon-to-be-parents, we have a lot of studying to do. We’ve read many pregnancy books, we’ve been online, we’ve talked to other parents, but we need classes too!

We hired a pair of doulas (I call them the DoulaDudes) to help us on the big day. A doula is not quite a midwife, more of a delivery coach who has lots of experience in the birthing process and can act as our “advocate” when doctors are making decisions around us. The DoulaDudes are giving us private lessons beforehand at their apartment. The first one was all about labour and delivery, complete with a pretend baby and a pretend pelvis. The second one which happens in November will be about childcare, because apparently these things don’t come with instruction manuals.

But wait, there’s more! Our local health clinic also offers a bunch of pre-natal classes very (very) cheaply. So far we’ve attended:

• Birth and Delivery 1
• Birth and Delivery 2
• Childcare - the most informative so far

These are group classes so we are getting to know a few other expectant parents too. We still have “Coping Strategies” and “Breast Feeding” to attend this week and next week.

I have a feeling that however much we read and learn, we will never be fully prepared for what is to come, but the more prepared we are, hopefully the smoother the whole on-the-job learning experience will be.

Yesterday Mark took me to my 32 week appointment. My blood pressure had been up at home for four days in a row, so they did a bit of monitoring and took some blood. My blood pressure was perfect in the hospital, there was no protein in my urine and the blood tests came back fine. In spite of everything being fine, I now have to go every Wednesday morning for more careful monitoring - pleh. Better safe than sorry I guess.

We also had a quick ultrasound to verify that the baby is growing well and to find out approximately how big he is at this point. The doctor was pleased because the Weeble is a good size - he weighs approximately 4 lbs 7 ounces and is on track for being about 8.5 lbs at birth. So, not a tiny baby, but not frighteningly large either.

Jen is currently using five pillows in bed. Two to rest her head on, one to rest her book on, one to put between her knees, and one to put her feet on. The five pillows plus the large bulge caused by the weeble mean that I have about five inches of bed space.

Turning over in bed is a whole new adventure for Jen too. Her muscles don’t seem to work the same way, and that coupled with having to re-adjust five pillows, avoid kicking me and avoid squishing the baby mean that a simple change in position takes several minutes and results in Jen gasping for breath.

Isn’t pregnancy fun?

I didn’t do these right from the beginning, but here’s what was happening between week 26 and week 30. At week 30 it was time to cover up.

26 weeks, 4 days

28 weeks, 3 days

30 weeks, 0 days

On September 13 at 28 weeks and 5 days I had a 3D ultrasound. It was amazing to get a much more realistic peek at the Weeble.

We also learned that the Weeble is slightly obsessed with his hands and feet.

Despite not having any actual baby furniture yet, we’ve still been trying to make the “nursery” look like a baby’s room. Luckily when we had the house painted two years ago we chose the right colour for the room so now we just need to add accents. The chest, that we acquired from Jen’s mum and I stripped and re-finished, has pride of place and will be the changing table.

As we don’t have a crib yet, Jen has decided to leave the mattress in there and turn it into a baby clothes shrine, covering it with all the cute purchases we have made. And the obligatory cuddly toys of course.

Back at the start of 2005 we started trying for a baby. One day in March, Jen’s fertility chart did the right thing, and she sent me down to the pharmacy for a pregnancy test. When I returned she disappeared into the bathroom for five minutes then emerged holding a white stick, shaking and with a completely bizarre expression on her face. The test was positive.

After taking a couple more home tests, then getting tested by the doctor, Jen still didn’t believe it, but the pregnancy continued. Jen had no symptoms and had to remind herself daily that she was pregnant. She invested in several pregnancy books and devoured them all. I read them too, paying particular attention to the ‘Daddy Tips’.

We nicknamed our unborn child the Weeble.

An amniocentesis told us we were having a boy, and a healthy one in all likelihood. During the second ultrasound we saw evidence of boyness. We started telling family and close friends.

Jen is now six months pregnant, inflating nicely, getting out of breath easily but still generally enjoying the whole pregnancy experience. She’s been feeling the baby kicking for a month or so, and I felt him for the first time about two weeks ago.

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