24 weeks

Holy moly. Six months pregnant, already?? Seriously?! Where is the time going. I don't feel six months pregnant. I'm not ready to be almost done being pregnant (as excited as I am to meet the little man, pregnancy is wicked awesome for me.. And I love having him all to myself).

Here I sit in bed, sharing a secret language of taps, kicks, and punches with The Cashew. I'm trying to really pay attention to when he's active.. I'm told that babies usually follow roughly the same pattern day-to-day, as to when they're active/not. I've always noticed him after getting comfy in bed (which is always by 9 pm) and now I'm noticing him lots between 9:30 and 11 am too. And off and on during the rest of the day too, but those are two specific times I've noticed so far.

He definitely must be getting stronger. The last three nights in a row, I've been briefly woken up in the middle of the night. Nothing major where it's annoying and I can't fall back asleep.. It's still gently enough to simply put a smile on my face before I return back to dreamland.

so I'm kind of obsessed with all the different pregnant bellies out there. I loooove to (non-critically, of course!) compare bellies.. Especially the whole "boy-vs-girl, carrying low-vs-high" thing. Which I know lots of people would think is just a silly myth, but sometimes it really seems true!! I think the different bellies are just sooo interesting.

in a couple weeks, the hubs and I will be heading to kelowna for a much anticipated trip to the earl's rooftop patio for dinner. It's downtown, and facing the water.. And I've wanted to go since... Last summer, when we didn't find an opportunity. I'm also excited - and admittedly a little nervous - for that weekend because I'm after the perfect little black (maternity) dress to complete the outfit I have in mind for Garrick's high school reunion. But we all know how much I loathe maternity clothes and their rip-off prices! And how upset and disappointed the prices make me. If I can't find what I'm looking for, I'll be so sad not to create the outfit I have in mind. If I DO find it.. Well, then it better look like what I have in mind. And the outfit better end up flattering in the end. Positive thoughts!!!

Kath.

Source: a248.e.akamai.net via Amanda on Pinterest

for some reason, I find comfort in this quote. It totally resonates with me and reminds me, even moreso, how special my friendship with my best friend is.

anniversary weekend

May 18 was our first wedding anniversary! Garrick surprised me with a trip to Vancouver over the long weekend. We stayed in a nice hotel downtown (with a wonderful little cafe and the most delicious freshly-made gelato), visited the Granville island market, finally made it to the aquarium, had lots of baths, rubbed my sore legs and feet, and ate waaaay too much good food.

I kind of screwed up some muscles (or something) at work the previous Thursday, in addition to all the wonderful hormones racing through my body, which made for a very sore me! Swollen ankles, sore joints (is that what arthritis is like?).. new shoes.. (oops. When will I learn to slowly break in new shoes, not wear them on a day when I'm doing a ton of walking).. Oh, the joys of pregnancy!

Back to the good bits. Friday morning (which was our anniversary day), Garrick surprised me with an absolutely gorgeous eternity band as a one-year ring. I looooove it!!! Saturday was the first sunny day we've ever experienced in Vancouver! That was the day we took the sea-bus to Granville island. Sunday was supposed to rain, but we made it to the aquarium before it started! We weren't so lucky on the way back though. Then it was time for an impromptu shopping trip where I discovered h&m's maternity section! I scored two dresses and a pair of shorts each for $20. Monday was rainy again and we were ready to go home and see the kitties again, so we left around 9:30 and got a head start on all the traffic. It was a wonderful, relaxing time. And the last time we'll be in Vancouver as a family of two! Which is so exciting.


the newest addition! (middle ring)



my little belly next to the ocean


Happy Anniversary, my love <3

Second Trimester

23 Weeks

yes, i realize that my forward-facing photo is blurry. but i was too tired to go back and take another picture, so that's just too bad!!

it's been a really busy week and we've got a busy weekend of camping ahead of us, but i do plan on writing about our anniversary weekend!

Second Trimester

22 Weeks

Just a quick post today! I wanted to get this week's picture up before we left for the weekend. We're off to Vancouver early in the morning to celebrate our first anniversary!! I'm soooo ridiculously excited. So what's new this week.. I've gained close to 7 lbs so far! Haha. It was another fairly stressful work week.. I'm very glad to have a long weekend. The little man has been making lots of movement, which makes for a very happy mama! I especially like when I can feel him dragging his hand or foot along my tummy. We went camping for one night after picking up the trailer, and it was pretty fun! Garrick couldn't wipe the excited smile off his face the entire way from kamloops. Him being happy makes me very happy. It's time for me to wind down for bed and get an early sleep! I'll post about our weekend later. Hope everyone has a good long weekend!!

Letter to my little cashew

Before I get into my letter, I'll talk briefly about our weekend!! Saturday, after we finished working at Garrick's warehouse, we made the drive back to kamloops to pick up our new trailer!!! Garrick couldn't wipe the grin off his face the entire way back to Vernon. We immediately took advantage of our new "house" and spent the night at Ellison provincial park. It was a lovely time. Dear my little cashew, Hello, baby boy! In the last week, you've certainly gotten stronger. I notice more and more when you're moving. Yesterday dad and I went camping for the first time in our new trailer! Dad didn't have time to conjure up the one big bed he promises, so we slept separately in the single beds, each with lots and lots of blankets to keep warm. At just before 3 am, you actually woke me up with a very swift, very strong kick on my right side. I placed my hand where I felt it and sure enough, you did it again! They were the strongest I've felt yet.. And soo weird! And almost creepy. I couldn't fall back to sleep due to dad's awful snoring (normally I give him a swift kick, but I wasn't going to get out of my own warm bed and disturb your acrobats!) so I whispered to you and rubbed the spot where you kept kicking. I layer my hand flat on my belly and felt a different sort of movement for the first time! It was as if you were dragging your foot (or knee, elbow, hand, etc. whatever it was) against my belly. It was the strangest, but very wonderful sensation ever. I was completely memorized. Today, you continue to kick pretty strongly. Dad's been able to feel two kicks today... I've felt many more. It seems like you prefer to do all your movement once dad leaves the room though. Silly boy. Dad said maybe his voice scares you.. I said that he needs to talk to you more then. Shortly after, he sang along to the Star Spangled Banner just for you. On another note, please make sure not to be allergic to cats. We love motor and pirate dearly, and you will too! My love for you grows more and more every day and i feel a greater connection with you every time you make your presence known. Keep growing in there, little one! Xoxo Mom Also, I found out recently that my youngest cousin had a terrible horse-riding accident this morning. Everyone please send your positive thoughts her way!! We hope for a full and speedy recovery. WE LOVE YOU!!!

Second Trimester

21 weeks

so. i have an anterior placenta.

like i mentioned, we got our ultrasound results back.. YAY! of course i saw with my own two eyes that our little cashew had a head and body, arms, legs, hands, and feet. he was all there. but i know very well that there are things an ultrasound tech is trained to discover that wouldn't normally be seen by an un-trained eye, so i was still a little anxious to get the results. everything looks good though! the only thing slightly out of the ordinary is the location of my placenta. normally it's on the back wall of the uterus.. mine is on the front. as long as it's not super low and covering the cervix, everything is all good. the only thing is that it can make it more difficult to feel the baby move! it acts as a cushion for them to kick and punch. and it can also make it hard to locate a heartbeat.. but we haven't had any problems with that. this could explain why i didn't feel anything for so long (it really wasn't that out of the ordinary to not feel movement til 18 weeks anyway) and why the real kicks are far and few between. but we know he's there and wiggling away, so there's nothing to be concerned about! it just makes me a little sad to think that we're missing out on most of the movement.

tonight is a yoga night! i'm going to get this 6 class pass for prenatal yoga, so i can go every couple weeks or whenever i want in between doing yoga at home. i think it's good to get out and mix up the yoga routine a little bit. garrick's going to go golfing while i'm out.. his swing could use a little practice haha :P

why do i always think about food? this isn't even a pregnant thing! i always think about it. i want to eat something even when i just ate a big meal and am super full. i love food. this morning i wanted cheese. this afternoon i wanted a fresh sour-doe sandwich with yummy cheese. then i wanted schnitzel. yum.

next weekend (may 18, to be exact) is our one-year anniversary! and my anniversary surprise was revealed. garrick sneakily booked a super nice hotel in vancouver for us for the weekend!!! AND he's taking me to the vancouver aquarium! every time we go to vancouver, i want to go to the aquarium soo bad, but we never have time to. there's a penguin exhibit that starts on the 18th! and lucky for us, it's a long weekend too. so i'm suuuuupeerrr excited!!! we love going on road trips together and it's been awhile since we've gone on one! and what a lovely thing for hubs to plan for me <3 i've just gotta figure out what to wear to our anniversary dinner.. none of my usual fancy dresses are going to fit, that's for sure!

our weekend

as previously mentioned, we've been keeping ourselves rather busy lately!! here's what our weekend looked like.

friday, we went to a play put on by the local music school. they did the wizard of oz, and oh.my.god. it was such an amazing show!!! i thought it was going to be good, but it far exceeded my expectations. the acting was fabulous, the props were soooo well done - during the tornado, the shutters on the house were lifting, the doors and shutters were slamming around, so real! - and it was just very entertaining. we'll definitely be trying to see at least one more before the little man graces us with his presence.

i'm pretty sure that while we were sitting and waiting for the play to start, i felt some actual kicks! there were about 6 of them on my right side, that i could actually feel on the outside. garrick tried to feel, but by then he had stopped kicking/punching. a little while later, i had my left arm resting kind of on my stomach, and i felt another poke! i'm soooo excited for this to become a regular occurance. and for hubs to feel.

saturday, we made the drive all the way to kamloops. this was the day garrick was taking me to look at this trailer that he fell in love with. and now he's the proud new owner of it! provided that it passes inspection, we should be picking it up next saturday. and we'll be driving it straight to the provincial park campground that's 15 minutes from our house and spend the night! hehe. it's a 1995 23' holiday trailer that was being sold for $9,000.. garrick got it for $5,000. and it doesn't have any tacky upholstry, which is a bonus. we've already got 2 weekend camping trips reserved, and two more that are first come, first serve.

after the trailer business, we went shopping for our new baby boy!!!!

we bought a couple articles of clothing and outfits, socks, a pack of bibs, a light sleep sack, a stuffy/blankie, bedding set, cube shelving for his closet, and some fabric cubes to go along with it!

his bed is all owls! the main colours we'll be centering his room around are blue and brown. i think it's sooo cute.

sunday, we bought a bunch of stuff for the trailer.. some cleaning supplies, cutlery and plates, and other such things that will be kept in the trailer, so we're not constantly packing the same things up. and then it was off to the flower spot to spruce up the back yard! we just got a few things to start, and will get some more later.

my most favourite part is the strawberry plants that we got. and of course, all the purple flowers. i'm sooo excited that i'll actually be home in the evenings and on the weekends (when we're not camping :P) to enjoy the backyard, rather than get home when it's already dark out. YAY!!

Second Trimester

20 weeks
eep! i've had this photo ready since thursday, but never got around to posting it! we were too busy with the gender reveal, and then.. just busy (i'll get into that later). so without further delay, here it is. week 20, halfway, as of wednesday, may 2.

i had so many things that i wanted to say in this post, and i just can't remember them all now!

i guess i'll start with our ultrasound appointment on thursday. i'm sure every single woman who's had an ultrasound can relate to the actual pain i was in from having such a full bladder! i think i finished drinking my 1 litre much earlier than necessary.. i had to painfully pee for an hour and a half before the appointment. ugh. i couldn't even pay much attention to the things garrick was telling me about while in the waiting room.

the ultrasound was soooo wonderful! baby boy was laying sideways across my tummy and was perfectly content in the position he was in. then it got time to look and see whether baby was a boy or girl. garrick and i had been studying ultrasound photos online and seeing what to look for. when the tech got to the portion of body where you'd be able to tell, garrick practically yelled "is that a weiner?!" the tech laughed, said yes, zoomed in, and said "...and there's the scrotum." in her much more tehcnically appropiate terms lol. it was pretty funny. she did all the measurements and printed some photos for us. near the end, boy gave some good little kicks and punches (that i still couldn't feel). it was so amazing to see, and crazy to think there's a little boy inside of me!

last week was quite a stressful one for me.. i certainly look forward to my maternity leave!!! hopefully this week is better... boss should be under less stress, so hopefully everything is good. i came home one night and needed a really good cry. luckily, i have an amazing husband who just sits and hugs me and tells me i'm wonderful and that it's not worth worrying about since it'll all be over with in less than 4 months. he definitely makes everything better.

today was the big day!!

Baby Kopiak is a...............

BOY!!!!!!!!

this afternoon was his first photo shoot

hahaha most awesome (and yes, a little creepy looking) ultrasound photo

(that's his head on the right and abdomen on the left. and that's the lens of one eye!)


P.S. Garrick's dad does not want to know whether it's a boy or girl! he wants it to be a surprise. so try your best to not tell him please!!

ten-things tuesday

my ten favourite pictures of my kitties!