Busy weekend!
So, as of Thursday I have to check my blood at least three times per day and watch what I eat and worry about the fact that baby continues to enjoy hanging around the uterus with its head up, instead of down which should be its preferred orientation. We also discovered that it's something called a "frank breech", which means that its feet are up by the head. Essentially, we have a Cirque de Soleil baby. We had our birthing courses this weekend. The Saturday session was very good, the teacher was animated and organized and taught us many breathing and relaxation exercises. The teacher on Sunday was not very good and was more of a natural childbirth/breastfeeding nazi. She did take us on a tour of the birthing centre and recovery floor though, so it wasn't a complete waste. The funniest bits were the videos we had to watch, most of which were filmed in the late 70s. The hair was great! Of course, none of the mothers screamed, or cursed at their husbands, or took the drugs, so you had to assume they were insane. We also enjoyed bbq with Terence and Irene Saturday night, and Ramsay and Mirella Sunday, so today I'm a bit loopy. I'm looking forward to the holiday tomorrow to rest up.
I got the new Harry Potter last week and have been reading it in short intervals, don't want it to end too fast. It's quite different from the first four, there's a complete change in tone which I was disappointed with, but it really was inevitable considering that the character is growing up and the plot is getting progressively darker.

I was going to talk about the weekend, but it was pretty uneventful. We put Scott on the train Saturday morning which was sad, and Kathy came over Sunday, which was a perfect way to spend an afternoon. After weeks of eating everything that moves (doctor's orders), I am now 6 pounds heavier than before I got pregnant, which should make my doctor very happy. Of course, now I fear that when I go in at the end of March he's going to say, "hey, whoa there tubby", but the butter really was worth it :-)
I think that I can kinda feel something moving around down there, and I definitely have started to look pregnant, at least to me. One day last week I looked down and there it was, not just my regular belly, but a rounder, harder belly. Freaky! My next ultrasound is March 17 (should I paint a shamrock on my tummy?). They should be able to tell us the sex of the baby, but we don't want to know. My friend Kuan wants to know what she's having, but her baby is apparently being very shy about the whole thing. I want a surprise at the end, we know so much more than our mothers did when they were having kids; I know how healthy the baby is, I can hear the heartbeat and see what it looks like, why wreck the ultimate surprise? Besides, this way if I'm having a girl I don't get pink stuff, not really crazy about pink.

Woo hoo! Sofa!
The sofa and chair arrive sometime this afternoon! Yay! I'm in training today, so Steve will be heading home to wait for sofa men. In other news, it looks like I'm heading back to NY next week for business... oh joy, that's about a week of x-mas shopping time wasted.

The Latest James Bond Movie

Yes, I confess, I saw "Another Day to Die" and frankly it's too violent, long and seemingly pointless car chases that somehow make for a very flat and tired forumla. However Brosnan makes a good Bond and the Bond girl in the movie, Halle isn't bad either. The song, by Madonna is okay too and if you catch the music video by the same name as the movie, it's also good (and in my opinion better than the movie, it's not as long). As you would expect, Madonna does make a cameo appearance in the movie and if you have seen the video, you'll recognize the setting.

As you probably heard the movie does a shameless job of product promotion. I felt that this was one of it's strengths, it gave me something else to think about while someone else was being brutally beaten and killed.

The special effects ranged from okay to absolutely terrible. The worst scene is one that allegedly takes place in Iceland where Bond is driving across some ice that is being cracked by a device from outer space and as you would expect he drives over any icy precipice and drops a 100 feet or so straight into the ocean. What makes the whole thing totally unbelievable is a) the way the setting looked, totally fake, something out of a 1950s el cheapo Sci-fi movie, b) you can't suspend you disbelief when he somehow manages to yank a piece of the car off and turn it into a surfboard and ride the surf to safety. (I think he managed to grab the car's parachute too before the car fell straight into the ocean.)

I am glad I saw this at Guzzo cinema as a Sunday matinee as opposed to lining up for it on a Friday or Saturday night and paying full fare for it. Don't bother with the video when it comes out unless you really want to see the scene where Halle comes out of the water in her spectacular orange bikini and her equally spectacular body...


I rarely go to movies, especially ones my husband wants to see and this is one he had been champing at the bit to see. (I didn't know he liked orange bikinis). I think the next time he goes to a movie, I will stay home and rent The Shipping News or The End of the Affair. I am bound to see some plot, drama, and some good acting.

Quiet Monday
Many people have taken today off because tomorrow's a holiday here, so it's vewy quiet. I like days like these because there's no traffic and almost no one bugs me so I can get some work done. This weekend we didn't get as much done as we'd hoped. The heat wave has started, so we were a bit dazed by the return of summer heat. We did get out to a friend's housewarming which was lots of fun. Everybody feels obliged to talk about baby stuff when I'm around. I guess it's an obvious conversation choice, and I do love to hear everyone's cute baby stories and how happy they are about being moms and dads, but I'd like some variety. Tell me something horribly embarassing about your first parenting experience that makes me feel completely normal about feeling so totally unprepared for this. I'm serious, I'm freakin' out here people!

Dang!
Fixed my blogback and lost some of my comments. Sorry!

This sucks
Doctor made a mistake, I have gestational diabetes after all, which means that now I have to go the the hospital from 7:30-3:30 next week. The hospital doesn't seem to care that I have to make that time up somewhere.... I'll probably end up waiting for hours in uncomfortable chairs. Oh! and just to make my day a bit brighter, my doctor has completely freaked me out by telling me that the baby hasn't turned yet, so I should be mentally preparing myself for the possibility of a cesarean. I've been frantically searching the internet for exercises that I can do at home. So far I have found lots of advice involving tilting yourself up on an ironing board and using frozen peas, music, and flashlights to coax the head down. I'm thinking a full sound and lights show between my legs ought to do the trick. I'm very unhappy at the moment.

Drat!
Yesterday I checked the weather and it said that it was going to be sunny and low 20s all weekend. Today, it's rainy and high teens. The gods are thwarting by birthday BBQ...... everyone bring a sweater and an umbrella.
I had a lovely birthday, went out to lunch and Steve took me out for a great mexican dinner. He gave me a Shaun figurine from A Close Shave, so cute!

Happy Birthday to Me!

You've got the cutest little ...

Can't see it? Try this and squint a bit:

The camera loves ya baby!
Had another ultrasound today, and blood tests, and an appointment with a dietician. It was a very busy morning of running up and down stairs. The baby looks pretty good to me. It decided to position itself so that we got a very good look at its face, posing for the camera already! I'll have a photo up tomorrow, with the appropriate arrows, etc. It was moving its mouth too, which means a good appetite, or it's already working on a welcome speech. The doctor said that the waist looks a bit small, so I have to go back in at the end of the month. The dietician told me a whole bunch of stuff that I already knew. I suppose many people do not know how to eat well, but I am not one of these people. Of course, seeing as how my birthday is this week, I doubt that I will be choosing not to eat cake and ice cream either. I think that the hospital policy errs on the side of the overly cautious.
Saturday was spent at a sad family function. My aunt died last Monday, and we had a small memorial service in the townships. My grandmother is holding up well, despite her own illness. It was very draining to say the least. Sunday we were going to go out and shop for a dresser and look at more strollers, but instead we worked around the house and did some groceries. Yesterday gave us a little reminder of the warm weather to come, it was hot and humid. Steve set up the air conditioner in the bedroom, perfect timing! We were watching the season finale of Six Feet Under last night, my wonderful brother-in-law tapes it for me, when the tape suddenly went fuzzy grey screen in the last minutes! Luckily, we have an alternate supplier so we can find out what happened.

Baby report
It's been a while. Let's see, as you know my belly exploded a few weeks ago, which was hard to get used to, but I seem to have finally adapted. I have discovered that bean burritos are not the best thing to eat right now. Spicy food is so far still a-ok. The ever-generous mother-in-law insists on getting us the stroller, and with the help of her sister, is sending us about a million receiving blankets, so I'll have plenty left over to wax the car. I'm still stripping the closet door of the nursery and we haven't started painting the squares on the walls yet, but maybe we'll get a few taped off this weekend. The baby is moving around, although now it seems more like gentle rolling than kicking. According to the books, the baby is now about 18 inches long and 3 and a half pounds, which really doesn't explain why I have now gained over 25 pounds, but my doctor says that I'm normal.
In other news
I have had better weeks. Had some very bad news on Monday (not baby-related), so I'm rather blue.

We registered this weekend for babystuff at the big chain toystore. It wasn't so bad, although I'm not completely convinced about the stroller, and I'm still looking for a nice crib set that isn't stupidly expensive. I think that we have all the basics covered. Anybody have anything that they couldn't live without when they had a baby? A friend is coming over with a crib tonight, so we're going to put it together and have a look and decide if it's a good fit. After we registered, we went out for lunch and then on to Club Price, where we stocked up on cleaning supplies and priced diapers just for fun, man those things are expensive! Sunday morning I just lolled around and then I went over to Maggie's to see the newly painted facade-very nice! Last night we went with Guislaine to see the new Matrix movie - which was action packed and all the things that you'd expect from a Matrix movie. We knew that there was a trailer for the next movie after the credits, so we stuck around to see it. The only problem was that the music that went with the credits was incredibly loud and the credits were really long. I had my hands over my ears, and it was still deafening. I came out kind of cranky about the whole thing. I'm going to call the cinema today and complain.
This week is going to be another super busy one, I have another release which always creates havoc and late nights while things compile and crash.
It is also the start of my birthday month, truly the most amazing time of the year! Let the games begin!