Tyler here;
Life is moving quick and we are going to be in London in no time which is exciting but we are not short on excitement out on the west coast either. We were just laying in bed before going to sleep and chatting while I had my hand on Lyndze's belly and I felt a little tiny "thump thump thump" against my hand. It was the first time I felt the baby move and since then I have felt it once more but it is really really cool even though it is a pretty soft kick. I am excited for this to start happening more regularly.
Also Chick is apparently now fully capable of hearing us speak. Lyndze and I feel that this is a very imperative time for Chick's development. Some people suggest talking to the baby and saying loving things, or playing classical music to help brain development. Lyndze and I have decided to use this precious time in Chicks development to read to Chick some of our favorite books. While Lyndze is planning to start reading some of that good old feminist literature ASAP we are also beginning to read Chick some of those integral texts that are essential to a child's growth. We are going to start simple by working through some of our favorite revolutionary texts. Start with the Marx and Engles', Communist Manifesto, and then move towards Gramsci's New Prince and Kropotkin's "Conquest of Bread" and maybe some Noam Chompsky if we are feeling up to it. We'll have ourselves a little child of the revolution in no time!
If you have any ideas of other books worth reading to Chick before he/she is born we would love to hear it!
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer!
July 18 - POP!
Lyndze: So I had some trouble sleeping last night. I was having dreams about trying to put on my pants and none of them fitting - like not even going on beyond my knees! It was as if my pants had turned into children's sizes or perhaps I was gigantic! And I woke up a lot needing to turn over but my sides ached every time I shifted.
I woke up this morning bigger then when I went to bed. I have heard of people "popping" over-night and I think that night was last night. I got a lot more comments on my new shape and I was wearing a baggier t-shirt!
Well, the getting bigger thing is exciting but I'm only half way (20 weeks on Tuesday) and I can't imagine how big I will get!
We took a couple pictures of the belly today. Please ignore the messy hair and look of exhaustion.
I woke up this morning bigger then when I went to bed. I have heard of people "popping" over-night and I think that night was last night. I got a lot more comments on my new shape and I was wearing a baggier t-shirt!
Well, the getting bigger thing is exciting but I'm only half way (20 weeks on Tuesday) and I can't imagine how big I will get!
We took a couple pictures of the belly today. Please ignore the messy hair and look of exhaustion.
Some people have trouble finding good babysitters but not us - we have people selling themselves to us! Two very good staff at the Camp have a keen interest in babysitting Chick in the new year. They gave me a vegan cupcake cookbook with a personal inscription including a picture. I think you can tell which stick figure is me!
SOLD! They can babysit anytime! Chick would be lucky to have such great people looking after her/him! I'm making them some Boston Cream Cupcakes this evening!
Ultrasound? More like Ultra-Fun! - July 13
Tyler: So Lyndze and I had her ultrasound appointment today. Aside from Lyndze having to hold an exceptional amount of water in her bladder for a very long time, it was a totally positive experience and she and I had a lot of fun. I went into it a little cautious. Believe it or not I can be a little rambunctious when I am excited about something. I think it is great fun but it borders on annoying to anyone else around me. (This is a great Roach/Grant trait that comes alive at any family dinner).
I was nervous because recently in the BC news there has been a whole debate surrounding the ultrasound appointments and changes that have been put into place. Things such as having to pay for pictures, and a laundry list of things to beware of when getting your ultrasound. Such as, it is a medical procedure and the technician will not tell you anything about this procedure including gender of the baby, while it is occurring so please do not ask them questions or bother them during the procedure. And this notice to not bother the technician was posted around the waiting room in 5 different places. However, lucky for us we had a really great women that despite having already done 10 ultrasounds that day was very bubbly and was commenting on the funny things our little chick was doing and was more than happy to answer questions or try and show us interesting things.
In an attempt to make our ultrasound interesting I purchased a very sugary (organic sugar of course) cupcake from "Pink Sugar" in Victoria on Monday. We theorized that if Lyndze ate the cupcake at the right time then perhaps the sugar rush would make it to Chick just in time for the ultrasound so we could have a hyper baby and experience lots of movement. The danger of this plan of course is that if we were too late we would get Chick during a sugar crash. Which would be much less exciting... Well, I think this plan worked. On the way to the ultrasound, Lyndze did not stop talking for more then 15 seconds at a time so the sugar rush had clearly got to her and when it came time to do the ultrasound it appeared that perhaps it has gotten to the baby too as we had quite a performance from our little Chick. There was lots of wiggling and waving as well as we got some pictures of Chick practicing fetal yoga and at one point we are positive Chick "mooned" us with his/her cute little bum.... We were all laughing and joking and "ooing" and "awing" throughout the entire procedure. It really was a good time.
Aside from all the joking we had a chance to see Chicks heart, chicks hands, and feet, and little upturned nose. We smiled and laughed as we attempted to assign all of these traits that we were claiming to have seen on one another. Chicks very straight spine was assigned to Lyndze, when the technician commented on Chicks "knobby knees and skinny little legs" the was explained as a trait of mine. Below are some pictures that I'll walk you through with my dad-to-be know-how.
In this picture, you can clearly see a little arm and hand. Chick was waving her/his arms around, putting them behind her/his head, grabbing the feet (which we also have a picture of) and lots of other fun stuff.
There is two little feet! The feet that Lyndze is feeling kicking her all day.
There are two little legs sticking up in the air/amniotic fluid. We actually saw chick make a swallowing motion during the little picture show.
This is a profile of Chick. You can see the head and face on the left and then the body and a leg and knobby knee sticking up.
This is a picture of Chick looking at us. You can see the eye sockets and nose and the black part is the brain.
The technician was trying to get a picture of the other arm but Chick started doing some yoga moves. In this picture s/he is holding her/his foot with her/his hand. The technician started poking the baby to get 'em to stop. The baby responded! And eventually the other arm had its measurements taken.
We mentioned that Lyndze's dad and brother are Chiropractors and the technician was excited to get us a good picture of the spine. Part-way through the procedure, Lyndze got to go pee, and then in the second half the baby was doing all of this turning around and cool stretching. This is the baby trying what looked like down-ward dog. S/he was trying to stretch her/his legs out straight with all of that new room in there. Very cute!
I was nervous because recently in the BC news there has been a whole debate surrounding the ultrasound appointments and changes that have been put into place. Things such as having to pay for pictures, and a laundry list of things to beware of when getting your ultrasound. Such as, it is a medical procedure and the technician will not tell you anything about this procedure including gender of the baby, while it is occurring so please do not ask them questions or bother them during the procedure. And this notice to not bother the technician was posted around the waiting room in 5 different places. However, lucky for us we had a really great women that despite having already done 10 ultrasounds that day was very bubbly and was commenting on the funny things our little chick was doing and was more than happy to answer questions or try and show us interesting things.
In an attempt to make our ultrasound interesting I purchased a very sugary (organic sugar of course) cupcake from "Pink Sugar" in Victoria on Monday. We theorized that if Lyndze ate the cupcake at the right time then perhaps the sugar rush would make it to Chick just in time for the ultrasound so we could have a hyper baby and experience lots of movement. The danger of this plan of course is that if we were too late we would get Chick during a sugar crash. Which would be much less exciting... Well, I think this plan worked. On the way to the ultrasound, Lyndze did not stop talking for more then 15 seconds at a time so the sugar rush had clearly got to her and when it came time to do the ultrasound it appeared that perhaps it has gotten to the baby too as we had quite a performance from our little Chick. There was lots of wiggling and waving as well as we got some pictures of Chick practicing fetal yoga and at one point we are positive Chick "mooned" us with his/her cute little bum.... We were all laughing and joking and "ooing" and "awing" throughout the entire procedure. It really was a good time.
Aside from all the joking we had a chance to see Chicks heart, chicks hands, and feet, and little upturned nose. We smiled and laughed as we attempted to assign all of these traits that we were claiming to have seen on one another. Chicks very straight spine was assigned to Lyndze, when the technician commented on Chicks "knobby knees and skinny little legs" the was explained as a trait of mine. Below are some pictures that I'll walk you through with my dad-to-be know-how.
In this picture, you can clearly see a little arm and hand. Chick was waving her/his arms around, putting them behind her/his head, grabbing the feet (which we also have a picture of) and lots of other fun stuff.
There is two little feet! The feet that Lyndze is feeling kicking her all day.
There are two little legs sticking up in the air/amniotic fluid. We actually saw chick make a swallowing motion during the little picture show.
This is a profile of Chick. You can see the head and face on the left and then the body and a leg and knobby knee sticking up.
This is a picture of Chick looking at us. You can see the eye sockets and nose and the black part is the brain.
The technician was trying to get a picture of the other arm but Chick started doing some yoga moves. In this picture s/he is holding her/his foot with her/his hand. The technician started poking the baby to get 'em to stop. The baby responded! And eventually the other arm had its measurements taken.
We mentioned that Lyndze's dad and brother are Chiropractors and the technician was excited to get us a good picture of the spine. Part-way through the procedure, Lyndze got to go pee, and then in the second half the baby was doing all of this turning around and cool stretching. This is the baby trying what looked like down-ward dog. S/he was trying to stretch her/his legs out straight with all of that new room in there. Very cute!
Okay, you look different...
Lyndze: I look different and I feel different. The baby has been moving for weeks but now s/he is big enough so that I can feel it when it moves. I first felt it during a meeting at work near the end of June. It was a weird buzzing and fluttering. The people I see daily, at work, notice the difference in my appearance. But when I am out in public it becomes less obvious. We went to Salt Spring Island recently and I felt the best I've felt in months. Lots of energy, enjoying the sun, and just in the mood to play.
We went to the "Mistaken Identity" winery. I am often being mistaken for being pudgy these days...
Although, the mistake is understandable.
They served me wine here...
Tyler can be mistaken for grumpy when he's actually quite happy.
Is she pregnant or just eating too much pie?
Lyndze: I have been eating a lot of pie. Home-made strawberry-rhubarb, apple-blackberry... I used to never be a fruit eater or an enjoyer of fruit but now I can't get enough of it. But, when you eat the way we eat (mostly organic, local, and non-processed), it's hard to go wrong. I don't have a huge appetite. In fact, I am still pretty uninterested in most food since the first trimester. But graduating to the second trimester was great! More energy, no nausea, a couple of pretty bad colds, some yoga and hiking... We even took a short trip to the Juan de Fuca.
I think I look rounder, but most people probably wouldn't guess I am pregnant in this picture (17 weeks).
Tyler wasn't looking too pregnant either...
Raspberries and chocolate and a very happy Lyndze!
Text-Book is Okay with Us!
Lyndze: All of the books and websites said that for most people the "morning sickness" would end by week 11 and like magic, by mid-May, it was gone! I still wasn't too interested in eating but I felt so much better! Too bad Carleigh didn't visit a couple weeks later than she did :(
We shared the news to my staff team in a fun and creative word game where they had some letters they had to arrange into a secret sentence using clues. The sentence was "Galaxy's pregnancy test was positive" and I'll never forget the way some of them were looking at me when they figured out that my name (my camp name is Galaxy) and the word "pregnancy" were both in the sentence - it was a mix of excitement and trepidation (could this be right, no, maybe?).
We went to see the second half of our midwife team, Uta, at week 12. She was really friendly and put us both at ease right away. She lives with some colleagues of ours (small world) and she is into Chinese Medicine and totally supports our view of preventive and natural health. During this visit I was weighed (I had gained 1.5 pounds back), I had my sugars tested (no diabetes for me) and underwent some prodding to my middle (organs have shifted up and baby is taking up space). Also, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat! As soon as she put the Doppler on my middle we heard a fast, clear and obvious beating! Uta described it as a confident heartbeat that said "Here I am!" and she was surprised by how easy it was to find (taking only seconds). I was giddy about the whole thing - there is someone in there! Everything seems text-book so far and I am okay with that!
Tyler: As Lyndze moved beyond the worst parts of the morning sickness we began to get ready to tell our friends about the pregnancy. For me, telling people has been a pretty fun but strange experience. Aside from the camp staff, and a couple of close friends who gave us the over the top excited reaction, the experience has been pretty subdued and at times bordering on awkward. Perhaps it was me not really knowing how to bring it up and them not really knowing the accepted social graces that landed me in a lot of conversations that sounded like this... Me: "Hey, so I wanted to let you know that Lyndze is pregnant..." Friend: "Really?" Me: "Ya!" Friend: "Cool... What kinda of beer are you having"... Or perhaps what was even better is having this similar conversation with a person (a guy usually) and the little smirk begins to rise on their face and I get a punch on the shoulder and a "Way to go champ!"
Lynde covered the midwife experience pretty well. They are wonderful people that have been right in line with us on our ideals, thoughts and concerns. It has been an incredibly positive and caring way to begin the pregnancy. The heartbeat was an amazing experience. It was almost instantaneous from when Uta placed the Doppler on Lyndze's tummy to hearing a loud heartbeat. Too cool!
I realize that no one sees a bump but Tyler and I. But we see it!
We shared the news to my staff team in a fun and creative word game where they had some letters they had to arrange into a secret sentence using clues. The sentence was "Galaxy's pregnancy test was positive" and I'll never forget the way some of them were looking at me when they figured out that my name (my camp name is Galaxy) and the word "pregnancy" were both in the sentence - it was a mix of excitement and trepidation (could this be right, no, maybe?).
We went to see the second half of our midwife team, Uta, at week 12. She was really friendly and put us both at ease right away. She lives with some colleagues of ours (small world) and she is into Chinese Medicine and totally supports our view of preventive and natural health. During this visit I was weighed (I had gained 1.5 pounds back), I had my sugars tested (no diabetes for me) and underwent some prodding to my middle (organs have shifted up and baby is taking up space). Also, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat! As soon as she put the Doppler on my middle we heard a fast, clear and obvious beating! Uta described it as a confident heartbeat that said "Here I am!" and she was surprised by how easy it was to find (taking only seconds). I was giddy about the whole thing - there is someone in there! Everything seems text-book so far and I am okay with that!
Tyler: As Lyndze moved beyond the worst parts of the morning sickness we began to get ready to tell our friends about the pregnancy. For me, telling people has been a pretty fun but strange experience. Aside from the camp staff, and a couple of close friends who gave us the over the top excited reaction, the experience has been pretty subdued and at times bordering on awkward. Perhaps it was me not really knowing how to bring it up and them not really knowing the accepted social graces that landed me in a lot of conversations that sounded like this... Me: "Hey, so I wanted to let you know that Lyndze is pregnant..." Friend: "Really?" Me: "Ya!" Friend: "Cool... What kinda of beer are you having"... Or perhaps what was even better is having this similar conversation with a person (a guy usually) and the little smirk begins to rise on their face and I get a punch on the shoulder and a "Way to go champ!"
Lynde covered the midwife experience pretty well. They are wonderful people that have been right in line with us on our ideals, thoughts and concerns. It has been an incredibly positive and caring way to begin the pregnancy. The heartbeat was an amazing experience. It was almost instantaneous from when Uta placed the Doppler on Lyndze's tummy to hearing a loud heartbeat. Too cool!
I realize that no one sees a bump but Tyler and I. But we see it!
It's right there!
April-May: All-Day Sickness/Excitement
Lyndze: We found out about the pregnancy and the excitement began. We took these first pictures at week 5 and 6. After that, I started feeling pretty sick and was not as interested in the camera. They call it morning sickness but it was 24-hour nausea for me! But the whole time I was perfectly happy being sick because it reminded me of our exciting secret and the excellent Christmas present that we are working towards: a baby!
Tyler: This first month was a very interesting and exciting time for me. It was a new kind of exciting in that the pregnancy at this point was fairly intangible for me. I wasn't feeling sick. I had no symptoms. But I was filled with emotion nonetheless. However, I began to read stories of men who felt sympathy in such a way that they began to gain weight with their partner. Sympathy weight was what really sold me on this pregnancy thing. I've was told as a teenager that men usually went through two growth spirts... one they grew up and then a second one where they filled out. While at age 27 I really feel like this is my chance to put on some of that sympathy weight and maybe keep it on after the pregnancy... Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Lyndze: By week eight I figured out that onions were the main culprit and once we got those out of the house and tried a more bland (bland for us) diet I seemed to eat some more. Still, I lost about 3 pounds during the first 2 months. I was pretty tired too, but this could have been due to the 70 hours a week I was working... Tyler took really good care of me though. He made sure I ate and got lots of sleep and stayed low-stress and focused on myself as much as possible. The role he played was really special.
Tyler: The timing of Lyndze's "morning sickness" landed smack dab in the middle of her crazy season. I would spend days at home attempting to make new concoctions of teas that were supposed to help and make foods that she would be willing to eat. I enjoyed this time as a chance to be creative with my cooking and despite how bad I felt for her and her current state I was still amused at the moments when mid-day the front door of our house would swing open and I would hear Lyndze begin a wonderful rant about the new smells she is discovering at camp that she never noticed before. Needless to say the camp dining hall was a "no-go-zone," but that can be the case some days even if you are not in the early throws of pregnancy.
Lyndze: It was not all smooth sailing through the sea of nausea. We did have one little scare where we had to have an early ultrasound to make sure Chick was okay. Our wonderful midwives got us into the clinic within hours and the ultrasound showed a kidney-bean shaped thing that was wiggling. The wiggling was the heartbeat which meant everything was as it should be. We were both really relieved and felt a lot more confident in the pregnancy after this. We couldn't stop talking about our little wiggler for days.
Tyler: This first month was a very interesting and exciting time for me. It was a new kind of exciting in that the pregnancy at this point was fairly intangible for me. I wasn't feeling sick. I had no symptoms. But I was filled with emotion nonetheless. However, I began to read stories of men who felt sympathy in such a way that they began to gain weight with their partner. Sympathy weight was what really sold me on this pregnancy thing. I've was told as a teenager that men usually went through two growth spirts... one they grew up and then a second one where they filled out. While at age 27 I really feel like this is my chance to put on some of that sympathy weight and maybe keep it on after the pregnancy... Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Lyndze: By week eight I figured out that onions were the main culprit and once we got those out of the house and tried a more bland (bland for us) diet I seemed to eat some more. Still, I lost about 3 pounds during the first 2 months. I was pretty tired too, but this could have been due to the 70 hours a week I was working... Tyler took really good care of me though. He made sure I ate and got lots of sleep and stayed low-stress and focused on myself as much as possible. The role he played was really special.
Tyler: The timing of Lyndze's "morning sickness" landed smack dab in the middle of her crazy season. I would spend days at home attempting to make new concoctions of teas that were supposed to help and make foods that she would be willing to eat. I enjoyed this time as a chance to be creative with my cooking and despite how bad I felt for her and her current state I was still amused at the moments when mid-day the front door of our house would swing open and I would hear Lyndze begin a wonderful rant about the new smells she is discovering at camp that she never noticed before. Needless to say the camp dining hall was a "no-go-zone," but that can be the case some days even if you are not in the early throws of pregnancy.
Lyndze: It was not all smooth sailing through the sea of nausea. We did have one little scare where we had to have an early ultrasound to make sure Chick was okay. Our wonderful midwives got us into the clinic within hours and the ultrasound showed a kidney-bean shaped thing that was wiggling. The wiggling was the heartbeat which meant everything was as it should be. We were both really relieved and felt a lot more confident in the pregnancy after this. We couldn't stop talking about our little wiggler for days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)