mama monday: week 33 "womanhood, and all that is a woman"

In case you're wondering why I have ceased to post various fruits and vegetables that represent Baby Gaz's growth, it's because the growth at this point is difficult to document using fruits and vegetables.  Even websites are becoming more obscure in their offerings: your baby is the size of a Chinese cabbage!  A jicama!  A crenshaw melon!

Be assured that Baby Gaz is growing, Baby Gaz is moving (lots), Baby Gaz is hiccuping, and is healthy by all accounts.  The produce section of the local grocery store just doesn't suffice in describing how excited we are to meet him.

My husband, a lover of poetry and a fan of Walt Whitman, sent me this glorious poem a few months back: I Sing The Body Electric.  The poem should be read it its entirety - it is a stunning piece of art - but, if you're short on time, here are some of the excerpts that I thought painted a magnificent portrait of woman and her ability to incubate life.

This is the female form,
A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot,
It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction,
I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor,
     all falls aside but myself and it,
Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, and what
     was expected of heaven or fear'd of hell, are now consumed,
Mad filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of it, the response
     likewise ungovernable,
Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands all
     diffused, mine too diffused,
Ebb stung by the flow and flow stung by the ebb, love-flesh swelling
     and deliciously aching,
Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of
     love, white-blow and delirious nice,
Bridegroom night of love working surely and softly into the
     prostrate dawn,
Undulating into the willing and yielding day,
Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-flesh'd day.


This the nucleus--after the child is born of woman, man is born
     of woman,
This the bath of birth, this the merge of small and large, and the
     outlet again.


Be not ashamed women, your privilege encloses the rest, and is the
     exit of the rest,
You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul.


The female contains all qualities and tempers them,
She is in her place and moves with perfect balance,
She is all things duly veil'd, she is both passive and active,
She is to conceive daughters as well as sons, and sons as well as
     daughters.


She too is not only herself, she is the teeming mother of mothers,
She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the mothers.

mama monday: Week 31

Going through old post drafts, I came across this one from Week 17.  PROOF THAT I MEANT TO BLOG THROUGHOUT SECOND TRIMESTER.  Despite being a little outdated, the list entitled Stuff I Didn't Know still stands as a reminder of how weird all these pregnancy symptoms can be.  

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Here we are at Week 17 already!

Baby Gaz is approximately the size of a pear, I look more like I'm carrying a watermelon, and feel like I'm carrying a wine barrel.  I have a few friends who are also due in November and, although their due dates are a few weeks later than ours, I feel like Anoine de Saint-Exupéry's elephant in a boa next to them.

Now that I'm comfortably settling into second trimester and able to put into words some of what pregnancy has been, I figured I'd treat you all to a segment I'd like to call Stuff I Didn't Know.

1. Feeling Excited
   In fact, for most of the first trimester, I didn't.  Other than the day we found out we were pregnant (a story I realize now might make for an interesting blog post - stay tuned), and a few weeks after that, when I would laugh uncontrollably to myself like a crazy person because of the wonderful ridiculousness of it all.  I was pregnant.  Me.  With a human inside me.  A baby that will look partially like me and partially like Andrew.  And we'll have to look after it.  Shouldn't we be screened or something?
   
   Other than the laughing fits I felt terribly underwhelmed when anyone squealed at me, inches from my face, "AREN'T YOU SOOOOOO EXCITED?!"  Other than wanting to point out that they had taken all the excitement and there was none left for me, nay, for anyone else for that matter, I was surprised by internal response: "No." and, secondly, by the one I actually said out loud: "Of course."  Because both answers were true, but the latter didn't seem true - yet.
   
   It's kind of like asking someone who is battling influenza, amnesia, PMS, sleep deprivation, loss of bladder control, and abdominal swelling whether or not they are excited about attending the Oscars over half a year from now?  Well, yes, they suppose they are excited now that you mention it but mostly they're mapping out the nearest garbage pails in case they're struck with the urge to vomit, the nearest soft surface in case they pass out, and the nearest bathroom or thick hedge because they'll have to pee as soon as you'll let them stop talking about the Oscars.  There isn't a lot of energy left to be excited with.
   
   
2. Mood Swings
   You may be familiar with my occasional day trips to Crazy Town but they spaced themselves out at least a month apart and were, more or less, understandable.  As understandable as Crazy can be.   Pregnancy leaves allllll those episodes in its dust.  Not only are pregnancy mood alterations unpredictable but they bypass premenstrual ones in both height and depth.
   
   Conveniently, I live with a man who is as patient as he is wise which means that he knows when to attempt to "fix" the situation and when to let things run their course.  And follows up any particularly hard day, headache, or cry by drawing me a bath and giving me a massage.  I know.  I win.
   
3. Feeling Tired
   I can nap like a champion, and frequently do, but pregnancy has given me an entirely new outlook on fatigue and sleep.  Many parent vetrans will see us and advise, "Sleep now while you can!  You have no idea how tired you'll be once the baby arrives."  I haven't entirely completed my research on the subject but I'd be willing to bet that sleep is not one of those quantifiable substances that you can stock up on and use later, like toilet paper.  Not only that, but no one informed me that the sleeplessness begins LONG BEFORE BABY SHOWS UP IN PERSON.
   
   Andrew has developed a love-hate relationship with the body pillow I now sleep with (love, only because it aids me in sleeping...so it's mostly hate).  The pillow, in combination with my bulbous shape, increasing weight, inability to sleep on my front, inability to sleep on my back, multiple trips to the washroom to pee, and inexplicable wakefulness between the hours of 2:00 and 4:00 a.m. make it quite difficult to get a good night's sleep at present.  Which is why I'd like to take those parent vetrans by the shoulders, shake vigorously, and inform them that THEY AREN'T HELPING.

foto friday: hot time, summer in the city

Here are a few shots snapped over the past three months.  Hand-picked, rinsed and presented for your viewing pleasure!

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Back when the weather was at record-breaking heights and I was scheduling my life by moving my pregnant bulk from one air-conditioned environment to another, my friend Jessica and I spotted this charming employee of The Good Neighbour on a break.

Yes, he wanted to see if it was hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement.

The third wedding of the season.

I know, right?  I almost passed out from an overdose of cute.

Solomon, beating the heat in our backyard.

Apartment-viewing with Sarah, my sister-in-law.  This apartment, on Roncesvalles, was posted for just under three days and inspired a parade of hipsters to stand in the rain and wait for a viewing.  Just another day on Ronceez.

The first peek at Baby Gaz's nursery!  I doubt if this drawer will ever be as tidy as it is now (have you ever tried to fold a newborn-sized onesie?) but it was so fun to organize.

The fifth wedding of the season. 

Andrew at childbirth class, learning how to properly change, clothe, and swaddle a fake newborn.  He's a champ.

Fake newborn changed, clothed, and swaddled!  The proud papa displays his accomplishment full of confidence and poise.

wifercize wednesday: hormones and hand sanders

Andrew has been such a dear in keeping up with his hormone-flooded wife.  The downsides have included fits of frustration (generally nesting related or sleep deprivation related) followed by a gush of tears.

A few months ago I decided to tidy the first floor of our house.  AND I HAD TO DO IT RIGHT.  NOW. Coming across a few pairs of Andrew's shoes in the hallway, I asked him if he would like me to put them in the front closet or upstairs in the bedroom.  He told me to hold on one moment, as he was busy paying a bill online.

I waited a moment.  I waited a moment more.  Still answerless, I abandoned the shoes and stormed off to complete some other equally-as-pressing task until Andrew tracked me down and asked me if I was OK (the banging of objects tipped him off).

"Yes.  I'm fine."  (I wasn't.)
"Reeally?  You don't seem fine.  Are you mad?"
"No.  I'm not."  (I was.)
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know."  (I didn't.)

About 10 minutes after this futile discussion Andrew was back on the couch and I furtively joined him.  I sat as close as I could manage with my bulky abdomen, put my head on his shoulder, and started crying.

"Are you crying?  What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry."  (I was.)
"That's OK.  For what?"
"I don't know."  (I still didn't.)

Andrew has been wonderful at decoding (or, rather, lovingly disregarding) many of my extreme ups and downs and for this I am grateful.  The truth is that, most of the time, I truly don't know why I'm upset.  In the past week alone, the answers to "Are you crying?  What's wrong?" have included "I'm tired.  And you're nice." to "This movie is too sad."  Both legitimate answers.  To me.  At the time.

Another behavioural development has been a slightly unhinged desire to refinish furniture, as mentioned on Monday.  The first of which was a stool.

I spotted the stool on the side of the road the day Andrew and I were parking near St. Joe's hospital for an ultrasound appointment.  It was a painted (chipping), white (yellowing), wooden stool with a slab of the seat broken off.  I thought it was marvelous.

After my dad reattached the broken seat with carpenter's glue, it looked a little something like this:

After a generous sanding with my handy Black & Decker GelMax Mouse Sander and Polisher with Touch Zone Technology, it looked like this:

And after two coats of black CIL semi-gloss latex interior paint (primer included!) it looked exactly the way I wanted it to:

You might remember that I've been working on this little plot of the house ever since I designed my own wire hooks to display decorative French cheese plates on the wall:

Since it's completion, I am happy to report that it is the first DIY project that Oberon approves of.  In fact, he approves of it so much he almost exclusively owns property rights to it.

"How handy," he told me when I placed the finished stool in the kitchen.  "You've finally given me the throne I so rightfully deserve.  From here I shall survey my kingdom and all that transpires throughout."

mama monday: week 30

One would assume that after having whined and complained openly and publicly while we waited to become pregnant that the very least I could do was to blog as frequently about the process of pregnancy once acquired.

But second trimester has come and gone and, for reasons unknown even to me, I didn't feel the urge to post.  Not.  One.  Post.

I guess I was having fun just...being pregnant.

No other excuse.  But now the air is crisp and the leaves are turning and I feel, as I do ever September, the urge to hand in assignments in a timely matter.  School's back in session.

Baby Gaz is growing strong and wiggling near constantly.  Andrew and I read somewhere that babies at this stage sleep 95% of the time.  WHERE ARE THESE BABIES WHO SLEEP 95% OF THE TIME?  Our baby missed the memo.

Here he is, our little butternut squash!

In other news, we attended and just finished 12 weeks of birth classes which were absolutely incredible. We can not recommend the Bradley Method (also known as the "Husband-Coached Childbirth" method) strongly enough to any pregnant couples who are looking to take classes.  At first, we thought 12 classes (two hours each) seemed excessive but now that we've completed them we realize it was just barely enough time to cover all the topics necessary for childbirth education: labour coaching, nutrition, and exercise to name a few.  We genuinely feel well prepared for Baby Gaz's birthday in November!

September also marks a slew of baby showers which arrive just in time since we have been holding off on purchasing too many items ourselves to prevent the Multitudinous Equipment Stockpile Syndrome (MESS) in Baby Gaz's already cozy (read: small) nursery.  Over the next few weeks I'll be posting all about Nursery Makeover 2011: second trimester also came with record-breaking creativity and energy that had me refinishing roadside finds and making multiple trips to Value Village in search of SOMETHING I HAVE IN MY MIND, OK?  STOP ASKING SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Happy September and thanks for visiting after so many months of incommunicado!

mama monday: heartbeat, part 2

The milestones of Week 15:

and Week 16 (four whole months!)

have come and gone without much drama - in fact, almost all the drama of pregnancy so far compacted itself nicely into the first three months.  PRAISE BE.  My heart goes out to all the mamas who feel the effects of nausea throughout their entire pregnancies.  There are elevated positions of honour reserved for you in heaven.  Rob Bell told me.

Yesterday I attended the bridal shower of a long-time friend of Andrew's, in where else? Woodbridge.  Italian bridal showers are not to be messed with.  Much like any other Italian gathering, these showers are large, in charge, are attended by relatives known and partially unknown, must include alcohol, a meal of several courses, and the only acceptable (or audible) means of communication is a fraction below a yell.  This shower also had a loop of 80s music, games, and prizes.  One of which my mother-in-law won.  And bequeathed to me.

In fact, my mother-in-law is one of the most gracious, loving, kind, and giving person I know.  While on our way back to my house she casually gestured to a small bag of gear by my feet.

"Oh, by the way, Sarah, I borrowed a fetal doppler from work and we can listen to the baby's heartbeat."

Like it's the most normal thing in the world to have comandeered an $800 piece of obstetrical equipment from an OB-GYN office to use at one's leisure.  She's going to make a great grandmother.

When we arrived home, Andrew watched in anticipation while his mother, an OB-GYN assistant veteran of 25 years, searched my abdomen with what looked like a mini karaoke machine while I lay on the couch.

At first, all we heart was my slower, steady heartbeat.  Whum, whum, whum, whum.  After a few seconds, and a switch in microphone position, we tuned in to Baby Gaz's quickened whammy-whammy-whammy-whammy and all three of us smiled.  For Andrew, it was the first time he had heard Baby Gaz live.

I like that it was in our living room.

foto friday: in memory of 518 jane

Now, from the archives of my iPhone's camera app...

A few weeks ago, my good friend Nicole Evans was wed in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.  Nicole has starred in my blog before, as we once were roommates at the best apartment in all of apartmentdom, 518 Jane: Where Life Is The Party.

This is the diner where we all ate breakfast.  A full breakfast in Sunbury was $3.49.

This was the incredible wall hanging at said diner that was beyond words. 

Baby squirrels have emerged from our neighbour's eavestrough (we are OK with this, primarily, because they are cute and it's not our eavestrough).  This is the closest I could get to three of them - there are four, but one is a bit of a mama's boy and stays inside most of the time.

This is how much fur we can brush off of Solmon once he begins to shed his winter coat.  Better outside on the porch than inside on my floor.

Every year, our church runs a youth conference called Freshwind for thousands of youth.  I have attended the conference for many years and Andrew and I ran it for the past three year in a row.  Since we're no longer youth pastors we don't run it anymore which, this year, was both odd, and very freeing.  

Oberon, hunting wild birds on BBC Life.

My mom and I went to Elmwood Spa in celebration of mother's day.  This was the third picture we attempted to take, but were laughing too hard to take properly.  My mom peed a little.

Here lies The Couch from 518 Jane: Where Life Is The Party.  It was a good couch, and had a good life. It has gone to live in Couch Heaven.

wifercize wednesday: the new domesticity

One of the blogs I follow, Pacing the Panic Room, recently featured a few guest posts by the author's wife, Cole, here and here.  I've been in love with this blog ever since Ryan (a photographer) began posting shots of his wife's pregnancy and I've been hooked ever since.

Although I usually scan the blog for pictures I found myself reading each. and. every. word. of Cole's Q&A session because a) she's cool, b) I think we could be friends in another life, and c) she has a wicked sense of humour.

One of the questions a fan sent in was:

Dear Cole, Where do you turn to for inspiration? Favorite books/magazines/websites/movies/pop culture?

Cole answered that she recently read Radical Homemakers and Made From Scratch - which, incidentally, are two books on my Amazon.ca Wishlist in case you're interested and you should be because my birthday is coming up next week - and this only heightened my fictitious BFF status with her even more.

I've written about homemaking before and, since taking a work-from-home position with the church, I've found myself thinking about it more and more.  What does it mean to be a homemaker?  How much of a homemaker can I be if I buy everything ready-made?  How can I express my creativity in-home and make our house an expression of who we are and what is important to us?

One of the main draws of books like Made From Scratch is that people, like myself, are feeling a draw back to making things ourselves.  Not picking them up, prefabricated, from a Big Box Store and displaying them as if they were our own creations.  There's a "new domesticity" (a term coined and explained further here) that is more than just hipsterism.

We want to be a part of making things.  It's what humans were created to do: create!  And, yes, it cuts costs and impresses people and gets you hipster status as well.

I encourage you (wifes, husbands, singles, anybody!) to begin your adventure into the new domesticity.  It'll be messy, because the instructions won't come with the packaging, but you'll learn something about life, and yourself, along the way.  I promise.

A good place to start would be looking up DIY projects online the next time you run into a household problem, search creative blogs for ideas to yoink (I like yoinking from ApartmentTherapy, Design*Sponge, Piewacket, Remodelista, and DesireToInspire, to name a few), check out The New Domesticity's group Flickr account, read books like the ones mentioned above (also Domestic Bliss by Rita Konig is another one), go to yard sales ("One man's trash is another man's treasure"), keep your eyes open for curbside adoption options, have clothing swaps with your friends, live a sustainable lifestyle, recycle, sew, build, cook, and get your hands dirty.

Here's a video I stole from my brother's Facebook page to get you all inspired-like.  Don't forget to let me know what projects you get up to!

Makers: Mini Maker Faire Toronto from Ryan Varga on Vimeo.

foto friday: something out of nothing

Near the subway station where I live there once was a blank wall under a bridge.  I featured part of this blank wall before here.  Over the past few months, however, someone has been commissioned to make the blank wall less blanker and with something other than rust stains.  I took these photos during production:

wifercize wednesday: husbandry fail

I like gardening.  

It is not to be assumed that I am good at gardening.  Like I enjoy painting but generally with my hands and instead of for the purpose of art more for the purpose of getting messy.

For a few weeks little envelopes would show up at our house addressed to Andrew from various locations around the world.  The States.  Thailand.  At first I thought he was buying magic beans, like Jim tricked Dwight into trading on The Office, but they turned out to be organic seeds.

My husband is very good at gardening.

He had ordered lettuce, red lettuce, mint, rosemary, and basil seeds.  I promptly offered to plant and nurture them for him.  

This picture would be less impressive if you knew just how much went into establishing that these plants WILL NOT GROW.

First: the lettuce (of regular and red variety) planted and bloomed nicely at first.  Then I made the error of transplanting my two red lettuce experiments into larger containers, an operation that did not agree with half of the red lettuce family.  Although it could have been the vinegar.

Second: the vinegar.  I planted the mint and rosemary (top two middle containers) one sunny morning and read the package carefully: both required gentle misting as opposed to direct watering.  I grabbed a water bottle from our kitchen and misted generously.  Mist, mist, mist.  Mist, mist.  By the time I began misting the red lettuce for fun I could smell the distinct odour of vinegar.  Because I had grabbed our vinegar/water mix that we use to DISINFECT THE SINK.  

I Googled "vinegar + gardening" to realize that vinegar does, in fact, have several functions in the garden.  All of them lethal.  How to kill grubs.  How to kill weeds.  How to kill germs on gardening tools.  How to keep neighbourhood cats away.  

Third: planting seeds too deeply.  Although the package read "plant 1/4 inch below the surface" I tried ignoring the instructions for the lettuceseseses and realized what they meant by 1/4 inch was barely dusted in potting soil.  Hence, the lettuce's (partial) success and the basil's utter defeat (top right container).

Now when I look at my little plot of farming I see this:

and I hope that lessons learned in the garden are learned only once and this means I will one day go on to have a long and prosperous career as a horticulturist.

mama monday: ok already

Over the past weekend, three separate people kindly reminded me of the state of my blog.  Principally: not updated.  Shout out to Helen, Rebecca, and that wonderful girl that Andrew bumped into at a Starbucks near Orangeville.

Since last we met, Baby Gaz and I graduated Week 13:

And Week 14: 

Week 14 is here represented by a 3.5 inch jalapeño pepper which, trust you me, I am not in the habit of eating.  In fact, anything spicy has been so far off limits for me since I end up feel it dance around my esophagus a few minutes after eating.  Like a spicy Cuban rumba party in my throat.  And the kind of party that you wish you hadn't spent the $15 cover charge to get in for because the guy to girl ratio is 1:10, the drinks taste like Drano, and the walls are perspiring.

In other news, I believe I can say that I've received my first piece of fan mail.  Mid-last-week, a package came to the door which Andrew accepted and then asked aloud, to no one in particular, if anyone had been purchasing more shoes online.  I swore I hadn't.  Then checked recent memory to make sure it was true.  

Within the oversized bubble envelope was a beautifully crocheted (really? that can't possibly be the way to spell something so wonderfully handmade: CROCH-et-ed?) baby quilt in a perfectly chosen dark teal suitable for Baby Gaz no matter if Baby Gaz turns out to be a Miss or Mister.

The gift was sent, along with a beautiful card, from a friend I know from camp - eons ago - named Charis.  AND SINCE CHARIS READS MY BLOG I CAN CONSIDER THIS FAN MAIL.  Thanks so much, Charis!  You completely made my week!  The blanket is now proudly displayed in the not-even-remotely-ready room set aside for Baby Gaz.

Speaking of Baby Gaz's nursery, one of the sure signs that I had passed over into the promised land of Second Trimester was that three weeks ago I woke up and instead of feeling like human slime putty or gagging while I brushed my teeth, I took a look at our two upstairs spare bedrooms and decided: I need to move all this furniture.

All of it. 

None of it can stay as it is.

I'm moving it all.

Now.

And I did.  I slowly and awkwardly moved a secretary desk, a dresser, a filing cabinet, an ironing board, a rocking chair, a desk chair, an oversized upholstered armchair, two large bookshelves, two small book shelves, a few boxes, and a single bed to rearrange both rooms.  One room is now our guest room slash studio room where Andrew's keyboard can reside and I can write (HA! who are we kidding? I write on my lap on the couch in the living room, more often in my pajamas than not), the other is the Nursery In Progress (or NIP).

And by "in progress" I mean it currently houses a single futon, a wicker chest, a dresser we may end up using as a change table, a Swiffer, and Charis' beautifully CROCH-et-ed dark teal baby blanket.