Silly boy

Last night Conor went out to play poker, so I rented a chick flick!

I put Finn to bed and started my movie, and just after 10pm he was fussing upstairs, so I went and patted his bum for a little bit. When I thought he was settled I took my hand away and he said, in a cute quiet little voice, "more?"

How could I resist? So I got in bed with him and cuddled for a bit.

I love this kid!

17 Weeks

How far along: 17 weeks

Size of baby: (from whattoexpect.com) 5.5 potato - a sweet potato :) Yes she is very sweet.

Total weight gain/loss: Uh oh, the scale said I'm up another 3 pounds from LAST WEEK! Like I said, I don't really trust this scale, but I better cool off on the sweets!

Maternity Clothes: Still just the bellyband with my jeans.

Gender: IT'S A GIRL!!!

Movement: Definitely felt her kicking on Thursday... I guess she was just as happy as I was that Finnian napped that day!

Sleep: Nights are a-ok... the beginning of the week Finn was still not napping, but that's been better since Thursday!

What I miss: Nothing really... although I'm not 100% sure if I should eat fetta or not, so I haven't been, I miss having fetta in my greek salads

Cravings: Just food and sweets in general... Thursday morning was VERY bad, I won't even tell you how many cookies I ate.


Symptoms: Growing belly, kicking baby.

Best moment of the week: It had been a really hard week, until Thursday NOTHING was a good moment. But then Finnian napped, and I woke up before he did and felt baby girl kicking while I played some games on my iPod :) Since then he's napped every day, and I felt baby girl kicking on a more regular basis!

Babymoon

I want to go on a babymoon before baby #2.

We never did anything like that before Finnian, and I don't think it was really necessary then, but I think it's necessary now. Especially since we won't be able to do a night away just ourselves with a baby who will be breast-fed... and then we move to Australia where we won't really have that option.

So babymoon it is!

So my question is - where should we go, preferably someplace close?

At first I thought Harrison Hot Springs, but being pregnant I won't actually be able to go into any of the hot tubs!!

Countdown

The countdown is officially on for our return home to Canada because I booked our flights!!!

I know it's early, but I saw a good deal, and last year was such a pain having to wait to book until we knew when Conor was defending his thesis, this year I just wanted to get it done.

But it was sooo frustrating, let me tell you.

I'm one of those people that LOVES the conveneince of doing everything online. I love internet banking, I love recharging my cell phone online (especially in a country where I don't speak the language, any excuse to avoid looking like an idiot is A-OK by me!), booking flights online.

I have been having the WORST luck with this though. Online banking has been working perfectly, so that's good. But when it comes to actually purchasing with my visa online, nothing works.

Cell phone: Last year ALL year the only way I recharged our cell phones was online. When we first got back this year, I went to recharge them online, and a friend was there and he asked how I could do it without a european visa. I didn't know, it just always worked for me. Until right then. It didn't work, and it hasn't worked since. Blah.

Flights: Two nights ago I saw these good seats, so I tried to buy them that night, but everytime it would get to the part where I put in my password for "verified by visa" it just wouldn't load. So frustrating. I tried again the next morning and same thing. I finally just put the tickets on hold, and decided I would call air canada and just book them over the phone.

Skype: Then I had the smart idea to purchase some skype credit so that I could call air canada for less than 2 cents and minute as opposed to 12 cents and minute... but guess what? Yup, it would get to the "verified by visa" part and stall again.

Then I realized that I used to have to use my "verified by visa" password to recharge my phone, and that's the part that stalls when I try here.

So I tried going onto the CIBC Verified by Visa website, and when I went to sign on, guess what... the page wouldn't load.

I still have no idea why... whether it's the website, or maybe it's because I'm trying to do it from Europe??

I got so fed up, I finally emailed my brother to see if I could give him my skype and credit card details and he could try from Canada. Afterwards I went onto the Air Canada site to see if they tickets were still the same price, which they were, and tried one last time to pay by visa.

It started stalling so I went upstairs to do something, and came back downstairs and cleaned up a bit, came back to the computer and it had gone through!!

I never did enter my password... so weird!

But here we go... we fly back to Vancouver on May 27th!

Let the countdown begin!

16 Weeks - sugar and spice and everything nice

First off - Finnian napped yesterday! Not for a full 2 hours, but pretty close... hopefully this is not a one off thing.

Second - Conor found real bacon, our Sunday morning breakfast was complete!

Third - I'm trying to book our flights home but I'm getting really frustrated.

I found some really good tickets from air canada, saving us at least $500 Canadian - but when I tried to purchase them last night (after staying up WAY too late making sure I couldn't find anything better) when it got the the 'verified by visa' part it kept stalling and then just wouldn't load so I could put in my password.

Now this morning I'm trying again, and it's saying our aeroplan miles numbers are invalid (which I want to use so that I DON'T get points, but save 11 euro per passenger)

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How far along: 16 weeks

Size of baby: (from whattoexpect.com) 5 inches - a Turnip

Total weight gain/loss: Up 3 pounds from 14 weeks... so I guess still down 2 from the time I found out I was pregnant.

Maternity Clothes: Still just the bellyband with my jeans.

Gender: IT'S A GIRL!!! Now it is a bit early (so maybe don't go out and buy me little girl baby clothes just yet), but the doc seems pretty sure, we'll know for sure at my next appointment for the full ultrasound, but I'm saying I was right, and 2 for 2 predicting our children's genders :)

Movement: I don't know... it's too early to feel right? But I thought I felt something the other day... probably not.

Sleep: If you read my post yesterday, I've been missing my nap times something fierce! Thank goodness this all started now instead of the first trimester.

What I miss: Wanna guess?? NAPS!

Cravings: Nothing really... just junk food... but this week that's been more "emotional eating" than pregnancy cravings.

Symptoms: Still feeling good... belly is starting to pop out a bit, very exciting! But not at the point that it physically affects my day to day life yet.

Best moment of the week: Seeing my baby again, and finding out I was right, it's a girl!

Denial.. anger... acceptance?

I'm grieving right now.

Today is the only day that I didn't have the anger or depression stages... that's a good thing, right?

What am I grieving?

The loss of a toddler that naps.

Today is day 5 of "no nap". I'm proud of myself because I didn't cry (unlike the last 4 days where I've literally sobbed like a baby... my poor husband!)

I just don't know what happened. For the most part, Finnian has always napped better than he has slept at night. In general his sleeping overall has been so good since coming back to Italy and transitioning into a big boy bed.

I did know that he didn't necessarily need naps - anytime we would go into Rome during nap time he would be perfectly fine. He never fell asleep in his stroller, once fell asleep on the train ride home, and didn't have any lack-of-sleep related meltdowns (just the typical toddler ones haha).

But he always naps sooooo well. Since being back there has been only ONE day where we were home and he didn't "nap"... I put him to bed, and about a half hour later I heard him talking and giggling to himself, I just left him to it... he may have catnapped in there somewhere, but he just stayed up there in his bed for almost 2 hours, happy as a clam.

That was months ago.

Then on Valentine's Day I put him to bed and went to lay down in my bed, and I could quickly tell that he was not falling asleep... he would call for me and every time I went over there, and started giving him the silent treatment, he would give me his angry pouty face. I didn't take him out of bed and he just got more and more upset. I tried laying with him, leaving the room, Conor laid with him... nothing worked, he just got more and more angry.

Finally, Conor was going out shopping anyways, so he took Finn and let me stay home.

I was sure it was a one off thing. Until the next day, when as soon as I got him in his bed and put his blanket on (he likes to be tucked right in) he took his arms out with his grumpy pouty face... it wasn't happening. Somehow an hour and a half later Conor laid down with him and got him to nap. I guess he did nap, but I don't count it.

Day 3 - same thing, wouldn't even lay down enough for me to put his blanket on. Did I mention each of these days as soon as I realized he wasn't going to nap I just lost it and started bawling (and then Finnian would give me the sweetest hugs and kisses... darn that child!) Conor took him out again.. because I was a complete wreck.

Oh, and not only did I cry just at nap time... then all evening... blah these hormones!

Day 4 we thought maybe if we put him to bed at 2:30 instead of 1... no luck... actually Conor has him resting quietly and calmly in bed and he was probably going to sleep, when someone started DRILLING in our apartment!!! Finnian probably thought it sounded like farting or something and started laughing, and that was it, game over. So I just played with him upstairs for awhile and when I was really tired I took him downstairs, turned on "Thomas and Friends" and I went to bed!

Day 5 (today) I wasn't even going to try... but I knew if I was home during naptime I would probably cry again, and it was so beautiful out this morning, so Finn and I went to Civitavecchia and hung out for hours... we went to the park, went to the market, went to McDonalds, and then went to the boardwalk where I laid on a bench and he drove his cars on me for at least 30 minutes. We got home just after 2, and I barely even tried, but tried, to get him to nap and it didn't happen. So I turned on "Thomas and Friends" and I went to bed.

I'm not completely giving up, maybe one day, but no naps really doesn't seem to affect him. So we just put him to bed earlier at night, and he's good with that so far.

I would like to institute "quiet time" but since we share a room, and said bedroom has no door, I just don't know how it will work.

I'll just have to change our routine... I've been hating giving him baths after dinner lately, so I think I'll start doing that after lunch instead, and then if I'm tired I'll just plop him down infront of the computer so I can sleep... I must sleep.

Hair today, gone tomorrow?

Conor and I have this ongoing debate about Finnian's hair.

Conor likes it when it's longer (not to the point that he can't see or anything), but he likes length to Finn's hair because it's so nice and smooth and BLONDE... Conor loves Finnian's blonde locks.

Finn's hair right now.

Luckily I had cut the bangs REALLY short last time, so they aren't in his eyes yet, but it's very long everywhere else

While I do like the blonde, it is too long right now. Too much mullet in the back, and too much coverage over the ears.

Now comes the debate - since I have always been his hairdresser, I'm of the opinion that cutting it as short as he will put up with is best.

Don't get me wrong, I do like it a little longer, but I also like seeing is short now and then. By cutting it really short I get the best of THREE worlds: 1. I get to see it short, 2. we can go a longer period of time between cuts, and 3. it will eventually get long again, so we can enjoy it long.

This was a haircut I gave Finnian last June.

It's so short, I loved it.

It's not that I always want it short or anything.

Conor is afraid if I cut it all off then all the blonde will be gone. But I think that if I cut it when the weather starts getting warmer, than it will just bleach from the sun as it gets longer.

After Finnian's haircut in October.

I did NOT like this haircut - Finnian freaked out most of the time.

The bangs were WAY short - and it kind of looked like a mushroom cut because I tried to keep some general length for Conor.

I don't like mushroom cuts!

Anyways, if Conor wants to cut it, then he can go ahead and do whatever he wants... because honestly, I HATE cutting Finn's hair. If Conor doesn't want to cut it, then I'm going to pull out the clippers (as opposed to scissors, this time) and BYE BYE HAIR.

What do you think??

Where's my little cupid?

Yesterday, when talking about Valentine's Day, Conor said "Let's pretend we aren't in love anymore - then we don't have to celebrate Valentine's Day"".

I proceeded to post that quote on my facebook, and got just the kind of reactions I was looking for! haha. I think people are so funny when it comes to Valentine's day... women get so mad at men who don't want to celebrate it, but if I were a man I would probably feel the same way. There's so much pressure, and it's (usually) all on them. That being said, I do like a little something special on Valentine's day, but I don't want Conor to go out and buy me a diamond bracelet, a dozen red roses, and take me somewhere fancy... it's so cliche, and just plain unoriginal. But on the other hand, I don't want him to feel like he then has to go out of his way to do some big ORIGINAL gesture just because it's Valentine's Day.

But there's nothing wrong with a small box of chocolates and a heart shaped pizza :)

Pizza before it was baked and topped

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So that actually wasn't why I entitled this post "where's my little cupid?". That is in reference to Finnian... who was anything but a bringer of love today!! He woke up bright and early at 6:45am (if I see even a minute before 7 I am very grumpy!)... he then proceeded to be a bit of a holy terror all morning, and I yearned for nap time.

Conor's Grannie and Papa had sent a parcel weeks ago, and it finally arrived today. I made the mistake of letting Finn open his (Thomas & Friends) book before nap time, and he was pretty upset that he couldn't sit and look at it for hours. But I brought him up to bed, and as soon as the lights were off he let me tuck him in and, I thought, all was good.

But then he started with the blanket - I'll tell you all about the saga with the blanket another day - but today turned out very badly and an hour after we went to bed, Conor came and took Finnian and went shopping with him... because he just was NOT going to nap today.

My loving husband took him out for almost 2 hours while I napped and rested! Finn then proceeded to be grumpy when he got back home until dinner time, but thankfully ate dinner nicely and went off to bed nicely as well.

First off - this kid is NOT my little baby... where did he GO?

He looks like such a big boy here!

Second - he is so cute when he puts his hands in his pockets!

Third - he had a bath BEFORE supper today because I knew I would be putting him to bed early, I'm not used to seeing his freshly clean hair because he usually goes to bed when it's still a bit wet.... look at that hair!!

Coming soon - hair today, gone tomorrow?

If I were in my first trimester still, I know that I would have had a big cry over all of his tantrums today... good thing for Conor I'm no longer that emotionally unstable!

Anyways, Finn's in bed and Conor and I are going to play a game and eat some chocolate!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

15 Weeks

How far along: 15 weeks

Size of baby: (from whattoexpect.com) 4 - 5 inches long, An avocado!

Total weight gain/loss: Didn't weigh myself this week

Maternity Clothes: Just the bellyband with my jeans... don't need it with my other pants yet.

Gender: Unknown

Movement: None felt - although I'm sure he/she is swimming up a storm

Sleep: Pretty good. I'm having no problems sleeping, but when I was sick earlier this week I was waking up from naps feeling much worse, maybe oversleeping? So I've been trying to set an alarm and only nap for 45 min - 1 hour.

What I miss: Baileys - Conor drank some last night and I was jealous!

Cravings: Still with the peanut butter toast... and yeah, McDonalds!

Symptoms: Not many actually, I think the fatigue has lessened a lot. I was tired earlier in the week, but that was the cold.

Best moment of the week: Three nights this week without having to get up to pee!!

Baby Doctors

When I was pregnant with Finn I was recommended a group of doctors that just do prenatal care up to 7 weeks postpardum, and I didn't have a family doctor at the time, so I went with that. The doctor that ended up delivering Finn was awesome.

But then when we were home this summer I got a family doctor for Finn and I - Conor's family doctor. But the thing is, I don't really like him very much! He has next to no bedside manner, and I heard from somewhere that he doesn't even deliver anyways. We had to go in a few times for Finn this summer and tw of those times we couldn't even see our doctor (in the end we've only seen him once) but we got a new doctor that's in the same office, and he was awesome! He was so good with Finn, and he was just really nice, and was genuinly interested in US.

So with this coming baby, I was trying to decide whether I would go back with the group that delivered Finn, or if I would try a different doctor. I googled the new doctor to see if there was an email address for the office he works, but I stumbled across a website where patients can rate their doctors... this new doctor had 5 out of 5 from everyone that rated him!

I got curious so I searched Conor's family doctor - not so good! A lot of people just said he wasn't very friendly, and didn't have a good bedside manner.

Then I searched the doctor that delivered Finn, as well as the other doctors from that office. Our deivery doctor had a really good rating, but one of the other doctors in the group had some REALLY bad reviews - like kind of terrifying to the point that I would NOT want that doctor to deliver my baby.

With that group of doctors, on the date of delivery you just get whatever doctor is on call, and Conor and I decided we just couldn't risk getting that one doctor. So then I decided I really wanted the new doctor... that way we get one doctor that does prenatal, delivery, plus just a good family doctor in general (even though we are leaving the country, it's still good to have).

Oh, and also, he was new to BC, and he mentioned the small Alberta town that he had lived, and I knew a girl that used to live there - I facebooked her to see if she by any chance had him as a doc, and she did! She said he was great, he didn't get to deliver her son because she delivered in another town, but she highly recommended him.

I asked Conor's mom to get the offices email address for me - I didn't know if they would have a problem with us switching doctors in the same office, and I wanted to make sure that this doctor did deliver in our town (I know he did deliveries in the town he used to live) and that he wouldn't be on holidays around the time I was due.

I just got a reply that he would be happy to take us on, and that he isn't on holidays at that time!

I'm very excited!

Some randoms

This cold - it's not going away! Yesterday morning I felt awesome. I went shopping right in the morning so I could make Conor's cake, got home, made the cake, swept, did laundry, dishes. I was on a roll. Then after nap time I felt terrible again. This morning I feel gross again - the cold is moving to my throat and chest into a cough.

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My cake turned out awesome! It wasn't quite as fluffy as it was meant to be, and it was supposed to be a orange poppy seed cake, but I couldn't find any poppy seeds, so it was just a yummy citrus cake! Our friends Kevin and Eleonora came over and helped us eat the cake.




They are also giving Conor a birthday present - some night they are going to watch Finn, lend us their car, and we get to go out for an evening!

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I found a doctor to deliver the baby!

More about that later

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I'm making chocolate milk right now. With some of it I plan on making a milkshake by freezing some of the chocolate milk, and then blending in some cherry gelati... I'm looking forward to it!

Happy Birthday beloved

Today my wonderful husband turns 30!!!



He's been such a champ lately putting up with all my crazy pregnancy hormones, a teething toddler, and taking Finn out when I had a cold this week.



So I'm making him a cake (hopefully it turns out better than last year, when I had to make two cakes because I forgot to put sugar in the first), cooking him dinner, and treating him like a king :)



Happy Birthday Conor, I love you, and I don't think you're old!

14 Weeks

How far along: 14 weeks

Size of baby: (from whattoexpect.com) Nearly 4 and a half inches - a large navel orange!

Total weight gain/loss: So, going by the scale that we've always used here (which I don't 100% trust) I've LOST 5 lbs. since finding out I'm pregnant. But I should start packing it on now. What do they say? A pound a week in the second trimester.

Maternity Clothes: I have worn the belly band a few times this week for my jeans. I don't really NEED it - as in, I have no problem buttoning up my pants - but when I sit down it cuts right into what I'm assuming is my uterus, and it don't feel good.

Gender: Unknown

Movement: Nope, don't think I'm feeling any yet.

Sleep: No sleep problems, other than Finn having a couple of rough nights - I'm starting to wish I didn't need to nap all the time so I could have that time to myself, but oh well.

What I miss: Nothing right now, except maybe not having to nap everyday.

Cravings: Peanut Butter toast - everyday, at least once, I have to have peanut butter toast. Yum!

Symptoms: Tired - I guess that's about it really right now.

Best moment of the week: Nothing exciting pregnancy or none pregnancy related.

*The second picture is so you can see the belly band and what it does. It's folded down, but once I get bigger I can unfold it to cover the whole belly.

Slogging through

Remember my plan to become smart? (or smarter, rather)

Well it's pretty much gone down Mr. Tube lately.

I have two excuses:

1. Conor's computer broke down, thus he was using mine, thus I didn't have anything to read said books on (I do have my ipod, the screen is small but okay for novels, not so good for large books like the 'History for Dummies'). His computer got fixed, but he's using mine still just in case, and it seemed like everytime I tried to put Amazon kindle on his computer the computer would spazz out a bit.
2. I got pregnant. I had been doing most of my reading during Finn's nap time, but that was no longer an option since I needed naps too. There were other times in the day I could have worked on it, but I was so tired all the time that if I was going to do anything, I wanted it to be mindless (like watching 'Greys Anatomy' or reading spy/assassin novels!)

Well I'm still napping, but I've been able to get Kindle back on Conor's computer and it seems to not be freaking out. Finn generally plays pretty well in the morning, so I'm back on the reading rainbow (did any of you watch that as a kid??)

But I'm slogging through right now. I'm in an area of history talking about Empires and Dynasties, with lots of dates and names kicking around that I'm having problems keeping track of.

I am looking forward to getting into the religous history section and the battles section (although I'll probably have to slog through some of this as well).

Here's to learning... good luck to me.

Cold cold go away

And I don't just mean the weather - not that I can complain about that much, we've been having LOTS of sun. But I'm ready for summer. I'm ready for t-shirts and flip flops and lunch out on the terrazza.

But now, the cold I want to go away is my headcold. I hope I don't get sick again during this pregnancy, this is already my second cold. Yesterday was the worst, my head hurt sooo bad... I finally resorted to taking a tylenol before dinner and I felt soooo much better afterwards... and I'm feeling a lot better today.

So here's to getting better every minute.

On another note - Finn is the cutest. He started saying "papa"... we're trying to associate it with a picture of Conor's papa, but he just wants to say it on his own.

He says "bye" properly now, instead of "bah"

He discovered his jeans pockets yesterday and proceeded to walk around with his hands in them often during the day. The pants were a bit big though, so the more he would dig his hands in, the more they would fall down and he would look like a gangster!

He's just all around cute - except at night when he wakes up and fusses a lot.

Excuse the inevitably poor spelling in this post - I'm not on my mac (which automatically tells me if I've spelt something wrong) and Conor's computer is telling me EVERYTHING is spelled wrong because I think it's set on Italian!

600th post & Maternity Clothes

That's right - this is my 600th blog post! So crazy.



You wanna know what else is crazy? How much I want a baby bump!

I have a feeling I will be a more pronounced baby bump this time around, and hopefully it will start sooner... but obviously I hope not to gain a lot of weight. I need to start walking a lot more.


Before winter Finn and I would generally do play dates or grocery shopping in the morning, followed by lunch and naptime, followed by a walk to the park (which took an hour just to get there and back). Compared to the amount of walking I did before Finn was born, one hour a day is huge! But then it started getting cold, and Finn started napping for longer, which meant that by the time he woke up and had a snack, the sun was already starting to set, and it was just too cold.


So now he's waking up closer to 3, and the sun is out longer, and therefore we need to start hitting the park again. That's my February goal, to go to the park (either in the morning or afternoon) at least 3 times on weekdays... oh, and to eat less breadsticks!


Anyways, back to baby bump. I really don't have very many maternity clothes back home, and what I DO have will NOT suffice for a summer pregnancy. I have one pair of black pants, one pair of jeans, one pair of dressy capris (which are more for early pregnancy), and one skirt. Then I think I have 5 or 6 t-shirts (dressy and casual) and a couple tank tops (one dressy).


Now by the time I get home I will already be 30 weeks, and I don't plan on buying anymore clothes while I'm here unless I really need to. Which means I don't think I can really justify buying a lot of clothes when I get home if I only have 10 weeks (or less like in the case of Finn) left in the pregnancy.


Here are a few things I will need/want:

1. A nice dress: My brother-in-law is tying the knot shortly after we get home, so I want a nice dress to show off the bump. I want a black one because the only dresses that I've ever owned a liked have been black dresses... but it is summer, I will be preggo, and I will be a furnace, so for the sake of not roasting, I might have to go with a different color.


2. Another skirt and/or capris/shorts: The one maternity skirt I have is thicker and brown, I might want something more summer appropriate.


3. A summery casual dress: This is technically a want, but I have a feeling it might be a need. Lightweight dresses keep you so much cooler than even a tank top and skirt


4. MORE tanktops: This is a definite need. Tank tops are a must, especially thin material ones instead of the ribbed ones I have.