In Memory of...

Katarina Stobbe
December 17, 1914 - July 23, 2011

Our precious mother passed away peacefully into the arms of Jesus on Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 at the Menno Hospital, Abbotsford, BC at the age of 96. Katie was born in Gnadenheim, Siberia on December 17, 1914. She married Bill Stobbe on July 7, 1940 in Abbotsford. They lived in the Lower Mainland area until 1947. Then they heard God's call to move to Alberta where they resided until 1972. Their next area of ministry was Vancouver Island until 1988 when they moved back to Abbotsford. Their married life was a "Venture of Faith" as they served the Lord side by side, always ministering to people especially towards anyone in need. Katie's beloved Bill passed away on February 13th, 2006, the same day she moved into assisted living at Menno Terrace. She moved to the Menno Hospital in the fall of 2010 where she remained until her passing. She never complained and always had an encouraging word. We thank the Lord that she was not in pain and her mind remained clear. Katie was predeceased by her husband, Bill Stobbe, daughter-in-law Margaret Stobbe and is survived and lovingly remembered by her 8 children; son, Victor, wife Carolyn, son Stanley, wife Olive, daughter Esther Swanson, husband Derek, son Daniel, wife Cathy, son Harry, wife Mary, daughter Miriam Peters, son Jim and daughter Margaret Rukin, husband Stan; 19 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren; 3 sisters and 3 brothers; along with numerous nephews, nieces, other relatives and friends. The family wishes to thank the caring staff at Menno Terrace and Menno Hospital along with the many family and friends that visited and prayed for mom over the past few years.

Yesterday we celebrated the amazing life of my grandmother. It was so sad knowing that she will never be able to tell us her stories (she had the most amazing memory, remembering every detail including what they had for dinner the day I was born!), give us hugs and kisses, pray for us, impart her wisdom on us... but we got to celebrate all the amazing things that she did in her life, and her life with Grandpa.

We also had a great time as a family, over 50 of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, catching up, reminiscing, and just enjoying this time that we all had together.

She most definitely is in a better place, and watching over us, and praying for us. We will miss her dearly.

700 & sleep!

This is my 700th post!!

This time around we have a bit of a new philosophy when it comes to newborns/babies and sleep. Conor has always said "I don't do battles at night". When Finn was newborn we would not give in by letting him come into our bed, which resulted in some sleepless nights. When he got his first cold we finally gave in. After that we still tried our hardest to keep him in his crib, but many nights he would end up in our bed part way through.

I eventually realized that I didn't really care that he was in our bed. I cared more about what other people thought than what I actually thought. And I have no problem with people who co-sleep (or I guess more properly called "bed-share"). There was a time with Finn that I actually did dislike it a lot - he was so fussy some nights that if I moved at all, he would wake up and scream. But then I realized that either way he was going to be fussy (because he was teething and/or gassy)... if he was in his own bed it was just going to result in one of us being up with him rocking in a chair or something... which would have netted us the same amount of sleep in the end. So it wasn't the bed-sharing that was the actual problem, if was the gas/teething. When he was 1.5 I tried "cry-it-out" which results in him refusing to go anywhere NEAR his crib from than on, and sleeping completely in our bed. Which was alright at that age, I could put him in our bed and leave the room and he would fall asleep on his own, which he never did when he was in a crib.

Our bedroom, at night the bassinet is between the bed and the crib (it's just upstairs right now)

During the day Elle sleeps sooo well in her bassinet. I can put her in there partially asleep and she might fuss a little, but she usually calms herself down and falls asleep. Nights though have been a different story. I think it's because she's still getting her days and nights straight, and I think she was sleeping better with the noise and hub-bub around the house. Where as at night it was quiet and dark downstairs.

So with Elle we "gave in" right away. If I put her in her bassinet and she started crying and I couldn't get her calmed down by rocking the bassinet, patting her back, or giving her the soother, than we would bring her into bed. Which resulted in nearly every night so far her being in our bed all night. And I'm not complaining, that's just how it ended up. One or two nights she would start off in her bassinet until the first night feeding and then stay in bed with us.

My only issue with bed-sharing is that I don't want a child that's dependant on me to start out the night. When the time comes for Elle to start going to bed at 730 and we want to stay up until 10 or whatever, I don't want to have to go to bed at the same time as her for her to sleep.

The baby corner upstairs

Side table for my books and water, chair to sit and nurse in, and the bassinet where she spends most of her time.

So my intention is to keep trying to get her to start her sleep in the bassinet. I did this last night and it worked! She fussed a bit at first, so I gave her her soother and rocked the bassinet and she fell asleep.

Then at the first feeding I fed her, and then held her until her eyes were closed again, put her in her bassinet and waited a bit, and she fell asleep. Same after the next feeding and the next feeding.

She slept the whole night in her bassinet!! It was great. Knock on wood, but I think she's going to be a better sleeper than Finn. We will see.

Just the girls

Today just Elle and I went out. We had her one week appointment (even though it was a bit later than a week, doctor had an emergency c-section last week so we had to reschedule). We went to superstore and I bought a new diaper bag there. I wanted something bigger, but I didn't want to spend $60+ for it. They had some for under $30 that looked nice and hopefully will last awhile.

Pretty in Pink

Then we went to the doctors appointment. Elle is now 6 pounds 6 ounces - back up and above her birth weight! I don't think she's gaining as fast as Finn did, but I don't mind... I like how tiny she is!

After bathtime

She was pretty hungry during the appointment, so afterwards I fed her a little bit in the doctors waiting room... as I was putting her back in her carseat something felt weird on my shirt and I realized I had leaked milk all over the side that I hadn't fed her on. How embarrassing!! And I hadn't brought my jacket in, so I had to just drape her receiving blanket over my shoulder and hope it didn't look too weird!

Elle was sitting in this nursing pillow for about 20 minutes while Finn and I played putting pennies in one of his dump trucks - she's an awesome baby!

Rejoicing in sadness

Last night Conor, Finn, Elle and I went over to moms for dinner. My cousin Karen and family were coming down from Prince George to stay the night, on their way to the Island, and my Aunt Mary and Uncle Harry were coming to see the baby, and my brother who lives upstairs with his family were going to be there as well.

We had a really great time chatting and catching up with family. When my mom came back upstairs from making coffee she was really upset, and she broke the news to us that her mother, Katie Stobbe, had passed away in her sleep.

While it was expected to happen soon, probably by the end of summer, it was still shocking to hear it actually happened. And while we are all sad that she is gone and that we won't get to talk to her or hug her again, we are rejoicing that she is no longer suffering and that she is with Grandpa.

She was one of the most amazing woman I will probably ever meet. She was always so joyful and caring, and she had a faith in the Lord that you would not believe. I think that if ever there were a person whose faith could "move mountains" it was my Grandma.

Her funeral will be sad, but it will also be happy, celebrating her life and joining with family.

Out and about

Elle is one week old today!!

Today was the first time I've been out since getting back from the hospital and it felt great!! I'm just feeling better and better everyday, soo much better than I did after I had Finn.

We had a follow up appointment at the hospital for Elle and I needed some stuff from the store. So we went to superstore, the bank (to show off Elle so my old co-workers!) and then the hospital. The doctor listened to her heart and said that she still heard the murmur a little bit, but definitely not as loudly as it had been before. So that's a good thing! We have an appointment to go back on the 17th of August, and if she still hears it than she will refer us to cardiology for an echo (ultrasound of the heart) to really see what it looks like. Please pray that it just continually gets better on it's own and that we won't even need the echo.

Elle is doing really good. She is a bit yellow so they did a heal prick to check her bilirubin levels to see if there's anything we need to do about it. She's also eating sooo good today. I mean she's been pretty great this whole week, but sometimes she wouldn't feed very long so I wasn't sure if she was getting enough, but today is seems like she's doing longer feeds like I remember Finn doing.

Well the family all get back later tonight! Conor is going to go to soccer to get some 'man time', so my mom is going to come so that she can watch Elle while I get Finn to sleep.

OH, and today I got Finn and Elle down for naps at the same time and I got an hour nap without needing Conor (who was out mowing the lawn). Unfortunately it would have been longer, but Finn woke up really grumpy, not sure what that was all about. Early bedtime tonight, I think!

Big Brother Finnian

Well I'm all on my own with Finn and Elle this morning. Conor had to make up the couple days of french that he missed, so he went in yesterday and went in today. Yesterday his sister Megan came out and helped... playing with Finn and watching Elle while I had a nap. But today there wasn't anyone available in the morning, but Conor's cousin Janel is going to come after lunch so I can have a nap!

I've got to say, and I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but I'm seriously feeling soooo good! I had a little issue with one of my stitches on the first night we got home, but I've been trying really hard to not make it worse, and it's slowly starting to feel better. I've had a few emotional moments, but that's more than to be expected with all the hormonal changes associated with delivery and milk coming in.

I also want to say a quick BIG thank you to my mom, my sister-in-law, and Conor's sister Megan and husband Chris. My mom had Finn over at her place for two nights, as well as having other company on the first night. She's gotten me things from the store when I needed them. She's come over every day and had time with Finn and Elle. There's NO WAY we could have handled this ALMOST week without her. The days that she had Finn but had to go to work, my sister-in-law took Finn which was a huge help! With Conor's family gone we pretty much had no one else to turn to, and we hadn't planned on the baby coming this week that they were away, so it was nice to know he had some place to go and kids and toys to play with. Lastly, thanks to Conor's sister... she made us two great dishes of food so that we haven't had to cook! We had a BBQ on Saturday and her and Chris brought and grilled up the steak. Also her coming yesterday was a huge help! I think mainly just for my own peace of mind - I was nervous about being home with the kids without Conor... I think I would have had a few breakdowns if I had been on my own! But I can handle today knowing that we survived yesterday :)

Actually I should say the HUGEST thank you to Conor. He has had sooo much to do to help me out and around the house. With the family all gone he's had to do all the chores (letting the chickens in and out, feed cats, feed the bunny) as well as do some work out in the garden (he spent HOURS on Sunday picking peas, shucking them, blanching them and then freezing them). Not to mention doing any cleaning, dishes, helping me with Elle. He's an awesome husband and dad. Okay, enough mush!

Now onto Finnian, the new big brother!

Finn at the hospital

My mom brought Finnian to the hospital the day after Elle was born. He came in with a big pink teddy in his hand, which mom let him pick out from the gift shop. He was so excited, he held it up and said "baby Elle teddy". I asked him if he wanted to come say hi to baby Elle, so he climbed up on the bed and came right up to my tummy to say hi... so I told him baby Elle was all done being in mommys tummy, and I pointed to her in the bassinet beside my bed. He looked and pointed at my tummy and said "all done" and then pointed at Elle and said "baby Elle".

He seemed to totally understand right away!

Looking at my belly "all done"

I'm glad Elle was sleeping when he first saw her, I thought he might get scared or upset if she was crying... but when she cries now, or makes any sound, he just starts laughing. He thinks it's really funny.

Since we've gotten home he's been a really good boy. The only issues are sleep time and dinner time, which is totally understandable. Those are the two times that he would ever give us issues anyways, and his week has just been soo different that he doesn't want to go to bed, and he doesn't want to sit at the table and eat his dinner. I can't blame the kid, with Grandma around playing with him!

For the most part he doesn't want to touch Elle, which is fine by me. He has given her a couple of kisses, and sort of held her once. Otherwise he says hi to her a lot. He will walk by her bassinet and look in to say hi, or baby Elle sleeping. In the mornings when we're all in bed he will bring books or teddys and show them to Elle.

The story - Part II

So Elle was born! I just can't believe how, as soon as the baby comes out, you just feel better. It's not pleasant while the doctor stitches you up and such, but no more contractions!

They gave her to me right away and she was looking good. They didn't need to put her under the lights or anything. The very first thing she did when she was on my chest was pee all over me. Welcome to the world! haha

After the doctor was done working on me they let me try nursing, and baby Elle latched on almost right away! The nurse was pretty impressed because she said sometimes babies born before they are term (37 weeks) have a little more difficulty latching on, but she was a champ!

They eventually took her and weighed her - 6 pounds 5 ounces, 19.5 inches long. The first night went well, I don't think I slept a lot but Elle slept really well.

First bath - she has so much hair!

Now normally at the Abbotsford hospital you are discharged 24 hours after delivery, unless of course there are complications. BUT the doctor wanted us to stay two nights because I had only just had my strep B test done on Monday, and they had only had verbal confirmation that my results were negative. I don't know EXACTLY what strep B is, but I know that if the mother tests positive, it doesn't really affect her at all, but it can transfer to the baby during delivery, so the mother would be on antibiotics once her water broke or at least before she delivered. Since the doctor had verbal confirmation that my test was negative, he didn't give me any antibiotics during delivery (actually I think he almost did, but I think I delivered to shortly after that to actually get around to it!) So anyways, the doctor just wanted Elle in for one more night to make sure she didn't develop a fever or anything, and to make sure they had the actual test results in my file before I left the hospital.

Grannie and Papa holding their 7th great-grandchild.

Finn is still the only boy!

I was a little disappointed, but it was probably a good thing. Finn stayed at my mom's one more night, which they both enjoyed, and we had one more day to just spend recovering and such before going home.

Me after a nice shower and back in regular clothes.

That night there was a little issue though. The nurse was listening to Elle's heartbeat and thought she heard a heart murmur. Two other nurses also heard it, so they called in the pediatrician who ordered an ECG, Chest x-ray and blood pressure readings on all of Elle's limbs. It was a little scary, but she said that small murmurs are very common in new borns, and will heal themselves up from a couple days to a couple weeks, but just to be sure she wanted to have those tests done.

The whole drive home Finn was just watching her.

Luckily we got them all done that night. For the ECG and blood pressure readings they were able to do that in our room, and for the chest x-ray we just had to take a little walk to the second floor. All results came back great, she looked perfect. The pediatrician came by the next morning and said it all looked good, but that she wanted me to come with Elle for a follow up next week, so hopefully it will all be gone by then. She assured me she wasn't worried, that if she was she wouldn't let us take Elle home, but just let us know what to look out for.

After the pediatrician checked Elle out on Friday morning we were FINALLY able to go home!!

Getting all settled in at home.

We left just after noon, went to my sister-in-laws to get Finn, got home, and we all took a nap!

The story - Part 1

Don't worry, I won't go into ALL of the gory details!

On Wednesday morning Conor headed into Vancouver, he has been taking an intensive french course for the week. Conor's family all got up early-ish to pack up to head to Ottawa for the week to see Conor's sister Sonya for the week. Finn and I got up, and I was going to get us ready to head to my moms for the day - so that we wouldn't be at home all alone incase anything should happen (even though I was SURE that after all of this the baby would be overdue! haha)

Waiting for the labor to progress - reading Harry Potter in the background.

I WAS hoping to see the movie in theaters before the baby was born, but she has ruined it all! (just joking! she's better than Harry Potter)

I had a shower, and went to the bathroom, and I was 95% sure my water broke. I tried to pretend it hadn't and went on doing what I was doing... and about 15 minutes later I was 100% sure! Conor's family were all sitting to eat breakfast and I said "well, I hate to do this today of all days, but I'm pretty sure my water broke!"

It was about 830am and they were going to be leaving the house around 10am. So I had to figure out what to do with Finn. I called my mom and she said she would come get Finn and I, take me to the hospital, and take Finn to her place.

All done!!! I was soooo glad it was over, I didn't think I could handle ANY MORE!

So I actually thought that my doctor was on holidays, but it turns out he was going away the next day (Thursday), so he was at the hospital when I got there. He checked me and at first it said that my water had not broken, but then it turns out the babies head was just blocking, when he checked me then the water definitely broke, and the doctor said I was already 4 cms. I also starting having a contraction right then!

Well I got a little emotional at that point - confirmation that it was actually all starting, and a contraction, and I started freaking out because I knew that it could be a really quick labor and I wanted to make sure Conor made it back! I yelled through the curtains for my mom to call Conor and tell him to head back.

They admitted me right away and Conor made it just over an hour later. Finn and mom had been there the whole time, but after Conor got there mom took Finn back to place.

Holding Elle afterwards, I got to hold her for a LONG time before they took her away from me.

So I was having contractions, and they were getting to be 2 minutes apart, but I wasn't feeling any pain, just pressure. Conor and I went for a few walks around the ward, but then everything slowed down. Because my water had broken they were on a timeline, so since everything had slowed down they decided to start me on Oxytocin, just really slowly, because we already knew that I responded well to it after Finn's birth.

I got to the hospital at 9am, had those contractions that weren't painful, started the Oxytocin, and I think I started having contractions that I started feeling just before 5. They weren't really painful, but the pressure was getting a lot stronger. The nurses wanted me to get up and walk around to get things moving even more, so they were starting to get my monitors and stuff ready for me to walk around with. I didn't really want to walk around, because I had this fear that I would be in the hall way and the contractions would get really strong.

Getting checked out - all good!

It was all just about ready for me to get up when it happened... it was the weirdest, worst feeling IN THE WORLD. It started feeling the same, strong pressure, and then it was the weirdest thing, it felt like three pops, or cracks and then PAIN PAIN PAIN!

This was probably about 530pm. I was having a HARD time breathing through them, but I was doing better than with Finn. I finally needed the gas mask because they were getting closer and I wasn't able to calm down enough between contractions. They checked me and I was about 7 cms.

Being weighed

I got to the point where I knew I had to push, they quickly got the doctor in, checked me again and I was 9 cms. I think the next contraction though she started coming out even though I wasn't pushing, so at 6:22 I started actually pushing, and at 6:24 Elle was born! That's right, 2 minutes of pushing! It was crazy, but I was SOOO glad that it was over.

What's in a name 2.0

Some of you may remember this post that I did explaining how Finnian's name came about, so I thought I would do one for Elle, as well as give you all the proper pronunciation :)

First I should say that we don't really pick the names based on what they mean. I didn't even know what Finnian meant (fair, as in fair hair/skin) until I told an Irish woman his name and she told me!

The first name, Elle (just like the letter 'L'), was a name we thought of in Australia. If Finnian had been a girl, his name would probably have been Elle. We still both really liked the name, so we went with it! Looking it up now though, it means 'she' in French.

The middle name, Chiara, is Italian for Clare. We had just found out I was pregnant, and we went to Assisi with Liz and I just really loved Santa Chiara's tomb, and I ask Conor what he thought of the name Chiara if it was a girl. We weren't sure then if we would use it as the first or middle name, but in the end I still really liked the name Elle for the first name. Italians pronounce 'ch' as a hard 'k' so we are pronouncing her middle name 'kee-ah-rah'... although I think it's properly 'kee-air-ah' - and it means 'clear'.

I had another baby!!

Photography by my sis-in-law!

That's right folks - 3.5 weeks early and baby Elle Chiara Sweeney made her appearance!

We just got home today, I'll tell you all about it later :)

36 Weeks

How far along: 36 Weeks - less than a month to go!

Size of baby: (from whattoexpect.com) Watermelon (19-22 inch, 6.5 lbs)

Total weight gain/loss: 174.8 (after a big Sunday dinner) up 3.2 pounds

Maternity Clothes: Same same

Gender: IT'S A GIRL!!!

Movement: Her movements are becoming, how do I put this, less pronounced? She still moves a lot, and when she moves it's still mostly on the right side... but there's getting to be less room, so I just feel her shifting here and there,a nd no so much a single foot in the rib, or an hand/elbow... it's more I feel her whole back or bum or leg.

Sleep: Much better this week, Napping has been great, and nights have gotten better since Finn has been getting less bites.

Cravings: Got a slushie after church this morning :)

Symptoms: I really hate answering this one - I never know what to say... expanding belly? is that a symptom. How about seeing my belly move with the baby? is that a symptom.

Best moment of the week: Everytime I'm changing and Finn is around and sees my belly he says "hi baby... *gibberish*" and comes over and gives it a kiss. It melts me!

Dinner and Dessert

Last night Conor and I finally got out for our anniversary dinner!

The first few weeks we were back from Italy were busy, and then we didn't want to go out on a weekend because I hate having to wait for tables and such... and then other things would come up, or I would feeling tired by the evening, so it just didn't happen.

But we emailed my mom the other day to see if she wanted to take Finn (ha - actually she was practically BEGGING us to bring Finn over sometime, so it was more us asking if she was available for last night) and she was.... we dropped Finn off and went to the Keg for a delicious steak dinner and then to Afterthoughts for Rolo Cheesecake! Oh my goodness, I ate way too much, but it was soooo good!!

All this week and next week Conor will be in Vancouver taking an intensive French course at UBC to start fulfilling his language requirements for his doctorate. He already did Latin and Italian before we went to Italy, so he's doing french, and then in the fall/spring he will do Spanish. Anyways, Finn and I really miss him during the day! So it was nice for me to be able to go out with him, and we had a lot to talk about since we hadn't really seen eachother in two days! haha

We aren't going to go on a babymoon anymore, but next week Conor's whole family are going to Ottawa for a week to visit his sister, so then after Finn goes to bed we'll have some more alone time I guess :)

I'm going to use the money we save on the babymoon to buy a new camera before baby girl is born!!! Conor doesn't think we need one, but I HATE ours with a passion. It's almost 6 years old, it doesn't take very nice photos, and the shutter doesn't open on it's own when you turn it on. So that kind of takes away from being able to quickly take a photo (like you need to do with newborns, when the moment strikes!)... also after you take a picture it processes for SOO long before you can take another one. So new camera it is!

35 Weeks - July 3

Whoops - sorry for not posting this on Sunday, lost track of time I guess!

I've been busy going through my stuff that I had stored at moms. Man, it's amazing the things you keep. When we moved to Australia I kept SOO much stuff. I don't know if it's because I actually wanted it, or if I just didn't have time to go through it all before we left. Then when we got back to Canada, Conor and I put all the boxes (at least 15 big tupperware storage containers) out on the lawn and went through it all, we purged it in half!

Then when we went to Italy we had more stuff to store - mainly Finnian's things that we were keeping for future children. And this was on top of all the stuff that we still had stored.

So this time around I think I was back up to at least 12 storage containers. We've been slowly going through the boxes... starting with Finnian's stuff. This was pretty much the ONLY reason I wanted to know the sex of this baby girl in my tummy. I figure if next year around this time we will be packing up to move to Australia as well as dealing with 2 kids and visa stuff and everything else, I don't want to have to be going through baby stuff then as well (well, obviously there will be some baby stuff to go through)... but at least this way right now I know this is a girl, which means that when I was going through Finnian's stuff I could separate what could be used for a girl, and then start the process of selling or giving away whatever was left (because I just don't think it's worth saving at this point, even if we have another boy... shipping to Aus is expensive!)

Then there's the boxes with all the wedding stuff. Even though we were moving to Australia right after the wedding, we still ended up getting a fair bit of house stuff as gifts (mainly from wedding showers... at the actual wedding most people were good about giving money or gift cards even though we hadn't specified). We took some of the stuff with us to Italy (measuring cups, spoons, towels, etc) but we left that there because we had doubles or triples of it back here.

Now I've got all the wedding/household stuff down to one box!! In the next while I'm going to investigate shipping costs to Australia and see if it's worth bringing with us, or if it will just be better to get rid of it here and buy it new in Australia.... or if it will be cheaper to just have extra suitcases when we fly... we will see... but at least it's just one box now instead of 3 or 4!

Last but not least I have all the OTHER stuff... the keepsakes, the picture albums, the school stuff. That is what took up the most room in the first place. When we moved to Aus I had packed away at least 2 boxes with teddy bears, boxes with old notes from friends in school, odds and ends little keepsakes and beanie babies, journals and diaries... last year I had gotten rid of a lot of that. But every time I go through it I'm more ruthless!! Some of it it's kind of sad not to have, but really, it's just going to stay in boxes forever so what's the point!

It feels really good to have this all sorted!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry no pic - Conor is away all day and then after dinner time I don't feel like making sure my hair and make up is done! haha

How far along: 35 Weeks - 35 days to go!!

Size of baby: (from whattoexpect.com) Large cantaloupe (19-22 inch, 6 lbs)

Total weight gain/loss: 171.6 - up 0.2 pounds from last week

Maternity Clothes: Same as before.

Gender: IT'S A GIRL!!!

Movement: Definately same as before - moving like crazy, primarily on my right side.

Sleep: I love sleep - I sleep great at night, no problems, but lately I just CANNOT fall asleep at nap time, no matter how tired I am. I'm getting frustrated by it, but I am making sure I'm resting then, and getting some Harry Potter reading in! ha

Cravings: Still really really want a frosty. I WILL get a frosty this week sometime... but I have to do it without Finn, or else I'll have to share! haha

Symptoms: Moving baby in belly.

Best moment of the week: Canada day was fun... Finn loved the fire trucks and old tractors! The marching bands and drums scared him a bit though, with every BANG he would take a step back.

28 weeks does NOT equal 7 months

Okay people, I have a little math lesson of sorts for you.

In the last few weeks there have been a couple of pregnant facebook friends of mine stating that they are 7 months pregnant. Both times I had to pause a bit and thought "I thought that they were still a few more weeks behind me than that".

After some investigation I realized that (at the time) they were both 28 weeks. Hmmm, 28 weeks isn't 7 months, is it??

WHY oh WHY do people have this notion in their heads that ONE MONTH = 4 WEEKS?

NO month of the year is exactly 4 weeks - except February in a leap year. February is usually one day short of 4 weeks, and EVERY OTHER month is LONGER than 4 weeks.

So when you are 28 weeks pregnant, I'm sorry, but you are NOT 7 months pregnant.

If you calculate that a month is 4 weeks... and a pregnancy is generally thought to be 40 weeks... than that would mean that a pregnancy is 10 months, not 9.

The most accurate form of telling someone how far long you are, if asked, is by weeks... but understandably some people are more familiar with a pregnancy being 9 months than being 40 weeks. In that case, you should count months by the date the baby is due.

Baby girl is due August 7th... so everytime it's the 7th of the month I figure out how many months are left. Come July 7th, I will then say that I'm 8 months pregnant, because I just have one to go.

So there you have it... 28 weeks does NOT equal 7 months.