As if! And 40 weeks and counting...

So today (Jan 19th, in case I don't finish this post very quickly) was my due date and still nothing much is going on.  To be expected I guess, since I was 5 days late with Avery, and I have definitely had enough things on the to do list to stay busy.  I do hope to have the baby before the weekend, because I expect there will be serious grumpiness if it goes any longer than that...oh well, that will be Greg's problem! :)

Anyway, the "as if" from the title is actually a little adventure that occurred today.  I have a Nissan Rogue - generally speaking a car that I have enjoyed driving and it has treated me well.  However, for the last 6 months I have had issues with my tires.  In the summer, all of a sudden one of the tires seemed to leaking - as evidenced by the fancy dashboard signal that came on to indicate a loss of tire pressure (ain't technology grand!).  First problem was that the caps to the air valves were fancy metal (instead of cheap plastic) and had rusted onto the valve stems.  When Greg was trying to get them off to put air in the tires, a couple of the caps and tops of the valve stems snapped off.  Luckily Nissan replaced all of the valve stems under warranty, because they were not cheap, what with the sensor being in the valve stems and all.  Like the $100 each kind of not cheap.

So with that done, I hoped the problem was over.  However, a couple of weeks later the air pressure signal came on again, and then again and again despite always adding air.  When the pressure was checked, it was always the same tire with what seemed like a slow leak. I took the car to my trusty mechanic, and he sealed up the tires, because apparently the seals on aluminum rims are awful for leaking.  This whole business went on until mid-December, when Frank the Mechanic finally seemed to fix the problem.  Greg even asked me a couple of days ago if I had had anymore problems with the tire, and I said no - because everything seemed to be fine.

So you can imagine where I am going with this story.  This morning I was driving Avery to daycare and first thing, the tire pressure signal went on.  Then I started to hear a funny noise, like the tire was being rubbed by ice in the wheel well.  Anyway, got to daycare and checked the tire, and of course it was completely flat - out of nowhere!  Drove the car home (slowly, and the daycare is really close), and then Greg drove me to my midwife appointment, which I was now late for. Came home, called CAA, they put the spare on for me, we saw that there was a really large construction-type staple in the tire, and I drove off to see Frank.  Long story short (too late!), the tire couldn't be saved. 

My choices ended up being getting one new tire, which is not really recommended due to the AWD, and it wouldn't be available for a week, OR, getting 4 new tires, even though 3 of the 4 I had were perfectly fine with about 60% of the treads left, and getting them today.  And of course, at 4 times the price of the single tire.  Sigh...giving that I hope to be having a baby imminently and that I can't drive Greg's car because it is a standard, we chose to just get the 4 new tires.  Sigh again.  Wasn't really expecting to drop a ton of bucks today.  On something as little fun as tires.  But I was warned, by Frank ironically, that tires for the Rogue would prove to be stupid-expensive.  And he was right!  He was also really glad that I didn't go into labour in his waiting room.

Anyway, that was the drama for today.  Now that it is all over with, I can go back to focusing on the new kid.  Crosss your fingers that she makes an appearance before the weekend!

On breastfeeding...

I just finished reading an interesting book:  Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains and Politics of Breastfeeding edited by Maureen Connolly and Dana Sullivan.  Well, I suppose "interesting" is all a matter of perspective, but given that with any luck this is about to become my world all over again, I am definitely interested.  The stories in the book were entertaining and heartbreaking, and most of them resonated with me in some way.  One of the reviews in the link mentions that the women all come from very similar backgrounds, therefore making many of the stories and perspectives very similar.  It would have been nice to see a broader cross-section of society, but I suppose being a good/successful writer was one of the criteria for picking the contributors.  Anyhoo...it got me thinking again about my own feelings about breastfeeding.

Even after nursing Avery for about 8 months, and having it all go fairly successfully (except for the first two weeks when I didn't think I could do it one more time, every time), I am still pretty ambivalent about the whole scenario.  I fully understand all of the positive reasons for doing it, and agree with them, and that is why I definitely plan to breastfeed #2 as well.  But I never got to a point where I "enjoyed" it, the way some mothers seem to.  I definitely appreciated the convenience at times, but I also really resented being on the hook all the time, especially in the beginning.  Of course knowing what to expect should help me manage the frustrations (and discomfort) this time around, and hopefully it will be a more enjoyable experience. But I have to say, I get why some families just choose to bottle-feed, even in the absense of any nursing difficulties.  And my honest opinion is that all other things being equal, i.e. the baby has access to loving parent(s), good parenting, decent healthcare, etc., that there won't be much of a difference between a breastfed or formula-fed baby growing up.  Science may not completely agree with me, but that is my instinct.  I also hate that women feel guilty, or are made to feel guilty, about formula-feeding their children.  I think a happier, less-stressed, more relaxed mom/parent goes a long way towards the well-being of a baby than almost anything else.

I have also noticed that Avery has only recently started to turn to Greg for comforting (probably when she got to be about 18-20 months), and I believe that is because she was always just more used to me comforting her one way or another when she was younger, and in large part through nursing.  They just didn't develop the same kind of bond in the early days, because he wasn't a big part of her feeding and I simply spent more time with her, nursing her, holding her, rocking her, etc.  I am glad that she and I have that bond of course, but I wish it hadn't taken her so long to bond with Greg as well; at least things are better now.

The concept of nursing in public is still one that I personally have trouble with.  I really didn't do it very much last time around - with the exception of when I was in Switzerland with Avery and my mom last fall (Avery was 6 months).  There I nursed all around the country! (It is pretty small, but still...)  I'm not sure if it was the anonymity, or the fact that I had to do it if I wanted us to be able to get out and do stuff, but I don't think it was because their society is way more tolerant of public nursing, being European and all.  I still felt as though I was getting a lot of stares at times. I hope to be less self-conscious about the whole thing this time, and again, that probably comes with knowing what to expect and being more relaxed about it in general.  But even today, I saw a woman nursing her maybe 8-month old baby at Starbucks, and I did a mental double-take.  I was wondering if I will be nursing a baby at Starbucks one of these days...given how much time I spend there, I am pretty sure I never did last time around!

Anyway, for anyone who is aghast at me saying all of these heretical things, I absolutely will make every effort to nurse kid #2 as well. But I bet I will always feel a little conflicted about the whole thing...

Yet another shameless rip-off of a great idea...

Once again, I am stealing one of Julie Mason's great ideas - this time it is the recipe blogging.  I also enjoy cooking and when I come across a recipe that works, I do like to pass it along.  This time it is a Thai green mango salad.  This is one of my favourite Thai dishes, and I don't often find salads I like as much as the one I had at my very first and still favourite Thai restaurant: the Thai Shan Inn in Toronto.  This restaurant really is a dive to look at, but the food is amazing.  Supposedly they are moving to new digs soon, but we have been hearing that for years.  At any rate, I did find a great recipe from Canadian Living back in December and I have already made the salad 3 times since then. 

In other good meals, tonight I made a really simple lamb dish that tastes great.  Lately we have been buying boneless leg of lamb from Costco, then chopping it into stew meat size pieces at home.  So the leg I just bought was just under $27 (can't remember the weight unfortunately), but when I cut it up I got 4 portions of meat that will each feed 3 adults generously.  So 12 portions for $27 - about $2.25/portion.  That isn't that expensive, John Kean! :)

The dish I made is this (adapted slightly from my Low Carb Gourmet cookbook by Karen Barnaby):

Approx 2 lbs of lamb (I don't think I had this much), cut into bite-size pieces
~1 tbsp of chopped garlic
~2-3 tbsp of ground coriander seed
~2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
(measurements are approximate because I don't really measure much - but you can't really go wrong with these ingredients.)

Throw it all in a bowl, mix it up, let it marinate for 2 hours to overnight.
Throw it all in a dry frying pan on medium-high heat, with one medium-sized onion cut in wedges, fry for appoximately 5-10 mins, depending on how rare or not you like your meat, stirring every few mins.

We usually eat it with rice, sliced cucumbers, pita and tzatziki of some sort - tonight it was actually a PC tzatziki dressing.

If you give either of these recipes a try, enjoy!

2009 in a nutshell

Broke the last record - close to 4.5 months this time with no post. But that is all about to change, since I am now on maternity leave. No baby yet, which means time to spare right? There definitely will be extra time for posting, if I can get through my to-do list first. Hang on, kid - just need about a week for the list! :) But I digress...this post will also get photos added as they become available, i.e. just as soon as I get off my lazy butt and upload them!

So 2009 - an interesting year, in the way they are all interesting. Some of the more memorable moments from the first part of the year were blogged about earlier - my return to work after mat leave with Avery, her start at daycare #1 and subsequent move to daycare #2, our trip to Mexico in March (pre-H1N1 outbreak)...since then, what has happened?

Uncle Dan and Auntie A came to visit in May - not sure if I mentioned that before.  It was very nice for Avery to be able to visit with them because she really doesn't get to see them very often.  Despite an impromptu and for no apparent reason fever that happened while they were visiting, Avery managed to take them on a trip to the Market for lunch, along with Grossmueti.  We are all looking forward to Feb, whenthey will be visiting again!

As will likely be a recurring feature of my government career, I went on a French training stint in July and August.  My levels expired while I was on mat leave the last time, so when I went back to work I knew training was on the horizon.  I have to say, overall it was a fairly pleasant experience.  Work was pretty slow over the summer, so it was good timing in that sense. And I was in a group of 4 people, all of whom were very nice and agreeable.  Not that the gang I was with the first time around weren't all great people, it is just that it was such a big group and we were together for a year.  That was never going to go smoothly everyday!  Anyway, I was pretty successful - received an exemption in the reading comprehension test, and a C on my oral exam. So I never have to do either of the written tests again, but will have to do the oral exam again in about 5 years.  Plenty of time to speak French, right?  HA!

In other exciting news, we attended the wedding of our good friends Natalie and Ryan in late September.  It was a lovely ceremony and reception, certainly worth the drive especially because it was kid-free.  Many thanks to Sandy and Tim for babysitting that weekend, and congratulations again to Nat & Ry! I have to admit I was beyond jealous when Nat was telling me all about their Italian honeymoon.  Sigh...the picture attached isn't the best, but I didn't really any good ones unfortunately.  Certainly doesn't do justice to how amazing Natty looked!


Undoubtedly our biggest news for 2009 was that we were pregnant again and will be having another baby girl imminently - due on January 19th.  The pregnancy has gone fairly well, I felt a lot more icky during the first trimester than I did with Avery, but still no actually throwing up or anything like that.  We did run into some concerns at around 20 weeks though - I had the normal 20 week ultrasound and it showed a choroid plexus (brain) cyst and intracardiac echogenic foci, basically bright spots in the heart.  Both of these are "soft markers" for Down's Syndrome, and a couple of other chromosomal disorders.  If the baby had only had one or the other, there wouldn't have been much concern.  However, with two of them, and due to the fact that I was already at about 22 weeks by the time this was all discussed, we were booked for a level 2 ultrasound and genetic counselling at CHEO.  Needless to say, our concerns were alleviated through the next ultrasound and through talking with the counsellors at CHEO - the brain cyst had disappeared, and the statistics were quite indicative of no expected issues (I had also had the integrated prenatal screening procedures and that put the odds of the baby having Down's at about 1 in 6000).  No further testing was recommended, and we had already decided we weren't going to get an aminocentesis done anyway, regardless of what the ultrasound showed (unless something far more serious than Down's was indicated).  All that to say, we essentially stopped worrying at that point. Of course, there is still a chance that the baby could have some issues, but really no more than for anyone.  So we wait and see, and hope for the best.  Shouldn't be too long now... :)

And that about wraps up 2009 - especially since we are already 1.5 weeks into 2010.  This is going to be an interesting year - new baby, being the parents of 2 kids (eek!), the Olympics, the G8/G20, another (and final) maternity leave, and who knows what else might happen.  Happy New Year to everyone out there, and best wishes for 2010!