Summer Vacation 2010

AKA Babymoon 2010 has come and gone.

We left on Monday July 26th and returned very late on Monday August 2nd. It was great to get away, but like I have told a lot of my friends this vacation will be my first and last during the first trimester of any pregnancy. We booked this vacation before we got our fabulous BFP, and the dreaded morning sickness really didn't start to kick in until the week before we left. The Thursday before our departure was a horrible day m/s wise. I ended up calling in sick to work because I had a huge bout of nausea and heaving and being a massage therapist, I just cannot physically do my job if I'm running to the bathroom every 5 minutes. It's just not going to happen.

After a call to Mother Risk (an absolutely AMAZING resource for pregnant Canadian women out there) I had some very practical advice to help with how I was feeling, and I had been told that I could take Ginger Gravol up to a maxium of twice daily to help with the nausea that I was feeling. I rested for the rest of the day Thursday, and then woke up Friday feeling well, just as shitty as I did the previous day, if not a little bit worse. I made a quick call into my RE's office, talked to the receptionist, and the angel that she is, got the dr to call in a prescription of Diclectin. This has proven to be invaluable. The only problem was the for about the first week of taking it I was pretty much a zombie. Thank goodness I was on vacation and I could sleep the hangover feeling off in the mornings.

So armed with my Diclectin we headed off to sunny Aruba. Now let me start by saying that it was a great vacation. I mean how can you not have an amazing time when your job is to sit on the white sand beaches looking out over a turquoise sea? The only issue was timing. Let's face it, if you wake up feeling like ass every morning, and your day is ruled by the accessibility to washrooms, keeping hydrated, eating snacks every 1-2 hours, and keeping cool, so you don't overheat and feel even crappier, it kind of takes the fun out of the day sometimes. I think if we had planned this same vacation during my second trimester, it just would've been better. Normally we wouldn't care so much about how long our excursions were. This time I would only be gone for about 4-6 hours. That is about how much fluids and snacks we could bring with us.

Even though Andre was amazing and got up early every morning to secure a hut close to our hotel room, that shelter sometimes just wasn't enough, and two afternoons I had to come back to our room to cool off and rehydrate. I felt so bad leaving Andre by himself on the beach, but really there was nothing I could do. I couldn't risk over heating and getting dehydrated.

In the end hindsight is always 20/20. I will recommend to anyone out there who is pregnant, or TTC, wait until you are out of your first trimester before planning a big vacation. When spending a crap load of your hard earned cash, you want to enjoy yourself 100% of the time, not just 60% of the time. If you wait out those first few months, you'll have a better idea of how you feel, and what you're comfortable doing throughout the day.

I will end this blog entry with some pictures of Andre and I from sunny Aruba.

Entering our resort

Me (and peanut) on the beach!

Andre on the beach.

The beach to our right from our hut.

A stunning Arubian sunset.

Andre and I at the Beach

Mean to Green (er)

Did you think that I had forgotten with all this baby-talk over the last little while? No, just well, lazy. Sitting on the couch cuddled with Andre or going for a walk when the heat has finally lifted in the evenings is just a little more appealing right now!

I did decide while I was reading some of my favourite blogs that I should really log on and give you all something. I have been thinking of doing this post for a long time now!

So without further ado (be forewarned it's a dirty subject).....TOILET PAPER! This is something that everyone buys, unless of course you are one of those really crunchy-granola types that doesn't in which case, I honestly don't know what to say.

We were addicted to the Kirkland brand for the longest time. You know the big, mega pack from Costco that would last a small family say, 6 months! The problem was that it had a TON of packaging, was not recycled, and I'm not too sure on the status of whether it was biodegradable. So we needed to switch!

Oh you should have heard Andre complain in the middle of No Frills when I told him we needed to switch to a more greener choice for bum wipe. He was not happy. Switching his toilet paper was crossing the line apparently. He must have a sensitive heiney. The first brand that we tried was President's Choice Green Bathroom Tissue.

The reason behind this purchase was that we love President's Choice Products. We have switched from name brand to their brand on many occasions and took for granted that this one would be a winner. We were wrong. It promised to be made from 100% Post Consumer recycled paper, and that it is biodegradable. I have no doubt in my mind that it is both of those things, but in a word, this stuff is CRAP.

Considering this stuff is suppose to be a double roll, the rolls are painfully thin. It claims to be 2-ply. Oh.My.Goodness. If this is suppose to be 2-ply, I do not want to know what 1-ply is.

In short, I am sad to say, do not waste your money on this product.

Now after our horrible adventure in green (er) toilet paper, Andre was none too happy that I wanted to try yet another brand. I had a friend mention the Cascades Brand of products. I knew that they sold their "enviro" line of products at Costco, and we just happened to be on our way there for a shopping trip. Andre was not happy to have to try another product that he was sure was going to disappoint, so I told him that all the trees were saying "Thank you Andre!!" for his purchase. He rolled his eyes and threw the huge package in the cart.

                                                    

Now this brand promises on it's website to be made of  100% recycled fibres, be made with 80% less water than the industry standard, is dried using natural gas, and bleached without chlorine. Wow, impressive! You want to know the best part?

It's actually good stuff! It's much thicker than the PC Brand, as well as softer, and stronger. We've found ourselves a winner people!

Beta #2

Was a success! I was very nervous simply because I had nothing to go by since we didn't have anything but a "You're Pregnant!" after the first beta. My HCG is 568.9, and my Progesterone level was 45. Both of these numbers were "within the normal ranges" as per the nurse at the clinic. I am to continue taking progesterone supps for the entire first trimester as well.

The best news is that we got the date for our first u/s! It is Tuesday July 20th! There are no words to describe how much I am looking forward to seeing the little "bean" on the screen and maybe see the heartbeat. I am going to try my best to get a picture to share with you all as well. We'll see how co-operative the u/s Tech is that day!

In other news Andre and I have started another blog devoted entirely to Baby M! This blog was created as a place for my random musings, and because of that my immediate family did not know about it. We decided that it would be best to create a new space that we could share with our immediate family and close friends for the time being, and then when it's time to announce Baby M to the rest of the world we can share with our family and friends that we unfortunately don't get to see on a regular basis. I will continue to do updates here as well, but for more in depth baby news check out Our Little One.

Stressful day, but a good ending

In my last blog post I was talking about how I have been on progesterone suppositories, but was going to run out before the weekend was over. The office in their letter to me had mentioned if this was the case, to call, and leave a message even though they wouldn't be in the office and someone would call in the prescription to the pharmacy they deal with. Well yesterday I called and left a message telling them I did need a refill.
I called the pharmacy around 11am, and no one had called in the progesterone yet. So I waited until the afternoon. At 2pm the pharmacy still hadn't received the order yet. So I waited some more. The entire time getting angrier and angrier, and more and more frustrated. I immediately went online to get some advice. After coming across someone on a message board that is a patient at the same clinic as I am (what are the chances?) she suggested calling up the pharmacy again. I called him up and explained the situation, and he agreed to give me a few to get through the weekend.
::Insert sigh of relief here::
I was so stressed out that missing the progesterone was going to cause a miscarriage. Man my imagination was not my friend today! In the end I came home with enough medication to get me through the weekend, and a little surprise.
Andre had been out, and knew how stressed out I was, so he bought me a bouquet of mini pink carnations. They were sitting in a vase in the diningroom when I got home this afternoon. He's such a sweetie. I think I'll keep him!

I have a confession to make

This is what I saw at 5am yesterday morning. I caved. I had to test before my beta. This test was not actually the first test. My first test was Wednesday morning. Where I got the faintest lines in the history of the world. Here I am at 8am (after analyzing the internet cheapie tests for a full hour) waving the sticks in front of Andre.

Me: Andre do you see two lines?

Andre: Ummm (looking at them closely with squinted eyes) no. Well what colour are they suppose to be?

Me: Pink

Andre: Well, there are two lines, but one of them is really light.

Ah, no romantic surprises in our house.

I tested with the digital at 5am on Thursday morning. I took the picture, then left the test on the counter for Andre to see and then went back to bed to try and get some sleep. At a more respectable 7:30, Andre cheered, and we hugged, and got ready to go to the clinic for my Beta.

We both waited very impatiently all day, Andre at home, and me at work for the results and finally around 3pm between clients Andre called and told me that the nurse had just dropped off a letter and her congratulations off at the house because they couldn't reach us via phone. For now the plan is to continue taking the progesterone suppositories, and go in again Tuesday morning for a repeat beta, where hopefully the numbers will have continued to rise by the appropriate amounts.

So please continue to send your rising number and sticky baby vibes my way if you can!

For those of you that know me IRL, and have me on FB, you know the drill, please don't mention anything!