Category: life

When I was pregnant with Symphony I really wanted to have a girl. It was just a feeling I had and when I had my ultrasound I pestered the technician to tell me, which you could still do in those days, and eventually they reluctantly told me “well I can’t be 100% certain because the position of the fetus isn’t 100% optimal, but if I had to guess, which I’m doing, I would say it’s probably maybe a girl, but I’m not sure so don’t quote me on that.” So obviously I did quote them on that and told everyone I was having a girl. I just FELT like I was having a girl, I knew it in my heart.

With Gwen I really wanted a girl again, and when I found out that I’d have to wait (and wait and wait) for my doctor to get the results of the scan before finding out I was beyond frustrated. Of course it didn’t help that the family doctor I was still seeing at that time was super useless and never bothered to follow up with the ultrasound clinic on why she hadn’t received my results, and in fact I was the one who tweeted at and called the hospital to find out what was going on myself. I mean it’s not like there are serious conditions that can be detected via ultrasound which are more likely in a mother who is 35 years old or anything! Anyway, after something like six weeks of waiting I was happy to finally learn that the baby growing inside me was another girl, just like I wanted.

This pregnancy was something of a surprise, seeing as how we had JUST decided we were done having babies, but a happy one nonetheless. It was also different from the very beginning as I had no strong feelings one way or the other about the sex of this baby. Another little girl would be cool but a tiny little mini Taylor would be great too! Before I had my ultrasound last week I had expressed to my doctor that I was interested in finding out the sex if it was possible, but tbh I kind of didn’t care? It wasn’t like my previous pregnancies where I think I would have needed to get “used to” the idea of having a boy (some people hate it when you say stuff like that and will tell you if you can’t handle the idea of your baby being a certain sex then you don’t even deserve to have a baby YOU MONSTER but like… you don’t know my life and you don’t control my feelings? So like shut up?). I just don’t have a preference this time and I think that’s pretty alright.

As I mentioned in my last post I’ve kind of been considering not announcing the sex this time. I just… didn’t want to deal with it? I knew yesterday that my doctor had the results of my detailed ultrasound but I had to wait for her to call me. I kept my phone with me so I didn’t miss the call but when 5 o’clock came and went with no phone call I wasn’t even bent up about it? I figured she would call me today and this morning she did. Or rather, her receptionist did, and I’m super pleased to announce that the sex of the baby is I don’t fucking know. No one does! Because they couldn’t tell! And I kind of feel relieved about it! So I guess we will just find out in October when the baby is born, since my pregnancy has been super normal and all my test results and scan results are super normal so there’s no reason for additional ultrasounds. I mean, the only way we could find out would be if we paid to have one done at a private clinic, or for genetic testing, which ahaha no. If I had the extra money to spend on that I would put it on my credit card bill tbh.

Baby Laramie, everything TBD, giving everyone the thumbs up. I think. Is that a hand? Honestly who knows with this baby.

All gradient images from Colorful Gradients: 1 2 3

Sooooooo if you follow me on instagram you miiiiiiiiiiiight have seen a particular post from me on Friday. If you missed it, SURPRISE!

I’m pregnant with baby number 3, Due October 7th! Pretty funny coming after my baby blue post in early January about how we weren’t having any more babies, ever. Now, I wasn’t pregnant when I wrote that… but I was about a week later. Oops! This was definitely, obviously not something that we planned, but I guess life just works like that sometimes.

Since we weren’t trying to conceive Taylor and I discussed this pregnancy a lot to come to a decision together about what we would do. I am very pro-choice and in case you missed it one of the eight billion times I mentioned it I had an abortion in 2007 and if that was the right choice for us now I would not have hesitated to have another. Obviously that isn’t what we decided- although when I told Sym I was pregnant I said we hadn’t decided what we were going to do, and her reply was “well, if it was ME I would 100% abortion because we don’t have any more bedrooms in this apartment.” Bless her logical heart.

Sym has been really sweet in general, especially since the aforementioned lack of spare bedrooms means that this summer she is going to have to trade her bedroom (the biggest in the house, very Regina George of her) for Gwen’s bedroom (the smallest in the house, too small for Gwen and a baby to share). Gwen has also been prettyyyyyy good about a baby sibling in her future. She likes to pat and kiss my belly “all better,” although she will also say “baby go home” and point out the window. She’s just so used to kids coming her to play and then leaving, so she doesn’t completely understand yet that this baby is going to stay. She’s really good about sharing so I think she will be okay.

With over a decade between my girls, my pregnancy with Gwen was more like a first pregnancy, especially in that I didn’t show for a LONG time. I was able to easily hide my bump completely until close to my third trimester. This time has been very different and I’ve had to start getting maternity clothes already. Actually tbh I’m not sure if that has less to do with my bump and more to do with the fact that every single pair of jeans I owned were high-waisted skinny jeans, but I’m definitely regretting having gotten rid of almost all of my maternity clothes. LUCKILY even though I sorted everything out in January we never did get around to getting rid of any of Gwen’s old baby stuff so we’re pretty well set in that department.

I’m super thrilled that I’m nearing the end of the first trimester because my morning sickness this time around has been the pits. I actually have a swell kind of reverse-morning sickness where I feel just fine when I wake up but then start to feel sicker and dizzier as the day wears on until I have to go to bed and not move again. This is usually by about 4pm and thankfully I was only working two days a week in February and was off work the whole month of March so I COULD take to my bed whenever I needed to. I ended up getting a prescription for some anti-nausea medication from my new ob-gyn mid-March, but it’s like, SUPER tailored to women who have MORNING morning sickness in that it has a delayed release and takes SIX HOURS to kick in. You’re supposed to take it before you go to bed but I have to take it in the mid-morning which is a bit of a hassle because it makes me very sleepy AND I often lose track of time and forget to take it until lunchtime.

Even with the meds I am still very susceptible to gross things. If it looks gross or smells gross or could be gross in any way I have to stay far, far away from it lest I start to hurl. This has made it REALLY hard to keep on top of housework because old food scraps in the sink or nasty leftovers in the fridge or stray hairs on the sink and I am running for the bathroom. Or the trash can. Or the sink. Taylor and Sym have really had to step up to the plate with cleaning the house and cooking meals and washing the dishes and taking out the trash as I am incapable of any of it. They have both been the best, especially since I’m back to work today and can’t just let the whole house descend into squalor. I am so appreciative of everything they have been doing to help me out.

Anyway. That’s my life update, as well as the explanation for my lack of blogging, lack of shop updates, and repeated tweets about how I’ve “taken to my bed.”

PS I know Friday was April Fool’s Day but please rest assured I would never to a tired gag like a fake pregnancy bit. The joke was that it wasn’t a joke.

When I opened the door this morning I was expecting to see grey and clouds and rain, but instead I was hit in the face with bright sunlight. It’s blue-skied and warm today, I didn’t even put off walking the dog. Sometimes on rainy mornings, rather than get Gwen and myself completely dressed and weather-ready to go out I just open the blinds and let Gwen stay on the couch watching Peppa Pig while I take Georgie out to the backyard. I have to watch her through the window to make sure she doesn’t get up to any naughtiness (she usually does).

On the weekend I retook my first aid, so I spent most of Valentine’s Day getting physical with CPR dummies of assorted sizes. Not to brag (yes to brag actually) but I’m like, rly good at CPR, all my dummies lived. Also, DID YOU KNOW that doing CPR is a pretty intense ab & booty workout? I had forgotten and the next day I was completely incapacitated. My arms weren’t that bad but my stomach was pretty sore and my behind was not having it at all.

Another thing I did this weekend was start making what I think are some great little patches from appliqued leather & suede. Each 3.25″ patch has little skulls with leaves & flowers or laurel wreaths that have all been cut out, placed and sewn by hand. I’ve only finished one so far but I have a bunch that are half-made and I hope to have them up in the shop soon

Sym is having trouble with math again; this happened last year as well and the problem is that if she starts having difficulty with it, she doesn’t ever ask for any help and just lets it spiral until she’s fallen far behind. This is especially bad this year because at the moment her grade is so poor that her teacher has to recommend her for “Apprenticeship & Workplace Math” next year. See, there are two different tracks for math, A&WM and Foundations & Pre-Calculus Math, and if you don’t get on the F&PCM track in the 10th grade you can’t take any of the grade 11 or 12 math prerequisites for university! When I was in high school I feel like we just had Math 9, Math 10, Math 11 and it seems bananas to me that at 14 years old she has to decide her post-secondary education plans already! Thankfully her teacher has said that if she gets her grade up enough by June he will change his recommendation, and he is confident that she has the aptitude to do it and doesn’t want to see her limit her future now. But like. WOW. Teenager stuff is intense.

I have been LOVING this new ready-to-ship banners change I instituted in my shop earlier this month! I love not feeling bogged down with making the same banners every week, I love being able to ship orders so much faster, and I love love love all the extra time I have to work on different projects!

On the weekend I started embroidering a little grumpy fox and I just find it so fun and relaxing. I hadn’t really done any embroidery since I made the patches for Taylor’s anniversary gift two years ago, and I’d forgotten how much I enjoy it. I even like buying the embroidery thread; the subtle variations of the colours make choosing just the right shade fascinating AND they only cost sixty cents each (less with a coupon; I got the new oranges I needed for this fox for 45 cents each)! Combine that with how inexpensive the wooden hoops are and the fact that I’m upcycling the fabric from a torn pair of linen shorts and this is a very cheap hobby.

Bad news for poor lil Symmie: after two weeks having her palate expanded with a palate expander she went to the orthodontist to get it removed… or so she thought. Turns out that while we don’t have to adjust it anymore, she has to keep it in the whole rest of the time she has her braces! I feel really bad for her, it makes it hard to talk and hard to eat and it leaves a weird impression on her tongue that really bothers her. Thankfully she only has four months of braces left, or maybe less! Everyone cross their fingers that it’s less.