Looking for the Carp

Seize the carp! Or the day! Or the moment! Anything that will help make this life of yours richer, filled with love, and acceptance of yourself. This is my little journey to always be on the look out for that carp, grabbing it, and never letting go. This is the only life we have and it's too short for what ifs and maybe laters!

Wednesday 28 December 2011

9th Carp- Carp Fishing Has Been Good

Hey All,

I can't believe it's been so long since I have last blogged. We have had a very busy 7 ish months to say the least. Really, I have been out seizing so many carps that all that blogging just got away from me.

The first carp, which I'm very happy to report, is expectant motherhood! After our miscarriage in the spring, we were lucky enough to conceive again a month or so later. For awhile, I did gain the nickname "Fertile Myrtle" which was fine since I was in such a state of shocked bless. Since then my belly has grown to a healthy round basketball and the journey from a little bean to a full fledged baby has been incredible. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that in 7 weeks or less, the little mystery alien growing inside of me will be in this world, but I am looking forward to it.

My pregnancy experience has been a rather boring one. Other than the aforementioned growing belly, I have had virtually little, to no symptoms. I guess I have mom to thank for the lack of morning sickness, crazy middle of the night cravings, and other various unpleasant side effects to growing a baby. And for that I say: THANKS MOM FOR THE AWESOME GENES! The only difference between us has been that it took her 4 months to realize that she was pregnant with me, I on the other hand have known about this little monkey for quite a long time. :) Now let's just hope that I have the same labour experience, in and out over a lunch hour. Cross my fingers!

Some of the most interesting milestones between little bean and full fledged squirming baby have been:

~ Hearing the heart beat for the first time... and second time... and third time.... etc. It's just so surreal to hear two sets of hearts pumping in rhythm. One loud thud, thud, thud, and another softer swoosh, swoosh, swoosh. It makes that positive home pregnancy test a reality and puts a stupid grin on your face that you can't get rid of for hours after hearing it.

~Going to our 20 week ultrasound. Although, ladies, I have to say that for this appointment the person who is going to get the best show is your husband. The monitor is right at your head so you have to kind of extend your neck as giraffe like as possible, to turn and get a good look at anything. Although, I fell in love with all the images that came on the screen, I felt like my scientific brain took over from my emotional brain. It was just so incredible seeing the different parts of their body and playing the "can I figure out what I'm looking at before the tech tells me" game. The highlights were seeing the parts of the heart pumping away, the brain cavity with growing super intelligent brain (obviously) and the perfect little line of vertebrae presented in a nice curve. Although Jon and I wanted to know what the sex was, as soon as I saw the femurs, I knew Baby Standring was going to remain a mystery until delivery. Those little legs were crossed and wrapped right into their belly. No cooperation was to be had even after trying to get them to move. We were disappointed at first not knowing, but since then have completely enjoyed the mystery of whether it's a boy or a girl. I think it's going to make their big reveal so much more special. Thank you little baby Standring for reminding your mom and dad that sometimes it's better to have patience and wait for surprises!

~Reading the book "Confessions of a Slacker Mom" before picking up the book "What to Expect when You're Expecting". Although, I wouldn't recommend this to future mothers as their order to read baby literature because I realized that some of the things that were making me uncomfortable and it hard to sleep were explained in the second book and could be easily avoidable. For instance, apparently it's a bad idea to drink caffeinated beverages at night because your body takes longer to process that caffeine, making it impossible to sleep. Also, because your body is already working at a higher temperature, hot baths are a no no because it takes longer to cool down. OH------ And you probably shouldn't do those two things together, right before bed, if you expect to sleep at all. Just saying. So future moms, I do encourage you to read both books but maybe reverse the order for it to be really beneficial for your entire pregnancy. LOL 

Now since I am in full third trimester land, the pressure has been placed to make sure that little baby Standring has a nice set up and two very prepared parents. Well, prepared on the outside, but on the inside freaking out that we will have no two clues where to even start. But luckily, I subscribe fully to the motto "Fake it until you make it". I'm already anxiously awaiting for our first major screw up. I hope that it will be a hilarious story that I will be able to share with our child someday. What's great to know is that we can look to our own parents for 'screw up inspiration'. I mean if Mom, Mike and Nancy had times where, let's say, Jon fell out of his car seat, landing on his head and I spent hours in front of a TV watching Frosty the Snowman so I'd stay out of trouble ... and we turned out just fine and they turned into the best parents in the world. I'm sure we will be able to screw up and still be pretty awesome parents as well.

Until next time....



What's your carp?