happy halloween!

I realized today that I had neglected to buy and carve a pumpkin so..

here's my pumpkin!

happy halloween - I'm secretly hoping to go into labour in the next half hour so I can turn off my lights and eat all my candy myself.. :)

soon there will be 3

at the beginning of the month my dear friend Dionne took some maternity pictures for Michael & I - she is wonderful & talented and we are so thankful that she took these for us.

she sent me these as a preview and then she'll be giving me the rest

i love them already - thank you D! <3

the end of a chapter

It's 2:20pm and I'm sitting here at my office desk for the last time! Today is my last day before my 1 year maternity leave starts (well technically I have some holidays next week so my first day of mat-leave will be November 1).

I have had a countdown going on my little sudoku desk calendar - and today it looks like this:

I have trained my replacement, I have created a very thorough manual, I have received numerous well wishes and some generous gifts, and today I went out for lunch with my co-workers for a delicious Empress of China buffet.

Looking at the date I can't help but think about when I first got this job - I was hired in mid-October of 2010 but didn't start until November - it was a hard time to start a job as 2 years ago tomorrow, one of the dearest people in my life went to heaven - my dear sweet Grandma Klassen. I started this job when I was in a time of deep loss and sadness, and now - 2 short years later, I am leaving this job in a time of much excitement, anticipation and a new little life!

I am thankful for this job that I have had over 2 years - I feel like it was a wonderful place for me, working with great people and really finding ways to use my gifts and talents - especially in things that normally aren't as "exciting" to people - like organizing and doing "menial" office tasks - but I love those things and it helps me thrive, and from the many comments & affirmations I have received - other people notice and appreciate it. It has been fun to work so close to home and to have weekly dates with my Mom-in-law, and have pop by lunches with Michael when he is working in the city. I have had coffee dates with my mom and Phoebe and have had a few "going for coffee"s with Everett, Leah & Rogie. I will miss being here - but I am sooo excited that having this "last day" means we are really just playing the waiting game to when this little one decides to make its debut.

My bags are packed, my office is cleaned out, and now we just wait in anticipation!

our baby will be so cute :)

so maybe this is a vain post - but hey - I was looking through baby pictures of both Michael & I and we were both pretty cute - so how cute is our baby going to be!!

It makes me so excited to imagine what features it will have of mine and what features it will have of Michaels. Either way, I know we will think it is the cutest baby of all time :)

Here are alternating pictures of Michael and I as kids:

photo post

just a note that I just posted some new pictures on my photography blog!

check it out here!

home stretch

today has been a quiet day at home
it kind of fell into my lap as I thought I had different plans for the day
but those plans were changed and I ended up with a day to myself!

i have spent the day doing laundry, folding baby clothes and copious amounts of michael's work clothes (that boy has a LOT of work clothes!). I have done dishes, caught up on some tv shows, organized all the resources/handouts we received at our prenatal classes, had a leisurely lunch and edited pictures I took of friends of mine. it has been a good day.

i am in the home stretch - considered "full term" this baby could come any day! however, I am trying to hold that loosely in my mind - since there is also every chance that this baby could come up to 2 weeks late - which would be another 4 1/2 weeks from now!! for a planner and organizer like myself - it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that this baby will just come when it wants.

the best thing is that I'm still quite comfortable - so I can wait. but I'm also relatively ready - so I'd be ok with an early birth too! the next 2 weekends are relatively quiet (altho Michael is playing worship both weekends in church). I have purchased birthday gifts for both Michael & Dad T (their birthdays are November 4 & 8 - so right before baby's due date and right on baby's due date!)

Our basement is coming along (thanks to much help, especially from my in-laws) and soon the rolls of carpet that I climb over in our hallway will be glued down to the basement floor. It has been a busy month!

one week of work left - 3 days and one staff lunch to be exact. My office is mostly packed up already and my replacement is ready to go! It is strange to make so many transitions!

I am starting to get butterflies when I think about what it will be like to say our baby's name outloud to our families and then our friends. What it will be like to hold our baby and say it's name outloud to it! I'm going to miss being the only one to feel the punches and kicks all day, but I am happy to have that replaced with the chance to actually sit and stare at it's sweet face all day.

I must also say that I'm selfishly looking forward to a celebratory glass of rum & coke when I get home (don't worry, I know the rules about alcohol and breastfeeding - plus, when I say rum & coke, I really mean a glass of coke with a tiny splash of rum - I don't need much!)

well - I'm going to get back to my nice quiet relaxing day! I have a few more things on my to-do list - including working on packing my bags and burning a copy of my "baby mix" playlist to a CD for my car!

Here's a picture from a couple of weeks ago - must say, I love having a baby bump!

motherhood & social media

there are a lot of good things about social media
I'm still connected to social media in a few ways - blogging and pinterest really
I have a facebook with no friends - so that I can use it to enter contests and other things
I occasionally read peoples tweets on twitter (but mostly just to stay up to date with my close friends jef & emily.. haha!)

I have realized over the last 8+ months of being pregnant that social media can be a good thing, but it can also make you feel insecure, make you feel like you don't measure up, make you feel like everyone wants to tell you about everything in their lives so you should want to share all of that too, that you should have a cuter nursery, read more parenting books, post more verses of scripture or songs in your house, drink green smoothies all day long etc. It is overwhelming!! I'm not even parenting yet and already there are days or times that I don't feel like I'm measuring up!

I have also realized that when you are pregnant people want to know some of the following (so I'll put my thoughts next to the questions, incase any of your are DYING TO KNOW what I think..):
- how long did you try to get pregnant (that can be a very sensitive subject for someone who tried unsuccessfully for months or years. we are thankful that was not our situation, and we know we are very blessed and fortunate that we did not have that struggle that some of our friends have had.)
- are you going to do MSS screening (to find out if your child has special needs - and in some peoples cases - to decide whether or not to terminate the pregnancy - We did not want to do this test.)
- are you going to find out the gender of the baby (we did - altho some people have made it clear to me with their reactions that they don't approve of that - oh well, I like being prepared!)
- if you did find out the gender - are you telling? (we aren't - I like the element of surprising all of our friends at the end of the 9 months! But I have no issue with those who decide to tell!)
- are you going to breastfeed? exclusively? (I will do my best! But I think there are times when Moms need to use formula - and I think they are just as wonderful mothers!)
- are you going to use cloth diapers? (no we are not - Michael made it clear that he had no interest in changing a cloth diaper - and I was on the fence, leaning toward disposable.. so it was a pretty easy decision. But, telling some people this answer has left them with a GASP look on their faces. From what I have read - there are pros and cons to both sides of the argument, and in all honesty - I have no interest in being part of that argument. I say, do what works for you - and if your baby is happy - we have success)
- are you going to labour "naturally"? (aka no medication) For the record - I think medication or not, it is all natural. It is still a baby coming out of your body - whether it is vaginally, by c-section, with no medication or with an epidural - it's still a baby coming out of you!! I am going to attempt to do a medicine free vaginal birth - but I have read about all the medication options and the procedure of a c-section.
- are you going to have a birth plan? Nope (or at least not a written one) - my plan is this - be educated and then trust that the doctor I chose to walk me through my pregnancy is more than qualified to make good decisions/suggestions for my care during my labour.
- doula? midwife? birthing center? (This one is a hot topic these days!! I only wanted a doctor - and I was only going to birth at a hospital. Birth is too fragile of a thing for me to not want to be surrounded by doctors/nurses/and all the necessary tools. As for a doula - when Michael and I talked about it, he felt as though a doula would be doing his job - and he wanted his job to be his. I loved that answer. Instead of a doula, I'm having Michael and my Mom as my support people and I feel like this is the best choice for me!!)
- Ok, so how about parenting - attachment parenting? baby wise? somewhere in between? (this is the other "hottest" topic in my opinion, because everyone has an opinion and a method. To be honest - we have LOVED being able to be an Auntie & Uncle to Josh & Leahs kids and to watch how they parent. We love how they treat their kids, how they respect them and how they have a "schedule" but it isn't rigid. My opinion with parenting "technique" is my same as with diapers - do what works for you, happy mom, happy baby - success. Leah read the book Secrets of the Baby Whisperer - and passed it onto me - I like it because it is more inbetween the "extremes" of parenting - and it seems like something that will work for me. Trial and error I suppose..)

I guess my main point of this rant is this - there are a lot of things out there (blogs, pinterest, facebook, twitter and pregnancy forums) that can make me doubt myself and get anxious - but the best advice I've been given is to just trust myself - and to have a few "safe" people that I can confide in about the struggles, and people that I can ask about how they did things etc. I am surrounded by a multitude of wonderful mothers - maybe it's time to focus more on them and what we do have, then to compare to people I (often) don't even know and allow myself to doubt!

Social media - it can be good, but for me, it's something I need to guard against.

4 weeks today until my due date - and this baby is going to be in my care, in my house, and will be my baby! Trusting myself, praying, and a good support system is the key to success I think :)

Here are 2 pictures of me from today incase any of you were wondering if my belly is growing - it really is! This baby is running out of room...