32 weeks 3 days - Sinus infections and rounder still

It seems that my lovely flu that I caught from Anna is now a sinus infection. It's presumed viral and so I just have to sit it out and wait until it decides to go away. I think I've started blowing chunks of my brain out of my nose. I swear something looked alive today and extremely dark green. I saw the doctor today and he told me to just keep drinking fluids. If my fever goes up over the weekend to come in and they'd do a strep culture just to be safe. He seems to think it'll clear up though.

My doctor has a wonderful bedside manner. He really listens and gives great advice. It's great that even though it's not private health care we still always have the same doctor. He remembers who I am and even asks about the family both here and in the USA. Much better service out here in the suburbs than in the city.

I've got one more week left of work presuming that I'm healthy by then. I hope I am healthy by Monday. JP is off for some army reserve practice and will gone all week from the 28th of January until the 4th of February. I've been on sick leave again and I think I'll have been on sick leave for nearly 2 months. The doctor did say something interesting things, by the way. He said that sometimes a very healthy person that is rarely sick will have occasional bouts of illness that seem to go on and on like I have. He said that the brain sometimes resets and forgets how to create all the antibodies that it has previously made. The body gets sick and remakes the antibodies and then the person will be healthy again as they usually are. I thought that was rather interesting as I'm rarely sick...maybe once a year and it never lasts long. This year I've been sick for the last 3 months or so. Of course he said it could also just be bad luck. Exposure to viruses at just the wrong time. Lucky me.

I have my next prenatal appointment on the 1st of February. I'll try to get a picture of my burgeoning belly sometime in the near future.

31 weeks 3 days - still fluish but improving

I'm almost done with work hurrah! I intend to enjoy my vacation before the baby is born. Anna will still be in daycare and I'll have the days all to myself and hopefully by then I'll be healthy and able to enjoy my time off.

I went through Anna's old baby clothes and found the stuff that would fit a boy. I'll wash those along with the clothes I got from the pack of clothing the Finnish government sends mommies to be. The clothes are cute this year. If you'd like to see what you get in the baby package you can click here for pictures

So nice that it's a free package. I got one for Anna too. I could have taken the money instead but the package is a much better value. I had another appointment with the prenatal folk. The baby is growing very nicely. He's up at my ribs. The nurse said she'd be surprised if I wasn't having problems breathing. I am getting acid reflux though and having a wicked case of it right now. I have another appointment in 2 weeks and then preparation classes on the 4th. I never got those classes with Anna. It was canceled and rescheduled but I went into labor before I could get to the class.

My prenatal appointments are every 2 weeks from now on as I'm getting closer and closer to the due date. After the next appointment I'll see a doctor and he'll makes sure that all looks good. I need to start filling out forms and really thinking about what I want when I go into labor. This time I'll do it early. The last time...I went into labor so early that I had to fill out the forms while in labor at the hospital. Talk about fun times. I've been told that they'll take another blood test in the coming weeks since Anna had jaundice (that's the yellow baby syndrome for those of you who have never heard the word jaundice). I have no idea what it tests for or what good it does but there must be some good reason for it.

I guess I'm just really gearing up for baby. I'm getting things cleaned up and organized both in the house and in my mind. Next I'll probably pull the bed out of the storage and make sure it's clean and ready. We picked up the car seat the other day. It's brilliant and a Graco. Here's a picture if you're interested though it's a different color. I love that it has a base. You just click in the seat and click out. No more hassling with the seat belt every trip.

I should head to bed. I'll need to head to the medicine chest to get some antacids and hope it helps. It's an early rise with Anna.

30 weeks 5 days - Sick again?

Just when I thought I was over a cold and pneumonia, I've caught another cold from Anna. Anna has been sick all week and now when she's healthy it seems I'm coming down with a cold. I've been cautioned by my mother that I should take it easy as it's easy to get pneumonia again. I have another prenatal care appointment on Thursday and I think I'll ask for sick leave so I won't have to go back to work and I can take it easy.

The picture on the right is of me at 30 weeks and 4 days. I'm looking a little rough as I'd been taking care of Anna all week and JP has had very long days at work so neither of us had had any kind of break. This pregnancy is totally different from my first. With Anna I got big all the way around. My hips got wider and I just got big in general. With this baby the belly is growing straight out and I'm not getting any width at all. From the back I look as though I'm not pregnant at all.

My little guy is pretty active especially as I'm writing this. I guess I have anywhere from 5 to 11 weeks left in this pregnancy I suppose. I don't spend much time worrying about it as the baby will come when it comes.

29 weeks 2 days - Unexplained angries

I'm so frustrated and I can't really trace the cause. Is it because work blows goats in a big way right now? Is it that I haven't seen salary in almost 4 months? Is it that I'm totally powerless to do anything about it? I take maternity leave in less than 30 days at this point and I'm looking forward to it.

I ended up having to give up on my boss when it came to doing the necessary paperwork for my maternity leave stipend. He was supposed to supply certain papers and financial information which he should supply by law anyway. When I confronted him about it a week before the deadline he shrugged his shoulders and told me he didn't really know what to do even though I'd told him exactly what I needed from him. How could I NOT be frustrated with that? Luckily I had 2 other options and took the best of the two. I think it will work out better in the long run. I'd spent over 2 months waiting for him to do what he promised and all he did was shrug. I would love to grab him and shake him sometimes.

Although the stipend will be smaller than what my salary would be normally, at least it will be paid on time and will be what I expect every time and I won't have remind them to pay it like I do with my current job. Yes....I think that's the source of my angries. I feel better having vented.

29 weeks - 2008 ring in the new year!

Where did 2007 go? Have to get used to writing 2008. Its always a problem for me to get used to writing the new year on documents and whatnot. At any rate...we all survived Christmas. There were 13 of us under one roof. We got no peace and quiet and the kids were screaming. No one would take naps and the kids were cranky and over-wound. It was nice to get home.

The tummy is getting bigger. Strange to think I don't have that much longer. I'll go on maternity leave officially on February the 12th so I might as well make my last work day the 8th. If I stretch it and take my winter holiday in February I could leave on the last day of January. Not much to report really. My little one is getting very active and I've started feeling jabs of elbows and knees. I guess it's getting tight for space in there. Happy new year all!