Yours truly. 26 weeks pregnant (I am really lettin’ ‘er all hang out in the shot on the right). And one hella crazy ass shirt, right?

Psychedelic baby! I’m not usually this funky, gimme a sec to explain…

I got the shirt to wear under my everyday, calm plain jane blazer. It’s a navy pinstriped number. Like so:

Less crazy, right? Right. The jacket needed something loud. I’ll just never be able to take the jacket off when I wear this little getup lest I fry some poor souls retinas right out of his head.

I got the top (Nally & Millie) for $13 bucks at The Patch, a second hand store here in Victoria. I’m not sure if you can see the necklace I am wearing very well, but it is my new favourite necklace. I got it from The Honey Tree in Prince George (a gift from my mom, thanks mom!). It’s designed by Kien Jewellery out of Quebec and I can’t seem to find a website for them at the moment.

You know the jeans. And the boots.

You may have noticed that I am smacking my butt in the second collage. There is a very good reason for this:

F.E.F. (Future Embarrassment Factor)

You see, some day my kids are going to look at these photos and be like, “Oh my GAWD mom, you are SUCH a TOOL” or whatever the benign, mom-friendly insult happens to be ‘tween years from now. At that juncture I’ll whisper, “Oh yeah? You think that’s bad? Just wait ’til you see what I’ve collected in preparation for your wedding day. Clean. Your. Room. Now.”

And THAT folks, is how ya parent.

I like it when things in my wardrobe are multipurpose.

More belly bump pics:

25 weeks pregnant (clean freak)

24 weeks pregnant

23 weeks pregnant (the meltdown)

22 weeks pregnant (grand canyon edition)

21 weeks pregnant

20 weeks pregnant

19 weeks pregnant

18 weeks pregnant

John is not very helpful when it comes to giving me ideas for what he wants for Christmas:

John: I could use a shirt.

Me: Okay. What kind of shirt?

John: A nice one?

Me: …

Excellent. Let me scratch “ugly shit” off my list then.

“I don’t really want anything, Shauna. Don’t worry about it.”

“I use some socks and underwear. Yeah, that’s what I need…”

“Ummmmm…..” (4 1/2 seconds later he is completely distracted by two hockey teams he cares nothing about who are bashing it out on television. No ideas are presented).

Dude does NOT want to help a girl out. One of these Christmases he’s going to get package after package of underwear…

Sorry for the uninspired outfit, but it was all I could muster this week. This is what I usually wear all day, every day. Actually, I work from home, who am I kidding? The first part of my day is spent in sweats and a red hairband AND THEN I snazz it up with jeans and a tshirt. Sometimes I put earrings on just for kicks. It’s a party here every day.

I finally got the Christmas decorations up last night. I have been having trouble getting my festive act together because although I NEED to get presents sorted and ordered and sent and organized, what I WANT to do is clean.

That’s right.

The thing that is occupying my brain even more than candy canes and twinkly lights is wanting to sort through drawers and closets and shelves and organize the crap out of every room in this house. I honestly lie awake at night thinking about all the mismatched socked I’m going to get rid of and all the books I’m going to box up and donate. I would like to tell you I’m kidding or over exaggerating, but the truth is I cleaned and organized my spice cupboard the other night and I high-fived myself for a good half hour after I was done.

Again, who I am kidding? I high-fived myself again JUST NOW.

The Baby Prep list I wrote about 2 months ago is still whirling around in my head:

• dog training- in the process!
• babycation- check!
• learning about pregnancy and labour- in the process!

There is still regrouting and painting and wedding dress storing to do, but things are coming along.

And the twinkly lights are helping to get me into the holiday spirit. I’m not a COMPLETE freak, after all.

More belly bump pics:

24 weeks pregnant

23 weeks pregnant (the meltdown)

22 weeks pregnant (grand canyon edition)

21 weeks pregnant

20 weeks pregnant

19 weeks pregnant

18 weeks pregnant

This is Mickey’s little paw and the tip of his scruffy tail. Slowly, slowly these little paws are spending more time with John and less time with me. So are Kayloo’s. We think it’s probably a good idea for the dogs to get used to getting less of my attention because when the baby crashes this party they are going to get even LESS of me. Plus there is a good chance that whatever part of me IS available will be less recognizable for awhile, what with the completely overwhelmed and shell shocked panic in my eyes. And the not showering.

They still hang out with me the most since I work from home and do most of the dog walks, but John and I are hoping that if we make some changes now it will make some sort of difference when bambino enters the scene.

Of course, to really help prepare them I could get some screeching baby recordings and play them all day and all night at top volume… but I have to say I am not quite THAT committed to this whole prepare-the pups exercise. I mean, come on. I’d like to get what proper sleep I can now before I launch into the Decade(s) Long Era of Sleep Deprivation I keep hearing about.

Can ya blame me?

Last night I had a hankering for some cookies so I went ahead and made some.

Sometimes being an adult is awesome.

This is what I wore to a friend’s baby shower and then our neighbours party last Saturday night (now that I’m looking at myself, I should have rocked bigger earrings and/or a funky necklace). That’s right, two par-tays in one evening. By 11pm I hit the wall and could hardly muster one last “Merry Christmas” before we dragged our butts home. There was a time when I would get home at 5am… and then go to work and be productive. I have no idea how I managed to do that.

As an aside: The shower we went to was a baby shower and boys were invited. There was a poker game going on which was the best idea ever. I suck at poker but John disappeared after making a couple rounds of the food table- fantastic idea.

I got this top from my mom’s closet, one of the best stores around. I didn’t steal it or anything, she gave it to me. My mom’s cool like that. It’s made by Echo Rain based in Vancouver, British Columbia using environmentally-friendly and sustainable fabrics. It is super comfy and very soft and although I think it looks good with jeans I’m thinking of getting some leggings to wear with it as well. Thank you mom!

John has a tendency to come out of left field when we’re talking (kind of like what I did there with absolutely no segue from the Echo Rain talk to the John talk). Usually I’m all over it. After walking the dogs in silence for 10 minutes he’ll come out with something like, “… it’ll usually depend though.” Just that. No context. Just a sentence fragment. When I’m on top of my game I can usually put together that the last time we were walking in that particular area was last week and we were in a rush to get back to the house for some stupid hockey game and “it’ll usually depend though” likely has something to do with his hockey pool. That is when I’m on top of my game. As I get further into this pregnancy things like the name of the grocery store I go to every week are dropping out of my head with the consistency of water dropping out of a sieve and so I am politely asking John more and more, “WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!!” This has got to be confusing for John because normally I can follow along just fine. My mind reading capabilities are a bit compromised at the moment.

From the 18 topics covered in this one blog post it would seem my ability to stick with one train of throught and go with it is compromised as well.

Speaking of coming out of left field: I think I have come up with an ingenious plan to keep my maternity pants up: suspenders. The pants I am wearing in these photos have belt loops so my belt keeps them up, but I got a new pair in Vegas (these ones) and they do not have belt loops so after walking for a bit I end up doing this sore cowboy, wide legged wiggle trying to keep my pants from working their way down around my knees. My plan is to cut the straps off an old bra and sew them onto the wonderful top panel (shown here). The panel comes up under my boobs so the bra straps should be long enough once I extend them out. It just occured to me that suspendered pants might be a bitch to deal with when I’m, ya know, in the ladies room and I need to get my pants off in a hurry. Hmmm… I’ll keep ya posted. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Random Ramblings by Shauna is now coming to a close…

BUTTONS!*

* Rather than SEW the suspenders on, maybe I could attach them in the front with buttons!

More belly bump pics:

23 weeks pregnant (the meltdown)

22 weeks pregnant (grand canyon edition)

21 weeks pregnant

20 weeks pregnant

19 weeks pregnant

18 weeks pregnant

Mickey models while Kayloo helps John in the background. John is setting his watch before doing sit ups, push ups etc in the hallway and Kayloo figures she’s hit the jackpot because John is RIGHT THERE within licking distance for whole minutes at a time.

Mickey thinks exercise is overrated.

This is the closest I’m going to get to a glass of wine for the next while. It’s a free-with-purchase cherry lip balm that came with the bottle of Naked Grape Pinot Grigio my mom picked up.

Oooooh, the sacrifies we make…

Me at 23 weeks pregnant. Next week I will be 24 weeks pregnant. 24/4 = 6… that means I’ll be 6 MONTHS PREGNANT!!!

Getting a grip and moving right along…

I had a bit of a meltdown on Saturday. I blame it on technology.

As you know, John and I went to Vegas for a little babycation. I decided I didn’t want to go through the scanners at the airport, which means I got to meet a bunch of handsy airport security women. Everyone was super professional and super sweet… and had lots of stories for me.

The first woman who laid her hands on me was adorable. I want her to babysit someday. And come over for a pint.

Not on the same day.

She started patting me here and there, checking my arms, the cuffs of my shirt, around the boob area (clearly the most obvious place to hide machetes and such things) and then she bent down and patted my belly: “Hello baby! Hellooo! Hello! Hello!!!! Helloo baaay-byyy!!!” And then she checked the waist of my jeans and probably my legs… I can’t remember because that was the first time a stranger cooed to my midsection in public. “Is this your first? Oooh, it’s so exciting!”

Loved her. She did not contribute to my meltdown.

Next I met a woman who is the mother of three.

Mom of 3: How far along?

Me: 5 1/2 months.

Mom of 3: No you are NOT.

Me: (totally intimidated because I am in an airport and she is wearing GLOVES) Uh, yes… I am?

Mom of 3: There is nothing there! No bump at all! When I was 3 months pregnant I was bigger than you are now! You can’t be 5 1/2 months already!

Me: No really (pulling my shirt against my belly and standing profile for the full effect). See? I am… really…

At this point, I’m not going to lie. I was enjoying all the, “but I can’t even tell you’re pregnant!” feedback. I definitely didn’t want to hear about how huge I was, so this was refreshing input.

But then I got a stupid autoemail from one of those sites that tells you the kind of things you should expect at various points in your pregnancy. It said something like, “At 23 weeks you are feeling like you don’t just have a baby in your belly, you have a boxer who is kicking you in the ribs!” But my baby isn’t kicking me in the ribs. As far as I can tell my baby is no where near my ribs and although I can feel the bambino moving around and giving me little kicks, I certainly don’t feel like my insides are getting a beating.

That email got caught in my brain and it started swirling around and around… When was the last time I felt the baby kick? Is there as much movement today as there was yesterday? Did I do something wrong? Was the flight harmful? I ate some fruit that tasted funny, did that hurt the baby? Maybe the baby isn’t growing enough? Is it normal that my ribs aren’t bruised from Beckham-like fetal jabs? PLEASE BABY, KICK ME TIL I’M GASPING FOR BREATH AND I HAVE LOST ALL BLADDER CONTROL!!!

Fortunately I was with my mother when I started to blubber. One minute we’re talking about the joys of maternity pants and then next I’m crying in a panic because I’m afraid I’m not the right size for 5 1/2 months and my internal organs haven’t been stomped to mush by baby toes. Mom helped to reassure me that everything was FINE and for the rest of the day I paid special attention to all the little taps I was feeling.

AND I had my midwife appointment yesterday and everything is peachy-keen. My belly is the “right” size, heart rate is strong and lovely… it’s all good.

So take THAT stupid email.

Now that I have been reassured that things are moving along nicely I welcome being squeezed by well meaning security women. As long as we’re in an airport. At the security check point place. And they only squeeze at appropriate times.

More belly bump pics:

22 weeks pregnant (grand canyon edition)

21 weeks pregnant

20 weeks pregnant

19 weeks pregnant

18 weeks pregnant

Goofy Kayloo helping me pack for our trip.

We call that little dog between Kayloo’s paws her “boyfriend.” When you push his foot he sings a little ditty, “I gotta whole lotta love… for you! Whole lotta love…!,” and flaps his ears and legs around. Kayloo loves him. The Boyfriend sits up on a shelf where the dogs (Mickey) can’t rip his ears off. Every now and then Kayloo sits by the shelf looking woefully in the direction of her beloved. We bring Boyfriend down, push on his foot, and while he sings his love song Kayloo licks him all over.

She’s kept this up for a couple years now.

It’s a strange relationship but it works for them.