my big brother turns 29

we had a birthday party on saturday to celebrate andrew turning 29 (on jan 31). here he is blowing out the candles on the cream puff cake.


here is my friend rose & me at the party. she is 10 weeks pregnant. this is the fifth pregnancy in our group. rose & her sister are due one month apart from each other!

$7.50 College Fund

i had a doctors appointment on Friday. he said the baby is in position and has dropped as much as it will so baby's ready to go anytime. he said, he's not promising that he/she will be early, but he doubts he/she will be late.

with that said, does anyone want to join in on the 50/50 draw? right now the winnings are $7.50 for baby's college fund and same for the winner.

check out the votes so far:

Baby Salmon's Due Date 50/50 Draw

mellenger's came to visit

andrew, heather and miles came over tonight. i made a salmon dinner (the last salmon thtat poppa had given us). it was really tasty. i don't really have the energy to host a real dinner (planned ahead), so they called when i was making it and there was lots so i invited them last minute. our house is pretty clean right now, so it all worked out great.


andrew & miles were looking so cute having a little gaze at each other. miles is getting so big. he loves looking at me now, he always smiles at me :)


heather got to try slinging miles. he seemed to really enjoy it.


miles & andrew on the fit ball. andrew said miles was chomping down so hard on his fingers...he asked if i'd like to see how hard miles could bite, but i declined because i'm in enough pain already.

36 weeks

here i am at week 36. as of next week, i will be considered full term and the baby could come at any time (well, anytime between 3 and 5 more weeks). now i have to make sure to pack the hospital bags and have the house kept clean so we'll be ready to go when baby wants.

i had such terrible sleep last night. i was drifting in and out of sleep for 5 hours!!! i finally got back to sleep by 5.50am and slept until 6.30am. apparently thats common and its called pregnancy insomnia. it didn't frustrate me like it might usually although, yikes, work was tough to get through today. i am looking forward to working from home tomorrow with a midday break for a doctor's appointment.

only 6 work days to go--crazy :D i did some training today and pending that a new assistant is in place by next week, i'll have to go over that same stuff with him/her then.

g'night

we're so proud of our sparky

yesterday, derek brought sparky with him when he picked me up from work (well, where my carpool dropped me off).

there is a dog boutique there where the owner is so amazing with animals. she has been wanting to meet sparky for months, b/c she loves "dobies" (thats doh-bees, as in doberman's--just to clarify). there were lots of dogs in the little boutique so we told her we would keep sparky out.

she said, "don't be ridiculous, he can come play." and she just brought him right in. he usually snaps at little dogs so we were pretty skeptical.

there was some barking, but the owner just told them to stop and they did. it was so cool. then sparky wandered around this boutique with six or seven other dogs and just had a nice time. it was so cute. we were so proud of him :D

then today derek said that sparky protected our yard from our landlords dogs (who are fairly scary, the landlord even told me that HE doesn't trust his own dogs around other animals). so sparky was being all ansy in the house, so derek let him out and he barked the dogs out of our yard. another proud moment. way to go sparky!

office work is coming to a close

my job is soon to end. its been a really great 2.5 years. i am really excited to move on to this new experience of parenting and i am curious to see how much i will miss working in the office.

its been such an interesting journey for me going through 3 main office jobs in the past 4.5 years. my first admin job was at Whistler Blackcomb. i had such a great experience. that boss was my best boss ever up to that point. he was very willing to recognize when i would excel in the job and he would offer me opportunities to do things outside the scope of my position like doing corporate training for our staff (like the orientation course all staff would attend). that job lasted for 1 year 4 months. it got to the point where he did not see me going beyond that position (there weren't any promotions to go to, and at that point, i wanted to get out of admin any way possible). at the same time that derek decided he was ready for a big change.

moving to the lower mainland, i was cocky and confident that i could get a job where i would be something other than admin. it was pretty immature and pretty unfounded, so i eventually had to look for an admin job, which i figured would be no problem, and that i deserved at least $30000. at that point, my mindset was that admin work was too easy for me but was a skill i had and could make a living at. i did get a $30000 job, but after several months, the stress of it made me decide that i would rather make much less and have much less stress. i do not like stress at work. i cried alot during the 7 months that i worked for that wage. it was a huge learning experience for me.

anyway, broken and battered, thats how i came to my current job. i was timid as a mouse. i had a horrible interview. i was scared of getting fired for the first three months. when i got the job i decided that i would try a new angle with my attitude towards admin work. i would be satisfied with whatever i did. i would not be striving to be more than an admin assistant. i would strive to be the best at that job and just do it. it worked really well. as it turned out, i was given other opportunities and challenges that were not strictly admin, but not because i was lobbying for them. it was such a blessing. this has truly been the best job and i had the privilege of working for 2 years for the best boss i have ever worked for. it has been truly excellent. and an added blessing has been working in a non-administrative position (part time) since september. although it is really hard to let go of the admin side of me. its been pretty ingrained in my 4.5 years in those types of roles.

an exciting friday night...time for a new decision

i have been realizing that i need to rest more at this point of the pregnancy. it has been a struggle to drive to and from work, and to be at work because of my extreme tiredness and pain i have in walking. i made a few uncharacteristic mistakes and it got me scared that i could not perform my duties as well as i had been. so on monday i decided that i would change my leaving date from Feb 11 to Feb 4. doing that gave me extra energy b/c instead of saying "i've got 3 more weeks!" i could say, "i'm leaving next Friday!" which was much more hopeful for me.

i have been having mandatory naps every day upon arriving home. i also arranged to ride in with a carpool so i wouldn't have to drive to and from work as well as pick derek up (which can add up to 40 or 50 extra minutes of travel time per day). i also requested that i work from home one day per week until i'm done. this week, it will be friday, but i don't know for sure if i'll need to next week.

at my last doctor's appointment he asked me when i was leaving work. when he found out it would not be until i was 38 weeks, he was pretty surprised. he offered to write me a note but i just hemmed and hawed and said i'd think about it.

then on Friday (jan 21) i was having Braxton Hicks all day long, but they rarely softened. i didn't think i was going into labour, i just thought it was strange. so i called the maternity ward and they asked me to come in for an assessment. it was 4 hours on with the fetal heart monitor. they said we have a very healthy 35 week old. their diagnosis was that i was dehydrated (which brought on the constant contractions), so they gave me an IV and full bag of fluid and sent me on my way telling me to rest up.

we were supposed to go to Courtney to visit Poppa & Diane, but they advised that we stay close to home and close to the hospital just in case. so it wasn't so much that i was in prelabour, but more that they were trying to prevent me from starting labour. it wasn't really that frightening of an experience, except for the IV--ouch! did that hurt.

i realized that on Friday i walked around too much, going photocopying and filing and bathroom breaks...and that every time i'd walk, my belly would be pretty hard. so this week i have been strictly sticking to a once-per-hour walk about. where i can lump together the tasks of bathroom break, check my mail, do photocopying, deliver stuff to finance, etc. it has been better this week for sure.

anyway, thats whats been going on here. we managed to get the house cleaned up and we just need to finish the final sanding on the baby change table before the baby room will really be done. its been a long process. derek estimates that we've spent 30 hours sanding that change table...pretty crazy, and thats with power palm sanders!

35 days til Baby Salmon's Due Date

i am 35 weeks pregnant today and it is only 35 days until baby's due date. as of yesterday, i began my weekly doctor's appointments (which continue until baby arrives). my fundal measurement is 35 cm for 35 weeks so i'm right on target. all my other tests have been good which i am so thankful for.

i have been feeling absolutely wiped out lately. i have been having evening naps most days and have even had some near naps at lunch time at work. driving has been tiring me out so i'm going to try to carpool as much as possible to work and back. when i have to drive derek to and from work, it makes for a really long day.

we had our second prenatal class on tuesday night. it was about massage :D mmmm. it was really nice, derek got to practice massaging my back. i also had to practice massaging his back (well not practice, but the facilitator said maybe if we massage then they will get up with us once in the middle of the night). anyway, we watched a birth which was pretty uncomfortable to see. i am getting a bit nervous about labor and delivery but am still trying to stick with my plan to have confidence and a good attitude when the time comes. we'll see how that all goes, i guess.

derek and i have been working at sanding the baby change table, which takes a long time b/c of all the bumpy parts on it. it has a nice pine wood underneath, so we think it will look nice when finished. derek closed in the baby room (it used to have a doorway joining two rooms). He made a bookshelf to cover the doorway. it looks really good. (pictures will go up once its all complete, right now there is dust everywhere b/c of the sanding we are doing...i really really hope that we finish soon so we can get stuff back into that room).

there has been some freak flooding around here that i'm sure most have heard about. it has not affected us too much other than slowing down the driving. i'm really thankful that we live in a house with no basement and that it has a raised floor. i don't think i would have had the energy if we'd had to mop up water.

we took chelsie out to Krispy Kreme for a little birthday celebration on sunday. we can't believe she's 15 now. its pretty crazy. she has been such a neat person to watch grow up the last 3 years.

andrew, heather, miles, derek and i are going to Courtney to visit Poppa and Diane for "Christmas." this is the second year in a row we are doing the january Christmas. i guess this year we should try for December!

peace

i'm getting a sling for baby!

i'm really excited about the sling my friend michelle is going to send me!

sling print

it will help in so many ways for carrying and caring for our little one :)

only 6 weeks left!!!

here i am at week 34

wow. time sure has flown by.

derek has been very busy working on the baby room this past week. he has painted the room white and is planning to put yellow trim along the bottom and door frames. he has done such a great job! it will be nice when he's finished so that we can have our living room back :)

we also had our first (of six) prenatal class this week on tuesday. it was good. i learned a few things about delivery and such.

we went to a Labour & Delivery class last night at the hospital. We learned much more extensively about the process of labour and what tools they will be using on me in the hospital. it was very informative. It was especially neat because the nurses who presented the class, might be there during my labour and they spoke about what goes on specifically in the hospital where we will have our baby.

a strange, noteworthy thing happened today...after several months of having pain to walk, the pain is gone. i figure baby repositioned him/herself today and gave some relief to my tendons/ligaments. i just hope baby is still head down and didn't go posterior or anything. i don't figure this pain-free walking will last, but for today, i'm enjoying and appreciating it--thank you baby!

so, with just six or so weeks left, we still have lots of stuff to do around the house. we are so excited for the arrival of our little one and are enjoying our last few weeks "just the two of us."

the grandparents have booked their flights! mom & dad salmon are arriving feb 23 for 2 weeks and mom gagne has booked her flight for march 19. should be good times.

peace

We went shopping!

Last night Derek and I had a really fun time going to buy baby stuff with gift money we got from our Boxing Day baby shower.

Thank you again for all the great gifts and for helping us get some essentials for baby salmon's arrival!

Derek picked out the stroller "travel system" that we bought.



the stroller is very light weight, compacts well, and has windows to see the baby. it also has adjustable height handle and cupholders for all. The fabric is a faux suede and very stylish for a boy or girl.


stroller compacted

it is a travel system, which means it comes with an infant carseat and has a dock that it clicks into that stays in the car.


lamby in carseat

the infant car seat also clicks into the stroller.



we also happened upon a great deal for a diaper bag. we had been discussing what items we should shop for, not wanting to get anything but the essentials at this point.



the diaper bag has lots of compartments and comes with several bottle holders and such. i packed the baby bag as soon as we got home (so its ready to go for our hospital visit) while Derek put the "travel system" together!

we also bought a contour change pad. We just need to paint the change table to go with the pad.

i was so excited about our purchases and the pending arrival of baby, and for our first prenatal class that happens tonight that I barely slept. I got up at 4am for an hour and a half, thinking about baby names and such.

needless to say, we are very excited and are glad for the essentials are now in our possession.

phone survey...on my cellphone??

ok, i don't really want to be one who complains...but i had a crazy experience today.

i got a call from a long distance 1 877 # on my cell phone (i'm almost tempted to write out the full number...).

anyway, i answer it, and it is someone conducting a survey...on my cell phone??

anyway, i agree to listen, and she asks if i'm pregnant...i'm a bit taken aback...but answer yes.
she tells me the survey is about pregnant womens' attitudes and feelings.

then we have a less than delightful question and answer period which seemed extremely redundant and LONG and required me to say "walmart, thyme, motherhood, the bay, old navy" far far too many times.

there were times when she would say something like this:
"in your experience with thyme, motherhood, the bay, old navy and walmart: which would you recommend to your friends?"
being quite fatigued from the length of this survey, i said "all of them except the bay"
and she said "which ones would those be?"
and i said "i dont remember, its such a long list...what were they again?"
she said "thyme, motherhood, the bay, old navy and walmart"
so i repeated "thyme, motherhood, old navy and walmart"

isn't that weird???

eventually i asked "is it part of the survey whether or not i can keep a good attitude throughout such a long survey??...how long is this supposed to take? and how did you get my cell phone number?"

my cellphone was feeling way to warm next to my face and i have a headset for my home phone so i think i would've been in better spirits had it been on that phone.

she responded that they randomly selected numbers using an autodialer (which seems weird...what are the chances that they would get a pregnant woman's phone number...?) and that the survey should take 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the length of my answers.

it was seriously ridiculous how many times i had to name thyme, motherhood, the bay, old navy and walmart. anyway, finally she asked maybe 5 questions about being pregnant and how i felt about it, to which i prefaced with "i wish you'd asked this question at the beginning of the survey" before my extreme boredom and annoyance had set in. she wrapped up the session with more consumer questions.

oh ya, many times i would say something like "i like their products" and she would ask "what do you mean by that?" and i would say "i like the clothes they sell"...it thought that was pretty obvious since they are all clothing stores (or that was the topic of conversation). but noooo, i had to lay it all out...it was quite bizarre.

anyway, we said our teary goodbyes and i checked the time on my cell phone 28min 48seconds. now, i'm thankful it was on my cell phone, just so i could have the actual length of time. insane. no survey should be that long! and no, it doesn't make me want to rush out and buy maternity clothes!

for the love of pretzels

apparently derek doesn't like pretzels that much either...except for art projects proclaiming his love for me

derek & sparky

derek said "why did i have to get up so early just to sleep in?" here he is napping with sparky.

we attempted to drive me to work but there was too much snow on our country road and then the windshield wiper (driver side) broke and the other one was too frozen to switch over. so we turned around and headed back home so i could try working from home. derek raked the driveway (we dont have a shovel yet, but i expect we'll pick one up later today when the snow stops) and tried for a long time to get the car back into our yard.


here they are about 5 minutes ago...sparky's really sprawled out.

7 Weeks to Go!

The countdown continues. i'm 33 weeks today. i had an ultrasound 2 days ago and the technician estimated that the baby is 5.5 lbs and that i'm actually 35 weeks! my doctor does not agree though which is fine. my fundal measurement is 33 cm and i'm 33 weeks so i'm on track for February 24 at this point. its sort of exciting to think of it happening in 5 weeks though, since i'd still be working ;)

at this point, i'm getting pretty sore. the doctor said that the baby's head is pretty far down so that could be contributing to my discomfort. basically it hurts to walk and to get dressed but i can do my prenatal aerobics video and it doesn't hurt...kind of strange.

so the baby is head down and should stay that way until birth. its cool now because i can definitely feel a little bum usually on the right side of my belly and now i know that the sharp little movements to the left are knees, toes or heels.

i'm suppressing my nesting urges so i don't hound poor derek, but i'm definitely noticing things that HAVE to be done before too long ;P like finishing up moving Mark's stuff, cleaning the fridge (i think i'll do that saturday), fixing my bedroom closet, moving some furniture out of our room to make room for the bassinet, unpacking, moving shelves from the old storage room to the new one, putting up a door between the baby room and storage room, finishing the flooring and trim, painting baby room, fixing and painting the change table.

looking at that list is a bit stressful, since derek has to do most of the items and i don't want to bug him. he is working saturday and sunday this week so it won't get done for awhile. i can handle the unpacking, cleaning the fridge and painting i guess...i'm not totally sold on the "need" to paint, but derek wants to. i only agreed because there is paint in the garage we can use. i guess i'll also need to figure out a good solution for all the stuffed animals we have too so that the bassinet will be ready for use (they're all stuffed into the bassinet right now, no room for baby in there!).

it will be fun to get some of those things done in preparation for baby's arrival. i'm enjoying the frequent movement which should be slowing down soon as baby gets bigger and has less room to move around. i better enjoy it while it lasts, the moving has been such a fun bonding experience for me and derek. but i guess the short reprieve of movement will get us excited to hold the baby :)

it snowed today, maybe 5 cm. it is supposed to snow 5 or 6 inches tomorrow so i don't know if that will mean derek will stay home from work. its been pretty cold here since we got back, -5 most days, a bit warmer today to get the snow.

Happy New Year

Breaking News: Miles is Holding His Bottle!

Wow, how my sweet nephew has grown. Here is a picture of him holding his own bottle. So cute!

Latest Photos of Baby Salmon

I had my 2nd ultrasound and above is a shot of baby's head and two fists. The technician warned us that the images would not be very good, but we bought them anyway.


baby's head


baby's spine


baby's foot

sorry the pictures are so dark. i will try to lighten them up later on.

only 1 month & 20 days to go!!

Gagne Parents came to visit

my mom arrived and was wearing such a spiffy outfit i asked her for a picture right away. she said the photo would not do justice as it was the love in my heart that made her look so good to me...silly mom!


amanda, richard, mom, derek

we had a great visit playing games and showing them video of our time with the salmon family parents.


nana & grandpa salmon, grandpa richard & grandma jen

my mom is laughing alot here, because she kept making rabbit ears behind richards head, we finally got her to behave and snapped this photo.

Happy 2005 - they are moneymoney

we brought in the new year with some friends and money money at the Trasheteria in Peterborough Ontario. derek is friends with some of the band and they are doing really well playing in Toronto, Montreal and New York. the interesting thing is 3 of them are pastors kids and one is an ordained minister...but they are not a xian band, they are rock and roll.

it was a loud evening. amanda sat in the stairwell for most of the night trying to escape the cigarette fumes and the loudness. derek video'd most of the event. many people stopped to talk to amanda in the stairwell, offering to bring water to her, and one man asked to rub her belly, then said the baby will always be lucky. very interesting.