I love Aromatherapy

In July, we had Capital Ex in Edmonton (it used to be Klondike Days, and I think I prefer calling it K-Days). While there, we found some aromatherapy oils at one of the kiosks there, and MAN! Are they ever great! We got a Mint-scented one that is supposed to help with headaches (we haven't tried that one yet) and a Mandarin-scented one that has done WONDERS with my nausea! I haven't done more than get dry heaves since we started using it!

In other news, I am two days short of my 12-week mark, and baby is about the size of my palm. The heart rate is almost that of a hummingbird's, according to Doctor Litchfield! Not anything to panic about, apparently, but the heart rate was about 180 bpms!

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I am pregnant, there is a life growing inside of me, and that in about six months or so, that life will become an independent lifeform outside of me that I will need to raise as well and lovingly as I can. With the help of Steven, I hope that we will be good parents, as well as husband and wife.

I've often heard that one of the best things a father can do for his children is to love their mother. I don't think that'll be a problem! ;)

Trump card

I didn't feel like writing anything, because I was a little frustrated about the financial situation we've gotten ourselves into. I was prepared to calm down, and discuss it with Caitlin when she got home from work around 3:30pm.

She got home at 1pm. She had lost breakfast twice, and was not feeling very well at all. All of a sudden, the finances didn't matter. All I could think about was getting her in bed and making sure the bucket was nearby.

She thought popcorn would stay down, as it has before, but it didn't. Thankfully, we're entering week 12, so the morning sickness should subside within a fortnight. Ugh. I wish it was over with now. I'm not ill, but I hate watching my wife in pain.

Pack rat to the rescue

Some people would say that it's a bad thing to be a pack rat, because you carry around a ton of junk that you're never going to use. For the most part, they are right, but the other day, when Caitlin had a hard time getting to sleep, I remembered that there was something that I bought almost 10 years ago that might help. It's called a body pillow. I found it handy at the time I bought it, since I had a queen sized bed and the pillow went across the entire width. Call me lazy, but it worked. I remembered that I had it stowed in the closet, and I dug it out in an effort to make Caitlin more comfortable so she could sleep. It seems to work, because she can keep her knees supported. Also, she has something to snuggle with that doesn't generate more heat. In the winter the pillow will probably go, and she'll make do with her usual sleep accessory, me.

Small side note here

It's mine and Steven's 3rd anniversary today, and we're looking forward to being able to actually celebrate within the month! We're going to Banff with some of my family the last full week of August, and I must say, I've been needing this vacation for a very long time now! Each adult (or whoever) will be in charge of at least one meal, probably more, but Steve and I have this really great, REALLY simple recipe for chicken casserole that you can also make as a stew! Really tasty!

Amazingly enough, chicken stew seems to work the best for me right now. Especially with lots of veggies and broth...

Mmm...

I'm still trying to figure this whole pregnancy thing out...

Learning with literature

I seem to recall an article in the newspaper awhile back by Todd Babiak which he told of his desire to hide under a desk and weep everytime he hears an educated well employed person state that they do not watch the news, nor read a local newspaper. People just don't read enough these days I suppose. If you can read, you should!

Last night I picked up and read some of a book that I picked up at the library entitled, It's Your Pregnancy Too! I found a lot of the typical things that we've heard about morning sickness, and there was some mention about the medication that is available. When we went to our prenatal visit today with Dr. Litchfield, we discussed the meds, and he wrote a perscription for Caitlin. The meds, of which the name I'll write when we pick some up, are really good for alieviating nausea, but they do come at a price. Each pill costs about $1.50 and she would have to take three a day, maybe two. Woof.

I also picked up a copy of the Spring 2006 Today's Parent: Pregnancy and Birth magazine from Dr. Litchfield's office. They get dozens of them when they publish every quarter, so he was more than happy to let me take it home.

Determining the sex of the baby is an interesting process. I asked Dr. Litchfield before we left if there was any truth to the story that if you avoid tomatoes you'll have a boy. His response was that there was a study done in Montreal where they determined that if a mother has a high intake of potassium before conceiving, then she'll have a boy. If she bones up on dairy, she has a girl. The outcomes were 87% accurate, so you get a better result than flipping a coin!

Bungie-licious

We have never imbibed in alcohol, nor do we ever plan to, and even if we had previously, I do not think watching someone puke would make morning sickness any less uneasy. I almost feel helpless to see my wife on her knees giving sacrifice to the porcelain diety, even if she eats something simple like soda crackers. Caitlin and I are still trying to figure out what she can eat or drink and keep down.
One way we have found to get around the pregnancy axiom "What goes down, must come up" is taking in small quantities of food at frequent intervals. Go figure, that sounds a lot like what nutritionists recommend. We are also considering stocking up on ginger ale. My sister told me that ginger is good for settling the stomach, and she also speaks from experience. Peppermint is a good stomach pacifier too, but Caitlin never had much of a taste for peppermint before, and still holds to that distaste. This is still early and her tastes could change.

The good news is the heat wave is over, so we don't have to worry about that for the moment. We can be very grateful that she's not carrying full term right now! We can also be grateful that the air conditioning works at her job. Seems anywhere is cooler than at our apartment right now. She hopes that she will still be able to perform at her job for a few months more, but if things continue the way they are, that may come to a screeching halt, and I might be forced to do a bit more paid work that I anticipated I would be doing over the Fall 2006 semester.

Worry alert level has dropped, a bit

Here we have the first offical picture of baby! Taken on Friday, July 21, 2006. It says that on the picture as well, but it's tough to read. Just like it's hard to see baby (it's on the lower left side). Baby is only a centimeter or so (1/2") long right now, but the heart rate was at 146 bpm. I wasn't there, but I've been told that you could actually see the heart flutter too! Optimal range, according to the nurse who looked after Caitlin, is between 140 and 150 bpm. The funny thing is, one of my co-workers said that it's probably going to be a boy because of the strong heart rate, and Brenda said it was going to be a girl because of the strong heart rate. All I know is that baby is not stuck in one of the tubes, but in the uterus where it can grow to term. Hence I'm not worried about that anymore!

I'm also very grateful that Brenda took Caitlin to the appointment. Not only because I had to work, but also because Brenda knew where the place was and had a car to take Caitlin there! I knew the address, and we could have taken the bus, but this worked better I think. I'm also glad that Caitlin didn't have to go there alone. Hopefully I'll be able to go to the next ultrasound test. I don't know when that will be, but since it's not an ectopic, I'm guessing that it will be in a couple of months.

Caitlin has lost a good chunk of weight since the doctor's appointment, and that may be in part to the fact that pregnancy is in full gear, and that it's been so hot! When she stepped on Brenda's scales on Friday, she weighed around 170 lbs. That's 20 lbs. lighter than she was at the doctor's! She might also be losing weight with the morning sickness that's been plagueing her too. This morning when we were coming back from Beaumont, I was very glad that we brought a bucket with us. It was put to use around 10 am, right when we got to downtown. Although she had dry heaves all the way from Millwoods, I thought she might be able to make it home. I was wrong.

I also didn't expect her to puke on the bus yesterday when we went down to Millwoods. Then again, I didn't expect it to be 35C (about 93F) outside, and even warmer inside the bus! The buses have heat, oh yes, because eight months of the year you need it. No A/C though, and Caitlin has had heat exhaustion before, which makes her all the more succeptable to it again. We also didn't have the empty ice cream bucket with us, so she used a Rubbermaid bottle. Good thing that only cost us a couple bucks. I'm beginning to sense that I shouldn't worry about lost expenses like that. If we need to spend so much money now, it's only going to be more once baby arrives!

Caitlin is trying things to keep her stomach settled. She eats soda crackers, since they stay down, and she drinks a goodly amount of water. We were told by someone on the bus yesterday, after the puking episode, that moderately cool water with a few pinches of salt would keep Caitlin well hydrated. It's one thing to have water, but if your system doesn't absorb it, where does it go? Back up the way it came? Down the drain? Both?

March 6, 2007 suddenly seems a long ways away.