Shalmanezer

Why on earth would I mention the King of Assyria on this blog? Perhaps it's because that's the name that my father-in-law has picked out for our unborn child. A previous name for another one of his grandchildren is Ataxerxes. Yeah. I don't get it either. All the same, it will be easy to identify your child in a huge crowd. Unless we went to the Middle East. Maybe I'm just uneducated.

We have rumour that we are having a girl, because Caitlin has found herself craving milk, a tell-tale sign for carrying a girl. In that case, Erini Tiana comes to the front. Just today we were pondering the spelling, and thought that we could go with Erene, or Arene, or Arini. I think we'll be fine, so long as we don't give our child a l33t name, like 3r3n3, or 4r1n1, or 3]^1]\[1. That would be something to have on a birth certificate. I wonder if there is a law against that...

IT'S ALIVE!

We kind of knew that Caitlin had life growing inside her when she got the ultrasound, and the heartbeat was 146 bpm. But now, the baby is actually moving around! This is good, and bad. Good because baby is supposed to move. This shows that baby is active and healthy. This is bad, because now Caitlin has something flopping around inside her, randomly pressing her organs here and there, not to mention expanding her uterus. I don't like it when someone pulls at my skin and streches it more than it should. I can't fathom what it would be like to have someone pushing from the other side of the skin!

Telling it all over again

I just got back to school today, and I met up with some friends and profs that I haven't seen in four months. The usual conversation starts up, and then we come to the interesting note when I realize that I haven't told them about the blog, or the event that that started it! It feels a little weird, because I thought I was done with telling everyone that we're expecting a baby.

Weird, but fun! Some people are really happy for you, and... getting the attention is a bit of a rush. I suppose I should savour the flavour, because life is taking a dramatic change. Very soon.

Growing Pains

Who'd a' thunk it? When your body streches to accomidate for another living being inside, you start to get pains in the area that streches and grows to accomidate for it! That's the new ouchie on Caitlin's list of annoyances. Sore feet is not new, since she works retail and is on her feet for her entire shift most days. But abdomen pains, that's new. Her belly is going to grow out, and streching skin does involve some resistance from the body, which hurts.

When the skin expands gradually, I suppose it's not that bad. But when it's a sudden burst of expansion, such as when the uterus expands to the size of your hand, when it's usually the size of a potato chip, that's going to hurt substantially.

At least the morning sickness is under control. Sort of. It's still a gamble as to what will stay down and what won't.

Swimming will definitely help out though. We still have seven visits left on the card, and I don't think they ever expire. Being in the water helps Caitlin relax, and I like the whole bouyant feeling too. Hopefully next time we'll be in the pool for longer than 25 minutes.

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.