Weighty Comments

Now that it is obvious that I am pregnant, people are beginning to be a bit more bold with their comments. Almost daily I hear things like "You look great", "Wow, you are finally starting to pop", "I don't know if you are going to make it to February", "You are hardly showing." Here are a few recent, unusual ones.

Otis's vet: "Christmas baby?"
Me: "No, we are due in February, so we have a few more months to wait."
Otis's vet: Oh (stutters for something to say) it must be your coat" *nervous laughter*

Co-worker: "Oh hi, when did you get back from maternity leave?"
Me: "Actually, I haven't left yet. We are due in February."
Co-worker: "I guess I really haven't seen you since school started." (This was a strange comment since my role at school has me in front of the staff nearly every month.)

Both of these happened on the same day and were made by women that have had children. The next two comments came from students in my Pre-Algebra class.

Boy: Mrs. Rush are you losing weight?
Me: No, (boy) I am actually gaining weight, because I am pregnant, remember?
Boy: Oh, I thought you might not be anymore. Last week you looked more pregnant.
Me: I think it depends on what I am wearing.

While I squatted down to help a student by their desk, another girl says, "Mrs. Rush, your butt is really big. You really shouldn't squat down like that."

It's amazing how pregnancy makes everybody feel comfortable sharing their opinions on your body.

Grandpa William Batiuk ~ 1921 - 2007

As you may have read in one of my previous posts, Brian's grandpa past away just before American Thanksgiving. Last spring, he and grandma moved from their long time home in Trail, B.C. to be closer to family as their health conditions, including Grandpa's Alzheimer's, worsened. Grandpa had been in and out of the hospital with various ailments since then and it was sad to see him lose precious memories and be unable to do the things he loved like golfing and gardening. But even to the end, we continued to see his gentle spirit, his wit and his love of nature.


We held a family memorial service at Brian's parents last Saturday. Everyone got to share some fond memories:

• how, even in his 80's, he beat Brian's aunt at golf
• how he always affectionately and inexplicably called his grandkids "ginks"
• how, every time the ginks would walk by and smack the newspaper he was reading, he wouldn't get upset but would just calmly uncrumple it and continue reading
• how, one time, he did something no other mortal has done and lived: stood up to Grandma :) She was voicing, to Brian's brother, her not-so-favorable opinions about the "young people of today" when Grandpa astonished him by sticking up for us
• how he would painstakingly fill out full pads of grocery store contest applications and win fabulous merchandise almost weekly
• how he was one of the first people in B.C. to work on computers, but refused to own one in his home.

Overall, he will surely be remembered for his unfailing dedication to his family, his love of children (they always made his face brighten) and his never-ending wonder for nature.


We finished our celebration by listening to and reading his favorite Ukrainian hymn and eating a Ukrainian meal (he loved his heritage). Grandma gave each of the branches of his family a Ukrainian memento to remind us of grandpa.

My last memory of grandpa took place over Canadian Thanksgiving in October. We picked him up from his nursing home so he could celebrate with us. Carol, Brian's mom, asked me if I would give him a haircut, since I regularly cut Brian's hair. I was a little nervous, but I agreed.


Although, he didn't have much hair, it still was an adventure. His diabetes made him very sensitive to touch, so I was careful not to startle him too much. The toughest part was his neck. Several times I asked him to look down. I think it was the third time when he turned to me and, unsure why he would want to do such a thing, said, "There's just a dog down there." Carol and I had a good chuckle and I decided to just do my best without getting him to look down. I didn't have much time with Grandpa Batiuk, but the times I did I saw a man to be admired and we will always remember him.

29 weeks!

Well, we've officially made it into the third trimester. Our baby girl is actively moving and growing. Without fail, every time Brian puts his hand or face on my belly she responds with a "kick." We don't know if that is a good thing because she is so responsive toward him or a bad thing because she likes to kick him in the face.



The doctor said everything is going great from their perspective (heart beat is strong, I'm measuring perfectly, great blood pressure, etc). Supposedly, she is the size of a butternut squash this week. That is really hard for me to believe that something that big is inside of me. Brian didn't find it surprising, but he did question me on the choice to have butternut squash soup for dinner recently.



Life is getting more complicated for me however. Sleeping is not a easy as it used to be, my back is hurting more often, and little things are getting a lot more difficult. The other day I had to call Brian to help me get my pantyhose on. It didn't help when he came in the room and started busting up laughing.

People comment regularly that I am finally starting to look big. A few people have asked for belly pictures so we finally got around to taking one. I won't be offended if you quickly avert your eyes.

Only a couple more months and she will be here! We can't wait!

Our Babymoon

All of my pregnancy magazines have advertisements for "babymoons." (One last trip as a couple before you have a baby and your life changes forever). Most of the advertisements are for warm places with sunny beaches or romantic places in Europe, so a few months ago, Brian and I decided to take advantage of my Thanksgiving break and go to that most exotic of locales... Calgary, Alberta.

Why Calgary? Well, actually we stayed a few nights in Canmore, a town near Banff, which is a little more exciting and beautiful. There are a couple things that drew us to this destination. First, airfare during Thanksgiving is unreal, so we knew we would be driving. Second, we wanted to go somewhere new, and we could use our Trendwest membership to get a place in Canmore for very little. (It cost more to kennel our dogs for a night than for our room!) Finally, Brian's brother Kevin, his wife Melanie, and their 7 month old baby Jamie live in Calgary and we don't get to see them very often.

The drive is about 10 1/2 hours if you drive non-stop and conditions are favorable. Unfortunately with a 6+ month pregnant woman and two dogs you can't drive non-stop. Fortunately, the drive is beautiful. There was snow all around us, but the roads were bare and the sky was blue. The air was crisp and absolutely FREEZING! (Note the temperature on the dashboard in the middle of the day.)
At one rest stop Otis got to experience snow for the first time! Trudy needed to wear the coat Alli got her because she is so skinny and doesn't have much fur. While in Canmore we mostly vegged out in our room. But we did make one venture into town each day to walk around the shops and get something to eat.
Then on to Calgary to spend a few days with Kevin, Melanie, and Jamie. Melanie and I spent a lot of time talking about new motherhood. She passed on her maternity clothes, (My wardrobe at least doubled!) as well as some clothes and things that Jamie has outgrown. We saw some of Calgary; I drove around with Melanie one afternoon and Brian went to some art shows. We played a great new version of the game of Settlers of Catan and again just relaxed.

Our dogs got to stay with us at their house. Jamie gave them a crash course in how to act around babies! She poked them, pinched their noses, pulled their tails, took their bones away while they were chewing them and even tried to pull herself to standing using Trudy (and her fur!). They were so great! She also exposed them to lots of new smells and sounds. Our only trouble was making sure they didn't lick her to death every time they walked by. Jamie and the dogs even joined forces to become an irresistible wake up crew.

Our only sad part of our trip was that while we were gone Brian's grandpa passed away. We knew it might be soon and made a point to visit him before we left, but it was still difficult. The family decided to wait to have the service until after we got home, and Melanie decided to caravan back with us so she could be there too. Kevin flew in later in the week because of work.

Overall, it was great to get away with Brian. We had fun just laughing, dreaming about the next stage of our marriage, spending time with family we don't see often, and doing nothing. I came back really refreshed, in spite of spending an entire day in the car.

Cool Tip #2 - Iron

So people always say that eating while you are pregnant is so easy because you can eat anything. That hasn't been true for me. I find it so difficult, mostly because I still struggle to eat meat which makes it hard to get enough protein for baby. Then after my last blood test, my doctor said I need to be eating more iron.

Brian has become the "iron and protein nazi," which I appreciate how supportive he is, but it is still frustrating. The forced burritos at bedtime when I realized that I hadn't eaten much protein was humorous/annoying but also very sweet.

Tonight, after completing my last blog, I asked Brian if he wanted to share a grapefruit with me. I can always eat fruit. He said, "Shouldn't you eat some spinach? You haven't had much iron today." I told him that I really didn't want any spinach and he suggested that I eat both. Not feeling that hungry I decided to search for iron rich foods on google, secretly hoping something yummier like grapefruit would be on the list.

Healthcastle.com came up first on the list. On their homepage it listed Spinach as an Iron Absorption Inhibitor and grapefruit as an Iron Absorption Enhancer. There was also a link entitled "Is Spinach a good source of iron?" Feeling a little cheeky, and emboldened by my new knowledge of the limitations of spinach and the power of grapefruit, I clicked on the link thinking that I was going to prove Brian wrong and be able to just eat my grapefruit.

Unfortunately, in the section labeled "So should you or should you not eat Spinach?" it said spinach will be a good source of iron if you eat it with an Iron Absorption Enhancer...like grapefruit. So as I am typing up our story to share with you my newly found knowledge, I am eating a spinach salad with grapefruit slices. And Brian is gloating.

Phew!

The last six weeks have been abnormally busy! Add being pregnant on top of all of the extras at work and travelling and voila! not much blogging gets done, let alone other necessities like cleaning house and buying groceries. Those days I was home involved a lot of scrambling to eat and doing just enough to get by around the house before falling into bed. Being my first full weekend home for a while, I first breathed a big sigh of relief and then got to work, hardly leaving the house for three days! But we are now entering the work week with a mostly clean house, a garage that we can park our car in (yes Friends, the Rush's car is in their garage) and baked goods for breakfast. Stay tuned for the highlights of the last few weeks.

"Otis! You're not stupid!" - Brian

Sometimes, we have to trick our dog Trudy into eating. One nearly fail-safe method is to play catch with a few pieces of kibble. After about three she will begin eating out of her bowl. I'm not sure if she gets the idea that she should eat or if the taste of a few pieces whets her appetite. Either way it gets the job done.

Every time I throw food for Trudy Otis comes and sits expectantly, so I throw food to him too. Usually the kibble hits him somewhere in the face and he scrambles for the rebound. However, yesterday morning after the usual "Otis, ready ... catch" he actually opened his mouth in an attempt to catch on his turn. Excited I praised his effort as he scrambled for the missed food.

After Trudy's turn, I decided to try Otis again, hoping to reinforce his attempt, but not expecting much. This time Otis caught it! I was overjoyed and gave him lots of praise! Brian overheard the commotion from the stairs, confirmed what he was hearing was true and wished he could have seen it. Then he too praised Otis with some pats and said with delighted surprise, "Otis! You're not stupid!"

This morning Trudy required another round of kibble toss. And as Otis waited for his turn he had the same kind of crazed look Trudy gets while fetching at the dog park, quivering with excitment. I paused a little too long after saying ready and he sprang up directly in front of me. Hilarious! He missed that one, but was able to catch the next. A light bulb must have gone on. So our boy may be slow, but he's not stupid.

Bingos!

As many of you may know, Brian and I enjoy playing games. We don't play as much as we used to, but we try to play something while we are eating dinner together. The game of choice lately has been Scrabble.

Scrabble is great because it can be paused at any time. Or one player can take their turn while the other is not there. Lately, our schedules have not matched much, so it may take us a few days to finish a game. It is always fun to come home and see what word Brian has added.

We allow each other unlimited access to the Scrabble dictionary, under the pretense that we are "learning," though most of the words I look up I don't remember. Brian is good about asking what the word means; usually I am just excited that I got a high score. We probably will be those parents that do make their kids learn the meaning. But for now, I'm just trying to keep up with Brian.

Usually our games are pretty close, right around 300 points. Earlier this week Brian had a great game and nearly broke 400. So, of course, he wanted to start a new game the next night with the mission to break 400.

The game started normally, but then on his third turn he got a bingo (using all of your tiles and earning a 50 point bonus) on a triple word score. On the subsequent two turns, he got two more bingos. By the seventh turn he was already over 300 points! All in all, he got 4 bingos and 4 triple word scores. He didn't even have all of the good letters. I still had a pretty good game ending with 274 points. Brian, however, finished this epic game with a score of 526! The picture above is a photograph of the now famous game.

Bring on the Scrabble championships...

Tip: If you can't get a high score, keep the letters on your tray that spell the word Starline, and find a place to get rid of anything else.

Name List

Shannon and I have been talking about potential baby names for years, narrowing down to a short list of first and middle names we both love, so when baby pops out naming her should be no harder than a multiple choice question. I like our long incubation period, because a name is kind of like a tattoo--do you really want a mermaid on your butt cheek when you're 83?

Maybe.

But we're not discussing tattoo's here. Or my butt cheek, left or right.

Anyways, Shannon and I keep telling ourselves we're not settling on a single name before the birth because we know several people that have had to change their mind when they saw their baby. My brother just did it last spring and Shannon, bless her little bisyllabic self, was supposed to be a Jessica. Despite our best efforts though, one name is leading the nominations.

It's perfect. It sounds beautiful but shortens well. It's not too common and not too weird. It looks pretty on paper and feels good to write. It's versatile. It has a suitable manifestation for whatever life pursuit little *BEEP* pursues. Etc. Etc.

And we're not going to tell you, or anyone, what it is. It's too easy to criticize a name before it's a person. And we'd rather not spend the next four months defending, persuading, or second guessing.

But--to appease you ravenous vultures--I present you with a shortlist...

...of names we will NOT be naming our child:

1) Brianrietta - although a personal favorite, this one didn't pass Shannon's rigorous screening process.

2) Kwanesha - NB. that does NOT exclude its variant: Qwanesha.

3) Hairb - even though a new surname may be in her future, there were a few tangles to work out with this one.

4) ???

Feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments. The list is short but it's not closed.

I Felt Her!

The other night Shannon told me to put my hand on her belly. Man, we have a strong little lady in there. There was no question of whether or not I felt it. It was definite. I just hope it's not one of these! ----->