What the Old Wives Have to Say

There are generations of Old Wives Tales about predicting the gender of a yet to be born baby, dating back long before it was common practice to identify the sex of the baby with an ultrasound. Since I have given birth to a girl and we are very confident that I am carrying a boy (he showed us all his goods and didn't leave much room for doubt!) I feel that I am somewhat authorized to comment. The bottom line is, in my not-so-scientific study, in which I am the only test subject - I think the Old Wives might just be on to something! Here are my test results:

1. High or Low? The tale goes that if you are carrying low it's a boy, and high if it's a girl... well I think we can all see from the pictures that Bro' is LOW! So low, in fact, that I think I may end up tripping over him if he drops too much before delivery! RESULT: BOY!
2. High or Low Part 2? It's said that if the baby's heart rate is below 140 it's a boy, and over, it's a girl. Brudder has been coming in around 137 bpm whereas Norah was consistently in the mid 150's. I will note however that Brudder was higher in the earlier months, but has been pretty consistent over the past month. RESULT: BOY!
3. Sweet or Sour? This is a bit of a strange one for me, as I ALWAYS like sour... my cravings were poutine with Norah and Guacamole with Brudder, neither of which is sweet OR sour... I have had a hard time with any kind of candy, sweet or sour, due to heartburn, until lately though. RESULT: INCONCLUSIVE
4. Sympathy Weight Gain? If your husband gains weight at the same rate you are, the Old Wives say it's a girl. Sure enough, last time around Matt kept pace with me up until the third trimester, and I never did catch him on the scale... this time, let's just say I'd rather not talk about it (but please, bear in mind Brudder is BIG) RESULT: BOY!
5. Fat Face? The Old Wives say that if the mother's face is 'round and rosy' it means you're having a girl. Well the pictures don't lie people, I think we can all see I gained a lot more face fat with Norah than I did this time around. RESULT: BOY!

So there you have it, even though we know, with a certain degree of scientific certainty, that we're having a boy, the Old Wives would seem to agree!

One other one that I heard that the ultrasound also shows to be true is that a lot of heartburn means a hairy baby... with Norah, no heartburn until the very end, and the poor girl barely had hair at a year, never mind when she was born! With Brudder, I've been having it all along, sometimes quite bad, and this week's Ultrasound showed he did in fact have plenty of hair!

Last Comparison Shots

I think these are the last set of Norah Bellay vs Brudder Bellay that I'll have... I don't know if I took any more belly shots after this point last time around, and it's unlikely that I'm going to go pulling up the archive again (just being honest here people!) First off, here's me and Princess Norah this evening. Clearly she's very busy, making a phone call (Hi Nanny? Yes, water play at school today) Of course she was all dolled up in her beads, tutu and disco ball...
Here's me and my Bellay, this afternoon (having trouble focusing on work...) all 7lbs 11 oz of Brudder, sticking straight out the front!

And here I am with Norah with about a month left to go, pleasantly plump all around :)

To all those participating in Brudder's Pool

For those of you who've joined the fun on the Baby Pool (still time -->>>) I thought I'd give you some updates that may affect your votes...

• As of last week (34 weeks) my Bellay was measuring at 39 weeks - yikes!
• This week (35 weeks) I had another ultrasound to get a handle on how much of that is baby and how much is amniotic fluid - turns out a bit of each - Brudder is measuring 7lb 11 oz (bigger than Norah when she arrived, and average for 37 weeks) and looks to have long limbs.
• I started having contractions last week. I was pretty sick, and spent nearly a week in bed, but in the process had the first of several 'non stress tests' to monitor Brudder's heart rate (still good!) and my contractions, if any (there were, not that I felt them last week)
• This week, I was having frequent contractions, to the point that we headed off to the hospital last night. They were indeed frequent, but not strong enough to start things really rolling - I am 1.5 cm dilated and about 80% effaced. For those of you not in the know, I need to get to 10 cm and 100%. With Norah I was at about 3-4cm and 80% when we got to the hospital, and my water had broken, but she still took her sweet time arriving (I stalled around 6 cm) They sent me home and told me to come back when the contractions hurt so much I couldn't walk or talk.

So all of that to say, it could be days, it could be weeks, but odds are, he won't be late! In fact, due to his size, we will assess at 39 weeks whether or not to induce, depending on how he and I are doing otherwise. I am working from home for the duration, and thankful to have that option available to me. He's still kicking away in there and I am still having contractions, but so far, nothing more intense than yesterday. While I am most certainly ready to not be pregnant any more, I'm ready to take one for the team and hang on to Brudder for another few weeks - his lungs could still use a little more cook-time in Mommy's Bellay, so keep your fingers crossed!

College Shopping?

Even though it seems like summer has just begun, the back-to-school sales are all over the place already. Last week it seemed like there were a lot of flyers in the weekly paper focused on 'back to college' in particular.

One of the things Norah and Matt seem to enjoy lately is looking through the flyers and pointing out different things. Norah is not only increasing her vocabulary, but she can also pick out everything from a rake to a chainsaw, and distinguish a video camera from a camera from a cell phone. In this picture, Matt had just asked her if she was shopping for college, to which she replied "Not YET Dad!" Indeed.

Belly Aches

Yeah, I know you're getting tired of me talking about my big belly, but I kid you not, every time we go out, someone asks me if I am due any day now... mostly I think they feel sorry for me with all the heat and humidity. I think they feel worse when they realize I still have basically all summer left to go!

We made some real progress this weekend on the kids room - Step 1 in Nest-o-Rama 2010! We bought some new furniture and a rug for the room and it really has brightened things up quite a bit. It looks more like a kids room, and less like an office that we put a crib in - the motif we had for Norah! Some of the storage pieces are a LOT more efficient than what we were using, so the room seems much less crowded now. I'm happy, because we're making progress, and at the very least, I won't be digging in a bin for a onesie for Brudder the first week we're home. And as Matt says - Happy Wife, Happy Life - so I gotta assume he's pleased too!

Back to the belly aches - we took a picture earlier this week... let's say at about 33 weeks. And for comparison below is a picture from Nest-o-Rama 2008, when we were preparing the room for Norah... at 34 weeks

March School Pictures

So, obviously I am behind in getting these posted, but since there seems to be no shortage of requests for pictures of Norah... here you go! School Pictures, taken in March (in fairness, not received in March!) Since we had just had some great family pictures taken, including about a zillion of Miss Norah, I only bought a couple of the first one, plus the class picture at the end... enjoy!

And here is the whole class! Top row, Norah, Savannah, Erin, Cassandara. Second row Jack L, Miss Stephanie, Kailen, Miss Sophea, Jared and Miss Julie. Front row Jacob, Lauren, Gregory. Keanna and Hailey.

Catching Up

While we were planning the house renovation, a LOT of things went on hold... as I told Matt at the time, I was biologically programmed to be nesting during that time, but I wasn't able to, since at that time we thought we'd be moving out for the summer! Well now that we're at 'summer' I can't tell you how happy I am to still be in our own home! It still feels a little chaotic, but we're making progress - the kids room at least is looking good!

On other fronts, I've finally added our printer/scanner back on to our home network after changing service providers... it seems like a little thing, but it just never made it to the top of the list, and then once it did, I had to track down the cable and so on...

Anyway since I am now at a point in this pregnancy where I don't sleep well, I've been quietly sitting on the couch while Matt and Norah snooze, and caught up with a few scans for you! Here are the cards Norah made for us at daycare this year for Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day

News Headlines

I haven't been feeling well this week, with a head cold on top of a heat wave and Brudder just being Brudder and taking up a lot of space in there, so apologies for the slow news feed on the blog... here's a few tidbits about what's been happening:

• Norah is a Noodle Swimmer! What does this mean, you might ask? Well, she can now paddle around the lake solo while holding on to one of those pool noodle-thingies! It's really cool to see her face when she realizes she's on her own! She's been doing great with the swimming, getting her head and ears wet on her own, blowing bubbles, and trying to touch the bottom.
• Brudder is BIG, there is no question. I've been asked multiple times by random strangers if I am due any day/within the week. It's amusing in a way, though not really when it's 100 degrees and humid out - at that point, NOTHING is amusing, and certainly not realizing you look (and feel) 9 months pregnant but are really only 7, and that this isn't going to be over until summer is.
• The Doctor concurs, she was checking me out this past week and said "This baby is BIG" - thanks, like I didn't already know that... but she did order an extra ultrasound at my next appointment so we can get a better idea of exactly how big he is. I don't want Brudder to show up until he's fully baked, so to speak, but I could do with being a little more comfortable!
• We had a great long weekend (4th of July) although we didn't make it to Matt's family's annual event. We had hoped to, but I am just not feeling up to the 4 hour each way drive and a long day outside. We spent some time with the neighbours, went to (a very crowded) beach and finally got started on a little nesting in preparation of Brudder's arrival. Sorry, no pics, didn't even touch the camera all weekend!
• In case you hadn't heard, we called off our extreme nesting project. The costs came in about 30% higher than what we expected, and it took us all of about 15 minutes to decide to put the whole thing on hold and re-assess next year. The sense of relief we felt was incredible, so we're sure we made the right call. We still love our location and our little house will be just fine for a while. In the mean time, we'll take a bit of time to decide whether this renovation or another makes the most sense here, and also explore other properties that might work for us. No rush and no hormonally based decisions should serve us well in the long term. So, since then we've been working on some maintenance items and getting a little better organized around the house, since all of that was neglected while we were pursuing the extreme project.
• The delay in the reno also gave us some financial flexibility, so I've decided to take a little extra time off from work with Brudder - until the first of the year in fact - so I am really excited about that! It's funny how things have a way of working out, because I have a suspicion that I am going to physically need a little more recovery time than I did after Norah's arrival. I am already feeling much worse than I did with Norah and with Brudder looking like he's going to be a big baby, recovery may not be as quick either!
• Norah is a great helper, and very caring - she sees Matt helping me to get up from the couch or otherwise offering an assist, and she does the same - on her own. Matt has been coaching her a little on being helpful to Mom, and she's really been running with it. I can't wait to see her with her new little brother!

That's all the news at this hour... I had a decent sleep last night for the first time all week, so keep your fingers crossed!

Sympathy Bellays

Matt and Norah are really starting to feel bad for me, and how uncomfortable I am with "Brudder in the Bellay" So much so that they sprouted a couple of baby bumps of their own.
Somehow, they seem to be having a little more fun with their bellies than I am...

In other news, Norah is becoming quite the photographer. Since we got her a kid-camera, she's taken literally thousands of pictures, and a few have actually turned out kind of cool. As soon as I find a few minutes to download and post them for you, I will - look for them sometime around October :) In any case, her new camera hasn't dissuaded her much from wanting to take pictures with ours - actual camera, or blackberry... so after I took their belly pictures last night, she got this one of me, with the blackberry - not bad eh? It's nice how she really accentuates my girth, and forced me to grin, as I do to her :)