Monthly Archives: September 2021

Pregnancy 20 week update half way

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I know it has been a while since we have had an update. Between the move from hell, appointments and what not I am back tracking to provide this to you all! That being said I hope I dont leave anything out.

Flutters have been happening and even though this is the second pregnancy I can say it still feels so surreal! It feels almost fake because with my son Vincent he had an anterior placenta (front one) so a lot of his movements were muffled for a while. To be able go feel them so early is refreshing and very cool. They obviously were not that strong since the baby was so little but still feels like flutters! For anyone who is reading this and may not have experienced pregnancy yet the best way I can describe it is, think if there is a little fishy inside of your belly that sloshes around. Or if you have ever drank a whole lot of water at once and when you get up you almost feel the little wave of movement from all the water. That would be what it feels like!

I also had my very last prenatal appointment in Quebec before the move. Everything was alright as far as I know. It felt great to be able to finally be leaving this province and heading home. I had gotten all of my files while my boyfriend will need to translate the french parts to be able to give to my new English doctors. Which is a huge help since obviously none if them will know french unless the word is the same in both languages. Planning about a family doctor and what not seems a bit stressful but I think Ill be able to manage it. At least they speak the same language as me right!

We also were able to get an ultrasound thankfully. Now, this was an entire process that I hope to never have to repeat but in the end it worked out. The referral that I had gotten to the same hospital I gave birth to my son in was booked and was unable to fit me in. I received this in an email so close to our moving day that it was worrisome we would not be able to get an appointment. They suggested another hospital close by but as typical Quebec style they put you on hold and reaching the actual department wad a nightmare. To the point that they even hung up on me once I reached an actual person. Next was my boyfriend tried calling because maybe him speaking french would help them to answer, wrong. He had the same results that I had. Lastly there was a hospital near his job that he felt like trying. He brought my referral and talked to them and it was super simple in order to get an ultrasound. Not to mention the hospital is far from the size of the others so navigating them was easy. So we finally were able to get an ultrasound!

The different hospital made things a bit weird. In Quebec you need to get a hospital card. In Nova Scotia you do not need those at all. So once I arrived I went to get that done. My partner waited in the car with my son because no kids are allowed in. Which was okay. This hospital they also want you to strip down to just underwear and a hospital gown. Which is super strange compared to the other ultrasounds where you just fold up your shirt and fold down your pants and then you just have it like that. No removing clothes at all. At this point I was about 19 weeks which is still a bit on the early side.  The ultrasound went relatively okay. The actually doctor that came in to check the ultrasound was a bit short I felt like she was a bit pissed that it was so early she asked me about the trisomy 21 test that I had and I said it came back fine as far ad I knew. Which then made me feel very paranoid something was wrong. Afterwards she said that it was hard to get all the measurements needed because I guess the baby was face down and some parts are hard to see with it being so small. Overall she just did not seem thrilled. And then stated that it wad basically incomplete due to the time and position of the baby. I left there feeling a bit uneasy to say the least.

And finally, THE GENDER! That was something we were hoping to find out before we moved as my spouse and I are very anxious and would be finding out the gender as soon as possible. We do not have the patience to wait which is no surprise as we never waited with my son either. She wrote it down on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope. I am so glad I wasn’t tempted to look because she used a black permanent marker which was OBVIOUSLY able to see the gender when I got in the car afterwards.

We are having ANOTHER BOY!!

I had no guesses with this baby like I did with my son, well 1st son. I had a feeling since people said it would be a girl that we would have another boy! Regardless a healthy baby is the thoughts we have and gender is not super significant in terms of disappointment or expectations! Though my boyfriend hopes our 3rd and final baby will be a girl! I still have a feeling we may end up with 3 boys! A busy household indeed!

Did you find out the gender of your child(ren) if you have any?

Fake Positive People

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If there is one thing I think a lot of people can agree on it’s that they do not like to be surrounded by people who only ever talk about things that are negative. I think this goes without saying the opposite can also be true. That no one enjoys when someone is obviously positive. Just as people who are constantly negative, you know the person where you tell them a struggle in your life, but they respond to that by saying that their life is that much worse than whatever you just confided to them with. I think the same also goes for overly positive people, the type of people that you could be mentioning you won 100 dollars on a scratch ticket and are excited to put the money towards something, and this person responds with the fact they won 500 dollars on a scratch ticket and that it was way better for them to be able to do multiple things with it. Both of those kinds of people are people who can easily get on someone’s nerves.

I might get a lot of flack over this post. Why? Because in a world with so much negative, positivity can be in short supply. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. I have nothing wrong with people being positive. I would like to think that for myself I can also be positive when I am faced with challenges. That being said, I am also a realist. You can actually read all of my confessions as a realist here. If you say something to me I will be telling you how it is flat out or even if it means hurting someones feelings perhaps too. Not that it would be done intentionally of course.

Here is why I don’t agree with people who are positive every single day of their lives. Get ready for it.

Life is not ALWAYS positive. Sure you can say well if someone looks on the bright side of things. Yes. I guess they can be pretty positive. Realistically though, Life is anything but always positive. There are neutral events, positive things, hurtful challenges, and whatever else but life is not always positive. I think when it comes to life, treating it positively and making everything seem to be positive can be in fact damaging to yourself. You are subconsciously bottling up everything that you might not like in order to present to the world this outward positivity is not healthy. Sometimes you just have to accept the fact that some things are not positive. If you are too busy trying to be positive when something comes that is negative that you have to deal with you will have a lot of trouble coping with it due to the fact you never really have.

Sure, you can still be a whole lot of positive and still be happy. But to totally disregard anything that can showcase an issue or struggle is quite frankly showing how naive someone might be. I think also the people who interestingly enough are always broadcasting to the world that they are a “positives vibes only” or “always positive person” are the ones who really might not be as positive as they want you to think. People project a positive vibes only personality because I think the world only wants to see positive vibes. Truth be told, A lot of folks who are trying to really make a community are finding traction by just being honest with themselves and the world find themselves growing faster for being able to connect with their audience on a human level. Not just a fake positive level that many try to portray. In the long run eventually something will have to slip up and you will find yourself annoyed at the fake positive world you have created.

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I notice fake positive people on social medias and more specifically streaming. These are the streamers who are more or less always talking about how they are incredibly positive and only have positive vibes to share blah blah blah. They are the ones who make a point to have this directly on their profiles or on their streams or social somewhere to let others know that they for sure are going to be a good positive environment to have. They so outwardly have the best outlook with no negative things happening in their lives, EVER. I think when someone is in a position of influence and they spread this it can be doing more harm than good. You almost have to ask yourself regarding these people, Are they going to snap one day and blow off all the positivity and really go full blown self destruction mode? Are they hiding something and this is a face they put on for others? My personal favorite in regards to this is that people whoa re positive all the time or that is what they decide to show, are normally ones who can also be quite negative behind the scenes. Maybe they partake in cancel culture. Or maybe they comment and spread hate when no one else is watching. Or they think no one is anyways.

The point of this is that no one is ever positive 100 percent of the time. Life really is like a roller coaster with different types of emotions and things that come up and down and left and right. Embracing all emotions will help you cope with them in the long run. If you react accordingly and learn to handle situations better it will be a lot easier to react to problems, not to mention will be way less stressful as well too when you are dealing with things instead of pushing them aside for positivity.

Do you know anyone who has any fake positive vibes and only positive?

Do you find yourself more of a fake positive person or a realist when it comes to projecting yourself on to the world?

Let me know in the comments below, I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue also!

Pregnancy Scares in the First Trimester

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Being pregnant is one of the most exciting times of your life. Whether you are pregnant or your partner is. Being one of the most exciting times does not make it any less scary though. There is a lot that can potentially go wrong especially within the first trimester. For me, I feel like my second pregnancy I was more nervous in the 1st trimester than I was in my 1st pregnancy. Why? I honestly have no idea. Maybe it was due to the fact that I had more symptoms during my second pregnancy than I did for my first. These are some of the things that scared me, and hopefully reading this will help you or someone you love feel a bit easier during their first trimester also too.

One of the major things I was worried and scared about was a miscarriage. I had never been pregnant before but for some reason it really scared me. It also didn’t help that I was using a fertility app where there was a bunch of people symptom spotting and nearly everyone was searching for their rainbow baby. This is when they have had a miscarriage and the next baby is the rainbow baby. I dont even think anyone in my family had a miscarriage either. One thing I did find comfort in if you can even find that, was researching that if there is a miscarriage chances are it was something to do with the chromosomes. It made me feel a little better knowing if something did happen that the chances are it was at such a cellular level that there was nothing that could be done to prevent it. It also helped to stop looking at the app and reading all of these stories because it certainly did not help me not panic about it or become paranoid.

Another thing that barely happened with my 1st pregnancy and happened a bigger time with my second was spotting. No spotting in pregnancy is ever considered normal. But spotting is a common thing that happens to people. With my first it was such a small amount that it was not a big deal. It scared me but I talked to a friend and it was alright. This second pregnancy I had wiped once and it was a pink color and that scared me. I booked an emergency appointment. They said it was my cervix and booked an early ultrasound about 7 weeks. Everything was fine!

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Another scare that I had with both pregnancy’s was morning sickness. You always panic and worry when you hear the horror stories. People who can barely get out of bed or barely eat and what not. With my 1st pregnancy I was very luck in terms of morning sickness. If I was sick I would go to bed. Or if I was tired I would nap too. With my second pregnancy I felt more nauseous and would try to nap more when my son napped. Or where there is covid and some reduced hours in work places my boyfriend would be home early and I would nap when he was home. I still feel extremely lucky when it comes too morning sickness. Most of my yucky feelings was in the evenings when my son would be going to bed or already in bed. When it came to combating this I would have little candies to help suck on. Some instant breakfasts that helped to drink something so I wasn’t feeling so empty when I woke up. I would have ginger cookies around to munch on if I needed it also too. And ginger ale also was used. All these little things helped when it came to feeling icky and trying to make it through the day easier without feeling like I was dragging my butt along.

And finally, not so much a scary thing, kind of exciting but also something to worry about, when do you tell people! We ended up telling my boyfriends parents early with my 1st pregnancy due to the fact that we went to visit them. And I told a few friends who I was close with who also had kids early in their lives. That way I had some folks to talk to about it with. Then we waited to tell my family til we went home which was about 10 weeks. With our second one we told people publicly about 10 weeks because we were buying a home and were frustrated with how the housing market was and figured why not share some great news with our friends and family. With our family though we told them a lot sooner, maybe like 6 or 7 weeks and just kept it quiet til we told everyone after. A lot of people suggest waiting til after 12 weeks because thay is nearly out of the first trimester. That is in case something were to happen. Really, I think it is a personal choice. Whenever you want to tell family or friends that is your choice to do so.

As you can see, even with one of the happiest and exciting times of your life, there can still be some scary things happening. For me, I tried not to dwell on what scared me and I tried to wait til I knew for sure. Thinking about what-ifs can be very taxing and stressful. And as time progresses during pregnancy you lose some of this fear and the excitement gains more control than being scared. Or your fears change, or evolve too. I know it is harder to say than do, bur don’t let your fear overshadow the miracle of bearing a child and creating a family!

Have you or someone you know been pregnant, and did they or you have the same things that scared you also?

Was there anything different that you had to deal with that you were fearful in the 1st trimester of pregnancy?

Let me know in the comments below! Maybe others or even myself have had the same fears.

Summer Update 2021/September Update!

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If you are a regular follower of the blog, you will know that there was no July update. Why might you ask? Because we were basically dealing with a nightmare and blogging the experience as it was happening was not something I was honestly looking forward to doing. I will try to keep this short and sweet and give the timeline of what happened. And now that things are settled it seems like the right time to really tell all of you how the summer has been going even with the hiccups!

On July 4th we went to my Uncles house where we stayed til the 10th. This was instead of staying in a hotel. With a toddler, a cat and a dog this seemed to be the easiest way. Not only that but being the only family to love in Quebec with my uncle and a short drive away it only seemed fair to spend some quality time with him and his husband before we headed back home to Nova Scotia.

July 5th was when our things were to be packed. That went great also. It took maybe 4 or so hours and the house was packed. Now, only after our effects were boxes and taped did we find out that we may not have a load day the following day. My boyfriend was then expected to go to our home, well old home, and wait to see if anyone shows up. This was Tuesday. Wednesday we still hear nothing so he stayed at my Uncles with me and we waited to hear. Finally the Thursday, July 8th was when we given a “load” date which was only when our boxes were packed up into a storage place to wait for an actual load to bring it to Nova Scotia. At this point we had seen online that the moves federally have been a nightmare. For more people than not.

We still arrived in Nova Scotia on July 10th. Thankfully my dad had his truck broken. So he was able to drop off different things like pots and pans and a few camping chairs, some utensils and dishware, food and an air mattress and sheets too. Since we were required to isolate for 2 weeks upon arrival based on Nova Scotia’s covid phases and protocols. We essentially were camping in our home. And for the record, yes we could have stayed in a hotel, however just purchasing a home we felt it was best if we were to stay there, have paint dropped off social distanced of course, and we just paint paint paint. Which we did. We got probably 85% of our painting done which was great.

Fast forward 2 weeks this brings us to about the 24th. And look here. We do not have any of our things STILL. We still have no idea what we are even doing but at least isolation is done and that is a huge help because we are able to get things like grocery’s that we need and do not have to rely on people as much. At one point we also had to purchase a double high mattress because the one my dad lent us was nearly 20 years old with a slow leak. He left the air compressor but my pregnant butt was getting stiff from waking up on the floor in the middle of the night.

Fast forward to this camping lifestyle in our own home. We did not end up getting our things til 29 days later. I believe Tuesday August 3rd was when our unload day was. Mind you we basically had to fight the previous week to even find out when and where our things were. And we never were told “It was arriving” It was more or less a maybe it might show up. Only the day of when my BF went to work (Life didn’t stop just because our things were not here) did he get a phone call saying “By the way your things will be at your home in 20 minutes) I then had to run around prepping everything for my son and the dog and cat in their respected rooms so that we were able to actually have the house able to have things put in.

After that the rest was basically history. We just were happy that our things had finally arrived and we could sleep in our own beds and our son had his crib also too. The unboxing was happening and returning to life in our new home. It was a surprise all of our things were even there due to the weird circumstances surrounding the move. The whole thing COULD have been avoided if only the movers that we had and federal company whom my spouse works for had said we will push your move for a few weeks because at this point they were already backlogged in moves with people already waiting. However they just kept piling on and piling on moved with no truck drivers or loaders available to take furniture and boxes for families.

As I write this for the update in September, things are slowly coming together. Streams are back in action. Painting needs to be done but there is heat waves and not worth the heat to struggle and paint. We should finish before September I hope! I also need to paint details on my Son’s wall for his “Space” theme bedroom. And on top of it eventually paint the new babies bedroom also too. I think we will be doing a woodland/forest theme as well. And we purchased our flooring which my dad will eventually help us update because the shag carpet has got to go. And yes, I have done before and during photos so once they are done I will update those on here also in updates the differences!

Have you moved before?

Did everything run smoothly?

Or was there some hiccups as well for you?

Let me know in the comments below! I would love to hear them!

-Stacey