Reuben Michael has arrived!

I am pleased to announce that our son Reuben Michael was born on Monday Sept 24, 2007 at 1:32AM at St. Joseph's Hospital here in Hamilton. He weighed 8lbs 10oz and is doing very well. I am also doing very well, albeit sore from the delivery and tired from the lack of sleep that we are already experiencing as new parents. Learning to breastfeed is an interesting challenge as I'm sure all new mothers can relate to, but my midwife is happy with how things are going so far and have given me all sorts of tips on pain relief etc.

Anyway, I will try to post a picture when I get a chance, but my free time is severely limited these days.

Still waiting for baby...

Well, I'm now 5 days overdue, and baby still hasn't come. It's been teasing me this week with contractions that have been regular for a couple of hours and then go away. I just wish that we could know when it will come and when the time is actually here instead of all this guesswork. Friends and family have been very supportive, calling and emailing to see how things are going. Tim finds it funny because it's as if they aren't expecting us to call when it does happen, but I like it because it keeps me distracted.

Everything we've needed to do to prepare is done. I've got all my paperwork in for EI, now it's just a matter of waiting for them to put it through. Tim's big show for Artech (Heaven's Rehearsal) was last Saturday and went really well. It's just clean up time now for them so they're glad baby's waited.

Well, I'm off to do laundry and wash my kitchen floor. I've heard that being on your hands and knees can be a good place to get labour going, so here's hoping...

Just waiting...

Well, no baby yet. We have 4 days till the due date and I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable and ready for this baby to make its appearance. My days are filled with watching tv, taking naps, doing dishes, and other random activities as they come up. Tim is very happy to be eating regular meals for a change. I haven't even made Hamburger Helper once yet...although I'm sure it'll show up back on the menu at some point.

Otherwise there is really not a whole lot for news. It's been more of a chore than I realized getting my ROE from work. Apparently the lady who puts them together didn't get the memo that I'd actually left for my maternity leave, and if I hadn't called her the other day wouldn't have known to do it. (This after I left her a voicemail on my last day specifically asking her to call me about when I could pick it up...maybe she still hadn't checked her messages a week later??) Anyway, I should have it this afternoon, and maybe sometime soon I will make a trek down to the Service Canada office to drop it off.

well, I am going to head off...maybe I'll fold some socks...

Maternity leave has started

So as of yesterday I am officially on maternity leave. I filled out my application for EI benefits online today, just gotta wait for my ROE from work to bring in so they can process it all and ensure that Tim and I will still be able to pay our bills while I'm home caring for our little one...who isn't here quite yet. But soon. Only about 10 or 11 days (depending on how you number the days) till the due date, and I'm crossing my fingers that it might come a little earlier. I know, I know, first babies are always late...but that doesn't mean I can't hope. So far I'm doing well keeping myself amused at home. Yesterday I did some shopping with my sister for some last minute stuff I was still needing. Today I walked to the library and returned a book that I'd "lost"...read that: "never returned and is more than a year overdue". I know it's pathetic, but for some reason once I started working full time I didn't get many chances to go to the library anymore, so taking out one book just once ended up being dumb because I never went back.

Anyway, what with random shopping trips and afternoon walking excursions, I haven't even really had a chance to tackle my at home projects: laundry and cleaning. Ah, that can wait till tomorrow...eventually I'm sure it will all get done.

Mmm peaches...

Three weeks and counting till baby, assuming it's not early or late. I wouldn't mind early at this point, although preferably sometime after I finish work at the end of this week. It is getting rather more difficult to get comfortable sleeping at night, and the baby has a really annoying habit of being extremely active just as I'm trying to drift off. I think we have everything we need as far as baby gear goes. I do keep having brief moments of panic thinking that there's got to be something really important that we're forgetting about, not to mention the fact that I have absolutely no experience with babies. I try not to think about how much I really don't know when it comes to taking care of an infant.

Tim will be starting a new job next week for Artech Communications. He is really looking forward to being out of retail and focusing more on production work again. It'll mean some interesting lifestyle changes as far as work hours etc. While they sort of have a 9 to 5, Mon to Fri work week, a lot of shows are on the weekends, and Tim is already booked for quite a few of them. I'm assuming this means he'll get days of during the week, which will be an adjustment, but I'm sure will work out fine.

My last day of work is Friday. I can't express adequately in words how absolutely thankful I am to be finished with that place. The staffing issues/shortages and lack of organization are really starting to cause everyone to go bonkers, and I am thrilled to say it is no longer my problem to deal with. Frankly, my leaving is only adding to the problem, but I can't help it if people don't apply to work for the organization...

Anyhow, that's all for now. Perhaps I will get better at updating when I'm off and have nothing better to do all day...

Camping trips and reunions

So I figured an update was long overdue...not that there's a whole lot new and exciting to report. The baby continues to grow and take up my precious lung and stomach space. I've been hit with a not-so-wonderful summer cold that started in my face and moved into the remainder of my lung space, so you can imagine what kind of fun it is for me to breathe right now. Work is a drag as always, particularly now as people are going on vacation and we don't have casual coverage so I end up doing the job of two or more people quite frequently. I console myself with thoughts of the end being near - only five more weeks of work, seven more weeks till Baby (or so, depending on when it decides to show up).

We have big plans to go camping this weekend with my family, combined with a sort of reunion as we greet my long-lost sister who's been at school in Iowa since Christmas and decided to stay there to work for the summer and also decided to take five weeks to go to Chicoutimi, Quebec for a French immersion program...suffices to say we haven't seen her in quite a while and it will be good to spend some quality time together as a family.

anyway, that's about all there is to say, and my supper's getting cold, so I'll sign off for now...

Just remembering...

In memory of the little one we never knew, who would have been due today...

Messy kitchens on your birthday

So I figured that since today is my birthday, and I haven't posted in a really long time, I should take the effort to procrastinate from cleaning up my kitchen and update this thing. I'm even going to have a cup of tea to enhance the experience. Now if only our cd player was plugged in so I could have music at the same time, we'd be all set. Unfortunately, I haven't the faintest idea how to make that thing produce sound as Tim has it set up to work with our computer. Since convention it's been unplugged, and I'm clueless to putting it back together.

Life continues on. I grow larger by the week. For pictures join Facebook and if I know you, I'll let you see them. Otherwise find a way to see me in person. Baby becomes more and more active each day, some days more active than others. Tim gets a real kick out of being able to feel it too (get it..."kick"...sorry, that was lame...) The fun is when it decides to do somersaults on my bladder...note the sarcasm, it's really not fun at all. But anyway, with only three months left to go, the throwing up has finally stopped, the nausea is gone for the most part, and other than the uncomfortable feeling of having your stomach jammed up against your ribs, I'm finally to the point where I almost don't mind being pregnant. I say "almost" deliberately. I still don't find it a particularly enjoyable experience and can't relate at all to those women who go around saying they loved being pregnant, but it's not horrible for me anymore like it was at the beginning.

In other news, convention weekend has come and gone for another year. The weekend went really well this year, with only a few minor mishaps on both the sound and sponsorship fronts. Sponsorship-wise I had the fun of dealing with trying to find water coolers last minute...joy...but I found some, so it all worked out in the end. Sound-wise this year was probably one of the best we've had...fastest set up time so far, and only a few glitches with a new lighting system we hadn't used before. On a total convention front, probably one of the best praise teams we've had in a while, and I think the kids really had a good time.

anyway, I think I'll head off. I still haven't managed to get up the motivation to clean my kitchen, and somehow I really need to work on that as my family is coming down tonight, and we'll probably need some clean space to place games. *sigh* One of these days I'll learn not to leave my dishes dirty for so long...

Strange tendencies

Today in a strange twist of fate I found myself at work unable to turn off my brain, but relegated to menial tasks as simple as making charts. Generally I do not mind making charts; it can actually be a kind of relaxing chore compared to other things like filing, and it allows me the opportunity to think about things other than work...today for some reason, my mind came to a discovery about my job. I have learned that when one is stuck working at something for which they are highly overqualified, they develop certain anal tendencies about their work in order to keep themselves from going completely insane of boredom.

These anal tendencies can be anything from being particular about which way the letter stickers are laying in the sticker bucket, to developing an annoyance with people who don’t keep the tray-extender pulled out on the copier so that legal sheets fall on the floor when printed, to getting even more frustrated with people who do not seem to understand the concept of not taking the last copy of a form so that there is something left behind to make more copies from.

And I have decided upon reading back over these tendencies I admit to possessing, that it is most certainly high time for me to leave this job to pursue any vocation other than that of office assistant. My maternity leave in September can not possibly come soon enough for me, and after my leave is up, you can be well certain I will not be returning to this particular job. By golly I am bound and determined to find something else, anything else, and preferably something a little more in line with my qualifications.

Spring at last?

Well, I am sitting here in my kitchen enjoying what I dare hope may finally be spring arriving. I have the window in my screen door open...(the only window in my house that does)...the birds are chirping, the sun is shining in, and my cat is madly trying to move the little piece of cardboard that I put over the hole in the screen so that she couldn't get out. She is also whining pitifully and giving me mournful looks in the hopes that I might let her out into the backyard. I haven't yet decided who is going to win this battle.

Life moves on. My body is gradually changing shape and I'm starting to resemble a pregnant woman. I curse the fact that I have to go out and buy a new wardrobe that I'll only wear for a few months...the Dutch in me is cringing at the spending of money I have to do. I still haven't decided if I like being pregnant or not. I'm excited for this new baby that will be joining our family, but the actual pregnancy is turning out to be not so much a joy...even now that I'm into the second trimester. I am not quite as plagued by morning sickness, but even yet this week was forced to make a mad dash for the porceline goddess in the middle of the night...so random, and yet way too familiar of an action. I'm also tired of spending half of my morning at work waiting for my blood pressure to even out so that I don't fall over and faint when I stand up from my desk... Not to mention the constant comments on my growing bulge...perhaps I'm being overly sensitive and peevish, but I must admit to some annoyance that the only exciting thing about me seems to be my stomach.

Enough about that. Work continues on. We continue to adjust to all the changes that the re-alignment has brought about. Work loads are a constant battle, and workplace gossip seems to be increasing relative to the increasing workload. Maybe the coming of spring will help as people begin to take more walks to clear their heads. Tim and I have been doing a fair bit of work for Artech Communications formerly Hunter Productions. It helps to pay the bills, and slowly but surely I'm beginning to figure out half of what the techie talk means. It's sad when I start laughing at their jokes because I actually understand and agree that it's funny...

Well, I'm going to go now. Dishes and laundry are constantly calling my name, and I actually have some loonies to use in the washer for once. I long for the day when I don't have to pay for my laundry...