Sunday, March 30, 2008

And so it begins....

My first official weekend of maternity leave is now over. No sign of a baby yet. Now that I'm finished work, it feels sort of weird to not have much to do except wait around for a trip to the hospital. 

My mother arrived on Saturday, which means that I can go into labour without worrying about what to do with Kieran. Up until then I was just sort of crossing my fingers that we didn't have to make a middle of the night drop off of him anywhere. 

Of course, along with the arrival of my mother, comes the zero sugar coating of just about anything. Within 10 minutes of coming in the door, she commented that I "looked wide". Sigh. Which proves, that even nine months pregnant, the woman does not let up. The other classic mother-trait is to nit-pick at the cleanliness of my house. I have said time and time again that it does matter HOW clean the house is, she will find something to complain about, which drives me absolutely stupid. Not just because it's obviously insulting, but because there will be no Blue Ribbon ever awarded to the woman on the state of her own house  - and she doesn't have a toddler, nor is she pregnant. Not that her house is dirty by any stretch - it's just ....average. Like most people, when they have company, the do a major cleaning blitz, but otherwise there are books and magazines everywhere and not everything is in its place, or even HAS a place. Because of this, I've NEVER been able to figure out why she feels its OK to be so critical of her children's houses.

Anyhow as I have mentioned above, she also hardly cares how pregnant I am, so in anticipation of her visit, I decided to employ a cleaning service the day before she arrived. Obviously, I wouldn't TELL her this, I'll just let her think it was all us. I thought this was quite a brilliant plan...not only would it release me (and Eric) from actually doing the vigorous clean she apparently demands, but the house would be genuinely, top to bottom spotless. I could bring this baby home to a truly clean home and, at least for a few days, not worry about it. So, on Friday, the cleaners spend over 3 hours washing, dusting, tidying, sorting, scrubbing etc this house. It was truly lovely to come home to. They even "made the crib" for crying out loud and its never even crossed my mind to tuck Kieran's quilts under the mattress every morning.

Fast forward to the next day, Mom's barely in the from the airport and she says..."I'm going to wash your floors on Monday." She says this as though the floors haven't been washed in months, let alone 24 hours earlier. Then I knew for sure...it's some sort of illness. There was NO WAY you could have thought the floors were dirty unless you were officially a crazy person. So, now we know. It's sad, but also, in a way, freeing. (And now that I've spilled an entire glass of orange juice on the floor today the floors do need washing again...so at least all her work tomorrow will not be in vain. )

***

We celebrated Earth Hour on Saturday. At 8 pm, we turned off all the lights and non-essential appliances, lit a bunch of candles and just talked for the hour. I thought it was quite painless. Kieran was taken with the candles and wanted them lit again today (but it was daytime, so it seemed pointless) but otherwise he wasn't fazed at all by the darkness. Of course, at 9 pm on the dot, Eric jumped up and starting flipping light switches, so it wasn't SOO much a success for him. But we did our minuscule part at least. Symbolic Gestures R Us, apparently.

Finally, as I mentioned, my maternity leave has officially begun...which means that we just HAD to make a large purchase of something to coincide with my alarming drop in salary. Last round, just after Kieran was born, we bought a Flat Screen TV with surround sound. We used the "Don't Pay for a Year" plan, but still, when I got back to work a year later, we had a huge bill to pay, which sucked and I vowed not to do it again. 

Except that for the last few weeks, my dryer has stopped drying clothes. Everything had to be run through twice - and the final straw was yesterday when after the second time through everything was still damp. All the appliances that came with this house were total crap, so we've known this was coming. We had to replace the stove last year because the thing was a complete fire hazard, but otherwise we were just waiting for things to die. Which apparently happened to our dryer. But I'm not going to spend $200 getting a 15-year old dryer fixed, so it, and it's water sucking pal (the washer) can continue to drain our resources via water and electricity bills. So we bought a lovely new pair today. Stackable, energy-efficient, the whole nine yards. I didn't feel that bad about it because at least it's not something frivolous like surround sound. Besides, we've been looking on and off at prices for about two years and we KNOW we got it at a crazy sale price that we've never seen,  and it came with a free year's supply of laundry detergent and fabric softener. This makes me feel better. Now my dishwasher, which is making an alarming buzzing noise, and my fridge, which seems to always be running, just need to hold on for another year....and the weird liquid seeping from my under the deep freezer? Let's not even go there...




Monday, March 24, 2008

Thanks Easter Bunny

Well, the Magic Easter Bunny has been put away for another year. I know most people with children all have visits from the actual Easter bunny, but in my family, we have another tradition...which we call the Magic Bunny.

The Magic Bunny arrives about a week or so before Easter and he looks like an ordinary porcelain bunny figurine. He sits in a little basket with faux grass and when all is quiet, he magically lays chocolate Easter eggs. Usually, it's one egg per child (although i believe my brother's bunny usually lays one egg per member of the household. There are no hard and fast rules to the bunny's methods, after all, he IS Magic). The Magic Bunny has been in my family for generations and we have all loved it. I remember coming home from school and rushing to see if he had laid anything and he usually had.

So, I brought the bunny out last weekend, and Kieran immediately fell in love. He would point and say "Bunny?" and we would check to see if anything had been laid. He would laugh and laugh with glee when there were eggs in the basket.

Then he got sick and lost interest. For a few days he was happy to see if the bunny laid anything, but never wanted to eat the eggs. (You KNOW you're a sick 2 year old when....) Then over the weekend when he started to feel better, he renewed a half-hearted interest in the bunny and its "offspring" but he is still not 100 percent, so it wasn't really the same.

Anyway, on Easter Sunday the bunny disappears from his basket but not before going a little bit crazy and hiding eggs around living room. This year, he also managed to a lay a Cars-themed 2-tiered spiral raceway, which I can only imagine really hurt. Makes birthing an baby seem positively painless in comparison I would think.

So, another Easter is over. Next year, hopefully Kieran isn't down for the count during prime Magic Bunny season. Fingers crossed.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Sorry Sassy

It looks like our oldest cat has to go. This is very sad for me and I feel like a bit of a failure that I have to do this.

She's only around 8 or 9 years old - I have had her for about 5 of those years and she's is deep down inside a really good cat. She sleeps beside me on the bed every single night and purrs happily the second I get into bed. But the rest of the time, she's apparently miserable.

When I got her, I was single and living on my own and we were quite happy, the two of us. Then I met Eric, which she wasn't too happy with and starting peeing on anything of his that was ever left at my apartment. I dutifully took her to the vet right away and we ruled out medical issues and after a few months it got a bit better. Then Eric and I moved in together, got another cat, moved again and started to renovate our new house, she started up again, ruining our the hours-old new carpet in our newly finished family room as well as soiling every single baseboard in the new room practically as soon as the nail went in.

Then along came Kieran and shortly after that Eric started his PT business in our basement. We built a new bathroom in the basement and not surprisingly, Sassy has ruined the baseboards in there too and forget about the $60 bathmats we bought. Long gone.

But now, she is out of control. She no longer really uses the litter box and just goes constantly anywhere in the basement - mainly in Eric's gym. His clients are complaining and Eric, never a Sassy fan, just wants her GONE. So, on Saturday after I walked in the back door (which I haven't used all winter) I realized that the first thing Eric's client's smell when they step inside our house is the disgusting, unmistakable odour of cat pee. I called the vet and took her in right away, where again, we ruled out anything medical. I had a long chat with the vet about it, and the vet has recommended more or less that we find her a new home. Sassy needs a nice quite life like she had with just me at one time. No kids (who she hates), no other cats, no sweaty clients coming in and out of her house leaving their various body odours behind that she feels the need to eradicate with her own smell. She is perfectly healthy and has a lot of good years left in her too...but apparently not with us.

The final straw was last night, when I went into our bedroom to find that (again, brand new) bag that i was going to pack to bring to the hospital is now completely saturated. I just can't deal with it anymore.

On top of all this is of course, Kieran's asthma outbreaks. We don't think they are allergy related - yet - but the doctor says she wouldn't be helping.

If I can't find someone to take her (and she isn't really an easy sell, given the smell of our house), I'll have to find a shelter who will take her. I am guilt ridden that it has come to this, but we are sort of at a crisis point.

Poor Sassy. I wish I could explain it to her.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Not so Neighbourly Parking Wars

As far as Mississauga goes, we live in an older neighbourhood. I guess you could go so far as to call it "established". The houses are all pretty much 1950s bungalows, with big lots, wide streets and mature trees. There are LOTS of retirees on our street, many who appear to have moved in when the houses were built. As far as I can tell, the first 5 houses before you get to ours are all retirees - or getting very close to it. After us, our next door neighbours have two pre-teen girls and then it gets older again. I guess what I'm saying is that people are used to things being a certain way....

Leave it to us to shake things up!

We have two sets of next door neighbours, whom I'll call...The Oldies and The Trashies. We've already had a run in with the Oldies. Mrs. Oldie is a classic gossip who I finally had to start avoiding when I was outside because she would start a conversation that was impossible to get out of. Her two favourite topics..herself and The Trashies (who are apparently loathed on the street for their bad behavior, none of which we have ever really witnessed - although they HAVE had some kick ass fights).

Anyhoo, our Oldie run-in was over Eric's clients parking on the street. Apparently, they have a real issue with this- especially when said cars are parked directly across from the end of the Oldie's driveway. Eric asked his clients repeatedly to avoid parking there, but it took forever for the clients to get the message AND dozens of notes left on Eric's clients cars saying things like "Please don't park here or we will hit your car and it won't be our fault. You've been warned." Anyway, it worked. Clients instead started to park in front of the Trashies. And the Oldies stopped talking to us (and vice versa).

Well, wouldn't you know it. Last week, Mrs Trashie comes flying out of her driveway and slams into one of Eric's clients cars. She apparently didn't see the car parked there due to the high snowbanks. The Trashies stormed into our house - literally, without knocking - and angrily exchanged information with Eric's client (a teenagers he trains) saying they didn't want to go through insurance but that they would pay for the damage.

It seemed OK after that...until...the Trashies were told that the repair bill was $1000. It seems they, and let me quickly summarize: hit the roof, refused to pay, refused to give out their insurance info, hung up on Eric's client's mom - who then called the cops. Apparently, the police intervened and the Trashies (who thought they were being ripped off) are going to pay the garage directly. But I think you can probably imagine the neighbourly ill-will towards us.

According to Eric's client, the Trashies said that we have cars parked there every night (more or less true) and if they see one more car parked there - EVER - they are calling the cops. They also said that they don't know what kind business Eric is running (of course they know), but its probably illegal. Luckily, Eric's business is fully registered, we pay our GST, and it's claimed on taxes, so they cannot really touch us. And the cars are never there for the three hour limit anyway, so they cannot even get to us that way.

But still....this is really irritating. It's not like I don't see their collective points because I do. And it's worse with the colossal amount of snow that makes the street about 6 feet narrower than we're all used to. We got a quote last summer to pave a portion of our front lawn, but it was expensive and there is actually TONS of street parking. Obviously, we are going to have to bite the bullet and just do the paving, but there is currently about 7 feet of snow on our front lawn, so its going to be good while before we can get that done.

Anyway, Eric is going over there tonight to have a "talk" with them. We'll see what happens.

Upside? Another neighbour not talking to us, probably.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Tick Tock

So, here we are still apparently in the depths of winter. I honestly thought that an April 4 due date meant more or less a "spring baby" but I'm guessing not - at least not this year. More snow on the way! And more snow after that! This baby will be coming home to metres high snowbanks, the likes of which I probably haven't seen since my Thunder Bay childhood.

After two days of staying home dealing with Kieran's breathing issues, I'm glad to get to back to work. Seriously, I can tell you right here, right now that I'm going to struggle with an entire year off and two babies to care for. We plan on keeping Kieran at daycare for two days a week at least...he really enjoys it and it will give me and break during the week. But being at home with a toddler is, to me at least, no picnic. And a toddler and a newborn, who naps twice a day...I can't really imagine. It will be fine when the weather is nice, but during the cold and winter? Gaack. Guess I'm going to have to develop an actual routine to keep Kieran occupied. How parental.

We'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll love it. I know I'll enjoy not having to get up and rush to get out the door. And when Kieran is sick...it will be nice to NOT have to send a guilty message into work that I won't be in "again."

For at least a year....or less.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Slight Change of Plans

So, we were all set tonight to go to our new hospital for the "36-week pregnant" hospital tour. Neither Eric nor I were especially looking forward to it, as we went through it last time at our old hospital, and we now know that 90 percent of it is pretty much pointless. But the 10 percent that is helpful, ie. "where do I check in when I'm in labour" is pretty indispensable

We were all set to go....

Until about 30 seconds after I left the office that is...when my cell phone rang and it was my daycare provider in an absolute panic because Kieran is non-stop coughing so hard that he is gagging and she wants us to come get him NOW. This coughing we have seen now a couple of times, as it appears that our boy is pre-disposed to asthma type breathing issues whenever he gets a cold. A few weeks ago we went through this, and after a traumatic trip to the walk in clinic where Kieran was put on a breathing machine, we walked out with an inhaler and a tentative diagnosis of "he's too young to say its asthma, but....". That episode subsided, but here we are a few weeks later, with another cold and more non-stop coughing. 

This morning, he woke up with the same gagging cough, and I decided to stay home with him, and off we went back to the walk in clinic. I made Eric come with me in case Kieran wound up on the breathing machine again, which as I discovered last time is definitely a two-person job. But no machine...this time were given a second inhaler and the same diagnosis of probable asthma. But he seemed fine by this time, so we dropped him off at daycare anyway and I decided to go into work after all. 

After getting the call from daycare though I worried the entire drive home because I've seen how scary it is when it's clear he is having trouble breathing. But we actually got there in record time (thank God the snow hadn't yet started to fall). We get him home and give him his inhaler, and he is screaming as usual and then as I'm giving him the last puff, he all of sudden stops breathing. Now, let me tell you, there is a WORLD of difference between "having trouble breathing" and actually NOT breathing. As it turns out, I had seen the former, not the latter. Kieran was obviously panicking, flailing around, his face was beat red but no air is getting anywhere. Eric was holding him and jumps up and starts slapping his back to get him to breathe. I'm just standing there helpless. And then he finally managed to take a breath and is coughing and gagging and crying and I think I'm going to faint.

So, yeah, we went to the hospital all right, just not for the tour. 

Thankfully, the hospital offers a Kids Clinic, which is basically a walk-in clinic staffed only by pediatricians, with all the benefits of going to emergency  such as immediate X-Rays etc. It also is similar in ridiculous wait times, but I think it's worth it. We got more or less the same diagnosis as before, but this being an actual pediatrician, he was more versed in treating "probable asthma" in babies and gave us more tips and pointers on managing any future attacks and changed up the prescriptions were we given this morning.

So, yeah, we were there for 3 hours, came out of the hospital to the dreaded snowstorm and now Kieran is sleeping peacefully in his crib. Breathing like an angel. Poor baby. 

On a side note: the area where we were waiting also one of entry ways to get to Labour and Delivery (I know this, because we were at the same hospital where Kieran was born and I learned it on that valuable tour). During our three hour wait,  a Chinese couple comes in. The woman is hugely pregnant, seems like she's in labour, but is obviously unable to walk. The husband asks someone to get him a wheelchair and as they are putting her into it, Eric notices she is bleeding profusely and as they rush past us, I can see the woman is barely conscious.  I'm no expert, but I know that bleeding like this is not good at any time in pregnancy - no matter how far along you are. I cannot get this woman out of my mind. I hope she, and her baby, are OK. 

Thank God, this day is over. 




Monday, March 3, 2008

It's Monday...so Relaaaax

Am I the only person feeling, completely drained lately? I know that the weather is a big, big part of it. So, is being 8 months pregnant. So is having both a sick husband and baby for the entire weekend.

Last week was a complete write off...work was hectic, Eric was sick, RRSP deadline totally snuck up on us (related note: I'm soooo tired of stupid banks), frigid temperatures followed by yet more snow, and I was looking so forward to the weekend. But Kieran woke up with a raging fever on Saturday so all of our plans were shot. Instead, since I was now stuck indoors, I decided to embark on a laundry extravaganza. I washed just about everything - and I mean everything. Pillows, duvets, stuffed animals...I think I did about 15 loads of laundry (sorry, environment). All I could think was we have a new baby coming and everything seemed so.....germy. All the sorting, folding, bed re-making, and putting everything neatly away is, as I have discovered, very tiring. But at the end of it all, the house is clean and at least a little more ready to welcome a baby (not that the baby really has anywhere to sleep, and if its a girl, anything to wear that isn't blue or covered in rocket ships).

I'm not going to dwell on the weather...except to say, I totally wiped out at the bottom of the stairs after dropping Kieran off a daycare this morning. I knew it was only a matter of time before my 8-month pregnant self fell on the ice. I'm only surprised that it wasn't in our own driveway, which apparently has a personality akin to a comic book super-villian, continually covering itself in innocuous looking, yet deadly, black ice, no matter how much we salt it. Anyway, my knee and hand broke the fall, so I didn't feel the need to rush off the hospital or anything. I did almost rip a hole in the knee of one of my last three pair of maternity pants though, and with one month to go, I REFUSE to buy anything else. I would rather show up to work with holes in my knees than spend another $60 on maternity pants. Seriously.

Anyway, hopefully, I will soon have happier things to blog about, because I feel like a real downer lately. Tomorrow, we go for a tour of the hospital (since I'm not going to the same one I was at for Kieran). And its supposed to get up to 7 degrees today. There IS light at the end of the this long, pregnant, icy tunnel.