Babydom

Welcome to Mandy's Wonderful World of Babydom.


Let us tour the beginnings of the shrine.


On your left you will find the early stages of belly-growth art illustrating two weeks of growth (from week 14 to 16). This art will grow with the artist until it is a rainbow of lines with the growth shaded in.


Below is Mandy's perspective of her belly. (Do not note the mass of important papers strewn about the office floor.)





Next stop is the interior of the co-sleeper crib. Along the bottom is baby's first blanket, hand knit by myself. See where the balls of yarn changed - this was unintentional. Accompanying the blanket is a matching hat and booties as modelled by Bear. The blanket is my own design. The crocheted hat was a free online design.





Also featured is baby's first stuffed toy - the purple unicorn - who is modelling a knitted wool soaker (the first of two I've finished).


Following this are two knitted swirled hats using a free pattern found online. I asked Orin and Ericka to model these for us. I first asked Monkey, but she was unwilling to pose with a hat on.

Finally, here I am almost a year ago modelling a baby wrap I made. Inside is a 7 month old child happily sleeping.










***Mark your calendars for October 25***
This is the date of our ultrasound and pictures will be posted ASAP.
You can now start your bidding on whether it is a boy or girl.

Baby's Heartbeat

Today I had my second midwife appointment.
Unfortunately, Robin was once again unable to attend because he had to work and couldn't make any of the available appointments this week. But I've scheduled the next appointment for his day off.
Since he missed hearing the baby's heartbeat last month, this time I recorded the session for him.
And we've decided to share it with you!
Here is a link to you tube where I have uploaded the sound clip with accompanying pictures.
(If you are on Facebook, it is also available there to our friends).

Enjoy.

Co-sleeper

After giving up hope of getting a co-sleeper (crib alternative) locally (the producer does not sell to Canada, though some small Canadian stores import them for a premiuim price) we'd made plans to find a convertible crib for co-sleeping.
Until yesterday when Robin spotted an ad in Kitchener selling a co-sleeper for only $65. Fortunately he responded immediately because the woman apparently had many inquiries. We got it home and set it up all by ourselves - without a manual. I laugh at all the reviews I've read that say it's so hard to assemble and disassemble. Pshah - we figured it out quickly all by ourselves! Of course, I'll check the instructions available on-line to make sure we did everything right.
I also want to find a different mattress for it. I don't like the board-like mattress that comes with it. As far as I'm concerned, it's just a padded mattress base. No baby should have to sleep on that! It's the same as the mattress base on a playpen - which is fine for once in a while. And of course, this is not surprising since the Co-Sleeper by Arm's Reach is really just a playpen with a full bassinet on top. The difference from other pen-bassinets is that one side drops lower for co-sleeping.
Anyhow - we're happy with our deal. And this gives us time to figure out the long-term sleeping plan for baby after s/he is born.
In the meantime - Fenwick likes it :)
And having an actual baby bed in the house is inspiring me to think of bedding. Since the co-sleeper does not share its dimensions with a standard crib, I'll have to make my own fitted sheets. The company does sell plain coloured fitted sets, but again, I'm looking at an American company and shipping. I'd much rather make my own. I can sew. And I can pick out my own fabrics! That's much more fun!! Some nice soft cotton flannels I'm thinking...
Also on the list of items for the bed is a lamb-friendly "lamb's skin" mattress pad. Made from shorn wool rather than an actual lamb's skin of course. I'm looking for a (preferably Canadian) alternative to the popular Snuggle Wool products because the latter backs their lambswool pads with polyester rather than organic cotton and they treat their wool rather extensively for easy washing.

Watch for new photos next week.

PS - Hello Aunt Joyce. It was you I was referring to :)

September Zips in

Where did August go? All of a sudden I'm looking at my calendar and it says September! Oh - and what's that? Classes start on Monday??!! The class I teach starts Monday... *gulp* Good thing there is an entire weekend in between to have fun!

Friday night is a girls campout in Waterloo. There will be smores. The other girls will be enjoying something alcoholic, but not me. S'more smores for me please. Next weekend I'm helping out at a garage sale for the Grand River All Breed animal rescue. That's the group I volunteer with now. This past weekend I helped transport 5 rescued dogs, 3 of which were coming into our foster care. One of the three found a forever home immediately (next day), which was great! The other two shouldn't be long behind. They're gorgeous lab crosses. I was so tempted to bring Cooper home - he's a handsome boxer-lab cross. Darla could use a canine companion... if only we had a large fenced yard. Yes, this is the danger of working with rescued animals. (Notice we have 3 cats...) It's probably just as well we don't have a fenced yard.

Well, that's about it for weekend fun. Unless you count housecleaning as fun (you weirdo). Robin's busy prepping to paint the front entrance. With the help of a friend who is a carpenter (okay, he did all the work, but it's because he wanted to!) we put a bench into the front closet and have changed it from a closet to a nook, which nicely opens up the entrance. Once the walls are painted (yellow) we can put in all the freakin' baseboards above the tiled floor in the kitchen and front entrance ... and then the renovations we started almost a year ago will be done! (On to the living room flooring...) I'll put up pictures of the finished product. It's going to look great.

Robin's dad arrives Wednesday for a visit. So I suppose I should clear out the spare closet - I mean, bedroom. You'd never know it was a bedroom right now - except for the bed - under the stuff. And once it's cleared I *suppose* I should endeavor to keep it clear... because it will be baby's room. Well, at least I need to leave space to put baby stuff. Baby will be sleeping in our room. And that's still many moons away.

The pregnancy is going well. I'm in month 3 now. My 24/7 nausea has pretty much gone - which is great! And I never once puked!! Still napping though, which is also great - except that it interrupts work, but I've always gotten tired around midday and needed to take a break. All in all I'd say this is a relatively easy pregnancy so far. I really can't complain. If all continues to go well I'll get to be one of those moms who can tell her child - you were great! I had such an easy time being pregnant with you that I was ready to have a whole clan. (Which is ***NOT*** the plan - two please. Hyperbole is important in storytelling.) And then, if all continues to go well I can rave about how baby slept through the night, and potty-trained in a week and was never fussy. LOL Hey, a woman can dream!

I went for my first midwife appointment a few weeks ago and was blessed to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was incredible. Unfortunately Robin wasn't there and he won't be able to make the next appointment (on the 17th) either. But there will be plenty of opportunities for him to listen. We (midwife and I) didn't really expect to be able to hear baby's heartbeat so early because of how far from the surface everything is at that point. Of course, that was then. Now baby is starting to show and giving me a belly to prove my pregnancy! I had to buy some new pants a size up to fit. I'm not ready for maternity pants yet!

And since people have been asking, here is a photo to show my little baby bump. It's not much, but it's something and I definitely notice it.
One of the things I've really noticed being pregnant is the physiological changes to my basic life activities. I've always been a powerwalker - but now I'm walking in second gear instead of fourth and I have to gear down to first to get up hills. It sucks! My breathing has also changed. I've trained to breath deeply, especially at night. Now I lay awake frustrated by my own shallow breaths and I just can't get them to go much deeper. It was bad enough having to listen to Robin's shallow breathing...

And here is my big fear... twins. I can't wait for my ultrasound in 6 or 7 weeks to tell me I don't have twins! And that it's a girl :P (Robin says boy, but I write the blogs!) Twins run in my maternal line and skipped the birth of my generation. I used to think twins would be great. Then I had a reality check!

In other news. Just today I received notification that my research has *finally* been approved by the human research ethics committee - after a long and bitter battle... But that's all water under the bridge (until a colleague asks me about the process and I give my bitter reply) now that I can start my research. Needless to say, I won't be graduating with others from my cohort next June. Of course, it was unlikely that was ever going to happen. Instead I'll be on maternity leave. I'm taking two terms of leave (8 months total, 2 months free to get as much work done as possible before baby is due) and a maternity bursary from the university. I'll be back to school next fall 2008 to wrap up this PhD and plan to graduate spring 2009.

We'd like to give a shout-out to Robin's aunt who apparently reads this. [Hi] Sorry I hadn't updated the blog in a while. I did post stuff on Facebook, but that's no excuse. I'll try to be better about keeping everyone updated about the pregnancy.

That about wraps up what's new in our household. I hope everyone had a great summer!

Reading List

My reading list sure has changed over the last year. I just finished reading my second fantasy book in two months. That in itself is strange. I used to go through fantasy books by the dozen.

But graduate studies will do that to you. I hadn't realized how much I miss reading fantasy/ fiction until I just finished this last book (Songspinner). Of course, I read a lot still, and I still get excited over most of the books I read, even though they are "school" books. Just the other day I was very excited to (finally) receive a book I ordered back in May (after calling several times this month to demand the whereabouts of my book). I was just laying down for a nap when the delivery guy knocked at the door. Of course I had to open it immediately, and then I started reading even though I was tired. It is a great book titled Kids in Context and is about the research I now do in the field of the sociology of children and childhoods. It's well written, but the most fun was reading the introduction where the authors describe their difficult experiences in getting permission to start their research - the same difficulties I am facing with the university's Human Research Ethics Committee. They reminded me that I'm not alone in facing these issues, that research with children is constantly being roadblocked by ignorant and overprotective boards, but that ultimately the research is getting done and it is making a difference - children's voices are being heard in research as well as some areas of policy-making now, wherever there are researchers and advocates like us fighting with the overseeing boards to make space for the children's voices. Unfortunately, the difference is not yet being seen at the level of ethics boards - not even after 30 years of work.
It has been said that this new field of research which advocates for the rights of children as persons will be to the 21st century what feminism was to the 20th century. I hope they are right.
I hope that one day my children and grandchildren will not be faced with the dismissive attitude of "she's just a child", even by the most well-meaning "guardian" who seeks to "protect" that child by deciding everything for her.

Robin returns

Yippee! Robin returns tonight.
But perhaps even more exciting is the fact that my keyboard is working again! It's really no fun having a keyboard that does not function properly when you have work to do.

I hope everyone got their fill of Robin's presence while he was in Winnipeg. And that you've convinced him we need to come back to visit for Yule/Winter/Christmas.

Nothing terribly exciting to report here. I've kept busy in Robin's absence. Friday night I even attended a huge Harry Potter release city/street party. The entire downtown of New Hamburg was transformed into New Hogsmeade for the release. It was great! I dressed up and went with some friends. We had to stay until midnight so my friends could pick up a reserved copy of the new book. Not me though. I only own the first book and then only because I got it for free because I had to read it for a course I TA'd. I'll wait for the movie. And maybe one day I'll read them with my kids, but for now I have more than enough books on my to-read list, including my favourite fantasy authors.

On the pregnancy front, what was mild nausea sometimes has expanded to mild nausea 24/7 which is not pleasant, but it could be much worse I suppose. It just makes me feel apathetic towards most foods and turned off by others. I make sure I eat and drink and all that good stuff. I think maple syrup is on my must-have list right now, honestly. Chocolate is on my avoid list though, and that sucks. Maybe I'm just feeling apathetic towards chocolate, but I know many women who couldn't eat chocolate while pregnant and I don't want any negative experiences to taint my future chocolate tastings. I bought a chocolate frog at New Hogsmeade just because one coffee shop in town was carrying Harry Potter food and drink such as chocolate frogs and butter beer. Butter beer is very very good! Sort of a fizzy apple cider with certain spices. I suppose Robin will have to eat the frog.

I am also taking Tai Chi with a friend. Last year he taught a Mind and Spirit course that incorporated Tai Chi. Now that he and his partner have a backyard he's invited friends to come do Tai Chi. It's great exercise and energy work.

Give Robin a big hug for me

If you're in Winnipeg with my hubby, give him a big hug for me. (That's you Jen!) This is the first time I've been left behind :( Usually I'm the one leaving home with Robin stuck at home.
On the plus side, I get to watch whatever I want on TV in the evening! NO SPORTS! No cooking shows (except Take Home Chef maybe). No poker. Ah, this is the life.

I borrowed a CD of harp music from the library when I was checking out some books, and subsequently I picked up Amalthea (that's my harp). Surprisingly I can still play and she's even relatively in tune so I didn't have to spend the first 10 minutes fussing over her strings. I plan to play more now... you know, for the baby.

I assume by now most people have heard. Robin was waiting until he travelled to Winnipeg to share the news with "his side". He had the benefit of getting to tell people in person.

To answer some common questions I've been getting and Robin doesn't seem able to answer:
Baby is due in early March.
I am currently only one month into the pregnancy (6 weeks as the nurses count).
So far I am lucky and not feeling significant nausea or other morning sickness.
Yes we are excited :D

I guess I'll soon have to add Baby to the title of this blog.

Canada's Wonderland

What an incredible day!
I still love Canada's Wonderland.
I wish I'd taken the camera, but I didn't want to worry about it while I was having fun!
We went on a lot of rides. Even Robin went on Rollercoasters. Yes, you heard me correctly.
My last ride of the night, as the clock was nearing 10pm (park closing) was the Bat. I saved the best for last because several months ago I dreamed of riding the bat at night and looking out over the Mountain with lights upon the waterfall. In my dream there were also fireworks. Riding the Bat again was just like my dream - minus the foreworks. (It would have been incredible if a show had started!)
Everyone really loved the new(er) ride Tomb Raider.
I remember when the stand-up rollercoaster came out (Sky Rider- and luckily I was a tall kid so I could ride it), and the suspended roller coaster (Vortex). Then they dame out with two roller coasters where your feet dangle (Top Gun and something in the kidzville) and Tomb Raider where you are laying on your stomach. There are some crazy (fun) designs!

We have many stories from yesterday - from nabbing theives (that was me reporting them to security after we watched them pull out stolen merchandise from their bag, while standing in line at the bumper cars, and try to jimmy the electronic security tags. They were right behind us in line, and apparently are so stupid that even though I held up the line so I could wait and talk with a ride operator so she could call security - they never even caught on. Not even when I was pulled from line by security to further identify the thieves. They just stood in line waiting to ride the bumper cars. Until security checked their bag and took them away of course.) to the potato-hut employees who must have been smoking up in back because they were so incredibly absent and incompetent to watching a woman whip past us on the Thunder Run (goes through the mountain) talking on a cell phone. Who sits in the back seat of a roller coaster to have a telephone conversation as it is running the track??

And now for something completely different (back to work).

Solstice Greetings

Midsummer is upon us. Where did the days go?

Since returning to Kitchener we've kept busy.

Robin finished the outdoor painting.

I took off for another four days to attend Wild Ginger Witchcamp. (The pond and underwater tree photo are from camp.)

Darla has been encouraging me to join her outside.

I've been crocheting witch hats like they're going out of style (which they are not! never!)

And the days ahead hold even more fun!

We're going to Canada's Wonderland this weekend!!! I've not been in many years. Robin has never been. Do you think I will be able to convince him to ride a RollerCoaster? Because you know that's where I will be lined up all day!!

Let's see... solstice celebrations. Then I'm off AGAIN (last time this summer) for 6 days to attend Spirits of the Earth festival near London, ON.

Soonafter, Robin will be flying out to Winnipeg for the wedding of Justin and Christina.

As for my work, as suspected I have to resubmit my ethics proposal and they want me to do a pilot study with one family before I do the rest. It looks as if I won't really be starting my research until this fall. In the meantime I have research to do for someone else (paid work) and a course to prepare. I even have students registered already for my course. Which makes planning scarier - it was easier to do when there were no students...

And I suppose it is long past time that I submit works for publication. I hate editing. Or more precisely, I hate having to revisit old work. I much prefer moving on to a new project!

In garden news - it looks great. We had a long dry spell broken by thundershowers yesterday, which were not long enough. The frontyard flowers aren't at their best, but we've kept the veggies well hydrated. I saw peas today :) And we've had lettuce for a while now. And radishes.

Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Kitchener again

It's been a whirlwind of activity - as some of you know first hand as I raced about Winnipeg. I flew in to the Peg May 17 and spend that weekend at Gaia Gathering - a national Pagan conference. My friend Ericka, currently of Halifax, also happened to be in town that weekend and of course we had to get together!

Gaia Gathering was great. There were many interesting panels and I presented a paper on Canadian newspaper portrayals of contemporary Pagans as well as participated in a roundtable discussion of academic research in Pagan Studies. Best of all, though, was meeting new people and seeing folks from Winnipeg.

After Gaia Gathering my sister arrived home from a wedding and my days were filled with Dorion. Or, they would have been except that the next day I caught the 24 hour flu. So sick in bed for 24 hours and another 24 to recover slowly - what a waste of two full vacation days! And I didn't want to get near Dorion and risk having him get sick too. But it passed.

During my stay in Winnipeg I met up with Joe, Jen, Rob and Amanda for lunch - very delicious I must add. Jen makes a great taco soup. I also had breakfast (that same day) with Lauren and Nikki. Also had dinner with my in-laws. Most of the time was spent with family - my apologies to everyone I missed!! I even got to see my dad play with his pipe and drum band at the Forks. This was a first for me. We took Dorion along too (he goes everywhere in the wrap I made for him) and he seemed to enjoy it.

I also went to the Assiniboine Zoo. I didn't get to go last time I was in town :( It was the perfect day to go to the zoo and we took Dorion - it was his first time. I finally got to see the "baby" (not so much a baby any more) black bear. He's actually white right now. There were a lot of young or baby animals at the zoo, including two gorgeous young bald eagles who didn't look like the adult bald eagles.

Then I was off again - driving to Saskatoon for four days at the Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities. The best part of attending the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion is meeting up with colleagues from across Canada. I also chaired a roundtable discussion on the study of new religious movements, presented a paper on including children in research on religion, and co-presented a paper on the contributions urban Pagans have to make for environmental studies. All in all, I think the conference went well. I also ate very well! There were many collegial food gatherings.

Saskatoon was unfortunately cold and often rainy. I hadn't really brought appropriate clothing, but I managed to make due. It was beautiful on the last day - when we were leaving.

Finally, I was back in Winnipeg for a couple more days, which included a large family BBQ. My aunt hosted this in her new large backyard - complete with an outdoor, enclosed spa-tub! All my new family members were there - my nephew and two newborn second cousins. It was a fine time, even with the rain. (Rain was welcome in that heat!)

Back in Kitchener, Robin was not on holiday! He had to wake extra early every morning to walk Darla, water the gardens, then bike or bus to work (no decent parking available except on Sundays). When he got home he had to walk Darla again and make food (and water the plants again if necessary). Apparently he's discovered that cooking for himself is less fun than cooking for others. On top of that, he decided to paint the outdoor trim in my absence. It looks great! I can't say I'm too sorry for him - all those additional things he had to do are what I always have to do in addition to my work - because I work from home. Of course, I don't get up extra early, I just continue my work through the evening and use gardening and taking care of the animals as a break from research and writing.

Once I returned, there was gardening and other catching up to be done. I'm still waiting to hear back from the Ethics Committee regarding my research application. I've heard some pre-warnings, which have not made me happy. Suffice it to say, research will be delayed. This should not surprise me.

Coming back from Winnipeg was difficult. It's hard to say which place is "home". This is where my physical home is - and my nuclear family - but Winnipeg is where most of our family and friends are - and that makes it home. Ideally, we will move back. Ideally. If I can get a university job in the region. That's a few years away yet.