Helen Niles....not travelling many miles at all.

That dull back ache turned into sciatica in my right side. If I had some sort of walking stick, I'd be using it daily as I can't put much weight on my right leg. Also, my hips have decided to flee my body, or at least that's what it feels like. These last two weeks have been the hardest out of the last 9-ish months (I know, I know, what's next will be harder...), but I still have to consider myself lucky. Pregnancy (and Life for that matter) is full of ups and downs, and if you can't deal with them, then you'll never get through it.....so dealing with them, it is.

Because of the pain, I haven't been getting around much. I go up the stairs (slowly and limpingly) to put in a load of laundry, or I walk around the street corner (slowly and limpingly) to get the mail. Otherwise, I've been sitting on the couch or at the kitchen table watching movies and checking Facebook wayyyyy too much. I watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, then He's Just Not That Into You, then an hour of Sense & Sensibility (which I normally love, but deemed too slow for my current state of mind), and then My Best Friend's Wedding. Along with cooking dinners for J, napping and tidying up the odd room, that was how I spent my week. Oddly enough, I thought it would be harder to get used to being away from work, but nope! Turns out it's not that hard at all!!!

This is the calm before the storm. I'm due on Monday. Shall we start taking bets as to when she'll arrive?

Maternity Leave (and caternity leave)

I am officially on Maternity leave. It was nice the first couple of days until I started getting some consistent dull back pain. From what I can gather, the baby has descended and I'm getting even closer to D-day (due date). Unfortunately, I have promised J that I will take it easy from now on....and that means only doing one or two things on the list I have prepared for my time off before the baby comes....instead of the 3 to 4 that I managed earlier this week.

Around the 32 week mark, I decided enough was enough and that I have to stop feeling sorry for myself and my ever-expanding middle. You're supposed to get bigger during pregnancy, but for whatever reason (I think it's because my abs were always my favourite body part), I just couldn't get used to the idea. So I took matters into my own hands.....by hiring a photographer and getting maternity photos done. A photographer that's done this type of thing before will know how to pose a pregger so that optimum flattery is obtained. Essentially, it's amazing that we are adding this little person to our family, but I really wanted to look back on pregnancy as a positive thing...not something 'you have to get through'.

Melanie Shields was our wedding photographer and I knew that she did all sorts of different photography. I sent her a quick email, we decided on a date, and we met for the photos. She suggested that the 35-36 mark is the best time to get photos done, and we went to Hog's Back Falls.

Now, I don't think I'd ever actually been to Hog's Back Falls. I'd driven by it loads of times, but it's actually a very nice park!!! We stolled around, I did various poses (some more flattering than others in my mind) and finished in under an hour. Here are some of my favourites:





If you like Melanie's work (and I will press the fact that her prices are very reasonable), her website is http://www.melanieshieldsphotography.com/ and her phone number is 613-296-1239.

As for Zorro, our cat, until the baby comes I am also officially on Caternity Leave and I must say he is enjoying it quite a bit!

Birthday before a Birth-day

I've heard that 30 is the new 20. I've heard people are much more sure of themselves at 30. I've heard that 10 x 3 = 30.

I remember thinking that I wanted to have my first kid by 30....and being a scientist, I know that everything has a degree of uncertainty, so we'll say that 30 +/- 3 weeks is pretty much 30.

I know that after this point, almost everything will be about the future baby Niles, so I will now say buh-bye to my childhood and look towards the new childhood about to start!

Oktoberfest (or at least the next best thing to __)

About this time last year, J and I were on our honeymoon in Europe. He got to go to the REAL-DEAL Oktoberfest, I stayed with my friend C because we both had a cold. This year, as we couldn't experience the REAL-DEAL, we went to the next best thing (a very distant 3rd or 4th, I'm sure, but we really didn't have much to choose from!).

A small brewery called Beau's in Vankleek Hill puts on a weekend version of Oktoberfest in early October. This is the second year they've had the event, and there were a few other places to choose from: there was another Oktoberfest that same weekend in Richmond, not too far from Ottawa, and there is the Oktoberfest in Kitchener-Waterloo that has been around for ages (this one is apparently the #2 Oktoberfest in the world, or something crazy like that. Again, probably a DISTANT 2nd...).

So off we (J and I, along with my sister V and brother in law K) went to Vankleek Hill with our tickets that promised us a free alpine hat, a free beverage (alcoholic for my companions, non-alcoholic for me) and a free pretzel. I have to admit, I was most excited about the pretzel and the hat, but I promptly lost my hat in the wind about an hour after we got there. It was rainy and windy and quite cold, but the atmosphere really livened things up!

The boys immediately bought their own Beau's Brewery mugs, into which they could pour their beers all afternoon. My sister and I bought Beau's Brewery toques since those alpine hats really weren't made for alpine weather.

So free things are usually too good to be true, and I will just say that the same applied to the free pretzel. It was very small. So small that I didn't even bother taking a picture of it. However, it was still free so I guess I can't complain (...much more than I already have).

Our bellies needed filling, and J and K's bellies needed lining for the amounts of beer they were going to consume. If you remember, J drank 6 litres of beer at the REAL-DEAL....he didn't think think he would drink quite as much this time around, but still, his belly needed some Bavarian lining. Off we went to the food tents.

I love my weinerschnitzels, so I had to get one on a bun along with potato salad.

J got a sausage in a bun with sauerkraut on top. He was quite silent while eating it, which is a good indicator that it was quite good (J is also pertty silent when drinking beer....until about the 6th litre, then we can't seem to get him to stop talking!).

After the food were the games. Now, my friend C told me that these games weren't even typically authentic Bavarian games....but come on! When you are only attending the truly distant 5th or 6th Oktoberfest in the world, they need to step it up a notch and have some games.

We watched the Sausage eating contest (the winner ate 12 - and kept them all down). We watched the empty keg throwing contest (some of those throws made me nervous and they actually had paramedics on site just in case). And we watched the full-keg carrying contest (one of the paramedics actually won! Must be from hauling all those injured people...).

As the afternoon progressed, J worked on his beer consumption and although he didn't manage to drink 6 litres, he looked pretty happy.

Perhaps we will be able to bring the little one to the REAL-DEAL Oktoberfest to sip her first beer sometime next September/October..... I'm JUST KIDDING.

I will do all the beer drinking and J will be babysitting.

Ready, set, GO!

I'm 36 weeks along on Monday...and this is when you are supposed to pack your hospital bag.
I mean, I can pack it whenever I feel like it, but J and I are both planners and I think the thing to do to ease some of our anxiety is to actually pack the thing. We'll be more ready for when the day comes, and it's another thing to check off "THE ULTIMATE LIST".

You can find packing lists everywhere. I have 5 pregnancy books that I bought off Kijiji back in March and they each have a list. The book that we got at the prenatal class that we took a few weekends ago has a list. The internet has lists up to the wah-zoo (still not quite sure what the wah-zoo is, but let's let everyone make their own conclusion).

I've bought the suggesting clothing (fyi - apparently nightgowns are better than regular PJs....easy access and all that), we have the baby outfit (although we're still teeter-tottering on this cute little Hallowe'en themed onesie at Babies R Us), we have the car seat installed and had it inspected.....and then there are the things on the packing lists that I find a bit funny:

For me:
-breath spray (I really don't think I'll be worrying about my breath at that point in my life)

For J:
-a paint roller for giving a low-back massage (unfortunately all our paint rollers are covered in...well....paint).
-Cornstarch, also for massaging....however, this one could come in handy when I get hungry after giving birth and I get a craving for a coconut cream pie.

Another item on "THE ULTIMATE LIST" is doing a dry run to the hospital. We both know where the hospital is, but as I do most of the driving (I drive to work and J takes the bus or his bike), J likes to do his research ahead of time so that he's more comfortable with the route. Totally cool with me, as I would hate to have to pull over on the way there, switch seats, and drive my hyperventilating husband to the hospital while I'm timing my own contractions. Also, as it's now the Fall, the city likes to start all sorts of construction projects and it would be nice not to have a surprise road-closure on the big day!

Of course, as J's coworkers suggested, it wouldn't be a true dry run without me yelling at him to "GO GO GO!!!" or that "IT HURTS!!!" while screaming like a banshee (also not sure what a banshee is....).