Point of Interest

Often I start to get a bit bummed out when a vacation is coming to an end, especially when it's one that has been as fantastic as our trip to Iceland was.  This time fortunately we both had something to look forward to upon returning home: our second baby ultrasound :) That's right, 20 weeks down and 20 weeks left to go!

Picture from hotel in Iceland - 19 weeks

This past Monday I had both my ultrasound at the lab downtown as well as my regular OB appointment at Sunnybrook.  I had been looking forward to this ultrasound because all of my friends had told me how much more you can see of the baby this time around.  I was also eager to be reassured the baby was doing well after all the physical activity during Iceland.

To my disappointment the baby wasn't very well positioned (again) and I really didn't see that much from the ultrasound.  For the first half hour I just watched quietly on the screen as the technician made measurements and recorded her observations, speaking softly into I-dunno-what.  The only things I identified on my own were the spine and the beating heart.  Check. Check.

Then I was asked to elevate my hips to try and get the baby to turn. It was somewhat awkward having your belly exposed and covered in gel, putting your feet on the bed (knees up) and then arching upwards in a sort of bridged position.  When that didn't seem to work she asked me to repeat the pose but this time "shake my butt".  I could only hope this was still part of the ultrasound procedure and I wasn't going to be featured on Candid Camera. 

Eventually the technician made all of her measurements and invited Mike into the room.  I thought this would be the fun part, where we would see all the fingers and toes and see the profile of the baby's face.  Nope. Not even close.

I couldn't tell one blurry image from the next.  Finally we asked whether she could tell what the sex of the baby was - we had both been very eager to find out. Not surprising, she said she wasn't technically allowed to tell us....but she said she would show us.  Hm, I thought. First hint. It went something like this:

Technician: Here's the first leg (oval-ish blob)...

                  And here's the second leg (circular blob)....

                  And here's a "point of interest" (grin, hint hint)

Mike laughed, concluding it was a boy.  I thought she was showing me the first leg again.  In the end the doctor at Sunnybrook confirmed that we are in fact having a boy and everything looked perfectly normal.  Check (sigh of relief).  A healthy baby boy - how exciting!

Oh yes, and when the technician gave us some ultrasound photos to take home with us she said almost apologetically that there weren't any good profile photos because the baby wasn't well-positioned. We were both fine with that but I was not prepared to see a 3D image of what looked like a clay baby after it had melted.  It was terribly creepy and I made Mike throw it out.  Baby photos shouldn't be frightening.  We kept the other three :)

"AY-uh-fyat-luh-YOE-kuutl-uh"

What's that, now?

Apparently that is how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano in Iceland that erupted in the spring of 2010 saturating the skies with ash and closing down Europe's major airports for a week. Or at least that's what the T-shirts told us!

Mike and I just came back from 12 days in Iceland and it was an incredible adventure.  The landscape and scenery was unbelievable!  The weather was a very pleasant 12-15 degC, perfect for hiking around outdoors. I would normally find that temperature too cool for a vacation but becoming pregnant seems to have completely changed my mind - I can't seem to tolerate the heat we've been having this summer.

Black Sand Beach - Snaefellsnes Peninsula

Iceland had never been a place to visit on either of our lists until earlier this year when we heard about it from various friends and co-workers.  We were both intrigued by the things we learned about the country and thought, heck, why not?  We knew we wanted one more big trip before the baby's arrival and Iceland seemed as good a place for an adventure as any; Waterfalls, volcanoes, geysers, glaciers, mud pots, hot springs, horses, sheepies, and moooore sheepies - sign us up!  

Vatnajökull Glacier

The population in Iceland is roughly 320,000 with 2/3 of the people concentrated in the greater Reykjavik area on the west coast.  We spent the first several days around Reykjavik and taking some day tours  to visit the highlands (normally requires renting a Super Jeep), exploring a cave, and checking out Snaefellsnes Peninsula.  Then we rented a Yaris for the second half of the trip and drove on the "Ring Road" that wraps around the perimeter of the country.  Seeing the countryside was breathtaking, and the fact that we encountered so few people on the roads or in the small towns scattered along the way made the journey even more mysterious and magical.  There was one stretch of road where we must have driven for almost 2 hours before we saw a single farm!  That's not to say there wasn't always plenty to see - sometimes when we walked around the lava rock formations it felt like we had landed on another planet.  Then we saw the  familiar horses and sheep and everything was back to normal :)

I can't possibly recount in this blog all of the wonderful things we saw and did in Iceland but I will share a few photos here.  We took an absurd number of photos and videos by the way, some of which I just finished uploading to my Picasa web album.  Below is just the teensiest, tiniest glimpse into Iceland.  I would definitely recommend paying a visit there for anyone who enjoys being outdoors - it's an expensive country to travel to (now that the economy is recovering) but definitely worth it.  

Interesting Facts!

- ratio of people to horses is roughly 3:1

- average temperature in January is only down to -2 degC

- Reykjavik sees more sunlight hours over the course of a year than Miami does (despite the endless darkness of winters)

- Iceland is about twice the size of Nova Scotia (103 square kilometers)

- beer was banned in Iceland until 1989

- the majority of the population believes in elves (no joke)

Snaefellsnes Peninsula

Arch at Dyrhólaey

Sulfur springs in Lauger

Behind Seljalandsfoss Waterfall - can you find Mike in the photo??

Thingvellir National Park

Vatnajökull Glacier

Skogafoss Waterfall

Adventures of my Expanding Belly

This will be my last post for today and then I think I'm pretty much caught up. Here are some photos Mike has been taking of my belly over the past few weeks.  The alarming thing was that at 9 weeks I already had trouble buttoning my pants! I was feeling extra bloated and didn't know what was going on in there since the baby was barely the size of a pea.  Well it turns out that it's not uncommon to become very bloated early on, then shrink back down again before expanding with Baby.  We didn't take any photos before 12 weeks so I can't show you the bizarre transformation but indeed at 12 weeks I was back down to my regular size.

That being said, since then my belly has been off to the races.  At 15 weeks I had a definite baby bump (and looking pretty tired, might I add).  I had read online "...In your fourth month your hair is glossy, your skin is glowing, and you are feeling on top of the world!".  What was that girl smokin'?

12 weeks, 3 days - morning

15 weeks, 3 days - morning

 The latest photo was taken two days ago and I look particularly round but that was the result of a healthy-sized dinner :)

I said to Mike, "My belly is starting to look cute!" and he replied "Yeah.  Wait, did you say 'cute' or 'huge'?.."  Oh dear.

16 weeks, 1 day - after dinner!

Weeds, Gardens, BBQ!

Weeds.  Stupid weeds.  This house was the motherland for weeds when we moved in.  Mike and I spent every weekend of the first 6 weeks on our hands and knees pulling out these suckers.  And that was only for the front lawn (which of course isn't very big to begin with when you're living in Toronto).  Now it was time to attack the back.

Actually by the time these photos were taken (6 weeks ago?) Mike had already done a beautiful job of removing the weeds on right side of our backyard in what used to be a garden. He planted a variety of flowers we had randomly picked out at the local garden store and they have been doing amazing despite being in constant sun and despite the suffocating heat we're experiencing this year.  In the next photos Mike is taking on the left side of the backyard, where the weeds starting growing to be almost as tall as he is!

   

Perhaps if we're lucky we'll be able to get the left side of the yard as pretty as the right side. Here are some photos of that garden looking nice and healthy.

  

Finally, the bbq.  One of the things we're enjoying most about the new house is having our own bbq in the backyard.  Here is Mike (on arguably the hottest day of summer so far) making salmon on a cedar plank and asparagus with prosciutto.  The asparagus was first marinated in a tasty lemon-mustard-peppery-olive oil mix - Yum!

The only minor snag was when he got wrapped up chatting with our next-door neighbour and the cedar plank caught fire!  Luckily the food was still delicious but you'll see the plank is pretty charred in the last photo below :)

Summer Sunshine Top

After more than two months away from my blog I'm finally getting around to a new post!  Actually I probably have about three posts I could write right now so I'm in catch-up mode.  Unfortunately I just couldn't find the time (or energy) in the first half of this summer to do much sewing or blogging.  Hopefully now that I'm getting over my first-trimester symptoms I can get back into my normal routine (and yes, that's right, we're expecting!)

Here is a summer top that I finished about 3 weeks back.  I was at Fabricland buying some fuschia binding for a silk top for my aunt (I forgot to take photos!) when I saw this bright summery fabric on sale.  What really drew me to it was the pretty detailing along one edge of the fabric.  I wanted to use some of that detailing for the bodice so I dividing the front bodice panel in half and oriented the edges vertically. I sewed both edges onto a thin panel of the same fabric to join the two. It was a fairly simple way to make use of the pretty detailing.

Unfortunately that was the last simple thing about making this shirt!  It underwent several transformations before I was satisfied with the final design.  My main problem was lack of planning (groan).  The zipper I bought was too short and I thought I could get around it by making a deep v-neck back so that the zipper would be positioned at the narrowest part of the shirt.  Well that created all sorts of issues!  The fabric just wouldn't sit right against my back, and any time I stood up with a nice straight posture, the fabric would fall away from my back leaving a huge undesired gap. 

I also wanted to make cap sleeves for this shirt but knew I was short on fabric.  I stubbornly pushed forward with the plan anyway but after basting on the sleeves and trying the shirt on I knew it just wasn't going to work out.  Sigh.  I had to completely change directions with the design and spent an afternoon with the seam ripper.

I removed the zipper from the back and re-positioned it along one side of the shirt. This placement was now possible since the shirt was no longer going to have sleeves.  To fix the problem with the deep v-neck back I used a sheer white fabric that complemented the yellow floral pattern well and built up the neckline.

Finally I added lining to the shirt to make it feel nice and slippery against the skin.  In the end the shirt turned out pretty well but probably took twice the time it should have.  Planning is everything (why don't I ever learn?).  Anyway it met my goal of a cute summer top and it's one that I can continue to wear over the next few months with plenty of room for my growing belly!