The tough decision

These past few weeks have been extremely tough on my sanity.. I have had a roller coaster month of February. At the beginning of Feb I started getting extremely itchy on the bottoms of my feet  and my hands. I didn't think much of it until I started loosing sleep from the discomfort. Having a hernia in my groin I've been checking in with my MD regularly even though my Prenatal care is with a midwife in Kamloops. I mentioned to both of them about the itchyness and they both automatically wanted to check for "Choleostasis" in my blood work. My MD had referred me to a specialist in Kamloops. Because of some confusion I still do not have the results of that, but with me being anemic right now and previous blood work having extremely low platelet levels I've had to adjust to the idea of a hospital birth when I've spent my entire pregnancy preparing for a home birth. It has been a hard thought to part with but we finally came to term and packed our bags when there was talk early this week of inducing me if my blood work showed Choleostasis. This morning I received great news that everything looks great besides my Iron levels, that my platelets have finally gone back up in the safe zone but to still waiting on the Choelostasis results and that there is a good chance I can go back to my original home birth plan! The problem is if anything goes wrong and i need to transfer to the hospital my midwife looses all privileges as Salmon Arm doesn't give them any. If we plan this hospital birth I will be delivering in Kamloops where they will still allow me to do a water birth. Joe thinks we should be in the Kamloops hospital where we have access to everything incase of an emergency, because of the un smooth pregnancy this far and going through all the testing and appointments the universe was preparing me to come to terms with a hospital birth and that's the way I should go. I've envisioned a birthing pool, candles, my diffusers with my essential oils going. I've made a vision board and have just pictured this calm environment, laid out how I want. This feels like one of  the tougher decisions I've had to make. I have until Monday morning.

I've felt like an emotionally drained zombie who hardly has motivation to parent lately but with much help from Joe and love from everyone around me I've managed to stay overall positive. 

We're so close now and our baby is looking healthy which is all that matters!

37 week ultrasound, I think baby looks like a little girl! 

Valentine's Day in Vancouver

For Valentine's Day this year Joe's mom and I decided to get the boys tickets to a Vancouver Canucks vs. Toronto Maple Leafs game down at the coast. They are HUGE leafs fans so when they accidentally found out we got them tickets they were SO excited! As were we as a weekend away at 35 weeks pregnant was much needed!

So the morning of the game we packed up and headed down to Vancouver! We went straight to Joe's sisters place and played some cards then headed to our hotel to get ready!

We made our way downtown and got parked and in the arena. We ended up having awesome seats behind the Vancouver net which rocked because Toronto was controlling the game in their end! At the end of the first period it was 0-0 but with Leafs absolutely killing it. We were a little nervous when we heard a majority of our players were injured and didn't come on the road trip of Edmonton,Calgary and Vancouver games! Headed into the 3rd we were up 3-1 and the crowd was actually going wild for the Leafs, tons of fans there and we happened to be surrounded by a lot of them! We got the opportunity thanks to my best friend Stacy to check out Club 500 where you are literally on top of the ice and it makes your stomach drop looking down. She works up there and it is amazing! We ended up winning 5-2 and had a great time!

That night we went out for drinks at a cute place called Steamworks Brewery. 

Sunday we went bowling where I decided to opt out haha then played some board games and cards before we had reservations to try and solve a "Smarty Pantz" room! These are so fun and a GREAT idea! We've done an "exit" room in Kelowna which is similar. We ended up solving the room with 2 minutes to spare then going out for Mexican. We encountered a homeless man who drew the family for us. See picture below. 

Such a great weekend with great people!

View from Club 500, no justice!

Birthday weekend

Last weekend I got to celebrate my 23rd birthday at 34 almost 35 weeks pregnant. I woke up to coffee in bed shortly after followed by a few hours of morning sickness...wahoo! Carsey came in and asked me " Why are you popping out of your mouth mama? (Coffee) and then quickly interrupted my response asking if I needed him to pour the bowl into the potty. I hadn't had morning sickness in two weeks but it chose that morning to come back. Finally rolling out of bed around noon I could feel Joe had something planned so I started to get myself together (red lip stick included). 

We are big card players in this house so we played a best 2 out of 3 series of the game Sequence then my sister (who just flew in from travelling for 4 months) and her friend from Victoria (who also flew in to meet up with her) joined us for a few rounds of Shithead. Before the game was fully finished Joe abruptly said we had to go, we packed Carsen up and began driving. 

We ended up driving to the edge of town, not knowing where we were headed we ended up dropping Carsey off with a babysitter and turned around back into town where Joe continued to confuse me by driving in and around neighbourhoods wasting time until we arrived at the Casino where he had planned a surprise dinner with family and friends. 

The following morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and both agreed is spent most of my birthday feeling ill and that we should go on an adventure! We ventured off to Naramata which is just past Penticton, BC and has got to be one of the most beautiful drives in BC FULL of wineries. We took Carsen to a park where I used to play as I spent many summers attending a camp out there years ago. We grabbed lunch at a cute little cafe and ended our day in Kelowna having dinner with great friends at Earls (where I got to satisfy a major craving I've been having!) Our friends Branden and Sarah are actually getting married at the end of May and Joe is Branden's best man, I'm one of Sarah's bridesmaids and Carsen is the little ring man. Catching up with them is always so fun! (Note: Carsey slept the entire dinner and visit in the booth with us)

I loved every minute of this day... I am so so blessed.....❤️