Sick Mummy

So the man responsible for impregnating me has now also given me his sore throat and cough. (I love you, Sweetie). All the delicious decongestants, and cough suppressants that the hubby has lying around are off limits to preggers girl, so I have to resort to non-medical remedies. Unfortunately, for some reason my first-trimester queasiness is back with a vengeance and so far most of the home remedies I've tried have lead to various flavours of puke. These include:

• gargling with salt water
• tea with lemon and honey

Oh well, upchucking is one way to get rid of a virus, right? Anyway my doctor says that none of this will harm the offspring. He also says that it's cool if I want to take tylenol. I'm afraid to ingest anything right now, medical or not.

In other pregnancy-related news: I've recently purchased my first pair of ugly elastic preggers jeans, but haven't yet worn them in public. I'm on the cusp of needing them (I'm a wee bit too big for many of my jeans and shorts but not big enough for strangers to ask to pet my belly). I also bought two preggers t's, one that says "What's Kicking?" and another bearing the heroic image of Strawberry Shortcake (who looks way too young to be having kids if you ask me) and the slogan "Yummy Mummy". Maybe I'll wear them next month.

Speaking of preggers shopping, my already oversized girls have grown to gigantic proportions. On Saturday I went to the specialty bra store (the word specialty here meaning expensive) and purchased two 100-dollar H-cup bras. That's right, H-cup. Who knew the alphabet was even that long? Certainly not Sears or La Senza. I'm four cup-sizes bigger than the largest available in the department stores and I'm not even nursing yet. My husband is thrilled.

The Alien that Lives in my Uterus

So we didn't find out this time what kind of creature is growing in my belly (girl, boy, nerd, conehead). Though you can clearly see that my offspring has quite a handsome spine, and a possible future as a contortionist.

Everytime my doctor sends me to book an ultrasound, I think no problemo, routine ultrasound. Then the ultrasound girl looks at me like I have three heads and asks why the heck am I getting this done now? The answer of course is that my doctor LOVES doing tests. He orders chest X-rays when I have a cough. Sometimes he gets my blood tested for HIV just for kicks. Anyway, I might need another ultrasound in a couple weeks so the doc can enjoy more pics of my insides.

Usually before an ultrasound or doctor's appointment I have this irrational fear that they'll tell me that I'm not really going to have a baby and there's just a dead fetus floating in there. But I think I may have felt it move this morning. I can't be sure, it was quite subtle and might have been a gas bubble or my imagination. I choose to believe it was my baby. It's alive, Igor! It's alive!

Oh, and they also took my blood. Vampires.

No Fridge No Phone

So the day before yesterday the fuse blew that connected our fridge. No problem, says my handy husband. We shall replace it. Unfortunately, even with power going to the fridge it was not its normal chilly self. It's then we noticed a gross oily smell.

We called the repair man and described the oily smell. They said such a problem would cost 400$ plus labour to fix. GAH! We had to make a decision fast. Already the popcicles had melted into a mult-coloured puddle that would make you weep.

So I called my mother, who has power of attourney over my grandmother (which extends to our appliances). She agreed that the only course of action was to buy a whole new fridge. So we did. A nice stainless steel one with the freezer at the bottom. It gets delivered on Saturday.

So for the next few days we get nothing to eat but cupboard food. No veggies. No nothing. The only cold thing we have available is the one bag of milk that we squeezed into our super-mini mini fridge.

In other news, still waiting for our phone service. I borrowed my Mom's cellphone to stay connected with reality.

Disconnected from reality

Tommorrow we have one of them nutty all day appointments to install our cable internet. Unfortunately the brainiacs at Cogeco have suddenly discovered that our building won't let them install their phone service. (Where was this illuminating fact 2 weeks ago, I know not). My grandmother's phone company, on the other hand, has been very diligent and has promptly cut off Omi's service (our only link to the outside world).

So we signed up for Vonage. Same price as Cogeco for phone but with more goodies. Like, I can call Italy for free. Because I know SO many people in Italy. I think we can also call Scotland, so I might just randomly call Scottish Carol once our phone is installed. Who knows when that will be.

Hopefully this is the last time I have to sponge my family's internet. Cheers!

Stuck in the dark ages

I'm using my father-in-law's laptop, with a frustrating "lite" internet connection, to inform you of a tragic happenstance. On Friday we moved into my grandmother's condo (which shall henceforth be known as Jen and Adam's condo). I had to hang out all day to wait for the COGECO cable guy because we had an "appointment" to install our cable sometime between 8am and 5pm. First of all, what the heck kind of appointment time is that? Come on now.

Around noonish the security guard called from downstairs and said there was one of those cursed "Sorry we missed you" notes outside the door to the building. GAH! I figure he must have come when I was on the telephone for two minutes. He could have gotten security to let him in (the guard knew I was home) or waited a few minutes and tried to buzz again. But of course the cable guy didn't actually want to get in. He wanted a smoke break instead.

So I called the COGECO customer "service" hotline and was informed that they couldn't get the technician to come back that day. "He's on to other appointments," they said. "He's way too busy for you." They also said that he couldn't come back until the 17th! Now, for the sake of cheapness and "convenience" (but mostly cheapness) we have our internet, tv, and telephone bundled through COGECO. That's right. It's the dark ages for me for 2 whole weeks.

I tried every tactic I knew to persuade the customer service rep to give me a MUCH earlier date. I pleaded, I argued, I wept, I was polite, I was impolite. It was no use. I might as well have been trying to reach the Maharaja.

"The Maharaja is very busy. The Maharaja will be able to see you on the 17th, sometime between 8am and 5pm."

Omi's got a home

My sweet german grandmother has been in the hospital now for two months waiting for a place in a home care facility. Today she's finally moving! She'll have a private room and we can set it up with some of her furniture and pictures and things. It will look a lot more familiar to her than the hospital (which is über-important for alzeimers people). I've seen the home. It has cute male nurses and serves yummy Polish food. Perfect for Omi!

This is also super convenient for us, because this is the week me and Adam are moving into Omi's condo. Now we can move some of her furniture into the home at the same time.

I love my Omi. I hope that she's happy in her new place and isn't too nervous about moving.