Birthday, mother’s day and home projects…

Well, since my last post, nothing extraordinary has happened. But I did get the results of my glucose test thing and I’m normal! As my doctor reminded me when she passed on the news, that doesn’t mean I can eat sugar freely still. I have been incredibly well behaved these past few weeks though, if I do say so myself, but it’s nice to know that if I have the occasional potato or treat I’m not going to die of carb/sugar overload!

Which is a good thing, because yesterday was Richie’s birthday, and I’ll admit to indulging in a small piece of delicious chocolate cake. Since he was working yesterday, we sort of celebrated Sunday as his birthday, and it was mother’s day too, AND our friend Marijke shares the same birthday as Richie so we saw her in the evening for wine and cake too! Actually, it probably wasn’t the most relaxing day because we decided to do some apartment rearranging we’ve been wanting to do for a while. It was a bit of physical labour, especially for Richie, but we got a lot done and are feeling really good about it. Basically, we switched rooms with Liam, so now he’s got the nice sunny big room as his bedroom/playroom and we’re in the smaller room. We still have lots of throwing away of things to do, and organizing before everything will really feel settled, but we’ll get there. Yesterday Liam and I just stayed home all day because it was a bit drizzly and overcast outside and I had a headache, so while he played, I just pottered around throwing things away and sorting stuff out in his new room, so even though I felt a bit blah yesterday, I felt like things were certainly accomplished. I think Liam’s having fun in his new room too!

I’m also making plans to decorate his room more, make it more colourful and kid-friendly, because it’s a bit plain and boring now. I started on a bit of a project last night to make some colourful animal pictures for his room, and he did his first ever painting project yesterday too, so we’ll be hanging up his artwork in there as well! I put a piece of paper in a ziplock baggy with a couple globs of watercolour paint, a small bit of water and a small travel-sized shampoo bottle, just to put some object in there to help squish around the paint. I found the idea on this website, and I’m excited to try a few more things too. It is hard to think of many crafty/arty ideas for an under-two-year-old, so this was helpful. Honestly, the ‘project’ kept him interested for about 2 minutes, but still. I think I still want to try and do more arty things with him, just to give him something different to do really, and I’m sure he’ll get more interested in such things when he’s a bit bigger. But no harm in letting him play around with stuff now.

This morning I’m feeling much better so we headed out to the playground for about an hour, which was refreshing even if the weather is still a bit dodgy and a few drops of rain fell on our heads. Liam definitely needed the outside time though. I just wish a) birds and cats and dogs didn’t poop and b) people would never ever drop rubbish or cigarette butts on the ground! I hate having to tell him no ever 2 minutes to keep him from picking up gross stuff! It’s not like the park is really dirty or anything. It’s actually pretty clean. It’s just that Liam manages to find every minuscule bit of junk around, no matter how out of the way or tiny! If only he were that tidy at home! But despite that, it’s still great to see him have fun outside and it sure makes him take a good long nap!

Well, I don’t have any photos for now, but I’ll work on that! Now, however, it’s naptime! Yippee!

Interesting new experience…

So, this is kind of a random post, but I had my first experience of passing out yesterday. At least that I know of. I had to do one of those glucose blood test things I’ve heard of so many pregnant women having to do, but somehow I got lucky and didn’t have to take one when I was pregnant with Liam.

Anyway, Richie took the morning off work yesterday so I could go to the lab to have the test done. Little did I realize that it would take more than THREE HOURS! As a result, Richie’s morning off morphed into Richie’s entire day off, and he’s just going to make up an extra day of work in a week or so.

I think the fact that I walked to the clinic, up a giant steep hill, on an empty stomach of course, was probably a contributing factor. I felt fine when I got their and surprisingly not really that hungry (pregnant or no, I’m always starving in the morning!). I don’t really have any problem with getting blood taken generally, and at first things were fine. Then after the initial blood sample was taken and I was sitting in the chair for a minute, I started feeling funny and woozy and like I just wanted to curl up and lay on my side. I remember the nurses there bringing me a drink of water and turning on the air conditioner for me and then…

I was in a happy place! Haha, it’s so weird, the experience right before passing out feels miserable, but being passed out feels kind of nice! It was like dreaming a bit, that’s all. I have no idea how long I was out, but I opened my eyes with one nurse holding my feet up and another one rubbing lemon-scented Turkish cologne on my arm and holding it under my nose and rubbing it on my forehead. Funky. I think the lemon cologne was particularly magical.

Then after I recovered a bit, it was back to the waiting room to drink the most sugary lemonade ever, which made me feel a bit ill for a while. During that first hour of waiting I just had the strongest urge to lay down and fall asleep, and I must have dozed off because the nurse came to tell me not to sleep. Luckily I had my kindle with so I just read loads, and it got easier as the time passed. I didn’t faint again anyway!

So, I get my results in another day or two and fingers crossed I don’t have a big blood sugar problem. I’ve been really behaving myself for the last week or so, cutting down the carbs and sticking with the protein and stuff, so I really, really hope that’s all I have to do. I guess I’ll find out.

All I know is that, either way, when this baby arrives, I’m treating myself to a great big giant cake and I’m going to enjoy every single bite of it! Can’t wait!

My May resolution and a visit from the doula…

The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous and I feel so energized by it. It’s amazing what sun and warmer weather can do for one’s whole outlook on everything! I’ve especially been enjoying the mornings. Although it’s still (barely) April, the days have been hot enough, especially when one is pushing a toddler in a buggy up a hill! But the mornings have been perfect, just a nice touch of coolness, and plenty of sun, but still not the sort of glaring hot sun of the afternoon. So I’ve been making a point of getting out the door at around 9:00 or 9:30 to take Liam out to play at that lovely time of day. He gets to have some fun, I get to enjoy the relative quiet of the morning, the playgrounds aren’t too busy, and then Liam takes a great long nap after all that running around. It’s wonderful. I also find that if I do something productive like that in the morning, the whole rest of the day is more productive. Or even if it isn’t, I feel better knowing that I got something done earlier in the day, so I don’t feel like a completely lazy slacker. So my May resolution is to get out just about every morning with Liam. This month will be the nicest weather and I won’t yet be quite so huge and uncomfortable, so I really want to make the most of it! Come June and July I’ll have a huge belly and it’ll be scorching hot, so I might not have quite as much motivation to get out tons, so I better just go for it now while I do!

In other news, our doula came over again today, which was lovely. We went over some breathing techniques for dealing with labour and contractions and talked about this and that. It was a nice visit and it’s good to start thinking about all these things. I just know the next three months will fly by at a ridiculous speed and it’ll suddenly be time to pop out a baby! Don’t want to leave all this preparation until the last minute!

Tomorrow is May Day and Richie’s off work, so that’s a nice treat. Richie said he heard that tons of things will be shut down tomorrow in the centre of Istanbul, in an effort to avoid or cut down on the rioting and craziness. None of this effects us much, since we’re out of the middle of the city, but it’s nice to get a day off together on account of it! We’ve got some modest spring cleaning and organizing plans for tomorrow, so it’ll be much easier to get that stuff done with two of us here. And then I think we’re meeting a friend for lunch, so it should be a well-spent Wednesday!

Here’s what’s happening…

Well, it has been a ridiculously long time since I’ve posted anything here. I honestly don’t know where the time is going! Anyway, the point is, it’s high time for an update, so here it is!

First of all, it’s more or less spring here in Istanbul. We’ve had some really nice sunny days, and then some really yucky rainy cold ones, but in general it’s been okay. There are buds and blossoms on the trees and flowers blooming. I am so looking forward to it being spring properly and having consistently nice warm weather! Istanbul is just sort of ‘blah’ in the winter, but in the spring, summer and autumn it is really fun and lovely and lively. Can’t wait for that!

Liam’s doing great. He just had his 18 month check-up on Monday. He’s nearly done with all his vaccinations and handled the three he got this week like a champ! He barely even cried for his two shots, although he did get a small fever later in the day. He’s recovered now though. The doctor said that is weight is average for his age, but by Turkish standards he’s the height of a two year old. I don’t really know how your average Turkish two-year-old measures up to American and Irish kids, but anyway, I guess he’s not short at least! In the past two weeks he suddenly got three more teeth, which was quite sudden since he had no tooth action going on since the beginning of August. There are more soon to follow; I can see all these lumps surfacing where he’ll be getting a few more molars soon. He handled all the teething pretty well too, considering he got so many all at once. A bit fussy here and there and definitely gnawing on things, but in a good mood over all.

We’ve been taking quite a few trips to local playgrounds on our non-rainy days. Liam is getting a bit more independent with playground equipment and can now go up small stairs on his own and down the short slides on his own too! He also loves the see-saw, which is really cute. But more than any of the actual playground equipment, he loves to just wander around the playgrounds and check everything out. He also got a kick out of chasing pigeons during our last trip. He was absolutely cracking up running up to them and watching them fly away. It was so cute!

He’s not talking yet, not really. However he does now say ‘uh oh’ and ‘wow/woah’. I don’t know what that says about him, but it is pretty funny. Maybe eventually he’ll get around to the whole ‘mama/dada’ thing. Who knows?

On non-Liam related news, I am now 22 weeks pregnant and I can’t believe how quickly things are going this second time around. I guess having a toddler to chase around just means I’m too busy to think about things too much and every day just feels so full, so it really makes the time fly by. I’ve certainly got a noticeable baby bump now and I’m feeling the baby wiggle and move a lot now. That part is really fun. It makes me actually feel pregnant finally! We’ve been talking more about baby preparation too, maybe changing rooms around, heading to IKEA to get a second crib, trying to figure out what the heck we’re going to name this kid! I really have no idea what it’s going to be like having two little people to take care of, but I am looking forward to it, no matter how crazy it will be!

Well, I guess that’s about it for now. Maybe I’ll finally get more organized soon and start writing a weekly update here instead of waiting months between posts! But don’t hold your breath. Meanwhile, here are just a few pics of Liam!

Natural Birth in Istanbul…

When I was in the early part of my pregnancy, I felt quite a bit of anxiety about what the birthing experience would be like in Turkey, especially hearing so much about how common caesarian are here. It took time and research, and help from knowledgeable people along the way, but I’m so happy with the way things turned out. I was able to have the natural, non-medicated birth experience I hoped for, so I thought I’d share a bit about how we got to that point, for anyone else looking for a similar experience in Istanbul.

Week 38…

Well, we’re in the final stretch now! As I’m sitting here typing this, the baby is wiggling all over the place, and he’s quite strong now. Sometimes his wiggles and kicks take me by surprise. Pretty soon he’ll be wiggling and kicking out here in the big wide world!

Yesterday was an extremely productive day. We started out at the doctor’s for my regular weekly check-up. Everything was good and during the ultrasound we got to see the baby’s face a bit, which was nice. Lately, he’s been hiding so it’s the first time we’ve caught a glimpse of his face in ages. The doctor said he’s very healthy and he’s moved down a bit more, so he’s gearing up for the big day the same as me. The doctor mentioned that she thinks he might come a bit before the due date and that he’s ready any time now, so who knows. We could have a baby tomorrow or two or three weeks from now! I hope he comes a bit sooner rather than later, especially since I’m not allowed to have sugar or salt in the meantime! The gradual cutting-out of sugar has been going on for the last couple of weeks, but yesterday I was retaining a bit of water and had puffy ankles, so the doctor said no salt either. So annoying! Especially when it comes to eating any food that I don’t make myself at home. Pretty much anything you get in a restaurant, cafe, bakery, etc., is at least a bit salty. I don’t mind doing this for a couple of weeks, but it certainly isn’t the most fun! I just love food too much and restrictions on my enjoyment of food are just not okay! I told Richie that after the baby’s born, I’d like a cake to celebrate. I’m looking forward to that bit of indulgence.

So, after a nice long chat with the doctor and all that fun stuff, we headed back over to Besiktas and had a bite to eat (plain, unsalted veggie omelette and salad for me). Then we stopped by my school to pick up the stroller we ordered a couple of days ago and once we got home, Richie put the finishing touches on that (i.e. connecting wheels, etc) and then later he moved our wardrobe out of the bedroom and put the crib together in our room! It’s exciting having it put together and I love seeing it there every time I walk into the room! Once I actually tidy things up a bit, I’ll have to take a few photos to post.

Today we’re planning to go to the Saturday bazaar in Besiktas for the first time ever (we usually worked on Saturdays so never went before). There are a few things we want to get, maybe some tupperware for freezing meals for when baby arrives, and some buckets and wash basins. I want to be able to hand wash cloth diapers, just as an option, so having an appropriate bucket will be necessary. We’ve got the big, flat, fold-yourself cloth diapers, which are meant to be the easiest to hand wash and line dry, so I want to give that a try to avoid using the washing machine every day, once we get the hang of the whole cloth diaper thing.

Tomorrow Richie just works for a short while and then he’s on holiday for a week, thanks to it being Ramazan Bayram (end of Ramadan holiday, also called Seker Bayram, or ‘sugar holiday’). This is a three-day holiday that celebrates the end of a month of fasting and is one of the biggest of the year in Turkey. However, this year, since the actual holiday falls on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the government decided just to make it a full week  long, which effectively turns into a 9-day holiday including the weekends. Sounds pretty great! My friend Paul is arriving from the US on Tuesday, so it’ll be great that both Richie and I are off to enjoy his visit. I can’t wait.

And suddenly, I felt REALLY pregnant…

Well, this week it hit me- I’m pretty hugely pregnant. It’s funny because just Friday I had an appointment with my doctor and as we were chatting she asked me how I was feeling in general. I was happy to report that I felt rather energetic and overall, just good and healthy and lively. I’m still walking up hills, getting out for a stroll most days, keeping mildly busy around town and at home, and I can even still roll over by myself in bed at night (which is apparently somewhat noteworthy at this stage in the game)!

Suddenly, a couple of days ago, it all started catching up with me! I still feel quite energetic and of course healthy, but for one thing, the whole rolling over bit has become noticeably more difficult, and I DO notice every couple of hours when I wake up at night to go to the bathroom (again!) and whichever hip I am laying on feels completely cramped because of the huge, crushing weight of my body and my arm is asleep and my belly is in the way… then I’ve got to heave my ever-growing self out of bed, let my weight settle for a second, then with another burst of energy, stand myself up and waddle over to the bathroom, with my stiff back and gimpy, sleepy hips. Certainly not the most graceful performance, I’m sure. Who could have predicted getting up to go to the bathroom would be so much work!

Anyway, the point is I feel huge now. And the baby is definitely squishing my guts more and more! I know I’ve read/heard it a few times before, but the last month of pregnancy is certainly designed to get you ready to JUST HAVE THE BABY ALREADY! Still, I don’t feel bad and everything is quite manageable. Plus, it’s just fun still getting to feel all the baby kicks and wiggles, so I’m not in a big rush or anything. But give me a couple more weeks and I might be feeling a bit more impatient!

Update: About 15 minutes after I wrote this post, Richie came home and told me I’m still looking very sprightly for someone 9 months pregnant and complimented me on my fitness. How timely. Even just hearing that made me feel more energetic again! I heart my husband!

Just hanging out and waiting…

Well, not really much to report. Things are good, but nothing particularly interesting happened last week. It does feel a bit strange not having to go to work, mostly in a good way! However, I know I’m definitely the kind of person that needs to get out of the house everyday for some stimulus from the outside world to keep me from getting bored and a bit cranky. I  managed pretty well last week, meeting up with friends most days, and getting out with Richie too when he wasn’t working. Apart from that, I’ve just been enjoying cooking more, which I wasn’t doing so much when I was teaching a bit more last month and when it was just that little bit hotter and the last thing I wanted to be doing was slaving away over a hot stove! It’s been good being at home more too because I definitely eat healthier when I’m at home more. Sometimes it seems like getting proper nutrition for me and baby is a full time job, constantly making sure I’m getting enough calcium and iron and protein and avoiding sugar and salt, getting at least my two litres of water a day, etc. And it’s nearly impossible to do all of those things when I’m out of the house a bit more. Anyway, it feels good to be eating and drinking healthily, but it’s also a bit of work.

I’ve been doing tons of reading in the last week or so, which has been great. I read an interesting and very thought-provoking book by author Jared Diamond called ‘Collapse: How societies choose to succeed or fail‘. In a nutshell, it’s about societies, past and present, who have either fallen apart as a consequence of wrecking their environment as well as other factors such as dealing with hostile enemies or the societal collapse of helpful allies, etc. It’s most certainly a book I will take some time to digest and think about, and then maybe write more about later. While I’m at it though, I definitely have to recommend another of Diamond’s books, Guns, Germs, and Steel, which is amazing! Basically, it looks at the reasons why different parts of the world developed as they did, why certain societies developed advanced technologies, domesticated animals and crops, became world powers,and others didn’t. Largely, these differences came down to the natural environments and resources available (or lacking) in various parts of the world. It’s a great book that gives clear reasons why, for example, former ideas of the racial superiority or inferiority are false, and developments aren’t due to innate characteristics of certain ‘races’ or people from certain areas or continents, but are rather the consequences of different availability of resources, historical exposure to and immunity to diseases and germs, and environmental differences. I loved this book and would love to read it again!

So, apart from housework, social life and reading, it’s just waiting time. This is week 35, so not much longer to go before baby arrives! And thinking about that is taking up most of my braincells at the moment, which is why I don’t really have too much of interest to write about on this blog!

Visitors, baby shower, and other things…

Well, I’ve just been looking at photos on facebook that Richie’s sister Frieda took while herself and Richie’s mom were here. Luckily someone was on the ball, because I just downloaded the photos off of my own camera and apparently I only took four photos the entire time!

Anyway, their visit was great and I can hardly believe I’ve already worked for a week since they left! The weather was perfect when they were here, we were out all the time, enjoying cafes and restaurants, sitting in lovely shady spots, enjoying the fresh air. I literally only worked for one hour while they were here, which was amazing, so it definitely felt like a holiday for me too. Richie didn’t have to work too much either. We got a lot of talking done, and of course, eating, two of my favourite pastimes!

During their stay, a couple of our friends, Kathleen and Marijke, organized a baby shower/picnic for us in Yildiz Park. That was great too. The park is on a hill and there are lots of trees, so you get a breeze and shade, not to mention it’s quiet and there are birds, squirrels and the occasional hedgehog. It was lovely for people to come out and we really appreciate all the gifts people brought! One of my missions for the weekend is to start writing thank-you cards for all the gift givers, both here and elsewhere- quite a diverse group from three countries!

Our apartment is now filling up with baby things! It’s pretty fun, I have to say. A couple of weeks ago we basically had nothing, and now we’ve got nearly everything we need! Just a few tiny bits and pieces left to buy. I’ve started the washing and organizing of all the baby clothes and blankets, etc., and it’s so fun to look at all the cute stuff over and over again. Still finding it hard to imagine actually putting a little person into all those outfits in a few weeks though!

Mind (and body) in motion…

I’ve noticed in the past couple of weeks just how restless I am now! I feel a bit like an antsy child who can’t sit still. I think the past few weeks of work, especially since it’s been with nice children, and a great schedule working in the mornings with the rest of the day free, has been really good for me. It gave me nice amounts of work to focus on, something constructive to do and a feeling of accomplishment, all before lunch time five days a week! I then noticed that on mornings I’m free, I sort of wander around aimlessly at home for a while, obsessively check email and blogs on the internet, hoping for entertainment and distraction. Then I sit around for a while, maybe reading a tiny bit in an unfocused manner, and by about 9am my mind is already full of random thoughts and I feel wound up so tight like a kid on Christmas eve, waiting for things to happen, wishing time would speed up, wanting, wanting, wanting things! I just feel like I have a huge ball of energy trapped inside me just waiting to burst out!

I feel like I need motion. I’ve been taking time in the mornings, sometimes even just ten minutes to sit on my meditation cushion in the lovely bright living room, attempting to meditate. Or if I can’t even focus on my breath, I try to one by one notice and release my busy thoughts and instead focus on actually being in the room. Noticing the sun and clouds and blue sky, the plants on the table in the corner, the various tweets and chirps and squawks of the seagulls and crows and swallows and other little birds outside, the colours and textures and shapes in the room. Even there, I want to sway, to rock, to stretch, to fidget, and part of me wants to bolt up off that cushion and just do ANYTHING! But if I sit there for a while patiently with myself, I gradually can actually connect to my surroundings, at least for a few minutes.

The other day Richie and I were chatting with a friend, after our hospital visit, and I think she summed up my current feelings so well when she compared waiting for the baby to getting ready to move to another country. You’ve made this big, life-changing decision, and you can’t help but feel anxious, overwhelmed and excited about it. You keep imagining what it will be like, even though you can never really know beforehand. You sort of just want to hurry up and get there, to begin this huge new experience, you feel ready to do it NOW, but on the other hand, not quite ready. It’s hard to go about normal life with these big momentous changes looming on the horizon.

Today I plan to do a few things around the apartment, not too much, but things that really should be done. And then my other goal is to cook dinner. Not too ambitious. But now I’m waiting for Richie to come home from work and I really want to go out for a walk or tea or whatever! Just being out and about, with all the sights and sounds of the world to distract me, plus talking, talking, talking- very therapeutic… I seem to feel much more relaxed and centred when I’m out than when I’m at home these days.