38 Weeks

Last day of work...now what???

Flying with a Newborn

Part of being married to someone whose family lives across the country from you means some negotiation about Christmas holidays and where they are spent. We decided early on that we would try to alternate between spending the holidays with our families. It hasn't worked out exactly as planned:

2008 - Saskatchewan - Steve had just moved here a month earlier and wanted to get settled
2007 - Saskatchewan
2006 - Italy - Our magical honeymoon
2005 - Ontario - Highlight was an evening of Karaoke with the Thomson side and a NYE at the cottage
2003 & 2004 - Natasha in Sask, Steve in Ont

As you can see, it's Ontario's turn and so last night we took a deep breath and booked our flights. I booked Hairy's first flight under the name Master Tobedetermined which I hope doesn't come back to haunt me Customer Service wise.

37 Week Reality Check

Hmmm...some stuff I've learned. 37 weeks means the baby is full term and could arrive any day. I really can't complain about this pregnancy thing, just a bit of nausea and sore feet from time to time. For the last week or so it's been almost comical...I have to really work to get out of bed to hit the washroom 3 or 4 times a night. Stephen has had to move a lounger chair into the living room because it is too hard to get up off of the couch after lying down. My ribs are bruised from the kicking on the inside so much that I can't lie on one side.

I really would recommend only working until 35 or 36 weeks. I've gone in to work 20 of the last 22 days, many of those being evenings in addition to a full day...it's too much and doesn't leave much time to get stuff ready for a baby. It still doesn't feel real somehow.

Steve and I are going to be parents! My parental model is a single-parent family which makes me nervous...how does this work with two people working together? How will I deal with going from such a crazy work schedule to being home with an adorable (yes, I'm assuming) little creature all day? How will our precious cats react? I haven't changed a diaper since I was a teenager babysitting. Will we lose our zany lifestyle completely?

Pumpkin and Petroleum Jelly?

Last weekend we had a Halloween themed concert at work. One of my staffers came up with the idea of asking local celebrities to carve pumpkins and we would silent auction them off in the lobby.

The project involved some organization such as delivering pumpkins all over the city. My EA did some research and found out that putting petroleum jelly on the pumpkins would make them last longer, fresher. The other staffer told me that he when he dropped off the pumpkins it was awkward because the people answering the door didn't always know why he was delivering a pumpkin.

When they described to me their system in detail I started laughing so hard that I cried. So our Manager of Orchestra Operations was essentially driving to local celebrities homes (people like local Elvis impersonator Rory Allen's house) and ringing the doorbell with a huge pumpkin and a tube of lube in hand.

Too funny.........