It's a girl!

The results from our 19 week scan say that monkey is a girl. All our friends tell us this is 'easier' than a boy, at least up to toddledom. But the first thing Stef said was "I'll have to buy a shotgun". So he's looking forward to teenagehood already.

We have a name picked out already. If you hate it, please feel free to keep that to yourself.

Freya Kendall Miller

We're very excited to meet her :)

PS - the name has now been 'stress tested' by our neighbour Jerry, who has heard of such classic names as: Wayne King, Chris P. Ness, and the brother-and-sister duo Sam and Ella. He couldn't find anything amusing in ours. If he can't, no one can... (famous last words?)

Monkey's first ski tour

On Saturday, under blue skies, we headed up Cayoosh Creek to take 'monkey' on his/her first ski tour. This is pretty much the easiest skiing you can find near Pemberton. The trail up to the cabin is a gentle incline on a wide trail, and it takes only 1.5 hours or so to ski (or snow shoe) up to the hut. Once there we had our sandwiches and soup, then hiked a couple of hundred metres up a steeper slope to get some nice powder turns in on the way down. At the end of the day, we met two moms carting their less-than-one-year-olds up the hill; they were on skiis, the little ones in front-packs. Me: "You guys get bonus points." Them (not huffing, breaking a sweat, or slowing down): "Gotta train them early."

All in all we were out a little more than 4 hours. Once I got back in the warm car I fell asleep nearly immediately from exhaustion, and was groggy the rest of the afternoon. After a nap and an early night, I woke up at 3am. So now I'm jetlagged. (Ski tour lagged?).

The official doctors' advice on skiing during pregnancy is mixed. My first doctor said it wasn't a good idea after 3 months, in case of falling or injury, and gave me a letter with which I got my ski pass put on credit with the mountain (so I can use the money towards a ski pass a year or two from now, rather than losing the cash). But our more usual doctor, when she returned to her post, said: "Gone are the days when we considered pregnant women as ill or incapacitated. Go for it! After all you better stay fit -- birth is the biggest workout of your life. Just don't get yourself into a situation where you might experience serious trauma. Falling over at slow speed is a-okay." So that's the advice I'm taking. My 'What to expect..." book tells me I shouldn't get my heart rate above 140, so I'm also going slower than usual (though the doctor said this advice, too, was unnecessarily conservative).

Baby update

Lots of people have been asking about the exciting new addition to the family, so here's an FAQ for you:

When are you due?
July 13, according to the doctor and the size of the baby in our first scan. Weirdly, they originally count your pregnancy due date as 40 weeks (yes, that's more than 9 months) from the start of your last period, NOT the date 2 weeks after that when you actually conceived. So, weirdly, the official start date is BEFORE you have conceived. For us, that also means that on the official start date (1 Oct) I was in England at a party at a friend's house, and Stef was back home in Canada. Hmmmm.... This obviously sounds very dodgy, but it's just a funny joke. Obviously we were together for the REAL start of proceedings.

Is it a boy or a girl?
We don't know yet. We'll find out on 18 Feb, at our 19-week scan in Vancouver. This is conveniently scheduled for smack in the middle of the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, which I'll be attending, and which lots of our friends from the UK will also be at. So I could announce the gender, if I wanted to, at the international science writers party that very evening. Fun!
Bets are split so far. I have no idea, though I did have a dream a few weeks ago that it was a boy, with a specific name too...

Have you picked a name?
Yes. But I'm not telling you what it/they is/are. One early contender for a boy was to give him 'Danger' as a middle name (so he could say "Danger is my middle name" and not be lying). No joke. It still may happen.
In the meantime, we're calling the little bundle of joy 'monkey', with extras added on for its size, as in: Rice monkey; plum monkey; orange monkey; etc...

Any morning sickness / weird cravings / other symptoms?
Not so much. I dry heaved a handful of times in the first trimester, but always kept all my food down.
Funny story: in December I was down in San Francisco for the American Geophysical Union annual conference. Worried I might have morning sickness in the middle of their gigantic convention centre, too far from a ladies' toilet, I stole some sick bags off the airplane (smart, eh?). As it happened I was only sick once, and happened to be passing the Hyatt toilets as the urge came on, so I locked myself in a cubicle to cough up. The lady in the next cubicle says: "Vitamin C! It's flu season! You've got to take vitamin C!" Me: "Thanks. It's morning sickness actually." Her: "Congratulations!!!!" I never saw who she was, and she never saw me. She's the first person (aside from hubby and parents) I told I was pregnant.
I've no cravings for strange foods. I'm just hungry all the time. I swear I'm eating the same amount as before, just in more sittings. Yet strangely I'm gaining stack loads of weight. How odd.
Other notable symptoms: when they say your breasts might be tender at first, this is an understatement. They HURT. For months. Not a good sign of things to come. Also my gums are bleeding now (which apparently is common).

I'll keep you posted.

5 hours of sunshine

Stef called me today at 9am to say that the Sun had sneaked its way above Mount Currie (it spends a good month of the winter hiding behind this ediface) and was shinging all the way into the 'kitchen' through the living room windows. The sun stayed for a full 5 hours, right until 2:20pm. In winter! In February! This is very exciting news. Stef has calculated the angle of the Sun in summer and reckons the overhang on the roof will be enough to block it in mid-summer. So we'll be sunny in winter, shady in summer, just as the doctor ordered. :)