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. :)

Lock up!

The doors are in, and we can now lock the door and keep all those pesky Pemberton thieves out of the building site (joke). This is a traditional moment of celebration. So celebrate!

The Best Christmas Present Ever

While we're spending all this time building a house, we've also, behind the scenes, been planning to fill our family home with a little more family. After 2 years of 'trying' we've finally got me up the duff :) We're expecting a baby to join us in July! This is extremely exciting (obviously!) and also provides a handy new deadline for the move in date. Stef keeps wandering around the house with a whole new perspective, he says: things look different when you imagine a little kiddie running around inside. We'll need a protective fence or something around the stove. And kiddie locks on the sliding doors. And it's going to be wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Merry Christmas everyone!



This is us practicing parenthood with the cat, Floosie.

Power

Our 'spark' has come around to walk us through where all the light switches, electrical outlets, cable, and light fixtures should go. Basically I have very little idea about any of this so just kept agreeing with him. But he's got great ideas and a lot of experience, so I don't feel anxious about it. He's going to put an outdoor light shining up into the main eaves that you can switch on from the front door (that will be gorgeous) and a plug outside for christmas lights (good thinking!). Here's the first installed socket, in the suite's kitchen. Very exciting.

Getting all cozy for winter...

Stef has the stove installed! This is excellent news. Not only does it look great and throw a lot of heat on his frozen fingers, but Oni says you can also make really nice coffee on it.

Here's Oni, our friend from paragliding circles, who's been Stef's right-hand-man for the past few months. Not only is he good with a hammer, but he has also equipped the house with a bar fridge, temporary dining table, 2 chairs, and a host of other comforts. That was probably my job. Thanks Oni!

Most of the windows are now in (a few are still being repaired by the company; they had broken 'flanges' -- the bits that hold the window to the walls -- so the company is replacing them).

The doors have been ordered, though they're not here yet. The sliding doors for the balconies (all 3 of them) are coming from Builders' Doors, stained the colour 'autumn gold'. This should roughly match, or at least go with, the colour of the front posts (which is Rona Stain Exterior, semi transparent, traditional cedar CD037-851... colourants S-red oxide 040; X-brown oxide 040; Y-yellow ochre 080). We decided that would be nicer than having them match the dark 'architectural brown' of the windows, especially since they're the same colour on the inside as the outside. The front door, and the door to the suite, are coming from Wood Doors Vancouver, and are shown to the left. We'll have to stain them to match too.

Finally, you can also see in these pictures some white stuff that the house has been wrapped in. This is not frost, nor Christmas wrapping paper. It's a gore-tex-like layer that allows moisture out but stops moisture from getting in. I've been contemplating making a poncho out of it for rainy days. Notice the fantastic Dupont slogan on it :)

The funny thing about the progress at this point is that everything (plumbing, wiring, window installation, exterior painting, wrapping, a few last interior walls, etc etc etc) is getting done in bits and pieces instead of batched. This is for logical reasons -- you do the work that you can reach from the scaffolding wherever it happens to be before you move it. And you can't install windows that haven't arrived yet. But it makes for somewhat frustrating work, as nothing ever gets ticked off the to-do list. It will be nice when we hit 'lock up' stage -- when all the windows and doors are in. Not only will it be warmer inside (and more secure, though that doesn't seem to have mattered at all so far - only in Pemberton can you leave tools lying around on site!) but it will also be a really nice landmark of progress.

In the meantime we have to train our cat Floosie not to munch on door frames, as she has recently taken to doing. That's fine for a rental suite, but not for the new house.

First snow

We've had our first snow flurry in Pembie today, leaving Stef anxious about the bits he won't be able to do... but I reckon there's a few weeks yet of rain mixed in with the snow. It'll get done.