An exciting week

It has been a big week. There was the conference, which lasted 5 days and as always, through the weekend. I spent a lot of my time and energy on attending workshops, symposia and presentation sessions. And I spent even more time catching up with friends, acquaintances and co-authors. I heard gossip about a professor emeritus stopping the dance floor with his moves in the Musee des Beaux Arts where one of the receptions was. And about my fellow colleague who got hit by a ladder that shot off the roof of a truck when he was crossing the road in front of one of the conference hotels (he's ok, but limping badly from a leg full of bruising).


In addition, I managed to catch up with my good friend and running buddy who was this year's president for the entire organization and conference (which hosted no less than 9,500 academics). After all, I had exciting news to share with him which would mean almost as much to him as it does to me and hubby ...


I'm 13 weeks pregnant. 


Yes, it's exciting, scary, thrilling, new, weird, all of that. What makes it really great for us is that it's been just over a year since I miscarried Baby K. We had a long grieving period and we only recently started trying again. 


Not surprisingly, both of us were happy, but cautiously so, for the first months. Every time I went to the bathroom, I checked for blood. Every twinge in my abdomen had me hold my breath. To the point where my osteopath told me to start breathing properly because my diaphragm and ribs were "in the wrong place". Eventually, I began to calm down and deal with the reality of the first trimester: nausea and vomiting, sudden exhaustion, bizarre pains in my hips and knees, and an increased need for thyroid hormones (my doc upped my dose).


But as the weeks passed, I got happier and happier. In the beginning, I welcomed the morning sickness and took it as a positive sign of things going well. While I tired of that very quickly, we heard a heartbeat around week 11 and it took all day for me to wipe the smile off my face, followed by prenatal testing last week - an ultrasound and blood. The ultrasound technician told us all looked normal, but we still had to await the blood results. Seems we are in the low risk category for two major birth defects, and we need no further testing.


I do love the Canadians. They're very relaxed about the pregnancy and I see my doc every 4 weeks. I've gotten great vibes from everyone we've told, and found out that I get 55, yes that's correct, 55 weeks off work (!!!) at 95% pay. Sometimes, academia is the best job in the world.


I'm now feeling less ill and generally relaxed about being pregnant. I have the occasional bout of anxiety, of course, but I just keep hoping all will be well.


Due date: Valentine's Day. What a romantic notion.


Here's a pic of the upcoming addition :)