Alrighty then!

Phewf. I really didn't intend to drop off the face of the planet for that long. It seems that being pregnant is sometimes akin to having narcolepsy and ADD at the same time. I'm either asleep or bouncing from project to project.

First of all - thank you, all of you, for your kind words of congratulations. Mr. Happy and I are very excited about our little genetic experiment and are thrilled to hear from all of you.

Since becoming pregnant, I've been noticing that people have been asking a lot of the same questions. I'm going to answer some of them here and then get back to talking about knitting. I'll probably still talk about the baby a bit. Let's face it, Mr. Happy and I waited 10 years, (yes, that's right, 10!) to have a baby, so you'll just have to suck it up and skim if you're just here for the knitting. Although, I do hope you're really here for my witty repartee and stories of Henry.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. When am I due?
   June 12 is the official date, making me 4 months along today.
   
   
2. Can I feel the baby moving yet?
   I'm happy to report that the Mogrunt* made his/her prescence known around the holidays. S/he has expressed her/his opinions of crunchy food (salad, potato chips) and Frank Sinatra tributes (at a concert on Friday night - I'm going to assume that s/he like the music because I surely did) through interpretive dance. In fact, it was during dinner the other night that Mr. Happy felt the Mogrunt kick for the first time. Apparently salad invokes a rather strong reaction.
   
   
3. Do we know what we are having?
   A baby! Fingers crossed!
   
   Oh, you mean boy or girl? No, we do not. In Halifax you cannot find out the sex of the baby unless you either go to a private clinic ($) OR if you have to go to the Fetal Assessment Clinic. FAC is a clinic for those with high risk pregnancies and for mothers of Advanced Maternal Age. I have been to the FAC because of my age and because of the risk of Spina Bifeda in my family - I had an older brother who was born with SB; he only lived for two months. I started taking 4mg of folic acid daily about a year before the Mogrunt was even a twinkle in Mr. Happy's eye.
   
   We have jokingly nicknamed this clinic the "Crusty Ovary Clinic". When I told the receptionist, she laughed and said, "We like to call it AMA." She meant, of course, Advanced Maternal Age... but all I could think was, "Against Medical Advice??!?!?!?!"
   
   I do have one more appointment at the FAC, so there is a chance that we could find out what the baby is, but we don't think we want to know. My auntie Ruth says that the baby is a girl, and as I can't think of a single name for a boy, I'm pretty certain that it is too. Also, you don't argue with the intuition with the women in my family.
   
   
4. Did I have morning sickness?
   Actually, no. Not strictly speaking. I had afternoon and evening sickness. At first I would feel queasy around 3:30pm every afternoon, then it shifted to 8:30pm. I did have some rather tense moments one afternoon in the washroom of my office building. I stood there cursing myself for eating raw broccoli and trying convincing myself that there was no way I was puking in a public washroom.
   
   Thankfully, I was only sick once (at home)... and I have to say that I must have artistic talents I didn't know about. Cranberry and orange juice mixed together and splattered on the bathroom wall - so pretty. I had to laugh when stood back up and saw it. (Sorry - too much info? Apparently you're not reading Dooce.)
   
   
5. Is Mr. Happy excited?
   You betcha! Excited, freaked out, dancing on the moon... And he's also doing this really funny interpretation of the baby floating in amniotic fluid that had me laughing so hard I cried yesterday. Seriously - soooooo funny.
   
   
6. Are your families excited?
   We went to NB the weekend before Christmas and told my family then. My dad cried when we told him. We gave him a Christmas card with the ultrasound photo in it. He held it out to my SM, who screamed with joy and bounced out of her chair. They are both pretty excited - I think the bone crushing hugs were a good indicator. My brother is very excited and is already being the protective uncle - calling to make sure we didn't drive home from NB on the day it stormed.
   
   We were home that weekend for my knitting grandmother's 90th birthday party. At the party I asked her if she wanted to see what I was knitting and pulled out a pattern for a baby sweater. She was so excited that she cried, as did my Great-Aunt Jean who was leaning over her shoulder. My aunties (Dad's sisters) were pretty excited too.
   
   We told Andrew's family on Christmas Eve - His dad got all teary eyed and his mom** said, "It's about time!" which made me laugh. Mr. Happy's niece and nephews are very excited... and his niece is 13 i.e. the perfect age for baby-sitting.
   
   Mr. Happy's sister and brother-in-law had known for quite a while and were relieved when we finally told our parents. I think Mr. Happy's sister's head might have exploded if she had to wait any longer! She's going to be a wonderful auntie. She even ventured in to Have A Yarn in Mahone Bay and Debbie Bliss pattern book, Baby Cashmerino 2 and two balls of Cashmerino to go with it.
   
   I'm hoping that my SM will send me a couple of photos from our visit home so you can see how my two "other mothers" reacted to the news. A picture tells a thousand words, though, so you'll have to wait.
   
   
7. Do you have a theme for the baby's nursery?
   No. And we will not have one, strictly speaking. There will be no wallpaper border, no Winnie the Sh!t, no Precocious Moments, none of that**. We probably won't even change the paint colour as the walls are currently Martha Stewart's Kitchen Ceiling Blue and Beach Glass. We've got white furniture, I think; hopefully my set from childhood is still at my family's cottage. And with some vintage touches, we're all set.
   
   
8. Do you have names picked out?
   Yes. But I'm not sharing them with the internet. Just IRL people. For now, we'll just call him/her "The Mogrunt".
   
   
9. Can I touch your belly?
   Only if you don't intend to use that hand for knitting. Heh heh.
   
   I'll probably be carrying a fork in my pocket to stab the hands of strangers who think it is ok to grope pregant women. However, if you do know me in real life, I will probably let you touch my belly, but only if you ask and only when the baby gets a little higher. Right now, all you would be touching is my stomach. I'm pretty sure that the gurgles my stomach makes are similar to yours, so you won't feel anything out of the ordinary. And I'm not letting you touch where I feel the baby's kicks right now. That's a little too close for comfort, thanks.
   
   
10. Have I knit anything for the baby yet?
    The Mogrunt has already made one very serious error in his/her short life. S/he chose to be born in JUNE! Seriously - what the heck? A knitter's child, all those cute tiny sweaters I could knit and a long, warm summer stretching out in front of us. Gawd. *bangs head on desk*
    
    Having said that, I do have a sweater that I made a while ago all tucked away. I've knit a couple pairs of socks and I've just got a few things in the queue. I've got the Baby Yours Sweater by the Yarn Harlot. (Mr. Happy picked it up in Toronto.) And a whole pile of other projects in mind. Including lots of soakers for cloth diapers. Yoi.
    
    
11. How is Henry coping?
    Henry is managing. Since his escapades with Rose, and the arrival of Junior, he has been very good about babies. He's just worrying about how the baby will cut in to his party schedule. We had words about his impromptu gatherings in my yarn stash, and I think that these will be coming to an abrupt halt.

Anyhooooo... I should stop for now. I've got some photos to take for my next post - including one of the fabulous mitts my Grammy made for me for Christmas.

Thanks again, everyone, for all your well-wishes. The Happy Family really appreciates all the love!

*Mogrunt - that's what my dad called me when I was little. I don't know where the term came from. There's a good chance that it is a purely made up word. We have a few peculiarities in my family, particularly a little rhyme that we say while counting toes - I searched it on the internet and found one hit... my cousin's blog.

**Mr. Happy's Mom has Alzheimer's disease, so when she responded "It's about time!" when we told her that we are having a baby, I was happily surprised and relieved by her reaction.

***Yes, I said precocious. Not precious. On purpose. I don't have anything against Winnie or those bobble headed children. They are cute and I know a lot of people love them. I just don't want them for us. We have stripped wallpaper in almost every room in our house. I never want to do this again!