No rest for the wicked pregnant

If I thought the time during the Ottawa Fringe was a blur, the time elapsed since then has been on complete fast forward. Our Fringe house guests left within four days of the festival ending, making the house feel quite empty. They were all absolutely lovely to have around and I miss them loads. It really made me miss the idea of touring as well. While, for some, their biggest preoccupation is making sure their posters get printed on time, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to feed three people on one salary, driving to numerous DRs appointments (more on that in a second) and finding the energy to clean the house and prep for the start of my new 20-year-long (most probably renewable) contract.

My amazing friends Danielle and Craig hosted our BBQ baby shower, which was fantastic. The food, the people, the presents... it was a good day. The day after the shower, Stewart wasn't feeling well, complaining of dizziness and spontaneous falling down. He wasn't blacking out or anything like that, but it still seemed odd to us. He went to a walk-in clinic on the Monday and the DR said he thought he had a virus. Luckily, he had the following three days off, most of which we spent at my parents. They wanted to treat us because of our 1st/2nd year anniversary (celebrating the city hall wedding... the 2nd/2nd year anniversary is in September, celebrating the major ceremony at Academic Hall). So, for our anniversary, Stewart went golfing with my Dad and I got a pedicure... romantic huh? He played one of the best games he'd ever played and still fell down a couple of times! But by Thursday afternoon, he was feeling worse. And with our family doctor totally booked, I took him to the ER. NINE hours later, I brought him home... unsure of what's wrong. At 2pm the following day, he went back to the hospital for a CT scan. Two hours later, I brought him home... still no clue. At 8am the following day, he went back to the hospital to see a neurologist. One hour later, I brought him home...with no news other than the fact that he's on the rush list for an MRI. The wait time is usually 3 months... he should get his within a month's time. Needless to say I've been pretty worried, though Stewart doesn't seem to be. One good thing to come out of all of this: Stewart and I have rehearsed the drive to Monfort so much I could probably drive myself there while in labour! but I won't.

The Churchill Protocol has received a couple of good reviews in Toronto so far, but with our opening night being so late in the festival, momentum hasn't built yet and the show hasn't been getting the audiences it deserves. So if you're in Toronto, or know someone who is, go see the show!!!

With Stewart still being sick and moping about the house, I was determined to still be productive. I'm happy to have all of this time off before the baby gets here, but I still have a million tiny details that I want to finish while I still have the time. One not-so-tiny detail was filling out the forms for the "Centralized Waiting List for Licensed Child Care Services". People had warned me about this from the moment I got pregnant. If you think you might required child care, you're best to submit this form the moment you get pregnant (some do it before!) because the wait time to get a spot in Ottawa is at least 1 year! Plus, there are so many options to consider:
- Francophone, Anglophone or Bilingual
- Home day care or in a day care centre
- Full-time care, part-time care or flexible care
- Choosing a place in your ward, or in the ward where you work, or in a ward near where you would commute to go to work
- Some places are subsidized... some aren't
- Some places will accept children starting at 6 months of age, 12 months, 18 months, 2.5 years, 4 years, etc.
And that's not even looking at the individual day care's philosophies, facilities, mandates, menus, activities, child to caregiver ratio... and the list goes on. I'm supposed to make all of these decisions for my child and she's not even born yet! I can't even figure out what to make myself for dinner... and that's on a good day. Oh, and when you fill the form, you have to put each facility in order of preference, but how do you do that? By closest location, by language? "This place offers vegan meal choices, let's put them at the top of our list!" Anyway, I finally emailed the completed forms out yesterday, just over one month before this child is due to arrive and just over seven months later than I had planned. Let's hope I'm more on-the-ball with the rest of the major decisions involving my child.