Christmas and 23 weeks

Hello everyone,

While it may be 4 days late, I am now languishing in the over-full stupor of a delicious Christmas dinner, trying to find room for the pumpkin pie.

Christmas was pleasantly drawn out this year. Brent and I braved the mayhem on Christmas eve to finish our shopping (or so we hoped). Then on the 25th we acted as if it were our night-before-Christmas as Brent's parents flew in that night and we were planning on celebrating Christmas on the 26th. Unfortunately, neither of us had actually finished shopping yet and were both surprised to find that even the big stores respect the sanctity of the holiday and are therefore not open to late-LATE shoppers like us!

Then after a wonderful reunion with Brent's parents Christmas night, we celebrated Christmas together on the 26th, including a trip to Coronado to walk on the beach and explore the Hotel Del Coronado before an impromptu Mexican dinner at a place Diane and Elliott used to go to 30 years ago as cooking Christmas dinner at that point would have meant eating at around 10pm!

All the holiday fun has also made me a bit late with my latest pregnancy update. So to catch up, and use one of our Christmas presents (a tape measure), I've thought of a little weekly routine. So, here's week one!

Week: 23 (118 days to go till the due date [DD for short])

Jen's belly size: 38.5 inches and growing daily...

Baby's size: a very large mango - the kind that weigh over 1lb.

This week's pregnancy complaint: Bleedin' gums! Yes, that's literal. And they're so sore! Something about hormones and increased blood flow, etc. But strangely they can cause preterm labour so I need to get on the 3+ times a day brushing!

This week's highlight: Diane and Elliott are acting like great expectant grandparents. Diane has even felt her granddaughter kicking. And Christmas was good to our little mango too - a cuddly blanket (that I'm stealing from now till April) from Grandma Lois, a hemp onesie from Grandma and Grandpa Freeman, and a bottle for Dad to feed her.

This week's fun fact: If born now, she has a 25-35% chance of survival. We're hoping to go a full 17 weeks more, but it is reassuring to hear that her chances of survival go up rapidly from now on!

And I can finally post my most recent bump photos, even though they were taken a week late (at 22 weeks). The growing-shrinking thing has finally stopped and I think I can now consider myself officially "popped" :-)

Finally, here are some more photos of our week:

A visit from Brent's Aunt Joyce, Uncle Randy and cousins Kirsten and Alison from L.A. and part of our Christmas present to Diane and Elliott - a day of brunch, the Farmer's Market, a trip to the zoo, a football game and sushi.

Lots of love to you all,

Jen, Brent and our big mango xxx

p.s. For those of you who heard about John's debacle trying to fly home from Uganda (which summed up amounted to incompetent British Airways staff, a ridiculous shift of responsibility from Canadian officials onto airlines to verify the visa status of their passengers, and ongoing ignorance and systemic racism against refugees), he has finally been granted permission to leave the country and will be on a flight home tomorrow.