The whirlwind known as "The Month Of May"

Six weeks have practically just disappeared since my last post. I have had "update blog" on my to-do list for ages, but it just is not a high priority at the moment, and it seems to always be the thing that doesn't get done. And I've been busy too. And I also put off blogging when something out of the ordinary is coming up on the weekend or whatever, so that I can blog about it once it's happened... but then I don't get to! Or once it's happened, it's just not as exciting as I thought it was going to sound in a post. :P

May has been a bit of a whirlwind, with something on every weekend. Mother's Day. A dear friend's 40th birthday. Alastair's mum's 60th birthday. My sister-in-law's baby shower. A wedding in two weeks' time. The list goes on. All lovely to be a part of, but just SO many celebrations.... which all take a lot of thought and effort to plan/ organise/ decorate for/ cook for/ travel for/ make gifts for/ ad infinitum. I think I'm getting to the point of being all celebrated out! And I'm TIRED. I'm almost 35 weeks now. Maybe I've just been doing too much. During the week, the everyday jobs take all my time... the fortnightly groceries take me two days to complete! By the time I've planned the menu, and done the shopping list, that's one day, and then the actual shopping just takes ages... go to ATM to withdraw money, go to fruit shop, go to Aldi, go to Woolies (to get what's not available at Aldi), fill car with petrol.... not to mention if I need to go anywhere like the bank or pharmacy as well. And cleaning the house? Don't get me started on how long that takes, and it's only a tiny granny flat! I'm not complaining. Well, I suppose I am, just a smidge. But it's more an observation. Everything just takes a long time to do at the moment.

Everything takes longer to do with a massive whale belly AND a toddler who is into everything too, I suppose that's part of it. But she's so fun and cute, and I wouldn't have it any other way. :) Toilet training is progressing slowly, but I think we're getting there. After giving the toddler bed a break (which we bought off eBay for $10 in February), Annie's taken to it like a duck to water this week, and is much more settled in it now. I think maybe it was the hot weather and the teething that made the big bed just too much for her back then, but a couple of months has made all the difference, and she's doing pretty well. Tonight will be her fourth night in a row in the bed (plus pretty good day sleeps)... so if she can make a week without being in the cot, then I'll get Alastair to raise the floor of the cot and get it ready for the new baby to have a turn! I've hardly done any preparation for this baby yet, I feel really bad! Once this week is over though, I'll get out the unisex newborn clothes and wash them and start doing all those cool things.... can't wait to start "nesting" properly! It's dodgy when you desperately want to, but have to plan baby shower games or email people about what food to bring instead. :P

Alastair showed me this earlier, and it just cracked me up, because it's SO just him and me. And it's probably even worse at the moment with all the pregnancy hormones flying around wildly! The other night I pulled a tray of baked potatoes out of the oven at a weird angle, and they all fell into the bottom of the oven (which needs cleaning, surprise surprise) and onto the floor, and I just burst into tears. Alastair wanted me to lie on the couch while he cleaned it all up, but of course that would have taken about 3 times as long as if I was doing it, plus I was STARVING for dinner... anyhow, without further ado, watch this!

http://twentytwowords.com/2013/05/24/dont-fix-it-she-just-wants-you-to-listen/

I could put up photos, but I think most (if not all?) of you see them other places so I won't bother given that it's getting late and I need to go to bed!

An Update

I hardly know where to start, or how to fill you in on the last couple of months. My world is all a bit jumbled at the moment, so I'll just type and see what happens.

Firstly, the pregnancy seems to be progressing well. I am well over 28 weeks and still feeling well most of the time. I'm so over the heartburn though. We have told Anthea that there's a baby in my tummy, and she regularly knocks on my tummy and "talks" to the baby in the same way she's seen Daddy do it. :)

On the topic of Annie, she's now 19.5 months old, and has just turned into such a little girl recently. She walks around everywhere, and loves to help - whether it's transferring pegs from the peg-bag to the swing, playing with some plastic cups in the sink pretending that she's doing dishes, or "helping" me clean the shower (and accidentally moving from cleaning the walls with the scrubber, to cleaning my back, as I'm doing the other wall). She pushes her step-stool around the place to help her access the benches, or get up onto the couch, and she loves to sing and dance. Especially if an upbeat song starts, then she really gets her groove on. :) She's just started to say a few words, and knows lots of animal noises. (The elephant one sounds like its an elephant on helium though). We've managed to get the one-nap-a-day drama sorted, and are in a good routine with that. My plan for next week is to start toilet-training with her... she already sits on the potty a few times a day, and mostly saves her poos for the potty which is cool. I've been reading "On Becoming Potty Wise" and we're going to give their method a go. The thought of having two babies in cloth nappies is good incentive... even if it is a bit early and it doesn't work, what's the harm in trying? :) More teeth have been giving her difficulties, in one week she cut a tooth and three molars! And the last few days she's been all snuffly and coldy, poor poppet.

My beautiful, generous sister took me to Melbourne for a sisters' weekend last weekend! We had a huge amount of fun traipsing around shopping, catching trams, shopping, eating amazing macarons, shopping... you get the picture. :) I bought a really nice pair of leather winter boots which were $159, then reduced to $99, then 40% off, so I got them for $59! And we found a very yummy schnitzel place called "Schnitz", where we got an [awesome] veal schnitzel, [amazing] chips, and a [fairly average] salad for $12.50! We were so tired by the end of the weekend though, and pretty annoyed when QANTAS delayed our Sunday night flight by 3 hours! Alastair had fun flying solo with Anthea too, though on the phone one time he said "oh, she's just knocked over the clothes horse.... Annie!!!... oh great, and now she's getting the books back out that I packed up not even half an hour ago!"... I felt like saying to him "welcome to my life!" :)

Last Sunday, (while Meaghan and I were away), Mum had to take Dad to hospital, as he was suffering from chest pain and breathlessness. The whole story is too long for here, so I'll just say: my Dad has had open-heart surgery this week!!! It's so surreal. Annie and I spent the day at the hospital on Wednesday with Mum and Meaghan while we waited for the surgery to be over. He had to have a valve replaced and a by-pass done. I had to leave before we were allowed to see him though, which was probably a good thing. He's come through it okay, and the nurses think he's looking good, but today was the first day that I'd seen him since Monday (before the op), and he looked really bad to me. He's still in ICU - will be for another 24-48 hours. He couldn't talk properly... he's lost weight and is a funny colour... he hadn't had a very good night last night, so he was slumped in the chair they wanted him to sit in for a few hours... he had tubes and cords and monitors and machines hooked up to him... a giant hose coming out the side of his neck... and a big pad on his chest covering the dressing. When I felt tears welling up I managed to hold them back twice, but the third time I had to leave the room. It really knocked me for six... this big strong man I've looked up to all my life, the Dad of whom I have two, maybe three memories of him being sick... suddenly helpless in a chair, looking like a lonely old man in a hospital gown. It was distressing, to say the least. Luckily Alastair had come with me, I don't think I'd have been able to drive home if I'd gone by myself.

Tonight I baked a cake... it's Alastair's birthday tomorrow. He loves the Women's Weekly birthday cake books and has cakes picked for his birthdays for the next five or so years. This year's cake is to be a stegosaurus. Wish me luck tomorrow as I cut the shape, ice, and decorate it. :P

There's heaps of other stuff that's been going on that I could write about, but now it's time for bed. It's been a rough week and emotions are running high.

January 2013 In Hindsight

2013 does not seem to have got off to a brilliant start for me, as I've already had two trips to Casualty; thankfully for the second one I did not have to arrive by ambulance.

So this second trip was last Wednesday night. Wed arvo at 4.30pm I was putting Annie in the car when she suddenly saw a bird and flipped her arm around to point at it, but she stuck her finger in my eye. It hurt possibly more than anything I've ever felt; after I'd managed to get myself together I had to get up to the house and try to bathe my eye... but after 15 mins of that, it wasn't feeling any better, and I could hear Annie in the car crying. Thankfully Jim, (the guy whose granny flat we live in) was home, and I asked him to go and get Annie out of the car for me, and we somehow made it through until Alastair got home from work. But by 10pm I was writhing on the floor in agony and Alastair insisted (for the third time!) that we go up to casualty. A friend came and sat here in case Annie woke, and waited for Meaghan to arrive, who already knew about the injury and had offered to come down and stay over. After an agonising four-hour wait, I was finally seen by a Dr, who I'm pretty sure had very little idea what he was doing (and it REALLY HURT as he tried to grab my eyelashes with his rubber-gloved hand to flip my eye-lid over a cotton bud in order to see underneath it) and sent me home with antibiotic drops. That was at 3am.

Next morning it was still excruciatingly agonising pain, so I got Meaghan to take me up to a lovely optometrist I've been to before about something in my eye, and he saw me in between patients, gave me anaesthetic drops and two prescription drops and told me it should be a lot better in 24 hours. And he didn't charge me anything. He asked me if I needed a medical certificate for work, and I said I didn't think my 17-month-old daughter - who was the culprit - would accept it. :P The anaesthetic drops only numb the eye for about 20 mins at a time, and I was told to use them sparingly, but still, 20 mins of less pain was absolute heaven. However at 5am Friday morning I woke up feeling like someone was shredding my eye with a shard of glass. Mum came down to help with Annie while Alastair was at work, and mid-morning we went back to the optometrist, who said it was looking better than yesterday, but still looking horrendous, so he put a band-aid contact lens (!) on, which he said would slow down the healing a bit, but at least would get me out of probably 70% of the pain. He didn't charge me anything on Friday either, he's the loveliest man. I told him I loved him and I think that made his day. So tomorrow I have to go back to him and he'll take the lens off, and see how things are going. I can open my eye now, but the vision in that eye is still blurred, and it feels gritty. And it's still painful, but nothing like it was. I have honestly never felt anything like it - I managed childbirth with no pain relief and no tears, yet this was even worse. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!

February has arrived though, and I'm hoping this month is going to be a little less traumatic than last.  :)

Anthea has finally started to walk so January wasn't a complete write-off. It's amazing how quickly they go from their first tottering steps to practically full-blown running. She's a lot happier now, and seems to enjoy her new-found freedom very much. I think a little too much at times.

The other cool thing that happened in January, which I nearly forgot to mention, was that in the last little while I've begun to feel our new baby's first movements! They're still in that "oooh, I think I just felt something" stage, not the grand internal-organ-shifting movements they turn into eventually. :)

We've had some lovely cool weather over the last few days - very welcome relief after the extremely hot weather last week and the week before. Problem was though, Annie had grown out of all the clothes she wore last winter without me realising. I guess that happens, I just hadn't thought we'd be needing size 2 wondersuits in February! I loooove babies in wondersuits though, they're just so cute and cuddly! And since she's been walking for such a short time, she doesn't remember wearing socks or anything slippery on her feet, so it's been fun to watch her puzzling over that, and she gets a very cute look of concentration on her face. She doesn't say much (only 'Mama', 'Dada' and 'woof') but I'm certain she understands everything. Am even toying with the idea of starting some basic toilet training with her in the next few weeks to see how we go, as most times I put her on the potty she does something... and I've been reading a few different peoples' ideas on toilet training.... still need to do a bit more thinking though.

That's all for now I think. I have my 19 week scan tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to that so I should head for bed in order to get enough sleep so that I can hold my 500ml of water without going crazy. :)

A few pics from a nice day

Today is Lachlan's 22nd birthday - happy birthday little brother!

Anyhow, we couldn't really do anything with him since he's in New York, so Mum, Dad and Meaghan came down and we went to Kiama for lunch... here are a few photos of our day...



Side view:



Family photo:



And I realise that my last post sounded quite complaining... I am really excited about this baby, and so thankful to God for a safe and uneventful pregnancy which has really gone quite smoothly! The discomfort sometimes gets the better of me, that's all. :P

Still intact

Just letting you know I'm still here, still in once piece. Normal life has become quite uncomfortable... I just potter around. :)

Last weekend we went to our friend Emily's 4th birthday party. :) At her 2nd and 3rd birthdays, I was able to participate in the jumping castle fun - but not this time. :P Came home and finished cleaning the house (which had been a work in progress all week - only had vacuuming and mopping downstairs to go) but that landed me with a bit of a sore back.

We also went to Sydney to see Alastair's Uncle Jonathan who just got back from a five week trip around Europe. He showered us with gifts, but that didn't make up for the long and uncomfortable car trip... no more trips to Sydney for now. The furthest I will go is to Mum and Dad's, because at least there I know I can sit, lie, rest, relax, find a heat pack, whatever I need.

So now we don't have any more plans for anything before bubby's due date (27th), and at almost 38 weeks, that's really quite a relief. :) AND, I have finally got my hospital bag packed! I've been meaning to do it for a few weeks now, but wanted to buy some new pjs for the hospital and stuff. Anyway, it's finally organised, and I'm sooo excited! Come on baby, any time now! Sooner rather than later if possible!!!

My feet are terribly swollen... like, really bad. And they down go down overnight. :( Actually, I'm retaining fluid from the knees down. Hang on... my thighs are enormous too, make that from the hips down. :P Oh, my stomach is bigger than normal too, I'm swollen from the chest down.... oh hang on.... the chest area is pretty swollen too..... swollen from the neck down. Face is pretty puffy too.... far out. My whole body is just fat and swollen!!!!!!

Learning curves (not talking about my tummy)

I've managed to start taking it a bit easy these last couple of weeks... I've just been so tired! I realised that, since finishing work, I'd had so many things I wanted to do that I'd been putting off "til I finished work", that I was just wanting to plough through my To-Do List and cross everything off. However, in my quite-pregnant state, everything was taking me longer than I expected and I was getting more tired than I expected. Suffice to say, a couple of meltdowns later I worked that out, so now I just set myself one or two jobs a day. It's strange to have to adjust ones expectations of oneself. Also, my level of productivity is lower than usual, which is hard for me to handle...

Anyhow, so now I'm a much more peaceful human being, and I've come to realise that it's okay that my floor needs vacuumming and it's okay that I don't have the energy to do it today. :)

Mum and Meaghan planned me a beautiful baby shower on 16th July - it was such a fun day, and I felt very blessed by all my wonderful family and friends!

I made cupcakes:



Meaghan made fairy bread:



This is a game we played - a race to drink the water from the sipper cups:



A not-brilliant shot of some of the guests and Alastair's streamer-hanging-skills:



And Dad and I afterwards, comparing tummies:



* * * * *

We stayed with Mum and Dad that night, and the next day went to watch the Swans play Fremantle... which was dismal. We might have won, if not for some very dodgy umpiring. Anyhow, it was there that I decided that was my last game for this year... it was cold... the seats are hard... I ended up with a sore back... etc. So Alastair took Dad to the one on Saturday just gone (Bulldogs) and they had a great time together - and it's always much nicer when your team wins. :) We had yummy Thai for tea when they got home for Dad's birthday (which was on Monday). :)

I've had the opportunity to do some sewing since I last posted... I made two little patchwork cot quilts (which are off at the quilters' and I forgot to take a photo before they left so you'll have to wait til they come back!)... and a gift for Debbie (who gave us all the baby stuff, and whose birthday it was the day of my baby shower). I was really pleased with how all my projects turned out... it's so good to have time to be creative! :)



And that's about it really... a Mother's Group is being started up at church this Friday morning, so I'm going to go along to that and see how it goes.

I'm just shy of 36 weeks now... and getting to the bit-uncomfortable stage... the baby has been going crazy when I rest on the couch after tea each night, doing massive kicks/punches/rolls/whatever takes its fancy! I can't wait to meet this little personality! But it's still all so surreal................

Seven weeks to go...

Time flies, as usual. Last Friday was my last day of work, the girls bought me flowers, one made cupcakes, and the boss bought us all Italian for lunch. :)

The next day, we drove down to Canberra for our friend Jessica's 21st birthday party. It was good to catch up with friends we hadn't seen for a while, and fun to do the bush dancing! I only managed five of the dances though... :P

We stayed overnight with Aunty Heather and Uncle Mike in Murrumbateman, and the next day the cousins came out with their kids (including cute 3-month-old Poppy!) for lunch. It was lovely to see them all - Alastair had fun kicking the footy with the boys, and I talked pregnancy with the girls. :)

So on Monday, it was my first day as a stay at home mummy. :) I did too much though and got tired more quickly than I expected. Tuesday and Wednesday I babysat Mairead and Hamish (Donna's kids - she's at a World Skills convention). They slept over on the Tuesday night... it was pretty full-on, and I am really really tired. Thursday I got to do the washing, change the sheets, and do some cooking.

It's been a week of seeing people... I had the opportunity to catch up with Meaghan, the Harrowsmith girls, and my friend Bek. Bek is about to become a nun, so it was our last opportunity to see her for a few years. Also, Joel and Katherine are down from Gilgandra, and they came for dinner last night.

Tomorrow, Debbie and Chris, (who gave us all their no-longer-needed baby stuff a few months ago), are coming to show us how to set up the cot and install the car seat, etc!!! It's so exciting that we are at this point now... only 7 weeks to go! When this part is all organised, I'll start the cot quilt I've got planned, and start washing the baby clothes. :)

By the way, the heartburn is terrible!!! :(

Three weeks just fly by

My cough still hasn't gone away, but I've been told it could hang around for 8-12 weeks. Ah well... my Glucose Tolerance Test (for gestational diabetes) came back normal, so I shouldn't complain.

Mum and Dad have arrived home safely from their month in New York with Lachlan, and it was really good to see them. We stayed up there for the weekend after they came back and heard all about the trip... and were showered with gifts! Especially the baby... little suits and socks from the M & M's store in NY, amongst other things!

I had a bit of a car accident last Thursday on my way to work... no one was hurt (just my pride), and not much damage was done (none to our car!). I was stopped at a roundabout and bent down to get a tissue and my foot must have come off the brake... obviously in an automatic you're in drive, and drive it did - into the back of a lovely black car. :P But the lady was lovely to me. Now we just have to pay them $300 so they can have the scratch buffed out... :P

On Saturday night we went to Donna's for tea and a movie. Mairead and Hamish are getting really excited about the baby and started brainstorming names. Mermaids and fairies are pretty popular in that house, so the names that were coming out were things like "Emerald", "Sapphire", "Crystal Light", etc. Mairead thought that Daniel would be a good name for a boy. Hamish (just turned 4) then piped up "and if it is a baby girl, you could call her Compatimpy!" We all laughed - and he burst into tears, poor child. :) Mairead tried to make him feel better, "yeah Hamish, that's a good name! Compatimpy Wilson sounds nice!" :)

Then, cutest of all... later we were sitting on the couch ready for the movie, and the kids had been feeling the baby kick. Hamish said "can I tell the baby something?" "Of course!", I said. He put his face close to my tummy and said gently, "I love you baby." Awww!!! Isn't that just adorable?!?! :)

So I'm in my 3rd-last week of work now... it's cool. Two more days of teaching, 11 more days of pharmacy... my feet will be soooo happy!

Btw, in case you wanted to know, I cooked really really yummy veal schnitzel last night - crumbed it myself and everything. :)

Photos

My 25 week baby bump. :)

Another ultrasound pic!

23.5 weeks old!

Recently.

Because the Easter weekend coincided with ANZAC Day this year - which meant that Good Friday through to the following Tuesday was a holiday - Alastair and I both took the next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off work in order to have an extra break.

I have been sick for the last two weeks, and so it was perfect timing to have a bit of a rest. It's just been a bad cold, but I've had problems shaking it, and at night still have a really croupy-sounding cough.

So on Good Friday, we went to church in the morning, had lunch with my parents, and then set off for Gilgandra to see Joel and Katherine. We had a lovely few days with them... relaxing, going for walks, kicking the footy, watching movies, playing board games, and lots of other things. :) We drove home on ANZAC Day, and again the normally 6-hour trip took 8 hours. Dinner with Mum and Dad again on our way back through, and Uncle Steve and family dropped in to pick up their beagle Mum and Dad were babysitting, so it was great to catch up with them.

This week has been one of late nights and just generally trying to catch up on house-cleaning. We are almost there... which is good, as tomorrow we're back to work! We also managed to attend an Sydney Youth Orchestra concert at the Town Hall which Meaghan was playing in, visit my grandparents in Manly, catch up with Alastair's Mum and Nan after their recent trip to Italy, and attend a Swans home game.

I have only 9 more weeks of work before I finish, which is SO EXCITING! And then there will only be 8 weeks til the baby is due!

Time for another post!

It's been a while, so I'm going to update you all. :) Photos will have to come at a later date, as Alastair is out and I don't know how to do it. :P

Just after my last post (our anniversary), I made the best chicken noodle soup. Had to put that in there. It was awesome. :)

We've been busy with finishing off the loan... and applying for another. :P Alastair's car has been on its way out for a while, so we decided that we would take out another loan, with a view to working hard at it and paying it off in about a two-year time frame.

And that meant looking around at cars... researching... test driving... thinking... etc... and we decided to buy a Tarago. :) It came home with us last Wednesday night. It's a 2008 model and only has 90-something-thousand kms on the clock, which means that if we look after it, it should give us many years of safe travel. A lot of people have been laughing at us for buying such a big car when we don't even have one child yet, but we're standing firm. :) It's a pleasure to drive, and we are very happy with it.

On Friday I was 19 weeks. We had another scan - saw our baby for the second time, and heard its beautiful little heart beating for the first time! Yay! :) It was so lovely to see it, but it was being a little uncooperative and wouldn't let the lady look at its whole spine or its heart - amongst other things! We weren't planning to find out the sex, and she said that she couldn't have told us even if we'd wanted to! We tried going for a walk to see if that would get the little noggin moving, but half an hour later it was still lying on its tummy being obnoxious. :P This baby may be more like its daddy than we realise already! :)

After the ultrasound, we hopped in our new car and drove down to see the Axelbys, near Canberra. It was great to see them again, and even though it was only a 24 hour visit, we managed to cram in lots of chats, laughs, cups of tea, dancing, games, chips, cuddles and more in. :) They are such a beautiful family, and Alastair loves them as much as I do, so that makes our visits very easy. :) What made it extra special was that I felt the baby move for the first time that night in bed. Twice. :)

So we were sensible and left the Axelbys in the late afternoon to get home and do some washing and get into bed early (given that we'd been up til 1am the night before!)... but I got a call from Meaghan to say that Mr. and Mrs. Carey and Tain, as well as the Hornseys, were staying at their place, and to ask if we wanted to join the party. Of course we did want to very much, and called in just for an hour to catch up with them all. I laughed until I cried, which I haven't done for a while... it was good. :)

We didn't get home too late... 10pm it was. And then the clocks went back for the end of daylight saving, so it was actually 9pm. :)

Up early the next morning to go up to Sydney for Alastair's Nan's 80th birthday lunch. We picked Joel and Katherine up from the airport... drove to Jonathan's at Erskineville... caught the train with him, Esme and Nan to Circular Quay... hopped on a water taxi to Balmoral... then walked around to Bathers Pavillion - a VERY posh restaurant on the beach. Beautiful, but not really our scene. Since the menu was practically all in French, I played the "I'm pregnant and need plain food" card, and managed to get steak and vegies. :) There's got to be something wrong when you have to google on your iPhone the words of a dish on the menu, hasn't there? :P It was a very pleasant afternoon, then we went back the way we'd come... and came home. I fell asleep in the car, I was just so exhausted - and was in bed before 8pm!

Yesterday was my last day of teaching for Term 1 - yay! And given that there are two long-weekends in Term 2, I only have 8 more Mondays of teaching to go! Wow, that puts it into perspective...

Today I had to get up early to go back to the ultrasound place before work at the pharmacy, in the hopes that baby was going to be more cooperative... but it wasn't. Grr. I think it might be a boy, the way it's behaving! So she said I could come back tomorrow, but I can't keep doing that, not with work and everything. Decided to give up and go back at 24 weeks. :P I hope that the midwife at my antenatal visit tomorrow doesn't mind. :)

So Alastair is at trivia tonight, with his Dad. He still has tea with his Dad on Tuesdays and then they both go to trivia. I'm glad they have that time together. I just get some soup out of the freezer for dinner and do some pottering around. Speaking of which, I need to take up my new black maternity pants as they are too long and drag on the ground. So I should do that.... but I'm so tired!

Alright, that's it until next time! And I'll try to find some photos! :)

Happenings

Today is our first wedding anniversary! It's so wonderful to have been married for a whole year, and we both feel very blessed. So much has happened this year, so it feels like the time has flown by.

We are now 17 weeks pregnant... can't wait to feel our little one move inside me! I thought I might have felt it the other night, but then it happened again and I realised that it was my tummy growling in hunger! :P They tell me that you usually feel it move sometime between 16 and 20 weeks. Two more weeks until the next ultrasound... yay! Yesterday I bought a lovely pair of maternity pants for work and two white blouses - I'm growing out of my uniform, so these will hopefully do me until I finish work, which is actually only 15 more weeks! :) Then I will officially be a stay-at-home-mummy! :)

And the other exciting thing that happened this week is that we paid out the personal loan we've been paying off this year. When we got married, Alastair had a $25,000 debt, and so we've spent the year working hard and not much else - and it was all worth it on Friday when we made that final payment. Sooooo exciting to be debt-free! Now we can start saving..... :)

That's all for now... we're going out to buy each other new slippers for our anniversary. :)

Beginning to feel better...

Nearly 15 weeks now.

Time sometimes seems to go fast. When I look back at telling our families on Christmas Day that we were 5 weeks pregnant, now it doesn't feel like it's been 10 weeks since then. I don't know if that sentence made sense. But anyway... Other times, time seems to go slowly... like at the beginning of the week, it seems like it's such a long time til Friday.

Waffle on Carla, waffle on. :P

My nausea seems to have disappeared. Hooray. :) Except randomly, on Tuesday, 10 minutes before the end of work, I threw up. :( I had stomach cramps for about an hour before, but didn't feel nauseous or anything! And by about 8 o'clock that night, I felt perfectly fine again... except for my poor bile-burnt throat. :P

Anyhow, it's lovely to get home from work and be able to cook tea... or make my shopping list... or go shopping. All simple busy stuff which for the last three months has been rather difficult.

Tonight, after work, and after shopping, I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars... a delicious, no-bake recipe my friend Danielle posted on her blog. Oh so yummy...

My tummy is starting to grow. :) I am looking forward to when I look "pregnant" though rather than just "fat". :P Alastair has bought me a t-shirt which has a progress bar on the tummy and says "Loading... Please Wait". I haven't worn it yet, but am looking forward to.

First Ultrasound!

This afternoon we had our first ultrasound AND WE ACTUALLY SAW OUR LITTLE BABY!!! Besides the fact that I was soooo busting I could hardly think straight, it was up there with one of the most exciting experiences ever. I knew I was pregnant, but to see a distinctly baby-shape, with little legs and arms wriggling around made it so much more real!!! The measurements the sonographer took put us at 12 weeks and 5 days - exactly what I'd originally calculated! So that's cool. We're due on the 26th August.

It was just an amazing experience.

So was the relief when I was able to go empty my bladder. :)

Three paragraphs

So, we're going to a Gangster 40th Birthday on Saturday night... Alastair has bought his gangster hat, and I'm going as a flapper. Whoa. :P

On Tuesday I was dusting at work, and I got something in my eye. Probably just a little speck of dust. Problem is, it's still there. :( I've bought an eye-bath and tried to wash it out, got some Chlorsig eye-drops to see if they would help, and they haven't... far out. It's so annoying and painful.

In other news, I'm feeling hopelessly bloated. Nearly 12 weeks. I couldn't eat dinner last night, but then couldn't sleep cos I was so hungry... dear, beautiful Alastair got up at 11.30pm and made me a bowl of 2 minute noodles. It did the trick, and I went straight off to sleep.

Whinge over.

Ahh!

The cool change has come through - what a relief!

The morning sickness has become more of a periodic thing throughout the day, instead of constant nausea, so that is wonderful... although the heat has been making me feel just as sick. It's just exhausting. We've had so many days of hot weather, and it has been unbearable to sleep upstairs, so we've been downstairs on the couch.

Anyhow, enough whinging - the southerly has come, and it is cool and beautiful. I may even need to put jeans on for church tonight. :) I've baked choc chip cookies today, and quiche for tea (the former - much to Alastair's delight; the latter, much to his disgust!), and got organised for the week ahead. Some friends dropped in for an hour, and that was very pleasant.

School started back last week, so Monday was my first day of teaching. I'm only teaching one day and pharmacy-ing four days. We've been trying to keep our activities to a minimum lately, because I've been so tired after a week of work. It's worth it though, our personal loan is coming down more quickly now, and should be gone in a couple of months!

I'm just over 11 weeks now, so only one more week until I'm "officially" pregnant! My first antenatal appointment was last week, and it seemed to go well. The midwife we met with (our "primary" midwife) was lovely. All being well, we'll have the care of the same few midwives right through the pregnancy, birth, and afterwards, so that sounds wonderful. I have my first ultrasound Thursday week... I guess that's where we find out if it's one or two... or three. :)

Seems to be a bit of a baby-boom this year - we are the last of 8 couples having babies between March and August! How exciting!

Well, I think my quiche is nearly ready. Oh wow, it's lovely to feel like I have even a small amount of energy in the cool......

Ho Hum...

I've been at home today, given that teaching hasn't started up again yet. I'll only be teaching on Mondays this year, and working in the pharmacy Tue-Fri.... that's the plan, anyway. :P Thankfully I did have today off, as I was nauseous ALL day, just shocking. My worst bout of it yet. Still, I haven't thrown up at all, so I should be grateful. I'm eight-and-a-half weeks now...

So it took all my energy to go down and book into the hospital today. I'm blessed to have been accepted into the Midwives Group Program here in Wollongong, which means that all my care will be by the same midwives - during the whole pregnancy, birth, and they will even do two or three visits at home afterwards. My first antenatal appointment is on the 1st Feb, and my 12-week ultrasound is the 15th Feb. All way too much for me to think about at the moment. Though I have slept most of the day, I'm looking forward to bed!

They tell me it gets better around the 12-13 week mark.... can't wait!