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.

A poor sick baby and a wonderful sister

Within hours of posting last time, my little poppet came down with a vomiting bug. :( It might sound silly, but being the first time, I found it quite scary. I'm so over being vomited on and scrubbing vomit out of carpet. One of the evenings I went through three sets of pyjamas. Last night it was through my hair and everything. This morning we were just having a snuggle when all of a sudden I had a bubbling vomit fountain in my arms. It's just awful watching a helpless little one heaving her guts up. :(

I took her to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon, but he said she was doing okay and that it was probably a viral infection which had to run its course, and I came home feeling like a hypochondriac mother. But I have had so many worries and concerns over the last few days.... What if she dehydrates? When should I start to worry? Will I know when she's dehydrated? She's still alert and happy and her mouth isn't dry... but why has it been so long since she's had a wet nappy? Does her skin feel warmer or cooler than normal? Why does she just start to cry when I sit her on the floor? How should I tackle this latest vomit episode we're both covered in? What if I take her to the hospital now because I think she needs medical attention and they ask me how long it's been going on and I say three days... are they going to ask why I wasn't there two days ago and think I'm a neglectful mother and call DOCS and take my daughter away from me? :(

This morning at 8am was the last time she vomited, so I'm hoping she's turned a corner and is actually on the mend. My beautiful sister Meaghan has been an absolute gem. Yesterday it was dreary and rainy, and she came down to be with me... and knowing that there had been a lot of free-flowing vomit in our house, she went past Dusk on her way, and got an odour-eating candle, vacuum beads, and a beautiful rose and tangerine room spray - just as a gift. She went past my favourite bakery too, and bought me a delicious Neenish Tart to cheer me up. She cuddled Annie while I cleaned upstairs and got it smelling nice... then helped me with washing and dishes and everything. And she came back today to help me again. :)

But it was a glorious day, so instead of sitting inside and doing sensible things, we bundled the baby (plus multiple changes of clothes for us all in case we had to deal with a vomit episode!) into the car, and went down to Kiama for the afternoon. It was so lovely to get out... and I wouldn't have been brave enough to go out by myself with Anthea unwell. But I think it did her good to get a bit of fresh sea air... and it probably did me some good too.

I am so blessed to have a sister like Meaghan, and to have her just 45 minutes up the road.

Love you, Meaghan. xo

Normal Life

Not much happening around here really... just fairly normal stuff.

Alastair's well. He's done a bit of overtime recently, which will -oh joy- pay for the two fillings he needs. (Man, isn't dental work expensive!) :P The Tour de France is on at the moment, so he's been staying up too late watching that. Oh, and he weeded our vegie garden, and washed and vacuumed the car on the weekend. :)

Anthea's started blowing raspberries. :) Of course, she's just been being her cute self, cruising around the furniture and playing with her toys. She has been having a tiny weeny bit of food each day, which is more than she was having so I'm calling it progress. We have also cut down from 7-8 feeds a day to 4-5, and it seems to be working okay. The poor darling was quite out of sorts and slept a lot today, but perhaps that has something to do with the third tooth I can see under her top gum, trying to push its way through.

And me. Oh well... I just spend my time doing washing washing washing and dishes really. And I try to get Annie to eat, and I change her nappies. :P Today Mum came down to help me with some cleaning jobs, and we got a few done, but mostly we had cups of tea and chatted - which was nice, but not enormously productive. :)

That's all. I'm tired.

The things we do...

Here I am, less than a week since I last blogged - go me! :)

The rest of last week was fairly straightforward... at home on Wednesday... shopping on Thursday... mothers' group and the completion of another workbook on Friday (only 3 to go now!).

Then along came Saturday. It was just a monster-big day. Lovely, but enormous.

It started Friday night really, Anthea woke every hour through the night. So that wasn't a great start to the weekend. Meaghan came and stayed the night on Friday so that she could come down to Murrumbateman/Yass with us on Saturday. We left at 8.30am, stopped at Sutton Forest at 9.30, and got to Aunty Heather's (Murrumbateman) at about 11.30. Had a lovely lunch and afternoon with them, even though Annie didn't sleep much. At about 5pm we went to a birthday party (combined 50th/25th for mother/daughter friends) in Yass. It was great to see so many of our friends in the one place; many of them hadn't yet met Anthea! But it was hideously hot, and she wouldn't feed and wouldn't settle, so unfortunately I found it rather stressful and overwhelming. We left at about 10pm and headed home, arriving just after midnight. Annie was good on the way home - slept most of the way. But once we were home she just wouldn't settle until after 2am.... and I had a bit of a meltdown. :(

If the beautiful family who threw said party read this, I want them to know that it was a lovely celebration, and it was absolutely nothing they did or didn't do that made it work out like this for me... thank you for inviting us! It was just me and where I'm at just now... hopefully I will learn to handle these situations better in the future and be better company! Or maybe big get-togethers just aren't our thing at the moment...

Yesterday, (Sunday) we just had a quite day, which was really good. Anthea was still a bit tired and grumpy, but last night she slept from 8.30pm til 4am when I put her dummy in, then slept til 7.15 when I fed her and put her straight back down and she woke just after 10am! Today she has slept a lot too, and she is much happier. :)

Some really nice things though: at the party we were able to sit with friends whom we hadn't seen for nearly a year... and both of us have welcomed new babies since that time! Also, I met two lovely women who have been following my blog for a while without me knowing. And, for one miniscule split second, I felt a tiny weeny bit famous - isn't it only famous people (like Danielle Carey) who have Amazing Unknowns read their stuff? :) Anyhow, it was so lovely to meet them, and to learn that they like reading about even the little things that I blab about here. :)

And now.... photos! These are the most recent, but certainly not the most flattering:

Ready for the party, but looking like a dag. (Thanks Aunty Meaghan! Did you take a nice one?)



Sporting the new running shoes... courtesy of Aunty Meaghan!



Annie just wants to stand up all the time - her legs are so strong!



Reading "Good Puppy" in the highchair



And this is today, helping me with my workbooks. :) She'd just woken up from a lovely, long, afternoon sleep, and Mum was down helping me so she took a photo. :)

And lastly to Amanda: yes, everything in my brain seems to be poo-related at the moment. Ahhh the joys... :P Yes, as I type we're waiting on the three-day poo again.... :)

Update... finally!

The mastitis has cleared up, the baptism is over, and I've basically had a week at home - so good. Thanks to a number of things (including an email from my dear friend Andrea), I realised (after one of my Mummy's Magnificent Meltdowns on Tuesday night), that I have been pushing myself and my baby too hard in my efforts to be Super-Mum... and that I had to take a step back and re-evaluate everything. So this week, the floors have stayed in their needing-to-be-vacuumed state... we've eaten more meals from the freezer... and basically all I've managed to accomplish each day has been the washing and dishes. But, I have felt more rested and I have a happier baby for it... I have a more peaceful (though dirty) home... and my husband has come home from work to a happy wife... and that's what counts. Darling Donna always reminds me that some people actually have a DIRT floor in their home... SOME dirt on mine isn't the end of the world. :)

Today I had planned to go up to Newcastle with one of the mums from church to be a support to another of the mums, at the funeral of her dad... but with my tiredness and Anthea's fussiness, I had to opt out. I really wanted to be there for Jill to show my love, but my prayers will have to suffice, and I'll catch up with her next week or something... maybe a cooked meal will show my love more...

And so begins my life as Not-Super-Mum... and my life learning to say 'no' more often. Problem is, in order to get better at it, I have to practise...

"Not-Super-Mum"... sounds like a good alias... :)

Anthea is asleep at the moment. :) She sleeps well at night (7-8 hours), but I'm struggling with her sleep routine during the day... in that she doesn't actually have a routine for sleep during the day! She feeds 2.5 - 3 hourly, then some awake time... but sometimes she stays awake for the whole time til her next feed, and I'm not sure that she's supposed to!!! Anyhow... trial and error.... :)

She's growing up so much. The nine and a half weeks since her birth have passed so quickly!

In mid-October, we did a Friday-to-Tuesday trip down to Melbourne for Alastair to do the "Around the Bay" 100km bike ride, stopping overnight each way with Alastair's Nan in Benalla. I think I might finish this post in pictures...

Daddy with his baby, at his favourite landmark:



Anthea having morning cuddles with her Great Nan:



Outside Nan's unit before we left:



Having a picnic:





Cuddles with Aunty Donna:



All snuggly and cute:



Last Sunday was Annie's baptism day - 30th October 2011:



















And that will have to do for now... I have a few other photos I wanted to put up, but they're attached to various emails, and I need to find them, save them, etc, before I can put them up...

Birth and aftermath

I'll try to keep it brief...

Monday 29th August, I stayed in bed... my legs and feet were swollen (well, more than they had been in the few weeks prior), I had a headache, and I just felt generally unwell. By 3pm I thought I should call my midwife to see what she thought, and she told me to come in for a check-up. I called Alastair and asked him to come home and get me, and we were at the hospital by 4pm. By the time the blood tests, monitoring, and an internal examination were done it was after 6pm, and I'd started having regular contractions (probably from the VE). We went home, and wondered if it was for real... prepared though for it not to be, as I'd had a few hours of contractions on the Friday and Saturday before...

By 11pm I really hoped it was the real thing, as it was getting uncomfortable and they weren't letting up. However it just felt like period pain, not the enormous "tightening" of the uterus and my stomach going as hard as a rock. I had a shower (since we don't have a bath), and knelt on my thongs to allow the warm water to run straight onto my back. At 2.30am we rang the midwife who was on call to let her know what was going on, she said we were doing well, and to call when we wanted to go in to the hospital. Alastair had snatched an hour of sleep between 1-2am, and then managed another hour between 3am and 4am. Then he had a shower, and I collected the last few things I wanted to take to hospital. We called the midwife again, who said I'd done very well, and that she'd call my primary midwife and get her to meet us at the hospital.

We arrived just before 5am and Linda (my midwife) arrived about 15 minutes later. When she saw me on my knees beside the bed in the assessment room, she decided to skip the assessment as she said she could see that I was in labour. :) Birthing Unit Room 2 was available (the biggest room, and the only one with a bath!) so we went in there, I hopped up on the bed, and Linda discovered that I was 6cm dilated. :) She asked if I'd like her to break my waters, and said that if she did, the contractions would become much more "efficient"... good word! They certainly did - but still basically just like period pain, not what I was expecting.

I was in the bath when Alastair remembered that we were parked in the ambulance zone... so he went to move the car and get himself some breakfast. :) While he was gone, I suddenly felt like I was overheating and had to get out of the bath. The cordless monitors I had on my kept losing their signal because I was moving around, (and I had to be monitored because of the meconium that had been present when my waters were broken), so Linda suggested I hop out of the bath, and she wanted to put a clip on the baby's head. I was a little scared at that, but had little energy to protest. When I was on the bed and Linda checked me out before putting the clip on, she said "Oh, I can see your baby's head! Let's not worry about the clip and just push this baby out!" at which moment Alastair walked in with hashbrowns and a chocolate shake for me. :) He's so sweet to think of me, and had no idea I'd be so far along (although I was never going to be able to eat McDonalds at any time during the labour!).

Apparently I pushed for about an hour and a half... it didn't feel that long. I guess I was just thinking about each one as it came. As the baby's head crowned, I felt my perineum pop, and knew I'd torn. :( But then our dear little girl was born, and the previous hours were forgotten about as we looked at her and cuddled her. We named her Anthea, for Alastair's stillborn sister who was born 28 years ago, and her middle name is Grace because we thought it sounded nice with Anthea... although it is my grandmother's middle name too. :)

While they were checking Anthea out and everything, the doctor came in and said I'd have to go in for a general anaesthetic to have the 3rd degree tear repaired. This, to the girl who has never had a filling in a tooth or anything!!! So that was a bit scary, but I was so tired, no tears came. I wanted to have a shower before the op, so Alastair helped me to the bathroom. Lucky he was there, as I hemorrhaged and went into a faint. He and the midwives got me back to the bed, and then I was wheeled away for surgery. It wasn't much fun... the anaesthetists weren't very friendly, and they tell my blood count was so low (after losing nearly 2 litres of blood) that I had to have a transfusion. I was supposed to be back on the ward in about 2 hours, but it ended up being nearly 5 hours... poor Alastair, he'd had Anthea all day, and hadn't been able to find out where I was or what was going on with me, and he was nearly beside himself. :( But then we were all back together (albeit in a lot of pain), and then our families arrived to meet our little daughter. I was so out of it, and I see photos taken from that night that just make me shudder. The first day was not cool.

When Alastair had to go home that night I cried... I was so sore... I couldn't move or adjust myself... I lost my buzzer... I couldn't pick up my baby when she cried... it was awful.

But each day got easier and was better than the one before it. I only had one horrible nurse, all the rest were just delightful. It was so so so wonderful to come home on the Friday afternoon (2nd Sept), and sleep in my own bed. The first couple of nights were a bit rough, but we're working on that - the last three nights Annie has slept for 6 hours in a row! :)

I've just typed and typed and typed... and cried and cried remembering that first day. I'm not going to proof this as we've got visitors coming soon and I just wanted to let you know what happened.

And I'll leave you with a photo of my cutie... she makes me so happy! :)

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!!! :(

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! :)

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......

Babysitting and other escapades...

I'm babysitting. Thankfully, I was forward-thinking enough to bring my laptop. :) I've already completed an online Natio makeup consultant course thingy, and now I'm updating my blog - how good am I? :)

Not much to report though really...

Last weekend was relatively quiet, which was great. Just what I needed. I bought a new pillow to try to assist in the ongoing saga of my sore neck/shoulder... but I don't know that it's helping. Tomorrow I'm off to the osteopath before work to try and get some relief.

So we're babysitting three cute girls, ages 9, 8 and 2. Their Mum and Dad (and Baby Bump due in 5 weeks) are at a concert tonight. They're all so different. Ellie, the eldest is very grown up, likes using big words such as anitdisestablishmentarianism, and assuring me that her Dad is actually bonkers, she doesn't really have to go to bed at 8:30. :P Anna, next in line, is much my sister Meaghan... basically quiet until you get her going, and usually can be found with her head in a book. :) I read numerous stories to Ingrid (2), who has just turned into a little lady instead of a baby... :) Alastair went to fix the computer of an older couple from church... so I got to do bedtime by myself. :P

Tomorrow night had better be an early night, because on Thursday night we have the Christmas shopping night at the pharmacy, which is apparently manic. I'm working 9am-9pm, so I'm going to be dead. Friday night we're going to Dale and Cass' for dinner, and we're looking forward to catching up with them, it should be good.

Life goes on

Our rush trip to Victoria happened on the weekend. Alastair and I both finished work at 3pm on Friday, and we were on the road by 4pm. Almost seven hours later we let ourselves in at Nan's house in Benalla, and we fell into bed exhausted. On Saturday we went up to Wangaratta (a half hour trip) to see Grandad, and he didn't look too good at all. Back to Nan's for lunch, and in the afternoon, Alastair and his mum went back up to the hospital. He was a bit more himself, and they had a good visit. I kept Nan company at home... we looked at knitting patterns and I experimented with a couple, and then played a computer game! She's a cool Nan. :) We all went out for dinner, and then Alastair's mum went to see a few of her old friends. Alastair, Nan and I shared our specialty dessert (chopped up mint slice biscuits with mini m&m's on ice-cream) and had a good long chat. First thing the next morning we were up and off on our trip home, via the hospital again. We came home via Beechworth - which was beautiful, but added to our trip considerably, given that there was a Celtic Festival on, and the beautiful little shops were all open and beckoning us...

So that was a big weekend, and we were back into work and everything the next day. Alastair's Uncle Jonathan had bought himself and Esme, and Alastair and I tickets to the Amy Gillet Foundation Dinner ($250/head!) which was on the Monday night... in Sydney at The Menzies. Wow. Sooooo not our scene! Fancy food, fancy people... an interesting experience, but that is all really.

Another post-midnight bedtime, and there have been two days of dragging ourselves to work since. :)

Today we had news that Grandad has been moved to Melbourne for a procedure on his lungs... but his oxygen saturation levels were really low, and he was practically comatose, so they haven't done it yet. The doctors have summoned Nan and his children to Melbourne for a family conference, which doesn't sound too good.

That's all really...