In his own words

Hi, it's Alastair.

I have hacked Carla's blog (not hard when she clicks "keep me logged in" on my PC) to post a link to my own blog, a new post just done about our precious new daughter Anthea.

Carla will post here, I'm sure, with lots of photos and the story of the labour and aftermath when she and Anthea come home in the next few days, but for now, some of my thoughts are here.

No baby yet...

Yesterday was the due date... and as yet, there is nothing happening. :P I'm so impatient, and so ready, but it's wonderful to know that God has it all sorted out. :) There isn't really much else to report. This week has felt long... I think it's the waking up each morning thinking "oh well, I didn't go into labour last night... but maybe sometime today!!!" and the going to bed each night thinking "oh well, I didn't go into labour today, but maybe I'll be woken up by contractions tonight!"

The weekend has been restful. Alastair sorted ALL my thousands of emails that were sitting in my inbox (and have been for years), and then did his. He's so good at that sort of thing. :) And my family visited yesterday for tea, which was lots of fun and we enjoyed lots of laughs. We played Scattergories... my Dad is hilarious - he kills me. :)

And to finish, just photos of the two cot quilts I managed to get the binding on last week:





Hopefully next time I post, I'll have NEWS and PHOTOS OF A BABY!!!!! :)

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. :)

Not whooping cough, and lots of purchases

So I've had trouble shaking this cold... and was coughing so badly last week that Alastair made me take Friday off work and go to the doctor... who decided that I needed to be swabbed for whooping cough... which meant a whole lot of running around, anitbiotics to be safe, and Tuesday off work too... end of the story is that I don't have whooping cough, I just need to wait til this silly cough goes away.

We've bought a few things for the baby this week... it's sooooo exciting! A new pram... a cot mattress... hooray! We also bought a new vacuum cleaner - a Dyson! It's A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!! :) So our savings are a bit depleted now, but we're very happy with our bargains.

Also, my darling sister has bought us a beautiful glider (nursing chair) which is just amazing. I don't know how to thank her! Maybe lots of cuddles with her niece/nephew will suffice....? :)

Photos

My 25 week baby bump. :)

Another ultrasound pic!

23.5 weeks old!