Family

I have been thinking a lot about family lately. Pretty hard not to since we are preparing to meet the littlest member of our family. I have never been close to my family. I have very little in common with them so I feel like I don't want to talk to them.

One of my sisters 'T' doesn't have a job and spends her weekends drinking with friends, starting at 10am sometimes. Yet she says she can't come down when our baby is born because she has no money. She also texts my husband A LOT and even asked him to keep something from me once. When hubby told me this I was furious. Who texts their brother in law and asks them to lie to their wife? My sister of course!

I am so ready to punch T in the head (bit hard when we live interstate but you know what I mean). She keeps calling the baby 'he' and I just cracked it last night. Silly I know but I asked her nicely just to call it 'baby' or 'bubs' or 'Squirt' (since we aren't 100% convinced bub's is a boy and we've kept baby's sex a surprise from everyone) and she still insists on asking 'how her nephew is'. The other week she called and said she ran into a guy we went to school with and she pretended to be me. When I cracked it at her she said I should calm down and it wasn't a big deal. I actually think it is. Besdies the fact that we are nothing alike and she would have down nothing for my reputation I don't think lying to someone is funny.
 
My other sister 'A' is 15 and pregnant, and oh so excited about it too. She doesn't seem to grasp the concept that babies are hard work and she won't be able to go out and party with her friend's when the baby is born. She fell pregnant to some idiot at a party. Of course they aren't together anymore, it was just a one night stand after all.
 
My mum is excited about my baby but not to the extent she is with my other sister and honestly it doesn't bother me. She texts me sometimes to ask how we're going but generally just doesn't give a damn. She said she's coming down when bubs is born but she hasn't been down in the 4 years or so we've lived here so I won't hold my breath.
 
It's so hard because I want to want them in my life but I so don't need the drama and attitude I cop when I do speak to them. Hmmm, what should I do??

Hello Winter

Well winter has well and truly hit here in Canberra. It's only meant to get to 10 degrees today! Team that with a ferocious wind and dark threatening clouds and I'm sure it feels even chillier than that outside.

Life is going well for Squirt and I. Just on the count down to the big day. All this waiting and thinking and anticipating can really do a person's head in though. 'Will the baby come today?' 'Will my waters break at home?' 'Can I really achieve the calm birth that I pray for?' So many little questions and doubts and niggles swirl through your head when you're home alone and nesting.

I've been trying to keep busy though, well as busy as hubby will let me be since I have high blood pressure and the midwife has told me I should be resting. I have baked many sweet treats (chocolate slice, yum yum balls, jam drops, apple and cinnamon muffins) and I have written a list of things I should pack in my hospital bag. I have slowly gathered said hospital bag items and placed them on my chest of drawers..... where they have sat...... waiting for me to iron them.

I'm not that keen on ironing. But I'm even less keen on wrinkly crinkly flannelette pajamas. I can not sleep in flannie pj's that have not been ironed. Call me crazy (as hubby does) but it just drives me mad!! I also have shirts and other bits and pieces to iron.... maybe that could be my task for tomorrow. Stop procrastinating and start ironing. Bub's will be classed as full term Sunday so I really should be prepared.

We went and bought a 2nd hand moses basket on the weekend. We were originally going to just have bub's in the cot. But I stumbled across this little basket and it just was too cute to pass up. Just imagine a little newborn bub's all wrapped up and snug as a bug in a rug in this little basket..... cluck cluck!!

Bubs, hubby and I had some professional maternity photos taken on Sunday and I can't wait for them to be ready to pick up. I'm so glad we ended up getting them done. It was loads of fun, and now we'll be able to send some decent photos of the bump to family interstate instead of my headless belly pics in my pjs. Poor hubby's grandparents have gotten no bump pics because they've just been too boring to warrant sending up. Hopefully the professional ones will be super amazing and we'll just send a few of those up.

Well must keep pottering around the house. I hear the dishes calling my name!?

36 Week Bump Pictures

Sleep Deprived

This is me this morning, except definetly less glamorous than this!

Stupid cussy pain in the ass neighbours from hell last night thought it would be a good idea to have some people over and listen to music until all hours of the freakin' morning!!!!! I was awake from 1am-4am listening to their crap. They are lucky it was too damn cold for me to walk over in my flanny pj's and give them a piece of my mind. Though I do know their real estate agent and am so tempted to call and complain. This is the 2nd time in around a month they have had some kind of party during the week with no consideration of others.... it's very tempting but Im sure DH wouldnt be happy if i complained.

As if sleeping isn't hard enough as it is without adding that to the mix. AND DH decided he would snore, my reflux thought it would come along for the party, as did my leg cramps and my partying little bubs. All in all a great night here in Canberra!!!

Mum just messaged me and said my 15 year old sister is having a daughter. So not in the mood to deal with that crap right now.

Right, off to deal with the rates people and the body corporate people who have both decided we owe them money, and interest even though we didn't get their first notices

Soup, glorious SOUP!!!

I'm not that keen on winter. It's windy, your lips get cracked, the days are shorter, it's cold..... honestly I could go on. But the one thing I LOVE about winter is soup!!! There's just something so comforting and soothing about a nice warm bowl of soup on a chilly winter's night. So I thought I'd share my lentil soup recipe with you. Try it this week, you won't be disappointed :-)

Lentil and vegie Soup

2 small or one medium onion

3 cloves of garlic (or less if you're not keen)

some ginger (I only add this if we have it in the house)

1/2 medium sweet potato

2 carrots

Pumpkin if you have any

1 medium zuc

a handful of beans cut into chunks

a handful of brussell sprouts cut into quarters

1 cup frozen peas and corn

2 tins of brown lentils

2 tins of canellini beans (You can use whatever tin beans you like)

About 3 cans of tin tomatoes (I used a BIG tin of tomatoes and a smaller tin)

2 stock cubes dissolved in water

So you pretty much just cut all your vegies into equalish sizes so they all cook at the same time. Add a little oil to a big saucepan, add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook until the onion is soft. Add the hard vegies(s.potato, carrots and pumpkin) and cook until just softening. Add all the other veg except for the peas and corn. Cook those until they are just soft. Then you add in all the other ingredients except for the peas and corn. Add enough water to cover the whole thing. Simmer until all the veg is cooked. Stir in the peas and corn and season to taste (You can also add some herbs if you have any. I add some dried mixed herbs but it's lovely with some fresh parsley). Serve with some crusty bread :-)

Stay tuned for some more tasty soup recipes. In the mean time here's the latest belly pics, enjoy!

35 Weeks and 2 days (1st June)

(My stupid belly button has decided to stay half innie half outie!)

The Winter Blues

Well that's what I've decided to call it anyway. I have been lacking enthusiasm lately to sit down and update my blog. I'm not really sure why, considering I'm on maternity leave now and have some free time on my hands. I think it's all starting to get a little bit too much. My brain is hurting.

People keep asking me if I'm getting nervous or scared about labour and I honestly thought I was doing quite well. I am about half way through Juju Sundin and Sarah Murdoch's 'Birth Skills' book and like the concepts they talk about in the book. Like I said in a previous post I'm not stupid enough to think labour will be 'fun' and an easy task to accomplish. But at the end of the day the baby has to get out some how and it's up to me to get it out! But the more people ask me about it the more I start to doubt myself. I'm sure their intentions are good but it's putting all this pressure on me and really freaking me out.

I thought I'd try and get 'organised' and do some things to aid in the labour process. I had read about raspberry leaf tea and will get some of that from the healthfood store this weekend. I did also hear some mummas mention perineal massage. So thought I'd google it. And holy crap, I really wish I didn't! It's actually scared me a little about the labour process. I really really don't want to tear and understand that the massage may help this. But just reading it nearly had me hyperventilating. Now I'm unsure whether I should try it or maybe just do everything I can to avoid a tear (birth upright, avoid the epidural so I can feel when to push etc) I have no idea why it freaked me out so much. I did read it that perineal massage hurts and burns etc. Maybe that's whats scared me.

I had my midwife appointment last week. Bub's is head down and heading towards the light! Still not engaged yet but early days I know. I also had a breastfeeding class last week. It's nice to know what the 'ideal' breastfeeding experience should be (demand feeding as baby requires, at least for the first 6 weeks, at least 8 feeds a day etc). I'm just going in with an open mind and really hope I can breastfeed. I know it's best for bub's but at the end of the day my motto is healthy happy mum= healthy happy baby. It's definetly more involved than I thought. Not just put baby on the boob and all will be okay. It's definetly something I want to succeed at but understand that formula is not poision and if worse comes to worse I will formula feed bubs. I'm just hoping to breastfeed because the thought of sterilising bottles is not very appealing!

Well better go tidy up the place. I feel like since I'm on maternity leave now it's more my responsibility to have the house clean, have dinner cooked etc. I'm sure it's just my perception as hubby has said nothing of the sort. But I feel like if I do just have a 'relax' day and he comes home and it's not perfect than it's my fault, I'm not doing my 'job' as a wife. Silly I know. But that's my brain at the moment.

Belly Pics 

33 Weeks

33 Weeks

34 Weeks

34 Weeks

A Woman of Leisure

That will be me in less than a week WOO HOO!! Only 4 shifts to go and then maternity leave. Can you tell I'm really very excited :-)

We had our 2nd birth class last night which was nice. A mumma who gave birth the day before came and shared her story, and even bought the little guy along. 2.8kg of tiny bubba goodness. So darn cute. And he made this tiny little crying noise I don't really learn anything new from the classes (since I learnt most of it at uni) but I think its a definite eye opener for hubby.

Our cot and change table/drawers arrived yesterday. Stupid toys r us only have 1 delivery guy so he couldn't carry the stuff up the stairs so it's been dumped in our kitchen. Hubby had something cut out of his back the other day so he can't lift anything too heavy. So I lugged the cot up to baby's room this morning and we're setting it up tonight. We don't even have a mattress for it, but at least it's a start. I go through periods where I feel like birth is AGES away but then I realise I'll be 33 weeks pregnant on Sunday!

Bub's has been rolling now for quite a while instead of the kicks. But I think over the last week or so bubs might have turned head down (fingers crossed) as I have heaps more room up near my ribs, my belly feels soft up there now and the rolling feels different. That and the hiccups I feel are now in a different spot. I think bubba might be having a growth spurt because I'm hungrier than usual and sleepier than usual (though that could be just due to tossing and turning all night )

I have been thinking of labour a lot lately. Part of me has this 'can do' attitude where I truly believe I will be okay with the labour process. I am attending birth classes, I'm reading my calm birthing book and I've spoken of techniques to use with hubby so we're both on the same page. But then self doubt creeps in and I think 'who am I kidding? I can't DO labour!!' I guess the only thing I can do is think positively, arm myself with as much knowledge as possible and cross my fingers and toes that all goes well. I know labour is no walk in the park, but woman have been giving birth for many many years and if they can do it I can too :-)

32 Week Bump Pics

My 'basketball'

Today - 32 + 5

When it rains, it pours

For most of my pregnancy (except the first 14 weeks when I was spewing and spewing and spewing and lost 7kgs) I have felt great. Granted, I never really did get that 2nd trimester 'energy kick' I have heard so much about, but I have been loving my body and loving growing this little person.

But over the last week or so my body has been SCREAMING at me to slow down. It all began last Sunday when I ended up on the maternity ward. I thought about what I could do to ease the stress and decided to change my 12 hour shifts back to 8 hour shifts for the rest of my roster.

Then I found out last Tuesday that the left side of my pubic bone is sitting higher than my right so the physio pulled it and tried to drag it back to the same height as the right side. He tried 3 times and it's still out of wack. He's a good looking physio that used to work on my ward!!! I was so embarrased. I had on a hospital gown and just my knickers. At least I'm getting used to not having any dignity now. Preparing me for the embarassment that is labour. I was due to go back for more torture session today but I still have a cold and didn't really want to infect people with my germs so have had to reschedule.

I Went to my GP yesterday as I woke up with an awful pain in my right calf. Now I have had leg cramps before and have just massaged the spot and they normally go away. Well not this time. This one has decided to stick around. Just to be on the safe side I am off to have an expensive ultrasound of my leg this afternoon.

And if that wasn't enough my blood pressure is high and the doctor is worried about pre eclampsia. Only good thing is there was no protein in my urine, which is a good sign. Will just check my BP weekly until I see the midwife and see what they want to do in a couple of weeks. I have my fingers crossed that the pain in my calf turns out to be an extremely nasty cramp and that once I go on maternity leave (on the 21st May WOO HOO) my blood pressure returns to normal.

In other news our weekend was great. It was nice seeing the inlaws again and go out for a special dinner. They were super excited to see me pregnant and got to feel the baby move around a bit which was special. I was very sad to see them go yesterday. Makes me realise how lonely I am down here sometimes, with only DH and a few friends. Hopefully in a few years time we can move back to QLD and be a little bit closer to them. I think it's important for bub's to know his grandparents.

Well better go shave my legs for my ultrasound. Don't want to shock the sonographer with my gross hairy legs!

31 Week Bump