To Buy or Not To Buy: Towels

See this basket here? It is full of towels for Eliza. Hooded towels, plain towels, extra fluffy towels, and close to a million facewashers. And there is another basket in the bathroom. And a few on the clothes line.

To be honest, I wish I never brought any myself, as we got given majority as gifts, which was lovely, don't get me wrong, but we only ever use the same three towels: the pink hooded towel on top, a normal towel that my mum embroidered for Eliza to lay on whilst getting dressed/undressed, and a spare hooded when the pink one is in the wash. I tend to use the rest of them for drying my hair!

My advice? Save buying towels until after the birth, or if you must, only buy one or two beforehand. A regular bath towel is just as good too.
Pin It

One Year

August the 28th was a big day for me, it meant that I had been a mummy for a whole year. It was on that fateful day that I started another cycle, a cycle I thought was doomed due to some very poor timing and a very full social calendar. It was the last cycle we had to do before our review, and as luck would have it, the last cycle was the lucky one.

I found this post in my drafts file the other night, and thought it was time to reflect back on the year that was.

First time I cried hormonally at something random: Watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother, the episode where Barney and the gang have to pack up his childhood house, and Barney's brother finds out who his dad is. I cried for poor Barney, as it was terribly sad he didn't know who his dad was. I love HIMYM and never find it sad (quite the opposite), so that was a bit odd. (4w2d)
{I watched that episode again recently and still cried, so I am going with it is just a sad episode}

First time I saw those two lines: Before work on a Thursday morning, I screamed for the husband to come look, and got terribly frustrated when he didn't understand what it meant. Then I couldn't remember what the hell a HGC test was as it looked exactly the same as the ovulation test. (4w4d)

First bout of morning sickness: A Thursday morning at work, five minutes after someone asked how I was feeling and I replied I was feeling fine. Murphy's Law. (5w4d)

First time I saw you on the screen: We had an early scan as part of our treatment, and got to see our little bean. You looked like a little baby dinosour, and were then called Dino. (7w4d)

First time I was a fierce Mamma Bear: After surgery when a nurse kept poking at my stomach really hard. I asked her if she would like it if I poked her really hard. No? Then stop poking my baby! (15w4d)

First time you scared the living shit out of me: The morning that I woke up with wet pants. I was home alone and rang the husband in a fit of panic demanding that he come home and take me to the hospital. Turns out it was just a cold playing havoc with my fluid levels. I wasn't quite ready to meet you then (34w)

First time mummy almost went into labour at work: When the man I sit with showed me a dead mouse. We all know what a fan I was. Never show a pregnant woman a mouse, especially a heavily pregnant one!

First time mummy and daddy were ready to meet you: The second Monday of maternity leave. I was sick of being home all day. So I ate Thai Green Curry to bring on labour. It worked. I went into labour that night. (39w1d)

First time mummy decided she didn't want to do this anymore: After 18 hours of labour. And again at 35 and a half hours. Luckily you were born at 36 hours! (39w2d and 39w3d)

First time mummy decided you were worth every heartache, tear and pain she ever complained about: About 10 minutes before this moment when they put you on my chest and I got to meet you in person.

Pin It

Pamper Day

I was meant to finish work at 34 weeks, however due to a severe lack of forward planning, I extended the date until I was 37 weeks. Lets just say that my replacement at work is going to be on a very steep learning curve in the next few months.

At Easter (when I was meant to finish work) I felt fine, I had plenty of energy. A week later I was stressed and exhausted. Which is how I came to make an appointment for a relaxing day in my last week of work: a hair cut and colour, and several hours at a day spa.

I have to say, it got me through the three weeks of work, especially on those days where I had customers yelling at me over their mistakes. In those moments, I just remembered my upcoming relaxing day and managed to push on.

Finally the day arrived, and although I didn't get the sleep in I so wanted (thanks mum, your stupid email problem was so worth getting up early for), I excitedly made my way to my hairdressers. My current hair dresser is a girl I went to school with, and I have to say she has has never steered me wrong in the last 12 years (well, except when she moved overseas, that was bad for my hair), and I trust her to do her thing without a lot of my input. Which was a good thing, as I may have nodded off at one point.

Two and a half hours later I walked out with new hair, and into my favourite restaurant for my favourite lunch: thin crust pizza with hot salami with sun-dried tomatoes, red capsicum slivers, baby spinach and shaved parmesan. Yum yum yum!

I was trying a new day spa, and found their one flaw - parking. Granted I knew this before hand, as they are on a busy street, but I wasn't smart enough to arrive in plenty of time to find a decent non-metered car park. Luckily it was a short waddle to their building from where I parked. I was nervous because I was now running late, and I hate being late.

As soon as I was in the door I felt calm and welcome, and not at all bad for running 5 minutes late. My therapist talked me through my massage, facial and pedicure and left me to fill out the paperwork and select my desired polish colour.

I don't remember much about my massage, other than I had a table with a cut out for my tummy which was weird to lay down on. Basically as soon as I layed down and my eye closed I was out like a light. The next thing I remember is being gently shaken awake by the therapist as I needed to roll over for my facial - where I promptly fell back asleep and had to be awoken at the end! I wish I woke up every day feeling so relaxed with pretty skin!

You will happy to know I did manage to stay awake long enough to have my pedicure where my tootsies were painted a very deep and beautiful shade of blue.

And then I left, walking on a cloud of air and feeling the best I have felt in weeks. It even made the following two days of work pleasant and manageable, even with the high level of stress I was under. And just to prove how well my work friends know me, as a leaving gift, they gave me a voucher for the very same day spa! I do love my workplace!!!


Pin It

37 Weeks Pregnant and Finishing Up

This was meant to be a 35 week update, but it kind of got delayed a few times, so lets recap the last few weeks.

me just before my last day of work - sniff.

We elected to do the hospital ante natal classes on two consecutive Saturday mornings. A lot of people have said that they found their hospital classes to be very narrow minded, only explaining the text book cases and pushing of medical intervention, however I didn't find our classes that way at all. I guess it really does depend on your instructor, as ours was lovely and so full of information on all situations. We left feeling a lot more confident that we might just be able to do this whole birth and parenting thing.

Which was rather handy, as at 33 weeks I went into false labour. I woke up one Sunday with contractions that were 5 minutes apart. A quick call to the midwives meant that the husband was making a very quick drive from the farm to home to collect me, and then to the hospital (which is an hour away I might add). My Ob's was contacted and he meet us at the hospital where it was discovered my cervix was firmly clamped shut, but our baby had an elated heartbeat, and my blood pressure was low. There were some firm words spoken to our baby (mainly stay put for a few more weeks) and we spent the day hanging out in a hospital bed with a fetal monitoring device. I elected to go home after dinner when a CGT showed that the babies heartbeat had returned to a normal range over a period of time, and that my blood pressure had gone back to normal. A few days later we found out that it was most likely caused by an internal infection I was carrying and a severe cold I was in the process of getting over.

And to this day our baby has listened and stayed put, except for moving its head right down into my pelvis ready for the big event somewhere around 35-36 weeks. This meant that I have finally been able to breathe properly (oh thank the high heavens). Unfortunately it meant that my fortnightly physio sessions for SPD were now basically useless as there is nothing my wonderful physio can really do for me :(

Development wise we are still measuring a couple of weeks ahead, but then again with a tall husband that was to be expected. I am often seen rubbing my stomach to try and encourage a certain small person to put their elbow or knee back into a place that isn't painful for me. Unfortunately as we continue to grow I continue to be jabbed. All for a good cause, not long to go now.

Pin It

We're Halfway There...

(sorry, am singing some random song that was on the radio the other morning and is still in my head!)

So, we have officially made it past the halfway mark. It is all starting to seem real now...and very scary!

After my surgery in December, I was freaked out by everyone asking me how the baby was. Oddly enough, despite asking about my baby as soon as I came through from the anesthetic, I wasn't overly concerned as I was still feeling movement quickening. But then I let everyone get into my head and freaked out.

Luckily my Obstetrician booked me in for my scan a little bit earlier than normal, just to settle my nerves. Everything was perfect. Our dates are spot on, and it looks like we will be having a tall baby going by the size of his/her legs. I was a little disappointed with the quality of the ultrasound, I would have liked to have seen the baby in 3D like a number of my friends have, but I can always have that done later on.

And now that we are half way, it means there is a deadline for when things need to be brought by - which in my world means shopping :D Yay!!!

Pin It

18 Weeks Pregnant

I started this blog long before I was pregnant, and it was never meant to be about being pregnant, so I haven't directly mentioned a great deal of personal things about my pregnancy. I am not sure why, I guess because it feels a little too personal, and although I know how blessed I am, I don't want to upset anyone who is yet to be blessed.

However, I take a weekly photo of my ever growing stomach, and finally I am going to share it with you. Slowly, ever so slowly, it is getting there.
Pin It

Watch Me Grow

I never thought I would look forward to gaining back my stomach, but by golly I am! Watch me grow baby, watch me grow!

Pin It