39 week update

Wow! 37 and 38 weeks came and went in flurry of uni assignments and overtired children! Here we
are with a week(ish) left!

I must say this pregnancy has gone so quickly! Sure there are days (or every day?!) that i kind of hope that today might be the day, but I think between uni and the girls, and my little hobby sewing business, I have managed to keep busy enough to not be thinking about his arrival every minute of every day!

I've been meaning to add a new belly photo for weeks, so here one finally is! This is me (and he) at 39 weeks:

He feels like he's going to be long, and a bit of a fatty! So I am making my official guess as 8 lb, and 54cm long, born on 1 June (1 day late).

Anyone else care for a guess? 

36 weeks - Getting Organised

Okay, so contrary to my previous post, i am getting impatient!
Maybe its the lack of energy and focus (except when it comes to cleaning!)
Maybe its the constant Braxton Hicks Contractions that i have been having,
But for some reason (or lots of them!) I just cannot imagine being pregnant for another month! I just don't think my body could cope with that!
So I am getting organised, just in case!

So far, along with my ridiculous cleaning sprees, I have been checking of tasks on my own to- do list, below:

Yes, painting toenails is essential before giving birth, Just ask my sister!

THEN, I came across a blog post from a super-organised super woman today, about her organising for the birth of her second child, and it inspired me to extend my To-Do list. So, with the inspiration of Jade from Super Organised Mum, I have written a new, more extensive  (and prettier!) list to keep me busy till this bub is born. This is what i hope to get accomplished:

SuperMom List Template, Courtesy of Super Organised Mom

Stay tuned to see how far i actually get!! 

35 weeks

It puzzles me why women torture themselves waiting for their 'due date'. What puzzles me more is when women start counting down, or thinking 'any day now' from 36 weeks!
The last month or two is hard enough as it is without adding to it with what is usually false hope!
Believe me, I have late babies....I just take longer to cook them then other women, i guess. But with a sister who has never gone full term, I assumed in my first pregnancy that i also would go early! and at 41wks, i went into labour!
So this time, I am just telling myself that its going to be a week longer than my due date, and if I'm pleasantly surprised so be it!

32 weeks - cleaning bug!

I think i freaked my husband out the other night. While he lovingly sat and typed up a transcript of an interview for me, I started tidying up the kitchen....no big surprises there, I do occasionally clean my kitchen ;)

But it didn't stop at loading the dishwasher, or hand washing the large dishes that didn't fit. It didn't stop at sweeping the floor, or wiping down the table. The bleach came out, and every surface of bench and sink got scrubbed!

Even when the clock ticked passed 10pm, I still thought it necessary to thoroughly clean the windows, and even take down the curtains to wash them! AND after 11pm, I just had to mop the floor!

I might have preluded this post with an explanation of how women in my family handle labour... we wash dishes, we mop floors, we make kids lunches, we fold washing. All the housework from the week, and all the spring cleaning for the year gets done in those few hours of early labour!

See why he was worrying?!

Its ok though. It was only a spot of early nesting... the real deal is still to come....I wonder what i might find to clean then?!

Lucky Baby...Sleven?

Most of you will not be familiar with Josh Hartnett movie , The Lucky Number Sleven. That would be because it was poorly titled 'The Wrong Man' in Australia!
I mention this because we were humerously adding Sleven to our baby name list, and while it was ruled out on a serious note, I think it has proven quite fitting!

See, we have these friends, a couple, who we enjoy sharing dinner with (mostly) weekly. As part of this, we watch movies together, play board games, and most recently play cards.
The main game we play is called 'Hand and Foot'. Its played in pairs, boys against girls, and I've been told that traditionally, boys win. Not so for us!

Why you ask? and How does this relate to a pregnancy blog?

Well it all comes down to my lucky charm - the boy within.
When bub is awake, the girls have unprecedented luck, and have experienced the most glorious comebacks from the pits of negative scores. From a score of not much more than 900 against the boys 7000+ to our win with 10,000+....It really is amazing.
Unfortunately, when bub is sleeping, we lose to the same degree!

We're still to decide whether we'll want to continue playing cards once he is born, but fingers crossed the luck continues post delivery with feeding or even holding!For now, us girls are getting in as many wins as we can while the luck holds on!

30 weeks- "Babymoon"

Wow I'm 3/4 of the way through my *last ever* pregnancy! Can't say I won't be waving farewell to it with a smile on my face either!
Sure, Its definitely been better than the others in some ways, but the ailments of pregnancy are starting to rear their ugly head! From varicose veins and backache which make it near impossible to walk, to heartburn that's been visiting with a renewed vengeance...I'm finding it hard to enjoy being pregnant at the moment!
Still, there are upsides!
For instance, our little 'babymoon' weekend. Tim and I celebrated our wedding anniversary recently by spending the weekend away! Our littlies stayed with Grandma and Grandad for a 'holiday' and we stayed at a hotel for 2 nights, and enjoyed a much needed break!
There is also, always the excuse to buy cute little baby clothes, that makes pregnancy a little more enjoyable in the last weeks...though that does tend to make the bank account a little miserable!

27/28 weeks

My gosh! I have never been so tired in my whole life!
At my most recent midwife appointment, Katy told me that i need to double my iron supplement, because even though my levels have come up, they are far from desirable!
So double I did, and this is what i get!
I have literally spent all day on the couch sleeping, lacking the energy to even react when the girls start crying! Lucky, their super-capable daddy is still fulltime at home with us, but it does mean hes been doing the work of a SAHM and trying to finish our bathroom renovations!
I am so exhausted that I am going to add a bump photo, add this post, and then crawl back onto my couch and fall asleep again!

27 weeks

Aww!

Elliott cuddling the baby! She gave him kisses too but we missed that!

24 weeks

I had my first appointment with the midwife who will be seeing me throughout the pregnancy and birth.
See, the public hospital here has a program, in which low risk women can have their pregnancy completely cared for by a group of midwives, and one specifically allocated to her. It also means you have the opportunity to labour in the the Birth Centre.
In this case, the Birth Centre is across the hall from the regular birth suites, which means that medical help/intervention is right on hand if the need arises!

I had a tour of one of the Birthing Suites today, and I am so excited! The whole atmosphere is so relaxing and homey! Its a stark contrast from the very obvious "your in a hospital" statement that the normal birth suites offer!
Don't get me wrong! I don't have a problem with the regular birth suites. I had Bronte there quite happily! However, these new birth centre suites are in a league of their own.

Picture a hotel room - dark cupboards line the walls, a little kitchenette, double bed, and a huge round bath! Add the mood lighting and this place is beautiful!

Anyway, I think the midwife that has been allocated to me is VERY pro water births...that'll be interesting!
Before today, if you'd asked me what i thought of them, I'd have said Yuk! But, you know, i dont actually think they're as gross as i thought they were...they dont deliver the placenta in the water, and i can imagine the water would be quite an effective pain relief during the delivery.
No, I'm not putting my hand up for a water birth - simply pondering how different this labour could potentially be to the other 3. And all because of the room!

23 Weeks - Gymnastics!

Yes, Gymnastics! I'm sure no matter how hard you think about it, you will still not be able to put pregnancy and gymnastics in a sentence together, unless you're speaking with a bucket full of sarcasm!
However, gymnastics is exactly what I have been having to do to get to our toilet for the past few weeks.

See, we've just begun renovating our house, starting with the bathroom!

It started out as a simple balancing act...Climb down a ladder instead of using stairs. Not too difficult.
Then I advanced to, walk a balance beam, then climb down a ladder.
This progressed to, walk a balance beam..and carefully step from one beam to another, across about 6 beams...and then climb down a ladder, AND duck under a beam.

With my increasing need to use the bath room, and decreasing ability to balance and bend, You can see how this was becoming a problem!

But, HOORAY! Today is the first day that our new toilet is functional!
This means I have now down-graded to a simple hop across a hole in the floor.

Ah, Its the small pleasures in life, like being able to use a toilet without requiring the flexibility of a contortionist! 

Whats in a name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet." Juliet

Hmm, Nice thoughts, Juliet, but I don't think my little boy will agree, if we name him Francis or worse still, Francine!
I knew that having a boy would be different from having a girl. I knew it would be challenging! I just didnt count on that starting so early on!

When it came to naming our girls, It was easy. Tim and I threw around a couple of names we'd heard and liked, and pretty quickly settled on one that sat right with us - Not too woosy but still pretty!
With our little man, however, We couldn't even come up with a list to discuss!
Either too boring for me, or too "weird" for Tim.
We wanted something strong and masculine, but not too plain, as it needs to match with our girls names (and my whole family kinda has a trend of awesome names)
 I tried writing down almost every boys name i came across that wasnt already used in my family, and that nobody has dibs on! (You have to get in quick around here, or there'll be no names left except Bob and Jill) However, in one 10 minute conversation, EVERY name was struck off the list!

How did you pick names for your children? Family names, Popular names?

20 weeks - Half way!

Wow. I think this pregnancy seems to be going so much faster than the others!
Its been a very eventful time for Queensland this week, and as a result, I have kept busy between being glued to the news, and entertaining 3 littlies who had cabin fever after even one day of rain (and we all know, we've had alot more than one rainy day lately!)
So to fill you in, 19 weeks can be summed up in one word for me, Mirgraine... or maybe two, Mirgraine and Codeine. I've had quite a few chronic headaches this pregnancy, but one in particular, lasting 30hrs, really knocked me around.
Thankfully I know a very talented Musculoskeletal Therapist who has been a life saver! Its actually really novel to wake up without my head hurting, and to not be popping pills every 4-6hrs!

Well, I am going to make the most of feeling well, and continue making my baby boys quilt. 

Heres a look at where I'm up to:

Its a....

Our 18 week Scan was yesterday, a day i have been counting down to for the last 2 months!
Elliott was going to come along to see the baby on the screen (Shes been very interested in the whole thing!), but at the last minute decided to stay with her Aunty Rita and the other kids.
I was very lucky to get an appointment first thing in the morning, so there was no all day waiting! And managed to down a good litre and half of water ( intermittent with Sherbet cos that baby had to open its legs!)

As they do, the Dr took her time check all the measurements and making sure everything was exactly as it should be. The baby seemed to be measuring a couple of days smaller than my dates, so i am guessing that the baby Dr will push my due date back to the 3rd or 4th of June. (Hello to sharing a birthday with its Aunties on the 11th!)

We did have to remind the Sonographer/radiographer (is that what they're called?) to check for the gender, and were quite disbelieving when she said without a doubt it was a boy! 
We both actually asked her if she were sure, so she checked a couple of times from different angles just to make sure lol!

So we are getting our boy! I am so excited!
Here is a scan photo of our little man: