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: