So I was trying to figure out why Liam was screaming ALL day and all night…. and why he wanted to constantly feed, but wasn’t sucking on the bottle…..

FINALLY we realize the teat has no hole! POOR BABY!!! All because I didn’t test it on my arm, as it was room temp already each time.

 —feeling apologetic.

Birth: 164kg (approx)

Week 1: 158.2kg

Week 2: 157.9kg

Week 3: 157.5kg

Week 4: 157.1

Week 5: 156.5

Week 6: 155.5kg

Week 7:

Week 8:

Week 9:

Week 10:

Week 11: 

Week 12:

I’ve been trying to do a few exercises, such as;

• Arching my back and neck the opposite way to what I’ve been doing when hunched, improving my upper body strength by giving myself tummy time whilst on the laptop. at the moment I can only manage about 5-10 mins and it actually hurts quite a bit to be on my arms.
• Trying “squats”, which is often very awkward and painful. I managed to do 5 x 30 seconds each per session, and I can’t get very low at all.
• Pelvic floor when I remember (which is realistically about 3 x every 2-3 days.) I try to do 10 sets of 20 seconds, with 5 second rests in between.
• Flexing and pointing my legs and feet at least twice a day, usually whilst I’m feeding or lying flat after I wake up.
• Head rolls
• Trying to get hubby to massage my back, neck and shoulders!!!!!
• Leaning over my stretched out legs in bed.
• Lunges.

Purchases:

We bought about 15 or so Avent baby bottles (good second hand) for $40.

My Entertainment:

TV:

• Samantha Who – whilst breastfeeding
• Family Fued (though I’ve missed it just about every night this week!!!
• The checkout

Youtube:

• …….’s got talent videos
• DanielleBabyBliss
• Community Channel
• BachScholar

General Internets:

• Facebook
• Emails
• Gumtree
• BabyCare website
• Wiki

• Liam

Liam’s Entertainment:

• Books
• Mobiles
• Music boxes
• Rattles
• Songs
• Dancing
• Physical play
• Looking at black and white shapes
• Learning new things each day
• BOOB / milk

Liam:

MILESTONES

He seems to have slightly better control over his hands.

He’s much gassier now, and more able to burp by himself. – Farts stink now. He has variations of fart noises, and farts in general are longer.

Half the time he is stopping crying as I go to pick him up now.

Making cooing and humming noises on occasion.

Taking longer after waking before crying for a feed.

He’s ore able to command and hold his head up.

Kicking his legs harder, and more often, and more able to maneuver himself with his legs and arms;

He ALWAYS gets out of his lamb sleep positioner now, and we find him diagonally with his head smooshed against the side in the bassinette, usually screaming!

LOVING being read to, songs, dance, and music.

Still unable to focus much, but his attention span is longer.

Smiling a bit more often, but we’re unsure if its a “genuine” smile or just a reflex.

Awake for MUCH longer, and more often.

He’s gripping our hands occasionally, and holding them for a few mins, even when we move his arms around.

FEEDING

Demanding at least double the milk / formula he was having before. (More than 200ml now usually per feed.) Breastfeeding in the bath was very difficult due to the slipperiness, and I was concerned about the soap in the water being ingested.

Finding it really hard to breastfeed with a bra / clothes pulled down because it gets in the way of the nipple and negatively affects his latch – to be honest I prefer to not wear a bra around feeding times.

We’re getting used to 2 more breastfeeding positions involving my lying back, due to my back being sore from sometimes being hunched over him.

Vomiting around 1-3 times per feed. – I had my first projectile vomit from him today. CHARMING!

LEARNING

I’m getting him used to different textures and feelings, such as variations in water and milk temperature, outside air vs inside air, and different types of cloths and blankets, harder and softer towels, and surfaces (ie benchtop, sink, couch, bed, and pillow.)

I’m also teaching him counting to 10, and saying “hello” in various languages, such as German, English, Japanese, and Latin. I’ve been trying to get him to listen to classical and classical merged with jazz, and have been teaching him Solfege and counting via his fingers and toes, alongside “this little piggy went to market”.

(I also want to teach him sign language eventually – signs like; “milk” “more” “gentle” “don’t touch” and “too hot.”)

BATHTIME

More enjoying bath time and massages – He had his first bath with me in the main bathtub. I got weed on for the first time when I was checking the frills of his nappy after a bath (his nappy was already on – it came out the side. It took me a little while to register what it was as I’d never seen him wee. it was completely clear, like a fast trickle!)

He’s weeing a lot, but not pooing much anymore. when he poos it’s usually orange, and usually after he’s had a lot of formula.

Me:

After the bath with Liam it took me way longer than it should have to exit the bath, and involved a lot of pain and crying due to my increased physical size and lack of upper body strength – and the silly arm rest things on the sides.

Getting more comfortable with Liam in general  – how to hold him, general tasks, and recognizing his cries.

Still incontinent with urinating when I sneeze or couch, or badly need to go, but stopped bleeding around a week ago.

Boobs feel heavier and bigger, and are definitely much more engorged and leaky a lot of the time. – Sometimes I leak 20-40 ml just because he is hungry.

I’m eating less often so I think my stomach shrunk – just due to the business and rushing around trying to feed, sleep, clean, and organised students, etc. – I actually lost 7 and a bit kilos since the birth!!! I was around 164.8kg at birth I think and now I’m 156.5kg.

I’ve been trying to take care of me more this week. Making sure I eat enough, and enough of the right things, doing my best to remember and take medications, and better monitoring my drinking, making sure to move around after 3-4 hours lying or sitting due to a feed / admin, and applying heel balm more regularly, as well as taking a bit extra time to brush my teeth, properly wash my hands (for the recommended 13-20 seconds or so), shower every 1-2 days, and brush my hair and teeth at least daily. I even had time to do my nails today – which I rarely do, and haven’t done since before Liam’s baby shower.

Liam is a whole Calendar month old today!

His Progress:

GROWTH:

He is no longer a “Neonate,” he is now an “infant” which is kinda sad in a way, as my hubby and I love saying “Neonate,” but at least we’re out of the very dangerous zone, and according to a few sites I read, many illnesses would have made themselves evident by now if he had them, so the fact that none have is good!

FEEDING:

I’ve been having him close to me a lot of the time so I can easily feed on demand. I think he’s been cluster feeding, and I’ve had to supplement him with formula a bit more than I’d like. That being said, my milk supply seems to be slightly increased now.

We’ve learnt we can breastfeed with him lying on my chest whilst I lay down, but both of us laying parallel is proving too difficult.

MILESTONES:

He’s definitely not hard of hearing today, as many sounds have made him shudder.

He is still getting much stronger! This week I’ve noticed him being able to push up with his legs into a standing position when he is being held up.

He can roll a little bit now if he is placed on the bed or couch.

He has been able to escape from his sleep positioner once, and he’s began to stretch to the side in the bassinesse, which we think is causing him to end up diagonally or sideways in there.

He’s getting used to us more, and spending longer making eye contact with us.

I saw him smile briefly with his eyes open for the first time today.

Yesterday I heard and his heartbeat directly for the first time.

He is vomiting (posseting) a bit more now.

I think he can focus further away now, as he can look at us from further away, and I think he can see the lamb mobile in his bassinet) now, which is around 30-40cm away from his face!

He had his first bath and shower with me this week. – He’s getting more used to baths, water, and oil massages. In the bath I allowed 4 new products to come into contact with my stitched perineum (And Liam). The products were Sorbolene cream, “Mum and me” bath milk soak (containing Arnica for bruises,) Normal bar soap, and a pink bath bomb. So far no issues have arisen.
We’ve noticed baby acne on his head and body.

TRAITS:
He’s still quite clingy, and loves to be held.

ENTERTAINMENT:

We’ve introduced rattles and music boxes more heavily this week. He seems to like Brahms Lullaby the best. We’ve been using a squeaky rattle to wake him up sometimes for a feed.

Sometimes he stops crying when I sing to him.

He had his first “outside time” and walks in the stroller, which he didn’t like.

He loves looking at high contrast things – like his black and white book.

He definitely has 2 favourite books ; “Something Absolutely Enormous”, and “My First Shapes”. We’ve been teaching him shapes, counting in multiple languages, and body parts, mainly.

MISC:

He’s been very gassy this week, and it’s hard for him to bring up his wind a lot of the time.

His poop is still mostly runny and orange, though I did change one mighty stinky and slightly thicker brown one!

We moved his “Daytime” bassinette into my husband’s studio, which is further away from out bedroom – so now Liam mainly sleeps in our room in his main bassinette, and when hubby is working or he just won’t stop screaming we put him in the studio. Alternatively he’s been sleeping in his bouncer, which he’s getting more used to now, or he will sleep on us.

I’m learning to juggle work, feeding, and housework now.

NORA (Hubby’s mum):

Nearly $400 worth of groceries and medications, cleaning duties, and nappy changes.

ANA:

$2 coles/myer gift card and a big beige teddy – he’s super soft!

BRONNIE (MANDY’S FRIEND):

2-3 size 00 growsuits

2 books about animals

1 card.

EATING 

I’ve been eating a lot better since coming home from the hospital.

FOODS I’VE EATEN A LOT LATELY:

BREAKFAST

Weetbix with prunes, bananas, grapes and strawberries in light milk, with a teaspoon of raw sugar

Porrige with light milk and strawberry jam

2 pieces of Toast with Jam, peanut butter or occasional Nutella 😛

LUNCH

Scrambled eggs on toast with spinach and other veg

Bacon and egg sandwich with loads of veg on MG bread

Salad and ham sandwich on MG bread

Baked potato with pineapple, ham, sour cream, cheese, butter, beetroot and bolognaise sauce

Quiche Lorraine / potato and leek quiche

DINNER (Always with half a plate or so of salad or veg – aside from pizza)

Roast meats and veg

Stir fry

Spag bol

Schnitzel

Calzone

Pizza

Steak

Soup

NIGHT SNACKS

2 wafers (3am feed, usually)

Boobie biscuits

Yoghurt bar

Muesli bar

Piece of toast

DAY SNACKS

Fruit

Tub of Yoghurt

Piece of toast

Jelly cup

Cup of tea or weak coffee (maybe 2 a week, if that)

DRINKS

Mainly Ribena weakened cordial

occasional water / fruit juice or milk.

I’m probably haing about 2-3.5 litres of fluid a day.

(Over the past 2 weeks we’ve only had 1 meal in a restaurant, where I had a calzone and part of my hubbys schnitzel and salad, and we went to hungry jacks once, and I got a regular tropical bacon deluxe meal with diet coke.)

EXERCISE

So far we’ve really only been walking twice. Once for 10 mins, and once for about 40 mins. The weathers been chaotic lately and we’ve been exhausted and busy so we haven’t done much.

On that night I couldn’t sleep, I tried doing some squats. I couldn’t squat very far, or for long, and it really hurt. I think I managed 12 “squats”for 5 seconds each.

Whilst feeding I usually roll or flex / point my legs, and shake my feet. I’ve been trying to do pelvic floor exercises when I remember (which isnt very often at all really.) My mother carer nurse said that just walking around and feeding is exercise enough for now.

WEIGHTLOSS

Birth: 164kg (approx)

Week 1: 158.2kg

Week 2: 157.9kg

Week 3: 157.5kg

1am feed / topup / change for an hour or so

3am feed / topup / change for an hour or so

6.30-7am feed / topup / change for an hour or so

10am feed / topup / change for an hour or so

1pm feed / topup / change for an hour or so

2-3pm – visitors or stimulation while awake time.

5pm feed / topup / change for an hour or so

7pm setup nighttime routine with bath, massage, bedtime story, then bed.

8pm feed / topup / change for an hour or so (often inconsolable)

11pm feed / topup / change for an hour or so (often inconsolable)

I’m in the process of trying to build schedules around his current routine for when I go back to teaching.

LIAM:

BODY

At his checkup this week he’s gained a quarter of a kilo, and is following the 2nd to lowest curve in the blue book with his weight and height. He was 50 something cm long, and he no longer fits in the crook of my arm – his feet overhang. His feet are getting too long for some of the closed-foot sleepers he’s in.

He is definitely longer now – I can’t put him in the crook of my arm without his feet hanging over the other side of my arm!

His cheeks, legs and even toes look more plump now.

I think his head has gotten bigger, and more rounder looking.

His eyes are looking more grey, with a tiny hint of blue in some light.

His hair is currently dark blonde.

NAPPIES

We’re alternating Newborn huggies at night and babylove in the day for nappies.

We manipulated the nappy bin to take regular garbage bags, because the nappy bags cost waaaaaaaaaaaay too much.

He still has a slight red rash on his little bumbum, so we apply Sudocream and are using wet chux wipes instead of babywipes. It’s working.

ENTERTAINMENT and LEARNING

I’ve been showing him black and white pictures of various shapes and he seems very alert when I show him those, and reading to him at least once a day.

Today I read him “Something Absolutely Enormous” and he seemed to love it! I used more inflections than usual, and he was very alert. He even reached out and touched a few of the pages, so I explained what was in the pictures.

We’ve been trying to teach him basic touch and body parts, like “Nogin, shoulders, knees and toes” 😉

We’re showing him the difference between night and day, by putting him in a dark room and no talking at night, and lots of noise stimulation and light during the day.

FEEDING

I tried (and succeeded) feeding him the dregs of the bottle with the teat off twice. He dribbles a tiny bit out, but he’s got the concept down pat already.

The feeding has ramped up a bit, and I’ve replaced most of his daytime top ups with additional feeding from the breast. He’s still wanting the 2-3 x formula top ups at night – (he takes anywhere from 40ml to 120ml.)

He’s getting quite clingy lately, and often won’t calm down or sleep unless someone is holding him 😐

He tends to have a fussy time between 7pm and 3am, where he will usually remain hard to settle, crave loads of milk, and cry for attention once he’s had enough milk. We’ve been letting him try to self soothe once we feel that all the essential needs have been tended to.

For burping now I’m doing a combo of tummy time on my chest or a pillow, or over the shoulder. He’s getting better at burping now.

I’m trying to study his cries to determine what he wants. So far I gather that a “ma / wa” cry is hunger, and the “aaaah” is wind pain or dirty nappy.

ME:

PRERENIUM and MENSTURAL CYCLE

My bleeding stopped on the 8th of Jan. I tried to inspect the stitches this week, but I couldn’t hold the mirror and hold the area in the right position to see. It feels like most of the stitches are still there though. Feels like it’s healing well

VARICOSE VEINS and BLOOD CLOTS

I’ve been taking Clexane injections daily for a week, which have now stopped. I ditched the TED stockings because they were cutting into my legs, and half the clots weren’t being compressed anyway. Still applying Hirudoid cream when I remember to.

BOOBS and FEEDING

My boobs feel MUCH bigger, and are often fuller. I’m not noticing as many breast lumps this week as I had over weeks 1-2.

I’ve been told that wearing a bra to bed is meant to help with milk production. I tried it both ways and I disagree so far, but the bra does help with leakage, as breast pads and shields don’t stay in otherwise.

My right boob definitely produces more milk, and leaks much easier than the left. On average I’m expressing 20-40 ml from that boob, and 5-20 on the left.

At first I thought Liam was weeing on me and my pillows, but now I know it’s my right boob leaking 😐

I’m also expressing whenever I have the energy, when he doesn’t feed from that boob, or when I feel engorged. I’m et to create a freezer store as he keeps guzzling my store!

I’m taking Domperidone 3 x a day for milk supply, and occasionally eating homemade biscuits aimed at producing more milk. (These contain flaxseed, oats, and witches brew.)  I’ve also been trying to get more Iron and protein.

SLEEP

I’ve been trying to take a nap during the day so I can last through the night, but I usually forget until I feel absolutely exhausted around 3pm and start dozing on the couch.

Because of the irregular and constantly interrupted sleep, I’m finding it harder to sleep when I want to. Hubby wanted me to get a decent 4 hour stretch 2 nights ago and I just stared at the ceiling with insomnia. I ended up journalling, planning the next few weeks, and putting my clothes away instead of napping!

Generally aside from my daytime nap, I’ve been trying to sleep around 9 or 10pm, or sometimes 1 if Liam cries heaps, and waking for each feed for an hour. Around 7am I usually force myself to eat brekkie, put Liam in or near a window for sunlight, and take some meds if I remember. Sometimes I force myself to stay up, and sometimes I sleep in till as late as 2pm some days!

Occasionally for a night feed I might not have the energy to feed Liam, so I express instead and he gets formula for that feed.

Abnormal Circumference – When ‘the bump’ is an unusual size for the gestation of the pregnancy.
Antenatal – before baby is born.
Apgar Score – Baby’s stats after birth.
Bloody Show – blood coming out at the beginning of labour.
Braxton Hicks – practice contractions – these don’t dilate the cervix.
Breech – natural birth where the baby is bum or feet first.
Catheter – a tube inserted to assist with fluids – such as to get urine out of a woman who’s had an epidural.
Cervix – where the baby comes out.
Colostrum – first breast milk – very nutritious for baby.
Contractions – where the muscles help to dilate the cervix.
Cesarean Section (C- Section) – getting the baby out via the abdomen, rather than vaginal birth.
C- Section (1) – emergency cesarean decision. Baby must be delivered within 15 mins of decision.
C – Section (2) – emergency cesarean decision . Baby must be delivered within 15 mins of decision.
Cradle Cap – A condition in which the back of baby’s head can become flattened because of how the baby sleeps all the time. (Can be cured by rotating sleeping positions.)
Dilation – cervix widening and rising to allow for the baby’s head to pass through for a vaginal birth.
Doppler – device used to monitor baby in the uterus.
Endometrium – Uterus lining
Epidural – Anesthetic that numbs from the waist down, inserted via the spine – the strongest form of pain relief.
Ectopic pregnancy – Where the egg is fertilized outside of the womb, or in the wrng spot. This often causes complications and usually ends in miscarriage.
Fetus – Baby before birth.
Fontanelle – The ‘soft spot’ on the baby’s head that usually disappears after 2 yrs old.
Forceps – Tongs used to help get the baby out.
Fourth Trimester – The three month period after baby is born.
Fundus – top of the uterus.
Fundal Height – A measurement used to estimate the gestational age of a fetus/baby.
Gestation – How many weeks the woman has been pregnant for.
ICI – Having a Syringe assist with conception.
IVF – Implanting fertilized sperm into a woman’s egg and placing it in the woman’s uterus.
Jaundice – When the baby turns yellow due to liver failure or complications.
Labour – The process of giving birth.
Meconium – Baby poo in labour – usually a sign of distress.
Mucous plug – Gunk that may fall out of the vagina before labour.
Neonatal – 0-28 days of the baby’s life.
Nitrous oxide – Laughing gas.
Oedema – Swelling of feet, ankles, and fingers.
Oxytocin – “Love” hormone released during sex and Labour.
Pelvic floor – the part of your pelvis holding everything in the body so it doesn’t fall out!
Perineum – Skin between vagina and Anus
Pitocin – Drug used to induce labour or speed up the process of placental delivery.
Placenta – The nutrition sack for baby whilst in the uterus.
Placenta Previa – When the placenta is low, often blocking the birth canal.
Postnatal Depression – Sadness following labour.
Postnatal – after birth
Primigravida – Woman who is pregnant for the first time.
Projected height – The estimated height that a baby will end up in adulthood, often taken shortly after birth.
Quickening – baby’s first felt movements in the uterus.
Sciatica – A nerve pain in the legs / hips that is quite common in pregnancy, caused by the softening of muscles and ligaments during pregnancy.
Sonogram – Ultrasound
Sphincter – Hole that likes to close up – such as the anus.
Spotting – bleeding a little bit from the vagina.
Stillbirth – when the baby is born deceased.
Umbilical Cord – feeding tube to the baby in the uterus.
Uterus – Where the baby lives while it’s a fetus.
VBAC – Vaginal birth after cesarean
Ventouse – Like a plunger, used to suck the baby out of the birth canal.
Water birth – Giving birth in a pool.
Waters – Protective stuff around the fetus.
Witch Hazel – a good skin cleanser. Some people recommend applying this to a cold or frozen pad after a vaginal birth, perhaps with a hint of peppermint.

There’s a bazillion things to do and I’m quite sleep deprived now he’s out. (He’ll be 2 weeks tomorrow.)

Birth stats:

Name: Liam Andrew Townsend

APGAR Scores: 1 min: 8,    5 mins: 9

Weight: 3010gms

Length: 47.5cm

Date: 19.12.14

Time: 0724

Liam does have long arms and legs, with big hands and feet.

His eyes are a really dark colour for now. My hubby says dark blue?

For the first week he was in the humidicrib because he was on monitors and such, being checked for heart rate, oxygen, breathing and such. Because of the fast vaginal birth he still had fluid from the womb in his longs and his breathing was very irregular. He wasn’t allowed to be ‘released’ until about day 5, on the 24th of December.

I was expressing after every feed t build up my supply, firstly 10 mins each side, then I built up to 20-25 mins. At first I expressed half a ml, then 1, then 2, then 5, then 10, then 15, 20, then it was arun d 30-40 for ages (week 2) and the most I’ve expressed to date was 75 ml.

I cried when i tried expressing at home cos my pumps were shitty and I was used to the awesome pumps at the hospital, so I bought an electric Medela pump from an old high school friend. Even though it’s loud, it’s better because it doesn’t require any hand pumping, so you have a free hand once it’s on, and you can set it to pump hard or soft. (The other, shittier ones I had were the Avent Manual and electric pumps.)

He kept losing weight, but they discharged him from hospital anyway, telling me to top him up after each feed, which I did. In his first weigh at home, he had lost a further 65 grams! After I bought the new pump and upped his top-ups he gained 75 grams in 2 days! at his last weigh in (yesterday) he had gained another 100 or so, so they seemed happy and told us to only give 30 ml topups but he’s still wanting around 40-60 per feed. His next check will be at his 2 weekly appointment, and then again at a 6 week mark.

His umbilical cord clamp fell off last night.

He seems quite strong for his age; He can already turn his head side to side by himself, shuffle forward with his legs when on his belly and lift his head, and if being held vertically he can push up with his head and arms to his waist. If lying on his back he can pull his head up a bit, and he has a strongish grip with his hands. His suck reflex is getting stronger and stronger.

Breastfeeding is going well for the most part; he has minimal issues latching and wantng the breast. despite bottle topups and being offered dumies and formula on occasion, it doesn’t seem to have confused him or out him off of the breast, and breast milk, which is AWESOME.

He’s feeding around every 2-5 hours lately, on demand, and he usually likes a 30-60ml topup with either breastmilk or formula.

We’re trying to get him into a routine of formula top-ups at night to make him fuller and sleep loner, and breast milk top-ups during the day.

I’m beginning to learn his patterns, traits, habits, and distinctive cries and whimpers now.

So far he looks more like me and my brothers than my husband. (Shrugs) especially his ears and nose. 😛

he looks a little like my mother in law when he frowns though, and his eye shape is similar to hers.

Over the past 2 weeks for the baby we’ve bought Sudocream, as he got bum redness 2 days ago.

We’ve taken many photoshoots of bubsy, such as; hands and toes, christmas shoot, newborn left on the doorstep, little boy in blue, and newborn wrapped in white rug.

We still hope to do the hand and footprints, proper shoot with him and us together, and some more newborn-type shoots. I’m hoping to get them done either today or tomorrow, before he gains too much weight and looses the new-born look and temperament.

Things I’ve been doing:

Feeding him formula at night and breast milk at day to get him fuller.

Reading him stories (i try to read him 1 a day.

Repeating calming phrases when he’s upset, such as “you’re ok” and “mummy’s here.”

Saying “Hello” “Goodmorning” and “Good night” at appropriate times.

Singing my made up “wakey wakey baby” song when he falls asleep between feeding sides.

Singing along to my breast pump to waste time and take my mind off the boredom and pain.

Making sure I have all equipment ready BEFORE I commit to a feed / change / bath.

Using: top to toe bathwash on occasion, using chux wipes with water for changing, and sudocream, rather than wipes which we think caused the rash. using huggies babywipes, cos pampers are too big, and cause him to wee everywhere.

Cleaning under his balls after poos, and making sure his penis is facing DOWN when I put the nappy on.

MY PROGRESS:

(For myself I’ve bought nipple cream: hospital recommended Lansinoh?? and neighbour recommended one from palmers, but I haven’t got that one yet.)

For myself I’ve also bought Coloxyl, as I had constipation, and still do on and off, as well as more iron supplements, and some ointment for my blood clots i my legs (which I got on the 23rd, 3 days after I gave birth.) The blood clots are in the superficial veins on both legs. I also have to have some injection in the stomach every day for anti-inflammatory-ness for the clots. I had 2 scans for the clots, and upteem thousand million gazilion checks of my legs. They gave me T.E.D. compression stockings to reduce the swelling but they are too small. Apparently my claf was 68cm and the stockings only went up to 66cm in the hospital. I’ll try to order some bigger ones online when I can. there was much debate amongst doctors and nurses about whether the too small stockings are helping or hindering, as they keep bunching up. As of yesterday I’ve taken the damn things off! As a hint, if you ever have to put some on, you can wash them in the shower and just pat them dry, and to get them on use the bag on your foot and slide them over that ;P

Apparently the stitches are healing now, and the bleeding has slowed down considerably. I think the bleeding will stop by Saturday, but am unsure. They said I could bleed for up to 6 weeks though.

For cleaning of the stitches I was advised to use salt water on the area. I tried it but hated the feeling, and it made it smelly and itchy and weird, so I didn’t do it after the first 2 days. Yesterday i tried putting witchhazel on the pad, but it made everything ache and feel awful, so from now on it’s water and regular pad changes only!

GIFTS RECEIVED:

So many, so I’m bound to miss them. I wanted to do hauls and such but who’s got the time!!!

From memory I got gifts from:

My hubby: A blue bear and 2 balloons from the gift shop

Dad: $100

Perry: $50

Shaun and Som: A toy giraffe, a card, and 1-2 outfits.

Sarah: A family (3 peas in a pod) ornament and a christmas decoration saying ‘LIAM,’ which must’ve gotten packed somewhere because I can’t find it and I’m SPEWIN’ cos it was gorgeous!

Nora (M.I.L): a $300 flight here to help us out, “Liam” snowman ornament, leather sandals, a little christmas outfit, and a $140 giftcard for Coles (for christmas for us.)

Marie from across the road: Toy, card, suit.

Anne and Annie (Noras friends): summer growsuit and pull on booties, cards.

Ana: Card, and 2 music sticker packs for me.

Mum: Perfume, Card, Small brown teddy, savlon and Curash Nappy Cream, chocolate, small travel pack of creams and powder for bubs. (There may have been more but I forgot.)

Music Corner (work): A congrats card.

Hospital staff: Bounty bag 2, a chrissy card, and a cancer council christmas bauble.

Steph (Mother Carer): A bag of books, and some helpful pamphlets and handouts, including 2 books for bedtime (1 had a CD), one with black and white shapes (because that’s all they can see for now,) and a recipe for lactation cookies, which she’s going to help me cook on saturday. Hubby and I went shopping for the ingredients yesterday but I couldn’t find the main ingredient; ‘Brewer’s Yeast’.

A little girl called Charlotte who is now 9, and was in the special care unit I was in 9 years ago!: An entire laundry hamper of goodies, including things like maternity pads, tissues, nappies, a teddy, muslin wraps, small food cups for when he starts solids, etc.

Natalie T,  who sold me the breastpump for $60: A whole bag of beautiful, great condition clothes from her son, 0000 to 00.

ANON: 2 smelly sticker packs. (WE don’t know who this was from!?!?!)

So now I’m officially “full term!”
That’s a bit of a scary notion!

We haven’t done a whole lot this week. I’ve been feeling much more tired than I have been lately, so it’s been good to have more time at home, rather than teaching. I’ve mostly been napping, sleeping in, and watching videos on youtube with my husband. I watched lots of people doing the “whisper challenge,” I watched various birth announcements and sibling announcement videos, and I found a really funny music video parody channel called “Bart Barker.” Yesterday we spent a few hours watching various “Draw My Life” vlogs on youtube, which was great! It was so interesting that most people who knew what they wanted out of life had faced some terrible struggle, and those that hadn’t faced a struggle didn’t seem to have a life plan!

My antenatal class friend added me on fb and we’ve been messaging about our pregnancy progress every few days, which has been nice.

Aside from lazing around, I’ve been doing a LOT of admin for next year – mainly sorting out lesson plans from this term, and trying to compile booklets for next year into “beginner,” “intermediate,” and “advanced.” There’s still a lot of content I need to write, but it should be quite impressive when finished. The more I do to it though the more I want to rework it and add more stuff 😛 I also need to find the time to update the policies, contracts, and website sometime soon.

My Rant

My auntie, her bf, and my nana have come over a fair few times this week – usually unannounced, and usually when we are in the middle of eating, or just about to go out shopping or something – It’s kind of annoying how they don’t tend to phone ahead, (even though they came to give me maternity clothes, apricots, and to try and fix the car – it keeps rattling really loudly, and I think we need a new one next year.)

When my dad came over about 2 weeks ago the first thing he said was “Gee, your house is messy isn’t it!” Well this was JUST after the baby shower, when only 1 person stayed to help us clean up, and I had severe sciatica an hubby was working most of the week. We had even spent several hours the day beforehand doung general tidying, so it was pretty rude for him to say that.

Worries

I’m getting worried that when bubs comes various friends and family will just turn up unannounced when I’m sleeping, changing, or feeding, etc. I’ve decided that at least for the first week or two, I’d like it to be just michael and myself adjusting, without having loads of people coming to visit, etc etc. I’ve read stories where people come over and totally intrude, overstay their welcome, pick up the baby when they’re trying to sleep, or when mum needs to rest, and try to meddle in the parenting style of the parents, etc.

My Body

After last week’s appointment, and finding out that my iron levels were slightly low I’ve been taking a daily iron tablet just to be on the safe side. I’m meant to do another blood test to double check it, as well as my thyroid function.

The sciatica has eased off a lot this week, so it’s been easier to move around and walk – sadly though it’s been crazy weather! It was boiling hot yesterday, then today it bucketed down all day, which sucks, because I was hoping to do a maternity photoshoot before I was full term. Hopefully we can squeeze one in by next week. We did attempt some in-home silhouette shots, but hubby was unhappy with his haircut (that I gave him,) and my back was too close to the flash causing it to be way too overexposed, so it makes the pics harder to edit. We may redo these too at some point.

I’m finding it harder and harder to sleep now, and I’m only getting blocks of 2-4 hours sleep at a time now. I usually wake up from heartburn, bubs kicking me hard, needing to roll over, needing to pee, or if I’m thirsty.

On Tuesday bubs was kicking a lot, and hubby swears he could feel a foot on my right side. I felt and there was a definite lump there, but I couldn’t determine what it was exactly. He deduced it must have been a foot because a hand wouldn’t be that long, a knee or elbow wouldn’t be that protruding, and his head is meant to be down. His movements are definitely a lot stronger and more painful! There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to his movements, sometimes he’s awake during the night, sometimes during the day – It’s all a bit odd. I think he kicked my ribs really hard a few days ago.

Today he was kicking quite frequently, so we filmed it again, and will upload the best of the best shortly.

My heartburn has really stepped up a notch this week – sometimes I get heartburn again before I’ve even finished the quick-eze, or within minutes of finishing it. Despite searching frequently this month, I’ve been unsuccessful in replenishing my “berry burst” quick-eze stash. I guess they’re just THAT popular.

This week I’ve been craving chocolate milk, iced coffee, fruit, and pizza the most. We made tacos on Tuesday but they were way too spicy so I only ate 1, and i cried cos my avocado wasn’t ripe yet so I couldn’t eat it. on Wednesday I got all excited cos I found a cooked supermarket chicken for only $5 but when I got home it was actually kebabs 🙁 I ate some of them anyway but they were so bland, and so not what I wanted.

On Thursday when I woke up (the first time) to pee, it really really hurt to stand up. I think the baby was in a weird position. I had to lean over to walk. The pain was so unbearable I went back to bed after, even though it was 8am,  and laid on my right side for a few hours until bubs moved again. I was pretty tired for most of the day, so despite getting a fair whack of sleep at night, I had a nap in between my students. I was peeing about every 2 hours pretty much all day.

I was so tired yesterday (friday) that I ended up sleeping about half the day away, and eating mostly junk. 🙁

I didn’t get a good night’s sleep last night, so again I had about an hours nap today and was still tired. For brekky hubby made bacon and eggs. I LOVE BACON SO MUCH RIGHT NOW!!! I think it’s my fave meat. I was so lazy that for lunch ate the foodstock (butter chicken) that I’d made and froze for when the baby comes 🙁

On Monday (in just 2 days time) I’ll be 25! I can’t believe I’ll be quarter of a century already!! It’s strange not having / making plans for such a big birthday – usually birthdays are SUCH a big deal for me! All we’ve planned is that we’ll be collecting an AWESOME cake from the cheesecake shop around 11am. We may go to Cafe Bongiorno’s and have a calzone or something for lunch or dinner, since I got a $20 birthday gift voucher for my birthday (though this can be used for a whole month.) Hubby surprised me on Friday and got me some solid gold earrings as an early present, and they are AWESOME!!!!!!! I’ve been wanting gold earrings for quite a few months now. One set are smallish hoops with simple silver patterns on them, and the other are solid gold sleepers. I think one pair is meant to be for Christmas. This is probably the most he’s ever spent on gifts for me. It’s nice to feel appreciated and loved. 🙂

Hubby Nesting

Hubby has been a bit anal with the housecleaning this week. for the last 3 days he’s been scrubbing walls and showers, mopping, etc etc etc… It’s a bit odd. he claims he’s finally hit ‘nesting mode.’ – I’m just grateful for his help, and am glad that there’s less to do now.

He ordered the baby a Dr. Seuss book collection which finally arrived this week. He read me his favourite – “Green Eggs and Ham.”

He’s also been hugging me more than usual this week, and wanting to be close – maybe he’s realising theres a limited time before 2 become 3. It’s difficult to be all cuddly now though, with bubs kicking me so much, having back pain, feeling as big as a mountain, and with it being summer now.

Baby Plans

We’ve printed up 2 copies of the birth plan and added a bit more to the hospital bag – such as a flannel, heat pack, breath mints, towels, and 2 baby swaddles that we got this week. (We got 7 swaddles for only $40 for the lot!) – Some of them retail for $50 alone!!!

Below is a pic of the swaddle types we got;

We got Ambulance cover this week!

We’ve been debating what we’re going to call the baby if it turns out to be a girl. My husband LOVES the name “Emily”, but it’s sooooooo common, and thats the name of one of his long-term ex girlfriends, which just doesn’t gel with me, so now we’re thinking of using what would’ve been the middle name – “Claire,” which means “bright,” but we are having a hard time finding a suitable middle name for “Claire.”

My antenatal classes are over now, and I didn’t have an antenatal appointment this week, but I did see an anaesthetist on Wednesday, and he was very pro me getting an epidural. He assured me that the process was usually quite safe, and that it’s almost routine for people of my size. He also mentioned that my haemoglobin seemed low…

My weight this week was 164.2, my blood was 81/?.

On Thursday I decided to start making and freezing meals for later, as a backup if we get rundown and need to do a quick reheat, so I froze the leftover tacos, and made extra butter chicken to freeze. I was going to make spag bol too, but we ran out of veggies for the mix.

I had another physio appointment for my sciatica yesterday and the magic woman pressurised the right spots 🙂 I had my last piano lesson of the year, and my piano teacher gave us a Winnie The Pooh mobile, 2 rattles, and a brand new bright starts toy chain thing to hang off a bouncer or pram.

We got a TONNE of ex baby stuff from one of hubby’s church / tech friends today, that we spent most of the evening sorting out and photographing. There’s at least 100 books alone, and even though I was very scrupulous we ended up with quite a few toys and clothes as well. We had to go through and re-sort the nursery, because there’s just so much stuff in there now!! I’ll upload pics of this haul sometime next week.

My Dream

During my nap on Wednesday I had my first dream (that I remember) about being pregnant and having a baby. Its a bit hazy now, but basically I went into labour and went to the hospital. They told us all these rules and regulations.

Next thing I remember is hubby walking me down the main road near our place holding the baby, and having 2 hospital staff chasing us down, saying we hadn’t been cleared to go home yet, and that it was illegal to hold the baby without it being in a carrier. I remember feeling strange that I couldnt remember any of the birth, that it all flew by so fast, and that I hadn’t actually seen the baby yet!

Hubby’s mum was over when we got home to help, and she was showing me pics of some baby being born, which was a girl, so I was all confused. (I think it was some other woman’s baby from the hospital on the same day.)

I remember that our baby’s name started with a J or something, even though his name isn’t going to start with a J… and that he was so big that he fit size 00 – so I was annoyed about all the 000 stuff we had, and wondered what to do with it all.

Jessica Townsend’s

BIRTH PLAN

Dec/Jan 2014/2015

During labour and delivery I’d like:

Husband to with me at all times

To have have 1 midwife for the entire labour process if possible.

To use a tv or my laptop for entertainment and social media  if desired.

Dim lighting (especially for the actual birth.)

Ability to eat and drink when desired.

Ability for myself or husband to take pictures and film the birth and labour process.

Ability to listen to calming / meditative music if desired – most likely via laptop or phone.

Ability to take a shower / bath if desired.

To be informed of any procedures about to happen before they occur.

Husband has permission to massage me etc, and help me shower / bathe / change clothes, etc.

Ablity to wear my own clothes if I want.

Ablity to use various methods for labouring and birthing, such as squatting, kneeling, side-laying, moving around, a large gym ball / large bath / shower / walk around / birthing chair or stool where desired.

To be told when to ‘pant’ and when to push, to avoid tearing.

To be encouraged to give birth on my knees, unless an epidural was given.

Medical wishes

Always ask me and my husband for permission before performing any procedure.

It’s ok to monitor the baby if needed, though I’d like to be able to walk around  – especially in the early stages of labour. I’d prefer no internal foetal monitoring unless necessary, though a clip on the baby’s head is ok if needed.

I’d rather not be sent home if I’m 2 cm or more dilated.

Pitocin can be administered for birth of the placenta only if needed.

Gas and air is my preferred method of paid relief, and Epidural if I feel I need it, (which I probably will.)

Blood transfusion is ok if needed. I’m A positive and husband is 0 negative.

C section is ok if needed. – Insertion of a catheter is ok after the area has been numbed.

We are very against the use of forceps, and would much rather a ventouse to be used, or a c-section rather than the use of forceps.

No Pethidine or Morphine is to be administered, unless specifically requested by myself.

If the baby is breech, a C-section will be heavily considered.

If a C-section is to go ahead, I would like:

-To stay conscious  – My partner remain with me the entire time  -My hands left free so I can touch my baby  –My Partner holds baby after birth  –baby held to my face after birth  –breastfeed in the recovery room  –get extra help with breastfeeding   -use an epidural as the form of anesthesia

After the birth

Umbilical cord to be cut by husband.

Baby comes to me as soon as possible for breastfeeding after birth – Skin to Skin, though I’d like the baby to be wiped down with a towel first if covered in meconium.

I’d like to determine the gender of the baby for myself, and not to be told by nursing staff.

I’d like help with breastfeeding and looking after the baby after it’s born.

I’d like to be able to stay in hospital for a minimum of 48 hours after the birth, or at least 4 days if a caesarean is done.

I’d like to be able to rest after the birth for several hours before visitors are allowed in.

Visitors are not to use flash photography to photograph baby directly.

I’d like to be listed for the mother carer programme, and to have midwife callouts.

I would like to feed my baby:

-ONLY with my breast milk   -On baby’s demand   -With the help of a midwife or lactation consultant

Baby is NOT to be given a dummy or to be formula bottle-fed whilst in hospital, unless absolutely necessary – I’d much rather express my breast milk to be fed to baby should it need special care away from me.

I would like my Baby to be with me:

*AT ALL TIMES and sleep in my room.

I would like my partner:

*To have unlimited visiting time and stay with me over night.

If my baby is unwell, I would like:

-My partner and I to accompany him to the NICU or another facility.

-To breastfeed or provide pumped Breast milk   -To hold him as much as possible

So the physiotherapy was a success, the lady was really nice, and explained all about Sciatica, and confirmed that I do indeed have it. She got me to lay on my right side (fully clothed) and she applied pressure to several spots in my left bum cheek (which is apparently where the source of the pain is) and after about 15 mins of applying pressure to several sore spots, I could walk more easily, and with less pain. She gave me a few exercises to do to try and relieve the pressure, and she told me to carry around a tennis ball to sit on (and apply pressure to the sorest areas) when in pain. She said to draw an imaginary “x” over the sore bum cheek and to apply pressure over the cross point until the pain becomes less than a 3/10. I’m booked in for a repeat session on the 12th.

She said when I get cramps in my legs, or pins and needles, to stand against a wall and push – I think.

She suspects that I’ll get sciatica in the right leg – which  I definately have on and off this week. On wednesday it eased off a bit and I was able to walk with less of a limp on Wed and Thurs, but Friday and today were tough on the right leg. I’m still avoiding stairs. Sciatica in the left leg has waned this week.

On Tuesday we had a lot of time to ourselves, so we decided to clean up the house a bit and put up the tree. My auntie and her boyfriend came around to help, and to give me an early birthday present of stretchy waisted crop pants that actually fit, and a matching striped shirt with buttons for feeding in. (She got these from Autograph.) Her boyfriend fixed a few faults in our car also. We threw a late lunch / early dinner bbq for them as a thanks, complete with that french cheesecake, left over berries, and chocolate. This year we’re going with blue and silver decorations for the tree, given that we’re having a boy, and I’m sick of gold, but we don’t yet have much blue, so I hope to go shopping for some more blue things.

We’ve decided to have christmas at my Auntie’s rental place this year, because I won’t have the energy (or the money) to host this year, and it’s too risky to be hosting such an event so close to the due date. their rental place is much larger than their usual place, so I lent them our christmas hosting supplies, such as table cloths, crockery, and left over chrissy napkins and placemats from last year. I also chucked in our old wreath and a few decorations, since their stuff is in storage after their actual house got flooded in February, and is being totally renovated.

My sleeping patterns have been all over the place this week – so much so that I slept right through my last antenatal class on tuesday! I was so angry when I realized I’d missed it. I asked a lady who went to it, and she said it was really good, and that it covered topics such as post-natal depression, and how to take care of baby in the first month, etc.

Wednesday was a stressful day, I had a concert at one of my schools and it didn’t go well at all. The organisation was not really there from technical staff, and some of my kids didn’t even get to perform, or their performances were cut short abruptly by technical faults, etc. Despite the days’ business and the fact that I’d hardly eaten, the dinner that Hubby made wasn’t appealing to me at all, (but usually I would’ve liked it), and I hardly touched it. (It was steak, oven baked chips, gravy, and salad.) To try to relax after such a stressful day, I swam in the pool for about an hour before we went hunting for local christmas lights.

I had another MASSIVE sleep in on Thurs, where I went to bed around 1am Wednesday night, and didn’t get up till around 1pm on Thursday! (Well, besides the usual early morning wake up call from my bladder.)

It’s been really refreshing not to be working so much! I’m so glad that my 3 main schools are done for the year now – no more stress with concerts and such.

That being said though, I’ve had an emotional rollercoaster this week. There haven’t been many days where I haven’t cried over something small.

I have realised that I’m not really going to get much of a break, as there’s still loads of teaching and photography admin for us to do this month, plus my birthday and christmas, plus last minute shopping and organising for the baby, then having the baby, and then I’m meant to return to work part-time in late January! It was a scary realization that I’ll be full term by my birthday (in 1-2 weeks time!)

On Thursday we did a hospital tour, and we saw the preemie ward, and 3 areas for birthing. I suspect I’ll be in the high-risk area. There were really comfy looking chairs in most of the rooms, though the beds didn’t look too comfy. The low-risk room had a private balcony and a double bed! They said they don’t use stirrups and said that they did supply birthing stools and balls, etc.

Below: A picture (from someone else’s blog) of a birth suite in the hospital I’ll be birthing in – the Lyell McEwin. (I doubt I’ll get a double bed though, as I’ll be considered high risk due to my weight, and the double beds were in the low-risk areas.)

We went late-night shopping at target in Elizabeth after the hospital tour, and I got 3 packs of large undies, 3 maternity nighties that I can breastfeed in, and 1 maternity bra that clips down for breastfeeding. I was going to get a few nursing tops and some more nursing bras, but there was barely anything that fit me. We also looked in Big W earlier this week to no avail.

I’ve had some tiny white flakes on my right nipple on and off over the past week or two now, and on thursday night I think I had the start of actual milk production. Before I went to bed my nipples had some white flakes and goo on them, and they smelt a bit rank. The right nipple had more than the left. When I woke I had a shower and haven’t noticed anything there since.

On Friday I hadn’t had much sleep, as we were up thursday night watching “Charlottes Web” and “Babe.” I had another antenatal appointment around 11am. The doctor was a little uncaring and hard to understand. She was inconsiderate with my sciatica and did not raise the bed, so it hurt when I got up after the baby-heart-check. (It was 140bpm, as usual. She said my blood pressure was actually slightly low. We really need to start keeping tabs on my blood pressure – I never remember. This time it was something over 70!?!?! Babys heart rate was 140. They estimated that the baby would be three and a half kilos at birth; (7.7 pounds.) I’ve lost half a kilo this week, and now weighed in at 163.5kg. They asked me to do a vaginal swab for something, which I did, and they’re wanting me to come back in 2 weeks, and then weekly from then on. I found out that a baby is typically born around 40 weeks, and is usually induced at 40 weeks and 10 days.

After this appointment and some light shopping, (I bought pancakes, pizza, iron supplement tablets, lens cleaner, and chocolate Nesquick), I fell asleep for about 5 hours, and then cleaned up the house in dribs and drabs.

This week I took some footage of the baby moving, so I’ll edit that and upload it sometime soon. I’m thinking of doing a maternity shoot over the next week.

I also researched feeding chairs an swaddles, and we went through the hospital bag again. I filmed a vlog about what’s in my hospital bags, which will hopefully be up sometime next week.

Here’s the money that my husband and I have raised lately 🙂

1 WEEK UNTIL I’M CONSIDERED FULL TERM!

I finished up 2 of my schools for the year this week, so now I have more free time. One of my little students gave me a bear for the baby yesterday at her concert 🙂
I’m trying to get as much 2014 / 2015 teaching admin done as I can, while I can. Hopefully the bulk of it gets done by mid-December. So far I’ve done most of the reports, overdue invoicing, 2 concerts, made a plan for the replacement teacher, done a draft of amendments to my contract, sent out feedback forms, researched debt collectors for next year, and made 2 new teaching resource handouts.

I’ve been taking regular naps, and my sleeping schedule has suffered because of it.
I missed my last antenatal class on Thursday because I slept in 🙁 I think it was on parenting.
I’ve been waking more and more during the night, for a drink, a quick-eze and a pee.

Sciatica is still there, and it wakes me up now everytime I try to roll over in bed. I’m seeing a physio for it tomorrow.

Baby brain and ever-changing emotions have really tried me this week! I’ve been really clumsy and keep dropping things this week. :S

I volunteered as a subject for pre-eclampsia in pregnancy research, as a control. My veins were so small they had to go in my left wrist! I got to sit in a really comfy chair and I was wheeled around in a wheelchair, which was really fun! they did an ultrasound on my heart. It was weird to see it beating on screen. They also did some kind of red-blood cell tests by putting a drug temporarily into my left arm. At the end they said everything was normal.

I’ve begun reading Kaz Cooke’s “Kidwrangling” this week in my spare time. (It’s the sequel to “Up The Duff.”)
Still watching “1 Born Every Minute” every few nights.

I tried filming the baby move 2 days ago, but I didn’t capture anything too grand. I’ve noticed when I’m sitting up, my belly button is protruding a little, despite still being an innie. :S

Current Weight: 164kg. Mostly been eating left overs from the baby shower this week. I at an entire bag of grapes and a whole pizza yesterday night. OOPS! Been loving Pizza, butter chicken, Barista Bros strong iced coffee, and strawberry milk! I keep trying to stock the cupboards for when the baby’s here, but hubby keeps raiding and eating it, s somehow I have to devise a solution.

Hubby and I looked at the world stats website the other day and saw the statistics of babies born in each country, death rates, etc. It was thoroughly interesting!

He’s been doing a lot of photography and filming work lately. I was running late from work on Wed so I ended up helping him out with photography. I didn’t do too badly, apart from the overexposure and dutch angles 😛
He’s also going to do the (late) Jan / Feb/ March Festival roster for Novatech.
This whole weekend he’s out filming for “Can-Dance,” so I’ve just been catching up on admin, and reading “Kidwrangling”.

Looking forward to:
More time with hubby (and hopefully a few dates)
Hubby bringing in more money
Buying more baby supplies (such as feeding chair)
Hubby getting his P 2’s
Getting Ambulance cover
Tax finally getting paid off
Decorating early for christmas – especially the tree!
NOT teaching for a while
Lazy days in bed
Swimming in the pool!
Doing a maternity photoshoot
Massages!
Trying new recipes – like apple turnovers 😛
NOT hosting a big, fancy christmas this year!
Christmas roast!
My Birthday! (And that wonderful cheesecake I love from the cheesecake shop – hopefully)
Eating chocolate
That french cheesecake that’s in the freezer, and the apple sauce in the fridge
Scrapbooking again
Meeting our son!

MY BODY
So I now have Sciatica on my left side! (I’ve had it pretty much this whole week.) For those of you who don’t know, Sciatica is a nasty condition in which nerves are pinched in the leg / upper thigh etc, and it’s quite common in pregnancy, due to the loosened muscles, etc.

Sadly I’ve been told it’s likely to get worse before it gets better, and I’m likely to have it for the duration of my pregnancy 😐 It hurts so much to walk that I ended up crying from the pain whilst shopping for my baby shower today. I’ve had to call in sick to work because I won’t be able to manage the stairs! There isn’t really much pain relief to be offered or anything, but I’m getting refered to see a physiotherapist.

I’ve been rather emotional today, and occasionally I have cramps or pins and needles in my legs. I get heartburn about every 2 hours, and my oedema is still there. I was checked today and told it’s unlikely that i have pre-eclampsia.

Baby’s heartbeat is 130bpm, his growth scan was good, and he is still really tall – his legs were labelled in the can as being 36 weeks along, compared to the rest of his body, around 33.5 weeks along!

Classes
This week our antenatal class was on the complications of labour. I think now we’ve decided that we don’t want forceps or pethidine to be used, and we are debating our opinions of the ventouse. I think I’ll use gas and air, and the epidural.

There’s a lady in our classes called Nat who I’ve become friendly with. She referred us to this awesome place that does 3D scans, and was at the hospital where I had my antenatal appointment today. She came out crying because she’s going to be induced in 3 weeks due to her having placenta previa. She’s not due ’till mid January (so her baby will be born before ours. Since she lives in Nuri, which is quite far and she will want to come and see the baby frequently in hospital I offered for her to stay with us if she likes, but she was whisked away by nurses before she could answer, so I guess we’ll see what she says next week.

SCANS
Yesterday I had a 3D ultrasound in this awesome place in Gawler called “My Baby’s Room”. The deal was 3 images for $50, but the lady was So nice that she didn’t even charge me and gave me 2 photos for free because the babys hand was covering his face. Unfortunately these ultrasounds aren’t recommended past 40 weeks, so theres not much point going back again this pregnancy. here’s the best of the 2 shots that she took;

For comparison, here’s my husband and I as youngsters, (unfortunately there are no baby pics of him, so this is about the earliest pic of him);

We then had a normal growth scan, and it was all fine, except the ultrasouns tech pressed VERY hard and it really hurt. The scan went for about an hour because bubs just wouldn’t stop moving, and he was on an angle so we couldn’t get a good shot of his left kidney for absolutely ages – she had to get another technician to come in and redo the scan. This lady found the kidney in next to no time, and didn’t press anywhere near as hard!

Buys
This week I’ve been mainly buying things for the baby shower tomorrow, such as food, game supplies, and decorations. I think in total we’ve most likely spent over $300 for the baby shower, as we are fully catering it this time, and are expecting 30-40 people. We have heaps of games lined up, so it should be tonnes of fun – the only problem is my darn sciatica! I’ll probably have to just sit and watch everyone having fun. It’s supposed to be nice weather, so we were going to do a few games in the pool, but I don’t know if I can get in and out without crying 🙁

I keep forgetting to mention that for at least the past month I’ve been drooling at night – I often wake up to find a big wet patch near my face or under my head. I never woke up drooling before pregnancy…

My feet are still swelling. I expect that they will for the remainder of the pregnancy now. We haven’t done anything to help them yet. Books recommend elevation and massages going up to the leg.

Belly button is still an innie.

Still on the quick-eze.

A few new developments this week:

I’ve come down with a pretty bad cold. I’m constantly coughing and sneezing, and at least one nostril is constantly clogged with thick, white scunge. I’ve tried my best not to sing this week, but have still gone to all of my work appointments. Lips are all dry and cracked, and I’m thirsty all the time, but I’ve ran out of Ribena cordial :O

I’ve noticed this week that when I sit down on a hard surface my tail bone (or something) hurts.
After the most recent antenatal class on Labour, I suspect it may be the bottom bone in the pelvis – the one that moves to let the head out during birth.

Today I felt what I think may have been my first practice contraction, (braxton hicks) but I’m not sure. Basically my stomach got hard and tight for about 2 seconds once, then stopped. the baby was moving at the time though, so it could’ve just been him.

On Tuesday I attended an antenatal class on pelvic floor; the dads (including my hubby) discussed dad stuff and the mums were told stuff like what stretches to do from now on, what we can do now to best prepare for the birthing process, and about how to look after the birth canal after birth… I now feel a little more reassured about how to do pelvic floor exercises, and I’m slightly less incontinent now, though am still using pads regularly. It was a bit scary, because of all the couples that attended that session, we were the furthest along by a few weeks. The coach said “looks like you’re next to pop then” to me, which was a bit of a shock!
Hubby said he was asked by his daddy mentor to help out in the daycare centre, as he will probably be the primary caregiver.

On Thursday we attended a class on normal labour, where we learnt about techniques to increase chances of birthing vaginally without complications, etc. We were told to sit forward from the last month of pregnancy to get the baby engaged the correct way, and to do daily stretches, such as the cat and downward dog yoga poses, and to stand and move around during labor to keep things moving. It appears that a squatting position is good for birthing. We briefly discussed pain relief options, such as pethidine, epidural, and laughing gas. It was confirmed that I’m too large for a water birth, and we were encouraged to write birth plans, even though one of my antenatal doctors told me that they aren’t normally read.

Based on the info given on pain relief, I think I’ll opt for the laughing gas, and the epidural if needed. – We’re pretty against Pethadine because it stays in the system and the baby’s system for about 3 days post-birth, and can have negative effects on baby latching to feed, and it prolongs labour. We also don’t like the idea of forceps.

We’ve been watching as much “The Midwife” as we can, and when we ran out of those, we began watching “One Born Every Minute.”

Today I was very emotional, cranky, irritable, loving, and I cried twice…

I began buying for and working on the baby shower stuff this week. We made the bonnemere tags, and bought a lot of the snacks and things for it. We think we’ll have about 35-50 people coming, and we intend to cater by ourselves this time, (as opposed to our usual ‘bring a plate’ parties. I think we’ve spent about $150 on that so far. We still need to buy a lot of the extra drinks, meats and salads, which we’ll do next week. We got Campbells cards, and went to Campbells cash and carry store – which allows businesses to buy in bulk. When we got to the register we were told we could just use our RAA card, which means we could’ve bought from there for over a year now – we just hadn’t realized it!

The pool has a lot of sand in it now from all the building around us. I researched pool vacuums and the options are expensive! 🙁

I keep cleaning the house in little bursts, when I have energy and a free hour or two spare, but generally I’m still pretty lazy.

During this week I’ve mainly experienced discomfort with sitting for long periods of time.
I’ve noticed swelling in my feet and ankles (Oedema) and my varicose veins are more prominent.

I’ve been in the pool once or twice now, and it does take the edge off. I would love to be able to go in it more, but when it’s hot I’m busy, and when I’m free it’s cold, I’m too tired, or it’s night time 😐

It’s even harder to get out of bed.

Still feeling baby move a few times per day.

Peeing more often – sometime multiple times per hour!

Haven’t really been having enough water.

Been better with taking my medications.

Inflated the gym ball again, and used it today to take the pressure off my lower back.

Lots of napping between jobs.

I seem to have another raspy cough sometimes when I wake up. I used my ventolin puffer to get rid of it this week.

I had severe constipation and very cracked lips – probably a result of rising summer-like heat and not enough water. I had Dulcolax twice which caused diarrhea for 2 days.

SUPER hazy memory.

Had my first Antenatal class on Thursday on Safe sleep and breastfeeding. I’ve booked into one on Tuesday on the pelvic floor, and on Thursday it’s Labour. Got another ultrasound booked in, and hopefully getting to see someone about labour pain relief options in december.

Made a list of things to buy for the baby shower. I’m realising that I need to get onto organising this ASAP! – only about 2 weeks ’till the shower!

I have a few pimples developing under my chin now, which are quite itchy.

I’m starting to become more intuitive with the baby moving and with the heartburn coming on. I can now pre-empt when both are about to occur.

Here’s a bump shot!

We did another thorough clean of the house. All of our pre-existing laundry is FINALLY done.

I bought some baby socks, mittens, nose suction thing, baby toothbrush, 5 jars of baby food, and a travel lotion set for the baby for hospital.

I also bought a mini scrapbook similar to the first one I made for my husband on our 1 yr anniversary of togetherness. I plan to use it to scrap the baby shower, or to use it as a little baby book of sorts – I figure I’ll need something to do in December when I’m on leave.

Yesterday was really hot, so to kill some time between schools we went shopping and I got 3 pairs of black stretchy PJs that I can wear as maternity pants, as well as one nightie with a buttoning front. I don’t like the material, it’s not stretchy, and it’s a bit short, but at a pinch it’ll be useful after the birth, when the belly goes down. the pants were $25 each and the nightie was $20.

FOOD LOG

I’ve been eating fish-based meals more this week. Still loving mild butter chicken, roast chicken and veg, fruit, and icecream.

Monday I ate:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of crunchy nut cereal with all bran, banana, grapes, and strawberries in light milk.
2 glasses of orange juice.

Lunch: Spam, lettuce, cheese, tomato, lettuce and mayo sandwich on multigrain bread.
half a litre of water.

Dinner: a tiny bit of a large bowl of tomato soup, multigrain toast with butter, cream cheese, melted tomato, spam, and melted cheese. 1 soft boiled egg, 1 hard boiled egg. Glass of diet coke.

Tuesday I ate:
Breakfast: 2 museli bars.
1 glass of water.

Lunch: half of my husband’s left over meat pie, 1 tub of strawberry yoghurt, 1 museli bar, 1 jelly cup with apple.
half a litre of water

Dinner: Home-made spaghetti bolognaise with loads of veg, and a bit of parmy. Diet coke.
1 glass of milk with strawberry nesquick.

Wednesday I ate:
Breakfast:1 multigrain sandwich containing lemon spread and smooth peanut butter
1 litre of water

Lunch: 1 apple, half a litre of water, left over home-cooked spaghetti bolognaise with veg.

Dinner: Roast chicken meal with all the trimmings: Pumpkin, cabbage, peas, corn, potatoes, gravy, apple sauce, stuffing. Diet coke.
1 bowl of vanilla ice cream.

Thursday I ate:
BREAKFAST:1 bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes with grapes and strawberries – light milk.
half a litre of ribena cordial

LUNCH: left over roast chicken, potatoes, veggies, and apple sauce, red soda.

Dinner: 2 glasses of Orange juice, 1 salad sandwich.

Yesterday (Friday) I ate:
BREAKFAST:
Half of a multigrain sandwhich with strawberry jam and peanut butter – didn’t like the jam.
1 and a half litres of light ribena cordial

LUNCH:
1 red slushie
2 glasses of Diet coke
Barnacle Bill lunch: salad, chips, 4 prawns, tartare sauce, 1 crumbed chicken portion, 3 spring rolls in sweet chilli, 2 fishettes.

DINNER: Left over barnacle bill: 2 spring rolls, 1 chicken portion, 1 fish burger with salad.
2 glasses of water.
1 slice of chocolate bavarian.

Today (Saturday) I ate:
Breakfast: 1 blueberry muffin with grapes, strawberries and a little bit of light custard.
Half a litre of water
Snack: 1 jelly cup with apple
Lunch: 1 crumbed fish fillet and a small chicken and cheese schnitzel with a few left over chips from yesterday.
Dinner: 1 teaspoon of hubbys beef noodles
4 chocolate wafers
1 microwaved butter chicken and rice pack – from frozen
Dessert: 1 smoothie containing mixed berries, strawberry icecream, 1 banana, and light milk.
2 glasses of light peach iced tea in ice.

Current weight: 161.8kg

Over the last 2 days I’ve seen the first 2 seasons of “The Midwife”. It’s quite interesting.

 (This list will be updated frequently)

Easily washable hamper

Baby bedtime bath

bubble bath

Spare brush and comb set

baby cotton buds

Nipple Cream

Bibs – plastic catcher ones.

Avent baby bottles and spare teats

Freezer bags for breastmilk

Zippy swaddles (Such as the ‘LOVE TO DREAM’ range)

Small (or tall and skinny) dark brown bookshelf

Spare electronic breast pump

Stuff to do baby’s first footprints, etc with

Baby’s interactive toys

Glider and ottoman

Cloth-nappy cleaning services

About 5-10 huge cotton nighties

Some nursing-friendly tanks and tops.

Baby bath toys

Disposable nappies

Modern cloth nappies with inserts

Rocking sheep

Lullaby type music

Tranquil Turtle – Cloud B (Blue)

bubble bath

bubble machine

Sleep Sheep

Spinning top

Activity table

Baby leash

Ambulance cover

Money to fix brake lights on car

Money for rego

Cloth nappy buckets

lambswool for basinette and pram

Newborn Formula (Incase I can’t produce enough milk)

Size 24-26DD Nursing bras? (I assume I’ll be about that big.)

A large ‘U’ shaped pillow (for breastfeeding)

Feeding cover

Burp cloths

Hooded towels

A small brown table (like from ikea, or a bedside)

dimmable lamp for his room

Rattles

Teethers

Readers

Audio books

Childrens books

Firsts baby book

Baby bather-nappies

Baby safe latches

Portacot

Playpen

Video baby monitor

Chosun (Preferably the brown one with the blue and white striped sleepers 🙂

Glo worm – blue

Cot cover (snooze shade)

Baby humidifier

Baby room air purifier

3m hooks

Christening outfit

Clam shells

Bath seat

Build a bear – brown bear with blue overalls : )

FOR THE OLDER BOY

LITTLE IDENTICAL TWIN SISTERS 😛

Potty

Kiddy toilet seat

Baby ride on  car

Baby trike and pushbike

Underpants

Swing/slide set

Trampoline

Tonka trucks

Easel

Mega lego/meccano set

Big boy car bed

Bunk bed

Desk

Knee pads

Helmet

School uniform

Drum kit (jazz)

hobby horse

ball

model aeroplane

hoola hoop

totum tennis

t-ball

rocket

cricket bat

stumps

leg pads

wikit

ball

baseball mit

baseball bat

soccer goal

soccer ball

footy

goal posts

bigger backyard

Puppy

Kitten

       MY BODY

Baby’s movements have been much stronger this week, and I’ve been having much more water now that it’s hot, etc. I often feel him moving a lot at night, both on the inside and outside! It’s starting to hurt sometimes now when I lay on my back, so I avoid doing that as much as possible, although whenever I go in for checkups and ultrasounds they still want me to lie on my back!?!?!

Also, my belly button has begun to protrude more. I’ve never seen the end of it until this week! I wonder if it’ll pop out or not.

Lately I’ve been getting pins and needles often in my hands and feet. I’m also more breathless than I was before. At work I try to avoid the stairs as much as I can.

I’m needing to urinate religiously every night now, and sometimes during the day I can pee twice an hour at the most. I’m still fairly incontinent, and wear pads all the time now.

I’ve actually been eating a bit less than I was, now that the baby is storing fat, I’d much rather he keep slim and not chubby and bigger (therefore harder to push out,) so I’ve been eating 1-3 main meals a day, with a few snacks in between. The days when I’ve only had 1 main meal were unintentional, and usually not the healthiest options. I’ve really been trying to cook my own foods rather than take-aways, and add in some healthier options. I guess perhaps I’ve been mostly wanting to sleep, so I’ve spent less time actually awake, and on the days when I don’t have to get up early or teach much I’ve not actually been awake much, which may explain the lack of food consumption. I’ve lost 2 kilos this fortnight, so I now weigh about 160.2kg. I’m glad I’ve lost some weight as at my last appointment the doctor said I’d gained too much weight. She said someone my size should only gain 6 kg in total during pregnancy, and so far I’ve gained either 18 or 8 kg in total, (depending on if you count that massive 10kg spike in the first month or not.)

I’ve been loving ice cream and fruits lately, and still LOVING sweet things. Butter chicken with lentils and chickpeas has been a recent craving a few weeks ago too, though I think it caused heartburn.

The other day I spent a few hours just attending to bits of my body that have gone neglected for a while, and I did things like apply heel balm, clip my nails, apply face cream and scrub, and go over my stretch marks with the sampler cream I got in the bounty bag.

(I noticed new stretch marks down my back, under my boobs, and on my shoulders.)

My lips have been very dry lately, so I’m trying to apply balm more often.

ANTENATAL APPOINTMENTS

Since moving my antenatal care to the Lyell Mcewin hospital my appointment frequency has doubled. I’m now attending every 2-3 weeks, with regular checks and things in between.

I had my second glucose tolerance test at week 30. My finger prick was 5.6 or something, which is normal. Tests came back negative for gestational diabetes. YAY. My TSH (thyroid) and vitamin D levels are also good now. I’ve been taking 1 vitamin D capsule a day, and having about 75mg of Thyroxine a day.

I heard his heart beats 3 times since last time. The readings were 140, 133, and 136. The last one was hard to find, cos he kept wriggling around.

I had another ultrasound where the technician double checked the gender. She said she found the scrotum, so he is indeed a boy. She spent a lot of time checking the kidneys, diaphragm, etc. My placenta is nice and far away from the cervix, so that’s good, and the baby was curled up with his head down, and he was curled around my left side with his feet pointing to the right. It was interesting to notice that much more of my belly was covered with the doppler this time around.

I have another ultrasound booked in for 2 weeks time, which I’m hoping doesn’t clash with work (but I’ll have to check.) My next antenatal appointment is booked for a Friday, because the Thursday booking would have clashed with my antenatal class.

Some nurse talked me through early breastfeeding and told me that the baby will be given straight to me at the birth – chest to chest for an hour to encourage feeding before being measured and checked, etc, which is good. I’ve been told I will be able to have a private room for the birth. I asked about if I should do a birth plan and the doctor didn’t want me to. She said they are rarely looked at, and that those who make plans generally have things go wrong. she did say though that I’ll be able to talk to someone about the pain relief options for childbirth soon, as I’m very unclear on that. She kind of implied that the epidural was different to the spinal tap…

My husband has said he doesn’t want forceps or morphine / codeine to be used unless the baby is in great danger, and that he would like to be the person to guide the baby out of me. We’re pondering if he will take photos or if someone else will.

BABY (And Other) BUYS

We’ve really been trying not to buy so much for the baby, as I’m aware that the guests of the baby shower would like to provide SOMETHING. Despite this, the urge to buy has been a big one.

This fortnight I splurged and bought a secondhand 12ft pool, because I haven’t been getting much exercise, I love swimming, and the idea of feeling weightless and stretching my limbs and ligaments sounds appealing, plus it’s really hotting up so I’d rather spend december floating, rather than sweltering. The pool was $200 including filter and ladder, so not a bad deal. We also bought a cover for the pool ($20), and some chlorine ($30?).

My husband purchased a second camera ($1900 or so), clothing rack ($40), and a new photography case ($70), which he’s been wanting to do for over a year now. The new camera has better video and focusing capabilities.

I went back to the reject shop and got the car bookends, as they are way cuter, and go with the fire trucks. ($12)

I also went to Neds and got some baskets, ribbon, and 1 set of travel containers (totalling $52) for the nursery and hospital bag.

I went grocery shopping and bought some things for the hospital bag, including maternity pads, spray bottles, more travel containers, overnight pads, snacks, and Jasmine incense to stimulate labour.

PREPARATIONS

This week I packed the majority of the hospital bag – Just have hubby’s clothes to go, and we haven’t yet figured out front opening clothes for me. (I emailed my aunt about making some for me, but she hasn’t replied.) I do have an old buttoned house coat I could wear at a pinch, but the arm holes may be too small now.

My husband installed the car seat. Unfortunately due to potential traffic hazards,  it had to be installed behind the front passenger seat where I sit, and my legroom and ability to recline is now greatly compromised 🙁 I can’t even open the glove box anymore unless I get out of the car.

I took most stuff out of the nursery that shouldn’t live in there, like the pram, high chair, safety gates, car seat, and bassinets, and tried to organise where things are going to go that are staying in the nursery. It’s much more spacious and inviting now. I’ve been sitting in there a lot this week, as it’s now the cleanest and most organised room in the house 😛

We suspended a few of the brown wicker baskets from the change table with blue checkered ribbon, as I realised the drawers were a bit impractical, as I’d need to take my eyes off baby to access them during a change. I’m going to keep nappies, wipes, medicine, and lotions in those.

I’m currently using a white basket for nursing things, and considering using a second one for baby bottles and / or magazines and books. I still have 1-2 free baskets. If they don’t get utilized I’ll give the two white ones to my hubby for photography things.

We hung the mobile on the cot (minus the sheep, as we haven’t got those yet,) and we decided that it’d be nice to swap the song out of the mobile for the one I had as a baby. (We had to swap the songs as my old case is pink.) It took us a while to figure out how to swap them properly and how to make my song go faster. A bit of RP7 did the job 🙂 His mobile now plays a lovely rendition of “Brahms Lullaby”, which we much prefer – I just wish it played for longer than the few mins it goes for.

I’ve set up the bookends on top of the dresser. They currently hold the 4 gender neutral children’s books I have from my own childhood, and some books on parenting during the first year.

Next to the books are some wooden dinosaurs that my dad made in high school. Hopefully these will become heirlooms one day. We plan on staining and varnishing these, along with the sheep / farm pictures that were given to us by our neighbour.

Below: Updated nursery progress.

Other News

That friend who I babysat for a few times now has offered to help me plan the baby shower! She seems VERY excited. it’s nice not to have to everything myself now. She also agreed to babysit for us when we go to sydney for a few days next september for our 6 yrs of togetherness. We’re going to see Matilda the musical! I’m SUPER excited for it, as I’ve never seen a broadway musical, and we didn’t do anything special for our 5 yrs.

The other day my husband was helping the next door neighbours hook up their NBN, and he got offered a job to hook up other NBN’s. It’s a great offer, especially as i’d rather be a stay at home mum for the majority of next year, as much as I can.

After he spent quite a few hours helping, the neighbours showed us their house, and how they’re set up with 2 boys under 3. It was interesting to see their safety latches etc, as their house has the same layout as ours. I fell in love with the change table they’re using, as it converts to a bookshelf, but hubby won’t let me get it as it’s white (and our theme is dark wood,) it costs too much, and we already have a change table.

I was really inspired by the baby scrapbook and keepsakes box they showed me. I LOVE the idea of the baby firsts book being a scrapbook!

Band is focusing more on christmas parades, so I’m bowing out for a while – probably until the baby is a few months old – unless they have asy sit down jobs that they need me for

.
Me in my lovely pool 🙂 🙂 🙂

Here’s a few links to some things I’m considering buying for late maternity and nursing;

http://www.maternitywear.com.au/plus/tops/maternity-plus-size-top-breastfeeding-black-knit

http://www.maternitysuperstore.com.au/size-8-to-10/soft-corporate-black-work-skirt-black-navy-p-2172.html

http://www.maternitysuperstore.com.au/size-20/soft-corporate-black-work-pant-p-2171.html

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/B32-Womens-Plus-Size-Front-Closure-Lace-Bra-Size-14-16-18-20-22-24-26-28-30-/151430709025?pt=AU_WomensLingerie&var=&hash=item2341f93f21

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Naturana-Drop-Cup-Nursing-Feeding-Maternity-Cotton-Bra-Black-or-White-38-44-C-f-/131270244617?pt=AU_WomensLingerie&var=&hash=item1e9050f909

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/202237940/pregnant-baby-skeleton-rib-cage-t-shirt?ref=sr_gallery_21&ga_search_query=5XL+Maternity&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

http://www.plusmaternity.com.au/#!store/c101y

MY BODY

The most exciting thing that happened this week was on the 8th Oct I felt and saw the baby move from the OUTSIDE of my belly for the first time! Since then it’s gotten stronger and more frequent. At first the movement was very slight, and only one time that day, but now it’s very regular and a larger area of the stomach will move for longer.

Yesterday it felt like the baby was kicking down on my cervix or something. This happened twice yesterday, for about 1o mins each time. The second time my husband shone a bright torch at the stomach and it stopped for a while. It was so painful I thought it may have been Braxton Hicks or something.

We still haven’t had success picking up the baby’s heart beat with our own fetal doppler.

Heartburn is still a frequent problem. I’m still on the Quick-Eze. We tried the peppermint version and that was ok too.

I’m more tired now than I was last trimester, and I haven’t been for many walks at all, and breathing is harder.

I don’t think I’ve been getting enough water, as my urine is dark most of the time, and I get dizzy spells occasionally.

I’ve been getting a lot of pins and needles in my hands and feet this week – probably from sitting for too long. When I do try to stretch or stand, I get uncomfortable pretty fast, and my body clicks and cracks.

I’ve also noticed that my hands and feet are quite dry lately. Last night I put heel balm on. My heels feel a lot smoother now.

I really want to go swimming, now that the weather is heating up. I feel hot and sticky all the time, making me irritable and short-tempered. Sweat typically runs down the back of my legs in the car now – even on short trips.

My core body temperature seems to change frequently now. I can be boiling, and then 10 mins later I’ll complain it’s too cold – even the weather looks glorious outside. I really notice now If I skip showers, as I sweat easier.

I’ve been making a real effort to brush my teeth morning and night now, as I’d like to keep my teeth as healthy as possible. I’ve been pretty slack with that lately.

Baby brain has gotten worse. I’m very scatterbrained lately.

ANTENATAL APPOINTMENTS

We had an antenatal appointment on Thursday, and we heard the baby’s heart beat again – it’s at 140. It sounded very regular, and was heard to the left of my lower abdomen. My blood pressure is normal.

They booked me in for another glucose test for next week. Apparently I was meant to have one 2 weeks ago but I totally forgot about it.

The hospital only does tours on Tues and Thurs nights when I’m teaching, so I just decided to move students around and go in Early December. I’m glad that the doctor said I’ll have my own room for the birth! That’s a huge relief, as I thought I’d have to be privately covered for that.

CRAVINGS

I’m a lot hungrier now than I was – but I’m trying hard to resist temptation.

My two biggest cravings lately have been red slushies, and crunchy nut corn flakes with strawberries, banana, and grapes.

I’ve also been loving pizza, burgers, hot chips, vietnamese rolls – (chicken more than pork now,) orange juice, and diet coke – but we try not to go overboard with takeaway and processed foods – maybe 1-2 a week. I know it’s still bad, and on Thursday I was told I need to start exercising more and eat better, especially now that the baby is putting on fat stores, and I need to prepare my body for labour.

BABY BUYS

This week I’ve been focusing heavily on teaching. We’ve had over $2000 come into our account for the term for teaching, so we just got more ahead with the bills. We have most things we need now, so we haven’t bought much for bubs, especially as my husband is saving for a camera and wants me to give him $800 for one. My husband is looking into getting Ambulance cover this week, and the brake lights on the car are faulty, so that’ll need to get fixed too.

This week we’ve bought a car mat for $25, for when he’s much older.

We also got some bookends from the reject shop, as we’re planning on giving him a shelf or two in the bookshelf. The design is firetrucks, though they had car ones too that I’d like to get. (These were $12.)

The most exciting thing we got was letters for his bedroom door and wall. We spent Wednesday this week painting and decorating them with 2 different colours of blue. One set was done with Felt, and the other was done in paint.  EXPERIENCE

I also rang up and finally booked some antenatal classes for November. Theres 4 classes in total on Thursdays, going for 2 hours each. Topics will include breastfeeding, normal and abnormal labour, sleep, and parenting in general. The lady who booked me in said I should’ve booked them about a month ago, but I wasn’ to know. I wonder if there’s other classes I could’ve had that I missed?A parent told me the other day that I should book into the breastfeeding one after birth as well.

We are babysitting overnight tonight. I’m still not confident enough to change the diapers though, so hubby will do that. It’s probably going to be another night of watching movies, etc. I’m planning on taking some lesson plans to do there this time though, as I may not get time tomorrow. I still hope we can go for a walk later. Last time they gave us $30 for food and $50 for babysitting for 7 hours. I’m a bit apprehensive though about sleeping on the couch, as I;ve been sleeping with my pregnancy pillow lately, so sleeping without it will be weird.

ENTERTAINMENT

The most fun thing that we did over the break was ZOMBIE WALK!! I wanted to go for 3 yrs now, but always missed it.

I only realised it was on 2 days before the event, but it was super fun! I thought since I’m pregnant it’d be fun to go as a pregnant zombie.

We got the costumes from Savers, (and got a bag of baby clothes – mostly size 1 sleeping sacks – at the same time.)

We went a bit overboard with the makeup though, as I still have red paint on my legs and flour in my hair 😛

This week I’ve found a GODSEND!!! Quick-Eze that taste like STRAWBERRY STARBURST!! The only problem is that my husband loves them, so we’ve gone through entire 3-pack this week 😐 (24 tablets.) I also bought Mylanta. It tastes bloody awful, and didn’t help much.

This week has been more relaxed in general, as I don’t have to go into work for 2 weeks. We’ve mostly spent the week relaxing together, washing second-hand baby items, and acquiring extra baby blankets, boys pants, and filtering out the excess things that we no longer like, don’t think are practical, or excess to our needs.

BABY BUYS

This week I think we’ve spent  around $150-$200 on second-hand baby clothes and blankets. Hubby took photos of our entire clothes collection this week, and we also did a new-clothes and blankets haul. Today I bought an electric Avent breast pump with heeeeeaps of accessories and extras for $50.

We also got a gorgeous bassinet, even though we already had one. It retails new for $160, and is the “Childcare Chloe Rocking Bassinet – white.”  It was only $30, near new second hand, and  it has a sheep mobile which swivels and plays music, it has retractable wheels.! It even came with 2 brand new sheets, worth $15 alone.

This one also has a basket at the bottom to store things in 🙂 We’re currently pondering whether to keep the old one as well or not;

We’re thinking it could be handy to keep both as the other is more portable, or keep one in the bedroom and one in the main room, or keep one at a friends house for when the baby goes there.

Here’s some close-ups of the adorable sheep on the mobile;

MY BODY AND PREGNANCY EFFECTS

This week has been a much more emotionally exhausting (and confusing) one! Just today I cried twice over silly little things! I also threw up three times (nachos, all over myself) on the way to collect some baby things today! I had to go home and change, making me 30 mins late.

We did some more standing body shots of me; (Nude, so I’m not posting them,) to see how much my body has changed during the pregnancy. (We also did this in May and June,) and the biggest changes noticed were that the niples have darkened a LOT, and the two fat rolls under my boobs have migrated into the stomach, and are almost completely gone now. Also, looking at the side profiles the belly is definitely protruding more out the front. the width of my belly hasn’t really changed.

2 days ago it REALLY hurt to bend at the waist to pick things up, (which I’m used to doing as I fall over when I try to squat,) and my belly felt much heavier, stiffer, and like it was protruding more. Yesterday when I woke up though it felt like it had shrunk and loosened significantly and bending / moving was easier, so I’m not sure what’s going on there! I had some diarrhea this week, which isn’t fun!

I hurts when I wear my pants now, so it’s a good thing I bought all those new dresses, and that the weather is warmer to accomodate. I officially can’t see my feet / legs or lady parts anymore. It’s MUCH harder to get up off the couch etc, and the pregnancy pillow has been really good at night, though this week I’ve found it very hard to sleep, and I’ve had insomnia. Yesterday i was tired ALL day. When I tried to sleep at 6pm, I laid there for half an hour, baby brain / nesting brain took over and I panicked about the things we still need to have, alongside rethinking my giveaways, and I couldn’t sleep till 2am! Last week I woke up at 5am and I JUST HAD to write down everything I’ve spent so far in the financial year in order to go back to sleep!?!?!?! A few times a day now I can feel some movements from the baby. It doesn’t hurt, and it doesn’t exactly feel like kicking… It’s hard to describe. Right now it just feels a bit like twinges or spasms. A youtuber I watch suggests it could be baby hiccups?

I’m still pretty inconvenient, especially when I cough, but I’m getting more used to wearing pads daily now.

FOOD

I’ve been eating a lot of junk lately, which is terrible really. I’m always wanting a quick meal, with low nutritional value and lots of carbs, and when hubby makes food he hasn’t been making salads etc, which is pretty bad… My appetite has increased, and I’m now more able (and more wanting) to eat bigger meals. I still try to have a lot of fruit when I can. I’ve had more fish type things this month than usual, and still wanting Vietnamese meat rolls. I’ve also been a bit slack with taking my pregnancy vitamins, sometimes accidentally skipping one of the 2 recommended doses per day. To compensate for the junk, I’ve walked twice this week, and I had a vegetarian day, where a friend took us to a vegan place and I tried a vegan burger and smoothie 😀

PARENTING EXPERIENCE

We offered to babysit 2 children for quite a few hours a friend on Sunday, and the youngest isn’t toilet trained yet, so it could get interesting; I’ve only ever Babysat my little cousin Joey, who was 3, and it was only for a few hours. I just figured I could use the experience! The friend we’re babysitting for is offering us a few of her old things, such as a high chair, etc, so we’re giving her our old moving boxes and stuff too.

GIVING BACK

One of my teenage students is half-way through her first pregnancy, so we’re giving some of our excess things to her, including extra baby blankets, a few girly and really tiny bodysuits, some singlets and girly bibs, and leftover decorations from our gender reveal. So far the value of my giveaway box to her is somewhere around $30-$40. Since the baby’s wardrobe is almost completely full, and we’re planning on having a baby shower anyway, we figured that a cleanout needed to happen! So far we’ve stocked sizes 0000-1.

BABY SHOWER

We’ve started planning the baby shower, and so far we’ve invited about 40 people, so it could become a pretty huge event. We figured that it could be a great excuse to see some of the friends we’ve neglected this year before we get too busy and tired! We’re breaking tradition and going mixed-gender. We’ve stressed to guests that gifts are optional!

ENTERTAINMENT

This week I also purchased a Playstation 3 and a few games and spare controllers, etc, figuring that I’ll have a lot of free time in December whilst I’m on Maternity leave, and lots of time spent at home when the baby arrives. I haven’t seriously played with any kind of console for about 5 yrs. All up we’ve spent $215 on all Ps3 equipment.

Last night my husband and I played GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption, and Dirt 2. I was so involved with the game-play at one point that I closed the laptop on my left nipple by mistake after checking a notification. It hurt so much that I dropped the controller and cried a lot from the pain! My husband was very concerned, thinking that the baby had kicked me and broken a rib or something! When he found out what’d happened he couldn’t stop laughing! It hurt for a few hours after! The game-playing has meant though that I’m behind on my lesson plans and I’ve still got the home studio to invoice. I’m a bit worried about the excessive foul language used in GTA 5 though.

My husband tells me he’s saving up for a camera.I think he wants a Canon 70D.

He seems to be in the beginnings of “nesting mode” now, as he wants to obtain ALL the childrens movies EVER MADE! He’s working on the disney collection now!

I’ve been reading ahead with “Up The Duff” 😛

ONLY ONE WEEK TILL I’M IN THE THIRD TRIMESTER!