More Nesting

I'm happy to say that the nesting is all me today. Brian (our fix-it guy) has finished putting in some doors into what's going to be the nursery, so it was up to be to paint them. Once I've finished that, we can move what remains of the study (including the computer I'm typing on now) into our front room, and set this room up a little better so it looks like somewhere a self-respecting newborn would wanna hang out.

Travelling and Dr Lionel

Before leaving for Adelaide, one of the questions we asked Dr Lionel was if he thought that it would be wise driving interstate when I would be 30-31 weeks. He said, yes, as long as I don't travel after 32 weeks.

He gave me a few horror stories. One in particular was a woman who had flown up to Surfer's Paradise at 27 weeks and had then gone into labour. She had to stay in Brisbane for three months, until the baby was able to leave hospital to come back to Melbourne. She was without her family and support network (and everything else) for this period of time. And of course... no Lionel.

But I wasn't 32 weeks yet, so Lionel said I should be fine. Thankfully I was, but that's it - no more travel from now on. (See photo for me, with our car in the background, and the complimentary cuppa from our sponsor at the Dimboola rest stop)

We had another checkup today. Lionel was very happy - everything's going well. The baby's currently head-down, so he hopes it stays that way. He said that the way I've been feeling it kicking (ie: where I can feel the kick) is indicative of how BB prefers to lie - head-down with its back to my left-hand side. I generally feel the kicks to the upper right of my belly.

Today it was 39 degrees (that's about 108 for those who don't use celsius), so I wasn't particularly happy to have to get out of the house. For the last day of the year it's going to be 42. Thankfully, we're spending the night in... but we still have a few visitations and other small things to do.

Swelly Belly - 31.5 weeks

Well, the countdown to the 'guess date' is now down to single figures. This week's swelly belly photo comes from NewQuay at Melbourne's Docklands where Matt, Carole, Naomi and I had dinner with our friend Anne. Annie lives in London, and she was witness to Nai's last night of getting drunk, before we confirmed that she was pregnant. (Nai didn't get wasted that night, just a little tipsy). These days, it's sips of my beer, and the odd Guinness or champagne.

BB's 1st family holiday

We arrived back from Adelaide yesterday. About 750km in the car. We left at 5am on the 24th, to get there in time for the family Christmas dinner. Weather for the trip was quite changeable - plenty of wind, some rain, as well as some baking sun.

It was good to catch up with rels for Christmas, and especially to see how some of Naomi's cousin's kids had grown.

But for me, the highlight for the trip was the brief time we spent on the beach. We managed to secure lodging in a friend's apartment at West Beach, which was pretty much directly opposite the beach. The weather/timing conspired against us, so we only had the one swim. But seeing Nai bouncing around in the water, forgetting she had a big, growing-heavier, bump on her belly was great. Back on the beach, I excavated a nice round hole so she could lie on her tummy - something she hadn't done for a while now.

And the BB learned that Christmas is for kids - even while still in the belly. The BB did manage to get the majority of the gifts we received. Thanks everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Have a good one everybody. It'll be our last as just a couple - next year we'll have a family.

Nesting

I must really commence this by saying that I haven't really been doing all that much nesting myself, it has mainly been Naomi, with some help from her mother Marilyn.

But, the house is getting a bit of a once over (or twice over) ready for the BB. In the photo (attached) you'll see me getting ready to be a bit of muscle to help our fix-it/build-it guy, Brian, install a rolladoor. That, combined with a working rear gate, will make it easier to drop off shopping and the BB, instead of lugging it all up the front steps. After all, when we bought the place they did say 'Right of Way' access at the rear. I suppose, after 3 yrs, we're finally getting it!

We've also had some front steps put in, a door in the nursery (as I suppose we can call it these days) and some wardrobe doors in there as well. So we're (slowly) getting there!

Swelly Belly - 30 weeks

Yep... it's a still a growin'!

Lunch & blood-tests don't mix

Last time I saw Dr Lionel coincided with the routine 'glucose' test. What we didn't tell you is that I FAILED! (And I studied for it and everything!) But seriously... the maximum acceptable level is 8.0 and I was 8.1. This meant that I had to go and have the full glucose screening test.

This required me to fast from about 9pm the night before and then go into the pathology place in the morning, have a blood test, drink the yummy glucose drink (again!), wait an hour, have another blood test, wait another hour and have a final blood test.

Of course, the day that I did it was a lovely 36 degrees and I had to wait in a stuffy pathology room for 2.5 hours until the testing was over. Needless to say, I ended up with a headache for the rest of the afternoon.

Anyway - that test came back negative. So the first one was a false positive. Cory thinks it's the fault of the schlep who was serving me he said it'd be fine for me to go and have some lunch just before the blood test. I don't think it was fine.

Dr Lionel was very happy. He asked if we had any questions - we'll have to think of some for next time... as we're a little bit too well read. We asked him about hypnobirthing, and he's all for it so we're going to see if we can meet up with a practitioner or three. I also bought this book.

Crash-test Dummy

Here you'll notice the ever-faithful bear testing our latest eBay acquision, a cradle, or bassinette, or whatever they call it in your neck of the woods. And a big thanks to Nanna Thel for picking it up from the seller, and dropping it off to us.

You'll also notice that the 'nursery' is still very much a study, with the computer in the background, and the ladder to the right. It'll get there soon - as will various other upgrades to the house in general.

(Oh... and we know that having the toys in there isn't good practice from a SIDS perspective, but at the moment it's somewhere to keep them.)

"This kid has too many clothes!"

We started organising a few things today, including getting out the haul of clothing we have so far (many gifts, and a few purchases) and putting them in the chest of drawers we got on eBay.

There seems to be a lot of items in there, however I'm sure we'll get proven wrong with how quickly they go through them. Also... we just put them in there - we'll need to sort on size and have the 000's ready for post-birth, then the 00's etc etc.

Happy Birthday Mummy! - 29 Weeks

Here's Nai at her birthday BBQ. Had a great day catching up with people.

Horror Movie

Last night we finally managed to attend a 'Labour and Birth' class, after it had been rescheduled from the week before last, after the educator didn't show up. We'd actually been warned about this class from people who had been to it previously - especially about the birthing video that is shown in the class. Not so much the actual birthing bit, but the fact that she hadn't been to see her beautician for quite some time (if ever!). The lack of orthodontic attention was also concerning.

The session went through the whole process, from pre-labour through to what you can expect for the first few hours after giving birth. Unlike other sessions, when prompted, most people were not asking any questions. I think they were a little concerned about what was coming up.

And so it was time for the video. The educator had stressed it was optional - and one look of 'Sally', the poor unfortunate who had put her hand up (legs up?) to be videoed, and one of our number took that option. Straight out to the hallway with a cuppa. It was shot in the 80's, in Adelaide, with the parents both somewhat one-sandwich-short-of-a-playlunch. The video, although quite full-on, wasn't as bad as we'd expected. Still, it was very confronting. It wasn't the head (barely) coming out of the pink bits that was the worst, it was the pain that she was in beforehand - when you could see that she was really stuggling. But the video-sponsor CIG nitrous-oxide was never far away (luckily!) The instructor/midwife also let us know that only once has she caught the husband/partner/support person taking a few quick tokes on the gas themselves!

So funnily enough, after the video the questions were coming thick and fast. The various pain relief options were discussed, and some of the participants also mentioned hypnobirthing, which we are going to investigate.

"Sleep now, while you still can"

Our third class was entitled "Post-natal and early parenting". It covered a lot of stuff from what happens as soon as you've given birth up until the first few months.

Some of the things included crying, sleeping, what a normal day will look like, crying, communicating with your baby, post-natal depression, crying, community help and resources, tools and techniques you can use, and finally the fact that your baby's main method of communication is, apparently, crying.

We think that we were slightly better prepared than some of the couples in our group, (and they were all further-along than us), so that made us feel pretty good. However, we'll see just how long that smugness lasts once the BB arrives, when it'll probably be baby crying, mummy crying, daddy crying...

Q: Do you know what are you having?

A: Yeah... a baby!

This is something that we've been asked ever since we went public, but it now starting to increase somewhat as Naomi's bump gets more prominent. (And she's also discovering exactly why it's called a 'bump' - as that's what it constantly does - doorframes, tables, people etc).

Anyway - we decided long ago (before we were even planning) that we wouldn't want to know the gender of the little'un until it came out.

My thinking - You get far too few real surprises in adult life, and most of the ones you do get tend to be bad.

So - at each scan, we confirmed that:

1. It was alive and well
2. There was only one
3. Full complement of fingers and toes etc etc
4. and nothing else!

So you'll just have to wait! If you think you have an inkling, use the comments section below to say what you think, and your reasonings why.

C'mon people! We know that you are reading this - so take a punt and let us know what you think we are having!