Love, bubs and life on our little farm

I can't believe its been two years but at the same time I can barely remember life without her little shadow beside me. I haven't done an update on Elka in ages so its definitely about time.

She is so much fun and great company. She constantly has Jase and I laughing or amazed by the things that she says and picks up. Her language is very impressive for a 2yr old - daycare is constantly commenting on it, they love having her around as she chatters in full sentences all day long keeping the carers company. She was so far ahead of her peers at daycare that they have already moved her out of the toddler room and into the Pre-Kindy room. Her vocab is pretty impressive, she is using first person really well and can count to 13, her abc's need work but she can pick out E, A and M on a computer keyboard when asked and she can also spell her own name out aloud. She understands a lot of abstract concepts and is even learning time and days. She understands left and right when applied to her feet. She loves to play pretend games - she goes "shopping" with a handbag or a basket, she loves to host tea parties and charges us $2 for her coffees and we pretend to drive a car together. One of her favorite games is Hide and Seek with us, she will learn against the wall with her eyes closed and count and then search for us. However in reverse, she is terrible at staying hidden and will shout out which room she is in.

She has discovered television with a passion and loves to be a couch potato on her little lounge. I have to drag her outside somedays. She adores In the Night Garden and Play School and Sesame Street are becoming popular also.

She has little quirks that I just love - she wears her sunglasses in the car all the time and demands to wear them at nigth to block the headlights of oncoming cars. Makes me laugh every time I see her in the dark sitting there with the glasses on - a total diva! She fetches her little broom to push things out from under the lounge with the handle - we didnt teach her that, she picked it up herself. She is very good at running - I have read that this is a later milestone? but she is a very fast little runner and has become very good at climbing park equipment too. Her memory is amazing - we can mention something once and she will always remember and bring it
up at the relevant time.

Her swimming is coming along really well - she can swim underwater for the whole width of the teaching pool, she is learning to kick and paddle at the same time and she can go down, touch the bottom of the pool and swim to the surface to either Jase or the swim step.

She is a doting sister who loves to hold Bronte and kiss (and poke) her. She does however like to wake Bronte up for fun. I thought she would resent the new baby and I have been blown away by her love and excitement for Bronte.

As much as she is a happy little soul, the terrible twos have kicked in. She can be very defiant and she loves to get in trouble. She loves the attention that doing something naughty gets her unfortunately. The most worrying of her behaviour has become deliberate running away - particularly at the shops (out of shop doors) or in car parks (away from our car). Since I am now juggling a newborn, this behaviour does really worry me as I would hate for her to get hurt, lost or hit by a car :(
We are struggling with discipline - she loves timeout so it doesn't really work. She is currently getting warnings and then losing something she loves as punishment. We are also trying to simply ignore some behaviour, since it is often attention seeking, withdrawing any attention seems to be the best punishment in itself.

I am very excited for her birthday - we have bought her a swing and slide set. Swings are her absolute favorite thing so she is going to be so overwhelmed. I have cooked two of the three cakes required for all of her different celebrations (daycare, her actual bday and her party). We are taking her to Seaworld for the day on her bday as she loves the animals and the toddler rides. She is excitedly counting down until her Bday party which is a shared bday with three of her friends - we have booked out a play centre. She is having a butterfly theme so Mum has sewn her a gorgeous dress and I am making a cupcake cake in the shape of a butterfly. She chose the theme weeks ago and is very much looking forward to her cake!

I keep thinking "this time 2 years ago", I think the memories have been freshened by Bronte's recent birth. When she talks to me in long sentences about things that have happened in her day, I find myself blinking and thinking where did my baby go! I love how a little person has grown out of the snuggly bub. Its the most amazing thing.

Happy Birthday Chicken. Heres to many more together xoxo

Bronte and I dropped Elka to daycare today and then hit the shops. Its been awhile since I have got to shop for myself properly. I hit the Witchery sale and tried on a million things but left with this top, which I showed in my last post in a lovely shade of violet.



I also grabbed a cute striped singlet. I then had a mission to find a black drape cardigan to wear over the violet top for Elka's party - Bardot came up with the perfect one and over $50 off it too!
Then I hit a shoe sale and bought two new pairs of boots. To be totally honest I probably didnt need them - I have more knee high boots then I can fit on my shoe rack but I LOVE them. I have been wearing boots over jeans since I went to Europe in 2006 and fell in love with the stylish Italian women all rocking that look. I wanted a new pair for Elka's bday and I couldnt decide between chocolate and black, they both have buckles, I just love buckles on shoes for some reason - fortunately they were having a 50% off second pair deal, so how could I say no. I still havent decided which ones I will be wearing!





By this stage Bronte had been kicked out of the pram thanks to all the shopping bags hehe. Can't say how good and strange it felt to be wandering the same shops I was in less than two weeks ago in early labour, feeling much slimmer and able to buy normal sized clothes again! Pregnancy is a wonderful thing but how I love having my body back and a beautiful baby in my arms instead :)

Its recovery time now. Time for everything to deflate and return from being stretched. Pregnancy amazes me but post pregnancy recovery has amazed me even more - both times.

It may not work the same for everyone but my tummy shrinks very quickly - its now 11 days post labour and I only have a tiny pot belly down low. I am almost sad as I can no longer cup it or rub it as I have been so used to. But then I remember that I get to have warm snuggly newborn hugs instead and that is so much nicer. I am religously doing my core stomach exercises and working on my pelvic floor. I can do up a few of my pre-preg jeans, including my size 9's so I am feeling OK despite the fact that the majority of clothes still have to wait...

My stitches are a bit twingy from healing but have stopped being painful. And most importantly I am starting to feel stir crazy in the house and am staring out longingly at the horses. I think I am almost ready to start farm and horse work again - just gently lunging etc but laying down the foundations for both the horse and I to be fit and ready for riding by 6 weeks. Excited!

But in the meanwhile, I just don't know what to wear. I had been avoiding the winter fashions as I didnt want to depress myself whilst huge and pregnant and not able to buy them. I am living in one pair of maternity skinny jeans with boots over the top and tights... but all my tops are either tight which still shows the little pot belly or loose and baby doll which makes me shudder and want to burn them from association with wearing them endlessly during the last few months.

Its Elka's bday next week and we have her party coming up. I want something nice to wear... a shopping trip is looming. But I need some inspiration, I don't really know where to begin. Am currently searching the web to inspire myself. Its like being a shopping beginner all over again!

The Witchery sale is calling me most of all. Although I always end up buying silk tops from Witchery... not the smartest buys for someone with a messy milk dripping newborn, she destroys my tops currently in minutes when feeding..

I have my eye on this top - pretty but casual still for a play centre party..

Am always a sucker for a bow too

Feel free to share if you have seen some great sales around!

Thank you to everyone that has followed my journey and I have loved all of your lovely comments and support throughout. It is with great excitement that I can present Bronte's wonderful birth story as we move into the new stage of our lives as a family of four. I have a feeling that my blog may get a little neglected at times but I plan to keep it up as much as I can as this time is such a blur and I love being able to record it.

I had been experiencing prelabour for a week or two, lots of semi painful regular Braxton Hicks and back ache. I was barely sleeping and getting increasingly frustrated with myself. My tummy had measured 3-4 weeks ahead in fundal height since 30 weeks and I was incredibly uncomfortable. Not helped of course, by every strangers well intentioned comments about how I was carrying out in front and what a large baby it was going to be. My lovely parents took Elka home with them for the weekend, giving me a break from the whirlwind of life with a toddler and also giving Jase and I the chance to have a lovely weekend of nice meals out and shopping for Elka’s 2^nd birthday.

Monday the 30^th of May, at 39.5 weeks, my obs assured me it wouldn’t be long and that bubs was 3/5 engaged. The Tuesday, I stayed home all day (unusual for me) and felt very out of sorts and low spirited. That night I got a painful contraction every hour but just ignored them and tried to sleep. When I woke in the morning, my lower back was aching terribly and the pains had dropped to every 15 mins. Jase decided to stay home from work to give me some support and Mum, Jase and I drove into the city to take Elka to her Wednesday daycare day. We decided to wander around the shops to try and keep the contractions coming. I waddled very slowly and although we shopped for something like 5 hours, we barely covered more than a fifth of the shopping centre. Everyone else grabbed bargains in the sales but I was very disinterested in shopping altogether (in hindsight, a sure sign I was not myself!). We headed home to rest for a few hours. After a shower at 4pm, I noticed the intensity of the contractions increase, they had dropped to 8 mins apart and I could feel pressure. I rang the hospital and due to us living semi-rural, they wanted me to come in straight away as we had a good 40min drive. When I got off the phone, I realised I had had two contractions in that time and the phone call was only 3 mins long. Cue Jase rushing around like a madman feeding all the farm animals and finishing our bag packing. Mum was off picking up Elka from daycare, so we spoke to her and she decided to meet us at the hospital. Despite Jase looking stressed and swearing that he wasn’t delivering bub on the side of the highway, we had a great trip in, even through the current local roadworks that normally require a 15 minute wait at a stop/go man, much to his relief. I remember being quite uncomfortable and watching the cars digital clock and noticing that the contractions were 3-4 mins apart. We met Mum at the front of the hospital and gave Elka a big hug and kiss. She was sad that she wasn;t allowed to come in with us but we wanted her to go home to have dinner and to get a good sleep. I watched her little face as she stared back at us as she was carried through the twilight to the car to go home, and realised that was the last time she would be my only child.

We met our lovely midwife Evie who ushered us through to our birthing suite. We were pleased it was a different room to the one we had with Elka as we really wanted a different experience this time (Elka’s was an 18hr labour with no dilation after two weeks of prelabour and hours of strong contractions, failure to progress in 2^nd stage labour requiring being confined to bed, ARM, multiple syntocin drips, gas that made me hyperventilate, a failed epidural with four top ups that didn’t work, nearly 2 hours of pushing, a broken vacuum that sent the obs flying across the room and an episiotomy).

Evie asked our birth plan as she hooked me up for monitoring – we specified that we would prefer limited interventions, particularly syntocin and that we weren’t keen on pethidine or gas and were hopeful for an active birth as long as possible. The monitoring trace showed good peaking contractions every two minutes or so but they were only lasting a minute. I had an internal and we were relieved to hear that I was 3cm dilated. Evie unhooked me and left us to our active birthing. I walked and stomped the pain away in the contractions or lent over the bed on a bean bag and just breathed through the pain. We headed to the shower and I enjoyed the double shower heads. We even ate some of the hot dinner that was delivered to the suite. Evie started some more monitoring as she was concerned that I wasn’t progressing and sure enough the contractions hadn’t changed much. We went for a slow walk around the ward and to check out our room as we had requested a double bed room for Jase to stay. When I got back, the obs arrived, commented that I looked way too cheery and did another internal. Much to our disappointment, I was still only 3cm dilated after 3 hours of contractions. He decided to break my waters at 8.15pm and after watching the end of Masterchef with us, he declared he was going home for a few hours and would expect to see us again around midnight to see how things had progressed.

There was a large amount of meconium in my waters so according to hospital policy I was now required to stay on the bed with constant monitoring on. They also put a clip into bubs head for a constant heartrate monitor as her heartbeat was too consistent and not rising and falling with the contractions like they wanted it to be. Evie left us to deal with the now stronger contractions how we wanted. I rolled slightly onto to my right side and Jase would press hard on my lower back through the contractions whilst I hit the bed loudly with my open palm to distract myself with the movement and sound and I was saying loudly the mantra of “its good pain, its good pain”. The contractions were now very strong and were not releasing before the next one was starting and I was whinging about how much water was still gushing out. By 9.10pm (55 mins after having my waters breaking), the intensity was so strong, I was yelling my mantra, slamming my hands and thinking desperately that I would need some pain relief as midnight seemed a very long way away! I suddenly felt incredibly nauseous and started demanding a sick bowl. Then with the next contraction – the pain had changed and all I could scream was “ow” rather than my mantra and I was making primal grunting noises and I realised I was pushing. Evie the midwife came running in, worried to hear that I was pushing. She tried to get me to stop as she thought it was way too soon and quickly did an internal before saying “wow you are 9cm”, she ran off to call the obs to get him to rush in from home. Jase and I were shocked – from 3cm to 9cm in less than one hour, and a minute of nausea to indicate transition. I started pushing with massive primal grunting – I have never felt anything like that pushing urge, it is the most powerful thing my body has ever done. I remember thinking that I would be so frightened as a pregnant woman if I walked past the birthing suites and heard the noises that were coming out of me!

The obs came rushing into the room, threw his keys on the table and said “oh I better get my gumboots on!”. He and Jase took a side each and coached me through the pushes. I could feel her moving down with every push and Jase was so supportive and encouraging – I could see in his face that this was really happening and I felt so positive despite the pain and shaking legs from the adrenalin of it all happening so fast. I was still in disbelief that it could be happening so quickly after Elka’s 18 hour labour. After a few more contractions, I felt bubs crown and now instead of my grunting, I was screaming “ow ow ow” over and over, I think there was an F-bomb in there also, the obs tried to coach me to “push, don’t push, little pushes etc” but although I was listening I don’t think my body really was and I think this is what caused my tearing. Once her head was out she needed a lot of suctioning thanks to all the meconium and I could see that Jase was worrying but I felt calm. With the next contraction, her shoulders were delivered and I felt that fantastic feeling of her slithering out and being thrown up onto my chest immediately.

We were so unprepared for a fast labour that I was still in my bra and hospital nighty so we were desperately trying to get me all out of it so I could have bare skin time and so bubs could feed straight away. She latched straight on and continued to feed strongly for about 45 minutes. We could all tell she was a big bub and the midwife predicted over 4kgs – she was right, she weighed in at 4.17kg or 9pound3. Jase revealed that he thought she had had the cord around her neck but then had realised that it was just a big neck roll of fat!

After she had finally finished feeding and my second degree tearing was stitched up (requiring more local needles then I ever want to get in sensitive regions again!), I got up for a shower and had a massive temperature dive that resulted in uncontrollable shaking. So I had to be taken in a wheelchair wrapped in warmed blankets for Bronte’s wash. It was a quiet night in the maternity ward – only 2 births and so all of the midwives were coming to congratulate me as they heard it was a 9pd3 bub born drug free. I hadn’t thought much of it, being on a high of seeing my baby and having had a labour with pain relief and one without, I now realised that either way is simply a great achievement in itself, but it was nice to have people acknowledge that she was a big bub for me and that it was damn hard work! I am just so pleased to have had such a positive birthing experience filled with love and laughter, Jase and I felt so close and it was a true team effort.

We settled into our lovely room and I spent a sleepless night buzzing on adrenaline whilst Bronte and Jase happily slept. Elka met Bronte the next morning and she was so excited and her face when she got to hold Bronte just melted my heart and was one of the best moments of my life. She still adores Bronte and may kill her with kindness. My parents minded Elka for our four night hospital stay so that we could rest and relax and bond with Bronte which was wonderful.

Bronte is a champion feeder. I am recovering well although the pregnancy chiro said that unfortunately due to the huge out in front bump that I had, I have the worst abdominal separation she has seen and she was sceptical that I would be back horseriding for at least 3 months. She did support my goal of 6 weeks however, so I have a lot of exercises to do to achieve this.

I am loving being a mummy of two and am smitten with my girls. Her name is because we loved the name Bronte, that its relatively uncommon and thought it worked with Elka being another strong girls name and it reminded us of Jase’s nannas name- Bonnie. Victoria is my middle name and I love it and it is in acknowledgement of my side of the family since both girls have Jase’s last name.

Bronte Victoria

9pd3 (4.17kg)

51cm, head 35.4cm

Labour – about 5 hrs 45mins all up

The all important pictures:

Elka meeting Bronte for the first time - she is smitten

My not so small girl in her going home outfit

Elka had made a welcome home sign with balloons and she ran straight past me to Bronte despite not seeing me properly for 5 days!

I am no longer pregnant!! I am so excited - newborns are so much more fun then whinging 39 week pregnant women ;)

Enjoying every single minute. She is an angel.

Introducing

Bronte Victoria
2nd June, 9.43pm
9pd3 (4.17kg)
51cm, head 35.5cm



I had the most fantastic birth and am trying to find the time to write up the story to share. Of course more photos to follow but I thought I would start with the very first pic of us together.

xoxo

Well it was looking good - I had four hours of painful contractions last night - they were strong, painful, through my back and dropped to under 5minutes apart... needless to say we finished packng the hospital bags and were getting ready to call the hospital when I noticed the intensity wasn't increasing anymore... so I went to bed to get some rest just in case and sure enough, woke to find that it had all disappeared :(

I was pretty down this morning as it was a lot of pain to deal with to have absolutely nothing to show for it. However, I am in incredible pain in my lower pelvis all today and walking is very difficult which is what I remember from the day before I gave birth to Elka so I am still ever hopeful bubs is coming sooner rather than later.... I know she will come when she is good and ready but I am worried about her size and frankly would prefer her on the outside putting on kilos rather than the inside!




In the meanwhile, I have some fairly poor photos to share of my nesting preparations for bub. As I have mentioned before, we are not doing her a nursery just yet as we are keeping her room as half spare room for all the guests we have in the next few weeks. So half the room is cot and bubs stuff and the other half double bed and bedsides for the guests. The bassinet and change table are set up in our room since being winter I like to have bubs sleep close to me for night breastfeeding...

But you can see the start of our colour theme for bubs room - we will be painting pink and ivory half height striped walls and using black and white as the accent colours. The change table shleves have patterned black and white boxes and the curtains that Mum have made in bubs room are black and white cherry blossoms which I just love. I am in the process of sewing a black and white owl mobile to hang above the change table also. Pics to come :)

Yes yes I am still here blogging with no signs of labour :) I figure my little one knows the right time to come so c'est la vie!

But in exciting news - we have signed contracts with our builder, had verbal approval from our bank and even given our huge deposit over..... SO house extensions here we come :)

And we kicked it all off with the installation of our biocycle sewerage system - which will replace our existing grey water recycling and septic tank. According to council, we were required to upgrade due to our house being classified as 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom with the extensions... we didn;t love the price tag but are excited about getting to remove the septic tank, grey water tank and grease trap concrete from our back yard. Also the fact that our existing grey water is rather smelly when it empties into the paddock, means we weren't sad about upgrading to a much more sophisticated, hopefully non-stinky system.

However, its a fairly huge set-up and required pre-inspections of our property to work out how to get the four different large trucks in to the installation area. We had to pull down three different horse paddock fences and move the unimpressed horses into their smallest paddock for a few days.

Come installation day - my parents came up for support as Jase had to work still and I am pretty slow and nearly 39 weeks pregnant and thus not so good at directing semi-trailers and walking around paddocks... I kept Elka out of daycare so she could watch and she enjoyed the noise and earthmovers.

It only took half a day and its now settled into the ground and filled with water, waiting for our extension to be finished so we can hook it all up to the pipes. Our first step towards our new home - exciting stuff! Plus we scored some blue stone gravel and a nice pile of fill out of it - plenty of things to use that on!

Next up is our house slab which requires the roof and external wall of the house to be pulled down (the wall being the one that belongs to Elka's room and the nursery arrggh!)

I had Elka under a full moon and my mothers friend who does stars says that I was born under a full moon too. I have high hopes that this little girl will decide that the full moon tomorrow is a good time to make her appearance. I have had a feeling about the 27th-29th of May for a long time.

I have my hopes up unfortunately as my belly has dropped dramatically, bubs back has moved from the side of my belly to the front and I have started painful contractions and terrible back ache. My behaviour has changed - I am slow and resting, I have bad headaches and nausea all day, I don't want to eat but am starving... My pelvis is sore and the nerve pain has gotten even worse, I guess from the increased pressure of her head. I also started losing my mucus plug this morning (with Elka it was two days from there). But it remains to be seen - I did have over two weeks of pre labour of with Elka so I am also trying to accept that it could be quite awhile yet.

I do love the not knowing and the excitement - its a little bit of magic in what is a generally controlled life :)

Loving

looking forward to meeting my new little princess and using teeny weeny baby clothes again.

The fact that my obs is pretty positive that bubs is all lined up and in a good position for arriving. Fingers crossed sooner rather than later!

The fact that we are signing our building contract tonight and that the bank seems to be happy to honour their pre-approval - oh my gosh bring on the new rooms and verandahs!!! Can't wait, am really starting to get excited and have started finding tiles and bathroom fittings that we love.

My pedicure this morning - relaxing and my toes finally look nice again (not that I can see them!). But I did struggle with what colour to have them painted - hehe I didnt want too strong and harloty for giving birth but I wanted something cheery and uplifting. So I think I fouind the perfect "giving birth" shade in a soft coral ;)

Having Elka's 2nd birthday party almost totally organised, I am especially loving having it a play centre - no tidying or packing up! We have to get onto purchasing her birthday present now.

The idea of having Jase home for 4 weeks of lovely family time altogether - feeling blessed that we are in a position for him to take paternity leave.

Realising that I get my body back so soon - can't wait to work out, do pilates and sit-ups and... most of all get back in the saddle!! So much of my wardrobe that is also waiting to be worn. Ever so hopeful that my body will snap back as quickly as last time but am prepared that it may take longer...


Not loving

Elka is well aware that she can push me at the moment so she has been quite cheeky and also started the running off thing, not helpful when I am a slow elephant!

The nerve pain this bub is causing me with her head being so slow - ouch, its like a cross between a hot poker and touching an electric fence with your fanny! (and I grew up with electric fences on our farm so trust me on that one!)

Getting a little negative about labour - it was a tough 18 hour labour last time and Elka was nearly too big for me according to the obs, and this bubs is looking bigger - must must stay positive, I know half the battle is won with a positive mindset. Not helped by my parents being stressed about my welfare and constantly asking if I would be safer with a c-section...

Being the centre of attention from strangers - if I had a dollar for each comment from a complete random person exclaiming "you must be due any minute!" "you are ALL baby"... I held open a door for a woman today who rather then saying "Thank you", stared at me and said "Thats a basketball under your dress isn't it - its too round"... yep am looking forward to blending back in soon and the cute little bub can attract the attention instead :)

blogging enthusiasm.

I have plenty of lovely things to blog about or even pregnancy whinges and reports but am just not feeling the inspiration lately. So I am just trying to write whatever comes into my head...

I have nested around the house since starting maternity leave and I am almost done with my list of jobs, my major job left is getting pictures printed since we havent done that since Elka's first birthday - yep a full 11 months ago!

I have started the mobile for the nursery - I handmade Elka's star mobile that she still loves above her change table so I am doing the same for this bub. This time it is in black and white and its little owls. I have chosen black and white as accent colours and patterns for the pink and white striped walls we will be painting. I picked black and white cherry blossom fabric for the nursery curtains and Mum is currently sewing them up for me - stay tuned for pics :)

I have had more massages (bliss), shopped with Mum minus Elka (peaceful - well as peaceful as shopping in pregnancy pain can be!), watched DVDs, read magazines, cooked nice food and nested happily. I visited work and they are coping without me which was great to see. I am marking university assignments for the course I lecture in and am pleased with the students quality this year..

I am however, starting to experience painful contractions with back pain and period pain and lots and lots of lower pelvic nerve pain. I find sleeping and lying down near impossible for long periods of time at the night. I am a little sick of being the centre of attention everytime I venture off the farm, people just love to comment, question and stare since I am carrying a such a protruding belly way out front. So to say I am over.it is an understatement. Very ready for bub to make her appearance. The obs assures me that it is any time now but I still remember him saying that about Elka from 37 weeks on also and she arrived on her due date... so really I think he is just trying to cheer me up!

I am stressed - we are in the process of finalising our contract for our extensions with the builder and hoping that the bank, who gave us pre-approval last year will still come to the party even though a bit of time has passed (and technically we will have a second dependent now too!). We start major earthworks on Wednesday with a huge semi requiring us to pull out three different paddock fences so that he can drive across our sloped block to reach the base of the deck to install our new home sewerage system (oh that is as expensive as it sounds too!). So I am reluctantly preparing for the noise and privacy invasion to begin, what joy as a tired overwraught 38 week pregnant woman and even more so for the poor new born!

I think its that drawn out process and all the waiting - both of the pregnancy and the house extensions. I am ever so hopeful that in 2-3 weeks it will all be "systems go" and I can just focus on surviving through a very busy crazy stage of our life..

Really it couldnt be a worse time for Jase to be acting as his Senior Director as he is terribly distracted too and I would love to be able to rely more on his support.

So there it is - my head space - hehe sure to only get worse. Those last couple of weeks of pregnancy can be horrors! Hard to understand unless you have been there...
xoox

I am have been so impressed with all the Bloggers that have taken part in this so far. I felt inspired to do it too.

Here I am in my tired morning face, I am not sleeping well at the moment, but no I am not making excuses as I love the premise of these posts, revealing all... For those who might notice :) I got my hair cut and coloured the day before, so it is extra dark compared to my previous pics..


I had to share this cute pic of the munchkin too - she is make-up less too but was showing off her new jewels! Too cute!

I am 37 weeks pregnant today. In honour of being full term, I thought I would be brave and post a bare belly pic. I was measuring 39 weeks fundal height at 36 weeks and this pic is as big as I was with Elka at 40 weeks so I am hoping there isn't much more growing to be done! I am little concerned at my poor old tummy will deflate this time, the skin feels very stretched and worn out. I think there will be a lot of pilates and rising trot without stirrups to get my tummy back to some semblance of its former glory!

But its been magical carrying my second baby and what we have planned as my last pregnancy. She is so active and strong and constantly amazes me with how much movement and stretching she can do. I have ticked all my baby lists off and am now feeling prepared for her arrival. I wish I had a beautiful completed nursery to settle her into but the house extensions have not played the game and instead I hope to give her a gorgeous room for her 6 month half birthday ;) its all planned - pink and eggshell white striped half walls, with black and white paisley/flower accents and white furniture. We bought her coming-home outfit last night and besides completing the 100% blockout curtains (our house is very light!) which Mum will do for me next week, we are ready to welcome her to her half nursery/half spare room and to our bedroom which will accomodate the change table and basinette for the first few months.

Its turned cold all of a sudden really proving to me that my Winter bub will be here so soon. My due date is the 4th of June but I have a feeling about some time around the 27th-29th of May - its a full moon and Elka was born under a waning full moon. I loved that silent 3am moonlit drive into the hospital knowing our life was changing for ever, so the moon feels special to me. But of course I could still be impatiently waiting at 41 weeks too - babies love to make you guess!

I am very slow to walk now, I get a lot of pelvic pain and backache and tire quickly. But that said I am still coping with feeding the farm animals, doing groceries, shopping, carrying Elka etc so I am far from a resting invalid. I just take time to sit down a bit during the day, something I normally forget to do! I wish sleep was better but lying down puts all baby's weight on my organs and hips, making me ache and struggle to breath. Aaah I am dying for a comfy sleep on my flat tummy sometime in the future!

I am on my second day of maternity leave - it has not sunk in that I will not be officially back at work for another 8 or 9 months! Probably not sinking in as I am already planning on heading in to work next week to check on my newly trained staff and to follow up some work emails hehe

I am keeping Elka in 3 days of daycare for the next two weeks and I am looking forward to having those days to myself - I have beauty treatments, massages and lots of nesting jobs around the house planned.

Probably should rest too as I have low blood pressure again and get very dizzy very easily. I turn a lovely shade of gray which isnt very fetching!

But all in all, a very exciting time and I look forward to blogging about some big changes in the next few weeks - we should start earthworks on our house extension and plan to welcome our second child. Big stuff!

I think the whole baby concept is starting to get real to Elka now. She loves to say "Big Sister" and her best friend at daycare is also waiting to become a big brother, so they get together and play "babies in tummies" together apparently. Elka assures me that she will be a big help with the baby and she is very excited about the new seat that will go on the pram and in the car.

We have started explaining that Mummy will have to go to hospital. She listened seriously and then nodded and said "like Ferdie in the box to the Dr". Which was me taking our cat Ferdie to the vet in his travel box for his vaccinations, which has been a high point of her month as it was so exciting! Hoping not to get shoved in an animal transport box to get to hospital but hey at least she was on the right track! She is now all excited about this hospital trip as it means that Nanny and Poppy are coming to stay. Whatever keeps her happy whilst I am away is good to me...

She loves to show everyone my bare tummy - dragging my top up without any warning. In the middle of the Anzac Day Service she was determined that she was going to lift my dress up to show everyone, much to our earnest convincing otherwise!

She kisses my tummy and pats the baby - it makes me melt. She has now taken to putting her ear on my belly to listen to the heartbeat since Jase loves doing that. Jase snapped this beautiful photo of her doing it :) Gorgeous xoxo

So I was pushing a wheelbarrow full of hay over to one of the horse paddocks the other day and gritting my teeth and willing myself through a strong painful Braxton hicks contraction with the horses very impatiently watching and not being impressed with how slow I was. And it occurred to me - this mightn't be what most 35 week pregnant women would do... and so excuse my rave while I think about how pregnancy works for me and our lifestyle.

Both my pregnancies have been whilst living on our little farm. So I think it is normal to work outside, wander paddocks searching for lost horse rugs and boots, feed animals and care for large horses whilst juggling a big tummy and all the fun that comes with that. Do all pregnant women keep up their chores? Jase works late and for the safety of the animals in the early falling dark these days, I have no choice but to do the work - chickens need to be tucked up in the coop, ducks need feeding (one is blind) and the horses MUST get their hard feed (just ask them lol). This requires carrying two 20 litre buckets of wet feed across our front yard and into two paddocks, pushing the grumpy horses aside and filling their feedbins. Recently, this has also included treating Spech's hoof abcess, requiring lots of bending and avoiding of stamping cantakerous hooves.

But I wouldn't have it any other way, I don't know how to rest or do nothing.... I try - I try to not lift down bales of hay or hoik around 20kg bags of horse pellets but every now and then, it just has to be done. I feel weak and pathetic like an 18th century heroine if I wait and ask Jase to do everything...

So I stand for 90mins in the hot sun whilst the horse is shod...although I did faint last pregnancy whilst the equine dentist spent an epic session working on Spechs back molars.. but I remind myself I am pregnant, not ill. Its still a healthy body, not a disease or a disorder.

I did oblige my obs who told me that horseriding whilst pregnant was more risky then skydiving pregnant and asked me not too... but I still lunge the horses from the ground. Although the thought that I was probably a bit stupid for keeping this up did fly through my head the other day when our huge 17hh horse decided to chuck a bucking fit on the end of my lunge rein with me stuck in the middle of the 20m arena hoping he stayed on the outside and didnt come in any closer! To control such an outburst, you are best to lean on the rein and remind him who is boss - hmm that hurt, trying to convince a half tonne of horseflesh that I was stronger then him.

Last pregnancy I was about 36 weeks when I got pressed against a gum tree trunk by the two horses fighting each other.. that did keep me out of the paddock for a few days!

I really have no idea how other people treat themselves in the late third trimester but my theory is "if you don't use it, you lose it". Hence why I keep up all that I can - I still take the two flights of fire stairs to my obs office rather than the lift, and I did that even on my very last 39.5 week obs appointment last time.

The one thing that I probably do that most other pregnant ladies don't, is that I often absently find myself counting down weeks until "I can ride again" rather than weeks till the baby arrives lol!

Each to their own hey!

Not sure but man did this ad make me cry - link here

As a mother of a daughter(s), it just makes you realise how quick the time goes and how precious it is.


I have been a bit guilty of wishing away a few long tired afternoons at the moment.. waiting for Jase to get home or for it be Elka's bed time...this just reminded me to be in the moment and to enjoy every little bit...

Oh and interestingly Jase watched that ad with me and looked at me strangely when he saw me get teary. Maybe its a girl thing.. or like I said maybe its just third trimester nesting hormones :)

xox