Love, bubs and life on our little farm

Elka turned 6 weeks on Monday. She got to celebrate by going to her paeditrician check-up! The Dr is lovely and I really like his manner. Seems Elka did too as she flashed him huge grins and doey eyes the while time he examined her! He declared that he wasn't surprised that we didnt have any questions or things to discuss as he considered her to be a perfect baby. He also commented on how aware and "social" she is and that she was doing wonderfully. Hehe he also commented on her very fat round tummy, which she is so ticklish on - touching it is nearly guaranteed to get her to dissolve into smiles. She is now 5.41kg and 60cm long!! That puts her in the top 5 percentile for height and top 10 for weight! My little chubba bub!

So after a lovely check-up, we had a gorgeous lunch and Jase came with me to the first session of Parents group. There were some lovely girls there so I am looking forward to meeting some local friends :)

Today I had my 6 week check up at the obs - the lovely receptionists minded Elka for me and when I came back out they were just raving at how gorgeous she was as she had been chatting to them and charming them. She is cheeky! But I got the all clear from the obs and he even commented on how good my stomach was looking and how strong my pelvic floor is (hey these things matter after a pregnancy!). He also assured me that due to the "loosening" that giving birth does to your pelvis, that I should be OK to try and give birth vaginally next time as there will be more room. So I guess I will give it another shot and not book that C-sect in straight away!

I also visited work for a morning tea and it was so nice to see everyone and Elka was a little angel thankfully - no crying this time!

I have started pilates and the exercise bike again but slowly slowly! I nearly expired trying to do one sit-up! Things are just so weak but I am determined to get it all back ;)
I am expressing milk and trying to get a frozen store set-up. I am loving the breastfeeding weight loss - I cant keep up all my jeans (size 10's) so I went and bought two cute new pairs in size 9! Woot - 6 weeks after birth, not only am I back in pre-pregnancy clothes but they are too big and I am down a size - nice! Not what I was expecting!

Spech has recovered from a strained fetlock brought on from playing silly buggers in the paddock with Sam so I am looking forward to the weekend and a chance for another ride! We also have a BBQ with friends and catching up with my parents and my visiting uncle - should be nice..

As for updates on Elka - well she is officially in 000 now - the 0000 is long gone! She is also out of newborn nappies and wearing the infant ones. She is cooing and chatting and loves sticking her tongue out at us! She smiles and smiles and smiles - even when she is sleepy or just waking up. As soon as she recognises my face she starts grinning. She has grabbed her playgym toys a few times rather than just hitting them. She is sleeping fantastically, self settling like a champ and never fusses at night - she is sleeping from 7pm-7am as per Tizzie Hall's routines with a dreamfeed about 10pm and a quiet feed at 2.30am. I can only keep her up during the day for about 70mins before she is overtired and then she sleeps for 1.5-2 hours at a time mostly. Such an easy bub to deal with! And she has developed gorgeous long black eyelashes - they look stunning resting on her soft cheeks when she has her eyes closed, so I just had to get a picture!

..in all senses of the word! Decided I was close enough to 6 weeks so took advantage of Jase being home to saddle up Spech and get back into it. Damn it felt good!!! And he was brilliant - he was soft, flexible and remembered his lateral work. This is the first time I have ridden him since he has had his hooks and ramps removed (teeth issues) and I can feel the difference.

But it was only a gentle walk/trot session (for both him and me!) so I am still craving a good gallop! Was keen to be back on again today but have woken up with tender but and thighs so I think in the interests of being able to walk for the rest of the week, I will rest today!

I am hopeful that bubba's good sleeps will allow me to sneak a ride in during the week :)
Happy days!

I keep asking myself when the holiday is going to end! I cant believe that I get to stay home everday and chill out! Its pretty blissful. Yeah yeah there is that whole looking after a newborn thing! But she is a joy to care for and truly compare to how hard I am used to working and exercising etc I do feel like I am getting a break! Not sure how many mums would want to kill me for saying that!

But I mean, I have had morning teas, afternoon teas, lunches and shopping all with lovely mums and friends in the last week :) I was out lunging Spech on a gorgeous day when all my workmates were slaving inside the lab. I get lots of bub cuddles and she smiles and babbles at me while I stare in wonder at her. I mean its not too tough!

I have the weekend to look forward to now - 2 whole days with Jase and Elka. Looking forward to letting him have some carer time and I can sneak off to play with the horses! Next week she has her 6 week check-up and we start Parents group.. I also have my 6 week check-up and I am popping into work to say hello :)

I bought myself a lovely top today to spoil myself (I keep buying Elka clothes instead of me!) - good for breastfeeding and its gorgeous :) Next on the list is jeans but I had a pram and Elka in the carrier so trying on jeans just wasn't going to happen! I think I will stay much the same weight and shape? I am 60kg (so 2 kg less than true horse competition weight - which I am not aiming for at the momement!) and back in all my size 10 pants and tops... so should be safe to buy jeans now. Although I hav to watch all these morning and afternoon teas or I might put on weight with this good life!

Bring on next week when I can start pilates and the exercise bike again (and horseriding - whohooo!)

And because I hate posting without pics - here are two pics of my gorgeous munchkin that I took during our own little "photo shoot" :)

Well OK maybe not but I dont trust them! We seem to have plague proportions of them at the moment and they are eating all my horses grass - grrr!!

I am actually quite scared of them after a few feral ones down in Canberra drowned a ladies dog in front of her and another one stalked a women hiding in a shed for hours. Yes truly!

So I get up this morning and there are like 5 at my backyard gate and then a huge one literally pulling apart one of our paddock fences cause he couldnt be bothered jumping over it. Then I am lunging Spech and all I can see is bouncing - there are so many! Poor things I think they are being run out of the area due to all the clearing and development - which is so sad :(

In other news, I took Spech's rug off today to do some repairs (I am handy with a sewing needle and a horse rug but not much else!) and while he was "nude", Sam has bitten him and literally pulled off a massive chunk of flesh :( Poor Spech. I was just out there putting the chickens away and Sam attacked Spech and Spech in his haste to escape fell over a tree stump and hurt his leg. Grrr if I am to have a competition ready horse, I may have to seperate them so that Spech doesnt get injured and maimed! But they are also best friends - what to do!? Sam is a bit big for his boots at the moment :(

ooh the dramas at Berraba. Jeez I think I need to get out more!

Oh I noticed today - Elka has grown beautiful lush eyelashes - they are so pretty and she looks like a doll when she has her eyelashes resting on her cheeks while she is asleep.. gorgeous

She slept 9 hours straight last night - what a gift from the heavens, so much sleep for me! It was great! And has beena little angel today snoozing away. FUnny how sleep brings on sleep in a baby!

Little Elka had her PixiFoto shoot today :) And we discovered that the poor little dear isn't very photogenic! She won't be being asked to be a child model anytime soon! She managed to move, frown, not smile, slump and generally look chubby in nearly every shot! The photographer was working hard to get the shots! I think she is even more the cuter for being so hard to make look cute - if that makes sense!

She then passed out from tiredness while we shopped and then woke up just in time to scream the house down when we returned to PixiFoto to pick the photos! We quite liked our free photo and there were two others that were just beautiful so that made choosing easy (and much cheaper than expected!) We dont get them for another two weeks though..

In the meanwhile, I managed to catch her gorgeous grin this morning. She was charming Hubby with lots of big smiles so I finally snapped one! I know I am biased but her grin is SO cheeky and lovely - it lights up her eyes :)


And in annoying news - only 1 week till I can start riding again and Spech has thrown a shoe - ggrrr!! Am so hoping to be able to get the farrier out sooner rather than later!

Elka had another check up at the baby clinic today - my little one has cracked the 5kg mark! She put on another 284g and is 5.014 kg now! she also grew another 0.5 cm in length and in head circumference. The nurse was super happy with her alertness and commented on just how strong her head and neck are!

So I am a happy mum :)

I also found out about the local mothers group which starts soon - will be nice to meet some local mums. There is also a stroller-exercise group that I might go to...

Bubs is growing up in leaps and bounds - she talks away, cooing and making sweet baby noises. Her grins are getting bigger and even more frequent. She is growing out of 0000 clothes on a daily basis - which is a shame cause they are all so cute! She has had her first bottle of expressed breast milk - she didnt swallow much but was happy to suck the bottle... She is sleeping like an angel in the afternoons, evenings and overnight - up to 6 hours between feeds. She has much lighter sleeps in the mornings and can catnap but I cant complain!

I am loving being home looking after her - its so special and peaceful.

I got the cutest grin from Elka when I was just playing with her! She is 4 weeks today and is so alert now!

She loves her play mat and even reaches out her hands and knocks the two toys that are rattles. Its not really co-ordinated but there is definite purpose there!

Elka is 24 days and we headed to our Childhood clinic for another check up. Where I discovered my little newborn is now a big bubby! She has put on 720g in 2 weeks bringing her up to 4.73kg! She also put on 2cm in length and 1.5cm in head circ!

I am so happy to see that breastfeeding is working so well - its just an amazing thing and to see how I can nourish a little growing being is quite boggling! Plus the weight loss has been superb!! ;)

Its cold here now - winter has finally made an appearance. We have had some beautiful rain so its green, a far cry from last winter and its devestating drought... All the animals are well - the horses albeit a little neglected and hairy!

Wearing a little dress that I had as a baby, handmade by one of my mums friends. Showing her little frown that she does when she is taking it all in!


Wearing a dress that my Grandmother gave me as a baby - with her happy face :)


My little chubber :)


Playing with her mum :)

My little one is three weeks old today and she has changed so much! We brought home a little newborn who barely opened her eyes and now we have a little bumper who stares at everything and takes it all in. She has put on so much weight and has little fat rolls everywhere - even on her wrists! She has the hugest double chin too!

Her nature is still very calm and accepting. She barely cries except for hunger and loves to feed for long periods at a time. She self settles in her cot or basinette and sleeps really well. She naps during the day for 1.5-2 hours usually and sleeps much deeper at night for between 3-5 hours at a time. She feeds and then goes straight back down for more sleep at night which makes my life so much easier. We have never had to settle her to sleep in our arms or co-sleep with her. I am hopeful that we wont have any major sleep issues with her (but who really knows!)

She loves her bouncer and sits in it watching the moving bubbles and fish with an intense stare. We put up a toy over her car seat and she loves to stare at that bobbing around! She stares up into our faces and pulls the most brilliant cross eye faces as she works it all out - it is so cute! She has a "happy face" where she has an upturned open mouth which is so close to a smile but not quite! I am looking forward to seeing her first smile!

She has been out nearly every day - lots of shopping and walks. We are getting pretty good at balancing her feeds and changes and I am getting used to having to try and breast feed in public areas..

We have bought her a carrier where she sits on our front and she falls asleep in it quickly. It must remind her of being in my tummy with the body warmth and motion.

We are going to the childhood clinic for her next weigh in on Thursday and having a morning tea catch up with some other new mums from our antenatal class on Friday which should be lovely. Jase goes to uni/work from Wednesday onwards so we should start developing an at home routine soon.. SHe has visited my work and cried the whole time, making liars of us about how good she is!

I cant believe how fast she is growing up but every new thing is just a delight and I cant wait to experience it all!

Tummy two weeks post birth

Well its no longer an update on bubs and I together... so I thought I would take the time to record how I am going post birth and then of couse do an update on little Elka with excessive amounts of photos naturally!

So its 2.5 weeks since I gave birth... and I feel pretty darn fantastic! My tummy is nearly gone and I am dying to tone the poor flabby flesh up! I am dropping kgs daily thanks I am pretty sure to the breast feeding :). Am now 61kg and am hoping to eventually get down to about 58kg but not in any great rush and am also suspicious that my huge boobs are responsible for about 1kg each lol

At times I miss that huge tummy full of bub but mostly its bliss rediscovering what it feels like to be slim and mobile :) I am loving sleeping (when I get a chance!)as I can roll around and sleep on my tummy.

My stitches were painful for the first week but were much less than I had imagined they would be. By Day 10 they were more or less feeling healed.. I am no longer getting cramping from my shrinking uterus either.

In fact the most painful thing has been the milk coming into my boobs. But I am proud of how well my body is handling breastfeeding and supporting my little one (she is piling on the weight - 500g in 6 days!)so its all worth it - yep even those rotten stretch marks!

In all I must say the recovery has been so much faster and easier than I would ever expect. It does make C-sections look tough in comparison.

I am not even that sleep deprived - my little angel lets me get at least 2.5 hours of sleep at a time, sometimes 3.5-4 hours at a stretch and she goes straight back to sleep after her feed. I am very lucky!

I visited work today - a bit of a shock to the system, trying to juggle work talk and a screaming baby! But it was nice to see the familar faces and touch base...

All in all, life is good and I am counting down to being able to get back on the horse, exercise bike and back into pilates!

Hehe with recent arrivals, the dining table does pale into insignificance! But I do love our new table and how it fills out the dining area so I thought it was worth showing a few pics :)

Its a long one, I wanted to record everything I could remember so feel free to just skim. We had hoped for an active labour with lots of support from my husband. Fortunately we were also very open minded about what might actually happen as I am afraid my labour was far from active! Of course I would do it all again for my little Princess.

I had been experiencing prelabour for two weeks – regular 10 minute Braxton hicks that would drop to about 20 minutes at night. They drove me nuts and served to get Jase and Mum excited that it was labour quite a few times! It didn’t help that my obs kept getting excited at every weekly appointment and saying that he would see me in hospital within the next few days – hmm three weeks of him saying that and I was not so convinced! Sleep was pretty difficult and I was disappointed to feel myself getting weaker and less rested as the time wore on. But I continued to rest and relax and do lovely outings, long walks and shopping with Mum and Jase, soaking up the free time that we so rarely get! Around Thursday the 12th of June, the Braxton hicks began to get more uncomfortable and incorporated some back pain and lower pelvic cramping and I noticed bubs head feeling very low and heavy, making walking a slow process. I sent Mum home for the weekend on Friday the 13th and spent the day doing my last nesting jobs that I had planned for my pre-baby maternity leave. My lower back was really aching and my pelvis had that periody ache to it… that afternoon I had a bloody show – I finally felt like something might happen.

Jase and I spent Saturday walking around a nearby lake and driving over bumpy roads and were disappointed that all seemed to have settled down and I was just back to a few painful Braxton hicks and most just being painless tightenings. By then I was OVER it and had banned timing of them – I didn’t want to know! On Sunday the 15th of June, we tried some of the old wives tales to speed things up – including the usual couple time ;) and also some more walking, a really good cry (watching PS I Love You – its such a sweet memory of both of us tearing up) and eating pineapple! Well something worked – we did the groceries that afternoon and I could barely walk with all the pelvic aching and pain I was experiencing... again I banned any timing of contractions, had a shower and headed to bed. I had my suspicions that this was it but didn’t want to get my hopes up so just slept…

As per recent nights, a strong painful contraction woke me at 1.30am (16th June) – I headed to the loo and settled back in bed. Another woke me up so I sleepily checked the clock and noticed that it was only 10 minutes later and it had been equally as painful as the prior one. By the third one at 10 minutes later again, my breathing through it had woken Jase… I told him that this felt like it was actually going somewhere and asked him to make me a warm milo and some biscuits to eat as I felt a little nauseous and wanted something in my stomach. We settled into bed to watch crap night tv and to wait excitedly… but then I noticed that the contractions were dropping to 6 minutes apart. We live semi-rural and the hospital is a fair drive and they had told us to start heading in once contractions were under 10 minutes, so now we had to get moving! I jumped in the shower and washed my hair – much to Jases amusement I also blow dried it and applied some make-up – not sure what I was thinking! I guess I just figured it might be my last chance to look tidy for a long time! By the time I rung the hospital, I was having trouble talking and walking through the pain… we tidied the house, put out food for the animals and finished packing my hospital bag. As organised as we had been, Jase still had to go out and repair the chicken feeder in the dark at 3am – there is always something that gets overlooked! We locked up, walked to the car under the beautiful bright moonlight and realised that next time we drove back in our little farm, life would be very different.

I called my parents on the way in and let them know – they are a two hour drive away so they decided to head up to our place in the morning to take care of all the animals and wait for news. Contractions sped up to 4 minutes apart in the car and we were glad to pull into the hospital car park! The security guard was waiting to escort us to the mat ward – which he did at a very fast walk leaving me well and truly behind! I mean I would have thought it was usual for the labouring women he escorts to need a slower pace! The midwives welcomed us at the birthing suite front desk and said I looked way too smiley to be in labour (hehe the blow dried hair and make-up probable didn’t help)! They moved us into a birth suite and explained that there were three other ladies coming in that night (only 4 birth suites) and another 4 expected that morning so it was going to be a busy day.. It was about 4am and they placed me on the monitors. I had nice strong contractions and bubs heart rate was good, it was all looking promising. Then the midwife did an internal and boy did her face drop! Despite all my prelabour pains and strong contractions, I wasn’t dilated at all!!! She could force a finger through which then made me 0.5cm. I was almost completely effaced however so something had been happening. She explained that this meant it was going to be a long labour – she thought I wouldn’t get to 5cm until midday and then 1cm an hour from then on. So she was warning us not to expect bubs until Monday night… They decided to keep me in the suite however which surprised me since they were so busy.

Jase and I were keen for an active labour and had read Juju Sudin’s Birth Skills so we decided to get up and move around and not worry about times/dilation etc. We had a lovely shower together – loving that it wasn’t our tank water that we had to worry about preserving! I leant on the bed through the contractions and used my breathing to breathe the pain out, I paced the room and tried the bounce ball. The hours flew and soon it was 8am in the morning and we were waiting for our obs to drop in. He eventually got to us and was in a huge rush (he lacks somewhat in bedside manner unfortunately). He did a quick internal and I was only 1cm so he grabbed the hook and broke my waters and demanded I be put on a synto drip. In this instance I lost my active labour as I was now required to be on the monitoring machines :(. I managed to negotiate with the midwife that I could have one more shower before the drip was inserted. During this shower, the contractions really increased in severity and became rapid and my waters were coming out in gushes. Unfortunately, my waters had meconium in them so now I was very definitely placed on the bed with monitoring. The nurse inserted the synto and the contractions ramped up even more. I really began to struggle with the intensity and speed of the contractions – they were insanely painful and so strong that they were forcing my lower abdomen to push. Because I wasn’t dilated enough I was pushing against my own tight muscles and it was incredibly painful. We tried the gas but the contractions came on so fast and intense I couldn’t get enough gas in before the peak of the contraction and was just hyperventilating. I found grunting and moaning more effective against the pain than trying to keep the gas thing in my mouth! At this stage I was like a wild thing and I could see discomfort in Jason’s face whilst he watched me and tried to coach me through it. I was frantic, crying and thrashing, desperately saying to Jason how was I going to do this for another 8 hours or so – I had never expected to be dealing with constant strong contractions so early into the labour/dilation whilst being made to lie down. I was asked if I wanted an epidural as the ladies in the birthing suites on either side of me were having them and the anaesthetist was on his way. Now I had hoped to not need to go down the epidural path as I had wanted to avoid interventions but unfortunately the breaking of my waters and synto drip had already caused my labour to be unnaturally strong and I didn’t know how I could cope.

I agreed to the epi and then had the long wait for it to be my turn! It was difficult to get the epi in as the contractions were nearly impossible to sit still through and there was basically no breaks between them, but eventually it was done. Straight away it was obvious that it had not worked well – there was a large window of pain throughout the lower right of my abdomen. They tried a few different positions but nothing much helped. However, the severe level of pain had been relieved and I relaxed in discomfort rather than agony for an hour or two. It was midday by now. By 2pm I had become very uncomfortable again – the pain had overridden any relief that the epidural had offered and I was panting and groaning through the contractions again – the pain had moved into my lower back also and I was feeling contractions and burning throughout it. The midwives gave me two large top ups of the epidural drug but nothing would touch the back pain. Now I was incredibly uncomfortable as the extra drug doses had completely numbed my legs to my groin and I couldn’t stay up in the bed. Lying flat was worst for my back pain so it became very awkward. Jason found my dead legs that kept flopping off the end of the bed amusing but I was less impressed!

By examination at about 4pm, I was 8cm dilated so there wasn’t time to call back the anaesthetist to try and fix things. I was assured that bub would be out very soon so I continued to struggle through the constant contractions and insane back pain. The obs checked me at about 6pm, helped her move past my cervix lip with me pushing and declared things ready to continue pushing. More synto was given to me to try and space the contractions out as they were basically constant and not dropping before peaking again. This made them super strong again and I don’t remember much as the pain, particularly the back pain, was taking over everything. I pushed and pushed which made the back pain worse. Jase was the only reason I could keep pushing, his gentle encouragement was what I focused on through the haze.

After one and half hours of pushing, the obs stormed in and was shocked as bub hadn’t moved despite the enormous contractions. I wasn’t surprised – despite trying my hardest with the pushing, I couldn’t feel her moving down the birth canal at all – she was still right at the top. The obs very helpfully kept telling me “something is wrong, something is wrong, we are getting this baby out”! All of a sudden it was all hands on deck and I was up in stirrups, the obs was in a gown and gumboots and he was trying to vacuum her out. I was pushing as much as I could but it still wasn’t enough. He asked for episotomy scissors and I tuned in, having basically not spoken to anyone in hours, and demanded a local! He had to cut twice, cutting deeper through my muscle and start more vacuuming, the pulling was intense - I never thought she was going to come but then her head finally crowned. She was so big compared to me so it took a hell of a lot more pushing and strong pulling from the obs to even get her shoulders and body out! It was pretty epic! But then she was up on my chest and it was all over at 8.03pm. I was marvelling at her dark hair and olive skin like her Dad and despite the rough entry to the world she looked perfect just with a little egg on her head which was gone by morning. I had lots of skin to skin time and Elka had a breastfeed and Jase got to weigh her. The stitching took forever but apparently my obs has a great reputation for excellent stitching so I didn’t complain. While I was being stitched, the obs explained I was just too small through the birthing canal and that I wasn’t a good shape for giving birth. Yep after that ordeal I believed him! I don’t think my strong pelvic floor muscles from horseriding helped either. The midwife bent the rules and let my mum, dad and brother come into the birth suite and we had a lovely visit... then after wash for bub and I, it was off to our room for a night of sleep :).

We had a great hospital stay with a double bed private room so that Jase could stay and learn and bond with Elka also. The midwives were so patient and we asked and learnt a lot. We were quite confident new parents by the end and were continually asked if we were really first time parents! My baby blues lasted about 10 minutes when I had a little boohoo as I had been told that Elka had some slight jaundice! Oh and when they took her away in the middle of the night for her heelprick test and didn’t bring her back for 40 minutes. She is sleeping and feeding like a champ and I am amazed at the level of emotions I am experiencing. I am feeling pretty well physically and am shocked at how fast the preggy tummy disappears. I can’t remember being a big whale anymore! Also I am loving being able to roll over in bed I must admit ;).

The anaesthetist contacted me the next day to discuss the epidural and its failure. He explained that the back pain was caused by her head pressing nerves in my tight birth canal and he said that it was basically impossible to block these nerves with an epidural :(. So now I am pretty darn frightened of trying to birth number two vaginally which makes me sad – it’s so hard when it’s your own body that is the problem!

But as I said I would do it all again as I am so in love with my little girl and I love seeing Jase be such a proud Dad. Life is just wonderful.

Elka Gwendoline – her middle name is after my late grandmother.
16 June 2008 – her due date, 8.03pm.
3.81kg (8 pounds 6), head circumference 36.2cm, length 52cm, Apgars of 9 and 9.

Just a quick one as time is a luxury these days!

But my little girl arrived on her due date - June 16, 3.81 kg, 52cm, head circum - 36.2cm and apgars of 9 and 9.

I will write up my birth story and post that. But I am LOVING being a mum and she is truly a little angel and I cant believe how beautiful and precious she is!

Just trying to rest, relax and soak up just how lucky I am :)

Have had some sad family dramas which has really put my whinging and moaning in perspective. I feel so blessed to have my gorgeous loving husband who has been with me every step of my journey and has always made me feel like a goddess..

Have throughly enjoyed hanging out with Mum and Hubby - lots of nice walks and sits in the sun - not too tough!

I am 39 weeks and 4 days, still experiencing the joys of prelabour with regular contractions (mainly painless - a little period pain) - not easy for sleeping but am managing to get some :) At least it distracts me from the other pregnancy aches and pains! Am getting increasingly less mobile - am really waddling with a bubs head so darn low! And her head hits my cervix and left thigh nerves which makes me jump alot!
A little nausea has returned, am not too fussed about eating at the moment.. am still about 69kg so am happy to have kept weight gain under 70kg... definitely cant complain about my pregnancy, I think I have been very lucky and my bubs has been such a good girl passing all her milestones and not causing any worries :)

Am feeling like I could go anytime now - lots of backache, cramping and a show now (yay!) - its very excitiing and strange having no idea when and how! But obs was super happy with me and thought it would be very soon so I guess I just have to wait and see ;)

We bought the new Olympus camera that I have had my eye on for awhile - am very happy with it! Just perfect for taking pics of our new little one :)

still here :) at 39 weeks...

nothing much to report - just getting slower and sorer! Off to an obs appointment today but not expecting any real feedback... bub will come when she is ready :)

Had a nesting spurt yesterday afternoon - not the usual mummy urge methinks! The horses got groomed, snipped and trimmed and they look lovely! Now I wont feel like I am neglecting them when I am away and busy for the next few weeks... hehe who needs to scrub floors!

Had a lovely weekend with hubby including an indulgent day down the Gold coast wandering around and treating ourselves to a relaxing lunch...

No real plans for this week - Mum is coming up to babysit me and I will try and be good and relax and watch some DVDs and rest ;)