Love, bubs and life on our little farm

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

Am due to post a 22 month update on Elka but I just couldn't back away from the irony of sharing this blog first. This blog pokes fun at those people we all know, the ones who when they have a baby also have a lobotomy and can no longer speak/think/breath anything but their children. To the point where their facebook updates etc is entirely about their children, often the childs pooing, sleeping and eating habits, thrilling stuff.

I have had a secret pet hate about losing friends to this behaviour for awhile now. Sure babies are gorgeous and can be almost all consuming and we are all guilty of being obsessed (didnt I just say I was about to blog about Elka hehe and hell more than one of my facebook status updates has mentioned parental woes/joys) but at least the majority of us can still chat about other things in our lives. And if I have one more mum say to me proudly "I have never left my child for a night/day/hour/minute/second" I think I might be in danger of saying my honest thoughts back. So the facebook status updates and commentary on this blog gave me a good giggle I must confess!

Its been a pretty rough week but its finishing off better than it started... between an injured horse, long work hours, lecturing and Jase away on work trips, I am so thankful for the lovely support of my family and wonderful husband...

This pregnancy has hit that third trimester hard part - I can't stand or sit or lie without horrible back pain and bub does not feel like she is fitting - she is giving me a fair bit of pain and discomfort with all her pushing and kicking and squashing of my pelvic nerves. I am walking slowly and can barely bend to reach the floor. But its all good really and I can see the end. Hard to believe its my last pregnancy and its nearly over.

I got the rest of the pics from my maternity shoot with Alicia from Iris Blue Photography, here are a few more favourites :)

So last year I painted our bedroom (twice but that is another story!) and I love the deep maroon against our dark antique furniture and black chandelier - its very romantic and cosy. However, I really wanted some artwork to finish it off....

Its a difficult bedroom to hang art in - one whole wall is built in cupboards with sliding doors, another wall has the folding doors for the walk-in-robe and a very imposing antique chest of drawers, another wall has a huge window and the wall that our bed head is up against has a fantastic wall light makes it difficult to hang anything above the bed (oh and the wall has an air conditioner as an eyesore too!).

However, a lazy flip through a catalogue the other day revealed two canvases that would work perfectly. So off I waddled to grab them on the first day of the sale and I am quite pleased with them! This is when I point out that we are only likely to remain in this bedroom as our Master bedroom for only another 4 or so months as we are building a new Master bedroom (so I have to choose paint colours and artwork all over again - arrgghhh!!)...

But in the meanwhile I can enjoy them for myself and then be happy that when it becomes our Guest bedroom that it will look nice and finished :)

So a few months ago, I promised myself (and most likely hubby) that if I bought that lovely red Oroton handbag that I would be be good and not buy a new handbag for aaaaggges ;)



Well all good and well until this Basque beauty called out to me at the Myer sale... try as I might, even a toddler demolishing racks of bras could not up put me off from lining to buy it too. Its nice and big and I am sucker for buckles, chains and studs... (thats the horserider in me!). It has proven rather handy already for carrying all of my junk and Elka's and also almost blocks my big pregnant belly from the side. (This is useful as people love to stare at you when you are heavily pregnant and then make a comment to their companion - it gets old so shielding can be a nice break!)

Well, I don't even feel guilty since I can't buy lovely new winter clothes as I am way to pregnant to bother and don't want to be stucks with big sacks that I will never wear again, I have to put my shopping frustrations to accessories instead!

The lovely Alicia at Iris Blue Photography not only took these shots juggling her own teething 8 month old son and Miss Elka trying to be the star of the show but then edited a selection the same day to share!

I couldn't recommend her any higher!

This was only one of the locations we shot in so I can't wait to see the rest sometime in the future...