school holidays

I can not believe how time flies and how much of it I used to have and now don't.

Argghhh

I wanted to write about the school holidays while they were still fresh in my mind and now nearly a month on I can barely remember what I wanted to say.

This set of hols sept were very wet and uni had very little time off, so I was on my own with both Kt and Rj for the most part.

I cut out holiday fun information pages from the herald and also the child newspaper available at the library.

Whenever I could I tried to schedule an activity for us.

Because of the rain, we missed out on doing a couple of outdoor things like active kids sports and going to the duck pond and the beach and the playground.

We did get to do Active kids gymnastics at suttons, which Kt really enjoyed!

She later drew a picture of one of the activities and I recognized it straight away!!

While we were there skydivers came down from directly above us ... and I was surprised to see that a cheeky magpie followed the skydivers down and tried to attack a bit of the parachute that is attached to the top and billows out the back in the breeze.

Other activities we attempted were the kids dig it day at the museum. An adventure made possible with the help of Aunty Izzy. She was able to keep an eye on Kt and get her to different activities for me while I was feeding RJ.

That was probably the most public breastfeeding I have attempted... luckily his feeds are fairly quick now ... 15-20 minutes or so (less if there are too many distractions).

It was on this day that I learnt the news that I would be an aunty in April of next year!!!!

I was supposed to take Kt swimming during the holidays to prepare for swimming lessons at school, but did not really get a chance as a result of the weather. Also not sure how I would have tackled it with RJ as well ... although that will not be so much of an issue as he gets bigger.

We went to the shops one day and watched a short romeo the radio dog show. Kt got to go up on stage and do an animal impersonation and in return they gave her a romeo the radio dog plush toy and a balloon.

She also had 3 birthday parties to go to during these holidays so that provided some good entertainment for her as well.

When we didn't have any outside activities planned I tried to keep her entertained as much as possible and spend time with her and give her attention while Rj was sleeping (which he does tend to do a lot of during the day ... especially if I don't have to wake him up to take him to school for drop offs or pick ups).

We did play a lot of computer games together ... and spent time doing smartkiddies which is a fantastic maths website.

We also made things and just played games and I chatted to her and tried to involve her while I did absolutely essential chores.

At the moment she just loves to pretend to be an abandoned puppy who I fall in love with and look after. So I just incorporate her character and mine into my usual daytime flow eg come on puppy lets go downstairs and I will hang some clothes on the line and you can check out our yard/meet our other dog etc.... now lets go upstairs and have some bones for lunch ....


When Rj was awake I tried to give her something she could do on her own ... play on the computer or continue with an artwork or read us or herself a story.

Late in the afternoon when I have my most intensive time with Rj ... which is a feed followed by a bath, I would usually let her watch a movie so that I could get on with what I needed to do without arguments, interruptions etc.

Sometimes if the timing is right Kt and Rj will share the big bath together and this usually works well too ... although sometimes Kt wants to hop out while I am still drying and dressing Rj and instead of just getting out and drying and dressing herself, she insists on staying in the bath and getting cold until I am able to come and help her.

I learnt a lot from the holidays about how to handle everyone and make dinner and keep things on track.

The absolute essentials only got done ... the house was and still kind of is a total mess, but at least there were few arguments and not much bad feeling.

More on arguments later ... I think I hear Rj ... or perhaps I hear my stomach

kt's new bedtime routine

Over the last year or so Kt's bedtime routine has become more elaborate.

We used to just read her two picture books and then be finished by about 8.30 or 9pm.

Then I introduced her to bigger chapter books and during the end of year school holidays started reading her two chapters instead.

Some of the books had fairly long chapters and would it would take 45 min to 1 hour to read the two chapters.

When uni read to her he would only read one chapter, but then allow her to read for a while to herself and then let her switch the light off when she was finished.

She did this happily for a while and then started to get scared and want one of us to switch the light off for her ... and then sometimes wanted us (usually me) to stay with her because she was scared of the dark or of being alone in the dark.

Once we got back to school days Kt still wanted to continue and while I was pregnant and not really able to play very much I figured that reading to her was an acceptable alternative.

I also used to stay in her room after stories were finished (sometimes after I had read stories or after uni had) and lie on the bed and let her put her feet on my belly and feel RJ kick.

Because I was pregnant and sleepy I often used to fall asleep before she did and my snoring would keep her awake and she would eventually send me off to my own room. LOL!!

Now that we have both kids though it is really difficult for me to read to her for such a long time and then stay in her room with her until she falls asleep.

I was bringing my laptop into her room and reading up on blogs until she fell asleep, but then I would continue long after she slept, instead of getting on with other chores or catching up on my sleep.

So the bedtime ritual was stretching to 1 and a half hours. Often as soon as I finished with Kt, Rj would wake up and need his feed ... and there would go another 1 hour leaving me working on cleaning up the kitchen and making school lunches at 10.30pm or later.

This was frustrating when all I wanted to do was go to sleep.

Uni and I discussed the situation and we came up with a plan for school nights.

We would be firm on 8pm teeth cleaning time. Then there would be time for some story reading from us and some time for kt to read herself stories before lights get turned off at 9pm.

So for example we might read for 30 minutes and let kt read to herself for the other 30 minutes.

At 9pm the light goes off and we say goodnight and have a final chat for a few minutes.

If Kt is scared we can stay with her for 5 minutes. If she tries to argue or negotiate (both of which she is really good at) then we do not get involved and we repeat that tonight is a school night and she has to go to bed on time. I have to go and have a shower or clean the kitchen or make lunches or whatever and I will come back and check on her after that.

Or if I am ironing in the lounge room I can say that she can come and find me if she needs me ... but that she will be able to see the light and hear the TV and know she is not alone.

The first night I tried this I took her by surprise. There was a bit of a fuss kicked up at each stage ... particularly when I would not stay in her room ... but I switched on the TV and did my ironing and she fell asleep.

the next night the only hiccup was again when I went to leave... but I told her that I had to have a shower and that I would check on her when I got out. If she was awake I would come in and give her a kiss and if she was asleep I would come in and give her a much quieter gentle kiss.

She curled herself up in a ball and cried a bit ... although It was more complaint crying than hurt or scared crying.

When I came out of the shower to check on her I was shocked and very pleased to find her fast asleep!!

The third night there was no fuss or argument or attempts at negotiation at all ... and when I came to turn off the light at 9pm she was tucked up in bed finished her stories and waiting for me!!!

Unfortunately tonight was not a school night so we allowed her to read stories to herself for as long as she wanted and there was a bit of attempted negotiation and I had to stay with her for 5 minutes ... but I left before she fell asleep and she didn't protest so I believe that all in all things were successful.

I will admit I am looking forward again to the next school night when I can be completely firm and not negotiate at all.

It feels good to not constantly cave in ... OK you can have another one, this one is the last one, OK one more but that has to be the last one etc etc.

Uni was right in that although she is clever and a great negotiator, she does seem to feel more secure when there are firm guidelines and rules.

And it is easier for me to stick with a plan if it is firmly established and well thought out in advance

experiencing the sunrise

This morning RJ woke up at 5am for a feed.

It was dark when we started the feed, but partway through the sun rose.

RJ stopped feeding and looked intently at the side of my face. He seemed a bit puzzled and I sat him up to have a burp.

He then looked at the bright patches of sunlight from the sun rise that appeared on my pajama sleeve.

I realized that this must have been what he had noticed while he was feeding ... perhaps the light changed the colour of my hair or lit up my face.

He is a very observent little boy.

We also had a feed at 10.30 last night and he was so cute. He was full and was just lying peacefully cuddled up with me looking up at my face. I gently stroked his chin and cheek and he smiled and closed his eyes.

I stroked his face a couple of times and each time he would smile and close his eyes.

In the end I took him to bed before he fell fully asleep ...

I needed to change his nappy and did not want to let him fall asleep and then have to disturb him.

I'm going to be an aunty!!!

Ok this is a very quick post.

I have been finding it really hard to write anything.

There is so much I want to say but do not know where to start.

I think the words will start flowing if I tell myself I only need to write a little bit at a time.

In a few months time I will be an aunty and my kids will have their first cousin!!!

I am so excited that the age gap between my baby and his cousin will be less than a year ... and at the same time feel sad that kt didn't have the chance to experience this when she was little.

She will be a great big cousin ... with two little ones (and perhaps more later)following her around ... and I know she will be wonderful with them.

I hope having them in her life will make her feel needed, loved and valued.

At the moment she is sad and a lot has changed so that is understandable.

I hope things improve for her and I will have to try and remember to give her lots of hugs and kisses ... and to breathe deeply and try to keep calm when she is being unreasonable or disagreeable.

another breast infection

hmmm this time after a 13hour period with no feeds.

I think I am going to have to start waking the little guy at 10.30 or 11pm so his night time fast is more like 8 hours rather than 12 to 13.

Had fever and a really sore really red breast this time.

Spent most of my day yesterday at the doctor, then at medicare.

Had a fairly full weekend ... uni at work so kt and rj and cooking and all their care and entertainment fell to me.

Was totally exhausted by sun pm ... and really looking forward to a quiet monday at home ... not at the doctors.

Anyway stayed home today and am making the most of my time!

Even did some weeding, photography, washing etc.

Uni bought himself a karcher high pressure cleaning system and has made all the paths and concrete around our yard clean and sparkling. He used the water from our tanks!!!!

Spring is just about here and the garden is blooming ... it hasn't had much attention at all from me but things like the blue salvia which I thought were brown and dead have all started to regrow!!!

Looks like I should not pluck a dead plant out until spring because it might only be hibernating.

Whenever uni pays attention to the yard (mowing) or in this case high pressure cleaning it makes me want to get out there and complement his work with some of my own.

I didn't get all the weeds but I have made a dent in them.

I also took some photos of the garden ... my lemon plant has flowered again and smells divine!

And so does kt's bean plants ... one of which has a bean pod!!!!

The kids each grew a bean plant in class and we also grew some additional ones at home.

Borlotti beans (this is the kind that smells so nice, has such pretty flowers, is climbing rapidly ... and has a pod) and also chickpeas ... these have a small pretty white flower and lovely delicate dark green leaves.

They are all flourishing in a pot full of tomato growing soil in our circular garden.

all I want for christmas are my two front teeth

Today kt lost her second front tooth at school.

She looks very cute with an enormous gap in her mouth and is saying her "s" and "c" sounds in a very funny way!

I have taken photos and will upload them soon. LOL well sooner or later anyway.

R is still not having a good time dealing with the antibiotics in my system. He has been very sleepy and wanting 2hourly feeds. He then falls asleep after each feed, gets put to bed and wakes up after 45min to an hour.

We did go shopping at Coles this morning and he had his first ride in a shopping trolley. I never took Kt in one before, but I figured I would give it a try this time around.

I strapped him in and the "seatbelt" was way too loose, so I basically kept my hand on him the whole shopping trip.

He lay quietly looking around at everything, but if he had been wriggly I would have taken him out immediately.

Today was the first day I dropped kt off at school and let her walk by herself from the car to the "surfing the pages" room where the year 1 students have been having stories read to them before school each morning.

She was pretty pleased to be able to do such a big kid thing on her own!!!

Then R and I scooted off to the shops, beating the crowds and got home just after 9am.

I commented to uni later that this was probably only the second or third time in the last 7 years that I have managed to get to the shops before 9 in the morning.

When kt was a baby it took me most of the day to get organized to go out anywhere.

Admittedly that was because she was a late sleeper.

Anyway I had better go now and wait for the tooth fairy.

second breast infection and more kicking feet

argh .... its only been about a month since the last one!

Luckily I had another script ready to go and jumped on it fairly quickly.

It was the other breast this time ... above and right up to the nipple.

Poor R is suffering from some very runny and explosive poos at the moment as a result of either the infection or the antibiotics.

He also still has a cold ... poor thing.

I will ask my doctor next visit if I can get another script for antibiotics so I have one on hand. Next visit will be in about 6 weeks for R's second set of injections.

He is still such a sweety!

Now he can propel himself out from under the covers by pushing off with his feet against the mattress and ending up almost at the top of the cot.

When we change his nappy he kicks the nappy change mat off the change table.

This morning uni changed his nappy and got ready to hand R over to me. R looked back over his own shoulder and saw me and used his "propel" kick to push his feet against uni's belly and launch himself backwards to me!!! It was very cute!!!

Mastitis

Well 5 weeks into my breastfeeding journey I have developed a breast infection.

The night before I had any symptoms R woke up every 4 hours for a feed (prior to this he had lengthened his feeding gaps to 5 or 6 hours). This meant that the next night my breasts produced a lot more milk and got very full when he went back to only waking every 6 hours.

My left breast was so full it started leaking milk and was big and uncomfortable. I ended up sleeping on that side and in the morning it was very painful.

The pain did not ease when R emptied it and in fact anywhere below the nipple that I touched or that was pressed against would hurt. It didn't improve during the day so I made an appointment to see a doctor and was prescribed antibiotics (cephalexin).

They had started working by the next morning but seem to have affected R badly ... causing him tummy upsets and large and explosive poos.

I have been eating yogurt to see if that will help my digestive system but it doesn't seem to be helping R.

Last night he woke every 3 to 4 hours for a feed and today his longest sleep was 2 hours ... leaving me hardly any time for lunch and no other jobs unless I was prepared to do them while he screamed.

Every time I put him down for a sleep he would wake up and yell and nothing except picking him up and breastfeeding him would calm him.

Uni is on afternoon shift at the moment so I had to pick up kt from school and look after her and feed her and read her stories etc as well as try and keep R calm.

Kt was actually a good helper ... and has calmed him down herself several times.

She is a really terrific big sister and I am relaxing a little more knowing that she knows to be gentle and is caring and affectionate and interested in her baby brother.

He really loves her too!

The other morning when he woke up we both went in to greet him in preparation for bringing him along to school with us.

He looked up at Kt and gave her the biggest grin! It lasted for ages and his mouth was wide open and he was looking right into her eyes!!!

Just lovely.

I got a few big smiles just for me, later on in the day too but Kt's was the biggest!!!

I should really be trying to sleep now, but I need to "talk" about my day.

I am not sure how he will go tonight but I am mentally preparing myself to just hold him all night if necessary.

Tomorrow is our 6 week check up ... mine to see if everything has healed and is generally back to normal after the birth and R to check he is growing and make sure his heart is fine and there are no other problems.

Up until this week I would have fairly confidently have said I was handling things pretty well ... but very little time to myself and interrupted sleep and clothes and ironing and mess piling up and uni having just started afternoon shift (leaving me to look after kt from school pick up time right through to bed time) have pushed me close to the edge.

I still have another 3 days on antibiotics so hopefully this will not last for the whole of that time.

Kt starts holidays from tomorrow as well so everything is happening at once... and uni has had to spend more time at work for the past 2 weeks and also during the upcoming school holidays while another shift is on their annual holidays.

Feeling better now that I have written it all down.

Blogging is very cathartic.

Bats and school fetes.

Well time is just flying by and there are so many things I want to write.

Yesterday uni noticed a bat hanging upside down sleeping in our mango tree.

We (especially Kt) spent plenty of time checking him out. Apparently a bat will turn itself right way up, open out its wings and do a poo, then he turns himself upside down again, wraps himself up with his wings and goes back to sleep.

I missed this amazing sight ... but Kt saw it happen several times. I meant to take a photo of it but am having hassles with my camera battery at the moment. I have to buy a new one.

He came back again and was in the tree early this morning before school, much to our surprise! When I went to hang washing out later in the day I could no longer see him.

I hope Kt is not too dissapointed that he is gone when she returns home this afternoon.

This weekend just gone I took Kt and baby moo to her school's 50th anniversary fete.

I was hoping not to have to do it alone, but everyone I could ask to come along was working. Any thoughts of missing out on it were banished when I realized how keen Kt was to go along.

I decided I would go for as long as we could and return home when moo needed a feed. I took the pram so I would not have to carry him for any length of time.

He woke for a feed at 8am which meant that I expected he would need to be fed again at 1pm. The fete started at 10am and was to go until 3pm.

After his feed, moo settled into his bouncer quietly while I went around in a rush assembling everything I thought I would need.

This included 4 nappies, a full change of clothes, one blanket for in the pram and one blanket to cover the pram, wipes, nappy sacks, a bag for kt to use to carry her loot and a handbag for me (with additional nappies, wipes, tissues, wallet,keys etc).

Everything had to fit either in my handbag or in the storage compartment under the pram ... and of course we had to leave space for whatever treasures kt wanted to purchase from the fete.

We headed off and arrived a bit after 10am. First stop was the year one craft stall, so that kt could see her teacher and buy a pet rock. She also got a dreamcatcher and then did a collage.

Next we went and got her face painted and then my beautiful butterfly got a purple helium balloon.

After that we decided to check out the rides and pick up her armband which we had prepurchased for $25 and would allow her to go on all the rides as many times as she wanted to.

I had debated whether to buy one of these because I worried she would not go on the rides on her own. Luckily uni convinced me to get one. Each ride individually costs $4 and over the course of the day she went on her favourite ride ... the big slide 15 times!!!!!

There was also a jumping castle, a ball crawl, and a spinning chair ride.

Once she was away on the rides it was virtually impossible for me to get her attention, and she was having such a great time I didn't really mind.

R slept for the first hour and then once we got to the noisy rides he woke up and would not go back to sleep.

While I waited for Kt to tire of any rides and return to me (LOL) I ended up having to carry moo and push the pram at the same time. It was too early for a feed and I was sure he really just needed to sleep but I could not calm him.

I put him back in the pram and picked him up and walked him around numerous times and started to stress a bit about him being in the sun and also not settling.

I ended up looking for shady and quiet spots and tried to keep an eye on Kt at the same time.

Eventually I decided to cover the pram with the big blanket and walk it around. This worked a treat and I was able to observe kt in peace and enjoy her enthusiasm and excitement.

As it got closer to 1pm I suggested to kt that we have some lunch and went in search of a quiet unpopulated place to eat it. We stopped at the year 1 undercover eating area which was deserted and I had got half way through my pie when moo woke up and yelled for his lunch too.

I wolfed down my pie, and gave him my first ever outdoor breastfeed. It went remarkably well, was fairly quick, and I used the pram in front of me as a bit of a privacy shield as well as the pram covering blanket which I rested under his head and had it sticking up behind and also above his head to provide additional privacy screening. I had his head in the crook of my right arm, feeding from my right breast, while I held it near his mouth with my left hand.

I had my right leg raised up onto the pram('s storage compartment) in front of me to give his body a bit of a lift (as I usually have him lying on a pillow to raise him to the level of my breast).

I had tried lying him on top of my handbag but he didn't find that very comfortable.

I was going to give him a nappy change in the pram too, but he fell asleep immediately after the feed and I didn't really want to disturb him.

He then slept peacefully for the rest of the fete and we stayed right until the end.

While I fed him I had kt stocked up with lunch, a drink and snacks to keep her busy and close by. She ended up playing with her helium balloon and letting it go and of course we were unable to retrieve it.

There were many tears and the butterfly on her face started to melt. Meanwhile I managed to keep feeding moo, and pretty much held it together despite the high level of demand on my attention from each.

Kt ended up heading over to get another purple balloon herself, with me trying desperately to call her back and try and catch up!

After that we did a lucky dip, had a few goes on the laughing clown, went on many more rides, had some 50th anniversary cake ... ended up serving a wave of other people some anniversary cake while waiting for kt to finish her icy pole and chocolate milk. We were sitting near the cake cutting area and the lady who was doing the job dissapeared when we were not looking and rather than leaving the knife in the hands of primary school kids I took over for the last quarter of the cake until it was all gone!!!!

We just made it back to the stall which had a bracelet that kt particularly wanted, as they were getting ready to take their gear back to the car. I had hesitated on buying it for her because the price on the rack was $15 and I thought that was a bit much, but she kept returning to the stall and asking me whether I had decided if she could buy it and eventually I said that she could.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually only $5!!! and also very relieved that we had caught them before they left.

Kt offloaded most of a very full bag of piggy bank money and one of my $20 notes also completely dissappeared on the day too. Most of the money will go to the school so it was a worthy cause.

first chance at the computer for a few days

Any minute now I know I will hear a baby cry ... but I want to say a few things.

This week uni is on afternoon shift and I am tackling a baby, school pickup, dinner (reheating what uni has precooked for us), showers, homework, bedtimes stories, 4 hourly breastfeeds and preparations for the next day.

When I go to bed at night at approx 9.30pm (earlier if I can manage it) kt's lunch for the next day, my breakfast and kt's breakfast is prepared and waiting in the fridge.

My clothes for the next day are hanging over my bedroom door handle. Kt's uniform, underwear, socks and shoes for the next day are in her room ready to be put on.

Mr Bump wakes up every 4 hours at night ... almost on the dot. Sometimes he feeds for 1 hour and settles back to bed ... leaving me approx 3 hours of sleep til the next feed ... but other times he is unsettled, burps, digests, poos and wees and the feed takes more like 2 hours.

If I can't get him relaxed within 2 hours it means he really is ready for bed and just wants to be put down quietly and calmly to fall asleep on his own.

He is a wonderful little guy and I am really getting to know him quickly. For the most part he is peaceful, calm and easygoing ... but when he is hungry you do not want to make him wait! He has big lungs and a loud voice and is not afraid to use them!!!

He loves bath time and he has short periods of alertness and wakefulness. He loves looking at the patterns on our armchairs and couch. He loves Kt's artworks up on the wall.

He reminds me very much of Kt as a baby ... and I am still sleep deprived enough that I sometimes refer to him as a her ... or go to automatically say to kt ... "good job little guy".

I also get kt confused with aunty Issie ... but I believe I will get everyone identified and correctly addressed sooner or later LOL!!!

Kt and I are renegotiating our relationship.

We had a great weekend together while uni was at work and I tried to spend time doing fun things with her while bub was asleep. When he was feeding we watched tv together or she played outside.

I have discovered that there is no point in me trying to be like uni ... because I am a poor substitute for him ... but there are plenty of things Kt and I can do together that she likes. eg baking, going to the library, feeding the ducks, going shopping.

While he was on "maternity leave" uni taught kt to ride her bike without training wheels and took her out for energetic walks with the dog, bike rides or scooter rides every day.

I don't think I can handle walking the dog, pushing the pram and taking kt for a bike ride/scooter ride all at the same time.

But perhaps I can take just kt and the pram out or the pram and the dog out while kt is at school ... will see how I feel as the weeks progress.

I ran into trouble last night when I tried to get kt to have a shower before doing her homework. I was trying to get all the jobs that she needs my help for, done before R woke up. I expected her to be flexible and just do what I wanted her to do when I wanted her to do it.

I forgot that neither of us is really flexible and that usually I allow kt plenty of say in when and what she does.

Not surprisingly we butted heads, there were tears from her and I got cross!

I managed to salvage the situation (while changing a nappy no less!) once I realized that perhaps I should not be expecting her to be flexible ... perhaps I was the one that needed to be flexible.

Perhaps what she really needs right now is a rock solid routine that she can count on ... since so much in her life has changed.

I on the other hand will be far from a rock solid routine for a few years to come and might be better placed to learn how to be flexible.

Luckily uni is pretty flexible and I have had the advantage of being able to observe him looking after kt for the last 3 weeks and being patient, flexible and calm... so I will try to take a leaf out of his book.

To sum up this very long post.

I am very happy to have had this baby ... I only wish he had come along a bit sooner.

I am coping really well, not feeling depressed or unhappy, and feeling much more confident in my abilities as a mum.

I am learning to be flexible and I fully appreciate all that uni has been doing to help (more on him in another post).

I still have work to do getting things running smoothly with Kt. I have to try and listen to her more and try and understand what is going on in her head. She is so clever and so verbal, but she doesn't fully grasp a lot of things, and is very hard to get her to listen to or fully understand certain concepts.

She is also very emotional at the moment ... although the tears are diminishing each day ...

I'm still here

Well we are into our third week and I haven't had much chance to get on the net.

I have to start somewhere though so I will start briefly today.

I had a terrible night last night LOL!

Was going to try and go to Kt's school this morning to show off our baby but ended up being too tired and very grouchy!

If I don't get a minimum of 7 hours sleep a night (that is 7 hours in total ... broken up into smaller sleeps like 1 hr/3hrs/3hrs or 2hrs 2hrs 3hrs) then I am not very friendly, alert or capable of dealing with too much drama.

With 7 hours of sleep I am human... cheerful and refreshed!

After uni took kt to school I got my required few hours that took me over the 7 hour sleep threshold and that is why I am now dressed, showered, and remotely able to type.

oops ... gotta go ... I hear someone crying...

bags nearly packed

OK hospital stay bag is 95% packed

Labour room bag is 50% packed.

I hate packing for any event as I never know what I will really need and often lug a huge suitcase full of unnecessary things around.

I also have done a quick birth announcement document that hopefully I will be able to fill in birth date and weight details and perhaps a photo and then send off to whoever needs to know once baby is born and I am home.

This will save me picking through fonts, wording etc when I am too tired to ... although I imagine choosing a photograph to send off will be a task in itself.

I went early to the markets today and am feeling pretty tired ... I have 4 nights of looking after kt solo, cooking dinner, cleaning up etc ... so I think I will probably go to bed pretty early for the next few nights.

Kt and I went to a new playground this morning for a bit of a play.

She had a lot of fun and it was nice to get her out into the fresh air ... too many mossies about though.

Am thinking I am starting to feel a bit better now ... have been getting plenty of early nights and lots of sleep and I think that has helped.

Have read two big books on birth etc and now onto my third.

Feeling very knowledgeable ... hope I can remember all I need to during the actual birth.

kt got her award

Managed to get photos of kt getting her "next 100 magic words" award.

We were worried that they may have called her out last Friday on parade while she was at home sick ... but luckily they had too many other things to do since it was also an Anzac day parade.

I got a few photos ... and Kt was very proud of herself!

When I got home I weeded the front corner rock garden and did some watering using our fairly full tank.

I still have the weeding of the circular potted garden and the main garden to tackle ... which I may try and attempt during the long weekend ... if I don't end up sleeping in until all hours of the day.

Feeling a bit better today although not completely recovered.

Will attempt to finish packing my hospital bag since it is something I keep putting off doing.

I also went to the library a few days ago and got lots of interesting books out and am trying to read as much as I possibly can about birth to get prepared.

I have a cold

I am sick with a cold. I have been fighting it for about a week and I have finally succumbed.

Kt is at school today and uni is back at work.

I have to get rid of it asap as I do not want to be going into labour and birth sick.

I am trying to rest and take it easy but there are also things I want to still get done.

I spent about 30 minutes in the garden weeding this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find that it only took that long to weed the rest of the garden outside the front fence. I had allowed myself up to 3 hours (which would equate to 1 hour a day) to complete this task.

I have the main garden still to do and also the side garden just inside the front fence ... but these will definitely take a lot longer.

I did some more washing and I am trying to keep on top of washing and ironing so there is not a big pile for me to come home to.

I washed the sheets and made the bed.

Finally managed to get some video of the baby moving in my belly.

I am going to keep the camera battery charged and ready to go for the birth and beyond.

I have stacks of clothes and things ready to put into my hospital bag but will have to condense the items I take so they will fit.

I plan to fill the bag with about 2 days worth of stuff and then have 2 more days worth of stuff sitting in a laundry basket in the baby's room ready to be brought to me by uni if I need it.

I have packed a bag for kt so that if she needs to sleepover at grandma pats house she has a days worth of stuff ... if there is room I may add another day's worth of stuff just to be on the safe side.

I want to give the house a vacuum too but don't really feel up to it today.

success

Baby capsule fitted...can't describe how it feels when I look in my car and see it in there.

New pants for kt purchased, larger maternity bras for me and some tops that will make it easy for me to breastfeed without being too exposed.

These are currently in the wash ready to hang out when I finish this post.

I leaked a drop or two of breastmilk last night.

The same thing happened about a week ago ... so milk production has begun ...

Kt went to school today and hopefully it all goes well.

how times change

finding it funny how annoyed and depressed all this rain is making me!

Last year I was postively beaming every time a rain drop fell ... perhaps I should change the title of my blog to earth fire and why won't this rainwater stop falling down and preventing me from washing my clothes.

LOL!!!!

I am in the process of packing my hospital bag today.

Kt is improving steadily and I am hoping she will be able to go to school on tuesday. Then on wednesday she will have a field trip to a farm.

I will be getting a baby capsule fitted by the ambulance service on tuesday... and have a few last minute things to try and buy.

Just realized that most of kt's long pants (for winter) are way too small and she will need some more.

I buy them too big and she gets several years use out of them. Although the waists still fit ok (she has a tiny waist) more and more of her ankles are exposed.

I also need some more maternity bras.

On Wednesday I will have my antenatal appointment at the hospital.

On thursday and friday uni will be back at work and I will spend a few quiet days on my own trying to relax.

Busy times - this post has now been completed so if you haven't read the whole thing ... read it again

Yesterday was a wild and busy day.

Kt was still home sick from school.

I took her out to the playground first thing in the morning to get her out in the fresh air. She has been cooped up inside for most of the week and was starting to climb everything in sight.

After an hour in the playground she was worn out and I let her watch some tv while I headed off to get my 36 week blood test done and our weekly shopping.

The shops will be closed Sun and Mon for Anzac day so I wanted to get it out of the way early.

On my return home I unpacked the shopping and uni told me we had been infected by a virus on the computer.

It was called security tool and it pretends to be one of your own protective programs that has found a threat to your computer and asks you if you want to remove the problem program. When you click on remove program it actually loads itself onto your computer and offers to take itself off your computer if you pay a fee to get it removed.

Uni looked on the net to see if he could get another program to remove it, but all the ones he found also wanted you to pay a fee.

I tried running an avast scan ... which said everything was running normally.

Then while I was running windows defenders scans avast recognized a trojan and I quaranteened it. Windows defender found something as well ... called downloader and I followed its prompts and removed it.

There was some mention that windows live care or microsoft security essentials were other programs that could be used to remove spyware and malware.

I thought the problem was solved, but security tool remained on uni's screen.

I turned the computer on and off and it was still there.

I drove uni to adams house for the night, with poor kt coughing and spluttering all the way.

When we got back I started cooking dinner and we did showers and eating and bedtime.

I did some research on my laptop and discovered that windows live care no longer existed but microsoft security essentials could be used instead and it seemed to be familiar with security tool.

to be continued... time for me to read a bedtime story now ....

Ok well the next day I went back to the computer and logged on as uni and security tool was doing pop ups and generally being uncooperative.

I tried to download microsoft security essentials but it would not load ... seems security tool was blocking it.

I logged out of uni's screen and logged in again as kt ... and was thrilled to see that security tool was no where to be seen on her screen ... so I attempted to access and download microsoft security essentials and it worked.

When I ran a full scan using microsoft security essentials it located security tool in several locations including the recycle bin (where both uni and I had tried to put it) and the exact location on the computer where it was (something like C/program data/93xxxxxxxxxx). It also successfully removed it which was wonderful!!!

It avoided detection on quick scans but thorough scans worked.

Thank you to everyone for suggestions of other places to look for programs to remove malware ... I will keep the details for future reference but I think our problem is solved.

I intend to keep microsoft security essentials as my antivirus/anti spyware/anti malware program. So far there have not been conflicts with avast ... but if there are I will uninstall avast. Microsoft security essentials switches off windows defender as it does its job for it and supercedes it.

a week spent at home

Kt has been sick this week and I have kept her home from school.

I feel like I am running out of time.

Uni is almost finished his holidays. Kt has barely spent any time at school the last few weeks, there are doctors appointments every week and I am not getting enough me time.

I really need to stock up on me time because it will be in short supply in the coming months.

I think I may also be battling whatever kt has.

She only had a runny nose for a few days and now has this horrible dry annoying cough.

There is nothing that gets to me more than that cough.

She talks through it and I just want to say "shush" stop talking .... well actually I have said that to her many times so far ... I just wish she would listen.

She is cheerful enough and energetic enough to be at school, but having just given her the swine flue vaccination yesterday I don't really want to take any chances.

Her reaction to this one has not been anywhere near as severe as to the combined flu/swine flu one she got last time.

More info on this vaccination fiasco in preg blog.

I am hoping she will be ok to go to school tomorrow ... I don't think she talks as much there as she does at home so maybe she won't cough as much either.

Next week is a 4 day week because of the Anzac day public holiday and we will be catching up with pat, jeff and jill for lunch and finding out all about their holiday.

gardening

I got out in the garden today for a brief period of weeding (on all fours to encourage baby to turn the right way).

I was only out there for about 20 minutes until it started raining, but I got a little patch of garden done.

I can't weed for too long at a time or it gets uncomfortable ... and I am tackling a small section of garden each time.

I estimate I have about 2 weeks worth of work out there so I will do some every couple of days.

It rained today so I didn't have to worry about watering.

I also did some ironing, caught up on all my recorded shows and cleaned the bathroom today.

Only 4 weeks left to go now until the birth so I will try to keep the house clean in short bursts of activity.

I think the bedrooms need vacuuming next.

Very productive day all around after spending the last few days catching up on things. It seems I started and ended the week well and got a bit lost and distracted in the middle.

Uni went back to physio today and his neck and shoulder are feeling much better. He thinks the worst of it has passed.

10th anniversary

yesterday we celebrated our 10th anniversary.

I was totally surprised and stunned when uni gave me a beautiful diamond ring for an anniversary present.

I am usually very spoilt and often get given jewellery so when I saw the size and shape of the present I thought I might be getting some earrings or something like that.

Very surprised.

Its one of those that you spend days looking at it every few minutes!!!

And gets taken off every time you do any kind of cleaning....

We headed off to the movies later in the day to catch "Date Night". Both of us really enjoyed it ... as you often do with movies where you don't have high expectations of a film.

Admittedly I will laugh and cry in just about every movie I watch these days LOL!!!

In the afternoon uni also gave me a pearl earring, necklace and bracelet set.

I have had a big few months of really extravagant presents ... very lucky.

I made us cheesecake in the afternoon to eat as our anniversary dessert and uni picked up Mamma's spaghetti bolognaise and a seafood pizza for our dinner.

All in all a really great day.

I also thought it was pretty special that the dahlia plants kt bought me for my birthday ... which I recently planted in the garden choose the night before our anniversary to bloom ... so I was greeted by a beautiful red bloom on one plant and a beautiful yellow and orange bloom on the other plant, in the garden on our anniversary.

I have taken pictures as they are so lovely.

school holidays have ended

The burst of cool weather this morning and the return to school has motivated me to get things done.

I did a rough tidy up of the house including vacuuming the lounge room floor which has not been done for maybe 3 weeks.

I made all the beds, put a few of kt's artworks downstairs, tweaked the budget, organized the banking and even managed an uninterrupted chat with uni!

When the weather improves I will do more washing and I will continue gardening, weeding and watering.

I can attach a hose to our water tanks and very slowly and gently water the garden.

This saves me from having to pick up buckets full of water and cart them around... which I have not been keen to do in recent months. Luckily there has been enough rain to keep the garden going ... but now the tanks are full and I think the rain is mostly finished so If I want to have a garden to enjoy once the baby is born I need to pay some attention to it now.

The worms are happy and I used the latest batch of worm castings to plant the dahlias kt bought me for my birthday.

There is a whole stack of capsicums or tomatoes sprouting from the worm castings too... must be all the seeds of the veggie scraps I have been feeding the worms!

As of today I am more pregnant than I have ever been before ... 35 weeks and 3 days!

holidays

We are almost through the school holidays and they have been pretty good for the most part.

uni has taken kt bowling with a friend of his from work and his 5 year old son. I went along to watch but was not keen on actually lifting and throwing a bowling ball.

Kt did really well ... they put bumpers up so that the kids wouldn't get any gutter balls and she scored better on her second game than on her first one.

By the end I think her arms were getting a bit tired ...

Uni did really well too ... winning one of the games and coming a very close second on the other game.

I think I will enjoy bowling with the bumpers up but will have to wait until bump is born.

The next day we all went out together again to watch "how to train your dragon" at the movies.

This was a really great film ... loved it.

Then we went for a hungry jacks lunch and kt and jacob played together in the hj playground.

Earlier in the week uni strained his neck washing and polishing his car ... and the pain started getting worse ... probably not helped by bowling etc.

He went to his work's physiotherapist for some treatment and she loosened things up for him enough that he felt better on Friday ... but by Saturday he was in so much pain he had to go to the doctor for a muscle relaxant and lots of pain killers.

He could barely move.

Not a good start to the holidays ....

Hopefully this will heal soon.

almost done

Most of my preparations are complete.

The baby's room has a cot, change table, pram, stroller, toybox/bookcase, chest of drawers (full of clothes), nappies, baby bath, car seat.

I have a few last things hanging on the line drying ... and basically only have the portacot to clean.

Most of the other things still left to do will be required later in the year ... like the highchair, the baby swing, toilet training seats etc.

It is almost time for me to turn my attention to the garden.

I am now getting the inevitable question ... how many weeks left from everyone and am surprised just how many other questions people ask.

Sometimes it surprises me how many people notice me ... and I am usually pretty friendly and forthcoming ... but every now and again after someone asks a battery of questions or if too many people ask me the same question on the same day I start to feel like I really wish I could just say "none of your business".

hmpf

Anyway today is the last day of term and I watched my easter bunny get an award on parade.

It was an unexpected one (her teacher had filled it out in mid feb ... and it is now 1st April before it was finally presented)... and I almost didn't worry about going to parade but luckily I changed my mind "just in case".

Last parade uni and I went with cameras etc expecting her to get a particular award and it was not announced.

We found out it would probably be given in the first parade of next term and so I wasn't expecting anything to happen this parade.

Kt is a bit sniffly today and I wasn't even sure I should send her to school, but they had the go for gold movie reward on ... all the good kids got to go and see "nanny mcphie and the big bang" at the movie theatre and there was an easter bonnet parade in the afternoon and she did not want to miss out on any of that.

33 weeks pregnant today

I spent most of yesterday washing the baby's car seat.

I will take it off the line today when it is completely dry and will put it back on the car seat.

After this it will be ready to install into uni's car.

I will be hiring a baby capsule from the ambulance at the end of April.

Am slowly getting through the cleaning of all the baby stuff.

The baby's room really looks like a baby's room now.

Kt has made some beautiful toys for the baby which are waiting for him on the bookshelf!

We can't wait to meet him.

the next day

Well Kt headed off to school and participated in the cross country.

She was pretty tired when I picked her up from school in the afternoon, but not anywhere near as sore or as uncomfortable as the previous day.

I carried her school bag home for her because she was too tired to carry it.

I was pretty tired by the end of the day too ... I almost fell asleep watching the final and very gripping episode of My kitchen rules.

In a way I am glad it is over (although I loved the series)because it made me so hungry watching it!

The last few nights I have had restless sleep either because I was worried of how kt would handle getting the vaccination needle etc, then on the next night worried if her reaction to the injection was too severe and might continue to cause her problems.

Finally last night I was able to fully relax and really sleep .. and I needed it.

Tonight I will try to go to bed early to catch up a bit more of my lost sleep.

I washed most of the pram yesterday and am finishing it today doing the parts that need to be sponge cleaned. Some removable pads also still need to dry completely on the line.

I also took out the stroller and washed that today too, while I am in the swing of things.

We probably won't need that for a few months but it seems a bit unfair to keep a whole lot of baby stuff in uni's recreation room for months and months on end until we need it.

The baby's room has plenty of space (so far) and if I can get things cleaned and stored up there now I won't have to juggle a young baby, a curious dog and more stuff to clean.

The only exception to this rule is the high chair which takes up a lot of room ... I may clean this and put it in the corner of the office somewhere until it is needed....

I got a few more nappies today ... found them accidentally ... on special (almost half price) at Coles ... newborn size ones at 20c each ... so I bought 4 packs ... 160 nappies in total.

I now have 377 newborn size nappies ready to go. (This is about $100 worth ... all bought on special ... and would have cost much much more at their regular price).

Still thinking about using some cloth nappies particularly as baby gets bigger and poos become more predictable ... also disposables get more expensive as the size goes up. I figure if I know when a poo is coming I can put on a disposable and then once that "danger" has passed I can put on cloth nappies which will be easy to rinse wee out of and just wash with our other stuff.

There are modern cloth nappies that are kind of already in a nappy shape ... you don't have to fold a square of terry towelling up like origami... and you don't have to fasten them with safety pins or anything like that.

I also think using cloth nappies will make toilet training easier and quicker because they do get wet and should teach little ones the connection between certain body feelings and the associated wet nappy.

Will have to try them and see how I feel after a few test runs!


I will get a couple of packets of wipes in the next few weeks too. It seems to me that a big box of 480 Johnson and Johnson wipes for $20 at either Kmart or Big W is the way to go ... will get a couple of boxes at a time so I am well stocked.

2nd post for today.

Today I took out kt's old pram, read through the instructions, figured out how to fold it, unfold it, adjust the seat, the handle, the canopy etc.

Most things worked easily and I vaguely remember doing it all when kt was a baby.

I did run into trouble when I tried to fold the pram back up ... it wouldn't fold beyond a certain point so I unfolded it out completely again and had a second go.

I was a bit more determined this time and it folded with a surprise cracking sound. OOOPS!

I think it was ok though because it unfolded again normally and nothing seems to be at an odd angle or broken.

I vacuumed its interior and I also washed the bits I could take off it and sponged down the bits that had to remain on it.

It is outside now drying in the sun.

I allowed myself the whole day for this job ... although it may not be completely dry until tomorrow.

Once it is dry I will attempt to fold it again and hopefully it will be fine and that cracking noise will have only been a one time thing!!!

I want to try and get out and have a bit of practise manoevering the pram about before the baby comes.

Might have to put a doll in there, cover the pram completely as if I am sunprotecting the baby ... and have a go a few times while we walk the dog or something.

Hopefully no one I know recognizes me and wants to look at the "baby" LOL!!!!

flu vaccinations

Yesterday Kt took the day off school so she and uni could get the new flu vaccine which includes swine flu.

She was very brave and handled it well, without tears. Many people made a fuss of her and she was proud of herself.

Uni came home and went to bed because he had to work in the evening, and kt watched some movies we got from the video store.

Her arm was sore from early on and by the afternoon she was complaining of a headache. I gave her panadol both times to help ease her discomfort.

By evening she was lying down not looking very good at all. She said her head hurt when she walked.

Sounds like we both had severe headaches in response to the swine flu part.

I gave her a bath in the evening and helped her undress, wash, get dry and dress again.

She was very sweet ... "thank you mum"

We read stories on the couch while she lay down.

She wasn't keen to eat dinner, but after heading off to the toilet and coming back she decided she would be better off trying to eat something (especially as it was her favourite spaghetti bolognaise). She had a few bites cheerfully and then went and lay down again.

We went to do bedtime stories in her room and she snuggled under the covers and closed her eyes.

She fell asleep halfway through the first of two chapters and then woke up violently and looked at me in alarm saying that the bed had moved (I think she experienced that falling sensation we sometimes get when we fall asleep).

After that I quietened down my reading voice and she fell asleep as I reached the end of the first chapter.

I turned out the light and left her to rest, unsure of what kind of night was ahead.

I only had one dose of panadol left in the bottle and hoped it would be enough until the morning.

Luckily she slept right through the night and woke up cheerful and feeling much better this morning.

I took her to school after I was sure she felt up to it ... especially as she had the school cross country this morning.

Then I went and got more panadol immediately!!!

Because she is under 10 years old she will need to have two doses of the flu vaccine in order for it to be completely effective.

Adults and children over 10 only need the one dose.

Assuming she continues to be OK I will go ahead and take her for the second dose at the end of April ... although I will be prepared for how hard it is on her.

We got out flu vaccines as part of the majellan medical centre's flu vaccine clinic which meant that we were bulk billed for the visit and we had to pay $9.90 for the vaccine itself.

Other medical surgeries charged between $20 - $30 for the vaccine plus whatever the doctors fee is ... even though you spend minimal time with the doctor as it is the nurses that administer the vaccine.

We were booked in for 9.15 and 9.30 but ended up being their from 9am (because uni and kt were new patients and had to fill out paperwork) until 10.30am.

It seemed that they were grouping bundles of flu clinic patients together so the doctor could go around and quickly talk to each one about the vaccine one after the other.

Not quite as effecient from a patients point of view as I was expecting, but I may take kt with me next time I have an antenatal appoint and see if I can combine that with the flu clinic so she gets to come in with me to the doctor at my appointment time first thing, and then we can get kt's vaccination done when my appt is finished.

As it was we kept being moved from waiting room to waiting room until the doctor was finally ready to come and talk to us .... in the meantime she was seeing other patients in her room.

haircuts

Just all got our hair cut today.

We really needed it!

I have a bit of hair stuck in the back of my throat though ... must have had my mouth open while my fringe was being done.

Kt woke up early this morning (7.30am) which is her school day waking time. Saturdays are my only sleep in day and I was not happy to have missed out on it today.

I stayed up until midnight last night and was still very sleepy and unready to get up.

Am pretty sure I will be having an early night tonight.

I am 32 weeks pregnant today so I only have potentially 7 or 8 more sleep in saturdays available to me before baby is born and sleep becomes a distant memory.

I tried falling asleep on the couch once kt had eaten breakfast and was amusing herself, but she decided she wanted to play with the air drying clay I bought her last weekend.

She had come to the markets with me last sunday and been very helpful and we finished shopping at 10am which is when thurects opens, so I told her we could buy some air drying clay as a reward for her being so helpful and cooperative.

We didn't end up using it last weekend and I had promised we would this weekend ... so I got up off the couch intending to get her started and then try to nap while she worked.

The clay was pretty hard in its packet so I had to moisten it and cut it so it would be a manageable size to work with.

It felt really nice and soothing to touch and bump started kicking (as if he was interested in what was going on) and in spite of myself I woke up and started to make things with kt.

In the end we had a whole garden full of stuff ... picture to come ...

a snail, a frog (sticking out his long tongue), a cat, a fairy, a flower and a butterfly.

Then we had to eat and finish some frozen yoghurt so we could use its empty container to store the remainder of the clay in so it would stay moist and protected and not dry out!

So while there was a slow and reluctant start to the day on my part ... it has been kind of fun!

Then we played for a while, kt watched tv and I tidied the kitchen, then we got ready for swimming.

After swimming we came home and washed hair, ate lunch and headed off for our haircuts.

I am about to sort through and put up some photos now ...

feeling pretty good

Had a good day today ... tried not to do too much.

Brought baby bath upstairs ... will need to wash it and put it into the change table.

Put baby teddy mat out on the line again today to enjoy the germ killing properties of sunlight and give it a good air out.

I washed it yesterday but it rained lightly just before I brought it in so I thought it needed an extra day of sunshine.

I will put out the bouncer cover tomorrow. It came off the line dry yesterday ... but after having some discussions with uni about the benefits of sun and air on our clothes and things ... I think another day of sunshine is a good idea.

I ironed a whole heap of size 00 and 0 clothes last night and have sorted them into boy and girl clothes.

The boy clothes will go into the baby's chest of drawers tonight.

Now I have the chest of drawers fully stocked with clean winter sheets and size 00000-0 baby clothes.

The baby's toy box is filled with the clean and ironed 00000-0 size girls clothing. I still have to iron the summer cot sheets, but once they are done I will put them into the toy box too, ready for use in spring and summer.

So once baby is born I will have easy access to a years worth of clothing and clean sheets.

I will leave the sorting of size 1-4 clothes for some time next year! There is not nearly as much in these sizes ... and most of it is girly stuff ... so since we think bump is a boy there probably isn't much point worrying about washing and ironing this clothing yet.

I bought a new cot mattress for the baby earlier in the week and that is sitting waiting in the cot.

I have also stocked up on some newborn size nappies and in the next few weeks will stock up on baby wipes.

recording prices

Have done a bit of baby goods pricing and think I should record it here where it will be easy to refer back too.

Best price on huggies 108 newborn so far ... this week super iga .. $29.99.

Last week WW had them for 2 for $66 which worked out at $33 per box.

And the usual price for them at places like kmart, ww, target are $38 - $40 per box.

Aldi's mammia nappies are $16 for a pack of 56 so therefore 112 would be $32.

Their wipes are $2.69 for a packet of 80.

Big W have big bulk packs of Snugglers nappies ... newborn up to 8kg 144pack (can't remember the price but snugglers are usually cheaper than huggie)

Both Big w and Kmart sell 6 X 80 pack boxes of johnsons baby wipes (that is 480 wipes in total) for about $19.90 - $20.

Often 3 packs of 80 go on sale for $11-13, so getting a boxed 6 pack is still much better value.

Huggies 384 pack wipes are $18-19 at kmart and big w.

So J&J are better value but apparently you can easily tear the huggies wipes in half and potentially get double the use out of them.

I would have to test this theory out!

Terry cloth nappies ... preformed shape with velcro are $6 each at Kmart ... although they do not have very many of them.

Fluffies wooly pilchers are $5 each.

Bath thermometers are $9 from kmart.

Big W have fluffies waterproof change table protectors for $9-10 for a pack of 2 small ones.

baby preparations

I have been washing ... which has been quite a frustrating thing to do in the current weather situation.

Most days there is rain and sunshine and you can never be sure if you should do clothes or not.

I have been washing baby sheets, more clothes up to and including size 0 and generally trying to get things ready.

I also need to air out and wash things like the pram, baby car seats, baby play mat, bouncer, stroller etc, but I need to do this on a day that is guaranteed to be sunny all day so they will dry well.

It is very frustrating to have the weather against me. Usually February is rainy and march is sunny and windy and cooler, but the rain continues to persist.

We took Motley to the vet today ... uni caught her ... and did most of the talking at the vet ... I like it better that way!!!

I also bought a new cot mattress today ... so the baby will have a nice fresh new mattress to sleep on.

I bought some maternity sized pajamas too ... wintry ones! I am very happy with my maternity wardrobe now ... feel like there is plenty to wear ... and many things I will be able to continue to wear after baby's birth.

I seem to be handling the normal flu injection a bit better than the swine flu one ... my arm was a bit sore last night when I slept on it, but apart from that not going too badly.

I am also loving my compression stockings ... now that it is not quite so hot I have switched to the full length ones and so these extend well above my knees.

I bought some size talls but they were really tight around my upper thighs so I ended up cutting the two legs apart and wearing them separate from each other.

I also bought the next size up extra tall, and these can stay joined together but I just don't pull them up above my hips because they would squash my belly.

So now the blood vessels above my knees are getting some relief too!

Mobile desk

Uni has set me up at my new mobile desk and I am sitting borrowing Kt's chair.

It feels great and much more comfortable than being anywhere else.

The kitchen table has plenty of space but also lots of ants and needs to be wiped down before every use.

I think the desk top is a bit high, so I might have to find a chair that goes up higher than kt's chair... or use a couple of cushions.

This desk has a rollout keyboard tray, but unfortunately my laptop will not fit on that.

The change table is now in the babies room, and I am in the process of filing it and the chest of drawers with freshly washed and ironed clothes!

The second filing cabinet has been unpacked downstairs and I have redistributed our files throughout it. There is much more space for everything there now.

I am getting better and better at navigating the internet using the keyboard. I just needed a bit more knowledge.

I knew the alt key was involved I just didn't know how. Luckily I found some good help sites and I am away.

Now I can do a lot more stuff by accessing the keyboard and surprisingly it is faster in some cases!!!

I forgot to mention in recent posts that Kt's class has adopted some baby guinea pigs!

They are really lovely! All the kids have been bringing in snacks for them (apples, cucumbers, carrots, capsicum etc).


Ok well I better get back to my house cleaning and baby stuff sorting!

not sure if i should post or not

While I have been quiet, other voices have started up ... I think I like it.

Maybe I should quieten down for a bit and listen ... at least every now and then.

We have had a big week and there has been a lot going on.

I find it hard to sit or lie or stay comfortably in any position for long so my time at the computer has been limitted.

I have deleted all my unnecessary emails and am becoming more familiar with my laptop.

Uni will set up my desk for me this five day break and then I will have a more stable and comfortable home for my laptop (though it will be on wheels so it will be mobile).

Am even thinking I should take it out the back in cool of the afternoon to enjoy a break from the heat.

I loved today ... although it was incredibly hot, it has been the first sunny day in what feels like weeks.

I really needed sunshine for my wellbeing.

Early last week i got my swine flu shot and felt pretty yuck for about 2 days. During that time I didn't focus enough on kt to realize that there was something serious going on with her.

She had some kind of infection in her nose which seemed to be getting worse as I was starting to feel better.

I didn't take her to swimming and when I called to tell the swimming instructor why we wouldn't be there she said "oh that sounds like school sores" "You will need to go to the doctor and get an antibiotic cream for her"

I took her to the pharmacy not expecting to have to do anything so radical, but was told the same thing there.

Luckily it was saturday afternoon and the pharmacy was next door to the 7 day medical centre.

We walked in (no appointments taken on weekends) and were seen, diagnosed, handed a prescription and were back out of the pharmacy within about 30 minutes.

Uni was amazed and of course Kt and I were relieved!

Within 24 hours of putting the antibiotic cream on her nose the crust yellow stuff was starting to peel away revealing mildly pink skin underneath.

I have to put it on, up and under her nose three times a day for 10 days, but we seem to have it down to a fine art now.

I have also been very tired, and have had afternoon and night shifts looking after kt on my own and cooking and cleaning for us.

Now I am very much looking forward to the next 5 days uni has off.

He will get lots of work done, I will be able to follow on from the initial work he does, Kt will have a willing, capable and energetic dad to play with, I won't have to cook, I will be able to catch up on "extra" housework that I haven't had the energy to tackle during the shifts.

I will also have a lot more time for naps.

The last three days I have battled very severe headaches on and off as well.

I believe they are clearing and are a fleeting, perhaps stress related thing.

Hopefully they are not a sign of anything more serious.

I also picked out some new glasses last Friday and should have those maybe next week.

funny day

Today has been a really funny day.

I started the day with a bang when I headed downstairs to look for a loaf of bread in the downstairs freezer.

As soon I was out the back door it slammed shut and locked behind me.

I usually wear clothes with pockets and have keys in those pockets but very few of my maternity clothes have pockets.

I was stuck outside with no keys and uni and kt were both fast asleep. I tried using our intercom ... no luck.

Then I banged on the backdoor several times, yelled from the kitchen window and the downstairs window.

Uni heard me and tried to find me, but because I kept moving from place to place I didn't know he was looking for me and he didn't know where I was.

Finally he found me and after 9 minutes of frantic activity I was safely back in the house again ... reunited with breakfast, family and of course the toilet! LOL!!

We went furniture hunting this afternoon and now are the proud new owners of another filing cabinet, a small laptop sized desk for me for upstairs, an have on order a combination bookcase/toy box for baby as well as a lovely new chest of drawers.

They will be delivered on Monday.

We also picked up our printer from where it was being fixed under warranty, it works really well now but I can't close the scanner part properly and I think they damaged it while they were fixing it so I am not very happy.

I will get uni to have a look at it as he is much more patient,firm but still gentle with things that have moving parts and he may be able to coax things back into the right position for me.

At this stage though it does seem to work and I can even send a print command from my laptop upstairs to the printer downstairs!

I feel very technological!!!

Hmmmm thank you for the advice Aunty Izzy about the touch pad ... I think you are absolutely right that was the cause of my problems.

Luckily I can disable it and just use the keyboard at times when I want to type in my blog or type emails.

There is suddenly a lot to do again but I can't start straight away ... filling the filing cabinet, getting my new desk organized, filling the bookcase/toy box and chest of drawers.

In the meantime I will concentrate on figuring out how to use the two computers and what can and cannot be shared between them.

I also need to choose a new pair of glasses which is of course something I have been putting off as I do every year.

laptop help needed

Can anyone with a laptop advise me why when I am typing I sometimes end up with part of my word inserted further up in a previous paragraph.

Is there some sequence of shortcut keys that does this?

Or am I somehow doing it with the touch pad?

Any ideas anyone? It is driving me nuts!!!

the rain is getting me down

While this time last year I was loving all the rain, this time around I have had enough of the fact that there has not been a break in the weather.

Things are getting serious ... I am running out of clean underwear!!!!

I must have a day of sunshine soon so I can get some washing done.

We do have a few clothes lines under the house but there is so much furniture and stuff under there now that it is hard to move around and there is not as much airing space.

I may have to resort to the dryer ... I hope it doesn't shrink anything ...LOL!

Uni finished cleaning and painting the baby's room at the end of February on his last five day break. He also shifted all the computer equipment and desks downstairs and set up the office.

I got the carpets professionally cleaned straight after that and it has just rained and rained for days.

I am trying to air out the baby's room (and the whole house) to get rid of the smell of paint and carpet cleaning but it has been a bit of a struggle keeping the windows open and keeping the rain out!

Anyway if all goes to plan we will be looking for some baby storage furniture tomorrow ... chest of drawers, wardrobe, a small upstairs laptop desk for me, another filing cabinet for the office and maybe a bookcase.

Doing all this should take my mind off the rain and get me motivated to continue with the nursery.

I am really happy with our wireless Internet connection too. I am upstairs in the lounge room on my laptop ... receiving a very strong signal.

I have yet to try it in the bedroom and Kt's room but so far, the kitchen and lounge room are great.

OK time to go and watch lost now.

we are wireless!

ok back online again ...

going to have some lunch and will probably get serious on the computer later tonight or some time tomorrow.

in between internet connections

quick post to just say that progress is going well.

I have not logged onto the net for almost a week and have got plenty done.

Yesterday I completely vacuumed the house in preparation for tomorrows carpet cleaning.

Uni has spent the last 5 days of his five day break working hard at home. First he moved the computer and all the desks downstairs and set up our new office.

Then he came upstairs, cleaned the walls of the baby's room, painted them completely and the room is clean and empty apart from my temporary Internet connection space which consists of a small TV table on wheels (my desk), laptop connected to modem, footstool and beanbag which alternate as my desk chairs depending on my mood.

I will go crazy on the Internet today and then pack up my "computer desk" and all peripherals tonight so the room is empty for the carpet cleaner tomorrow.

Next week my permanent Internet connection will be established and I will be more accessible once again.

The month of march will be devoted to getting the baby's room furnished and filled...more on that next week.

Then the focus of April will be getting out into the garden (on all fours ... to try and get baby in the right position for birth). That will mean catching up on all my weeding. Thankfully because of all the rain, my plants have survived and are thriving with very little help from me. April will be cooler, there will be less mozzies, less rain, and my indoor work will be done.

today I have been well and truly spoilt

My beautiful girl Kt has been planning a special surprise for me for about a week now... counting down the days with great excitement.

She has gone to elaborate lengths all week and today I discovered just what they were.

Since saturday is my only sleep in day (and I can hear snorts when I consider 7am to be an early start LOL!)I was told that I definitely had to sleep in and that kt when she woke up would wake uni and not me.

Together they made some delicious pancakes for breakfast and I even got my very own H shaped one!

Then there was a gift of a beautifully wrapped I love mum mug filled with my very favourite flake chocolates. Uni was sent off to buy this on a secret mission during the week!

When I first walked out of the bedroom door I was greeted with an enormous card decorated by Kt and her aunty Is while uni and I were at our antenatal class ... and there were colourful balloons on the floor.

Probably my favourite moment was seeing the excitement on kt's face as she showed me everything!!!!

Really wonderful!

After breakfast we sampled some chocolate and then had a game of pass the parcel which kt prepared herself!

All in all a wonderful morning.

then no arguments on our way to swimming.

An excellent swimming performance and the desire to go straight back into the pool for more swimming immediately!

false alarm

Well it seems we got the best possible outcome for Kt (apart from leaving things as they were).

She will be in class 1B and her current teacher (and probably her current room) will stay the same. The other grade 1 kids that were in a prep/grade 1 composite class will join kt and her current grade one friends.... and the grade 2 kids that were in her class will be moving to a different grade 2 class.

The changes will come into effect on Monday.

I am so pleased that Kt gets to keep her teacher and so is she!

I am not sure yet how many kids will be in her final class .. it looks like they have skewed things so there are 17 or 18 kids in each prep class (very good numbers), 22 or 23 kids in grade 2 ... but they did not mention how many are in each grade 1 class. Hopefully it will be somewhere in between ... like 20 or so ... there were 26 kids in her composite 1/2D class.

email gem

Hi mum,

you can send a pregnant, headless sideways shot that will be fine.

I just don't want anything identifiable to end up on the net and be used in an odd and inappropriate manner ... but a headless belly should be fine!

they are actually the kind of photos kt has been taking lots of ... I have to remind her to include my head when she is taking photos of me! LOL!

in case I forget

After carefully explaining to my very favourite year one that the ice brick included with her lunch was only to keep her food cool, not to be drunk (it looks a bit like a little rectangular drink bottle) .. I forgot to mention to her that it needed to come back home with her lunch box. Needless to say it got thrown out with her lunch scraps ... well obviously if you can't eat or drink it you have to toss it! LOL!!!

mild devastation

Yesterday afternoon our school newsletter delivered some unwelcome news.

The school gets a certain number of teachers based on how many students they have enrolled. At the end of the year they figure out their class allocations and they do a count on day 8 of the next year to see if they have more students than they expected and therefore qualify for more teachers.

Well this year they did end up with more students and they did qualify for an extra teacher.

This is terrific because they can reduce class sizes by up to six students which of course is great .... but this year they are going to rearrange 7 prep to year 2 classes and make 8 classes.

So this means every prep to year 2 class will be affected in some way ... either having to move classroom or change teacher or have new classmates.

They will no longer have the two composite classes 1/2D or prep/1C ... all the grade ones will be with grade ones, the two's will be with grade twos and the preps will be with preps.

I am really annoyed by this because Kt was doing really well and really settling in. We may know by this afternoon if she will get to stay in her current classroom with her current teacher or exactly what will happen.

We all really like her teacher and hope she stays, and I liked the fact that because she was with grade 2's the teacher treated everyone a little bit more grown up and gave them more responsibility etc.

She will know more kids when the classes change, and she will still have a desk of her own etc... but to have had things go so smoothly and then have to change is a real pain.

I was so angry and upset yesterday.

This morning there were other mothers expressing concern too.

Apparently if there is going to be changes like this they usually don't let things drag on so long, they tend to get things organized and changed as quickly as possible. I am not really sure what the delay has been caused by ... my eavesdropping ability is not as good as it once was! LOL!!!

Anyway I will hopefully know more soon. And I am much calmer about it all today than I was yesterday.

email information from january

I have decided to stop doing my email diary this year as it just takes too long to go through all my sent and received emails at the end of each month. With a new baby on the way I am unlikely to keep on top of it so I will just post relevant news from emails I send to others in here and keep a record of it here instead.

So this post is a mish mash of news and events that I have relayed to others during January and would usually have been recorded in an email diary.

6th January

I was inspired by Grandma Pat taking Kt to both the state library and the museum
so I actually checked out the events section in the recent council newsletter and looked up the art gallery program.

They have different activities and workshops on different days so I signed KT up for a "clay animal" making workshop there on 15th January.

If we like and enjoy that one, we might sign up for a couple more during the
following week.

They have things like a painting patterns workshop and a handmade cards
workshop and a using watercolour workshop all for younger kids that sound
interesting.

There was even a pottery class but unfortunately it was for ages 8 and up!!!

Depending on how the weather goes we might all (J included) head over to
Alma Park Zoo because it has been several years since we have been there

14th January

Deleting comments in blogger

You can delete comments I have just done it. I am not sure about editing ... maybe you just have to delete and write a whole new comment? Haven't tried that.

If you find a post that has a comment you will see that at the end of that comment is the date when comment was written and a trash can symbol you click on the trash can signal and click on "delete comment" as well as ticking the remove forever box.

This completely removes the comment.


....

Holidays are going well ... we had a couple of great days of swimming at the
beach last week. Kt got to well and truly try out her boogie board and
she is really fantastic on it. Can steer herself really well and you
should see her legs go!

Uni is back at work again so things have slowed down a bit here ... but
we have been going to the playground the last few days ... a different one
each time.

Today Kt climbed one of the trees at scarborough beach railway playground
and got higher than she had ever been before. Thankfully she was able to
climb down herself because she was way out of my reach!!!

We have started to think about school again and while Kt missed it terribly during the first two weeks of holidays I think she forgot all about it these recent two weeks and is likely to spend the current two weeks not
wanting to go back ...

Never mind we will deal with that as we come to it.

I on the other hand am very much looking forward to the school year starting
... once the initial emotions have all been worked through. I have been making great progress on rearranging the house, but doing it uninterrupted for up to 5 hours hours a day five days a week sounds like bliss!


...I am wondering if you have in your shed at home a gardening tool of ours. Uni believes he had leant it to you once (probably a few years ago now) and so far we can't find it here anywhere, so we wondered if you might still have it?

It is a tree pruner thingy ... that allows you to reach up and trim high branches on your trees. It is like a curved saw on a long stick.

Our mango tree has gone beserk and is producing beautiful and very delicious
mangoes which up in the tree, and out of our reach, are completely at the mercy of the bats.

They usually take one bite of them and drop them to the ground and leave a wasted mango that goes squishy and smelly very quickly.

We are hoping we can cut, catch and enjoy some whole mangoes from the tree if we can locate that trimmer.

OK better keep going now ... I have been rearranging our clothes into our new wardrobe. I seem to have stirred up a lot of dust and am suffering from hayfever, I may as well finish the job now and hopefully my nose will recover by tomorrow.

This refers to new "built in" mirror wardrobe we got to replace all our old childhood storage furniture like chest of drawers, cupboards etc.

...


15th Jan

Kt and I did go to the clay animal modeling workshop today .. we actually saw you in your car on our way there.

We were both stopped at the Oxley and Anzac ave lights. You were first in line to turn right into anzac ave and we were waiting to continue along Oxley ave ... we were one car back though so I didn't think you could see us.

Kt had fun and it seemed like a very interesting class. I think we will definitely do more workshops there, if not this year then perhaps next year again.

There were about 12 kids in all and a teacher and an assistant, and there was plenty of time to get everything done.

They took them into the gallery to look at some clay animals that had been done by aboriginal artists and also got some animal books for them to refer to.

They drew a picture of some of the animals they might like to make and then headed back to the library meeting rooms to do their artwork.

I left at that point to borrow books from the library and when I came back an hour later they had done two models each and were heading back into the art gallery to play with blocks and do drawings and other play activities until their parents came back.

We got to bring one clay model home and the other larger one will be fired and we can collect it in a couple of weeks once it is ready.

...

How I announced our pregnancy to those who did not yet know

Hello and Happy New year everyone,

I had intended to do a Christmas and New year newsletter type email to everyone, but have had a lot going on at the moment and have not managed to get around to it until now. Very difficult to get things done during school holidays!

Basically the big news for us this year is that we are preparing for the birth of our second baby in May!

We have been madly rearranging the house, converting the current computer room to a baby's room and shifting the computer and office furniture elsewhere. This has involved us going through 11 years of accumulated stuff and deciding how badly it needs to be taking up valuable space in the "prime real estate" areas of our house! Just about everything we own has been moved to a new place in the process! Even with both of us working on the preparations at a steady rate I don't know if we will be ready in time!

I don't remember having to do this much work last time, but I guess we had only been in our house for 5 years then and we still had "spare" rooms at that stage ....


Just cruising along very happily at the moment because we are in the blissful stage of regular kicks, plenty of movement and a big belly (but not uncomfortably big yet) and no more morning sickness!

I hope that everyone is well and happy and has a wonderful 2010.

Will keep you posted on how things progress.


.....


18th Jan

Hi Jenny,

Thank you!

I think there are advantages to having been through it all once before ... but you certainly do go in with your eyes wide open rather than full of only dreamy and sometimes unrealistic expectations. So I guess that means I am optimistic, a bit daunted, mildly terrified, yet occasionally calm ... LOL!!!

Kt is pretty excited about it ... I was not sure how she would take the news because she always seemed to be happy about being the only kid. She has indicated some concern that I won't have time to look after her any more and that the baby will get all my attention (maturity beyond her years!). I will have to try my best to keep things balanced as much as I can ....

She has been very affectionate towards the baby (ok well actually my belly) though and is interested in what is going on in there and likes to feel kicks and hear about how things were for me when she was in my tummy! Many stories and fond memories there as you can imagine!

She stayed overnight at her grandma's house earlier in the week and when she came home she rushed over to me and said Mum I missed you and gave me a big hug and then straight away asked how Mr "bump" was and gave my belly a gentle pat!

She was also the first one (apart from me) to feel a kick ... as the baby would often liven up and start doing somersaults whenever I would give her a big hug! And there is no doubt that Kt's will be the most familiar voice for the baby ... she talks more than anyone else in the house :-D

So, so far, so good!

Ok I guess I'd better get back to paying some attention to my girl!

...

22nd Jan

I seem to be destined to have an earth baby! Kt was meant to be a virgo if you remember ... and Mr bump as Kt calls him is obviously planning to be a taurus!

...

23rd Jan

Yes not long to go now. (return to school)

I am hoping the experience will not be as gut wrenching as the last two years.

We picked up Kt's book pack from school on Thursday on our way to Alma Park Zoo.

We had a good look at it yesterday.

I always used to love all the new stationery at the beginning of the year!

She has about 4 year one books with the red and blue lines in them ... I didn't think about it previously but we will probably need to cover them with contact ... haven't done that for years!!!

I finally got the laptop out and plugged in last night, I have had it for a month now without using it! My desk has enough space on it now to sit comfortably!!!

Spent a few hours getting myself familiarized with the new machine ... still have lots to learn and only just getting the hang of selecting things and dragging and dropping etc.

Still haven't quite figured out scrolling yet .... I keep doing things by accident and then not knowing how to repeat the action!!!

Only on chapter 4 of the manual though so I should be a bit wiser in a few days!

...

30th January

School has been going well.

Swimming too although she is not keen to go anymore because sometimes it is hard. Last week they did most of the lesson trying to dive and kt had a lot of trouble with that.

I was pretty sure the teacher would not do the same thing today, but I think Kt was dreading it. As it turns out they only did one dive at the end and I would have to say it was quick, but it looked pretty good to me!

I have just this morning finished my photolog ... complete with the 2008 pictures I found.

Natural lice treatment - more dejavu LOL!

If there are nits and eggs and suspect lice and itching:

You use the vinegar in conjunction with the shampoo for massaging in
and when hair is almost totally dry apply the lemon undiluted
in the scalp, neck /upper back and especially around all edges
where the hair meets flesh (i.e face, ears:back and outer cavity, neck)

For prevention on days you get letters from school,
you can use a very weak, dilution of just vinegar with water
for the first rinse to degrease the hair,
no need to massage it in with the shampoo if there is no actual presence
of eggs or lice, and when hair dries apply a teaspoon of lemon juice.
For prevention it can be diluted with a little water but not if for treatment!

The full amount of juice -undiluted- in any day has only been
1/4 of a small lemon

necessity is the mother of invention

I had another recent clothing crisis ... instigated by a growth spurt ... well basically my belly grows noticeably every single week!

I also decided I could not waste any time allowing my varicose veins to get any worse so I bought myself some knee high compression stockings. I will switch to full length ones as the weather cools although I wish they had stay up ones that grip onto your upper thighs instead of the regular pantyhose kind that I will just have to leave sitting tucked under my belly.

Firstly I believe the stockings are having a positive effect and I basically wear them from the moment I get up until I shower at night. I have 4 pairs and I hand wash each pair the day after I finish wearing them.

They are hot and they look funny especially when everyone is wearing short shorts, thongs, strappy sandals etc.

So I decided my best option was to try and wear them with some longer skirts.

One of the dresses I bought for myself last year had detachable straps so you could wear it as a short sexy dress or as a long skirt. It is scandalously short and I have not been able to wear it as a dress so I just think of it as a skirt now ... but it gave me an idea.

I need clothes that give me sun protection for when drop off and collect Kt from school so strappy dresses or even strappy tops are out.

I need clothes that are cool because I am really feeling the heat.

I need to wear the stockings to help my veins.

I don't want to look daggy when I go to school.

I want to be comfortable.

All this can not be achieved with one wardrobe so basically I wear something nice, sun protective, less comfortable and warmer for my pick up and drop off to school and also for going out shopping etc.

When I come home I switch to older, cooler, more revealing, comfortable clothes and I change back again in time to collect kt from school.

I have been doing this since last year but it has been absolutely essential this year.

So these days when i am at home I can be found wearing knee high compression stockings, short shorts and singlet style tops. I don't get too hot, I don't get uncomfortable, I can clean and move and sort things out without worrying about getting dirty and I can head back to school later looking respectable again.

My good clothes stay good, relatively clean and fresh smelling, my old favourites continue to wear and be worn and be useful.

I also looked back through my wardrobe again to see what I could do about finding suitable dressier things to wear and discovered that I could turn my other maternity dress into a longer skirt by turning the strappy sleeves in under the material and pulling the dress down below my waist, while wearing a long t shirt on top.

I can also do this same thing with a black flowery dress I like to wear ... I just have to fold the sleeves and top part under my belly, the skirt part of the dress sits on my hips and I put a t shirt on the top.

There was also a dress i got given that came from Greece. It had a boob tube type top bit with elastic that goes above your breasts, more elastic that sits below your breasts and then the skirt part.

Before i was pregnant it looked kind of feminine and nice although not my usual style. Once I was pregnant it fit well and was comfortable .... soft thin elastic but really made me look frumpy.

Now I just wear it as a skirt with both the upper and lower elastic below my belly. The material that used to cover my breasts forms a few ruffles and folds which appear underneath my t shirt, but just look like they are decorative.

Wearing it this way turns it into a fabulous skirt that I am likely to wear a lot, pregnant or not, and I am unlikely to ever wear it the other way (as a dress again).

So I am feeling very creative and inventive and happy to have found more wearable things in my wardrobe!

I did go out shopping last week and picked up a few tops ... one was a green maternity top (just because I wanted to see if they really are better than big tops) and also it was on sale for only $7 down from an original $18.

I also bought a couple of size 14 t shirts that will go with the new "skirts" I have created... and also a couple of size 14 long sleeve shirts that I can wear in winter when I am breastfeeding and while my tummy will still be big. Size 14's are roomy, not tight around the breasts, and are long enough to cover my belly.

I am feeling like I am pretty much covered now both for clothes for the rest of the pregnancy and clothes for the rest of the year and early next year while my size continues to vary....until I am back to wearing my regular clothes.

Hopefully I can avoid the shops (at least for clothes shopping for me now for a little while).

I also do not feel like I have overspent or wasted money on things ... maternity wear really is exorbitantly priced and everything I have purchased has been at a good special, or will be wearable for some time beyond the pregnancy too.

I have also borrowed some things and thankfully I kept my maternity wear from last pregnancy and every bit helps.