Easter

Happy Easter to all those who are currently celebrating!

Despite the fact that I converted to Orthodox in 2011, we still celebrate both Easters & Christmases, and so will Nelly.

The best of both worlds really.

I took the opportunity of Nelly sleeping peacefully to quickly load in some of her Bunnies and snap this shot as I don't have any Easter themed clothing for her, and to then quickly take them out without disturbing her.

Looking at this photo, I realise that she actually has 2 more bunnies somewhere - everyone seems to have gravitated towards buying her bunnies.

When I was younger my brother Lucas won me a Koala at Timezone, whom I quickly christened Sleepy, and Sleepy went every where with me - we have photos of Sleepy in Bali, Fiji and more local destinations.

One time that my siblings were looking after me I had a big fight with Lucas, I can't remember how old I was, but I yelled at him "I hate you and I wish you weren't my brother" which obviously upset him because him being the firebug that he was, he grabbed Sleepy from my bed and set him on fire and flung him off our balcony deep into the bushes. 

I remember being hysterical and the next day having him retrieved with half a foot missing. 

I slept with Sleepy on my bed until the day that I moved in with The Husband.

The point of this story was to tell you that Cat got Nelly a Koala of her own, and I know that she will love it growing up!  

This photo was taken after Good Friday lunch at Geefas house. 

As you can see, I am still in maternity wear as I have a pretty sizable belly still, I would say it's at about 5 months fullness.

This photo is such a weird angle as I am standing on a hill and The Husband is already taller than me so looking down even more.

Dress - ASOS Maternity

Cardigan - Target

Nappy Bag - Marc by Marc Jacobs 

Pram - Joolz

As always, a massive seafood feast was put on and I was there to demolish it. 

Bugs. I rate bugs higher than lobster.

Nelly has impeccable timing and just when I was about to sit down for lunch she started to root around looking for the breast, taking it upon her self to suck on my collarbone until I removed my self from the table and went to feed her.

I messaged The Husband telling him to load up my plate in case there was nothing left by the time I was finished and this is what I returned to, but fear not as their was plenty of food to go around.

It's impossible to peel a prawn whilst holding a baby though. 

 

The aftermath.

Vanilla pannacotta makes this old girl pretty damn happy. 

So, what has been happening whilst I have been MIA? Entertain me. 

Meeting Nelly

She is here.

The love of our lives has burst into the world, stolen our hearts and captivated us with every move she has made so far.

Nelly was born on Wednesday 20 March 2013 at 12:55pm weighing in the lightweight division at 6lb 15oz and standing at 49cm tall.

She has incredible gangly legs, long fingers that belong to a pianist, big feet that will probably become familiar with basketball sneakers in good time and long sparse eyelashes that she bats at her father and makes him melt on the inside.

Speaking of her father, she is his spitting image.
I look at the two of them snuggled up together and my heart soars.
It's like he has his little twin and can carry her around in his pocket. 

When I reached 7 days past my due date I was sent to Monash hospital for some routine fetal monitoring which showed that she was as happy as a clam but that I didn't have much fluid left for her to swim in and I was told that if she didn't come the next day that I would have to be induced.

I didn't think that I would make it to the induction as I lost my mucus plug whilst at the hospital and the contractions were getting closer together on Tuesday.

This photo is from 41 weeks, the day before I had Nelly. 

I rang my OB on Tuesday and told him that I had some bleeding and my contractions were closer together and he advised that if I didn't give birth naturally that night as he predicted then he would see me at 7:30am the next day for induction. 

Knowing that we had an end date in near made me so excited.

Cat and I spent the Tuesday getting things ready, shopping for The Husbands birthday present and eating doughnuts whilst timing my contractions, before giving up when we were told by a midwife at Cabrini that they were not strong enough to time as I was still talking and walking through them, despite them being relatively close together. 

The Husband cooked us a nice healthy dinner so that we would have peak energy for the night or day ahead of us and I plodded off to bed around 10:30, able to sleep through the contractions until they woke me up around 4am and from there I dozed in and out before being unable to sleep anymore and decided to start timing them as I was having to talk myself through them as they got stronger and stronger. 

Our alarms went off at 6am and it was time to get ready to go to the hospital, be induced and meet our daughter.

I had a nice long shower, made some porridge and generally wafted around waiting for 7am to arrive but before 7am showed, Cat was knocking on the front door and I was stealing hash browns from her.

We drove to the hospital and I realised that I still didn't feel any nerves or terror, as everyone had told me to expect, just excitement and anticipation.

We arrived at Cabrini and were taken straight to the delivery suite and upon walking through the reception area we heard screams that can only be described as something I would usually associate with cruel and unusual punishment. 

I made a comment about the screams and the midwife remarked that it probably wasn't the best idea to take a first time mother to be through at that exact time as the mother in the suite was minutes from giving birth. 

I thought that these screams were going to be coming from my mouth in the hours to come, but that's not how it panned out. 

I was given an internal at 8am after we had sat around for half an hour and was told that I was only 1cm dilated and to expect to give birth around 6pm that night and that my OB would be in shortly to induce me. 

We were ready for a long day ahead of us, we had muesli bars, red frogs, poweraid and apple juice - my usual power foods.

When the OB came in he got straight to work and produced a long metal rod with scissors on the end and broke my waters (not a pleasant experience) and remarked "First haircut" and put a cluster of long black hair on the back of my hand and flounced out.

I couldn't believe that they had cut her hair, she was right there, she was real and this was really going to happen. 

After my waters were broken I was pumped with a hormone to bring on the contractions and that's when I discovered that the contractions I had talked my way through that morning were nothing. 

These bad boys took my breath away and I called for the oxygen which did nothing until the midwife turned it up and then it made me woozy enough to not want any more. 

I had no birth plan but knew that I wanted to try and go as natural as possible, if women have done this since the beginning of time without pain relief, surely I could too?

No. I couldn't. 

As the midwife said to me "There are no prizes for putting yourself through unnecessary pain" and I called for the epidural at 10:00am after two hours of contractions, thinking I had another 8 hours of this ahead of me. 

The Husband and Cat were so supportive, they knew I wanted to go pain relief free but it just wasn't going to happen, I couldn't handle it and they could see that. 

I used The Husband as a support beam to lean on and continued to suck on the oxygen as the contractions came whilst I was getting the epidural which hurt but I knew that sweet, sweet relief was on it's way. 

I was given the lowest strength of the epidural which meant that I wasn't numb anywhere, but all of the pain was taken away and I could still feel the pressure of my contractions and I relaxed instantly

Straight after my epidural was administered, the midwife realised she hadn't given me an internal since 8am and after the exam she was very quick to remark "Oh. You are 10cm dilated and the head is there!!". 

No wonder the contractions hurt so much, 9cm in 2 hours was a good effort if you ask me. 

I don't know if I would have asked for the epidural had I have known that I was already 10cm and that The Baby had moved lower and was ready for action so maybe it worked out for the better that we didn't know until it was too late.

My OB was called and it was time to start pushing, which was an incredibly odd sensation as I could not feel where exactly I was pushing, I just had to luck it out and hope that I was pushing in the right place. 

I had Cat at the business end and I was using her and the midwifes hips as stirrups as the stirrups were not high enough for me, and The Husband was by my side the entire time, both giving me all the encouragements and love in the world that I needed to hear.

The Husband got out of having his hand ripped to shreds as I had to hold under my thighs whilst pushing.

When the OB breezed in and took a look he seemed to just sit back and hang out and forbid me from going to sleep.

That's right, I fell asleep during pushing through the contractions. I was so relaxed, I had zero pain and there was no screaming or groaning to be heard. 

After awhile I was told that my blood pressure was dropping, and they couldn't tell if the baby was being affected by this and it was time to use the forceps as my pushing was not strong enough.

All I needed to hear was 'forceps' to give me the extra strength that I needed and was told to reach down and touch her head, with that, I pushed her out with no need for forceps but I did tear naturally and had two stitches. 

I could feel her coming out and cant even find any words to describe what that felt like. 

When I saw her pulled into the air, looking around and gasping, my emotions gave way and I was a blubbery mess. It was time for The Husband to cut her cord and her to be wiped off and placed on my chest. 

I loved her instantly but it still hadn't hit me that she was mine. She had lived inside of me for so long, and now here she was, chillin' on the outside, the spitting image of The Husband.

I would seriously rate the pain of giving birth with an epidural as a 1/10. It was awesome and I am a drug convert now. 

Just kidding.

Kind of.

We referred to her as Nelson before we knew her gender and that turned into Nelly but never did we think that we would actually be using it in her official name.

She is such a good baby. I just cannot believe that we created her and she is ours.

There is too much love and I don't want to gush on about it forever!

Still plodding along..

I'm still here, still pregnant, still plodding along.

I'm only 3 days overdue but it feels like 3 weeks overdue.

My OB has scheduled me to come back in on Wednesday next week and then he will discuss an induction date, so hopefully the little tacker decides to grace us with her presence before then, or else!

40 weeks and 3 days 

The bump still looks so high but it's definitely dropping and the stretchmarks are gathering under my belly like there is a stretchmark convention in town. Oil does crap all, let me tell you that much right now. 

If you are going to get stretchmarks, rubbing oil into your belly twice a day will not defeat them. 

Here is how Cat and I have been passing the time:-

Eating the Alice in Wonderland Surprise at The Pancake Parlor. 

We love us some pancakes, yes, yes we do.

Watching movies, and yes this movie went forever but was good. 

My mind did wander during some parts which makes me wonder how the kids would go with watching it and not getting too bored. 

Walking around Southland and Chadstone for some incidental exercise in the air conditioned comfort.

We walked into T2 and you better believe that the girl behind the counter knew what I wanted. 

She did advise me not to drink it if I wasn't in my third trimester. Sister, believe me, I am beyond that. 

Come one tea, soften my uterus or whatever you are meant to do. Just do something.

Royal Albert 1990's 'Hartington Lane' tea cup and saucer.

Slowly getting through my Royal Albert set and loving them all. 

Watering the garden.

This Just Joey rose bush is back in bloom after being hacked pruned by someone who does not live in our household and took it upon themselves to help us out. 

Drinking boost juice and walking around the shopping center some more, very slowly.

Okay, ignore my face in this photo and just focus on the Alpaca puppet to the left.

We found this puppet in Jasper Junior at Chadstone which is the best toy shop I ever been in.

I will return for this puppet I tell you.  

We also trekked to Baxter to have spicy Indian food with Joey and Emma and before I even started to eat I started to have contractions 20 minutes apart but apparently it was a false labor which is no fun and a let down.

We also went to Seaford beach for a swim with Joey after work that day and he looked at my big belly with fear in his eyes and said "What happens if you blow your waters whilst swimming?!!" 

Yes, he thinks I am a whale with a blowhole. 

This place had the best Butter Chicken, it was amazing. 

Remember to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram as I will announce the baby being born on one of those before I have time to blog about it!! 

Heating Up

This weather has turned me a little feral, not that I wasn't a little feral before but this weather has just made me that much more so.

The news that the next 9 days will be in the high 30's have me praying that this baby pops out soon so that at least I will be in the hospital, which are always freezing, and won't have to leave for 4 nights.

Our air con works a treat at home, don't stress, but still. I'm working up a sweat walking to the mail box.

I had been hanging for a swim which is definitely not like me for over a week now and I ended up putting on The Husbands shorts and a singlet so as to not scare other beach goers and headed down with Mum.

We had the ever necessary fish n chips whilst watching the sunset and it was lovely.

I slept much better after cooling my body down, despite having some aches and pains which meant that mum was on high alert in case the baby decided to come. 

I'm pretty ready for The Baby to pop out and my OB told me she was engaged last week so now we wait.

Someone told me to drink Raspberry Leaf Tea to condition the uterus or bring on labour or some crap. 

I don't even like tea, but I had raspberry flavored tea in the cupboard (along with every other flavor that Twinings make thanks to a $1 sale at Coles) so even though it's not the same thing I decided to humor my self and have a cup.

One of the lovely tea cups from my Royal Albert 100 Years set, the first time I had used one actually.

This particular pattern is the 1950's 'Festival' print.

I used the breakfast muffin recipe from my previous post to make a loaf but I had no bananas so it wasn't quite as good. Still yum but lacking.  

So, how is everyone else spending their weekend? I think I will go to the beach and show the whales how it is done again.

In other news, I got suckered in by Energy people today who I think signed me over to a new company. I need to read the forms. I told you the heat makes me loco.

That's the thing about living in the burbs, door to door people come all the freaking time. 

Apologies for not being able to blog regularly  and for the lack of stimulating (hang on, was it ever stimulating? Ha) content but hopefully I will have more to blog about soon! 

Shopping with Little Boo-Teek

Melinda from the gorgeous online store, Little Boo-Teek contacted me last week and was sweet enough to send me a generous gift voucher to the store so that I could buy a little somethin' somethin' for The Baby.

Like the baby doesn't already have a lot of little somethin' somethin's, but you know! 

She sent me the voucher Friday afternoon and you better believe that I had my basket filled within 10 minutes.

I placed my order late Friday afternoon and received the parcel early Monday morning. 

That's what I call speedy service. 

The website is really easy to navigate, and they are having a big sale at the moment so hop on board.

Bebe Mila Leggings with Skirt

Look, I couldn't resist these.

I want them in my size but I just don't have the legs or toosh for them, especially not in white.  I got them in 3-6 months and I already have the perfect cardigan to match. 

I love the Bebe brand, they really do make beautiful stuff.

I have to be honest with you, I had never heard of Alimrose Designs before, but now that I have, I know that I will be buying more, their toys are beyond cute and a little different to the norm that you see around the traps.

Alimrose Designs Maggie Squeaker Doll $18.95

I do like a good squeaker!! She was like a little fairy hanging out in the garden when I took these. 

Alimrose Designs Knit Teddy Rattle $19.95

Who can go past a traditional teddy bear rattle? Not I. 

I need to get more toys for The Baby, things to amuse her during Tummy Time and the likes. 

What are your favorite educational/developmental toys?

I also got this Bebe Boxed Baby Blanket $64.95 in pink, but it's kind of hard to take a nice photo of so you can look at the stock photo and use your imagination. 

I've tried to keep a lot of baby stuff gender neutral so that we can use it for any other children that we will hopefully have, but it is nice to have some girly specific items too. 

I had a dream the other night that I gave birth to a big, bouncing, baby boy. We took him home in pink onesies. 

Luckily my hospital bag is full of gender neutral stuff, with some pink thrown in for good measure in the way of beanies and socks so that people don't say "what a beautiful boy" haha. Bound to happen though, I have done this in the past so it's only fair that I would endure it also. 

Thanks again Melinda and Little Boo-Teek!! 

Filling in time by eating.

I've been filling in my days by reading, baking and eating.

The Husband has gotten used to me cooking now so I am not sure what is going to happen when The Baby comes and everything goes askew.

I'm getting a bit bored during the day, even Foxtel is starting to get repetitive and I have become a regular at the local library, borrowing books and then speed reading my way through them.

Saturday I made Banana Pancakes and Sunday I made Apple and Cinnamon pancakes. Don't stress, after I took this photo a nice dollop of Vanilla Ice Cream entered the scene. 

I baked these mini breakfast muffins using The Cake Mistress' recipe, here. 

Fruit & oats feature heavily and they were delicious. 

The Husband doesn't eat breakfast unless I force him, but then he complains that when he does eat breakfast he gets hungry during the day whereas if he doesn't eat it he can go until 5pm without eating which is just plain concerning to me. I figure, even if he is eating muffins with sugar in them on his way out the door, it's gotta be better than nothing. Surely?

I also used this Peanut Butter & Choc Chips cookie recipe from The Cake Mistress (found here) but I accidentally bought buttons, not chocolate chips. I did the first batch with the giant buttons and then smashed them up for the second batch.

I rolled my cookie dough into massive balls so they wouldn't go flat, and low and behold, they were awesome. 

I've revisited my youth and have found saladas again.

I'm also eating my body weight in cheese, and let me tell you, that's not a small body weight.

Interestingly, cheese was one of my first pregnancy cravings and it has returned in full force these days.

I'm balancing out the cheese with fruit. I wasn't lying when I said I was filling the time with eating. 

I'm freaking sick of laying on my waterproof protector. It makes me so hot, even with a sheet over the top of it.  

My friend Celeste has started her own business, a fashion online shopping website 'Crowded Closet', I am so proud of her! 

You can visit the website for great clothes at great prices, follow her on Facebook or Instagram. 

Wondering who the gorgeous model is? Celeste of course!! 

It's too hard to get dressed these days, forget doing my hair. I swear my hair is matted from being in a permanent high pony tail. 

Keeping it glamorous at all times. 

In other news, my ankles are back. Turns out that putting your feet up for 20 hours of the day really does work in reducing swelling. 

I know you all must be sick of the baby related posts but it's all I have at the moment as I don't really venture out any more.