One year today

Today our baby is one year old. It's 4.00pm now... a year ago my contractions were just starting to settle into a pattern. Her birth story is here.

From that helpless bundle we now have a (nearly) toddler! She is taking more and more steps with increasing confidence.

In her honour - 3 layouts I have done over the past few days.

Eh? Another photo Dad?

I think she's over it don't you?


P.s. The Earth Gems were in my local produce store (Kumeu Produce) ... not the organic shop, so you may be able to find them locally.

Got Milk?

Small boy thought his sister needed some milk to help her get over some hiccups. Sister wasn't quite so sure...

Amy's new store

Blogging friend Amy has just opened a new Cafepress store with some cute baby stuff. The store is called Cute as a Bug. I particularly like the "instructions" t-shirt! :-) But there are others there that are cool too. Pop by and have a look.

World Breast Feeding Week

Thanks to Amy's blog I discovered it's World Breastfeeding Week in August.

Here's a quote about it:

What is World Breastfeeding Week?

World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is August 1st – 7th and celebrates the signing of the Innocenti Declaration** on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding. It is celebrated in 120 countries on various dates.

* According to WABA, "Initiation of breastfeeding within the 1st hour of birth is the first and most vital step towards reducing infant and under-five mortality, by reducing the overwhelmingly high neonatal mortality rate."

** The Innocenti Declaration was produced and adopted in 1990 by participants at the WHO/UNICEF meeting on “Breastfeeding in the 1990s: A Global Initiative.” The document lists the benefits of breastfeeding, plus global and governmental goals.

I've been fortunate that both my kids have been able to benefit from good ole human milk. For me it is as much about convenience as the Good Things that are in breast milk. Learning to breast feed was difficult at the beginning and it took me about 6 weeks before I felt confident with it when DS was born. Luckily for me DD has been really easy to feed, and apart from a couple of blocked ducts I've had no trouble this time.

I know that breastfeeding isn't always possible and I don't think that formula is Evil Food from the Dark Side. But if someone asked my advice about the choice I would strongly advocate breast feeding.

Amy has a photo contest going to celebrate WBW if you'd like to enter.

Where is the strangest place you've breast fed? I think for me it would be at the lookout at Waiere Falls down near Te Aroha. We'd just walked to the lookout so DH could take some photos and DS decided he was hungry.

Yessir, that's my baby

She's 8 weeks in this picture... or was it 7? Not sure. Anyway, she's doing well. Plunket weighed her on Monday and she's 5.6kgs. She has started sucking her thumb which is very cute but not really what I wanted her to do since it is so hard to wean the habit. I'm persevering with the dummy but thumbs are so conveniently located when you're in your cot and Mummy's not around to monitor it...

Did this layout for the SBO Elsie Flanagan Challenge A Day in your Life. I'm amazed at how much I can fit into a day sometimes but I have to confess that it's not everyday I'm that busy. I'm inherently lazy.

Mel has tagged me to reveal something about the book I'm reading. Yep - I do have time to read these days... breastfeeding time = reading time ;)

1Find the nearest book...

Got it.

2 Name the book and the author

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

3 Turn to page 123

Uh-huh

4 Go to the 5th sentence on the page and copy out the next 3 sentences onto your blog

Speaking of 3 small fireballs circling the witches fire. You could slay enemies with them, she'd said. They made the others uneasy. It was wizard magic, showy and dangerous.

5. Tag 3 more people

Hmm, is there anyone left? I shall tag Heather, Rebecca and Tami.

Actually - I like this quote from the book. You can guess why! Hee hee!

The librarians were mysterious. It was said they could tell what book you needed just by looking at you, and they could take your voice away with a word.

I can tell you that you get pretty good at identifying some of your clients.

Nursing & other health profession students always travel in packs, business students are usually in a hurry and dressed smartly, automotive students sneak in furtively (heaven forbid someone should see they are in THE LIBRARY) .. mind you, their overalls tend to give them away.

The elusive first smiles

smile

DD has starting smiling and cooing - it's so sweet. It's neat how just at this time, (when you are starting to get a bit sick of the mundane feed/sleep/change routine), the baby's brain kicks in and you get rewarded with interaction! Somehow it just opens up your heart more, and the love gets bigger.

Trying to catch the first smiles is jolly hard! My camera is pretty quick but even so, I only have a few decent ones.

She is doing well; is over 5kgs now and has a nice chunky feel to her when I cuddle her.

I had an interesting conversation with DS this morning while getting him dressed. As I pulled the shirt over his head he said, "Don't touch the furry things!"
Eh?
Turns out he was talking about his eyelashes! LOL!

He has some amusing names for things - a recent one is "tangled eggs" for scrambled eggs. He will eat tangled eggs but not poached, fried or hard boiled eggs. *shrugs*

1 week later

Here she is a week later wearing a dress I made years ago in hopes of having a little girl to dress up one day.

Things are going well. I'm still a bit sore but that is to be expected given her size! Breastfeeding is good; so much easier the second time round. She's eating well, and sleeping for some decent stretches at night so I can't complain.

DS is very gentle with her and loves to hold her. He's been a bit jealous of the present she's getting, but apart from that he's great. He told my folks after seeing her the first time, "She's pretty eh?" Something to remind him of when he's a bit older and his feelings are less complementary.

RAK Winners

I think I've worked this out correctly.

Janine guessed the right day and Shannon guessed the closest weight. So girls - email me an address and I'll post you some cards to use! :-) (Shannon - I think you've got my home email so feel free to use that one).

Thank you for your comments on my blog - I'm sorry I've not had time to return the favour but you know how it is! Soon...

Couple more pics and a quick birth story

I've yet to get my "notes" about the birth so will write something more organised later, but here is a quick story and some photos. Okay - blogger is having a hiccup so here are some links.

Just born

Not quite a day old


We went to church Sunday morning fully expecting to have a "normal" quiet Sunday and thinking I'd be induced the next day. After church we went to my folks (who were looking after Tim) and had lunch there and around 2.30pm after dessert I realised I'd sprung a leak...

We came home and I rang my sister who wanted to be there at the birth to come over. DH and I went for a walk in the hot sun around the block - my skirt got soaked from all the amniotic fluid... there was no doubt to anybody who we passed what was going on but frankly I didn't care. My sister arrived and we did another walk - cxs were around 5 mins apart but not very long. I decided to sit on the birth ball for a while and time some so we could inform the midwife what progress was happening. My main midwife K was off call this weekend so we called her backup B who for various reasons I'd never actually met. (This bothered me a bit before, but as it turned out B was great and I have to say I felt safe and secure in her care). We rang her first around 4.30pm (I think) and her advice was "when you not laughing anymore, give me another ring".

Around 6.30pm I had was starting to feel like I wanted to go to the delivery suite - things were getting painful, I had the TENs machine on and DH/my sister were doing acupressure to help me. I was also "vocalising" by this stage. We got to the delivery suite around 7.00pm and I was asking for an epidural. B checked me and said, "The good news is you're 9cm, the bad news is, it's too late for an epidural!" This wasn't exactly what I expected to hear & I really felt incapable of doing it all au naturel.

B bought in the gas for me which took some of the rawness out of the cxs but they were still very intense. After a bit, B had me get up on the bed leaning over the top part on my hands an knees. I wasn't there long and I started pushing involuntarily at the peak of the cxs. I'm not totally sure how long I was pushing before she crowned - it didn't seem that long. My sister and DH were encouraging me by telling me they could see the head etc which was great because I was starting to lose it. I got her head out and then her shoulders got a bit stuck so B got DH to pull the emergency cord ... things happened very quickly then. The room filled with at least 4 midwives, I got flipped onto my back, and that allowed her to come out at 8.19pm, an hour after our arrival to the hospital! Her cord was quickly cut and she was whipped over to the newborn station (DH called out "It's a girl!" as she went by) to have a bit of oxygen... but she pinked up within seconds and it was all okay.

I lay there totally stunned that I HAD DONE IT! With just gas, TENs and my support people. I still can hardly believe it. I can't help myself comparing it with DS's birth, and I have to say my recovery both mentally and physically has been so much easier.

I had 3 stitches.

Breastfeeding is going fine - she is a much mellower baby than DS and that combined with having done it before helps a lot. I'm at home now, and a little nervous but I have this confidence that we've done this before and while it won't be a cake walk necessarily, we'll get through these first 6 weeks.

Thanks for your well wishes I appreciate them. I'll post some more pics as we take them!

My last post before baby (I hope!)

I'm off today for a CTG and membrane sweep. Hopefully that will stir things up a bit and I'll go into labour. Otherwise... the dreaded induction word has been mentioned, so no doubt we'll be discussing that today.

Yesterday we went down to Glenbrook Vintage Railway and had a lovely afternoon riding the train etc. DS got spoiled by his Nan & Pop by getting some more Thomas the Tank Engine stuff for his collection. Afterwards we popped into Wrights Water Gardens for a look. We were a bit early for some of the lilies, and the lotuses weren't out yet, but it was a pleasant walk around.

Just for fun
If anyone wants to make some guesses about the arrival date & weight of the baby I will RAK the nearest correct guess with some cards I've been making while waiting! :-)

So, leave your guesses in the comments and I'll be in contact with the winner once the event has occurred!

Edited to add: The appt went well and baby seems fine in there. We have another appt for Friday if there is no delivery beforehand; I'll see the specialist that day too regarding induction.

Edit 2: Still nothing happening as of 3.41pm Thursday 4th! Dunno if you girls want to keep guessing or not ;-)

Edit 3: Okay - saw the midwife again this morning Friday 5th and had a scan to see if all is well. Which it is and best news is that baby is facing the right way around! I'm so glad! I have been doing lots of walking and last night had 2 noticeable contractions. This morning I experienced what they call a "show" so something is happening at long last. If I don't deliver this weekend I will be induced on Monday morning at 8am.

369 days until Christmas

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

We had a nice quiet day - ate too much great food, and DS was thoroughly spoiled by all! Still - it was fun to see his delight in what Santa brought. I think the ride-on digger from Nan & Pop was the biggest hit!

I got the Queen of Swords by Sara Donati for my Mum and she (unbeknownst to me) got a copy for me! Yay! So I didn't have to borrow it off her! LOL! I've finished it already though and need another book. :-)

I had a midwife appt this morning and the good news is that I am well and baby is fine too. The bad news is that baby is posterior - the very thing I was hoping to avoid. If it doesn't turn before/during birth I'm in for a long labour with lots of back pain. To say I'm disappointed doesn't begin to explain my feelings! Poor DS saw me upset and was offering me arnica cream "to make you feel better". I have absolutely no signs of labour.

I was nervous about the birthing before, but it's been ramped up another level now because I've been down this posterior path business before with DS. My hopes for minimal intervention are more remote now; most likely I'll have an epidural at least. I realise this isn't a Bad Thing and I'm likely to be very grateful for it, but I did really want to try and do things "naturally" so my recovery would be a bit easier. At least my midwife has offered to get a specialist epi man to give me one that will allow me to be on my hands and knees rather than on my back with jelly-legs like last time. Pushing on my back was the worst for me; I felt like I wanted to squat or at least be upright so I hope that this will at least be possible.

I've been spending so much time on my hands and knees trying to turn this baby ever since I knew my placenta was anterior. My garden is virtually weed free - a highly unusual situation! My kitchen floor has never been so frequently scrubbed! I just find it hard to reconcile myself that all my preparation/carefulness has been in vain.

Still - must look on the bright side. At least my baby seems healthy and growing fine so far as we know. The friend I referred to in an earlier post has had her baby at 33 weeks. Somehow she caught toxoplasmosis and her baby has been affected. At this stage, they don't know how badly his brain will be affected; they already know his eyes have been. He has at least 12 months worth of treatment to face. Fortunately he is doing well in terms of growing and putting on weight. What his future holds remains to be seen. The Drs offered to terminate the pregnancy (at 33 weeks!!) but my friends refused for which I admire them immensely.

Quick update

I am still around (literally) and in one piece! Just been busy with the stuff that happens this time of year.

Baby & I are fine. No signs of imminent arrival but just progressing in the normal manner. The baby's head is 1/5th engaged and is lying with it's back towards my right side. I hope it will turn a little before birth so that I don't have so much back labour this time.

I was so happy to find a recipe for an Apricot and Walnut Loaf I'd thought I'd lost. I made it for our weekend away. It's a tangy, crunchy type of loaf. The orange juice and zest give it a little extra lift.

2 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
3 teasp. baking powder
1 teasp. salt
1 cup castor sugar
200g dried apricots, chopped
150g walnuts/pecans/ pumpkin kernels, chopped (I use a mixture of walnuts and pumpkin kernels)
1 Tablesp. orange zest, grated
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 Tablesp. oil (I used rice bran oil but any "flavourless" oil would be fine)
1 egg beaten

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C. Lightly butter and line a loaf tin (23 x 13 x 6 cm).

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add sugar.
Add apricots and nuts. Toss to coat.
Mix together orange zest, juice, milk, egg & oil.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour liquids in. Stir to combine.
Pour mixture into the prepared tin, and bake for about an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Cool in tin for 10 mins then place on a rack to cool completely.

Great for morning tea.

If you have any spare "good thoughts", prayers, and other such like things, please send them up to the maternity unit at Auckland Hospital where a friend of mine is going through a tough time. Her little 33 week old boy has fluid on the brain, and she herself has cholestasis, and a number of other issues. She has 2 daughters who are 3 & 1 years old. She's on steriods to mature the baby's lungs etc but the outcome for him is uncertain.

Preparation

• Christmas puddings. Check. Yum, yum, wanted to eat them as soon as they were cooked!
  
• Christmas cake. Check. Feeding it with rum now... hick.
  
• Sew some breastfeeding tops. Check.
• Take up second hand maternity skirts so they aren't around my ankles. Check.
  
• Bassinette set up. Check. *sentimental sweet moment*
  
• Drawers in spare room cleaned out. Check - 2 bags of rubbish removed! But what do I do with all this writing paper I never use anymore?
• Baby clothes in cleaned out drawers. Check. *another sentimental sweet moment*
  
• DS clothes weeded so the too small stuff is now in storage. Check.
• Tidy up garage shelves. Check.
  
• Clean out cupboard in spare room and store stuff on the garage shelves. Check.
  
• Scrapbooking & sewing stuff packed away neatly in cupboard. Check. Boo hoo! But at least I can get it out easily enough.
• Make extra at dinner time so I have some meals to freeze. Check. Should do some more though.
  

Stuff still to do

• Christmas shopping - this week and next
• Pack labour bag and DS's "going to Nan's house" bag
• Clean kitchen cupboards and venetian blinds (ick ick ick)
• Weed garden, plant more lettuce and radishes, stake tomatoes and get more netting for beans to climb on. Plant more veges.
• Clean windows.
• Wash baby clothes, sling and baby gym stuff.
• Sterilise breast pump and accessories.
• Take DS's kindy enrolment form in

Haven't been blogging much because of all this stuff to do.

On the countdown

I'm 32 weeks, coming up 33 weeks on Friday 10th Nov.
- 7 weeks until my due date
- 6 weeks until Christmas
- 3 weeks until my last day at work (13 days of actual work since I'm part-time)

I'm measuring on track though I do think I'm smaller this time around. I'm hoping that is because my eating habits have improved since my last pregnancy. I need to weigh myself at my appointment on Thursday but I'm pretty sure my weight gain has not been so significant like with DS.

My midwife has recommended drinking raspberry leaf tea now and has some other herbal/homeopathic remedies up her sleeve for later on. She says she likes to do this for second-timers, especially for those who had difficult births for their first. With DS I had some problems relating to the fact he was posterior. One day I might post his birth story, but basically it was quite a long labour (26 hours), my cxs were inefficient so I had to have syntocin, 2 x epidurals, 5 bags of IV fluids, and ended up with a ventouse extraction because I could not push him out.

I am so hoping that this time will be different. I don't know that I have the strength of character to go totally natural, but even if I can get away with no augmentation and a normal vaginal birth I'll be happy.

We have got 2 more things to borrow or buy - a changing table and a new pram. Our old pram is fine, but bulky and I'd like to sell it. DH would like a mountain buggy one which has a shorter wheel base and can be taken on bush walks more easily. Plus the accessories for it a easily obtainable here.

This pregnancy has gone so fast. Unlike the first one, I've no time to daydream about the new baby. I'm trying to savour the little moments now - the movements of the baby within, the stretching of my tummy, the calm before the storm!

I'm so lucky that I have had 2 easy pregnancies. Of course there are the normal aches, pains, irritating things. Like turning over in bed - it takes me about 3 movements! My hips go numb after a while and I am also getting leg cramps. But so far things have been textbook normal.