Thank goodness for friends

... who like ironing! Ironing is one job I hate. DH went to work today wearing an un-ironed shirt because I forgot to do one last night. So today, I called a friend who had gifted me some "free ironing" vouchers - she picks it up and delivers it ironed the next day. Hallelujah!

So, the house is a shambles, the floors need cleaning and vacuuming but at least DH will have some ironed clothes to wear.

Yesterday I ventured out for the first time by myself with 2 kids. I discovered that the seatbelts in the back seat of my car do not reach around the baby car capsule so she has to ride on the front seat. Fortunately my car is so old it doesn't have an airbag in the front, so it is okay... but I would prefer it if she could be in the back. The reason for my venturing forth ---> I needed some Tombow glue for scrapbooking! LOL!

Here she is at 2 weeks old.

And here she gives her opinion of my photography attempts.

I sure am tired of Blogger and it's issues with photos... even when hosted on Flickr. And even tho' I'm leaving comments on people's blogs who are still on the old Blogger... they aren't showing up. Grrr!

I am also really, really sick of toilet training. We don't seem to be getting anywhere! Bribery and other means are just not working as incentives. DS is nearly 3 1/2 so he surely must be physically capable. At this rate he'll be the only 5 year old still in nappies. *tears hair out*

txt for the previous post

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...

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...

Siblings

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!

The Babys Here

A baby daughter born 07/01/2007 weight 4270 g Lydia Murielle
Mother and baby are doing well more to follow

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.

Beans...

If you are a broad bean, you get to live in this comfy, soft pod. I like to squish it with my finger; it feels so nice.

Of course, the future of these beans is something rather less comfortable.

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.

Naughty or nice?

Test yourself!

Apparently I've been:

Nice, but has naughty lapses. High marks in the good deeds department. Better than average manners. Hopefully, thoughtfulness will continue to be as good as last month. Neatness needs improvement!

hee hee!

38 weeks

Just to prove I'm still here.

Gnocchi

Made Potato Gnocchi the other night. It's one of my favourites! The good thing about it is you can make extra and freeze them (free flow) for those "can't-be-bothered-cooking" days. Making gnocchi is a bit time consuming, so take a seat and enjoy the process.

1 potato per person (use a floury potato - Agria seems to give the best results for me, but I've used Rua with success too)
Flour
Egg *
salt & pepper
little bit of ground nutmeg

1. Boil the potatoes in their skins until cooked. Boiling in their skins keeps them from getting water-logged.
2. Allow to cool slightly.
3. Cut in half and push through a potato ricer. Using a potato ricer will give you the best results because it doesn't break up the potato cells to release their starch making a glutinous, heavy texture. If you don't have a potato ricer, try pushing the potato through a large holed grater or colander.
4. Add salt & pepper, nutmeg to taste.
5. Add an egg and stir it all together. If you're making this for more than 5 people I'd add another egg.
6. Now add flour. I can't give you exact amounts because I do this bit "by feel". Basically, you add flour and knead it in until the dough feels velvety. You should be able to grab a bit of dough and roll it between your hands to make a "snake" without it falling apart.
7. On a floured board, roll out lots of dough "snakes" about 1.5 cm thick. Cut into 1 cm "pillows" and roll these into little balls.
8. Take a ball and press it onto the tines of a fork. Peel it off the times towards you so you have a kind of ridged grub. Place these on a floured tray.
9. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil, and turn down the heat so it's at a gentle simmer. Drop in the gnocchi one by one. When they rise to the surface, skim them off with a slotted spoon into a serving dish.
10. Pour over your pasta sauce of choice and enjoy!

* Gnocchi can be made without eggs for those who have egg-free households. They don't freeze as well as the egg ones though. If you do want to freeze non-egg gnocchi, you will have to place them still frozen into the sauce and warm the whole thing in the oven. If you use boiling water they will disintegrate. Egg-free gnocchi are best with simple sauce flavourings like melted butter and sage leaves.

I made a tomato sauce to have these because it is lower in fat. This sauce can be made in bulk and frozen into useful serving portions too. You can use fresh tomatoes to make the sauce but it will take longer to reduce, and you will probably want to skin the tomatoes first.

400g can of tomatoes
2-3 cloves of garlic
fresh herbs to flavour eg. oregano, rosemary, basil
bit of tomato paste
slosh of olive oil

Put the tomato, garlic and herbs into a pot and blend with a stick-blender (or puree it all in a food processor before putting it into a pot).
Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat to a gentle simmer to reduce the sauce. Stir reasonably frequently. This sauce tends to "spit" so I keep the lid half over it to stop it making too much of a mess. When it's reduce to a thick sauce, add the tomato paste and olive oil. Pour over the gnocchi and serve with lashings of parmesan. Yum!

Blue Cheese Sauce

Melt together a wedge of blue cheese with a 300ml bottle of cream and a tablespoon of butter. Lovely rich and fattening!

Issues with comments...

According to the "known issues" Blogger blog, there is a problem with folks who're on the old version of Blogger leaving comments on beta-Blogger's blogs.

Logging in with an old Blogger account to post a comment on the new Blogger is giving a “please try again later” error. Until we fix this, it may work to log in first at http://www.blogger.com/login.g, and then go to the comments page on the new version of Blogger in beta. — latest update on Thursday, December 14, 2006

Sorry guys. :(

Incidentally - if you're ever in doubt about Blogger's status, there is a Blogger Status blog to check. Assuming you can get to it if Blogger is down...

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.

The perfect chair?

How about this eh? Feel like kicking back with a good book? Bought to you from Popgadget - the Bibliochaise. Actually the other chair on this blog looks quite funky too.

Popgadget is a blog about personal technology and innovative lifestyle for women. :) Sounds like cool to me!

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.

Thoughts on finishing work

Tomorrow is my last day at work... paid work that is. It's a bitter-sweet moment.

Sweet

• I'm proud of what I've achieved while I've been working here. There's been a number of projects I have either been asked to run or have initiated.
• I've developed as a librarian professionally and also in terms of my personal development.
• I have enjoyed working with a variety of hard-working, friendly colleagues.
• The tertiary institute who employs me has been a mostly benign and sometimes even generous employer for whom I would gladly work for again.

Bitter

• I won't miss the various frustrating issues that have had me despairing of ever bringing this library into the Web 2.0 era
• I won't miss the awful coffee in the staff room and the ludicrously priced food there. ($2.00 for a small pot of yoghurt? I don't think so!)
• I will miss my pay packet and am not looking forward to having to live on one income
• I will miss the interaction and intellectual stimulation from working with my colleagues and our clients.
• I will miss the opportunities for career advancement and professional development
• I will miss the validation and affirmation that paid employment brings to my sense of well-being

Sweet

• I can look forward to meeting my new baby
• My week will not be so stressful because I won't have just 2 days to run errands! Well, that's the theory.
• I will be able to do stuff with my other SAHM friends that I've had to decline in the past

These last few days have been tricky. On one hand I've been a little bored because things are quiet. Obviously starting a new project is not really worth it because I can't follow it through and my replacement won't start immediately. At the same time, there are a few projects that will continue without me and I won't be around to see them come to fruition which makes me sad.

People mean well when they say, "Oh well, you won't have to worry about that" but I'm afraid I am a bit over sensitive about such comments. My brain doesn't just switch off. I am still a person capable of intellectual thought and reasoning. My focus and priorities are going to change, it is true, but I retain an interest in my profession.

On the whole I feel positive about the next 12 months. I don't think I'll be returning to work (it's not financially viable to work part time with 2 kids in daycare), but if necessary I could. In the meantime, I'm going to focus on my family, friends and try and enjoy the challenges life throws up!

A meme for fun

Feel free to do this meme I found ...

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
It wasn't a concious thought but would have been something like:"Get comb ... comb out wet hair".

2. Favorite planet?
Earth - never been anywhere else!

3. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My Mum/Dad's number.

4. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?
It's not a phone with fancy rings so I have it on a plain one.

5. Do you “label” yourself?
umm.. I s'pose I do. I stick myself in several boxes.

6. What does your watch look like?
Silvery. It was my engagement present from DH. It is at the jewellers getting a new brain right now.

7. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Possibly sleeping, possibly visiting the smallest room.

8. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
"Hi - just wondering how u r & how your day. Love N." From SIL.

9. What's a word that you say a lot?
Indeed.

10. Last furry thing you touched?
*snicker*

11. Favorite age you have been so far?
26 maybe. But I don't feel too much different from then so get surprised when I think about how old I am.

12. Your worst enemy?
Oh - me for sure.

13. What is your current desktop picture?
An old layout I did of DS.

14. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"Where?" *trying to see some suspected thieves in our library*

15. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Give me ze money. Then I can fly whereever I like! LOL!

16. Do you like someone?
Well duh! yes!

17. The last song you listened to?
Something they were playing at daycare - probably something like Bob the builder.

18. What time of day were you born?
Around 3pm I think.

19. What's your favorite number?
Don't really have one - maybe 7.

20. Where did you live in 1987?
At the beginning of the year we were in Germany and then England, and then we came home to NZ.

21. Are you jealous of anyone?
Sometimes. It's usually a temporary thing. I have a pretty good life! LOL!

22. Is anyone jealous of you?
Dunno. I'd hardly think so.

23. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
Asleep. I heard about it on the radio going to work and we spent the a lot of the day at work glued to the TV and internet. After a while it just got too much and we turned the TV off. Everyone was subdued.

24. Do you consider yourself kind?
On the whole yes.

25. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
Somewhere where it could be covered like my butt. I'm not into tatts.

26. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
French/German/Chinese

27. Would you move for the person you loved?
Of course!

28. What's your life motto?
Not sure I have a permanent one. "It won't matter in 100 years" is sometimes helpful. "Do unto others etc" is a good 'un.

29. What's your favorite town/city?
I'm a homebod. I like Auckland. But I liked Wellington when I lived there for a while. I think I could be happy enough in most places in NZ. Indigenous people don't have a monopoly on "connection to the land". I've noticed that when I've been overseas and come back to NZ I always have this big feeling of relief to be back on NZ soil. However interesting the other country may have been, I feel displaced until I'm back. Another funny thing is I feel odd when I'm in a landlocked place... somehow the coastal areas always seem so much more comfortable.

30. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Do Christmas cards count? I sent a bunch on Friday last week. I used to write a lot of letters but now my communication medium of choice is email/IM/Txt etc.

31. Can you change the oil on a car?
Nup. I can change a tire though. And put petrol in the car. And drive it.

32. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
He got stranded hang gliding off some cliff.

33. How far back do you know about your ancestry?
Um - Mum's been doing some stuff on this and I think she's got back (so far) to the early 1800's. Not sure about the dates on Dad's side but we know where they came from in England so that would make it mid-1800's anyway. It's neat looking at the old photos - I have an interest in genetics, so I'm always comparing them with me.

34. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
Fancy? Depends on what you mean by fancy. I get dressed up for church on Sunday so if you count that it would be a maternity skirt I made plus a plain white maternity blouse. If you mean fancy/schmancy then it would be at my wedding in 1999! LOL!

35. Have you been burned by love?
Oh yes. Got to kiss a few frogs before getting the right one ;)

T-layout

I was going to use this layout for the NZ Dare #10 but finished it too late for the submission date. Then I thought I might use it for the Kiwiscraps customer challenge but I don't think it fits all the criteria.

But never mind! I used some papers from my October Tarisota kit for this one.

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.