Cybercrop Creations

I had fun the other night at a cybercrop with SBO. We were privileged to have Elsie Flanagan as a surprise visitor - exciting! I did a few of the challenges. It was interesting to attempt them even though I'm not totally satisfied with the results. I find it hard to be creative when there are particular "requirements" for a layout, but I thought it would a useful exercise to get me out of a creative comfort zone. As a result of this crop I don't really think doodling is a style I'm going to do much with but it was interesting to try.

The 30 minute layout was a real challenge because I don't "create" well under pressure and it was the first time I'd done doodling. I was however able to get something done and am quite pleased with the results of this particular challange. No pic because it's on the laptop and I can't be bothered re-photographing it.

The next one was to look for a colour combo around the house and create something inspired by it. I had a few options for this one but picked a mango because I love the colours. I didn't really have any great photos for it though so I'm going to have another go at this colour combo when I have some suitable photos. These were some my mum gave me and she really needed to use a flash or something. Pity they weren't digital and then I could have adjusted it.
I had another doodling attempt on this layout.

There was also a challenge to use something non-scrapbooking related on a layout. I struggled with this one - or rather, I struggled to find something that could be classed as non-scrapbooking! In the end I cut up a plastic mesh vege bag and used it as a background.


The final challenge is due at the end of the week, and is to document a day in your life. I suppose I will have to include doodling again if I want to have a chance to be a winner *sigh*. I have to remind myself that I scrap for myself and my family and not for any prize. But I like to win. Selfish ambition... need to lose it and be contented with what I have.

B &W with Colour Pop

For NZ Dare Competition... black & white with colour pop. Took me a while to find some photos I could work with!

Book of love

This little book I made for my sister who was one of my birth support team. I made it through SBO (Trina's online class). The original book is actually a Valentine book but DH is not the sort of guy who likes this kind of thing so I modified it to suit my purpose!

I also made some cards from the leftovers to put in the altered tin for my midwife; she was quite overwhelmed with the gift. :-) I like making people happy.

My Scrapping space

scrapspace

Janine challenged us to take a picture of our scrapping space... here is mine. I'd love to have more room; the picture doesn't show all the stuff stashed away or spread out beside the actual minuscule desk. How I envy those of you with more room!

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*

Steam Festival

Last weekend Glenbrook Vintage Railway had a steam festival weekend with lots of steam powered and vintage machinery on display. DH being a steam buff was keen to go, and DS of course was delighted to get another opportunity to go on the train.

We arrived as it opened and I'm glad we did because it soon became packed with people. DS was too scared to ride on the steam powered carousel (much to my disappointment)! But he was more than happy to ride on the trailer behind the traction engine. His current favourite from the Thomas & Friends series is Trevor the traction engine.

As I sat on the train and fed DD, I reflected how funny it was that last time she was on the train she was inside me!

Altered tin

box

I've made this for my midwife who will be seeing us for the last time this week. We get passed on to Plunket next week I guess.

I'm sort of ho-hum about the box. It's okay but I think it could be better. But still, it's going to have a gift voucher to L'Occitane inside it so I guess that makes up for it!

DH thinks it's dumb to get a gift for her since she is already getting paid to do her job, but as I said to him, it's nice sometimes to be thanked for doing a job anyway. At least, we always appreciated any thanks we got from our clients at work. It makes it worthwhile and gives everyone warm fuzzies all round.

Conundrums

Why is it that...

• despite there being 24 nursing pads in a box, and only 2 boobies to apply them to I always end up with one extra one left over?
• the sock demon who lives in my washing machine only takes socks belonging to DS?

3 weeks old

Heh - I do like Photoshop Actions :-) DD is going through a zitty stage and I was reluctant to take a photo but thanks to Duotone DreamVersion 2 from Action Central you can't tell.

This one is of the two of them. I forgot to use the portrait setting on my camera so the black sheet I used as a background is too prominent. I shall have to remedy that.

Plums. plums, plums

Plums

and more plums. Obviously there were some bees about because we had a bumper crop of plums this year. I've given away plenty of bags and we also preserved some, made plum sauce, plum jam, plum sorbet and plum cake.

Yum plums!

Okay - enough already... bring on the figs.
Note to self: move bird netting to fig tree.

First pink layout!

This one is for her title page in her album.

I have confess I spent hours on this one which isn't my usual practice. I'm finding moving into the girly layout mindset needs a bit of work - heh heh! But I'll get there... a good challenge for the old creativity and will stop me getting into a rut!

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.