Category: Spawn

There’s so much more to it than I ever thought possible.

Welcome Oscar George Lane!

Born sometime today, 3.2kg, Miriam and Oscar both doing well. No other details available at this point. I am absolutely dying to see a picture at least, but I respect their desire for some time without visitors. I am sure I’ll get to spend plenty of quality time with all the Lanes in the not too distant future.

I’ve been having contractions all day, some coinciding with actual pain, but nothing to get excited about. Went to pub knitting, and am glad I did – sitting around at home focussing on my belly would quickly drive me insane. Thinking that Inigo is considering making an appearance over the next couple of days, but he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry.

Saw Kerry today, and she looks happier and more relaxed than I have seen her in months. It looks like the final senate seat will go to the liberal candidate, and Kerry will be free to pursue other interests after the middle of the year. Like being an Auntie!

Am also close to making a decision about the camera. Harvey Norman has the Canon 400D body with 18-55mm, and 75-300mm lens for $1188. I played with Andrew’s 350D today, and it is a very nice camera. It also handles low light really well, and has a good, cheap portrait lens available. Of course, if I have an ugly baby, I won’t need such a good camera….

Due

Yesterday I had my 40 week checkup. Inigo was head down again (he has been doing somersaults through the week, but I had decided not to let it stress me), but is no longer “engaged”. They are happy for me to keep pottering along until next friday, when I will have another checkup, and then see the Drs clinic to talk about possible induction. Not sure how long I will get before they induce, but the fact that we don’t even talk about it till 41 weeks is encouraging. I’ve done some reading about induction, and my feeling is that going into spontaneous labour sounds like much more fun. Well, not exactly fun, but you get the idea.

After seeing the midwives, I went into town to hang out with Miriam, who was 4 days overdue yesterday. I took her to an acupuncture appointment (with the hope of bringing on labour), and then we had pedicures. So at least when we can see our toes again, they will be pretty (and hopefully not puffy). Miriam is booked in to the birth centre at RPA, and will be induced on monday or tuesday if she doesn’t go into labour over the weekend. So any spare “go into labour vibes” would be handy for her this weekend. Either way, looks like we’ll get to meet Oscar sooner rather than later (and I’ll win the race for last).

And on Monday, there is a new Kylie Minogue album out. Woo Hoo!

Today is election day, and hopefully the end of the Howard Years. Remember to vote Green in the Senate, and we might just wrest the balance of power from the coalition – so that the Labour party can actually pass legislation if they get in.

I’m off to do a bit of housework, then drag my bloated carcass off to a polling both to try to get the voters of Berowra to vote Green in the Senate. It’s Phillip Ruddock’s electorate (and one of the safest Liberal seats in the country, but I will do what I can…

Thanks Tina!

A little while ago, I started reading TheoreticGal’s blog.  Tina is a knitter, but she also sews, and talks about nerdy stuff like sci fi, and she is just generally very clever, educated, witty, and stylish. 

I left a few comments on her blog, and she commented on my blog, and we started a correspondence.  Except – Tina puts me to shame.  For every word I write to her, I get a paragraph back – always thoughtful, always considered, always interesting and helpful.  Tina already has one child, and another on the way – and she’s been helping me to adjust my expectations of parenting, and especially of parenting a BOY child.  We’ve mourned a lack of girlyness in our lives, and bonded over a common love of Torchwood. 

She offered to send me an episode that I missed, so I sent her my address, and today, the DVD arrived.

And with it, the most amazing package of baby stuff!  Please refer to her blog for better pictures (you don’t want to hear the camera whinge again, I know), but here are the most adorable modern cloth nappies that she made me.  The one on the left is cotton jersey with (cool) trucks and cars, and the one on the right is cotton towelling.  Both come with matching boosters, and I am totally in love.  These are coming with me to the hospital so that Inigo can come home in one of them.

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And if that wasn’t amazing enough, she also included this gorgeous set of 2 x washcloths, muslin wrap, and burp cloth, all very beautifully edged in Amy Butler fabric!  I am no quilter, but even I know that Amy Butler is special!

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Tina, I am overwhelmed by your generosity, I have no idea how to thank you enough!

Yesterday, when I was mad

A couple of days ago, I was chatting with Miriam (who was “due” on Monday, we are having a race for last) about pregnancy brain. She has just moved house, and is dealing with unpacking, and getting ready for a baby, and was complaining about being rather too vague to make the job easy.

I, feeling cocky, claimed that my vagueness had dropped off, and that I was feeling pretty good.

Until yesterday, when it took me three tries to get my undies on.

I’m now off to vote, and hopefully will get a chance to visit Alex before I come back to meet our new cleaners – the old ones sacked us because the house had too much fur!

Home Again

Talk of staying away from hospital was premature. I had been feeling rather ordinary all day yesterday, which I attributed to the stress. But when I still felt vile at 4pm, after napping from 1pm, I suspected there was something going on. I hadn’t eaten all day, so when I started violently throwing up, there wasn’t much to come up.

It only took me a few hours to decide to call the hospital this time, they had me come in for some fluids and medication (Oh, how I love thee, Zofran!), but by the time I had 2 bags of fluids and the meds and was feeling better, they decided to keep me in overnight. I felt a bit like a malingerer, but Inigo’s heartbeat was pretty high when we got to hospital, so for his sake it was probably worth the hassle. And we got to try out our emergency planning, and get to test run the maternity unit at Hornsby. I have to say I can’t fault them – the midwives were wonderful and though they were really busy, they did a great job of making us comfortable and reassured. Poor Mark spent the night on a fold out chair in the birthing suite, I had a relatively comfortable bed, but hardly slept a wink.

They let us out at about 8.30am, I dropped Mark off at work, and now I am off to hopefully catch up on some sleep.

PS. I haven’t been looking forward to Christmas, until I saw this

Thanks Sarah!

Back to Plan A

Inigo decided to spend this morning heard down, so no ECV, and no hospital stay!

THe head doctor seems to think that he will stay head down from now on, but I don’t want to get my hopes up – he is still pretty mobile (“a very active baby”, in the words of the doctor).

So I am home now, and about to have a nap since I got hardly any sleep last night, and I don’t have to go back to hospital till Friday morning (39 weeks on Friday).

A Cute Baby

Alex At 8 Months-2

Just because I haven’t put up any pictures in ages, and because my nephew is one of the worlds cutest babies, and also to remind myself that there are some rewards for going through all this….

This picture was taken last month, when Alex was about 8 months old, and the cute meter started going off the scale. Since I took this picture, he has started to recognise me between visits, and on Melbourne Cup Day he actually smiled at me as soon as I arrived.

I think he likes me.

News of a sort….

Last friday, Inigo was head down, and the midwives were happy – at least it’s possible for him to be head down, there is no obstruction preventing the position.

Yesterday, the ultrasound confirmed his position, and I almost cancelled the appointment with the Doctors today. Everything was normal, normal, and great. He is big, but not freakishly so, and has good blood supply, good fluid levels, 4 chambers in the heart, and huge testicles (just my observation on that one).

I thought I’d better go to the appointment anyway, and dragged Mark along with me. Thank goodness! We had a bit of a surprise – he has turned since yesterday, and again between the doctor having a look and the “boss” doctor having a look.

On monday I have another appointment for a procedure to turn him. I get injected with a drug to relax the uterus, and then (with the aid of the ultrasound) they poke him and hopefully get him to turn head down again (where he was yesterday). There are some risks associated with the procedure, but it roughly halves the number of caesars that have to be performed – so I figure it’s worth a shot. They will only do it if he is breech – head up, bum down. But if he is transverse, and spine up (like he was for the first doctor today), they will admit me and keep me in until he settles in a safer position, or comes out. And if he doesn’t settle, I’ll be booked in for a caesar at 39 weeks. The reason for keeping me in hospital, is that with his spine curved up, the chance that the umbilical cord will prolapse and cause a problem is quite high, so it’s safer for both of us to be in the hospital in case my waters break, or labour starts.

Which is all a bit scary, but better than the first option – which was to be admitted today, and observed. Better pack my hospital bag then 🙂

So, nothing really new, I just have to be a little bit more mentally prepared for medical intervention, and meeting Inigo sooner rather than later. Just in case.

And now I am off to hug a bunny and eat cake.

Help!

Some idiot (that would be me) started using a news aggregator (NetNewsWire Lite), and didn’t keep a backup list of all the blogs I read.

Considering that lots of the blogs I read are recommendations from other blogs, or blogs belonging to people that comment on my blog, this list is not only a very groovy and precious part of my life, it’s irreplaceable.

And apparently, Rhubarb (the laptop) had a wee brain fart, and lost all my feeds.

So as well as asking everyone to make an intelligent vote in the senate (and if you live in NSW, vote for Kerry, she rocks!), I am also asking you to send me your favourite blogs – knitting and non knitting!