The Life of Lara – Page 116

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.

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!

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

My democratic duty has been exercised

And I didn’t put the Liberals last. In the past week, the Christian Democrats put a flyer in my letterbox, advertising that they are against Islamic immigration and gay rights. Apparently, Fred Nile is Worse than John Howard. Who’d a thunk it?

I have visited the nephew, who gave me a big grin as soon as he saw me, even though I haven’t seen him in a week, and have hired cleaners. They can’t start till next wednesday, so if you visit in the meantime please bear in mind that I am even less interested in housework than I am in cooking. All of my attention has been absorbed by chocolate ice cream and intimacy with the couch. And on that note…

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!

Think you’re good with words?

Try www.freerice.com.

By defining words, you can donate rice to the UN food program. Apparently the difficulty level goes up to 50 – I thought I had a pretty good vocabulary, but I can only seem to get it as high as 44. But I did donate over 1000 grains of rice, while eating icecream, and being unable to sleep while the rest of the house snores away merrily. Yes, even the bunny.

Ok, I get it now…

I have heard many pregnant women talk of how the last few weeks of pregnancy are the worst, and that after about 37 weeks, they are well and truly over being pregnant, and ready to meet their new baby.

I understood this, yet never empathised until today. Everything hurts. My fingers are so fat and painful from the carpal tunnel that my knitting holds little joy, I can barely take a step without agony, and last night I was woken up by gastric reflux so violent that it burst into my nose. NOT GOOD.

Today, after two days resting, I felt ready to attempt to take on the stupermarket. I shopped (it was well overdue), and got all the shopping into the car. Doesn’t sound like a major achievement, but when it was over I felt like I had conquered Everest, and deserved a large Gin and a nice lie down. I got neither, but I did find this.

Thanks to Cindy for the link to this, that started the adventure!

Evil Bird!

Man Dies Trying to Rescue Cockatoo. Well, I am sure the bird didn’t mean to kill anyone, she was just doing her job as an ornery feathery person.

While on the subject of evil cockatoos, I should relate a charming tale of our own evil avian. Last week, while sitting in the living room, I watched her climb down off her house, and walk over to the baby gate we have installed between the kitchen and the living area. I called Mark over to watch as she calmly placed on leg on the gate and pulled it shut – barring us entry to the kitchen.

I guess we’ve been told.

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.