Holidays Finally! And we're having a ...!

The last couple of weeks have been busy ... School Christmas concerts, Charlie and Scout's birthday, our gender reveal, chrissy shopping, taking the kids to different Christmas shows and events, not to mention working our tails off in our respective jobs.  The heat is also turning up outside so bottom line is ... I'm tired and so relieved to be able to finally get off the merry-go-round and have a break for a bit!  I have pretty much done the bare minimum in terms of Christmas preparations this year.  No baking or chutney making.  No advent calender.  We didn't even decorate the outside of the house.  We gave the girls the Christmas tree box and just let them do what they liked with it, which actually turned out pretty good (although alittle heavy on the tinsel!!).  I love the ornaments they chose to use ;)

                       

Apart from just being tired, the other reason we haven't really gotten into the spirit of things is because this will be the first year the girls won't be with us.  They are spending it with their dad in Queensland so we are dropping them off to their Aunty at the airport this afternoon.  I have mixed feelings about this.  Christmas really is all about the kids so it will be a bit weird to wake up to a quiet empty house without them on Christmas morning, but I'm also not about to complain about having some time on our own together :). So since this will also be the last time we will be kid free (ever!) we have booked a hotel in the city for xmas eve and I'm looking forward to wandering the streets listening to carols and looking at the lights and christmas displays in the shop windows and just doing whatever we feel like without having to worry about the little ones :). 

On the baby front, I am now a very merry 25 weeks pregnant!  Crazy! 

                       

And I can finally say that our gender reveal last weekend was lovely :).  There was only a few people who couldn't make it (because let's face it ... it's a bad time of year to be rescheduling a celebration at the last minute!) but it went off really well and we felt very loved.  It is a rare thing to get both sides of Scout's family together at the same time but we pulled it off and I'm so glad they could all be there for it.  Especially Scout's grandparents who are both quite unwell generally but came along anyway.  People took photos and filmed it for us and I honestly can't rewatch it without tearing up every time (being the pregnant sap that I've become!).  

                       

So it appears there will be a bit more pink joining our little family!  We're very excited :). I felt alittle disappointed for Scout because I know how badly she was hoping for a son but I think those pink balloons that floated past her car the day before helped to convince her there is a special reason we are having a little girl and we both just feel so blessed :)

Anyway, I need to pack a bag and sort out the girls and animals before we leave for the airport!   Merry Christmas everyone, and if I don't post again this year ... I hope you all have a very happy new year x

Quick catch up

I often think about things I want to blog but right now the time and energy seems hard to come by. I have one week left till I get time off for Christmas holidays and it can't come soon enough! Yesterday was Charlie's birthday. She turned 9! Crazy! We bought her a Billy cart which she put together herself and she's been riding it (and crashing it) ever since :). Jazzy has been a handful just in keeping her fed, entertained and relatively happy. Some days she seems like 3 year old and other days she's bordering on teen behavior. Together, the girls now fight ALOT. Their interests and abilities are becoming increasingly different with Charlie wanting to do her own thing and Jazzy wanting her to still be her constant playmate. It will be interesting to see how a baby changes the dynamics in the house.

Our cancelled BBQ will finally take place tomorrow :)  I'm looking forward to it but tired and will no doubt be a bit stressed trying to pull it all together tomorrow. Scout is nervous about finding out the baby's sex lol. Either way it will be interesting!

I feel baby's movements more and more each day. Both the girls have also felt baby now but I think they are alittle underwhelmed by how subtle the movement still is at the moment on the outside. Hopefully they'll start finding it a bit more exciting in another month or two.

Sleep is still a problem (mostly because of hayfever) but I've pretty much accepted that that's how things will be now. My hips get very sore and I can't figure out how to get comfy with all the big pillows so I have actually resorted to using just one regular pillow and one of the kids pillow pets which is small enough to reposition easily when I roll.  

Anyway I have heaps more to write about but lots to do right now so it will have to wait till after the reveal :).  Hopefully everything goes well tomorrow.  It's going to be a big day!

Ps.  Scout just got back from a driving lesson with a student and is freaking out because in the middle of the lesson a big clear bag filled with pink balloons randomly floated right down in front of her car and then floated away again!  She's pretty much convinced now that we are having a girl!

Cancelled Reveal

Jazz has been throwing up since 3am this morning with another stomach bug so we have had to cancel our family BBQ today.  We are very disappointed.  Have been doing a lot of preparation and cooking etc to get ready for today so it's been a bit of a fizzer.  But these things happen.  We can't do it without Jazz and even if she starts feeling better later in the day, we don't want her to give it to anyone else.  Scouts nana has a blood disease that effects her immune system so she can't be exposed to any kind of cold or bug, and neither can any of the other family members she lives with.  We've been tossing up just doing our own thing at home today but to be honest, we are both so tired from being up and down with Jazz last night, we're both a bit over it all now.  So we've decided to put all the meat and cakes in the freezer and reschedule to the 15 Dec, which means it will unfortunately have to coincide with Charlie's birthday and another family function in Scout's family.  It's not a good time of year to be changing things at short notice but hopefully we'll still be able to make it work.  So it's now going to be another 2 weeks till we'll know what we're having!   

Sneak Peek!

Scan was great :).  Much better than the 12 week one.  We went to a different place this time and it was so worth it!  Had a really nice guy doing it and we got to see baby in 4D which was awesome.  Little one was super active moving around the entire time so he had to do a fair bit of chasing but apparently everything looked pretty normal which is great :). Only thing he did mention was that the placenta is very low and close to the cervix so I have to go back for another scan around 34 weeks to see if it's moved up out of the way or not.  If it doesn't move then it's likely I'll have to have a c-section.  Fingers crossed that's not the case, but I'm not going to worry about it for now.  Alot of people have told me they had this and theirs moved so hopefully that will be the case with this one too :)  Anyway here's a pic of our little one!

                   

Scout is so smitten :). She doesn't even care if we're having a boy or a girl now.  She's so excited from seeing pictures of our baby.  She keeps looking at them and sending me texts about how cute our baby is :). It's very sweet.  When she got home yesterday she actually cleared a space beside her side of the bed for the cradle lol.  I reminded her that we still have a long way to go before she needs to do that but she was just so excited she couldn't help herself :)  The other exciting thing is that she actually felt baby move the other night so she's finally getting to enjoy that part of things too.

Anyway, we have the envelope here which holds the sex of our baby :). I've held it up to the light but can't see anything.  I accidentally "misplaced" it yesterday thanks to my baby brain but fortunately found it again today.  Not long now till we get to find out what's written inside! 

Half way

We hit 20 weeks last Tuesday!  And I also had my first person who didn't know me ask me when I was due ... confirmation that I actually look pregnant now and not just fat!  I meant to do a belly shot for the blog but have been slack.  But it has been captured by our friend photographer who we had our first photo session with yesterday ... Bare belly and all!

Over the past two weeks I've started to feel baby fairly consistently.  Lots of rolling over and wriggling around with the occasional kick but all fairly gentle movement.  I had one big boot the other night that actually made me jump but most of the time it's pretty subtle.  Scout is all excited and desperate to feel baby too but will no doubt have to be patient for a couple more weeks I think.  We have our 20 week scan tomorrow morning (we will be 20wks 6 days!).  Looking forward to seeing the little tacker again and finding out if we're having a boy or girl.  Technically we don't want to find out in a dark room with a stranger so we're having a BBQ next weekend to find out with family.  Will be interesting to say the least ;)

Pregnancy wise I think I've been pretty lucky with my run so far although my hayfever has been terrible and making me very tired.  I've mastered sleeping on my side now but my nose and head have been blocked up continuously for about a month now so I'm still not sleeping very well.  My mouth gets so dry at night, my tongue has stuck to the roof of my mouth a few times and I've woken up in a panic not being able to breath.  I also seem to have reverted back to a bit of morning sickness for some weird reason but nothing worth complaining about.  I've bought a few maternity shorts and tops and I've also started using what I refer to as my "boom box".  It sounds a bit coo-kee but I bought a "baby plus" machine that I've been wearing for an hour morning and night that makes different sound patterns for baby to listen to and apparently learn from.  It doesn't sound all that evidence based to me but it was second hand, had good reviews and 'apparently' helps baby be a little calmer once on the outside so I figure it's worth a try if there is any possibility of that!  Scout thought I was crazy at first but she's come around to the idea and now reminds me if I've forgotten to do a session.  At first I thought it was going to drive me nuts cos it's pretty loud and just like repetitive drumming at different speeds, but if I wear it under my clothes or while I'm still in bed under the covers, I hardly notice it.  If nothing else, it does actually make baby very active which it kinda nice.  Not sure if that's baby's way of saying "Not again!  Turn that thing off!" but I like to think of it as a bit of bonding time lol.  

The baby's room is virtually done.  Crazy but true.  We picked up the glider given to us by my brother's friend and it is awesome.  Very flash.  Too flash to be in our house!  Jazz has been rocking out in it.  I'm almost worried she might break it before I get a chance to use it.  She swings so hard I seriously think she could launch herself off it if she wanted to.  The same lady also gave us 3-4 big garbage bags of clothes, sheets, wraps, blankets and baby clothes.  Honestly more than we will ever use.  It was actually a bit overwhelming just sorting through it all.  And another friend dropped of her old pram which I've pulled apart, washed and put back together again.  Scout has rearranged our bedroom now so we can access the door between both rooms, which is kinda cool.  She also spoilt me by getting me a new stereo for my car as my old one died ages ago and I hadn't gotten around to replacing it.  This new one also has bluetooth etc which I've never had before so it's all a bit of a novelty.  

So things have been going great guns for us, but while we've been moving on to new milestones, our friends who have also been TTC are continuing to have a rough ride and we still haven't been able to bring ourselves to tell them we are pregnant.  We have been waiting in hope that they might also get lucky soon but they have just had more heartache and are actually mentally and emotionally in a really bad place at the moment.  They need our support right now, not an announcement, so we are continuing to keep things to ourselves.  They live in a different town and we only see them occasionally so we can get away with phone contact for now but a time will come when we will have to tell them and I am dreading it.  I feel bad about holding out on them but they have been in such a bad way lately I don't want to add to or amplify their pain.  It's difficult.  We don't know what's the right thing to do ... And our heart is breaking for them.  

Anyway ... we are extremely grateful to be where we are at right now and I plan on embracing every moment of this pregnancy because I know how lucky we are to have made it this far.  So fingers crossed all goes well tomorrow and  I'll post again soon, hopefully with some new pics of our little one :)

We have movement!

I started feeling the baby move this week!  Up until now I've had all sorts of weird feelings down there but they've usually been uncomfortable or painful which is apparently due to all my endo scarring being pulled and stretched.  This is the first time I've felt something that didn't feel like that.  At first it was a bit like a few feather light taps in a certain area, a bit like bubbles popping but now I'm starting to notice bigger movements and occasional jitters in my tummy.  It's usually happens at night when I'm lying down but I'm noticing it more now just when I'm sitting still for any period of time.   Anyway, it's nice to finally have a sign of life in there now.  Makes me feel a lot more connected to baby :)

I'm now 18 weeks!  Some days I think my bump looks like a real baby bump and other days I think it just looks like a big beer gut.  Fortunately the baby belly days are becoming more and more frequent than the beer belly days :). Here's my 16 and 18 week bump shots ...

16 Weeks

18 weeks

I got Scout to take these for me, but apparently a friend of the family who does photography is keen to document the rest of our pregnancy and the birth for us for free, in return for using some of the pics on her website.  Will be interesting to see how that goes!

We've also been offered a gilder / rocker recliner from one of my brothers friends and all their old basinette and cot sheets and mattress protectors which is great.  She had a boy and also wants to give us a bunch of clothes if we end up having one too.  Our 20 week ultrasound is booked for the 25th so it won't be much longer till we find out what we're having!

Apart from all that, my back continues to be 'unhappy' in general.  I also don't have a lot of appetite at the moment which is unusual for me.  I can only eat small meals and don't even feel like snacking (crazy!).  I've also been bad about hydrating.  I just don't feel like drinking but I'm trying hard to make an effort.  Yesterday I ate half a watermelon at work just to try and get some more fluid into me because I just can't stomach drinking much water at the moment for some reason.  I know I'm getting dehydrated and my hay fever is also drying me out at night but I'm finding it hard to stay on top of it.  Anyway ... I'm working on it.

Last Thursday night Charlie also brought a stomach bug home from school (joy!).  She started vomitting in the middle of the night and didn't stop till Friday afternoon.  Then Saturday night both Scout and Jazz started up with it which lasted another 24 hours.  I think I washed my hands about 200 times in that 24 hours and was running around disinfecting everything they touched while they weren't looking lol.  Thankfully it looks like it's paid off cos I haven't gotten it which is pretty lucky be because Scout had it bad and is still recovering now almost a week later!  

Anyway ... I have more to share but I'll never get this post up if I don't do it now.  Will try to post again before our scan!

Nesting, baby brain and pissing my pants

16 weeks today :). No change in weight but still have plenty of hip pain going on for some reason and lately even a bit of stabbing pain in the sacrum.  I've started nesting ... already ... which is crazy cos I really don't have the energy for it.  My hay fever has been really bad, so sleep is just not happening with a blocked nose, dehydrated mouth and hips that do not subscribe to side lying, but somehow I'm still wanting to be cleaning and organising the house (?!).  We've been cleaning out cupboards etc and culling crap in general, but in the process we've also set up the girl's old cot in the baby's room, along with a change table, and a rug, cupboard and some shelves all bought on eBay.  There is still a pile of other junk in that room we need to sort through, sell, give to charity etc, but before we get to that I really want to sort out our own bedroom because it's pretty much the most neglected room in the whole house.  Anyway, it's making me tired just thinking about it.  Everything will get done eventually - I need to just chill about it.

Apart from dealing with the hay fever and lack of sleep I've been doing ok.  Work is hard when I'm feeling so tired from lack of sleep and my brain is just not working but I've got a loooong way to go so I need to figure out a way to cope with it.  My belly is growing and my clothing options are getting more limited.  I really need to start taking pictures but I still haven't got my act together yet.  I will ... soon :).  Biggest thing I'm looking forward to over the next few weeks is hopefully feeling some movements - there's heaps of different things I feel down there throughout the days but nothing I think would fit that description.  Worst symptom over the past week or so is actually wetting my pants when I cough.  How bad is that?!  When I haven't even had a baby yet?!!!   Scout thinks it's funny ... But i'm not impressed.  I really need to do something about my pathetic pelvic floor ... NOW.  Anyway ... Time for zzz ... my brain is barely functioning.  Hope everyone else is doing ok x