MUM IS HERE!!!! I am a happy little being, although she’s still knackered after jet lag it’s really nice having someone around to share the weight of looking after Declan.
I went to my appointment today and all is looking good, babe is head down and measuring at 2kg (4.4lbs). I lost most of my mucus plug on Wednesday and I’m still continuing to lose bits and pieces as well as some bleeding, but my cervix is still long and closed so my doctor isn’t worried at all. He also said now that I’ve passed the 32 week mark although it wouldn’t be ideal to deliver now for obvious reasons, if it does happen then there’s a 100% survival rate with no long lasting effects of prematurity. If my waters break prematurely and labour doesn’t begin then they’ll keep me in hospital on bedrest until I hit 34 weeks and then induce me, if labour does begin then from this week on they won’t take any action to stop it. He actually seemed oddly excited when he told me that if I develop PPROM between 34 and 37 weeks then I get the option to go into the trial he’s currently running to discover the best way of dealing with premature rupture and non-responsive cervixes, guinea pig-dom here I come!
I still feel like this baby is very imminent, I know I sound like a crackhead, but I just have this weird feeling inside my gut- with Declan I was two days off with my guess of when he’d be born. I have a feeling that this one will want to arrive on the 19th of August, just to ruin my birthday plans on the 20th - a guilt free and most importantly CHILD FREE day at the stitches and craft show, something that I doubt I can do with amniotic fluid leaking down my legs. I do feel happier now that my Mum is here and I now have her to fall back on so Dan can be with me if anything happens and Declan will still have someone he’s familiar with, and I’m less scared after speaking to my Doctor about survival rates and what the process would be if my waters do break early again, so at least I’m a bit calmer than I was yesterday.
I picked up all but a couple of things (why are granny panties so hard to buy???) today for my labour bag, so at least that is good and ready to go if anything should happen. For now I’m just taking it easy and trying to avoid too much activity or stress.
And if anyone wants to name my child, go for it, I can’t believe we’re getting so close and still haven’t agreed on any boys or girls names. I’m honestly thinking of putting naming rights up on eBay if this keeps up.
Posted in Baby #2 | Tagged Baby #2, PPROM, pregnancy, preterm labour, PROM | 18 Comments »
Last night was spent lying on the tiles of the kitchen floor violently vomiting into a bucket for no apparent reason.
This morning I woke up and I can breathe, I no longer have even a hint of heart burn and there are no limbs trapped in my ribcage.
Instead I am now walking like I’m carrying a bowling ball between my legs and need to pee about every fifteen minutes.
#2 has officially dropped, not really sure if this is a good thing 
Posted in Baby #2 | Tagged baby#2, pregnancy, the lightening | 9 Comments »
I’ve just wasted the last hour reading through my old private blog archives from the beginning of 2007 - after finally finding them and deciding if I’m going to hang on to everything I’ve journalled since I was fourteen years old, I probably need to find a better way to organise it, I have thousands upon thousands of blog posts covering the last eight years of my life. It’s crazy to think about how many hours worth of typing that represents, it seems I have almost every day of my life chronicled, from early teenage years, through emigration, marriage and now motherhood, I need to get it all together and see what the word count for eight years of rambling would be.
Anyway, I wanted to see what I was experiencing leading up to Declan’s birth, so went back to January of 2007, it’s only eighteen months ago and it’s amazing how things have changed - like I used to actually have a sex life! We used to go to the cinema on a whim, and I didn’t think twice about staying up until 4am to work on some PHP or a new website. These are all distant memories now 
One thing that stood out most is how nervous I was about becoming a mother, a lot of talk about the loss of my identity and how worried I was about having a little being dependant on me. That hasn’t even entered my head this time around, I love being a mother and taking care of Declan and the only thing I’m vaguely nervous about this time around is splitting myself between two children. Eighteen months ago I was so scared about Declan coming into our world, and although sometimes it would be really nice to go to the cinema at a moments notice, I wouldn’t undo any choices we’ve made over the last two years at all, the only thing I’d like to do is go back and beat up my former self and let me know that spending every day stressing about being unable to cope or how bad a mother you’re going to be is probably not the best way to go.
I shall leave you with my favourite post, from January the 27th, 2007:
“After Taking Twenty Minutes To Move My Huge Arse From One Side Of The Bed To The Other”
F: I Feel like Jabba The Hutt… just without the bonuses.
D: The bonuses?
F: Yeah, like the job benefits
D: Like what?
F: A slave girl and my very own Bantha.
Posted in Baby #2, Declan | Tagged blogs, january 2007, motherhood, nostalgia, old blogs, parenting, pregnancy, thoughts | 1 Comment »
Declan’s new D’lishes arrived yesterday and ooooo I am in love! It has been so long since I’ve spent any money on nappies that I’d forgotten how exciting it was to have fluffy mail arrive. The nappies are an awesome fit on him, something that we really struggle with as I seem to have birthed a beanpole. With clothes, if something fits him on the waist, it’ll be too short for his legs, if it’s long enough for his legs, then it’ll be huge on his waist. We’re now up to size two (before he’s even eighteen months!) just for the length but no matter how hard I look they just don’t seem to sell baby belts so we can keep his pants on his hips. I should have foreseen this when I chose to breed with a 6ft4 man, but I didn’t expect to have dramas finding clothes for my children quite this early on.
Back to the nappy, the fit is perfect with some room left to grow, it’s as trim as a disposable which means that it fits better under clothes and just generally great. It lasted a full afternoon without any additional boosting which is great considering the amount he drinks. They’re definitely now on my list of brands to buy again, D spent a good part of yesterday stroking his own bum and patting the minkee, so I guess he approves as well. I just wish I could get a clearer picture of how nice the fit is, but apparently he had more fun things to do than pose for me, like jumping on the sofa.
Posted in Declan | Tagged cloth, cloth diapers, cloth nappies, D'lish, Declan, Itti Bitti, toddler | 2 Comments »
I need to start taking notes of Declan’s odd little toddlerisms before he’s at school and I’ve forgotten every bit of what it used to be like having a toddler running around
I’ve recently been encouraging him to use a knife and fork with dinner, at the moment I’m not pushing the point much, just giving him cutlery with his meal and letting him get the hang of it, I’m also trying to eat with cutlery as much as possible in front of him so he can learn what he’s meant to do that way - kind of hard when my staple for lunch is usually sandwiches! Last night I was watching him dinner, usually he just plays with his fork and bit and generally ignores it, but last night he was making the effort to at least try and stab his food with it, but wasn’t having much luck getting it onto the prongs. He sat there for at least a minute and you could litterally see his brain ticking over and working out the best way to do this, suddenly a lightbulb appeared over his head, he grabbed some omelette in his hand, shoved it onto the prongs of the fork and with a very satisfied grin put the fork into his mouth to eat. I was on the floor laughing and he was looking at me like I was on crack, he was so proud of himself for working it out, bless him
A couple of weeks ago I was sitting at the desk when he came up to me, grabbed my hand and put his empty sippy cup into my palm and said “drin” (drink for those who don’t speak toddler), wanting to discourage him from just giving me random demands, I asked him for the magic word, once again the cogs ticked over and he tapped the cup and this time demanded “Drin! Go go go!”, I was gobsmacked and trying not to laugh my arse off as I corrected him with “Drink, please”. I think I need to have words with Dan about how he asks for his coffee in the future, I have a feeling he may not be modelling the best behaviour for his son!
I liked the blobby newborn stage where he depended on me in every single way, I really hated the in between stage when he so desperately wanted to be more independent but just couldn’t and was angry that he couldn’t communicate or do what he wanted to do, but this has easily been my favourite stage to date. Toddlerhood has been the most entertaining and rewarding stage so far, despite being frustrating for all of us at points, just watching him come to terms with the way the world works is so worth every tantrum and stroppy moment that he has when things don’t go his way.
Posted in Declan | Tagged Declan, kids say the cutest things, teh cute, toddler, toddlerisms | 10 Comments »
I just bought nappies! I haven’t bought any nappies in over a year, once I started making my own I didn’t see much point in buying them when I knew I could make them to fit D’s frame far better and for much cheaper. But this morning I got sucked into a sale for D’lishes, EVERYONE has been raving about these so I thought I’d make the most of the insanely cheap price and pick up a couple. I also have to second everything Leah said in her post about customer service, I got a response to the email I sent this morning within an hour, so far I am superbly impressed.
I think I can probably make about two, maybe three more and I’ll have a full toddler stash for Declan, all of which fit and still have working velcro, plus they are all AIOs so I have no worries about hunting around for inners and it makes washing far easier.
Now I’m excited about getting fluffy mail, it feels almost naughty buying them instead of making my own, am I going to be struck down by nappy gods???
Posted in Declan, General | Tagged AIOs, cloth nappies, D'lish, diapers, Itti Bitti, nappies, nappy addicts | 1 Comment »
I have hit that point where I am just so fed up of being pregnant, I’m too big to get comfortable to sleep, and every time I do find just the right spot I have to move after five minutes to reawaken my leg, in fact, right now it feels like my limbs are the only part of me that are getting any sleep.
I had some bleeding last Thursday and so went in and had a scan, everything is completely fine, cervix is still looking good so according to my doctor it was just my body once again telling me to slow down. He can say that as much as he likes, but Declan is not the kind of child you can chill out around. Things should be easier once Mum arrives from the UK in ten days time, I just hope she wasn’t coming over here for a holiday! The US showed that #2 has turned again and is now back to being breech, although I have a feeling he’s spun around again since then because the bulge just under my ribs feels decidedly more like a bum than a head. He’s had a growth spurt, previously all of the scans have shown him measuring spot on where he should, suddenly he’s measuring two weeks ahead of schedule and apparently has a huge head. My OB/GYN was looking at the screen and asked “did Declan have a large head?”, I’m like yep, 95th percentile and he laughed and told me I was having another one just the same. That’s probably number one on the list of things my fruit loop didn’t need to hear It seems like Dan and I make long babies with large heads.
My Doctor seems convinced that I’m not going to have PROM this time, he has been an awesome Doctor just other than this, he just seems so convinced that it won’t happen again because now my body “knows what to do”, personally I think my cervix is bordering on retarded, because it didn’t seem to have a clue what to do last time and the fact that my Mum had the same problem with her births really makes me think that it’s going to happen again this time round. Being induced is pretty far down on my “I’d Totally Love To Do This Again!” list, and he doesn’t seem to think it’s such a big deal. Meh.
Still haven’t bought anything for #2, I think I need to go out and pick up a couple of sleep suits just to tell my brain that I am actually having a baby, I also need to go to the ABC store and buy a Spot dog for him/her and pick up some sheeting from Spotlight and make a couple of sheets for the cradle since it’s a stupid size that is apparently impossible to find a fitted sheet for. Other than making up some nappies (which I’m leaving till after the birth so I can make them non-gender neutral and also fit them better for #2’s shape - D had incredibly skinny legs for the first six months, so if I have a chubby baby it’s unlikely that D’s nappies will fit him) and doing various organisation things like setting up the cradle, finding the bouncer and giving it a wash, rearranging our bedroom and buying a new chest of drawers for Declan’s room and buying the new pram when the one I want goes on sale again, that’s pretty much about it, not too much to do and still ten weeks to do it all in. Go me.
Posted in Baby #2, General | Tagged baby, planning, pregnancy, to do | 1 Comment »
When I was a little I remember being obsessed with my Nan’s button tin, an old Quality Streets chocolate tin that was full to bursting with buttons, broken bits of jewellery and earrings that had lost their partners. If, heaven forbid, a piece of clothing hit the point of being thrown out there was no way it would leave the house with its buttons still attached, every button that my Nan ever owned ended up in that tin, and looking through it as a little girl it was like looking through a treasure box.
Now as you’re probably aware, I sew a great deal, but as I tend to avoid garment sewing at all costs, and most of what I make has to be child friendly, I just don’t have any buttons to my name, however, recent activities of late has meant that I’ve required buttons at odd times of the night to complete a project and so have been wanting to purchase a button tin… so I did what I would have done in the UK five (or more like ten) years ago and wandered down to the local op shop/charity store. No such luck. That was a few weeks ago and yesterday I went to my fourth charity shop on my tin hunt, by now I would have thought I’d be the owner of a couple of rusty biscuit tins stuffed with buttons with the amount of searching I’d done, all bought for about $3-5, left in a charity store by some little old lady who either can’t see to sew any more or who had kacked it recently and the family clearing up her house just didn’t know what to do with it and so threw it in the box of stuff to donate to St. Vinnies.
Apparently not, button tins are no more! At first I thought it was just the changing generation, the generation that would save EVERY button from EVERY piece of clothing simply because of habits formed by living during war torn times are now all but gone and the following generations just aren’t saving every last bit of string and button that might one day come in handy.
So in a last attempt I went onto eBay, thinking I might find someone clearing out their mother’s or grandmother’s estate who had thrown up basically everything on to the site to make a bit of spare change. Bingo! I found auctions ending every couple of hours for old button tins, stuffed to the brim, no wonder there are none in the charity stores, ALL of them are on eBay, and now it turns out that those old grannies are raking it in. I’ve spent the last couple of days watching auctions for these damned tins, and so far haven’t seen one go for less than $40, last night I watched in amazement as two bidders battled it out for about thirty minutes for a tin of dusty old buttons, I can imagine them staring at their screen and cursing each time they got outbid, that tin went for just over $80, plus postage.
I don’t know who the hell is buying them, maybe it’s people wanting to split it up and sell them up as smaller lots marketed as “vintage buttons” (because we all know that’s the buzz word for making something ridiculously expensive nowadays), but I’m fairly certain it wouldn’t be crafters paying such ridiculous amounts for an old tin of buttons. Maybe I’m just crazy for thinking that I could pick up one for a few bucks, but I am honestly amazed at the insane prices that these things are going for! Looks like there are some grannies out there cashing in on eBay 
So, does anyone know any kind old ladies that have never heard of eBay and want to donate their old button tin to me so I’m not stuck having to buy brand new ones every time I randomly need one to finish off a project?
Posted in Sewing | Tagged button tins, buttons, craft, dear old ladies, give me your grannies, Sewing | 8 Comments »
My baby is turning into more of a little boy every day, I need to start storing him in tupperware overnight to slow this down.
Posted in Declan | Tagged bathtime, Declan, flickr, my baby is better than yours, photos, teh cute, toddler | 4 Comments »
Just in case anyone’s interested, there’s a giveaway on CraftBlog for a handmade knitting needle holder, not sure how many knitters read NN, but it’s worth a look if you need somewhere to stash your needles!
If you don’t win, then there’s also a tutorial up on how to make one for yourself, check out the knitting needle holder tutorial.
Posted in General, tutorials | Tagged competition, craft, craftblog, craftblog.com.au, giveaway, knitting, knitting needles, sewing tutorials, tutorials | 1 Comment »
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I'm a twenty something WAHM, originally from England and now living in a land downunder.
