29+6

Hi ya gang!

Well isn't the festive season in full swing now. We've had to downsize from our big xmas tree this year because Baxter simply can't be trusted! So we've bought a little tree and put it on our buffet with the pressies around it out of the reach of destructive puppies! I managed to do the majority of my christmas shopping online this year so have been having packages delivered at work for the past couple weeks! It's fun even though I know they're not presents for me! Just expecting one more delivery for GB's present. As part of his present I bought some Yahava coffee and it was delivered this morning - unfortunately the bag had come open in the box and so a couple of handfuls of the grind were lost and now my office smells like my Nonna's house! (ie very strong coffee!).

Babywise - all plodding along really. I don't mean to sound insensitive about the whole miracle of pregnancy and all that but I'm a bit bored now. We have another OB appointment tonight so will be nice to see some more pics of her. I can't remember if I mentioned it already (and this may be a bit TMI) but at the last appointment a few weeks ago he was concerned the placenta was too low because he couldn't find the cervical canal. Which sucks arse a bit as the ultrasound chick cleared the placenta back at the 19wk anatomy scan. Anyway, I'm hoping tonight's scan will show that it's all good. If not, he'll probably send me back to the ultrasound place for another detailed scan at around 34wks. If it stays low it'll mean a c-section for delivery. Told hubby if that's the case, we should start looking into plastic surgeons so I can get a tummy tuck at the same time! haahahahaaaa

Weightwise - my gaining is slowing down (wish it would reverse into a loss!) - putting on 2.3kg in the past month which is way better than the 7.6kg I put on the month before that. I'm very scared about seeing those triple digits again. But my body loves carbs and it's clearly hanging onto them.

Bandwise - I had 3-4 days where I was struggling to keep anything down. I think that maybe when the baby has a growth spurt it seems to increase my restriction for a few days. I'm having awful heartburn. Have been taking pariet but was wondering if it was working as I was still having to take quickeze. Now taking double strength mylanta which is giving temporary relief at least.

This past weekend I spent baking. I assumed with impending motherhood would come the ability to bake. Turns out, not so much! I have to admit I probably bit of more than I can chew. On the list to cook was - gingerbread, melting moments, two different types of macaroons, lime curd tarts and cheesecake. I got through it but not easily and not spectacularly well!. Some pics...

White Chocolate & Raspberry macarons (they should be a lot higher!)

Chocolate macarons (right height but lumpy!)

One near perfect macaroon...

 

 

 

Hubby took a pic of the gingerbread but he hasn't sent it to me yet. Suffice to say the "christmas shapes" could be widely interpreted as "barely shapes"! I might add in my defence, the humidity on Saturday made things a bit tricky!

Anyway, time for a shot of the pooches... just home from the groomers on Friday - also very rare to manage a pic with both of them smiling!:

Wishing you all a very fun festive season!

28+2

Hello friends,

How have you all been? I've managed to catch up on your blogs but had no time to comment so just know, I've been there!

I really hate this time of year. I'm not really a people person and the added pressure to catch up with every single person I know for Christmas really grinds my noodle. Hubby of course is the social king of the world, which just makes it that much harder. I literally had to block off next weekend in my calendar so we don't book something in and so I can do some christmas shopping! Lordy bigordy.

Had a great weekend in Busselton. Ended up coming home on Monday though instead of Tuesday because my mum (who was house/dog sitting) had to have a carpal tunnel operation on Monday so the pooches would have been abandoned! But still it was good to get away although we were by no means having a relaxing time of it! GB headed down with one of his teammates on Friday morning and my sister and I drove down after work on Friday night. We all stayed in a gorgeous house in Broadwater - too bad it was too cold to swim though! Saturday we didn't do too much, breakkie in town, grocery shopping then I cooked up a chicken caesar salad for lunch and a lasagne & salad for dinner (boys were carbo loading and so were the supporters!). Bed early - 8.30pm as we had an early start. The boys headed into the event about 4.30am and we followed just after 5am. The individual competitors started at 5.45am and the team event just after that. Our lads took between 1hr20 and 1hr30 for the 3.8km swim and then it was onto the 180km ride. Because hubby was doing the run leg at the end he decided to go back to the house for a rest so me & my sis went too. Home and dozed for a couple of hours and then back again. The bike leg took about 6hours to complete. Then the run was off! Luckily conditions weren't too bad - it was overcast and not too much wind. Hubby cramped up after 28kms and had to walk a bit but then powered on to the finish. I think it took him about 4.5hrs to do the 42kms. So just about 12hours all up. The pro who one it as in individual did it in 8hrs or something crazy!!!  I was really proud of our guys and stoked they all pulled up ok (not even a space blanket in sight!). It's a super long day for the supporters too I might add. Didn't help that I needed to pee every hour! Ended up getting home around 7pm I think. Ordered pizza for the gang and then we all crashed.

And as I expected, even though he's been saying he'll never do a marathon again, on Tuesday GB said "I want to do the Ironman as an individual". Right, of course you do you crazy freak! We talked about it and agreed that it just can't happen in 2011. It's an expensive event just to enter (about $800) then he'll want a new bike ($3-4k), and I want to be sure he's prepared so there'll have to be coaches and physio and whatnot so it's just not something we can afford with a newborn and one salary. But if he's still keen he can do it in 2012. Scares me even to think about it!

On other news, I had the glucose tolerance test on Tuesday. The OB likes to do the 2hr ones up front so I had to go in at 8.30am, have a bunch of bloods taken, drink a green drink which was like pure cordial, wait 1hr then have another blood test, then wait another hour and have another blood test! All this to test for gestational diabetes! Today I gave them a call and I was given the all clear which is great. So if this baby turns out to be a fatty boombah it's entirely my fault from eating too many magnum icecreams!

Last night we went to see  Bon Jovi. Those boys know how to rock. It was a great concert I have to say and today I bought this online:

bah hahahahahaaaaaa

Weight wise have been up and down the same kilogram the past few weeks which I guess is ok. I really don't want to put on too much more weight. It's not cool. I know it. You know it. The baby knows it. Band is there - I still get stuck some times, but I'm sure it's more about eating too much too fast in too big mouthfuls. Sound familiar?

Anyhoodly, must get a bit more work done before my water aerobics class!

Entering the third trimester

Hey kids,

So yeah 27 weeks today...13 to go. Apparently that's officially in the last trimester. Getting load of movement from bubs. GB was poking my belly last night and she was kicking back - he loved it. End of the day though I'm being poked and kicked in the stomach! I'm off to the OB again tonight - think he'll give me a referral for the gestational diabetes test. I'm sure he won't be impressed with my weight gain - hell I'm not. Despite my best efforts over the past couple of weeks particularly, the scales have continued to increase. It's weird, I'm still in my size 14 work shirts (which yes were quite big to begin with) - except for the last button - but my arse and thighs appear to be where the weight is going. I still don't have the cute round belly at the front either which isn't helping my body image. I have a top tummy sticking out (can still feel my port though), then I have an inward gap and then a lower tummy too (not sticking out as much as the top tummy). I realise a picture would be beneficial here but photography has been banned in our house so you'll just have to imagine it!

Last week I did my pilates class on Wed night, then aqua aerobics thurs night (which was tougher than I thought it would be!) and tried out a "Baby Bump" Group PT session on Saturday morning. I am still trying to recover. Literally. I had to take yesterday off work because I could barely walk. Soooo many squats! My quads are still sore today but at least sitting on the toilet is a tad more bareable. Try being 6months pregnant, needing to pee every 30mins or so but being too scared to because it hurts so bad to sit down!!! I'm still kind of waddling today but it's a lot better. I have an OB appointment tonight and because he's always about an hour behind schedule at least and the aqua aerobics is at the same hospital I might try to squeeze in a class first.

Our baby furniture arrived last week so we did a mad dash to pick it up on Saturday. GB and I talked about it and because we're getting an a/c installed in the nursery plus doing stuff to the walls it would be better to leave everything boxed up for the time being. So while I'm getting changed I hear him call out that he's just going to take a peak. 2mins later I walk into the room to find the chest of drawers completely unwrapped. Then yesterday he decides he wants to put together the cot and change table too. So we decide to pull it into our bedroom so we can have the a/c on (it was 37C yesterday!) while we did it. We had the cot together except for tightening the screws when it suddenly occured to GB to see if it would fit out the door. I had thought of it earlier but incorrectly assumed that my very handy husband would have checked it first. Turns out it wouldn't fit. So we had to take the whole thing apart, move the pieces into the nursery and reassemble it in the sweatbox that the room was! I'll take some pics of the pieces we've got and post them up soon. Still a ways to go but slowly getting things together.

We're off down south to Busselton (a couple hours away) for an extended weekend on Friday for hubby to take part in the Ironman triathlon. I've mentioned before he's doing the marathon leg (42.2km run) as part of a team and unfortunately he's not had a good preparation with a morton's neuroma in his foot and leg pain. He's stressing out about it but I'm sure the adrenalin of the day will get him through - even if he has to walk some of it. Hoping it's not too warm as it's a long event and he'll be running through the heat of the afternoon. Still it means I get a mini-vacay down south - not heading back until Tuesday!

Today is the last day I can eat chocolate until Xmas day. The detox will do me good I'm sure!

I've noticed a few new people have joined my list of blog followers (hate that word). Leave me a comment if you also have a blog so I can have a gander! Or leave me a comment if you haven't got a blog and just say hi! Me loves comments :)

Ok kids, better do some work!

Birthday Boy!

Baxter turned 1 today! So of course I sat him down and told him now that he was no longer a puppy, we wouldn't be putting up with any of his shenanigans. I think he took it well...

Warning: A lot of bitching and moaning in this post

Look at that - 3 posts in one week! And just noticed that the last post was my 200th. Can't think of a better topic than that to hit a milestone with. Glad this one isn't my 200th that's for sure!

So what has made me put finger to the keyboard today? Mainly I just want to whinge about myself. So feel free to skip this entire post and maybe head here where they have free worldwide shipping and some great savings on clothes instead!

I did a bad thing this morning. I weighed myself and lordy bigordy I did not like what I saw. Basically I've exceeded my entire planned weight gain for this pregnancy already. You know how when you have a dodgy week eating wise and you say to yourself "oh I've probably put on 2kgs this week" and then you weigh yourself to be pleasantly surprised it was only 1kg? Yeah well I knew I'd put on weight. Had to buy new undies for a start. And my clothes are getting tighter by the day. Oh and I'm eating like there's a food famine around the corner. Well guess what. I WASN'T pleasantly surprised by the scales, I was devastated.

What has become abundantly clear is this. I need a lapband. If it were gone, I'd be in some serious trouble. At the moment I have next to no fill in so it's as close to not having a lapband again as I can be. And I'm back to old tricks. When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm bored, I eat. When I'm walking past the fridge, I eat. When I'm not hungry, I eat. When move to the left, I eat. When I'm sad, I eat. When I'm happy, I eat. When it's a day ending with Y, I eat. You get the idea. Portions are bigger and carbs & chocolates are a staple. Not cool. I know I shouldn't be doing it but I am. Of course, if I could exercise a modicum of control I would never have got to 135kg in the first place but you would think after 2 odd years of living with the band, losing weight, being so close to goal, that I could manage to control myself for 9 months. Turns out not so much. And I couldn't be more disappointed in myself.

I made a step in the right direction at the beginning of the week - I bought yoghurt & weight watchers bars as snacks so I wouldn't eat chocolate at work. Well guess what? I've eaten the WW bars AND chocolate each day and the yoghurt is still in the fridge. I did manage to drag my arse to the gym for 30mins on Monday & Tuesday and Wednesday did 45mins pilates class (which my obliques are still aching from!). Hubby has cooked me chicken and vegies most nights for dinner but portions have been way too big. Add to that some icecream with topping and a myriad of other things during the day. I know it's not good. But I can't seem to get my head to make my hands stop it! So as I finish off my can of coke (yes I know!), all I can say is that I hope at some stage my brain will kick in. I bought some new boardies (size=massive) so hope to start water aerobics and some swimming next week. At least I can try to minimise the food damage by trying to keep up the exercise.

It's a constant fucking battle people.

An email to my Federal Member of Parliament

Hi there Mr Irons,

I understand you're asking the people of Swan for their views on marriage equality. I cannot express how strongly I feel that marriage should be an option for EVERYBODY. The old fashioned adage that it is only between man & woman is ridiculous in this day and age and purely based on religious history. Given that my husband and I were able to be married this year despite the fact we don't have a religious bone in our bodies goes to show that the government need to move with the times. Marriage is a commitment between two people who love each other, the sex of these two people shouldn't even come into it. If churches don't want to allow same sex marriages then that's fine but they should still be recognised. Much like we had a non-religious ceremony performed by a celebrant, such should be the option for same sex couples. Frankly I don't even understand why anybody would oppose same sex marriage. If you don't want to get married to someone of the same sex - don't. Others being able to do so, doesn't in any way denigrate your own marriage! It's about equality Mr Irons. Equality for ALL. I hope that in a decade, we're embarrassed that this was such a debate as we are now embarrassed about the forced segregation of blacks and whites and the lack of voting privileges for women and indigenous Australians not so long ago.

I'm currently just over 5 months pregnant and I hope by the time my daughter is old enough to get married it won't matter who she wants to get married to. I hope I'll be able to tell her about the day the Government stopped legislating against equality and choice and recognised that any two people who love each other can make that ultimate commitment if they so choose.

While you're moving with the times Mr Irons, may I suggest you get a twitter account, allowing real time interaction and feedback with your constituents.


Love & kisses (lucky I'm not a bloke!)

Em




=====================

Note: I did not actually sign off that way :) I encourage all of my Australian blogging friends to contact their Federal Member of Parliament whilst this debate is in the forefront of discussion.

25weeks and still kicking!

Hey my lovely blogging friends!
Long time no talk!

Let's see what's been happening?

Sydney - GB and I took off for Sydney on the midnight horror flight from Perth. I assumed given that I feel like I could sleep on a bed of nails these days that I would be ok to sleep on the plane overnight. It's a 4.5hr flight from Perth to Sydney plus 3 hr time difference so we left Perth at 11.45pm and arrived in Sydney just before 8am. And I didn't sleep a wink. By the time we got to my aunty & uncle's place and exchanged pleasantries I was nearly talking jibberish! GB and I took ourselves to bed and slept for about 4 hours which was great. We took it pretty easy - I've been to Sydney many times before although GB only once for a weekend. We took a drive up to Palm Beach for lunch one day which was nice and we ate at one of Sydney's top restaurants - Aria. After I twittered about it earlier in the day Matt Moran the head chef came up and said hello to us. GB nearly jizzed in his pants he was so excited! We spent a few days some 500km north of Sydney at another of my aunties & uncles place. So beautiful up there, no phone reception, 30km from the nearest town so we just got to kick back and relax. Unfortunately we had torrential rain the first two days and I ended up with a fever for some reason for 24hrs and couldn't get warm. I had GB's tracksuit pants on over mine, plus 2 tshirts, 2 jumpers and 2 coats on. I looked like the michelin man! There's a hilarious photo of me on our camera I'll have to post later. Also I couldn't keep any food down. The next couple of days I felt a lot better though. Back into Sydney and we had a walk around the city (plus a trip to the Lindt Cafe - best thing ever!). I was going to catch up with LapbandGirl but the stars didn't quite align - next time for sure!

We went to Bondi Beach and had lunch and caught up with an old school friend of mine for coffee & cake from one of the countries best pastry chefs - Adriano Zumbo. Those of you in Australia may know him for his croquembouche and/or macaroon tower challenge in Masterchef. I'm telling you they were the best things EVER. As you can see, food still a big part of our holidaying experiences!! Add to that, my uncle's business is about filling lolly machines so he had big boxes of M&M's at his place. GB now is sure I'm going to give birth to an M&M!!!

Needless to say, I'm far too scared to step on the scales! Now that we're back to work both of us are trying to get into a routine of more healthy eating and exercise. GB is training for that marathon (tried to do 30kms when we were up in the hills but underestimated the terrain and the water he'd need and ended up dehydrated on the side of the road unable to speak. Luckily my two uncles decided to head into town early (we were meeting him at the pub for lunch) and picked him up. He was unable to move from the back of the ute for about 90mins. By the time I got there, he'd been resting for an hour and they'd given him powerade. I gave him some more electrolytes and the lady at the pub let him have a shower and he started to come good. Bit of a reality check for him though! Anyway he's amping up his training with only 3 weeks to go and has sworn off alcohol until after the 5th December! He's also staying off potato chips and noodles - his two favourite food groups. I'm not swearing off any foods... yet (choc detox from 1 Dec til Xmas day in the works though). But going to get more into exercise. Went to the gym last night for 30mins on the bike and will do that again tonight. Pilates on wednesdays and water aerobics on thursdays is the plan. My gym membership expires in a couple of weeks so I'm thinking about doing pregnancy PT once a week after that. Will check out the $$$.

Baby wise - all is going well. Getting lots of movement, mostly at night when I'm lying down. Unfortunately getting awful heartburn for the past week and the Pariet and quickeze not doing the job they usually do. Also getting a side pain/stitch when I walk/bike so keeping an eye on that and not pushing too hard. OB was happy with everything last time we saw him and said all is looking good, baby is a good size etc. The next test to pass is the Gestational Diabetes test which I'll have at 28weeks. I wonder if my M&M diet will impact on this??? hahaha. Got 3/4 names on a shortlist which won't be revealed till the baby announcement. Happy that GB is finally coming around to the names I like - hahaha! Haven't bought that wall art from my previous post... yet. GB said I could though - YAY! For S who asked - it's called the Cocoon Couture Enchanted Tree from the wall sticker company.

Anyway kids, I've gotta go troll all your blogs - it seems I have 159 posts to catch up on so forgive me if I don't comment!

21weeks

How cute is this:

It's a wall sticker. So cute and yet so flipping expensive! Have come to realise that planning for a baby is much th same as planning for a wedding. Cost PLUS PLUS PLUS! Seriously, a white chest of drawers from a furniture shop might be $200... from a baby shop? $900. Jokesville. Oh but that wall art is fricken devine. I wonder if I can use the excuse of how much we saved on the pram as justification for spending a horrifying amount on a sticker?

On Saturday we ordered a cot, chest of drawers and change table. From the baby store, the quote for the exact same furniture (same brand and everything) was about $1500 (and that was including a 10% discount!). David Jones had a 20% off sale on baby stuff and we managed to get it for $1100. GB was sad that it takes 12weeks to come in because he wanted to set it all up. So I let him pick out some bassinet linen (did I tell you I bought a second hand bassinet for $50? bargain!). Probably not what I would have chosen but gotta let him have a few wins so I can buy ridiculously expensive "wall art"!

Have decided to give our daughter an invoice for all this stuff when she becomes a supreme court judge, or world renowned surgeon so she can pay as back. Fair call I think. GB has also decided it's going to be our new family tradition that all children have to hand 50% of their earnings to us forever (kind of like first born male asians). Seems fair policy.

Been feeling some movement - not from outside again yet though. Probably she's too scared to move in case we bill her :)

On Sunday we successfully did the JDRF walk around the river. It's about 6.5km and I finished in 1hr 22. I think my best ever is about 1hr5 or something but not bad considering its the most exercise I've done in months and it was really warm. Yesterday we went back down to the river - GB ran the 6.5km loop while I just walked to the bridge and back (about 3.6k). I wanted to see if I'd be able to do the fitness test this morning, rather than embarrass myself! Anyway yesterday I did the 1.61km in about 15 1/2 mins. Just scraping in under the required 16min. On the way back from the bridge I was BUSTING for the loo. It was a tough call to get there I tell ya! Anyway this morning at work I officially did the fitness test in 15mins. Last year did it in about 14mins but anyhoo, I am pregnant! I have been absolutely buggered since though! I could nap any second I think! Hubby's foot still not pain free but he said it's about 60% better than it was which will at least allow him to start training. He's doing less than 10km at a time at the moment but will do a big run on the weekend I think.

Things are much better since the fill removal - no PBing at all! Unfortunately my hunger is back with a ferociousness. Added to my carb craving and inability to stay away from chocolate, I'm too scared to hop on the scales at the moment! Got another appointment with the OB next week so expecting to get a telling off for weight gain.

Anyhoo, here's a pic of the pooches in the aforementioned $50 bassinet:

In other news, I had a dream last night which I recall very little of other than the fact that Amy W was in it! Bizarro!

Well I better pretend to do some work for another couple hours. 3 months 9 days till at least 6months off - woo hooo!

Half way....

Hi all,

Well this morning I had another 1ml removed. Have been struggling now for a couple of weeks to keep anything other than icecream down (as much as I was loving the ice cream!) so went and saw Doc Bowater who took 1ml out, then made me scull a cup of water to see if it went down. If it didn't he'd empty the band completely, but it did so left what remained (a measly 1.35ml).

Other than that feeling quite good. Starting to feel the baby move a bit - including a definite kick in my hand the other night - quite amazing! Still looking more fat than pregnant, but belly is starting to poke a bit. Work shirts are starting to get tighter and had to buy some maternity pants from Target (loving the stretch fabric!).

 Managed to drag my butt to the gym last night for 30mins on the bike. It's amazing how quickly fitness drops off - because my level was about half what I used to do but still, better than nothing. Off again to pilates tonight. Last week was tough - my butt and hamstrings were nearly crying the next day! Haven't managed to do the antenatal aqua aerobics but hopefully will next week.

I'm doing the 7km JDRF (Juvenile diabetes) walk on Sunday. Will be interesting given I've not walked that far in months! If you'd like to make a donation, you can do so on my page here http://walk.jdrf.org.au/teamParticipant.asp?participantID=2809

Our pram just arrived today. We ended up purchasing it from the US given the strong exchange rate, and saved ourselves $400 in the process. This is what we bought:

Baby Jogger City Elite

So that's exciting - we'll put it all together tonight. Hubby also moved the study furniture out into our activity area upstairs leaving the now nursery empty and ready for a revamp. First step is putting in a split system aircon which should happen over the next few weeks.

Looking forward to our trip to Sydney next month - I could really do with a holiday! When we get back it's just a couple of week's till we head south to Busselton for the weekend. GB is supposed to be training for his marathon leg of the Ironman (beginning of December) but has been having issues with his foot. Turns out he has something called a Morton's Neuroma which is basically an inflamation of the nerves under his toes. Yesterday he had to have a cortisone injection into it which with any luck will allow him to train within a few days! Poor love hates needles but he was a tough cookie. Given it's only 6 weeks away I'm worried about the little training he's been able to do but I know he'll do everything in his power to finish the 42km.

Well I best do some work and try to catch up on your blogs (possibly not in that order!)

What a difference 3 weeks makes!

Last night we went and had the 19week anatomy scan. The sonographer started by asking whether we wanted to know the sex. I told her yep our OB had told us a few weeks ago it was a boy. She said "was he confident?", Me: "Seemed fairly confident", Sonographer: "It's pretty clearly a girl", Me: "What's that now?", Sonographer: "It's definitely a girl".

So yeah, it's a girl. I of course am stoked - poor hubby nearly needed to be carried out of the ultrasound place! Had to shout him dinner and a beer. He's all good about it but like he said - if we were told three weeks ago it was a girl, no issue. But in the last 3 weeks he'd been making plans with his son in his head for the next 40 years. So he's having to backtrack. The other thing is that we'd actually managed to agree on a boy's name and now I have to put all that effort in again to bring him around to the girl's names I like! mwah ha haaaaaa.

The rest of the scan was good. Amazing the detail that was available. 2 feet, 10 toes, 2 hands, 10 fingers, brain, heart, kidneys, eyes, nose, mouth. She freaked us out by switching into 3D mode. That picture is bloody freaky deaky!

Other than that things are going ok. Band being a bit of a bitch for the past week, not being able to keep much down at all for some reason - but dinner last night finally stayed down so hopefully have turned a corner on that.

Fire Coordinator just told me she's expecting me to do the fire fitness test still this year even though I'll only be around for part of the season. It's a 1.6k walk in 16mins. Last year I did it in 14mins. I reckon this year I'll be luck to do it in 30mins! bah ha ha! But I'll give it a go!

Started pregnancy pilates last wednesday night. It's good as it's only 45mins and there's a lot of stretching and pelvic floor exercises and was sorry to see the crab is still ok to do. I flipping hate that exercise! But still, I felt good after doing it and will go again tonight. May start antenatal aqua aerobics either tomorrow night (if my boardies fit) or next week too. Bought some maternity bathers online which are great so will also be able to do laps. Weather fining up in Perth too so I'm thinking some weekend walks with the pooches may be in order. Speaking of:

Gotta cruise, sorry haven't been commenting on blogs lately but I am trying to read them all! If I'm not following yours please leave a link in the comments :)

17 weeks

Hi guys,

Well if you hadn't read the side ticker from twitter, the answer is BLUE! It appears we are having a little boy. I was a little disappointed because I would have preferred a girl. Purely because I have 4 sisters so I kind of get girls plus all our friends have boys and I didn't want to have the inevitable comparisons either from my side or theirs. But that said, I'm happy we have a healthy critter there. GB is ecstatic. As we were walking back to the car I said to GB "Boys pee right into your face you know". It lightened the mood :) We've let a few people in on the news of the sex but will wait till it's confirmed at our 19 week scan just to be safe, before we go nuts with boy stuff.

My sister's wedding went off without too major a hitch on saturday night. She looked stunning! Wouldn't be surprised if the duck is born with boning marks in his head from my dress though. It was so constricting I could only eat one mouthful of food before having to stand up to let it go down! Add this to my boob to knee skinny minny I was wearing underneath and wowser it was a miracle I didn't faint! I would not be able to hack living in the 1800's!!!  At one stage I asked hubby to go to the hotel (across the road where we were staying overnight) and get me a pair of undies to change into but he couldn't find mine so bought a pair of his! I told him I didn't think having visible panty line from men's jocks was really appropriate so I sucked it up. Anyway, here's a pic of me from the ceremony (It was so flipping cold up the bell tower!!!). The wind was pushing the dress against my legs making it even less flattering - oh well!

Anyhoo GB has taken off this morning up to Kalbarri (about 6hrs north of Perth) for a weekend with the boys. He's back on Monday. I am so looking forward to a weekend to myself!! It's my mum's birthday today so my sister and I are taking her out for dinner, but aside from that all the weekend is my own. I'm going to go shopping on saturday to buy some maternity clothes as I'm so depressed about being so frumpy in my normal clothes. It will be nice to be visibly pregnant rather than looking fat. I want to buy some bathers so I can start aqua aerobics, plus some pants for work and a few basics tops. I've bought 10 sessions of pregnancy pilates too which I'll start next Wednesday.

My food intake ... well it hasn't been good. I've been craving carbs like no-one's business! The band is still working, I PB if I eat too much like normal so that's been a reality check. I've put on about 4.5kgs since I fell pregnant which I think is pretty awful. Hopefully now all the wedding/moving (My other sister built a house and moved into it 2 weeks ago) shenanigans are over, I'll be able to get into a regular exercise routine again. It's so hard to see weight go on when the last 2 years have been all about seeing the weight come off. I've had some really down days I have to say.

Anyhoodily, must do some work I guess!
 

The Duck at 16 weeks

Team Blue or Pink? Cast your vote.

It decided to moon us tonight - what a charmer!

sorry not sure how to rotate the pic within blogger!

Fat Girl Slim

Calling Fatgirl Slim: I missed your post saying your blog was moving and your old site has gone. If you're still stopping by, leave me a comment with your new site - or if anyone else knows where she is, please let me know!

16 weeks

Sorry I've been slack in blogworld lately. Have been really busy at work and with my sister's wedding coming up and of course now I'm sick as the proverbial dog. Started last week with sore throat and now have the mutha of all coughs and my asthma is out of control. Dr Google says my Bricanyl inhaler is ok to use while pregnant but will check with the OB tomorrow about whether I can take anything stronger. Today I barely have a voice too which is a great excuse not to answer my phone! Neither GB or I have slept for 2 nights now with my incessant coughing so we're like zombies today. Unfortunately I've had to come into work as my admin assistant is on leave this week so my receptionist would have been here on her own and unable to have a break or get mail etc. But I think I'll probably head home after she's had lunch.

My other sister got the keys to the house she's built on Friday so we spent Saturday helping her move in. I'm proud of her, she's done it by herself and it's a great place. I couldn't really help with the heavy lifting so I did what I could and helped her wash all her cutlery, plates etc that have been in storage for a year. Unfortunately she's still waiting for her friend's hubby to paint so we couldn't properly unpack everything but I know she'd be loving being in her own place after living with my sister & her fiance for nearly a year!

Going to have our final fitting and pick up our bridesmaid dresses tonight. We had a fitting a week ago and although tighter than it should be on me, it did up so all I needed was to have the length taken up. I'm stressing a little bit though coz in the past week my belly seems to have popped out - I'm even having to use one of those belly belt things on my work pants today!

We had my sister's hens night last saturday night (not the one just gone). It went really well. We hired a suite at a hotel in the city and had a "cellar tea" rather than a kitchen tea in the afternoon. Guests bought her a bottle of wine to stock her cellar rather than kitchen stuff. Plenty of food which was awesome. Then a select few of us headed to Northbridge for mexican food (bride's fave). We bought everyone sombrero's and to my sister's we stitched in a veil. It looked hilarious. Some guy offered us $30 for 3 of the hats during the night so score (they only cost $5 each!).

In other news two cousins of mine got engaged in the past couple weeks. Not to each other :). One lives in London, the other in Melbourne so I suspect another expensive year coming up (coz having a baby isn't expensive enough!).

As much as I'm looking forward to my sister's wedding on Saturday, gosh I'll be glad when it's all over! Before the dreaded cold hit I had been feeling better, only getting an occasional wave of nausea, throwing up and being fine after. And managed to go to the gym 3 times last week! Have borrowed my sister's exercise bike so when I don't feel like going to the gym, I can at least whip into 10-15mins at a time on the bike. Better than nothing. That's the plan anyway, we'll see if it turns into a clothes stand!

Anyway, enough about me, how's things with you?

13 weeks

Hi gang,
Well it's all out in the open now. Family, friends, work, are all in the know. It's a relief not to be basically avoiding people but I did kind of like having our own little secret. When I told my little sisters (aged 8 and 11), I opened with "how would you guys like to be aunties?". Miss 8 replied "No thanks". A little underwhelmed to say the least!

Everyone is excited. Me? More freaking out still. I've never been into kids. Have I ever mentioned that before? In fact I never even entertained the idea of having kids. I don't do babies. Everyone says it will be different when it's your own, but what if it's not?

Other than that everything seems to be ok. I'm still struggling to keep food down which sucks arse because it means I'm eating unhealthy slider food which is not good for Mr Scales. It's 3 weeks to my sister's wedding, the bridesmaid dresses haven't arrived yet so I don't even know if it's going to fit anymore! The good news is I'm still fitting into my size 14 jeans and most clothes. Had to buy new bras because the ladies have gone up a size. I did buy maternity jeans so that when the time comes I can move into those. My work pant's are still fitting - just. The other day I went to the loo and realised my fly was undone! Anyway, managed to drag myself to gym twice this week for 30mins cardio. Going to investigate pregnancy pilates which is done around the corner from work - look at doing that once a week.

Hope you have all read Amy's blog this week - it definitely gave food for thought. I wish I could find my bubbles though - at the moment I'm struggling.

Bah what a downer of a post! I should mention that I'm lacking in sleep after waking up at 1am to find out that hubby & his mate had drank an entire carton of beer last night and then his mate drove home. Pissed at his mate for driving. Pissed at hubby for letting him. Pissed at myself for trusting that they'd do the right thing. Boys are truly fuckwits sometimes.

Anyhoo, have a top weekend. Go the Dockers.

Safety Dance

Well we had our 12 week first trimester screening yesterday and all was good. The alien thing in my belly was measuring a couple of days short of 12 weeks but the lady said half a week either way was neither here nor there and that my EDD of 1 March was close enough. We have a low risk rating for Down Syndrome and everything else looked good. Got pics & a dvd too. So we told my mum last night and she nearly lost her mind. It'll be her first grandchild and I'm sure she thought she'd never get one. We'll tell GB's parents tonight and the rest of our family/friends over the coming week. I have a performance review with my boss tomorrow so will tell him then and fill in my team next week.

I ended up going to get some fill removed last week. For about 3 weeks I wasn't keeping any food down and I honestly didn't know if it was band or pg related. It seemed I'd get a bit stuck, PB and then my pg nausea would rear up and I'd keep vomitting til nothing was left! I saw Dr Jones who didn't give me a lecture and took out 1ml. Apparently when pregnant your body produces 50% more blood so it's common for restriction to increase. Since the fill removal I've been able to keep most things down which is great.

Anyhoo, I had 50 blog posts to catch up on today so really sorry if I didn't comment on yours! Work has been all kinds of busy so I haven't been able to read daily like normal!

Happy voting this weekend Aussies!

Pity party over!

Thanks for your comments guys, really do appreciate it! Can I blame pregnancy hormones for my little flip out? I'm as guilty as anyone of not commenting often so I shouldn't be surprised that it's the same for others! However, I will make an effort to at least say hi if you've posted something from now on! Hopefully you reading this will do the same!

I have decided to give it another 3 or 4 days and if I'm still not keeping anything down, I'll have to get some fill out. At the moment, banana smoothies and icecream just aint cutting it. Hubby is getting shitty coz he thinks the baby can't grow without me eating properly- which is probably true! And frankly I'm tired of looking at the toilet bowl!

Weight is holding steady around 79kg... Not impressed with the weight gain since the wedding but not a lot I can do about it for the next 7 months!

Have a great weekend all!

Anyone still stopping by?

Pity party, table of 1. Have I become even more boring than I was before being preggers? Am I not posting enough band related info? Is there something more or less I should be writing about? Just let me know folks.

Anyhoodly, remember Friday? I was feeling "fabulous". I miss Friday. Today I feel shithouse. I'm not sure what is band related and what is pregnancy related anymore. For the past couple weeks I've been struggling to keep much of anything down. Not sure what to blame it on. I'm hoping things will work out without having an adjustment to the band. I've managed for the most part to keep crackers & cheese down for lunch. I'm not hungry AT ALL. Dinner time though has not been great.

Last night and today I've had a shocking tummy ache, which has just added to how unfabulous I'm feeling today. Today about 10.30am I ate some yoghurt. 12.30 5 x cheese &crackers. 2pm Threw up yoghurt. Cheese & crackers stayed down. How weird is that!

On the positive side I managed to do 30mins cardio at the gym Monday & Tuesday after work. Can't imagine making it tonight though as I'm seriously contemplating locking my office door and having a kip under my desk! Really want to try to do at least 3 days this week though so fingers crossed I'm better tomorrow.

Anyway I will distract you from my whinging and moaning with this pic of our two pooches!

A good day!

Hey kids,

I have been feeling god awful for a couple of weeks now but today I feel fabulous! This past week I have barely been able to keep any food down - band has felt tight as a fish's arsehole. And in between all the PBing, I've been nauseaus. Not fun at all I can tell you! The ginger pills & bikkies seem to have done the trick though. The other problem is that when I do have food I'm craving carbs big time. All I want is pasta and potato! I've been having a bit of it too which hasn't been to kind to Mr Scales (even including the stuff coming back up again!).

Went and saw Bowater (Fill doc) on Monday and filled him in on my latest situation. He's a bit of a douche. I get a lecture everytime I go there and I feel like saying. Dude. I've been banded for 2 years now. I know what I should be doing and what I should be doing, but I tell you right now I'm not going on this strict eat by the time of the day and only what you say BS you're going on about. If I wanted to and could live my life on a strict diet I wouldn't have needed the band! But I don't say that, I just nod and say what he wants to hear and get out of there. I told him I didn't want any fill, even though some days I feel quite hungry because I don't want to make things worse when the band is tight.

I had a shocking night of reflux the other night too. Fingers crossed everything settles down this weekend. Ironically it is the week I would have been due for my period if I wasn't up the duff. Not sure if that has anything to do with the added restriction. Could be that because apparently my body is producing a heck of a lot more blood for this whole baby making caper, I've got period-like bloating impacting on my band. Who knows. So if the nausea dissipates and the tiredness stays at a manageable level I'll be feeling fine. Other than that not much other pregnancy stuff. Except my libido is GAWN. Poor hubby. He was reading in one of our books that pregnant ladies get horny as hell, unfortunately it seems to have had the opposite effect on me!! He's been a little champion though and a major support which I really appreciate!

Managed to get to the gym once this week. Which was once more than the past 3 weeks! Given I'm feeling so fab today I'm going to go tonight after work if the tiredness stays away.

Weekend plans - Finally finish off my thank you cards from the wedding (how slack am I!) and maybe check out the Mundaring Truffle show.

Anyhoo, back to Friday Filing at work!

Thanks!

Thanks for the morning sickness tips all. I now have in my bag: Ginger biscuits, dry crackers & Blackmores morning sickness tablets. Feeling better this morning already!

I agree about the small meals, it does make me feel better - but I feel like I'm snacking all the time though and mr scales is not impressed by it! I'm hoping that I'll feel up to some exercise soon though. Not that I don't enjoy being couch girl, but I'm determined to do as well as Yvonne & LBG with their exercise levels and limited weight gain during their pregnancies.

8 weeks...

Hey kids,

How's everyone been? I've been ok. Spent 5 glorious days in Bali last week - it was fantastic! Disappointed to have had to stay away from the cocktails and reflexology but I drank many a chocolate milkshake and had plenty of facials to make up for it! GB and I told my sisters and their partners on the 9th before my sister's 30th. They were very excited for us which was nice.

I haven't had too many symptoms until this week. Saturday GB was best man for his mate's wedding. Gorgeous affair and then just as speeches were starting around 7pm I started getting all dizzy and nauseaus, took a few trips to the loo and then went and sat in the car. GB finally found me and as much as I didn't want to, he drove me home - not before I left a vomit deposit in the carpark (lucky no-one saw!). Ended up vomitting about a dozen times until midnight when I fell asleep. Of course GB got grilled when he got back - everyone asking if I were pregnant. He reminded them I had just got back from Bali and said I was still on the pill! Even though I am in fact preggers, it shits me that everytime a chick isn't well it's assumed she's up the duff. It's really quite rude. I just know that when it does become public, we're going to get so many "I knew it!"s.

GB and I aren't agreeing on how to tell people when the time comes. He wants to make some big announcement to everyone. I'd rather tell a select few and just let the grapevine work (or put it on facebook! Haha). Really don't want to make a big song and dance about it! Anyway we've got 4 weeks to sort it out.

So yeah yesterday I felt nauseous from about 10am til 6pm. (then I threw up dinner). Joy. This morning it hit me about half an hour ago - I had a yoghurt and now feeling better. I had great plans to start back at the gym this week but I just felt so awful after work yesterday. I feel ok in the morning's so I may have to try dragging my freezing butt out of bed early and go for a walk then instead. I'm trying these acupressure seabands that's supposed to be great for travel & morning sickness - so far they're doing jack shit for me! Anyone have any other subtle remedies I can use at work?

Anyway, must go off to read the 60 odd blogs I've missed while I've been away! Hope you're all well!

6ish weeks

Hi gang,

Have been trying to keep up with your blogs and posting comments when I can! Been so busy with work , I've barely had time to scratch myself.

So my calculations were that I am 6w3days today. This morning I went for an ultrasound (mainly just to set my mind at ease that it was in the right spot!). The scan was booked for 8.30am so at 7am I had to empty my bladder then drink 1.5L of water before 7.30am. That simply wasn't going to happen! I tried my best but I felt like I was drowning! I managed about 1.2L by 7.45am and then hopped in the shower and got ready. Basically went straight in for the scan once we got there. Goo stuff on and it was go. The chick tells me I have a retroverted uterus. Apparently 25% of women do. It means it points towards my back rather than to my front making it difficult to get a picture. I could see where this was going. Some of  you may want to stop reading now coz I'm about to venture into TMI territory.

She explained that she needed to do a transvaginal ultrasound instead which frankly is like a dildo cam. So gross. Anyhoo, from there we could see the gestational sac and the yolk sac and the 'blob' which is apparently what will be the baby! The blob measured 3.8mm which puts it at 5w6days and had a heartrate of 93bpm. So far so good. Still some time before we make it through the dangerzone and announce it to the world but it's a relief that everything (aside from my uterus) is where it should be.

We're telling my sisters tonight as it's one's 30th bday party tonight and she's already made a big song and dance about  how we better be getting a taxi so we can party on. Sadly my party days are over til March! Then Sunday my 2 sisters, a friend and I are off to bali for 5nights. It'll be sweet - even though no cocktails! It'll be nice to be out of this ice cold weather Perth has been having the past few weeks!

Generally I'm feeling fine, except that about 2 or 3pm a wave of exhaustion hits me. I've had a few spells of dizziness and yesterday arvo felt very queasy for a couple of hours. Hence, pretty much zero exercise in the past week. After bali will try to get back into it though!

Hope everyone is going well!

Ch ch ch changes...

So if you saw my last post, you would know that I am in fact up the duff (thanks to all the comments too!). Blood tests and subsequent pee on a stick tests have confirmed! It caught me a bit off guard. I went off the pill in February and both GB and I assumed it would take the better part of a year if at all. We weren't measuring temps or bonking on demand, rather just letting fate take its course. If it were meant to be it would be. And so it was apparently!

I was due for TTOM last Tuesday, but waited till Friday to take a home pregnancy test. Didn't want to get GB's hopes up so did it after he left for work. But there it was in black and white. After a lot of pacing up and down the house, saying "holy shit" about a trillion times and with the dogs following me wondering what the fark was going on, I got on with my day and went to work (end of financial year being a ridiculously busy time for me).

I wondered how to tell GB and decided to nick to the shops and bought a "Greatest Dad" mug. When we went home for lunch I gave it to him. He didn't really get it, so I had to explain. He's very excited to say the least. We then discussed not getting to excited and ahead of ourselves as it hasn't been confirmed by a doc and even if it is, things can happen in the first 3 months.

I went and saw my GP later in the afternoon, where he had me pee on yet another stick - which was a faint positive (apparently morning widdle contains more of the pregnancy hormones) and sent me off with info, and instructions to have blood tests and an ultrasound in 2/3 weeks. Being a Friday I had to wait til Monday for the results which were all good and confirmed pregnancy as between 4-5 weeks.

Over the weekend I scoured the net for information about what the flaming heck I'm supposed to do now! Apparently OB's can book up before even the 5 week mark (how do people even know??) so I researched for recommendations and called up on Monday to book one. Going private but I can't believe how much out of pocket! Private only covers the delivery fees & hospital costs and none of the antenatal appointments - bloody lovely.

So now I'm humming and haaing about whether to do this ultrasound or not. I'm pretty confident of the expected due date (1 March 2011) as my cycle is pretty solid. Also my first OB appt is at the 11 week mark where I'll have an ultrasound I'm assuming to rule out any nasty stuff. So not sure if this one is necessary or not.

We didn't want to tell anyone till after the 1st trimester gets the all clear. Unfortunately I'm off to Bali with my two sisters on the 11th July for one of their 30th bday. I'm pretty sure they'll notice me not indulging in cocktails while we're there! So we've accepted that they will know. Not telling till we're in Bali though so they have 5 days to be excited and not show anyone!! It will be nice to have their support should anything go wrong.

So it goes without saying I'm sure that if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook - mum's the word. Private messages only please!

I've decided to come clean here as I'm sure I'll need to vent/speak to someone over the next few weeks so may as well use this space as an opportunity!

I'm feeling generally ok at the moment (although it is early days). A bit tired and horrific heartburn but that's manageable. I haven't been able to keep dinner down the last two nights though from being stuck - but I wonder if it's more stress related than anything. I'm guessing I'll need to start prenatal vitamins so that's next to do on the research!

Thanks for all your support,

So today this happened....

Sorry for the blurryness but I think my hands wouldn't stop shaking. Off to the doc this afternoon to I assume get a blood test or something to confirm.

Hooooollllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee shitbuckets.

PS - anyone who's friends with me on Facebook, keep on the downlow pls.

Congrats

Soooo busy at work at the moment, but promise to blog properly soon. Just wanted to send out a shout out of congrats to Lapband Girl who gave birth to Lachlan yesterday!

Fill in/Fill out

Sometimes this banding journey really blows. At the same time, it's saved my life. So you put up with the lows because you know the highs are awesome. Simply had to go to the doc today after another night spewing up mashed potato (which I still did again this morning). Have also PB'd up soup and water so it was high time. I thought it would go back to normal after my phantom period sideaffects abated but they're still lingering as well and I love food too much to have to see it again a few hours later. Not to mention the excruciating back pain I was having. So they squeezed me in at midday to see Dr Maria Ingram who's really lovely. She wanted to take 0.5ml and I was like "FUCK NO". I was thinking more like 0.1ml or 0.2ml. She explained that that simply wouldn't be enough to relieve the pressure because by now everything is so aggravated and swollen in there we need the band to be looser so it all eases. She agreed to remove 0.4ml and said that if I was having any probs at all tonight or tomorrow I need to come back in for more removed. Clearly my band can't tolerate large fills of 0.75ml that I had a couple weeks ago so from now on any top ups will have to be in the 0.25ml range. Very gradual. I also still have to stick to fluids for the rest of today. By the docs scales I've lost about 2.5kgs since the 30th May.

I'm currently slowly eating a Vaalia yoghurt (something that I also PB'd this week) and it seems to be going down ok so far so that's good.

Apologies to Yvonne & Sue - I promise I will get those clothes to you soon!

I will leave those clothes that are still available till the end of June people so pipe up if you still want any! When July hits I'll donate them to St Vinnies.

Hope my 23 followers are enjoying reading these blogs - if I'm not following you, drop me a comment with the link to your blog. And sorry to those I am following - I've been reading the blogs but don't always have time to comment.

From one extent to another

So when I got my fill a couple weeks ago I was back in no hungerland which was great. Seemed to be able to eat enough too (as per my Food Porn post below!). For some reason though Sunday and yesterday I had moved from "no hungerland" to "PB/Vomit City". I know the difference between the PB and Vomit too. Last night couldn't even keep water down and I was up til about 4am back and forwards to the toilet ending up with reflux. Not fun at all. It's so weird though coz for the last few days I've felt like I've been about to get my period - seriously feeling bloated and having cramps. The thing is TTOM is not due until over a week away. It's not unusual for me to be more restricted during TTOM but it is unusual to be this restricted 10 days away. Very, very odd. GB wants me to have some fill removed but I only have 3ml in my 10ml band and I felt good last week. Next appointment is 2 weeks away - can't put up with it that long but will see how I go over the next few days.

In happier news, congrats to Yvonne over at http://banditblossum.blogspot.com/ who welcomed Lucas into the world a few days ago.

Awesome weekend: Food Porn Warning!

Hi all,

GB and I took the pooches to Yallingup last Friday for a family holiday. It's the first time in about 18months that it's just been us and the dogs and not having to register for ridiculous triathlons! We rented a house right in the bush that was just fantastic. It was a public holiday on Monday so we had 3 nights down there. Had some marvellous food and wine - I took some pics so prepare yourself for some food porn!!

Friday  night we ate at Newtown House. We were the youngest people there by about 30 years!! It was really old fashioned in decor and food. No pics coz not worth it!

Saturday we were going to go to Flutes. Flutes has won nearly every award you can for food and wine. Called them in the morning to find out they were booked out til Monday! Of course a long weekend has everything super busy! Duh! So we managed to get in at Clairault Winery. The service was pretty shoddy unfortunately but the food was sensational. I had the spatchcock (pictured) and GB had a curry (not pictured). We shared dessert which was like a choc mousse with honeycomb.

Sunday we went to Leeuwin Estate. What a gorgeous setting! After a wine tasting in which we tried a fantastic $90 chardonnay, we went and sat down for lunch (where we ordered the $30 chardonnay!). Service was great and the food was just amazing. I had the duck cooked in masterstock with scallops. I must admit I struggled a bit with the duck unfortunately. It was quite chewy. GB had the marron and it was 2 massive whole marrons! Man were they tasty! We shared dessert again, (forgot to take a pic) a choc souffle with churros and it was out of this world.

GB and I then started checking out people around us and what they were ordering. GB made a comment about why you'd order fries at a fine dining restaurant like this one? I said - "have you seen the fries? they look awesome!" And we went back and forth like that. Then off I went to the loo and just as I returned a waitress came to the table with a bowl of fries looking confused. I said "Oh that's not ours, we've already had dessert". Then GB pops up with "actually that is ours, thanks!". He said if they were that awesome we should totally have some even if we have already finished dessert! And can I just say - Best. Fries. Ever! and also - Best. Husband. Ever!



Monday, we finally got to Flutes which is at Brookland Valley Estate. Another beautiful setting. Unfortunately again service was really shithouse. GB had to go to the counter to get a waiter's attention to order more drinks and dessert. Luckily their food was fantastic. I had the Flutes Trio which was half a marron (much smaller than the ones at Leeuwin), a piece of salmon (not sure if it was meant to be cold but it was, but it was still very tasty), a piece of wild barramundi on some cream cheesey stuff. Yum. GB had the fish of the day which was like smoked salmon steaks with scallops. (can you tell we love our scallops?) He said it was superb. He finished off with a cheese plate and I had dessert (of course). The creme brulee and the crumble was really tasty but the strawberry thing in the middle was far too sweet!

So you can see we had quite the gastronomically awesome weekend! Not to mention the fabulous wines to go with it! When we were in the house GB lit the wood fire - it was very romantic. Except for the dogs barking at the possums and kangaroos of course! They had a great old time running around the bush and exploring though. Baxter was exhausted and slept all the way home and even Westie slept most of the way!

Here is a pic of Bax in the car on the way home!

And here's a pic of him chewing his foot which is his latest trick...

Anyhoo, what a fab weekend it was. Looking forward to catching up with Cara from http://carasquest.blogspot.com/ for lunch tomorrow.

BTW - apart from pilates twice this week I've done jack all exercise. And I weighed 79.7kg this morning. Poop. Although it's still lower than I was at the Doc when I got my fill which is good. I'm struggling a bit with food this week - feeling super bloaty but not due for my period for another 10 days. Not sure what's up with that.

Anyhoo, best I do some work!