A new chapter begins

Well well well... anyone still stopping by?

Forgive any spelling typos - I'm doing this with one hand as Asher is asleep on my chest!

So I had a baby! Ended up being induced on the 3rd March and after quite a traumatic 16hrs after the first epidural didn't work and they finally found an anethatist to put in another one so that they could increase the drip to progress labour - the last 4hrs of which I was awesomely numb from the waist down, Asher was born with the help of a vaccuum (I couldn't tell if I was pushing - I just made sure I was doing the noises!). Officially, active labour was 8hrs. Anyhoo she's just lovely.

GB and I are blindly feeling our way around this whole parenting caper after 5.5 weeks. Asher's had colic which isn't making things fun but she does have some good days! She's starting to smile now which is great to see. As she's formula feeding GB is helping with the feeds so we each get up once to feed during the night at the moment. In between when she's restless I tend to get up now that GB is back to work. It won't come as a shock to parents out there that we are absolutely exhausted!

Our furbabies are very protective of her, they sometimes get up at night while we feed and if she's crying they come up to see if she's ok. Very cute.

We also celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary last month. We finally indulged in the bottle of Dom Perignon we'd bought duty free on our honeymoon with an antipasto platter we made. So so so good!

Weight wise - I'm down about 10kgs from what I got to at the end of my pregnancy - but that hasn't shifted in a few weeks. My diet is shocking consisting of a big percentage of chocolate! I'm trying to get out each day for a walk with Asher, but sometimes I'm just too tired. Did a 1hr walk today though. My band has been playing silly buggers which is frustrating given I have next to zero fill in. I'm hoping it's just the crazy hormones playing havoc with restriction (I went about 5 days this week not being able to keep anything down) and not a band slip or the pouch dilation which is what I had before the wedding last year.

We've booked a trip to Bali in September so I want to lose at least 10kgs by then.

Anyway, I'll leave you with some more pics of Asher.

38+3 Still hanging in there!

Hi all,

Is anyone still stopping by here? Things have been a bit crazy and surprisingly it seems I have even less time to blog! In a nutshell, baby seems in no hurry to arrive - I'm on weekly appointments with the OB now and baby is well positioned (head down) but not very engaged yet. We have a couple of names shortlisted but won't decide on it until we meet her and see what suits.

Bandwise, not much change. Some days I can eat heaps and other days I still PB food or only eat a small portion. Very disappointed in the weight I've put on but I know I will get it off again and looking forward to getting into a regular walk/run routine after bub is born. I'm still doing antenatal water aerobics classes twice a week which is good - it's nice to feel light in the water! It's been far too hot here to go on any walks unfortunately.

Hubby went and got a fill a couple of weeks ago for the first time in 18months (0.25ml) as he was slipping into bad habits and had also put on weight. We disagreed about it because I know when he gets back into training for triathlons and marathons he needs the extra fuel and particularly needs to be able to eat in the mornings, but in the end it was his decision. He's had to re-learn the small bites & extra chewing that had slipped away over time, which lead to a few trips to loo and he seems to be having some night reflux so I'm worried that he may need some taken out again but will see how he goes.

I finished up work on the 28th of January so am having to get used to living on half pay!! Worked out that with my leave, work paid parental leave & govt paid parental leave I can get half my normal pay for the rest of the year -whether or not we can live on that will be another thing all together! But people do it every day right!

Anyhoo I will leave you with some pics of the nursery and of course our furbabies! I have 192 blogs to read - eek!

Baxter & Westie

Love our wall art

Pram, capsule

Ikea shelving!

Peekaboo mum!

Happy new year!

Hi guys,
Just a quick one. Hope everyone had a great festive season. Ours was pretty busy but nice.  All the sweets I'd baked went down well with everyone which was good.

Babywise - we're just over 32 weeks now so getting into crunchtime! GB painted the nursery during our break and we bought some linen so the room is coming together now. The blood tests I had with the GTT showed a was extremely iron deficient so am now on iron supplements. Have started to feel a lot better since taking them - I can nearly get through the whole day without needing a nap! The last OB appt just before xmas went well - the placenta was about 3cm away from the cervix so although not completely in the clear, that was a good step forward.

16 work days remaining till I go on parental leave. I think with my work paid parental leave plus the govt pd parental leave plus my long service leave I *should* be able to stay off work until 2012. We'll see of course, you just never know what's going to happen especially with interest rates and the cost of living going up!

Anyway, I have 79 of your blog posts to catch up on so better get to it! Oh yeah and work ... hahaha

Here's some festive pooch photos:

Baxter Chillaxing

Happy Bax

Baxter's first visit to the beach (he loved it!)

Can I haz corn?

Clean & groomed pooches

Professor Baxter

Happy Westie

Christmas Day outfits. Yeah they're not too impressed. The kilts only lasted about 10mins, but the bowties they kept on for a day.

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!

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.

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!